What Are You Going To Do About Bible Prophecy? – Part 1 (Romans 8:31-39)

As Believers, we can face opposition and uncertainty with confidence, knowing that God is sovereign and will one day glorify His people. We can hold fast to God’s promises in the face of opposition.

So church family gonna ask you to stand and open your bibles if you would this morning to Romans chapter 8 versus 31 to 39.
We’re moving now. Whole new section. We’re on our way. Yes.
It may take months to go through this section, but we’re moving into a new section.
Romans chapter 8 verse 31, we’re looking, believe it or not, and I I’m gonna ask you to pay close attention to this.
We’re looking at a message titled. What are you going to do about Bible Prophecy?
And you say, Jack, wait a minute.
What kind of a title is that to Romans chapter 8, 31 to 39?
Well, frankly, uh, it it addresses exactly where you and I are living today.
Um, how much did Paul the apostle know? Maybe a lot.
I don’t know, but when he wrote what we’re about to read 2000 years ago, uh, he knew that he was not only speaking to the believers in Rome, but he he was gonna be speaking to all those in history, that would come to faith in Christ.
So in a sense, this is a very prophetic word. Are you with me? Yes. To the church today?
We’re not reading exactly history. We’re reading history and today and tomorrow. As we look at this, Romans chapter 8.
I’ll begin in verse 31. If you guys pick it up in verse 32, Paul says, and I love it.
You can almost see his arms be thrown up. What then shall we say to these things?
If god is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us as all How shall he not with him?
He can give us all things.
Who shall bring a charge against god’s elect? It is god who justifies.
Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died.
Furthermore, is also risen who is even at the right hand of god who also makes intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shalt tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, As
it is written, for your sake, we are killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter
yet in all of these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
Brian persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come.
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of god, which is in Christ Jesus, our lord, and all of god’s people said, Amen.
Amen. You may be seated at church, and we do ask god’s good hand to be upon his word to us.
In a in a absolutely perfect biblical style as as you would expect from the Apostle Paul, he actually asked a question in verse 31.
He says in verse 31, what then shall we say to these things?
If god is for us, who can be against us?
This is this is a very, very biblical classical way of teaching. He asks a question.
In other words, he sets up a question. Why? Because he wants to give the answer.
Are you with me on that? Granted. We ask questions because we wanna get an answer.
Paul is teaching under the influence of the Holy Spirit. He’s speaking under the power of the spirit of god.
And the spirit of god prompts him to ask this question, which is very, very vital to us as believers in every generation.
What shall we say then?
If god before us who can be against us, And then he answers the very question in verse 32.
He who do who he who did not spare his own son. We’re gonna unpack that in a moment.
But delivered him up for us all. How shall he, not with him, also freely give us all things?
He answers in verse 32. The question he’s asking in verse 31. It is a classic Jewish way of teaching.
It is brilliant, and it is powerful invented by god.
And, of course, Jesus Christ was the exact master of that in his teaching style, not only with parables, but the fact that Jesus taught positionally through, uh, books are of the Bible.
Predominantly, the book of deuteronomy, we know this from the gospels, Matthew Mark, Luke and John.
Jesus quoted from deuteron any more than any other book, and you and I only get the parable.
The way that the Hebrews teach, the Jews teach, they teach Expositionally line up online precept upon precept, but in our gospels, you and I do not have the hour or 2.
You think you’ve got it rough for for an hour.
Jesus taught customary hour, 2, maybe 3 hours, and then summed up the teaching, like the Jews do.
It’s brilliant to bring or to drive home the teaching.
They wrap it in what’s called a parabolic delivery or parable.
Everything he taught was then brought to your mind and your imagination in technicolor by a parable.
And Jesus taught like that, and he taught by, uh, asking questions.
How many times did Jesus answer Listen, he somebody asked him a question.
He says, well, let me ask you a question. Remember that? Yep. Anybody remember that?
And then he would actually ask them a question to deliver the answer.
They would ask him, he would ask him back, and then he would give the answer. It’s absolutely awesome.
It’s brilliant. And, uh, Solomon, the the wisdom of god, the Bible tells us there’s never been a man, the wiser than Solomon.
Now Solomon Uh, remember he’s a human. I mean, he he had he had divine wisdom given to him.
And, uh, nobody in the Bible says was ever wiser, uh, no uh, or shall be wiser than Solomon unless, of course, accept Christ.
But on earth as a man, and, you know, Solomon made a lot of big dumb mistakes over life.
Even in wisdom, he went against what he knew to be true.
But this is the kind of wisdom that god gives.
Do you guys remember when Solomon was seated upon his throne?
And there was, uh, 2 women who had, uh, equally born children, Obviously, they were the they were the same gender.
2 little boys, moms are nursing. Uh, they appear maybe to be friends. We’re not sure about that.
But, um, one of them woke up to find out that, uh, her her baby was dead.
And so she took the other baby from the mom that was sleeping and replaced them.
And in the morning, she said, oh, look, tough day tough night. Look, your baby’s dead.
She stole the woman’s baby and then said, look, your baby’s dead. And now she’s got this other woman’s baby.
And so there’s this, obviously, there’s this big scandal about it, so they go to Solomon.
Now think about this. We need wisdom today like this in our courts.
And in our leadership in our nation and in our cities and counties, saw them in the city in their own throne.
The 2 women come up. Uh, they’re weeping. They’re arguing their case. One’s got a dead baby.
One’s got a living baby. And Solomon says, okay. I got it. I got it. Calm down. Not a problem.
He calls for a sword. Bring me a sword.
And, uh, he says I’m gonna cut the baby in half.
And you can share the living baby.
I’ll just cut the living child in half and you can take one part and you can take the other part there.
Problem solved. And the woman, one woman cried out and said, no. No. No. No. No.
She could have the baby. And Solomon says, give that give that baby to that woman who just said that right now.
That’s her baby. Think of the wisdom of that. The power of that.
And god speaks to us in the power of his word, the Bible, and it’s alive.
I’m gonna give you a huge introduction.
We may not even get into study, but it is foundational very much so for this, write it down.
If you would, please, Revelation chapter 19 verse 10, we’re talking about uh, what are we gonna do about Bible prophecy?
And, yes, it has everything to do with the book of Romans.
But right now, Revelation 19 verse 10, John says I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, this is an angelic, uh, either an angelic creature or it’s, somebody in heaven, one of our own brethren.
See that you do not do that. I am a fellow servant and of your brethren.
You who have the testimony of Jesus, this this person who just speaking this to John, and he says, or they say, worship god.
Here’s the reason why. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
The revelation of god’s word is the very spirit of who Jesus Christ is, the foundation of the Bible, John chapter 16 verse 33.
John 16 33, the Bible says, and these things, Jesus said, I have spoken unto you, that in me, you may have peace In the world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer.
I have overcome the world. And all god’s people said, that’s awesome. That’s a promise you can hang on today.
That’s gonna become more dear to you and I as the months advance. Revelation chapter 3 verse 7.
The Bible says, and the angel of the church at Philadelphia right, I know your works.
Look, I have set before you an open door, and no one can shut it because you have a little strength, and you have kept my word and have not denied my name.
Because verse 10 says you have kept my command to persevere. I also will keep you from the hour.
It’s a very specific moment of trial, which shall come upon the whole world.
To test those who dwell on the earth.
There’s a time of evil that is gonna escalate so great that Jesus says, don’t worry about it for that generation of believers.
I’m gonna keep you from that hour. That’s gonna test the entire world.
We need to remember that because where we’re going in Romans chapter 8. Isaiah 42 verse 9.
Isaiah 42 9. God says behold, the former things have come to pass. I love that.
What I said in prophecy, look, it was just fulfilled. That’s what god’s saying.
And new things I declare before they spring forth, I tell you of them.
That’s the god of the bible church. The Bible is the only prophetic book in all of human history.
All of it listen. Everything else is a knock off. Everything else is is an attempt.
To act like the Bible, to be like the Bible, and they all fail. Yeah. They all fail.
Every single one of them. They all fail. But the Bible is the only prophetic book in the world.
Amen. God tells the future in advance.
It’s one of the attributes that he says that makes him god but also is one of the attributes by which you can determine if he is god.
He tells the future perfectly regarding Romans 8 And Bible prophecy, the book of Philippians chapter 3 verse 2021 says, for our citizenship is in heaven.
Friends, that’s a prophetic statement. Our citizenship is in heaven. This means we’re not home yet.
We’re on our way. We’re going home.
By the way, just just for the Bible student around here today, the Greek word for citizenship, is politics.
Isn’t that fun? For our politics is in heaven. What does that mean?
I don’t care if you’re an independent Republican or Democrat. Okay? It’s worthless. Personally, I’m a monarchist.
Well, that’s kinda sounds kinda what is that? That means I believe in a ruling reigning king.
His name happens to be Jesus? And I’m waiting for him to come back at any time.
My citizenship, and I trust yours is as well, is because heaven is where our politics rules and reigns from.
And that is the very seat of the throne of Jesus Christ himself. What an awesome thing that is.
What a great thing. The Bible also tells us that, um, in Matthew chapter 16, versus 1 to 4.
Then the pharisees and sadducees came, testing Jesus, asking, uh, if he would show them a sign from heaven.
Jesus answered and said to them, when it is evening, you say it will be fair weather for the sky is red.
And in the morning, it will be foul weather today because the sky is red and threatening. Hippocrats.
I love how suddenly is. HIPOCRates Yeah. The word Hippo Crete, and Greek means you 2 faced individual.
That’s why in Hollywood, the screener writers and actors guild, is the 2 Hippo CREets.
One face is smiling, one face is frowning, and the actor wears both.
Jesus says, you a bunch of actors?
You think you know everything, but you tell you you get the weather report, but he goes on to say, you can’t even discern the times and the seasons in which you live.
He says, you hypocrites. You know how to discern the face of the sky.
But you cannot discern the signs of the times.
A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no signs shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
Isn’t that awesome? You say, what, Jonah? The big whale? No.
The Bible says Joan and the big fish. It wasn’t a whale. It was a fish. You believe that story?
I believe it because it’s not a story. It’s a fact who says Jesus says.
Yeah. Yeah.
Jesus says it’s not a story. Jesus says it’s real.
And Jesus says, so will be my def and resurrection. You wanna see a sign?
I’ll show you a sign as Jonah was 3 days 3 nights in the heart of the great fish.
So will the son of man be in the heart of the earth? Yes. That was the sign he gave.
So number one church, we dive into our point today. It’s the only point we have.
It’s in verses 31 to 32, and it’s very important. What are you gonna do about bible prophecy?
Because you’re living in it. And if you realize it or not right now, so what are you gonna do about it?
Wake up and realize this that the fact is your glorification Christian is coming.
We studied that in Romans chapter 8 earlier.
We looked at it in verses 28, 29, 30, and god says that his intent is ultimate to bring you and I, those of us who trust Christ to glory.
Yeah. Is that amazing to think? Yes.
It’s funny because everybody wants glory So when I mentioned glory in the Christian setting, it’s like, now calm down pastor.
But everybody wants glory. They wanna be in the front seat of the of the parade.
They wanna have all the the trophies. They wanna walk down the red carpet. They want their name and neon.
And then when it comes to the actual glory, we as Christians shy away from it.
Well, you need to be humble now. We’re talking about humility. This is the glory that god gives. Yeah.
This is not the glory based on your achievements? Yeah.
Remember, we talked about last week foreign knowledge and predestination engineered by god. He did it all.
You’re not gonna walk into heaven and say, hey, everybody. How you doing?
You’re gonna walk in and we’re gonna say, how did you get here?
It and all of our answers gonna be the same by the grace of god.
By the awesome incredible merits of Christ Jesus. Wow. None of our own doing.
And god says I’ve not only foreordained you, but I predestined you.
I called you, and he ends that grit the glorious purpose of it all last week we saw is that we’re gonna be glorified in eternity.
So walking down the red carpet, that’s a joke. Who cares? Oh, you know what?
We’ll put your name up in lights. Oh, forget it.
But to have your name on the roster of heaven, and forgot to announce for you.
Who whatever your name is, Betty, of Barney, Fred, Wilma, enter into the joy of the lord.
Imagine that is gonna be absolutely awesome. The glorification of the believer, it says in verse 31.
What then shall we say to these things? You gotta see Paul’s Jewishness in this.
If you know any Jewish people, you can hear it. It’s awesome.
When he says, what then shall we say to these things?
Um, he’s asking a question, and he’s gonna give you the answer.
It’s not like he’s asking a question and he’s wiping the sweat from his brow and he’s kind of in a panic.
What shall we say to these things? Oh, no.
He’s throwing out a question because he’s setting you up for the answer.
What shall we say to these things? You can hear him.
So But shall we say to these things?
If god is for us, who can be against us.
Is that, look, is there a question on the other end?
Is there a question sign on the other end of that? Yes, there is.
What then shall we say to these things, question mark?
If god is for us who can be against this question mark, he just answered the question with a question.
Apparently, that’s the way the Holy Spirit works.
How many times does god answer your question with a question? Lord, I don’t know what to do.
And god says, do you think that person in front of you right there, hungry with their hand out?
Means nothing? Question, Mark? You see, god answers often with a question.
I want all my questions answered.
The man says, Well, just get ready because god’s gonna answer your questions with questions.
He did it with Job, Jobs asking all these questions in his time of trouble.
And god says to Job stand up and quit whining. I’m gonna ask you some questions now.
And answer me. He didn’t even give Job an option. God, can you imagine god saying to you?
You will stand up and you will answer me. Does that terrify you? It terrifies me. Wow.
If god is for us who can be against this?
He who did not spare his own son.
Just send to this, but delivered him up for us all.
How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Do you see a question mark?
There it is. God gave his son on the cross for our sins to answer the very cry of the human heart And what Jesus purchased on the cross and his resurrection from the dead guarantees god answering your question.
If you’re honest enough, to ask yourself the question, can I know god? Is heaven real?
What am I gonna do by my sin? Does god really set people free?
Oh, the answers are glorious. Yes.
The fact is, my friend, God is at work and are coming glorification, Christian.
So what are you gonna do about bible prophecy? Number 1, mark this down. Verse 31 is this.
We will learn the truth. We will learn it happily with joy. We will learn it.
We’re learning it now. We will learn the truth.
So when he says, What then shall we say to these things if god is for us stop right there?
Circ of the words these things. This is awesome.
Because the word these things encompass technically everything from Romans chapter 1 verse 1 all the way to this moment.
It’s the entire, we would say, authorship or speech or message that Paul has given to this moment and then paul says to all that I’ve taught you about and spoken you about.
What shall we say to these things? But watch this.
It also means regarding this fantastic revelation of last study, and that is if god’s foreknowledge is such, that he predestined you to be his child.
He called you. You love him. That’s proof of the spirit in you.
You cannot love god on your own. It’s the Holy Spirit who prompts your heart to love god.
It’s all of god. And god gives us the opportunity in his creation to make you and I sovereign enough under his watchful care knowing, though, in advance for knowledge, that when the gospel would be preached, you would say yes.
You don’t get any points for saying yes to church, by the way. You understand that?
So, well, I’m in heaven. It’s a good thing I said yes. Listen.
God gave you the ability to understand his gospel truth, and for you to accept that truth, he gave the ability to do it.
Here’s the awesome thing. God provided the way of salvation. You didn’t. That’s right.
Everybody in heaven is flat on their face, giving praise, honor, glory to god, with great thanks.
And it’s always, by the way, foreknowledge and predestination is always in the positive in the scriptures.
Always never in the negative. I can argue with you from the Bible to show you that god and his foreign knowledge just predest in those who are his children.
But nowhere in the Bible can I show you that god in his foreknowledge, predestined people to not be his children?
Isn’t that interesting? That upsets a lot of people when they have a particular denominational persuasion, but the Bible says what it says.
We learned the truth. And that truth that he just got done speaking to us about, look at it again, and it’s on the screens.
Romans chapter 828. And if we know that all things work together for good, to those who love god, to those who are called according to his purpose, 1st 29, for ho for whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the 1st born that the preeminent in Christ is among many brethren, his brethren.
Moreover, whom he predestined these he also called, whom he called these he also justified, We studied the meaning of that last time.
And when he justified these, he also, what is the word? Glory. All this is to god’s delight.
Yes. Remove yourself from it. Yes. Yes.
Well, pastor, I’m gonna I’m gonna become a Christian when I just straighten up my act. It had never happened.
Forget it. Stop it. That Satan whispering to you. Just improve yourself.
Think about how sick that is. Improve yourself.
You can’t improve yourself because at what point will Satan allow you or yourself?
Forget about Satan. At what point would you say about yourself that you’ve arrived, and now you’re ready to enter the enter into the gospel truth?
No. By nature, the spirit of god condemns us outside of Christ. We’re never good enough.
Thank god. We were never asked to be good enough. We’re never to be called to be good enough.
We are called to agree with him who in his foreign knowledge and predestination has a established you to be a child of god.
You said, p president, it’s just so confusing. No, really, it’s not. Are you ready?
Here it goes, get get ready?
All of you who have been based on god’s foreknowledge predestined to be his child, you want Jesus Christ to govern your life.
You want him in your life.
If you would today say, I want Jesus to rule my life, Well, you can thank god that in his foreknowledge, you were predistent.
Yeah. Well, but my husband, he doesn’t want anything to do with that.
Well, God knew throughout all time and eternity that when your husband heard the gospel, he wouldn’t want it.
Based on god’s god knew god knew from ancient ancient as it were eternity that when you had the opportunity, you would say no, and you’d keep saying no.
And like, Ferro, you’d say no so long that you are now stuck in it, and you don’t even wanna get out of it.
Listen, here’s a weird truth. It is truth, but it’s weird.
People who are in hell, they don’t wanna be in heaven.
It’s hotter than hockey sticks there where they’re at.
But not enough for them to wanna go to heaven. Think about that.
They didn’t wanna go to heaven.
And by default, man who is lost winds up in hell.
There are those who say, I don’t wanna go to hell.
And I believe that Christ died for me and rose again from the dead. Praise god. That’s the truth.
And the fact of the matter is God for you has got glorification in mind.
You’re gonna ultimately be shed from this body. Amen. Amen. Those of us who are over 45.
I’m only 46 myself. Ministry takes told. Okay. No.
But, you
know, when your body starts hurting and you’re a Christian, it’s like, thank god.
You you pick up the the morning news, so to speak, or you read it, and you look around at the globe.
I get all the not all, but I get I don’t know, probably close to 80 world headlines of the day.
And the world’s nuts, And I look at it, and everybody’s wringing their hands about it’s all falling apart.
And it’s like and the Christian, we just look at it and say, wow. It’s all coming together.
Amen. Just as god said, it would be.
The truth, remarkable, And by the way, what a great thing it is because we’re gonna be talking as we’ve read a moment ago about glorification in the midst of hardships and difficulties, trials and tribulations, And the fact of the matter is it’s all about god’s power of truth being governing in your life.
This is why somebody would rightly say that one with god is a majority.
That sounds like a dumb statement. But theologically, it’s true. God o listen, I’ve cheer up.
God always moves the greatest in the minority. From Genesis to Revelation.
It’s always the few in number that see the miraculous works of god. This is the way it works.
Remember, David got in big trouble because he was gonna go to war, but he counted the troops to see, oh, they’ve got a Bazillion soldiers.
We’re gonna go up against them. Let’s count and see how many soldiers we have.
And god says, David, boy, are you in trouble? You need to come over here.
And god sent David to the woodshed for a come to Jesus meeting.
And and it was not good because of David’s sin, people died.
What was David supposed to do? Lord, you don’t care about numbers.
You know, look, this is one service today. There’s gonna be 3 churches here today at this address.
By the end of the day. And this is one of them, and it’s full. And there’s overflow.
You think god cares about numbers? He doesn’t care about that. He doesn’t look down and say, wow.
Look, what’s going on there? Know what he says? He says, watch out?
Watch out because when a mustard seed begins to sprout and grows into a tree, excuse me, mustard seeds don’t grow into trees.
Jesus is warning us.
When a mustard seed grows into something abnormally large, he says it’s then that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches.
In Hebrew teaching, birds of the air, birds generic is a warning.
For example, when Jesus says, a sparrow when it falls to the ground, your father cares, Did Jesus said when the birds fall to the ground, your father cares?
Nope. He mentions sparrow by identification. When the Bible mentions birds generic, it’s always bad.
When the church grows from a little mustard seed, twelve guys well, 12 lost 1, 11, then got one back.
It grows.
And and and because god’s blessing it, evil will infiltrate like birds hiding in a tree.
You know, I think sorry if this offends you, but to me, this is very powerful.
I’ve never had to