Someone once asked me, if I could only have one book of the Bible, which one would I take? Though I would certainly hate to part with the Gospel of John, or even the Psalms, I would have to say, I would take the Book of Romans.
The theme of the Book of Romans is the Righteousness of God. It is divided by sections:
- The Righteousness Required by God
- Righteousness Revealed in Christ,
- Righteousness is Received by Faith,
- Righteousness is Realized as we Walk in the Spirit,
- Righteousness was Rejected by the Jews,
- And Righteousness is to be Reproduced in the Life of the Christian.
And right in the middle of all that, we have Romans chapter 8. It begins with No Condemnation. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
It ends with No Separation. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am 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 creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
But I want to draw your attention to verse 34, and I want to show you what I think was the source of Paul’s joy, and what I believe is the source of our Joy. Cause I’m gonna tell you folks, there comes a time in the life of every Christians when you are gonna have to hold on to your joy – cause you can lose it.
When I was in the military, I would see folks that where down and discouraged, and I would tell them, “Hey, grab a hold of your boot laces and pull yourself back up.” But life has taught me, there are just some times when you can’t pick yourself up by the boot laces.
Verse 34 says, “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who IS even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.”
Paul said in Phillipians 4, “Rejoice in the LORD always, and again I say rejoice.” Now why in the world would he say that, cause you can’t have joy all the time? And Paul certainly knew that.
- He was shipwrecked;
- In perils of the sea, perils of the wilderness, perils of false brethren;
- In labors more abundant;
- 5 times received 40 stripes,
- He was Stoned,
- Imprisoned;
- Near death often;
- He was cold, he was hungry and he was weary;
- And above all that, the care of the church!
Yet Paul says in Romans 8:18, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”
Paul was always Rejoicing. And I think I found in verse 34 what made Paul rejoice. He said, “Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession FOR US.”
I don’t know about you, but I can say that for Joe Moore, I still stumble and fall at times. And every time I do, I can see the devil going to God the Father saying, “Look at ole Joe fall AGAIN. He doesn’t deserve Your love, and he doesn’t deserve Your grace. He doesn’t deserve Your mercy.”
And I’ll tell you folks, if I had to stand on my own merit, I’d be in a world of trouble. But thank God I have and Advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ the Righteous. And every time I stumble, and every time I fall, and every time I come up short, Jesus steps in and says, “Dad, I took care of that!”
- Every time I go to Him and say, “Lord, I failed you again.” He says, “I Know.”
- “Lord, will you forgive me?” He says, “I did.”
There is a story in the Bible about Onesimus. Onesimus was a slave of Philemon. Onesimus ran away from his master, and sometime later, while he was on his journey, Onesimus cross paths with the Apostle Paul. Onesimus got Saved. Later, Paul was sending him to Philemon, and he wrote and said something along these lines:
“Philemon, I’m sending some people to you. But Philemon, when you receive them, I want you to receive them as if you were receiving me. If you’re my co-laborer, receive them like you would me. Give them the respect you’ve given me. Don’t be mad at him, and if he owes you anything – put that on my account!”
Now, let’s bring that over into the spiritual realm. And I can see Jesus, sitting at the right hand of God, making intercession for Joe, and I imagine Him saying something like this:
“Father – DAD – I know he ain’t much. I know he’s done you wrong. But when he comes to You, I ask you to receive him as if you were receiving Me. Dad, I paid for his sins. If he owes you anything – put that on my account!
“Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession FOR US.”
Let me conclude with this thought. Isaiah 61:10 begins by saying, ““I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness . . .”
- Maybe you and I can’t rejoice over our circumstances – But we can “GREATLY Rejoice in the LORD.”
- Maybe we can’t rejoice over failed relationships, or failed partnerships, or failed business attempts, but, we can “Greatly rejoice in the LORD.”
- Maybe we can’t rejoice over some of the decisions we’ve made in life, but we can “GREATLY Rejoice in the LORD.”
Isaiah is saying here, “I will greatly rejoice.” He was saying, “From the depths of my soul I will rejoice.” “MY joy shall be in my God.”
- “Down in the depths of my soul, I’m gonna rejoice that I’m a Child of the King!”
- “Down in the depths of my soul, I’m gonna rejoice that I have a place at the King’s table.”
- “Down in the depths of my soul, I’m gonna rejoice that my name’s written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”
- “Down in the depths of my soul, I’m gonna rejoice that I’ve been redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb!”
I heard a story once a long time ago about a Presbyterian Church. They were not allowed to shout, clap hands or say AMEN in the church. So, one day, the Pastor brought helium filled balloons to everyone in the service, and said to them that if they felt God speaking to them during the service, they were to let the balloons go. Through the service, Balloons starting flying up in the air. By the time the service had ended, only about 1/3 of the church still had balloons.
What I am saying is, some of you need to just let your balloons go!
If you are reading this, and you are Child of God, you have something to rejoice about, no matter what your circumstances are.
You and I have the Garmet of Salvation and we are covered with the Robe of Righteousness.
Fighting for My Pea Patch 