Central Assembly
Dr. George O. Wood | November 15, 2020 | Four Great Encouragements
Four Great Encouragements - Romans 8:18-39
All Christian suffering results from our linkage with two persons:
(1) Adam. Roman 5:12 . . . sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.
(2) Christ. 2 Timothy 3:12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
What are the encouragements?
(1) Compare the coming glory to the present groaning. Romans 8:18-25
Romans 8:23 NIV
Romans 8:11 NIV
C. S. Lewis said:
. . . hope . . . means . . . a continual looking forward to the next world . . . It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is. If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present thought most of the next . . . It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they are inefficient in this. Aim at heaven and you will get earth ‘thrown in;’ aim at earth and you will get neither.
(Mere Christianity)
What are the encouragements?
(1) Compare the coming glory to the present groaning. Romans 8:18-25
(2) The Holy Spirit is helping. 8:26-27
Romans 8:22 NIV
Romans 8:28 NIV
Romans 8:26 NIV
Romans 8:27 NIV
Two intercessors:
* Christ in the heavens
* The Holy Spirit in the heart
Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission: It doesn’t matter, really, how great the pressure is, it only matters where the pressure lies. See that it never comes between you and the Lord -- then, the greater the pressure, the more it presses you to His breast.
What are the encouragements?
(1) Compare the coming glory to the present groaning. Romans 8:18-25
(2) The Holy Spirit is helping. 8:26-27
(3) God is working for the good. 8:28-29
"And we know . . ."
Note three things about this:
(1) The comprehensiveness of the working: all
(2) The goal of the working: good.
(3)The limitation of the working:
* Our part -- love God
* God’s part -- called (effective calling)
What are the encouragements?
(1) Compare the coming glory to the present groaning. Romans 8:18-25
(2) The Holy Spirit is helping. 8:26-27
(3) God is working for the good. 8:28-29
(4) God is for us. 8:31-39
* God has a stronger grip on me than I have on Him!
Ruth Harms Calkins paraphrase:
God, I may fall flat on my face; I may fail until I feel old and beaten and done in. Yet Your love for me is changeless. All the music may go out of my life, my private world may shatter to dust. Even so, You will hold me in the palm of Your steady hand. No turn in the affairs of my fractured life can baffle You. Satan with all his braggadocio cannot distract You. Nothing can separate me from Your measureless love – pain can’t, disappointment can’t, anguish can’t. Yesterday, today, tomorrow can’t. Life can’t. Riots, war, insanity, unidentity, hunger, neurosis, disease – none of these things nor all of them heaped together can budge the fact that I am dearly loved, completely forgiven, and forever free through Jesus Christ Your beloved Son.