Dale Partridge - Romans 8_31： The Security of Our Salvation with Dale Partridge

00:00:00.000 What a blessing it is to continue in this wonderful book of Romans. I actually just

00:00:06.720 heard from somebody on social media as they saw that I was teaching through Romans,

00:00:11.640 especially through 28, 29, and 30, which are probably the most incredible verses in the

00:00:18.820 entire book. It is literally verse 30 is the center verse of 433 verses, and it is the most

00:00:26.700 pinnacle verse, and she told me that her pastor was preaching through Romans 8 and skipped those

00:00:32.060 verses. I thought, wow, what a tragedy that is, the blessing that was missed there.

00:00:40.500 Over the past five weeks, we have inched our way through Romans 8, 28 through 30. In those three

00:00:50.420 verses, we saw the ultimate expression of God's benevolent providence laid out upon his people.

00:00:59.260 And we saw that God causes, I want you to catch that. If you haven't been here for the last few

00:01:04.220 weeks, God causes all things to work together for good for those who have been called according to

00:01:11.860 his purpose. We saw that all things includes even our redemption. Of course it does, right? Of course

00:01:22.740 it does. He caused us all things. Well, that would include our faith and our repentance and

00:01:27.160 all elements of our redemption. In other words, our salvation wasn't left to chance or to

00:01:36.240 the choices of our fallen wills. I did three weeks debunking the American mystery and 0.51

00:01:44.660 idol of free will. And so we talked about that, that our redemption was predestined,

00:01:52.980 predetermined, the end was predetermined by God to ensure that we attained eternal life.

00:02:01.560 We also saw that God calls and that God justifies and that God glorifies those whom he has predestined.

00:02:15.540 Theologians called that process the golden chain of salvation.

00:02:20.860 And it's called that because it demonstrates a series of interlinking steps that are, you know,

00:02:27.520 each one is dependent on the preceding link. And it forms this unbreakable bond or this

00:02:34.820 unbreakable chain of God's sovereign work in our salvation. That's what that passage

00:02:40.280 is saying. And as a Christian, these truths should lead you to a place of knowing that

00:02:48.780 your salvation doesn't rest in your ability to obey or that your ability to sustain your faith.

00:02:59.440 We know. What is your justification resting upon? It's resting upon the perfect obedience of Christ,

00:03:09.860 not on your obedience. We obey out of love. We obey out of a desire to please God. We do not

00:03:17.360 obey to keep ourselves justified. No, we rest in the perfect obedience of Christ.

00:03:25.580 Now, these truths also allow you to follow Christ and serve God from a motive of gratitude.

00:03:31.800 Because it's Christ who secures your salvation. Because it's Christ, the obedience of his perfect

00:03:39.880 life and his righteousness that becomes yours through faith, you can now obey from a place

00:03:46.160 of gratitude. You're not obeying because of fear that you might lose your salvation.

00:03:51.320 You're not obeying because of performance or even duty. You're obeying because you want to please

00:03:56.700 God. You're obeying because the motive is driven from thankfulness for what Christ has done for you.

00:04:04.820 But most of all, these truths should humble you because it demonstrates that for some reason,

00:04:12.140 God has decided to put his love upon you.

00:04:15.820 God does not put his love upon everyone,

00:04:18.000 despite the myth of our generation of bumper stickers that says,

00:04:22.340 we are all God's children.

00:04:24.020 No, no, we are not all God's children.

00:04:27.440 There are sons of Satan, according to scripture.

00:04:29.800 There are children of wrath.

00:04:31.620 There are broods of vipers, according to Jesus.

00:04:33.700 and so for some reason God has shown his benevolent providence upon you and chosen to save you

00:04:46.260 you guys know because I say it all the time I hate these t-shirts that say

00:04:50.960 I chose Jesus at baptisms right I would much rather it say God saved me

00:04:58.980 The emphasis goes on the work that God did, not the emphasis of the work that man did.

00:05:04.520 The only reason God chose you is because God changed your heart, resurrected your soul, and gave you the ability to choose restored ability.

00:05:19.340 It's truths like these that help us understand why Paul at the end of his writings would often end up in some sort of acclamation of praise.

00:05:28.020 If you've read anything from Paul, you'll know that he'll end up with saying things like,

00:05:32.800 and for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

00:05:37.880 Beautiful.

00:05:39.220 It's because of these types of truths.

00:05:42.920 Today, my hope is that we find ourselves sharing in those same acclamations of praise

00:05:49.920 and we see the cost required for our own salvation.

00:05:54.220 now we just read Romans 8 28 through 34 I want you guys to have that open because I'm going to

00:06:01.260 be calling you guys to look at your scriptures often today this is important at some point

00:06:09.860 you don't need to keep trusting what the pastor says is true at some point you need to actually

00:06:14.860 look in your Bibles and make sure that what I'm saying aligns with what God said verse 31

00:06:22.400 it says what then shall we say to these things if God is for us who can be against us

00:06:31.400 well again we're smart Bible interpreters here we know that when we see the word these or that

00:06:37.240 or those or this we want to know what's the antecedent to that demonstrative pronoun

00:06:43.860 what then shall we say to these things well to what things well clearly to the things that were

00:06:50.860 just said in the previous verses, that God causes all things to work together for them

00:06:56.720 who love him and are called according to his purpose, that he predestines, that he calls,

00:07:02.780 that he justifies, that he glorifies. What should we say to these things? Paul asks rhetorically.

00:07:12.420 If God is for us, who can be against us?

00:07:14.480 I want to pose that question to you think about it for a moment in light of those other passages

00:07:23.300 of scripture what should you say to those things what should you say to those things

00:07:29.960 I hope that you say something to somebody about those things

00:07:34.220 well certainly you should say that they're beautiful and weighty things that are deserving

00:07:40.140 our praise. They are anchors to your soul, knowing that your salvation does not rest

00:07:45.700 upon your hands and your ability, but they rest upon God. First Peter chapter one, verses

00:07:55.040 three through five, one of my favorite verses in the Bible. It says, blessed be the God

00:07:58.740 and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, catch this, he has caused

00:08:05.800 us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

00:08:11.740 to an inheritance that is imperishable undefiled unfading kept for you in heaven

00:08:18.640 who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in

00:08:29.060 the last time aren't you so glad that it doesn't say who are being kept by your power

00:08:35.340 what a blessing that we are being kept by God's power through faith

00:08:40.760 that it's not dependent upon us sustaining that faith no he who began a good work in you will

00:08:47.780 finish it we can rest in the fact that though my faith might feel that it will fail

00:08:53.680 God will hold me fast if we've sung the song

00:08:57.860 another way to look at this question would be to ask what should we not say to these things

00:09:06.300 well we talked about what should we say to these things what should we not

00:09:11.580 say to these things well we should not say that God's people can lose their salvation

00:09:17.600 that is a clear teaching of this passage of scripture we should not say that if God causes

00:09:25.760 all things to work together for those who love him

00:09:27.780 or called according to his purpose

00:09:28.780 and that those whom he foreknow he predestines

00:09:30.900 and know he predestines, he calls and calls

00:09:32.640 and justifies, justifies, glorifies.

00:09:33.940 We should not allow the conclusion to arrive in our heads

00:09:37.500 that, oh, then some must be able to be lost.

00:09:42.500 That's not the appropriate response.

00:09:47.080 We should not say that because it would imply

00:09:50.080 that God allows some of those whom he foreknew

00:09:54.140 some of those whom he predestined and some of those who he called and justified to perish.

00:10:03.120 It would break the logical and grammatical conclusion of the entire passage.

00:10:10.080 It would imply that rather than working all things together for their good,

00:10:15.840 as the scripture says, that God allows some things to work together for his people's eternal destruction.

00:10:22.140 It makes no sense.

00:10:25.660 Our response to this passage must be guided by what contradicts the logical and grammatical conclusion presented within it.

00:10:35.520 So what are we not allowed to say?

00:10:37.960 Well, we're not allowed to arrive at conclusions that contradict the very truth within them.

00:10:43.780 in other words whatever we say to these things cannot violate or disagree with what has already

00:10:55.220 been conveyed clearly now i don't understand well i'll say this i i get it when we cannot

00:11:06.620 grasp the intricacies of soteriology which is the study of salvation i understand the mysteries

00:11:13.160 and the ignorance required or involved in hearing these incredibly difficult passages

00:11:21.940 around the process of salvation.

00:11:27.400 I understand that it's difficult to grasp that we have an electing God

00:11:35.700 that has chosen to save some and left others to justice.

00:11:40.900 I understand those things.

00:11:43.160 But the thing that I care about as a pastor, what I care about is that we cultivate a congregation

00:11:51.360 of men and women and children who are willing to bow their ignorance and bow their emotions

00:11:57.840 down to King Jesus when the scriptures don't make sense to their emotions.

00:12:07.100 Our emotions do not inform our biblical interpretation.

00:12:14.120 The authority for our interpretation is not our emotions.

00:12:22.320 The theological, the grammatical, the historical, the cultural context of the passage is what informs our biblical interpretation.

00:12:32.620 We get to rest in those realities.

00:12:35.720 In the second half of this verse, if you guys look down, it says Paul, or Paul, I would say,

00:12:42.560 gives us really his answer to that question that he just asked. He says, what should we say to this?

00:12:46.860 Paul responds, if God is for us, who can be against us? That's what we should say to this.

00:12:54.960 If you just read 28 through 30, you know what you should say to this? If God is for us,

00:13:00.440 Who can be against us?

00:13:03.280 If God causes all things to work together, who can be against you?

00:13:11.720 In other words, if God is sovereign and he secures our salvation,

00:13:21.580 then who can afflict us with any real eternal detriment?

00:13:26.860 I mean, even sickness and persecution and calamity are under the power of a sovereign God.

00:13:38.660 I said this a few weeks ago, when I was 18, I remember watching the tsunamis.

00:13:44.360 They killed 300,000 people in Indonesia.

00:13:48.780 And I remember thinking about the passage where the disciples said,

00:13:55.880 even the winds and seas obey Him. And you think about the reality of God's sovereignty over

00:14:04.480 calamity, over tragedy. We saw in the account of Job a couple of weeks ago that Satan could

00:14:15.880 only bring tragedy and affliction upon Job to the extent that God allowed him to do so.

00:14:21.760 So, God permitted him to be afflicted.

00:14:34.020 And what can happen, I mean, think about this question.

00:14:39.980 What can happen to you that was not first permitted by the hand of God?

00:14:47.000 What can happen to you?

00:14:48.380 Jesus says in Luke 12 25 and which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span

00:14:59.200 of life think about this we worry and we cannot add a single hour to the span of our lives your

00:15:09.480 lifespan according to this passage of scripture is divinely planned down to the hour that's the

00:15:17.580 extent of the sovereignty and the providence in your life. And the arbiter and the captain of

00:15:25.720 that plan promised to cause all things to work together for your eternal good. And this would

00:15:29.700 include your miscarriage. This would include your cancer diagnosis. This would include

00:15:40.580 your boss that threatens to fire you for not putting pronouns in your email signature.

00:15:49.860 This would include all of those things because we have a sovereign God.

00:15:58.580 Ultimately, because God causes all things to work together for good, no thing can overcome

00:16:08.520 you. That's the clear teaching of this passage. Yes, people may insult you. Yes, people may

00:16:15.040 deliver tragic news to you. Yes, people might kill your body. But none of that changes the 1.00

00:16:21.280 eternal outcome of your soul. None of that. We have an almighty God that is orchestrating every

00:16:27.840 possible element of your life for our edification and for your or for his glory.

00:16:39.400 Now, why is this important?

00:16:41.080 This should give you some degree of confidence in persecution or some degree in affliction

00:16:48.720 or some degree of confidence in peace and adversity.

00:16:53.800 First Timothy or second Timothy 4, 16 through 17, Paul says,

00:16:57.520 At my first offense, no one came to stand by me, but all of the people deserted me.

00:17:02.520 And then check out in verse 17, but the Lord stood by me and strengthened me.

00:17:08.520 Have you been in a situation where nobody was for you and you needed the Lord to stand by you?

00:17:20.660 This is the promise of God.

00:17:26.700 If God is for us, who can be against us?

00:17:30.460 Years ago, I made a public statement on the Christian Post.

00:17:36.680 I don't know if you guys have read the Christian Post before, but I made a public statement about how pastors who struggle with mental illness or suicidal thoughts or anxiety should step down from the pastorate and seek biblical counseling until they are ready for the ministry.

00:17:53.680 It came off the heels of a friend of mine who was a pastor that was regularly and openly discussing his own issues with suicidal thoughts and depression, and he had just killed himself.

00:18:06.680 He talked to me three days before it happened, and so I gave this statement.

00:18:12.500 I think pastors, according to 1 Timothy 3, need to be sober-minded.

00:18:18.740 It's one of the qualifications, and I don't believe if you're struggling with suicidal thoughts

00:18:23.800 or regular bouts of extreme depression or anxiety that is debilitating,

00:18:28.840 you should step down and go seek counseling and come back in when your body and soul is ready.

00:18:33.480 And I'll tell you what, all of the soft, evangelical, therapy-loving, progressive Christians and liberal media outlets came after me really hard.

00:18:46.120 But what about Spurgeon, who would have so much depression?

00:18:52.080 I got thrown under the bus at a national level by thousands and thousands of people disagreeing with me.

00:19:00.360 I remember hanging on to this verse I remember hanging on to the reality my

00:19:09.960 conscience was convicted by the Word of God I stood by exactly what I said I had

00:19:18.120 the widow of my friend hating me calling me out publicly but it was these

00:19:27.360 moments that I realized that God is for me even in the midst of the storm when

00:19:30.340 When everybody else had deserted me, I did feel the Lord standing by me.

00:19:37.740 Now your situation might not be national like mine.

00:19:41.020 Your situation might be local.

00:19:43.000 It might be in your family.

00:19:45.800 But the reality is, is that you know that you have an advocate, a God who does not abandon

00:19:50.340 you.

00:19:51.340 Psalm 118 6 says, the Lord is on my side.

00:19:54.380 I will have no fear.

00:19:55.380 What can man do to me?

00:19:57.900 John 4, 4 says, little children, you are from God and have overcame them. For he who is in you is

00:20:03.240 greater than he who is in the world. Now in the next verse, as we get into verse 32, Paul shows

00:20:10.140 us the extent by which God is for us, the extent, the degree by which he is for us, his devotion

00:20:18.780 for us. Verse 32, read it with me. He who did not spare his son, but gave him up for us all,

00:20:31.660 how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

00:20:36.660 I know it's easy to read passages of scripture like that and just kind of pass over them,

00:20:41.080 not really thinking about the depth and magnitude of what was just being said.

00:20:44.240 but do you want to know, just for a second, follow me here. Do you want to know the level

00:20:51.920 of commitment that God has for you? Do you want to grasp the measure of love that he has placed

00:20:58.860 upon you? Here's how you do it. Go sacrifice your son or daughter for criminals.

00:21:05.240 that would give you a bit of an idea elect your child to pay the punishment for drug dealers and 0.99

00:21:14.960 rapists and murderers you want to understand how much God loves you that's the extent

00:21:22.760 of the experience that you would need to have to understand a portion of the magnitude of God's love

00:21:32.180 it's a measure of love and commitment that cannot be comprehended by fallen man

00:21:39.120 Romans 5 6 through 10 backs up exactly what I just said it says for while we were still

00:21:45.360 weak at the right time Christ died for the ungodly Christ died for the ungodly

00:21:51.340 for one will scarcely die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person one would dare

00:21:57.860 even to die. But, verse 8, but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners,

00:22:05.500 Christ died for us. We like to sanitize that word sinners.

00:22:15.640 When Christ died, he died for the most wicked people.

00:22:18.800 The scandal of the gospel

00:22:22.620 Is that

00:22:25.840 God saves people like Jeffrey Dahmer

00:22:28.900 And not Mother Teresa

00:22:30.700 Christ died for guys like Jeffrey Dahmer

00:22:37.320 Who came to Christ at the end of his life

00:22:41.660 But God shows his love for us

00:22:45.440 And that while we were still sinners

00:22:46.880 Christ died for us

00:22:48.320 verse 10 says for if we were enemies when we were reconciled to God by his death of his son

00:22:58.620 much more now we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life if you want to understand

00:23:06.500 the dimension the gravity of the love of God you have to understand

00:23:15.840 the extent for which God sent Christ to die for the wicked.

00:23:24.520 The point Paul is trying to communicate here is that

00:23:27.820 if God is willing to do that,

00:23:30.780 if God is willing to sacrifice his perfect son 0.89

00:23:34.160 for the Jeffrey Dahmers of the world, 0.77

00:23:38.280 the giving up of his own perfect child,

00:23:42.000 how can you ever doubt his devotion to you?

00:23:45.840 if God is willing to sacrifice his son for you,

00:23:50.960 how can he not ensure also your salvation?

00:23:55.540 How can he pay such a cost and then lose you?

00:24:05.600 Which is a very practical and pastoral thought.

00:24:11.340 When difficult sin enters into your life,

00:24:13.640 when shame or circumstances are at work in your life,

00:24:18.800 when you've just done something that's so heinous

00:24:21.480 or when you have just taken a fall that's so hard and so embarrassing

00:24:26.360 or when your life is so out of step with what Christ calls us to

00:24:32.560 and you feel so far outside of the love of God,

00:24:38.480 you feel like you have somehow again been separated

00:24:43.360 from the love of God.

00:24:47.560 Paul says to you,

00:24:49.320 he who did not spare his own son

00:24:51.400 but gave him up for you,

00:24:52.720 how will he not graciously give you all things?

00:24:56.680 He says these things.

00:25:00.900 How will the God who demonstrated

00:25:02.860 the highest degree of love,

00:25:04.480 the highest degree of love

00:25:06.560 for the lowest degree of your story

00:25:08.680 not continue to love you into eternity

00:25:11.600 even despite the utter failures of your life.

00:25:19.000 It makes me want to skip verses 33 and 34 and just turn to 35.

00:25:22.240 It says, who, lost my spot here real quick.

00:25:28.760 Verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

00:25:32.320 Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness

00:25:35.400 or danger or sword?

00:25:37.320 No, in all things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

00:25:41.440 For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers,

00:25:45.960 nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth,

00:25:49.160 nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us

00:25:52.160 from the love of Christ and Jesus our Lord.

00:25:56.600 That's where we're going.

00:26:01.340 That's where he's taking us right now.

00:26:07.060 If God is willing to do the most extreme thing,

00:26:11.440 It's evidence that nothing can separate us

00:26:15.620 from the love of God.

00:26:21.880 If you go to verse 33,

00:26:24.780 he demonstrates the authority

00:26:28.240 that ensures the reliability of your everlasting union.

00:26:35.480 I just don't know about you, but it's pretty easy.

00:26:38.620 As a pastor, I get to talk to people often

00:26:40.340 that doubt their salvation.

00:26:43.440 They're concerned that they're not saved

00:26:45.980 or they want to know if they're actually saved.

00:26:50.800 And I have to remind people regularly

00:26:53.280 that people who are lost aren't concerned if they're saved.

00:26:58.120 That's one good indication.

00:27:00.460 People who are lost aren't concerned

00:27:02.580 that they're walking outside of the will of God.

00:27:06.520 It's a great indication if you're concerned for those things.

00:27:09.060 But people need to hear this message that their salvation isn't resting upon you to sustain the strength of your faith.

00:27:17.080 Who is the author and finisher of your faith?

00:27:19.480 Jesus Christ.

00:27:27.900 Verse 33 says, who shall bring a charge against God's elect?

00:27:33.660 Who?

00:27:34.580 Who shall bring a charge against God's elect?

00:27:36.800 But when we consider the previous verses, who shall bring a charge?

00:27:41.600 The next verse says, it's God who justifies.

00:27:46.920 Who is he then who condemns?

00:27:49.540 It is Christ who died and furthermore, also he risen, who is even at the right hand of

00:27:54.860 God, who also makes intercession for us.

00:27:58.900 You start to see the absurdity that anything can separate you.

00:28:04.860 opens here again in verse 33 with this rhetorical question. Who shall bring a charge against God's

00:28:10.480 elect? The obvious answer is nobody. Nobody can bring a charge against God's elect. Not you,

00:28:18.660 not some blue-haired liberal, not a civil jury or judge, not even Satan himself.

00:28:27.440 If you trust in Christ, if your sins have been laid upon him,

00:28:30.340 if his righteousness has been given to you by faith,

00:28:35.120 the Supreme Court of Heaven

00:28:36.460 has already declared you eternally not guilty.

00:28:40.220 That is an incredible truth to rest in.

00:28:43.940 It's not that you will attain eternal life.

00:28:47.160 It's that you have eternal life.

00:28:50.960 It's yours now.

00:28:52.280 It cannot be taken from you.

00:28:53.920 You know why?

00:28:54.440 Because it's God who protects it,

00:28:56.720 who guards it by faith.

00:29:00.340 Paul told us in Romans 8.1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ

00:29:07.900 Jesus. He has to tell us that because it's pretty easy off the heels of the end of chapter seven.

00:29:17.920 He's saying, I struggle with sin. I fight these thoughts. I fight temptation. I fight,

00:29:23.740 I fight these actions. I still fall and stumble. It's easy to believe that

00:29:29.740 a conviction of sin means you're condemned. When in reality, conviction of sin is actually

00:29:37.780 the evidence that you're not condemned. It's the evidence that you're saved.

00:29:48.280 In verse 34, Paul asks another question, who is he who condemns?

00:29:54.360 Again, it's nobody.

00:29:56.960 And that nobody includes you.

00:29:59.720 I don't know about you, but there's really two dimensions

00:30:01.760 that you can offer condemnation.

00:30:04.820 One that's internal and one that's external.

00:30:07.520 And I'll tell you what, I think the internal voice

00:30:09.320 can sometimes be louder than the external voice.

00:30:14.460 What an absurd thought in light of the scriptures

00:30:20.280 to think that you might be condemned after sinning.

00:30:23.740 after what Christ had died for you.

00:30:28.500 The logic of this passage is clear.

00:30:30.540 If nobody can bring charges against God's people

00:30:32.760 that would jeopardize their justification,

00:30:34.920 then nobody can condemn them either. 1.00

00:30:39.180 This is intended to give Christians

00:30:40.880 the ultimate sense of eternal security.

00:30:44.720 Eternal security, the perseverance of the saints.

00:30:49.780 Your justification cannot be lost

00:30:52.040 because number one, your justification was not earned

00:30:54.780 by works of righteousness, but by the perfect work of Christ.

00:30:57.720 And number two, it is God who justifies and not man.

00:31:01.800 In fact, we're going to see in the upcoming verses

00:31:03.360 that there's nothing that you or anybody else can do

00:31:06.460 to change your justified standing before God.

00:31:09.460 Jesus says, and pay attention to here,

00:31:10.940 if you guys want to turn there,

00:31:12.380 it's John chapter 6, 37 through 39.

00:31:14.740 Just turn there with me real quick.

00:31:16.080 John chapter 6, 37 through 39.

00:31:19.560 he says all that the father gives me will come to me

00:31:34.140 just ponder that for a second all that the father gives to me will come to me there is so much there

00:31:45.960 it's not everybody in the whole world there is a group of people that the father has chosen

00:31:53.560 to give to christ and all of them will come to christ he says and whoever comes to me

00:32:02.660 i will never cast out so we can see right there if they come to christ you are never going to be

00:32:09.340 rejected. Verse 38, for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of

00:32:16.620 him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me. Pay attention, that I should lose nothing

00:32:25.120 of all that he has given me, but I will raise it up on the last day.

00:32:30.580 the will of God the father for the son is that Christ would not lose even one

00:32:40.960 do you understand the beautiful parable of the lost sheep that he leaves the 99 and go grabs

00:32:47.400 the one Christ doesn't lose any of his people Charles Spurgeon commented on this verse saying

00:32:54.600 if one dear child of God had ever been lost Christ's mission would have been a failure

00:33:00.020 because he said that he would not lose one of them, end quote.

00:33:06.820 If you flip over a couple pages to John 10, verses 27 through 30,

00:33:14.340 John 10,

00:33:15.460 Jesus says, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

00:33:30.840 I give them eternal life.

00:33:34.180 Again, I said this last week, I believe, is if Christ gives you eternal life,

00:33:39.300 can that promise of eternal life be dependent upon you?

00:33:43.480 No, you can't promise somebody something that's dependent upon them.

00:33:47.020 It's dependent upon you if you're the one making the promise.

00:33:49.980 God gave us eternal life.

00:33:52.120 He can make that promise because it's not dependent upon us.

00:33:55.480 It's dependent upon him.

00:34:00.020 I give them eternal life and they will never perish.

00:34:05.660 Do you see that?

00:34:06.600 if you ever have any possible concern or worry that you could ever lose your salvation

00:34:14.060 either this scripture is wrong or you're wrong

00:34:18.020 and they will never perish and no one will snatch them out of my hand

00:34:26.940 my father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out

00:34:34.060 of the Father's hand, I and the Father are one. I don't know about you, but the moment I came to

00:34:43.740 the understanding that my salvation rested in the hands of God and not in my own hands

00:34:49.100 was an incredible day. It allows you to finally rest in Christ. It allows you to obey from

00:35:00.340 gratitude and from love instead of worry and performance and duty. What I want you to see

00:35:15.560 is that when one of God's people comes to faith in Christ, what you're really witnessing

00:35:21.300 is God's sovereign work to save forever those who are his. When someone comes to faith,

00:35:28.600 is truly born again, they cannot be lost.

00:35:34.220 My son could leave.

00:35:37.380 My son could die.

00:35:39.540 My son could run away.

00:35:42.040 But no matter what, he's my son.

00:35:45.880 When you're born into the family of God,

00:35:48.060 you cannot ever be unborn out of the family of God.

00:35:52.200 You're brought into the good father's home

00:35:54.420 and will never be lost.

00:35:58.600 Again, according to Romans 8.30, the person that God knew before the foundation of the world,

00:36:05.420 he predestined. And those whom he predestined, he called. And those who he called, he justified.

00:36:11.280 And those who he justified, he glorified. This is an infallible process of redemption. If you're

00:36:17.240 saved, if Jesus called you, if God justified you, you are as secure as God is real.

00:36:25.120 That's how secure you are.

00:36:28.800 And we're almost done here.

00:36:30.400 It's that level of security.

00:36:35.880 Paul continues on and tells us why we can actually be secure.

00:36:41.720 What's the substance and the foundation and the ground of that security?

00:36:47.280 It's not just that God says something, that would be enough.

00:36:50.300 But if you look to verse 34, the second half of it, it says,

00:36:56.480 It is Christ who died, and furthermore, He also risen,

00:37:01.780 who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

00:37:08.400 God is for us. Why?

00:37:13.160 Because He gave up His Son.

00:37:16.660 Who can condemn us or take away our salvation?

00:37:20.300 nobody why because the price has been paid this is the logic of this verse and you see that

00:37:29.660 believing that christ died for the elect while claiming that the elect can lose their salvation

00:37:34.620 it's not just a theological contradiction or a heresy it's actually an offense against the

00:37:38.540 gospel in matthew 121 the angel gabriel says to mary you shall name him jesus for he will save

00:37:45.740 his people from their sins okay the death resurrection and ascension of

00:37:52.940 christ did not just produce the opportunity for people to be saved

00:37:59.340 this is huge in america by the way the death resurrection and ascension of

00:38:04.140 christ did not just produce the opportunity for

00:38:06.700 salvation it actually secured salvation for a

00:38:09.900 particular group of people we call them the elect or the church

00:38:15.740 God didn't just make a way that anybody could possibly choose.

00:38:21.200 No, God came with a specific purpose for a specific people to save with a specific plan.

00:38:32.280 I'm going to break these three sections down.

00:38:34.480 If you look again, verse 34b, I want you to see that it's talking about three things,

00:38:39.860 death, resurrection, and ascension.

00:38:42.160 You need to see those in verse 34.

00:38:43.740 If it is Christ who died, death, and furthermore is also risen, resurrection, who is at the right

00:38:51.240 hand of God, who also makes intercession for us, ascension. Those three elements are so vital and

00:38:58.420 I'm going to do a quick summary over them and then I'm going to close. Number one, this is just gospel

00:39:04.660 fundamentals. This is part of our mission at this church. As I said earlier, we are about gospel

00:39:09.420 fluency. If you don't understand these fundamentals, then you don't understand the gospel.

00:39:14.740 Number one, his death satisfied the blood penalty for his people,

00:39:20.000 fulfilling the justice of God's law. 0.93

00:39:22.240 That's what the death of Good Friday is about.

00:39:25.820 It's fulfilling the blood penalty required.

00:39:30.180 Leviticus talks about that God gave us blood for the atonement of souls,

00:39:35.280 that essentially life is in the blood.

00:39:38.100 Did you know that when Jesus' blood spilt, his life spilt,

00:39:41.960 because life is in the blood.

00:39:44.480 Hebrews 9.22 says,

00:39:45.960 without the shedding of blood,

00:39:47.040 there is no forgiveness of sins.

00:39:49.960 It's not going to happen.

00:39:52.360 Forgiveness of sins requires something to die.

00:39:56.460 When you sin, someone has to die.

00:40:00.600 Think about this.

00:40:03.220 I don't care if you're four or 40.

00:40:05.320 When someone sins, somebody has to die.

00:40:12.540 Not just a physical death.

00:40:14.100 We know that physical death is what?

00:40:15.760 It's the separation of the body and the soul.

00:40:17.600 That is what physical death is.

00:40:18.880 What is spiritual death?

00:40:20.100 Well, it's the separation of the soul from God.

00:40:22.080 What is eternal spiritual death that Corbin read?

00:40:25.240 The second death, the final death.

00:40:27.240 It's the eternal separation of your soul from God.

00:40:32.780 That's the kind of death that it's talking about.

00:40:35.500 When someone sins, someone needs to die that death.

00:40:40.180 An eternal death.

00:40:41.960 So your sins are either going to be laid upon you as the sinner,

00:40:48.540 or your sins are either going to be laid upon Christ, the Savior.

00:40:52.260 But there is going to be no sin that goes unpunished.

00:40:56.140 There's no sin that'll ever go unpunished.

00:40:59.020 It'll be laid either upon you, the unrepentant human being,

00:41:03.600 or it'll be laid on Christ.

00:41:06.960 But there is no world where even one sin goes unpunished.

00:41:11.960 God's perfect, just world. And so on that cross, Christ acted as a substitute and

00:41:20.720 paid the death penalty for all who would believe. Does that make sense? The cost

00:41:28.460 of the law is death. Christ acts as your substitute by which your sins are

00:41:34.280 imputed to that cross, fulfilling the requirement of death for you. That's the

00:41:40.960 fundamentals of the death of Christ. That's Good Friday. Number two, his 0.71

00:41:49.360 resurrection confirmed by two things here. That he was worthy as a substitute

00:41:56.380 and that he conquered the requirement of death for his people. I'm gonna explain

00:42:02.620 this. In America, we focus very much on the death of Christ. And I say that

00:42:10.540 because we focus so much on Christ died for you.

00:42:13.580 That's so many, one, no apostle ever says that, by the way.

00:42:17.960 That's not in the Bible.

00:42:18.820 No one ever walks up in an evangelistic reality

00:42:20.740 in scripture and says, Christ died for you.

00:42:22.860 No, Christ died for anyone who believes.

00:42:25.300 It's a much clearer way to communicate the gospel.

00:42:28.200 I don't know if Christ died for you.

00:42:30.620 Christ died for his church, for his bride.

00:42:34.220 And the problem is that we often miss

00:42:36.320 that Christ also lived for you.

00:42:38.100 Christ died for you in the sense that you needed

00:42:42.440 somebody to pay for your sins

00:42:44.580 that you imputed to him on the cross

00:42:45.900 but Christ also lived the perfect obedient life

00:42:49.800 that was required of you

00:42:52.620 not only do you need your sins forgiven

00:42:56.940 but you need a perfect righteous record

00:42:58.980 given to you

00:43:00.060 an alien righteousness imputed to you by faith

00:43:02.540 so Christ didn't just die

00:43:04.840 he also lived for you

00:43:06.060 so the resurrection validates the efficacy the effectual reality of his death and let me explain

00:43:16.620 in order for Christ to act as your substitute and die for your sins he cannot have sin of his own

00:43:22.340 what would happen if Christ had sin of his own well he'd have to die for his own sin

00:43:29.600 but the fact is is that Christ had no sin and so he could act as your substitute

00:43:37.940 and what we see in the resurrection is God's validation of Christ's sinlessness so that

00:43:47.580 when he died he died the death that we deserved but because Christ had no sin

00:43:53.060 he had to be resurrected. In fact, Christ couldn't stay dead because the wages of sin

00:44:00.820 is death. But if Christ had no sin of his own, he can't stay dead. That would be injustice.

00:44:09.020 That would be injustice. So the resurrection is the validation and the vindication that Christ

00:44:15.700 was sinless, that he was accepted by the Father as a substitute on the behalf of your sin,

00:44:24.660 my sin. That's what Sunday today is about.

00:44:33.580 I can't die for your sins. I have my own sins to die for. No, Christ died for my sins because he

00:44:41.220 had no sin of his own. First John 3 5 says, you know that he appeared in order to take away sins

00:44:47.280 and in him there is no sin. Number three, his ascension affirms his eternal reign as king of

00:45:02.120 kings and lord of lords, confirming his authority to secure the salvation of his people.

00:45:11.220 this is the evidence that Christ fulfilled the mission to save.

00:45:18.240 Okay, this is the, think about this.

00:45:20.600 Think about this for a second.

00:45:24.680 When Christ ascended,

00:45:27.660 he fulfilled God's will of coming to save his people

00:45:34.360 and not lose one of them.

00:45:37.400 That is what is being said in the ascension.

00:45:40.880 The mission has been accomplished.

00:45:44.480 And what does he do then?

00:45:45.840 Well, now he intercedes for his people.

00:45:49.020 He sends his Holy Spirit to his people.

00:45:51.380 He prepares a place for his people.

00:45:54.180 He does all those things through the ascension and sitting at the right hand of the Father.

00:46:00.080 And so these are all the grounds of your eternal security.

00:46:03.100 And if I could walk away with one thing that I want to make sure you don't do,

00:46:06.940 is that you don't ever tell anybody

00:46:10.440 that a saved person can lose their salvation.

00:46:15.020 Because that's wrong.

00:46:16.700 It's unbiblical.

00:46:17.800 It's heretical.

00:46:19.200 It's not supported in scripture.

00:46:22.300 After all that Christ had done

00:46:24.560 to say that he might lose one

00:46:27.460 is absolutely offensive to the gospel.

00:46:33.020 God is for you.

00:46:35.180 He demonstrated that in the death of his own son.

00:46:38.800 And because his son died for you, rose for you, ascended for you,

00:46:41.800 nobody can change that reality for you.

00:46:45.920 Nobody can take away the eternal bliss that you already have.

00:46:50.600 You are, in every possible sense, eternally secure.

00:46:56.720 Amen? Amen. Let's pray.

00:46:59.740 Father, we thank you.

00:47:00.800 We thank you, Lord, that you have orchestrated such an incredible redemption.

00:47:11.080 Lord, we pray that you would just give us a portion to meditate upon.

00:47:18.980 That our hearts and minds would revel.

00:47:23.980 That it would bring us to tears and emotion.

00:47:26.460 that the heart would see what the mind can understand.

00:47:33.080 Father, we pray for a deep comprehension in this congregation.

00:47:36.640 Lord, that we would be a people that are so changed

00:47:39.200 that we would be motivated to get out into this world

00:47:41.560 and change others with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

00:47:47.680 Father, we thank you for the resurrection,

00:47:50.160 for the triumphal victory over death for us.

00:47:54.700 In Jesus' name.

00:47:56.460 Amen.

Dale Partridge - April 03, 2024

Romans 8_31： The Security of Our Salvation with Dale Partridge

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