Dale Partridge - Romans 8_35-39： Why Christian's Cannot Lose Their Salvation with Dale Partridge

00:00:00.960 Well, today, what a blessing it is because we finally finished this climactic chapter

00:00:06.320 of the book of Romans.

00:00:09.160 We have been in this chapter for several weeks now.

00:00:14.280 It is my 76th sermon through this book.

00:00:18.420 If there is one particular issue, however, in the church today that needs focus, if

00:00:26.880 had to sit back for a second and examine just what does the American church need instruction on

00:00:38.000 i think that most of us would come to the conclusion of gender orthodoxy gender orthodoxy

00:00:46.560 and at large i really believe that we are a confused people on this particular matter we

00:00:50.880 don't know what it is to be a woman what it is to be a man what it is to be a child we have so

00:00:56.240 much confusion around fundamental issues on these realities so starting next week

00:01:03.120 we're going to be taking a break from romans we're going to take a five-week break from romans

00:01:08.160 and we're going to go through a series on the covenant household where i'm going to be discussing

00:01:15.360 what is the covenant home i'm going to talk about biblical marriage the the duties of husbands and

00:01:23.120 wives and the duties of parents and children.

00:01:28.000 Getting back to the fundamentals, this church will only be as healthy as the families it 0.78

00:01:34.680 is made of.

00:01:36.760 That is a true fact.

00:01:38.620 And so we are, by God's grace, going to be a healthy church because we have healthy families.

00:01:45.240 If men don't have a biblical vision for the home, they're never going to take this masculine

00:01:53.100 responsibility for leading their homes and loving their wives. If women don't have a biblical vision 0.90

00:02:01.260 for the home, they're never going to joyfully respect their husbands or rest in their husband's 1.00

00:02:08.560 leadership. And we don't want this strange acceptance of kind of this laziness among men

00:02:17.040 or the sanitized version of feminism among women that's so common in American Christianity. 0.85

00:02:24.580 That produces what I believe is an impotent Christianity. 0.63

00:02:28.420 It produces a Christianity that it's not so much different than the world. 0.88

00:02:31.880 And I think we have many churches, even in our own town here, where you walk in and there's 0.78

00:02:36.440 really not much of a difference between the families there and the families that are not

00:02:40.560 there that are not saved.

00:02:42.360 And we do not want that to be true of our church.

00:02:46.300 The elders here do not want conservative traditional families at this church.

00:02:53.260 You know what we want?

00:02:53.980 We want biblical families at this church.

00:02:57.540 We want families that are so joyfully ordered with scripture that when conservative families visit,

00:03:06.960 and we see this, right?

00:03:07.860 We live in Arizona.

00:03:08.740 This is, we're packed with Christless conservatism.

00:03:12.680 It's this kind of sense of morality and religiosity, but it lacks the true power of the gospel to transform relationships in the home.

00:03:23.540 And we want these people to come in and see the gap.

00:03:27.780 You know, when they see, you know, we want the conservative men to see the biblical men and notice the gap.

00:03:33.920 We want the conservative women to see the Christian biblical women and see the gap.

00:03:38.280 We want the conservative children to see the Christian biblical children and see the gap.

00:03:45.160 And I think a lot of you who are new here over the last several weeks have seen the gap.

00:03:49.520 Some people are realizing and recognizing that we are a people here that has a high standard for holy living. 0.85

00:03:58.580 And this is important because it demonstrates that Christianity is a totalizing faith.

00:04:06.280 It should absolutely saturate every part of your life.

00:04:12.720 It shouldn't be a compartmentalized faith.

00:04:15.100 It should be a totalizing faith.

00:04:17.360 It shows that coming to Christ isn't just about eternal salvation,

00:04:20.960 but it's also producing generations of Christians that are holy and sanctified.

00:04:28.420 And so that is the shift that we're going to take for the next five weeks.

00:04:32.780 um pray for me as i study those topics pray for this church that it would be a blessing for the

00:04:39.440 founding families at this congregation however on the 21st of april we are having a guest preacher

00:04:48.760 here we're having a friend of mine zachary conover and he is from apologia church down in tempe

00:04:56.740 Arizona, and he's going to be giving a sermon on why abortion is a gospel issue. Like why the

00:05:07.120 matter around abortion is actually a gospel issue and that the church needs to be the one spearheading

00:05:16.200 the movement against the unholy and wicked practice of abortion in our country. And so it's

00:05:23.680 not going to be a sermon. He's got an exegetical text. He's going to be working through the

00:05:27.180 scripture. He's going to lead us to Christ in this sermon. He's been a pastor in the past. He's now

00:05:32.660 preaches often at Apologia and he works with Apologia Studios. He runs a ministry called

00:05:38.780 End Abortion Now. And I've heard him preach on the topic and it's just fantastic. And I thought

00:05:44.080 it would be a blessing for our congregation to see how those matters really and truly are

00:05:49.780 connected to the gospel okay now let's get into the sermon uh to review where we are where we are

00:06:00.500 uh last week i preached on romans 8 31 through 34 we looked at paul's concluding thoughts on

00:06:06.340 god's sovereignty over our lives and salvation that god is sovereign over your salvation

00:06:13.220 We love because he first loved us.

00:06:17.160 We weren't the actualized reality of our salvation.

00:06:20.040 We weren't the decisive catalyst for our salvation.

00:06:22.780 No, that God before the foundation of the world had written your name in the Lamb's

00:06:27.480 book of life.

00:06:30.180 The doctrinal emphasis of last week was that our eternal security, the truths around the

00:06:38.440 perseverance of the saints. This idea of once saved, always saved. We learn that salvation

00:06:46.020 cannot be lost. It cannot be lost. And so today we're going to continue on that doctrinal discussion

00:06:54.380 and go a little bit further. So in verses 834 from last week, Paul asked the question,

00:07:00.680 what shall we say to these things? What shall we say to these things? And those things were

00:07:06.940 the redemptive reality that before the foundation of the world, God foreknew a particular people.

00:07:13.940 And those whom he foreknew, he predestined. And those whom he predestined, he called. And

00:07:18.420 those whom he called, he justified. And those whom he justified, he glorified.

00:07:23.740 And what should we say to these things? Well, we should say that if God is for us,

00:07:30.420 who can be against us.

00:07:32.880 You know, what was the outcome

00:07:33.960 of that particular passage of scripture?

00:07:38.120 And the apostle gave really two response,

00:07:41.080 or two responses.

00:07:42.000 Number one is that God is on our side.

00:07:44.620 If you're a believer that God is on your side,

00:07:47.760 eternally on your side.

00:07:50.500 And secondly,

00:07:53.100 secondly, if the almighty ruler of the universe

00:07:55.580 is orchestrating your lives,

00:07:57.220 according to Romans 8, 28,

00:07:58.800 who's causing all things to work together

00:08:00.340 for your good, for those who are called according to his purpose. If God is orchestrating your life

00:08:06.880 at such an extensive manner, meticulously, then who can oppose anything in our lives with any

00:08:19.560 real detriment? Who can oppose that eternal work in our life? The answer is nobody. Nobody can.

00:08:26.320 If God is doing it, who can be against you?

00:08:28.500 That is the question that Paul asked last week.

00:08:31.620 And he went on to prove the extent of God's devotion to his people

00:08:34.580 by showing that Christ paid the ultimate price

00:08:37.960 to secure the salvation of those particular people.

00:08:42.240 That is, if God is willing to pay the highest price,

00:08:44.320 then it logically follows.

00:08:45.920 Like the logical deduction of that reality

00:08:48.380 is that he would not allow what he had just purchased

00:08:50.880 at such a cost to be lost.

00:08:54.380 Right?

00:08:55.700 That's just fundamental logic.

00:08:59.000 It would be irrational and counterproductive

00:09:01.020 for someone to invest heavily, highly

00:09:03.580 in acquiring something extremely valuable

00:09:06.280 only to neglect it to allow it to perish.

00:09:09.820 That doesn't make any sense.

00:09:13.880 This is why Christ can say of his people in John 10, 28,

00:09:18.860 I gave them eternal life and they will never perish.

00:09:24.720 Think about that for a second.

00:09:26.960 If Christ has given you eternal life, if you've been born again,

00:09:30.640 if you have trusted in the righteousness of Christ that's given to you by faith,

00:09:36.100 you will never perish.

00:09:40.440 That is a beautiful promise to rest in.

00:09:46.200 Now in last week's verses 8, 28 through 34, last couple weeks,

00:09:51.740 Paul addressed the spiritual concerns of being separated from God's love.

00:10:00.680 The spiritual concerns about being separated from God's love and you have had them. You have had

00:10:06.300 those internal spiritual concerns and you've wondered if those things might separate you from

00:10:12.440 God's love. He dealt with shame, he dealt with sin, he dealt with guilt and condemnation.

00:10:17.580 Today's verses, 835-39, Paul is going to deal with the physical, the physical concerns of being separated from God's love.

00:10:29.400 Can the physical world, can physical circumstances separate you, lose your salvation?

00:10:38.100 Can you walk away, can you be pushed away, coerced away by circumstances?

00:10:45.520 So again, Paul was dealing with the internal, and now he's dealing with the external, and

00:10:51.880 he's showing that nothing that is immaterial or material can separate us from the love

00:10:57.480 of Christ.

00:10:59.440 It's a passage that's really intended to give you unconditional hope and peace, not conditional

00:11:05.800 hope.

00:11:07.900 And a lot of Christians today live on conditional hope. 0.99

00:11:10.920 Well, if I do this, and if I read my Bible enough, and if I pray enough, and if I, you 0.98

00:11:18.280 know, if I don't have incredibly tragic circumstances that would maybe make me question my faith

00:11:23.280 or, you know, that's conditional hope.

00:11:26.300 But this passage is about unconditional hope, unconditional peace.

00:11:33.680 And so Paul says in verse 35, if you look down and follow along with me, he says, who

00:11:39.560 Who will separate us from the love of Christ?

00:11:43.420 Will tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?

00:11:50.500 So I want to start just by looking at this phrase, because again, we're smart Bible interpreters.

00:11:55.000 We want to know what our scriptures say.

00:11:57.420 We don't want to just trust the pastor blindly.

00:11:59.780 We really want to make sure that we understand what's being said by the intention of the

00:12:03.340 author of the epistle that we are reading.

00:12:06.220 So let's look at the phrase, the love of Christ.

00:12:09.560 Who will separate us from the love of Christ?

00:12:13.120 Because if we don't understand what's wrapped up

00:12:15.120 in this statement, the love of Christ,

00:12:17.540 we can misinterpret this entire passage of scripture.

00:12:21.220 The love of Christ is life.

00:12:25.580 Okay, the love of Christ is life.

00:12:29.000 To be the recipient of Christ's love

00:12:30.880 is to be the beneficiary of salvation.

00:12:32.980 You cannot separate those two theologically,

00:12:35.800 systematically, doctrinally.

00:12:37.420 2 Corinthians 5.14 says,

00:12:38.880 for the love of Christ controls us. The love of Christ controls us, not their love for Christ,

00:12:46.140 but Christ's love for them controls them. That is that Christ's love is an overpowering,

00:12:53.740 it's a transformative love. It actually does something in your life. It actually changes you.

00:13:01.300 it does something to you not having the love of Christ is death not having the

00:13:10.480 love of Christ is death it's it's the absence of a mediator it's the absence

00:13:14.980 of a meteor between you and God which leaves you in an unreconciled state where

00:13:18.460 you're under God's wrath there is no peace for you if you have not the love

00:13:21.300 of Christ so the first question which is a rhetorical question can be read who

00:13:28.100 will separate us from the life-giving love of Christ? Who will separate us from the life-giving

00:13:33.500 love of Christ? Well, the answer of this entire passage of scripture that we're going to be going

00:13:40.920 through, it's a very obvious answer. Nobody. Nobody is going to separate us from the love

00:13:47.280 of Christ. Again, I just read earlier John chapter 10, and I'm going to lose my space here because

00:13:54.400 I want to go back to it just for a second.

00:13:59.900 Well, maybe I'm not going to be able to find it.

00:14:01.720 Anyways, it says, they will never perish.

00:14:03.800 No one can snatch them out of the Father's hand.

00:14:06.320 I and the Father are one.

00:14:09.180 God does not lose a grip on you.

00:14:12.700 So again, this question is, who will separate us from the life-giving love of Christ?

00:14:17.580 So if all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ,

00:14:21.880 All of the authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ,

00:14:26.020 according to the Great Commission of Matthew 28.

00:14:28.980 And according to Ephesians 1, 20 through 21,

00:14:31.520 God has seated him above all rule and dominion,

00:14:33.960 and every name that is named who is above everything.

00:14:38.060 If this is the Jesus that we are talking about,

00:14:41.220 who is powerful enough, I should ask it in a question,

00:14:45.820 who is powerful enough to separate us from Christ's love for us?

00:14:50.560 He is the most powerful being.

00:14:55.040 He is seated at the highest place.

00:14:59.220 Who can usurp the authority of the Lord?

00:15:03.560 Who can change the mind of God?

00:15:06.480 Who can change the decisions and the affections of Jesus?

00:15:12.240 Nobody.

00:15:14.580 And Paul transitions.

00:15:16.680 He poses another question.

00:15:17.960 He goes from the who, if you see in the first part of verse 35, and then he shifts to the what

00:15:23.440 in the second part. So the first question asks if any beings, who, could separate us from the love

00:15:29.300 of Christ. But the next question is, is there any circumstances, the what, can separate us from the

00:15:34.940 love of Christ? And this might sound like a really strange question to you, but I think it's actually

00:15:39.780 a common concern among Christians.

00:15:44.500 Ten years ago, I had a friend, we weren't really close, but he was a pastor at a church

00:15:52.660 in Carpinteria, California, and his daughter died from cancer at eight years old.

00:15:58.760 And I remember asking myself this question, what would I do if my daughter died?

00:16:12.360 Would my faith fail?

00:16:14.200 Would I be able to sustain my faith if the Lord took my daughter?

00:16:20.980 would I be able to continue trusting in God in the face of circumstances that are life-shattering

00:16:32.640 I watched this man watch his daughter die slowly I have a friend who he recently passed away but

00:16:44.180 his wife passed away before him and he said to me once it's not the death that's hard it's the dying

00:16:50.700 and I watched this pastor watch his daughter die.

00:16:56.520 And I asked myself that question.

00:17:00.580 Would my faith fail

00:17:02.160 if I faced a circumstance that was similar to that?

00:17:10.240 Now, this is probably the most important statement

00:17:12.520 I'm going to make today.

00:17:14.720 This type of thinking,

00:17:16.160 this is the type of thinking a christian has when they believe their faith is some sort of

00:17:26.960 ongoing work of human will rather than the gift of the holy spirit or the gift of god

00:17:33.600 who perseveres that faith through the holy spirit it's a completely unbiblical way to think

00:17:41.860 When you think, I wonder if my faith will fail,

00:17:44.980 what you're really saying is, I'm wondering if I will fail.

00:17:50.400 And the answer is yes, you will fail.

00:17:53.560 But Christ will not fail.

00:17:56.320 What you've revealed in that question, and what I revealed in that question,

00:17:59.720 is that I believed it was partly up to my work to maintain my salvation.

00:18:06.280 Because if we're saved by faith, and faith is what justifies us,

00:18:10.920 and it's my responsibility to keep that faith up it's not that i'm saved by holy spirit resolution

00:18:20.200 that god is is persevering me but it's that i am concerned about me

00:18:28.760 not being able to lose or not being able to maintain my faith in dark circumstances

00:18:37.640 that is not the christian message

00:18:40.920 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 4 and 7 through 8 says I give thanks to my God

00:18:50.760 always for you because of the grace of God that was given to you in Christ

00:18:55.700 Jesus as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ who will sustain

00:19:01.980 you to the end guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus it's Philippians that

00:19:08.700 It says, he who began a good work in you will finish it.

00:19:18.820 I often, I've said this before, I'm going to say it again because I think it's one of the greatest illustrations

00:19:23.100 for understanding the perseverance of the saints.

00:19:30.180 if a father and a son were walking across a rope bridge a thousand feet off the ground

00:19:39.400 and the father says to the son hold on to my hand because there's the rungs on this rope bridge

00:19:49.780 could break and if you're not holding on to me you could fall and the father and the son they

00:19:55.640 start walking down this rope bridge. And one of the rungs breaks. And out of fear, the son lets

00:20:05.220 go of the father's hand. Does the son die? Well, under the old way that I used to think, I say, yes.

00:20:15.160 The son let go and he perished. But the truth is the son doesn't die because any father knows that

00:20:23.680 when the rung breaks, it's not just that the son is holding on to the father, but that the father

00:20:31.700 is holding on to the son. And when we say that a child will perish and that God will somehow let

00:20:43.360 go of you, we say that we are worse or that we are essentially better than God is because you're

00:20:51.480 essentially saying this, that God is a God who would say, if you let go, I'll let go.

00:20:58.420 When even as earthly fathers, we would never say that to our own children.

00:21:03.640 We say, if you let go, I will still hold on. And that is what the scriptures teach,

00:21:12.060 that he will hold you fast. He will hold you fast. And we're going to talk about those,

00:21:20.100 The lyrics of a song here in just a minute.

00:21:26.460 If faith is the means by which a person is justified before Christ,

00:21:31.540 then the logical conclusion is that a failing faith is a loss of salvation.

00:21:35.460 Jesus died for you for no reason.

00:21:38.800 Because you lost your salvation.

00:21:40.280 Because it depends on you under that view of salvation theology.

00:21:45.540 this is the exact opposite intention of this passage of scripture this passage of scripture

00:21:54.580 is to show that you will never be lost christ paid too high a price for you to be lost

00:22:00.720 paul then poses the question

00:22:05.880 and he cites every sort of extreme circumstance he says will tribulation distress and persecution

00:22:14.120 and famine and nakedness of danger or death? Will any of these things separate you?

00:22:22.240 Will any of these circumstances prevent Christ's saving love from your soul?

00:22:27.840 And praise God that the answer is no. Praise God the answer is no. Keith and Kristen Getty,

00:22:36.400 they wrote an incredible song. Some of you guys have probably heard it. It's called He Will Hold

00:22:41.220 me fast. It's a great, great song. Maybe we'll sing it in the next couple of weeks. I'm going

00:22:46.620 to read some of the lyrics. It says, when I fear my faith will fail, Christ will hold me fast.

00:22:54.280 When the tempter would prevail, he will hold me fast. I could never hold my own through life's

00:23:02.880 fearful path for my love is often cold. He must hold me fast. He'll not let my soul be lost.

00:23:10.580 his promises shall last. Bought by him at such a cost, he will hold me fast. Beautiful, beautiful.

00:23:20.380 In the next verse, if you guys look down to 36, Paul references Psalm 42 or 44, 22,

00:23:28.460 and he demonstrates how God's people have essentially always faced different forms of

00:23:34.960 difficulty and tribulation.

00:23:38.860 It says, just as it is written,

00:23:40.360 for your sake, we are being put to death all day long.

00:23:44.640 We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

00:23:49.040 So, Paul highlights here that by God's design,

00:23:52.820 we are hated by the world.

00:23:56.340 We are at conflict with the world.

00:23:59.520 I truly believe that the church will overcome

00:24:03.780 the world through Christ.

00:24:05.360 I believe that the church will continue to grow

00:24:07.780 and spread and actually be the largest entity

00:24:13.200 of entities on the earth.

00:24:15.720 But just like I believe that America won World War II,

00:24:20.760 it doesn't mean there wasn't massive casualties.

00:24:23.800 There was a massive loss.

00:24:26.060 There is going to be intense persecution in the past

00:24:30.000 and even in the future with the church of Christ.

00:24:33.780 It's not a blind optimism, it's a realistic optimism that I believe the gospel will continue

00:24:40.020 to convert the nations to the great news of Jesus.

00:24:47.780 He says that essentially we are sheep to be slaughtered, we're actually made to be slaughtered.

00:24:53.840 That's how it can feel in the circumstances in the Old Testament saints and the New Testament

00:24:58.260 saints.

00:24:59.260 But we can't confuse, this is what I think Paul's point is here, we can't confuse that

00:25:02.160 our holy conflict with the world, or some providential tragedy that the Lord has put

00:25:07.140 upon your life, me being sick for several years is a good example, we cannot look at

00:25:11.920 these things as if these are the means that would separate us from the love of Christ.

00:25:18.700 Conflict is not just some sign that God is separating you from Him.

00:25:25.640 We can feel that we're sheep just being made for the slaughter of the world, but the slaughtering

00:25:30.420 and difficulty of life do not mean that we're being abandoned by God. In fact, it proves that

00:25:35.400 we're actually not being abandoned by God. Let me explain. One theologian said,

00:25:39.240 these trials do not cut us off from Christ's love. They actually give us more intimate and

00:25:46.260 thrilling experiences of it. Isn't that amazing? In other words, Paul is saying, do not confuse

00:25:56.400 conflict in the Christian life with abandonment of Christ's love. And don't

00:26:02.940 lie to yourself, I'm sure you've had the thought that you're having some sort of

00:26:07.680 difficulty, some sort of tragedy, and you feel that God's angry with you. No, you

00:26:16.320 have to remember that God put his anger on Christ. That anger and that wrath was

00:26:23.440 on Christ does God correct his children absolutely does he discipline his

00:26:26.680 children absolutely but God's not angry with his children because that wrath was

00:26:32.380 poured out on Christ if you've suffered any difficult experience or season of

00:26:40.960 trial as a believer a circumstance or season of sickness or whatever it may

00:26:48.280 be. Without Christ, have you ever thought about it? Without Christ, there's no way that you would

00:26:56.300 have been able to be sustained. In fact, the suicide numbers are overwhelming today. It's

00:27:02.520 evidence that without Christ, circumstances do lead you to despair. They do lead you to hopelessness.

00:27:11.020 but i don't know about you but whenever i've walked through trials it is the evidence in the

00:27:19.040 trial that i have a god who perseveres me in those trials the closest i've been to god is

00:27:26.940 when i've been the weakest in the flesh you can actually feel god persevering you

00:27:37.220 in those moments of difficulty and trial.

00:27:43.260 It's what we see in the words of Job 13, 5,

00:27:47.820 where he says in the face of suffering,

00:27:50.340 though he slays me, I will hope in him.

00:27:53.960 Though he slays me, I will hope in him.

00:27:59.960 Jesus in Matthew 5, 10 through 12 says,

00:28:02.260 blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake,

00:28:05.860 for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

00:28:07.220 Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you

00:28:10.420 and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

00:28:14.240 Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven

00:28:17.980 for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

00:28:23.180 Trials are not evidence of God's abandonment.

00:28:26.460 They are evidence of God's commitment

00:28:29.020 as he perseveres you through these difficult times. 1.00

00:28:37.220 It's an amazing reality to watch a Christian suffer. 0.99

00:28:43.520 That's why we love the book of Job. 1.00

00:28:45.940 It's an amazing reality to watch a Christian suffer. 1.00

00:28:52.500 In the next verse, Paul confirms that although we may be like, 1.00

00:28:57.600 we may feel like we are being abandoned by God's love,

00:29:04.480 that our circumstances might be difficult,

00:29:06.720 but he says in verse 37, but in all these things, we owe us.

00:29:18.160 Now, what are these, the, these things he says here, they're the list of trials in the previous

00:29:22.640 verse or tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger of death. And all

00:29:26.400 these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. And again, there's evidence

00:29:34.240 of power in Christ's love.

00:29:39.640 We talked about earlier and all these things

00:29:41.860 we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us.

00:29:45.680 That's what it's talking about,

00:29:46.820 the conquering power of Christ's love.

00:29:49.800 And don't neglect how shocking this statement truly is

00:29:52.060 because if you just read this,

00:29:53.680 if you were just reading it as literature,

00:29:56.500 you would notice a really fascinating point.

00:29:59.780 William Newell from the 1800s, he says,

00:30:02.460 what a wonderful book this word of God is. Sheep for slaughter become more than conquerors.

00:30:09.460 What an amazing contrast, right? Sheep for slaughter become more than conquerors in one verse.

00:30:17.960 I think that that really speaks to the heart of what's being communicated.

00:30:23.560 Trials are not evidence of God's abandonment. He's not going to lose you.

00:30:27.660 their evidence to display his conquering power

00:30:32.060 through his love in you.

00:30:37.640 If we look to the next two verses here,

00:30:40.440 we're gonna look at 38 and 39

00:30:41.680 and we'll close up after that.

00:30:44.200 It says, for I am convinced that neither death,

00:30:46.960 nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,

00:30:50.300 nor things present, nor things to come,

00:30:51.720 nor powers, nor height, nor depth,

00:30:54.480 nor any other created thing

00:30:55.840 will be able to separate us from the love of god which is in christ jesus our lord

00:31:01.680 this is an amazing statement your translation might say i am persuaded

00:31:07.680 one greek scholar said i stand convinced

00:31:12.480 but paul is demonstrating the certainty of his position based on the facts of the gospel

00:31:19.200 he's looking at what he's just written and he's giving a conclusion which lists out 10

00:31:25.440 all-encompassing facts of life it emphasizes that nothing can separate us from the love of god

00:31:33.600 in christ now i'm not going to spend the time breaking down every 10 of these

00:31:37.840 points but i'm going to break down four of them for us um and i'm going to start with death

00:31:46.400 we're all going to die we're all going to experience a physical death

00:31:50.320 the first point he makes here is that death cannot separate us from the love of Christ.

00:32:00.320 And there will be a time, there will be a moment, a minute in history

00:32:04.000 where you will very much want the assurance of this promise.

00:32:10.880 The English reformer, John Bradford, he was burned at the stake by Bloody Mary in the

00:32:26.660 1500s. 0.99

00:32:28.520 And I think martyrdom teaches us that Christians really believe this.

00:32:34.360 Christians really believe that death's not going to separate them from the love of Christ.

00:32:40.880 The last words that he said, he was being burned with another gentleman by the last name of Leaf, who was next to him, probably tied to his back on the other side of the stake.

00:32:52.560 But he was recorded saying, be of good comfort, brother, for tonight we shall dine joyously with the Lord.

00:33:00.340 Amazing.

00:33:01.860 It's also recorded that while he was burning, which took about 15 minutes.

00:33:05.260 he was saying

00:33:07.780 narrow is the path

00:33:10.380 and straight is the way

00:33:11.600 that leads to eternal life

00:33:12.760 and few there are who find it

00:33:14.660 one man recorded

00:33:17.340 Bradford

00:33:18.880 and said that he accepted his fate

00:33:22.340 with calmness

00:33:23.580 embracing the flames

00:33:25.320 as if they were the cooling breeze

00:33:27.140 of a sultry summer's day

00:33:28.560 amazing

00:33:30.660 what God can do

00:33:32.660 in a person

00:33:35.000 You think that he could have done that without Christ?

00:33:39.680 Or do you think that God was showing the power of his son in a man who was being tortured for his faith,

00:33:50.140 that history would proclaim the excellencies of his love?

00:33:54.080 In fact, so much so that we're reading it here 500 years later, that story.

00:34:00.200 It's also the testimony of our Lord in John 5, 24, who says,

00:34:03.400 truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life

00:34:10.180 and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.

00:34:17.280 Luke 23, 43, Jesus speaks to the physical death's inability to separate us from him.

00:34:24.820 He's on the cross, right? And he's speaking to the gentleman next to him today.

00:34:31.880 you will be with me in paradise. He's recognizing that death is not going to separate them

00:34:40.240 from the love of God. J.C. Ryle once wrote, the closest relation on earth, the marriage bond,

00:34:54.560 has an end. Marriage is only until death do us part, but the relation between Christ and the

00:35:01.000 sinner who trusts in him never ends. It lives when the body dies. And he goes on talking about life 0.69

00:35:10.420 and how the circumstances of life will not separate us. And he talks about angels and how

00:35:16.580 the circumstances of the demonic and the angelic will not be able to influence God to change his

00:35:22.800 love for you. And he goes on to talk about the other created things, that there's nothing in

00:35:29.480 the created world that can change his love for you.

00:35:35.720 The answer and the conclusion of this entire section of scripture is that when God determines

00:35:42.100 to save someone, he actually saves them.

00:35:45.560 He actually saves them.

00:35:47.620 So I'm going to close with a couple thoughts.

00:35:50.960 Paul began chapter 8 with a promise that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ

00:35:57.020 Jesus.

00:35:57.840 If you're in Christ, there's no condemnation.

00:36:02.440 And he closes this chapter with a promise that there will be no separation.

00:36:07.760 If there's no condemnation, there will be no separation.

00:36:13.780 And in this closing section that we've been on for the last several weeks in verses 28 through 39,

00:36:17.740 we saw that God causes all things to work together for those people who are not condemned,

00:36:23.600 who are called according to his purpose.

00:36:25.100 We saw that this benevolent providence that causing everything to work together is even

00:36:30.080 extending out to our very redemption, a providence that is proving that God is for us.

00:36:37.580 In fact, he proved how much he is for us in the sacrifice of his own son.

00:36:43.140 But then Paul asked four critical questions, really short.

00:36:46.540 Can anyone be against us?

00:36:47.800 No.

00:36:49.100 Can anyone bring a charge that will jeopardize our salvation?

00:36:52.680 No.

00:36:53.760 Can anyone condemn us under the blood of Christ?

00:36:56.080 No.

00:36:57.440 Can any person, circumstance, or created thing separate us from the love of Christ?

00:37:02.000 No.

00:37:02.920 This is the constant message that is happening through Romans 8.

00:37:08.140 And so, I'll close here.

00:37:11.460 What Romans 8 unequivocally teaches is that a saved person is truly saved.

00:37:19.600 Saved person is truly saved.

00:37:21.220 Never to be lost, never to be rejected.

00:37:22.940 In fact, if you're saved, you can't leave Christ,

00:37:27.120 and you can't leave because you won't leave.

00:37:30.720 You can't leave because you won't leave.

00:37:33.480 And you won't leave because you have been changed

00:37:37.460 and made to love God.

00:37:41.600 And you've been made to love God

00:37:43.700 only because God first loved you.

00:37:49.900 Amen? Amen. Let's pray.

00:37:52.940 Father, we thank you, Lord, that we can rest in the salvation that you have given to us,

00:38:04.560 that you have paid with such a price.

00:38:07.160 Lord, that we don't have to worry about circumstances or entities or individuals or you changing

00:38:13.260 your mind.

00:38:14.240 Lord, that we can rest in the fact that when we are saved, we are saved.

00:38:18.960 That eternal life isn't something that's coming, but that we have now.

00:38:22.940 Lord, that we can obey from gratitude instead of fear that if we stop, that we might lose our salvation.

00:38:32.840 Lord, I pray that you would help us learn to trust that you will hold us fast.

00:38:42.260 We thank you for this word in Jesus' name. Amen.

Dale Partridge - April 11, 2024

Romans 8_35-39： Why Christian's Cannot Lose Their Salvation with Dale Partridge

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