Romans 8_35-39： Why Christian's Cannot Lose Their Salvation with Dale Partridge
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Summary
In this episode, Pastor Ken teaches on the importance of having a biblical vision for the home and the role of women in the home. The church will only be as healthy as the families it is made of, and by God's grace we are a healthy church because we have healthy families.
Transcript
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Well, today, what a blessing it is because we finally finished this climactic chapter
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We have been in this chapter for several weeks now.
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If there is one particular issue, however, in the church today that needs focus, if
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had to sit back for a second and examine just what does the American church need instruction on
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i think that most of us would come to the conclusion of gender orthodoxy gender orthodoxy
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and at large i really believe that we are a confused people on this particular matter we
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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
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much confusion around fundamental issues on these realities so starting next week
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we're going to be taking a break from romans we're going to take a five-week break from romans
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and we're going to go through a series on the covenant household where i'm going to be discussing
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what is the covenant home i'm going to talk about biblical marriage the the duties of husbands and
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Getting back to the fundamentals, this church will only be as healthy as the families it
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And so we are, by God's grace, going to be a healthy church because we have healthy families.
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If men don't have a biblical vision for the home, they're never going to take this masculine
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responsibility for leading their homes and loving their wives. If women don't have a biblical vision
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for the home, they're never going to joyfully respect their husbands or rest in their husband's
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leadership. And we don't want this strange acceptance of kind of this laziness among men
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or the sanitized version of feminism among women that's so common in American Christianity.
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That produces what I believe is an impotent Christianity.
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It produces a Christianity that it's not so much different than the world.
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And I think we have many churches, even in our own town here, where you walk in and there's
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really not much of a difference between the families there and the families that are not
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And we do not want that to be true of our church.
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The elders here do not want conservative traditional families at this church.
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We want families that are so joyfully ordered with scripture that when conservative families visit,
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This is, we're packed with Christless conservatism.
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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.
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And we want these people to come in and see the gap.
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You know, when they see, you know, we want the conservative men to see the biblical men and notice the gap.
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We want the conservative women to see the Christian biblical women and see the gap.
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We want the conservative children to see the Christian biblical children and see the gap.
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And I think a lot of you who are new here over the last several weeks have seen the gap.
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Some people are realizing and recognizing that we are a people here that has a high standard for holy living.
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And this is important because it demonstrates that Christianity is a totalizing faith.
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It should absolutely saturate every part of your life.
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It shows that coming to Christ isn't just about eternal salvation,
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but it's also producing generations of Christians that are holy and sanctified.
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And so that is the shift that we're going to take for the next five weeks.
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um pray for me as i study those topics pray for this church that it would be a blessing for the
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founding families at this congregation however on the 21st of april we are having a guest preacher
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here we're having a friend of mine zachary conover and he is from apologia church down in tempe
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Arizona, and he's going to be giving a sermon on why abortion is a gospel issue. Like why the
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matter around abortion is actually a gospel issue and that the church needs to be the one spearheading
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the movement against the unholy and wicked practice of abortion in our country. And so it's
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not going to be a sermon. He's got an exegetical text. He's going to be working through the
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scripture. He's going to lead us to Christ in this sermon. He's been a pastor in the past. He's now
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preaches often at Apologia and he works with Apologia Studios. He runs a ministry called
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End Abortion Now. And I've heard him preach on the topic and it's just fantastic. And I thought
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it would be a blessing for our congregation to see how those matters really and truly are
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connected to the gospel okay now let's get into the sermon uh to review where we are where we are
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uh last week i preached on romans 8 31 through 34 we looked at paul's concluding thoughts on
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god's sovereignty over our lives and salvation that god is sovereign over your salvation
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We weren't the actualized reality of our salvation.
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We weren't the decisive catalyst for our salvation.
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No, that God before the foundation of the world had written your name in the Lamb's
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The doctrinal emphasis of last week was that our eternal security, the truths around the
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perseverance of the saints. This idea of once saved, always saved. We learn that salvation
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cannot be lost. It cannot be lost. And so today we're going to continue on that doctrinal discussion
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and go a little bit further. So in verses 834 from last week, Paul asked the question,
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what shall we say to these things? What shall we say to these things? And those things were
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the redemptive reality that before the foundation of the world, God foreknew a particular people.
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And those whom he foreknew, he predestined. And those whom he predestined, he called. And
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those whom he called, he justified. And those whom he justified, he glorified.
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And what should we say to these things? Well, we should say that if God is for us,
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secondly, if the almighty ruler of the universe
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for your good, for those who are called according to his purpose. If God is orchestrating your life
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at such an extensive manner, meticulously, then who can oppose anything in our lives with any
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real detriment? Who can oppose that eternal work in our life? The answer is nobody. Nobody can.
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That is the question that Paul asked last week.
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And he went on to prove the extent of God's devotion to his people
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to secure the salvation of those particular people.
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That is, if God is willing to pay the highest price,
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is that he would not allow what he had just purchased
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This is why Christ can say of his people in John 10, 28,
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I gave them eternal life and they will never perish.
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If Christ has given you eternal life, if you've been born again,
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if you have trusted in the righteousness of Christ that's given to you by faith,
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Now in last week's verses 8, 28 through 34, last couple weeks,
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Paul addressed the spiritual concerns of being separated from God's love.
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The spiritual concerns about being separated from God's love and you have had them. You have had
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those internal spiritual concerns and you've wondered if those things might separate you from
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God's love. He dealt with shame, he dealt with sin, he dealt with guilt and condemnation.
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Today's verses, 835-39, Paul is going to deal with the physical, the physical concerns of being separated from God's love.
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Can the physical world, can physical circumstances separate you, lose your salvation?
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Can you walk away, can you be pushed away, coerced away by circumstances?
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So again, Paul was dealing with the internal, and now he's dealing with the external, and
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he's showing that nothing that is immaterial or material can separate us from the love
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It's a passage that's really intended to give you unconditional hope and peace, not conditional
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And a lot of Christians today live on conditional hope.
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Well, if I do this, and if I read my Bible enough, and if I pray enough, and if I, you
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know, if I don't have incredibly tragic circumstances that would maybe make me question my faith
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But this passage is about unconditional hope, unconditional peace.
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And so Paul says in verse 35, if you look down and follow along with me, he says, who
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Will tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?
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So I want to start just by looking at this phrase, because again, we're smart Bible interpreters.
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We don't want to just trust the pastor blindly.
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We really want to make sure that we understand what's being said by the intention of the
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So let's look at the phrase, the love of Christ.
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Because if we don't understand what's wrapped up
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we can misinterpret this entire passage of scripture.
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for the love of Christ controls us. The love of Christ controls us, not their love for Christ,
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but Christ's love for them controls them. That is that Christ's love is an overpowering,
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it's a transformative love. It actually does something in your life. It actually changes you.
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it does something to you not having the love of Christ is death not having the
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love of Christ is death it's it's the absence of a mediator it's the absence
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of a meteor between you and God which leaves you in an unreconciled state where
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you're under God's wrath there is no peace for you if you have not the love
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of Christ so the first question which is a rhetorical question can be read who
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will separate us from the life-giving love of Christ? Who will separate us from the life-giving
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love of Christ? Well, the answer of this entire passage of scripture that we're going to be going
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through, it's a very obvious answer. Nobody. Nobody is going to separate us from the love
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of Christ. Again, I just read earlier John chapter 10, and I'm going to lose my space here because
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Well, maybe I'm not going to be able to find it.
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No one can snatch them out of the Father's hand.
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So again, this question is, who will separate us from the life-giving love of Christ?
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So if all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ,
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All of the authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ,
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according to the Great Commission of Matthew 28.
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God has seated him above all rule and dominion,
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and every name that is named who is above everything.
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If this is the Jesus that we are talking about,
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who is powerful enough, I should ask it in a question,
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who is powerful enough to separate us from Christ's love for us?
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Who can change the decisions and the affections of Jesus?
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He goes from the who, if you see in the first part of verse 35, and then he shifts to the what
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in the second part. So the first question asks if any beings, who, could separate us from the love
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of Christ. But the next question is, is there any circumstances, the what, can separate us from the
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love of Christ? And this might sound like a really strange question to you, but I think it's actually
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Ten years ago, I had a friend, we weren't really close, but he was a pastor at a church
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in Carpinteria, California, and his daughter died from cancer at eight years old.
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And I remember asking myself this question, what would I do if my daughter died?
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Would I be able to sustain my faith if the Lord took my daughter?
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would I be able to continue trusting in God in the face of circumstances that are life-shattering
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I watched this man watch his daughter die slowly I have a friend who he recently passed away but
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his wife passed away before him and he said to me once it's not the death that's hard it's the dying
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and I watched this pastor watch his daughter die.
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if I faced a circumstance that was similar to that?
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Now, this is probably the most important statement
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this is the type of thinking a christian has when they believe their faith is some sort of
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ongoing work of human will rather than the gift of the holy spirit or the gift of god
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who perseveres that faith through the holy spirit it's a completely unbiblical way to think
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When you think, I wonder if my faith will fail,
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what you're really saying is, I'm wondering if I will fail.
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What you've revealed in that question, and what I revealed in that question,
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is that I believed it was partly up to my work to maintain my salvation.
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Because if we're saved by faith, and faith is what justifies us,
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and it's my responsibility to keep that faith up it's not that i'm saved by holy spirit resolution
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that god is is persevering me but it's that i am concerned about me
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not being able to lose or not being able to maintain my faith in dark circumstances
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1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 4 and 7 through 8 says I give thanks to my God
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always for you because of the grace of God that was given to you in Christ
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Jesus as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ who will sustain
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you to the end guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus it's Philippians that
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It says, he who began a good work in you will finish it.
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I often, I've said this before, I'm going to say it again because I think it's one of the greatest illustrations
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for understanding the perseverance of the saints.
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if a father and a son were walking across a rope bridge a thousand feet off the ground
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and the father says to the son hold on to my hand because there's the rungs on this rope bridge
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could break and if you're not holding on to me you could fall and the father and the son they
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start walking down this rope bridge. And one of the rungs breaks. And out of fear, the son lets
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go of the father's hand. Does the son die? Well, under the old way that I used to think, I say, yes.
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The son let go and he perished. But the truth is the son doesn't die because any father knows that
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when the rung breaks, it's not just that the son is holding on to the father, but that the father
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is holding on to the son. And when we say that a child will perish and that God will somehow let
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go of you, we say that we are worse or that we are essentially better than God is because you're
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essentially saying this, that God is a God who would say, if you let go, I'll let go.
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When even as earthly fathers, we would never say that to our own children.
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We say, if you let go, I will still hold on. And that is what the scriptures teach,
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that he will hold you fast. He will hold you fast. And we're going to talk about those,
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If faith is the means by which a person is justified before Christ,
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then the logical conclusion is that a failing faith is a loss of salvation.
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Because it depends on you under that view of salvation theology.
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this is the exact opposite intention of this passage of scripture this passage of scripture
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is to show that you will never be lost christ paid too high a price for you to be lost
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and he cites every sort of extreme circumstance he says will tribulation distress and persecution
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and famine and nakedness of danger or death? Will any of these things separate you?
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Will any of these circumstances prevent Christ's saving love from your soul?
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And praise God that the answer is no. Praise God the answer is no. Keith and Kristen Getty,
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they wrote an incredible song. Some of you guys have probably heard it. It's called He Will Hold
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me fast. It's a great, great song. Maybe we'll sing it in the next couple of weeks. I'm going
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to read some of the lyrics. It says, when I fear my faith will fail, Christ will hold me fast.
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When the tempter would prevail, he will hold me fast. I could never hold my own through life's
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fearful path for my love is often cold. He must hold me fast. He'll not let my soul be lost.
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his promises shall last. Bought by him at such a cost, he will hold me fast. Beautiful, beautiful.
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In the next verse, if you guys look down to 36, Paul references Psalm 42 or 44, 22,
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and he demonstrates how God's people have essentially always faced different forms of
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for your sake, we are being put to death all day long.
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I believe that the church will continue to grow
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But just like I believe that America won World War II,
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it doesn't mean there wasn't massive casualties.
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There is going to be intense persecution in the past
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and even in the future with the church of Christ.
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It's not a blind optimism, it's a realistic optimism that I believe the gospel will continue
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to convert the nations to the great news of Jesus.
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He says that essentially we are sheep to be slaughtered, we're actually made to be slaughtered.
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That's how it can feel in the circumstances in the Old Testament saints and the New Testament
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But we can't confuse, this is what I think Paul's point is here, we can't confuse that
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our holy conflict with the world, or some providential tragedy that the Lord has put
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upon your life, me being sick for several years is a good example, we cannot look at
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these things as if these are the means that would separate us from the love of Christ.
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Conflict is not just some sign that God is separating you from Him.
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We can feel that we're sheep just being made for the slaughter of the world, but the slaughtering
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and difficulty of life do not mean that we're being abandoned by God. In fact, it proves that
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we're actually not being abandoned by God. Let me explain. One theologian said,
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these trials do not cut us off from Christ's love. They actually give us more intimate and
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thrilling experiences of it. Isn't that amazing? In other words, Paul is saying, do not confuse
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conflict in the Christian life with abandonment of Christ's love. And don't
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lie to yourself, I'm sure you've had the thought that you're having some sort of
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difficulty, some sort of tragedy, and you feel that God's angry with you. No, you
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have to remember that God put his anger on Christ. That anger and that wrath was
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on Christ does God correct his children absolutely does he discipline his
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children absolutely but God's not angry with his children because that wrath was
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poured out on Christ if you've suffered any difficult experience or season of
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trial as a believer a circumstance or season of sickness or whatever it may
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be. Without Christ, have you ever thought about it? Without Christ, there's no way that you would
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have been able to be sustained. In fact, the suicide numbers are overwhelming today. It's
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evidence that without Christ, circumstances do lead you to despair. They do lead you to hopelessness.
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but i don't know about you but whenever i've walked through trials it is the evidence in the
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trial that i have a god who perseveres me in those trials the closest i've been to god is
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when i've been the weakest in the flesh you can actually feel god persevering you
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blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake,
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Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you
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and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
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Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven
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for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
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as he perseveres you through these difficult times.
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It's an amazing reality to watch a Christian suffer.
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It's an amazing reality to watch a Christian suffer.
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In the next verse, Paul confirms that although we may be like,
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we may feel like we are being abandoned by God's love,
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but he says in verse 37, but in all these things, we owe us.
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Now, what are these, the, these things he says here, they're the list of trials in the previous
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verse or tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger of death. And all
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these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. And again, there's evidence
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we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us.
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And don't neglect how shocking this statement truly is
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what a wonderful book this word of God is. Sheep for slaughter become more than conquerors.
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What an amazing contrast, right? Sheep for slaughter become more than conquerors in one verse.
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I think that that really speaks to the heart of what's being communicated.
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Trials are not evidence of God's abandonment. He's not going to lose you.
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It says, for I am convinced that neither death,
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will be able to separate us from the love of god which is in christ jesus our lord
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this is an amazing statement your translation might say i am persuaded
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but paul is demonstrating the certainty of his position based on the facts of the gospel
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he's looking at what he's just written and he's giving a conclusion which lists out 10
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all-encompassing facts of life it emphasizes that nothing can separate us from the love of god
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in christ now i'm not going to spend the time breaking down every 10 of these
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points but i'm going to break down four of them for us um and i'm going to start with death
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we're all going to die we're all going to experience a physical death
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the first point he makes here is that death cannot separate us from the love of Christ.
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And there will be a time, there will be a moment, a minute in history
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where you will very much want the assurance of this promise.
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The English reformer, John Bradford, he was burned at the stake by Bloody Mary in the
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And I think martyrdom teaches us that Christians really believe this.
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Christians really believe that death's not going to separate them from the love of Christ.
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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.
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But he was recorded saying, be of good comfort, brother, for tonight we shall dine joyously with the Lord.
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It's also recorded that while he was burning, which took about 15 minutes.
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You think that he could have done that without Christ?
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Or do you think that God was showing the power of his son in a man who was being tortured for his faith,
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that history would proclaim the excellencies of his love?
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In fact, so much so that we're reading it here 500 years later, that story.
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It's also the testimony of our Lord in John 5, 24, who says,
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truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life
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and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
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Luke 23, 43, Jesus speaks to the physical death's inability to separate us from him.
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He's on the cross, right? And he's speaking to the gentleman next to him today.
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you will be with me in paradise. He's recognizing that death is not going to separate them
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from the love of God. J.C. Ryle once wrote, the closest relation on earth, the marriage bond,
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has an end. Marriage is only until death do us part, but the relation between Christ and the
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sinner who trusts in him never ends. It lives when the body dies. And he goes on talking about life
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and how the circumstances of life will not separate us. And he talks about angels and how
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the circumstances of the demonic and the angelic will not be able to influence God to change his
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love for you. And he goes on to talk about the other created things, that there's nothing in
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the created world that can change his love for you.
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The answer and the conclusion of this entire section of scripture is that when God determines
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Paul began chapter 8 with a promise that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ
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And he closes this chapter with a promise that there will be no separation.
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If there's no condemnation, there will be no separation.
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And in this closing section that we've been on for the last several weeks in verses 28 through 39,
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we saw that God causes all things to work together for those people who are not condemned,
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We saw that this benevolent providence that causing everything to work together is even
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extending out to our very redemption, a providence that is proving that God is for us.
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In fact, he proved how much he is for us in the sacrifice of his own son.
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But then Paul asked four critical questions, really short.
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Can anyone bring a charge that will jeopardize our salvation?
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Can anyone condemn us under the blood of Christ?
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Can any person, circumstance, or created thing separate us from the love of Christ?
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This is the constant message that is happening through Romans 8.
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What Romans 8 unequivocally teaches is that a saved person is truly saved.
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In fact, if you're saved, you can't leave Christ,
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And you won't leave because you have been changed
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Father, we thank you, Lord, that we can rest in the salvation that you have given to us,
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Lord, that we don't have to worry about circumstances or entities or individuals or you changing
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Lord, that we can rest in the fact that when we are saved, we are saved.
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That eternal life isn't something that's coming, but that we have now.
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Lord, that we can obey from gratitude instead of fear that if we stop, that we might lose our salvation.
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Lord, I pray that you would help us learn to trust that you will hold us fast.
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We thank you for this word in Jesus' name. Amen.