[SPEAKER_00]: This is our final week in Romans chapter 8 and what an incredible and powerful and encouraging time and has been for us over the last few weeks just to sit in this amazing chapter and meditate on it together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Today I'm going to be looking at the last few verses verses 35 to 39 to finish out the series.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'd like to just read the kind of whole final section with you again this morning, just so that we can hear the flow of Paul's final ideas.
[SPEAKER_00]: So why don't you stand with me if you can?
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to read Romans 8 verses 28 through to 39.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul says, and we know that in all things,
[SPEAKER_00]: who have been called, according to his purpose.
[SPEAKER_00]: For those God for you, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, so that he might be the first born among many brothers and sisters.
[SPEAKER_00]: And those, he predestined, he also called, those he called, he also justified, and those he justified, he also glorified.
[SPEAKER_00]: What then shall we say, in response to these things, if God is for us, who can be against us?
[SPEAKER_00]: He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
[SPEAKER_00]: Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?
[SPEAKER_00]: It is God who justifies.
[SPEAKER_00]: Who then is the one who condemns?
[SPEAKER_00]: No one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christ, Jesus who died more than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hushal separators from the love of Christ, shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or the sword,
[SPEAKER_00]: As it is written for your sake we face death all day long, we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us, for I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, we'll be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen, amen, please be seated.
[SPEAKER_00]: And let me pray, Lord, as we look at these incredible verses together, bring your understanding, your inspiration, your revelation, your illumination to our minds, and help us to see and hear what it is that you want us to see in here, in these words we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, in these last few verses of Romans, chapter 8, I think you can sense a shift going on here.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a change of tone.
[SPEAKER_00]: It feels like Paul has moved from teaching from instruction to preaching, to proclamation.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so he was seeing Paul really as a preacher and in all his rhetorical brilliance.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he brings the chapter home by rolling out the series of four powerful rhetorical questions starting in verse 31.
[SPEAKER_00]: What should we say in response to these things?
[SPEAKER_00]: And he means really all that he's been teaching through the text up to this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, Linda did an amazing job covering the first half of this last section to verse 34 last week.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so today we're going to be picking up from verse 35.
[SPEAKER_00]: And looking at Paul's final question, who shall separate us from the love of God that is in Christ?
[SPEAKER_00]: Before we do that, however, you may have noticed as we are reading through this section.
[SPEAKER_00]: Something a little odd, something strange, there was something missing, something absent.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, up to this point in the text, something, or some one, has been mentioned more than 20 times directly.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, there've really been the main subject of the whole chapter, and yet here in this part of the chapter, they're not mentioned at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does anyone know who I'm talking about?
[SPEAKER_00]: Holy Spirit, yes, thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why would Paul mention the Spirit in pretty much every preceding verse and not once in this final section?
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think the answer to that question is because the kind of person being described in these last verses,
[SPEAKER_00]: a person who is confident in Christ who knows the love of Jesus, who is full of assurance and faith, even in the face of persecution and hardship and danger and all of that is someone who the Holy Spirit has done the work to form in them or to conform them to the image of Christ as Paul says in verse 29.
[SPEAKER_00]: and verse 29, because that's been the main goal of the work of the Spirit in us, as Paul's been describing through the chapter, that we might become more like Jesus, that we might be conformed to His image, that we might look like Him, that we might think like Him, that we might speak like Him, that we might act like Him, that we might feel like Him.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the main goal of the work of the Spirit in our lives that Paul's been describing through the chapter.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's been describing how that works.
[SPEAKER_00]: In all the preceding verses and now in this last section, he's describing really what it looks like.
[SPEAKER_00]: What someone looks like you has been formed in the image of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's been so thoroughly shaped by the love of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: and that they know the love of Jesus so profoundly, that they would be able to say with Paul, as he gets to, he's kind of final crescendo, that I am convinced that no matter what happens, no matter what happens, nothing can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing can separate me, ever, from the love of God in Christ Jesus, my Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, how can we, I guess, is the question, how can we have that same kind of confidence, that same kind of assurance?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's exactly what the Holy Spirit brings alive in us.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what the Holy Spirit does in our hearts and minds.
[SPEAKER_00]: As we surrender ourselves to His will, and to His leading, and to His teaching, and to His comforting, and to His convicting, that's what the whole chapter has been about up to this point.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you're not sure what that means or what that looks like, go back and read the first part of Romans 8.
[SPEAKER_00]: But just to summarize here,
[SPEAKER_00]: In terms of what Paul teaches in Romans 8, and actually in many places throughout his letters about the work of the Holy Spirit, that we know that it is God the Father who initiated the work of our salvation from the very beginning.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is God the Son who achieved that work of salvation through his death, resurrection, and ascension.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it is God the Holy Spirit who activates and who completes the work of salvation in the life of every believer.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the Holy Spirit who applies to our hearts and our minds and our bodies.
[SPEAKER_00]: The finished work of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the Spirit who makes the ministry of Jesus alive in us.
[SPEAKER_00]: It makes it real in us.
[SPEAKER_00]: How does the Holy Spirit do that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, here's just a short list.
[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, he regenerates us.
[SPEAKER_00]: It gives us new life, enabling us to be born again at the moment that we believe.
[SPEAKER_00]: He participates in our justification, applying to us the blood of Christ, setting us free from the law of sin and death.
[SPEAKER_00]: He sanctifies us by giving us power to live in obedience to Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: He confirms our adoption as children of God because it's only by the Spirit Paul says that we can say, Abba, Father, He entwiles in us, making our bodies temples of the living God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He baptises us and merces us into union with Christ and with all other believers across the world and throughout history, the global family of God in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: by which we're able to continue doing the ministry of Jesus in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: These strengthens us in our inner being with old godliness and peace.
[SPEAKER_00]: He guides us in the will of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He speaks to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: He produces right attitudes in us by the transformation of our minds.
[SPEAKER_00]: He delivers us from the demonic powers and conveys us to live lives that bring glory to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He illuminates the scriptures to our understanding, making it living and active within us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he intercedes.
[SPEAKER_00]: for us and within us with wordless groans that enable us to pray according to the will of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what the Holy Spirit does, let's hear an amen to all of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: But according to Paul in Romans 8,
[SPEAKER_00]: The greatest work of the Holy Spirit within us and the work that brings us, the greatest comfort and joy, is that He guarantees in us our future glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: He guarantees within us our future eternal glory with Christ forever and ever, man.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we see this all the way through Paul's letters.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, for example, in Ephesians 1, in Him, that is in Christ, you also, after listening to the message hearing the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, that's us to the praise of His glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, the Spirit of God is a seal
[SPEAKER_00]: and a pledge, a deposit, a down payment, the word in Greek here is Arab on it kind of means an engagement ring.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've been engaged to our future promise through the Holy Spirit, and that engagement, that seal, that pledge, that promise is irrevocable.
[SPEAKER_00]: It cannot be taken away.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it will never break, that seal will never break.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not just in Paul, we also see this in 1 Peter 1.
[SPEAKER_00]: That we're born again into a living hope.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we'll obtain an inheritance, which is imperishable, under fire, we'll not fade away as reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a way of speaking about the Holy Spirit, protected by the power of God through faith, for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does that not give you hope this morning?
[SPEAKER_00]: Does that not give you comfort?
[SPEAKER_00]: That the Holy Spirit is your seal.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit is your guarantee.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit is your down payment.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit is the first fruit of what's to come.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Holy Spirit is the pledge.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Holy Spirit is the promise of your faith.
[SPEAKER_00]: Given to remind us day by day by day by day regardless of the circumstances that he who began a good work in you will carry it out to completion until the day of Christ Jesus returns.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's become really the main theme of Romans 8 from verse 17 onwards.
[SPEAKER_00]: Prior to that, the theme of Roman's aid has been how the Spirit brings us, brings this work of the gospel alive in us, but from verse 17 onwards, especially when you get to the word glorified, from there on through to verse 39, pretty much everything is focused on our future eternal glory, our future eternal hope, and God's promise to secure for us that goal by the help of His Spirit within us.
[SPEAKER_00]: has a plan which he predestined for all of us Christ provided the means for the fulfillment of that plan and the spirit works for the completion of that plan in perfect alignment with the will of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: As verse 28 says, therefore we know, let's go back to it, therefore we know that all
[SPEAKER_00]: work together for good.
[SPEAKER_00]: God has a purpose in all that happens in our lives for his glory and for our good.
[SPEAKER_00]: But as Darren made so clear a couple of weeks ago when he was preaching on this text.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the flow of the chapter, the good here is not necessarily talking about an improvement in our circumstances that life will always go well for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: But his primarily
[SPEAKER_00]: our ultimate final glory, and that purpose is that we might be conformed to the image of the Son of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: and that we might be glorified along with him, that is the will of God for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is what he has predestined for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: As Romans 829 to 30 says that Darren called the golden chain of redemption, that those whom he forenew, he predestined, and those he predestined, he called those he called he justified, and those he justified he will glorify, has also glorified.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so certain this promise that Paul actually names it in the past tense.
[SPEAKER_00]: He also glorified, so it hasn't happened yet, but it has happened as it were, because Christ's promises to us, to you, the Father's promise to you, will never fail.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it is as if it has already happened.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have already been glorified, because God's will for your life will not fail.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, this is meant not meant to stir up debate about predestination in terms of determinism versus free will.
[SPEAKER_00]: The point is that God will finish in us what he has started.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he will not stop working until he has accomplished what he purpose to do until his will is done.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will never stop working in your life until he achieves what he has set out to do in your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even when we can't see it, he is working even when we can't feel it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is working.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where have we heard that before?
[SPEAKER_00]: The Father's plan is to bring to completion his predestined purpose and promise for all his beloved children.
[SPEAKER_00]: Christ the Son provided the means for that plan to be possible, and it is the Holy Spirit, the power of God that makes that plan work in us.
[SPEAKER_00]: He regenerates us, He sanctifies us, He protects us, He empowers us, and one day He will glorify us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're all caught up in this plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we are secure in this plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, we are so absolutely secure in the Father's plan that nothing can derail it, because what God purposes he does, what God wills he completes.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are so absolutely secure in the Son's victory because he paid in full, not in part, but in full, for all our sins, there is therefore nothing
[SPEAKER_00]: There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is a watertight guarantee.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is no condemnation.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is not half, half, half, half is not being rhetorical.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here is not being half-hearted.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not a little bit in, a little bit of a column, a little bit of a column B.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we are so absolutely secure in the power of the Holy Spirit who intercedes for us and who guides us and who will keep us secure forever, all the way to glory, that Paul says, therefore we are no longer slaves to fear.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing to be afraid of in the Christian life because it's all being paid for, it has all been done, there's no condemnation, God will prevail, he has prevailed, he will prevail and he will not fail in your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: For those, Paul says in verse 14, who are led by the Spirit of God, ah, the children of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are the children of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what the golden chain of redemption means.
[SPEAKER_00]: This section here in verse 30.
[SPEAKER_00]: Answering some objections then, because at this point, I'm sure there are a few.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can anything break?
[SPEAKER_00]: this golden chain of redemption.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can anything break it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Having said all this, then, Paul gets to verse 31, and Paul knows there'll be some questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, he anticipates them and just to summarize what we covered last week since leading us, did such a beautiful job looking at this section.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I just wanted to be fresh in our minds.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paul asks four rhetorical questions here in order to show us and to prove to us to answer objections about this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just how unbreakable this salvation really is, how completely unbreakable and irrevocable it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Paul raises four questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Question number one, question number one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Could humans destroy our faith?
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 31, what shall we say in response to these things?
[SPEAKER_00]: If God is for us, who can be against us?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's asking a question.
[SPEAKER_00]: destroy this faith, could there be some human person, some human system, some human power that could undermine what God has done?
[SPEAKER_00]: The question is really, are human stronger than God?
[SPEAKER_00]: Or if God is for us, does it really matter who might be against us?
[SPEAKER_00]: Does it matter who might want to destroy our faith?
[SPEAKER_00]: And Paul's answer to this question is, no,
[SPEAKER_00]: There is no power, greater than God.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is no human being, no religious system, no social pressure, no educational agenda, no political power that is greater than God that could ever undermine or take away what God has done.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ever, done.
[SPEAKER_00]: Question number two, could God have lost control of this, sorry, could God turn against us?
[SPEAKER_00]: Could God turn against us?
[SPEAKER_00]: We're so maybe God Himself would grow weary of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And turn against us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we might end up committing too many sins or we might prove ourselves to be too unworthy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God might get tired of us or frustrated with us and just throw his hands up in the air and sound done.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's finished.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, let's look at verse 32.
[SPEAKER_00]: He who did not spare his own son
[SPEAKER_00]: or asks, how will he not also, along with him, freely, freely give us all things, all things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Think about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're asking if the God who even went, we were his enemies, even when we were his enemies and we hated him.
[SPEAKER_00]: gave us the greatest gift in the universe, the greatest gift that could ever possibly be given his own son, and we did not deserve it then, and we don't deserve it now.
[SPEAKER_00]: How is it that he will now turn against us, having given us so much?
[SPEAKER_00]: Could he turn against us?
[SPEAKER_00]: The sum of theologians are pointed out.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is an argument from the greater to the lesser.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is, it makes no sense to think that God who was already given us the greatest gift he could give.
[SPEAKER_00]: that we could ever receive even when we were his enemies, how would he would now withhold lesser gifts from us that we are his children?
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course he will not, no Paul saying, he will never turn against us, ever.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can build your life on that promise.
[SPEAKER_00]: Question three, what about Satan?
[SPEAKER_00]: Could Satan defeat us?
[SPEAKER_00]: Someone might say, well, maybe Satan can pull us out of God's hands.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's powerful, he's deceptive, he tried it with Joe, he tried it with Peter, he tried it with Paul, he even tried it on Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 33, Paul asks who will bring a charge against God's elect.
[SPEAKER_00]: of verse 34, who is the one who condemns?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we know who it is that condemns, and we know who it is that accuses, who brings the charge, who is it in Scripture, who is always accusing and condemning us?
[SPEAKER_00]: Satan, of course, whose name literally means the accuser.
[SPEAKER_00]: He and his demons are always trying before the presence of God to bring endless accusations against believers.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know this in your own life, you hear it every day.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're unworthy, you're pathetic, you're a sinner, you're broken.
[SPEAKER_00]: How could God love you?
[SPEAKER_00]: You're pathetic.
[SPEAKER_00]: He charges us, he accuses us, he condemns us continually, day after day, always trying to discourage and deceive us, Jesus said, he's a liar and the Father of lies, remember that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can he succeed?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, he couldn't break Job, he couldn't break Peter, though he tried to sift him like wheat.
[SPEAKER_00]: He couldn't break Paul even though a messenger of Satan was sent to attack him in his ministry.
[SPEAKER_00]: But most importantly of all, he could not defeat Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: who the gospel's tell us has now bound him the strong man, the so-called strong man, and is now plundering his house.
[SPEAKER_00]: You are God's plunder that he has rescued from the enemy's house.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can Satan therefore bring a successful condemning accusation that would cause God?
[SPEAKER_00]: to turn against us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, the obvious answer is, no, never.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what the opening verse means in Romans 8.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is, therefore, now, no condemnation.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's nothing left for Jesus to pay for, and there's nothing left for the enemy to accuse us of, because Christ has paid for it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: and we all sin and we all fail a million times a day, but even so, there is no condemnation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the blood of Christ is sufficient for every sin for all of time.
[SPEAKER_00]: Did you hear that?
[SPEAKER_00]: The blood of Christ is sufficient for every sin for all of time.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is not ever going to be a sin that you could commit
[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, God's saving purposes in Christ cannot be broken, and the will of God cannot be thwarted.
[SPEAKER_00]: But beyond that, Paul tells us we have the additional reality of both God, the Spirit, into sitting for us, first 26, and God, the Son at the right hand of the Father, into sitting for us night and day forever and ever, answering every accusation of the enemy with these words, I have paid for it in full.
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 34, Christ who died more than that, who was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is interseeding for us because there's no condemnation, so friends, it won't be any humans because God is more powerful, it won't be God himself because He gave us His best even when He we were His enemies, and He will not turn against us now, and it won't be Satan because all His accusations for flat against our fully paid account.
[SPEAKER_00]: So number four, the final question, could we undermine our faith?
[SPEAKER_00]: Could we do this?
[SPEAKER_00]: Could we lose our salvation?
[SPEAKER_00]: Could we somehow find ourselves outside the love of Jesus?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it was certainly a peer that way sometimes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've known many Christians who've walked with the Lord sometimes for years, but perhaps because of the circumstances of life have become too difficult or because of seemingly unanswered prayer or because of hurt caused by the church or other Christians,
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's cause them to walk away to give up to stop actively following Jesus, but that's the question Paul is asking, can our faith dissolve or break or crumble even under the most extreme circumstances?
[SPEAKER_00]: And let's look at what he says, the answer may surprise you.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's interesting to me is you get this strange in verse 35, you get this strange grammatical
[SPEAKER_00]: But Paul instead says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
[SPEAKER_00]: Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or the sword?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I think the reason we get this odd grammatical construction is because, behind every what, there's always a who.
[SPEAKER_00]: If there's tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, it's always someone who is orchestrating or allowing those circumstances to get to us, either it's those causing it, or it is how we are responding to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Paul's describing some worst case scenarios here, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: This is about as bad as it gets, seven hypothetical realities that escalate in severity.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number one, tribulation, tribulation, outward pressure, trouble, opposition, the challenges of life, distress.
[SPEAKER_00]: He means the inner anguish we experience emotionally when we're squeezed, when we're feeling anxious or depressed, or afraid, or angry, or grieving.
[SPEAKER_00]: Persecution, which is overt hostility that we are suffering abuse for our faith in Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Famine deprivation of basic needs, including food, nakedness, doesn't just mean literal nakedness, but the word here implies not having enough, not having enough of what you need to live a comfortable life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exposure, destitution, all of that peril, living in constant danger, all the sword.
[SPEAKER_00]: being marted for Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now this is all worst case scenario.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're about to lose your life because of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can that break your faith?
[SPEAKER_00]: can that shatter the work of Jesus for you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Can that break?
[SPEAKER_00]: Can any of these things break the guarantee of the Holy Spirit?
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, interesting Paul reaches back to Psalm 44.
[SPEAKER_00]: Here, essentially, to say to us that there's nothing you here, folks.
[SPEAKER_00]: This has been going on since time immemorial for your sake.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are being put to death all day long, but you're considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure that we've sung a song that has those lines in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: At any time lately, there we go, Jess, there's a challenge for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Israel, in the Old Testament, suffered repeatedly of course, the hands of enemies, because they belong to God.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Psalm is a Psalm of complaint.
[SPEAKER_00]: Where the Psalmist is actually saying to God, hey, God, listen, we have done everything right.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you read the Psalm, this is how it goes.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Psalmist is saying, we've done everything right, God.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have been faithful, we have kept the law, we've done all we were supposed to.
[SPEAKER_00]: And yet we are still being persecuted by our enemies.
[SPEAKER_00]: What gives this doesn't make sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: It looks like God you're not upholding your end of the bargain.
[SPEAKER_00]: The point is that being connected to God has always put us in a dangerous position in this world.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this isn't just something that Israel, the early church experienced, as you know, it's still going on today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Many Christians still today are suffering for their faith in fact more at this point in time than at any other time in history.
[SPEAKER_00]: are being persecuted, imprisoned and killed.
[SPEAKER_00]: We all know what's happening in Nigeria and in Syria and I just read this last week that in China there's been another wave of persecution against the church, pastors being arrested, churches being closed down.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even the UN has confirmed that Christians are the most persecuted religious community in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does that
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the treasures of church history is foxes book of martyrs, is anyone read it?
[SPEAKER_00]: No one.
[SPEAKER_00]: I encourage you, I mean, it's not, it's not light reading.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it records the testimonies of hundreds upon hundreds of believers throughout history, who went through exactly what Paul is describing here in Romans 8, trials, deprivation, torture, and sometimes finally the sword or the flames.
[SPEAKER_00]: And those accounts testify, again and again, despite their terrors that their faith did not fail, because it was supernatural, it was upheld, not by them, but by the power of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was upheld by the work of the Spirit, not how we feel, or whether we're being particularly faithful today.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our faith is not upheld by us.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is upheld by the Spirit of God within us.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would even argue that those who do appear for a time to fall away, maybe even for many years or even for the whole of their lives, if they have had faith in Christ, they cannot ultimately ever be lost.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why do I say that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 37 sums it up.
[SPEAKER_00]: And all these things we are,
[SPEAKER_00]: more than conquerors through him who loved us.
[SPEAKER_00]: In all these things, in all these things, we're not just conquerors, we are more than conquerors and not by our power but through him who loved us.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Greek word here is one that some of you may actually be wearing today.
[SPEAKER_00]: At least part of it though you might not realize it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does anyone know what the word is that undergirds conqueror here?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Victory.
[SPEAKER_00]: But Paul uses a really interesting grammatical construction of this word that he only ever uses at one other time in his writings, which is in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 57, which is of course all about the resurrection.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, he's talking about the resurrection from the dead.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only other time he uses this interesting construction.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, in verse 57 of one Corinthians 15, that the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God, for He gives us the victory through Christ Jesus our Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yes, the word is victory or Nike and Greek,
[SPEAKER_00]: There it is, but he uses an interesting construction, he doesn't just say he makes us conquerors, he says we are more than conquerors.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in the Greek, this is Hyper-Nikeo, if I can say that right, Hyper-Nikeo, Hyper-Conquerors, Hyper-Super-Conquerors,
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think the NIV puts it best by just saying more than conquerors.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's a, it's a, it's a, how can you be more than a conqueror?
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're a conqueror, you're a conqueror.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you've had victory, you've got the victory.
[SPEAKER_00]: So how is it possible that we can be even more conquering than we've already conquered?
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know that Paul wants to emphasize the point that we are so victorious in Christ that nothing can take it away.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are more than conquerors.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not because of us, but because of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: because of him who loved us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We love him, we follow him, we are faith in him, we are saved only because he first loved us because it's all about what he has done.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can I get an amen to that?
[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, there is no circumstance that can break this.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is no circumstance that will ever separate us from the love of God in Christ, or from the love of the Father, or from the love and sustaining power of the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not even our own willful rebellion.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because the point is that we are not the super conquerors, Christ is, we are only more than conquerors because of the more that He has done on our behalf.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the more that He has done cannot be undone.
[SPEAKER_00]: through him, our victory has been achieved, not because we worked for it, but because he did, it's the work of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: So just let that wash over you for a moment.
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you're feeling anxious about your faith, just let the peace of the Holy Spirit flood your body and your minds, if dare I say it, this might be really cheesy, but let the swish of the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: wash over you and fill you with peace and confidence.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're anxious about whether the salvation that Jesus has purchased on your behalf will hold or is holding, I can guarantee you if you're in Christ, you are a new creation.
[SPEAKER_00]: The oldest gone, the new has come.
[SPEAKER_00]: And as Hebrews tells us, the gifts and the call of God
[SPEAKER_00]: they will not be taken away.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing in all creation, Paul says, can separate us from the love of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: He finishes with this magnificent crescendo, in verses 38 to 39, starting with, I am convinced, how can He be so convinced?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because He's been telling us, this whole thing rests on the power and love of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Therefore there's nothing left for us to prove, nothing left for us to earn, no condemnation to overcome, there is no power of hell, no scheme of man that can ever pluck me from his hand till he returns or calls me home, this is the power of Christ in me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think we're seeing that too.
[SPEAKER_00]: If it depends on us, it rests on our good works, on our performance, but that's not the gospel.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our salvation rests on the works and the performance of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he will never fail.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will never fail.
[SPEAKER_00]: That doesn't mean we passively do nothing, of course.
[SPEAKER_00]: All the way through Romans, if you've been reading it, Paul, has been calling us to walk in surrender and obedience to the Holy Spirit, which we can do because the Spirit's alive in us, and we're held secure forever, therefore there's nothing to fear.
[SPEAKER_00]: We can give our whole selves to this.
[SPEAKER_00]: When fear is taken away, all that remains is joy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's our joy to do this, to follow Jesus, to give our lives for His glory, because He's given all of Himself to us for our glory.
[SPEAKER_00]: You convinced of this, what does Paul say?
[SPEAKER_00]: I am persuaded.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am confident.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have come to a settled
[SPEAKER_00]: conclusion, I have great assurance that neither death, the great enemy, nor life with all its dangers, temptations and troubles, nor angels.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even God's messengers, nor principalities, the fallen angels and demonic powers, nor the present, nor the future, nor
[SPEAKER_00]: powers and he just means all forms of power, government, people, systems, ideologies, religions, families, even supernatural power, nor heights, the vastness of the universe, nor depths, the very depths of grave and hell.
[SPEAKER_00]: And just in case we didn't get the point up to now, he captures it with a sweeping statement that pulls in everything else, nor any other created thing can separate
[SPEAKER_00]: from the love of God, in Christ Jesus, our Lord, how are you feeling?
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you feel secure?
[SPEAKER_00]: Praise God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing in life, nothing in death, nothing in the world of angels, nothing in the world of demons, nothing in time, nothing in eternity, no power on earth, no power in heaven, nothing of the highest point of the universe, nothing of the lowest point of the universe, no created thing anywhere, at any time, under any circumstance, can ever separate me from Jesus my Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that everlasting love is experienced by us because it is the will of the Father, expressed in the sacrifice of the Son, and kept forever in our hearts by the work of the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so what can we do, Church, honestly?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's get the band up again, what can we do in response to all of this, but for our faces?
[SPEAKER_00]: and worship our great Jesus, or stand and raise our hands and celebrate with everything we are because church, there is nothing else, nowhere else in this world, where we can find a love like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: No person can ever give you that.
[SPEAKER_00]: No amount of success, no amount of possessions,
[SPEAKER_00]: Not the largest bank account, or the most power in the world, nothing can give you a love like this, except Jesus Christ and Him alone.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it is as wealthy, it's a father's will for you, that you might know this, that you are children of God, love forever, the love of the Father.
[SPEAKER_00]: So much so that Jesus gave everything to secure you for Himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Holy Spirit lives within you day by day, testifying, interseeding, groaning within you, reminding you, if you'll listen, that you are a child of God and God does not lose children.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's stand and pray together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lord,
[SPEAKER_00]: for all of this, and to worship you with all our hearts, for this incredible and unimaginable work of salvation.
[SPEAKER_00]: That began in eternity with you choosing to save us from death, despite our rebellion, that it has come to us through the cross of Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: It has entered the world through an empty tomb.
[SPEAKER_00]: It has been spread abroad by the preaching of the gospel, the apostles and the ministry of the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: But most importantly, as we've been looking in Romans 8, it is applied and sustained in us by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: So church, just for a minute, before we move on from here into the rest of our week, whatever challenges you may be facing, just take a deep breath, fill your lungs with the presence of the Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: let him speak to you, remind you, even if it's just wordless groans, you are loved, you are forgiven, you have been delivered, you have been set free, you are a child of God, you are forgiven forever, there's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: So Holy Spirit would invite you to come and speak these things into our souls, remind us of who we are, remind us of what Christ has done, and give us that same assurance we pray that Paul had, and that so many believers throughout history have had, they can say,
[SPEAKER_00]: But Lord, Father's Son and Holy Spirit, we thank you for this work of amazing grace that we didn't deserve, we haven't earned.
[SPEAKER_00]: How can we ever say that we are thankful enough?
[SPEAKER_00]: How could we ever express our gratitude?
[SPEAKER_00]: So as we finish up Roman Zade, I have one simple prayer, Holy Spirit.
[SPEAKER_00]: Teachers how to pray.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lead us in the will of our Father in heaven.
[SPEAKER_00]: Show us each day how much we have loved by Christ.
[SPEAKER_00]: And teach us, show us, guide us, to love as Christ loves.
[SPEAKER_00]: May we all be conformed to the image of our beautiful and glorious Savior Jesus Christ the Lord.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in His precious name we pray.