Now, as you know, the Bible originally,
the New Testament, the Old Testament, was not written in chapters and
verses. You know that. But we, as we
read through and we study through, we have a tendency, we like to
systematize things. We like to divide them up. And
it helps us in our memories. You know, I say that the Bible
wasn't written in chapters and verses, but I'm glad we've got
chapters and verses, because it makes it easier to find these
things. You know, when I say turn to
Romans 8, we're going to begin at verse 35, which says, who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? At the end of this
chapter, the apostle really sort of concludes what I consider
to be one of the clearest systematic definitions of gospel truth that
you'll find in the whole of the Bible. Now, don't get me wrong. I mean, the Bible is gospel truth
from Genesis to Revelation. It's all the word of God. But
there just seems to be some sections, you know, that are just stated
out so clearly that you can't really get away from. Of course,
we know that people can get away from it, and they do. It takes
the spirit of God to open our eyes to these things. I'm gonna
be preaching on that this morning about spiritual eyes and spiritual
ears. Those are gifts from God. And
you understand, I mean, this is something I don't ever wanna
get over, that if we know Christ, if we're believers, We are actually
walking, talking miracles of God's grace and power. That's
what we are. That's a miracle. That's not the product of our
own goodness or our own free will choice. It's the product
of God's power and grace. And Paul explained that so well
as he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write these verses.
And then next week when we begin Romans 9, it's almost like beginning
another section because he does turn to another subject concerning
the unbelieving Jews and different things like that, the sovereignty
of God. But here he has given us some of the most comforting,
reassuring truths that a believer can find in God's word. And you
remember he started out this chapter, there is therefore now
no condemnation to them which are in Christ. If we're in Christ,
there is absolutely no possibility of being condemned to eternal
damnation. God will not condemn us. Why?
Because he says it in Romans 8 31, God is for us. If God be for us, who can be
against us? And remember last week I dealt
with that. How do we know? How can we know if God is for
us? Well, if we're in Christ, we
know God is for us because he's for his son. He said, this is
my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, hear ye him. He that
hath the Son hath the Father. These are all things that are
taught continuously and clearly in the Word of God. And then
he tells us that the way God can do this in a just way is
that in verse 33, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's
elect? It's God that justifies. God does not charge his people
with the legal debt of their sins. In other words, why? Because he charged him to Christ.
Verse 34, who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Christ
died for our sins. He put away our sins. He brought
forth, as I said, an everlasting righteousness of infinite value,
whereby God is just to justify the ungodly. Now he comes to
the second point of what we might say another strong proof that
believers, now, and this is a question. Can a person, a sinner, be saved
by the grace of God and then ever lose that salvation? Well,
you know, there are denominations that teach that, and I'm gonna
deal with that a little bit this week and next week in the message
in Hebrews chapter five and six. Can a believer lose salvation? And the answer is no. If God
saves them, no. If they're saved by the grace
of God, no, they cannot lose that salvation. Why? There's
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ.
And then verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of
Christ? And that's the second proof here of a believer's eternal
security in Christ. And it's based upon the sovereign
love of God for his people in Christ. And that love is expressed
as stated in passages like verses 32 through 34. We can sum it
up, I'll give you this verse, 1 John 4, 10. Herein is love. Not that we love God. In other
words, his love for his people was not conditioned on their
loving him, or their choosing him, or their doing anything.
It's sovereign, unconditional love towards the sinner who is
the object of God's love. So herein is love, not that we
love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the what?
The propitiation. Now what is a propitiation? That's
a sin-bearing sacrifice that brings complete satisfaction
to the law of God. So the love of God is shown towards
his people, not based upon anything they are or they do or who they
are. Some people say, well, God looked
down through the telescope of time. No, that's not biblical.
That's a human rationalization to try to prove a false gospel.
That's what it is. No, God foreknew, foreloved,
foreordained his people, but he did it on a just ground. And
what was the just ground? The death of Christ. So he sent
his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And so then he
asked this question, and he's going to answer it. Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? And basically, we could
sum it up with one word, nothing. Nothing can separate. If God
set his love upon a sinner, that sinner will never be separated
from God's love. Now, the religious world today
will tell you, well, God loves everybody, even those who perish
in hell. And even though they're separated
from God, he still, that's not what the Bible teaches. And I
know people don't want to hear that. But it's not what the Bible
teaches. We read, I talked about last
week, about God's hatred. And nobody today wants to talk
about God's hatred. But it's a biblical truth. Psalm
five, what is it, verse five, God hates all workers of iniquity. And the reason they don't wanna
talk about God's hatred is because they think, well, that's unfair,
or that's not right, or that's not giving us what we deserve.
Let me tell you something, God's hatred is perfect. It's his righteous
indignation against all sinners to whom sin is charged. That's
what it is. It's not like our hatred. When
I hate, it's sinful. I'm commanded to love my neighbor
as myself, to love my enemies, the scripture says. And when
I hate, I hate a person, for example, it's sinful because
it's born of my selfishness and my pride and my vengeance, that
kind of thing. But God's hatred is not like
that at all. God's hatred is his justice against
sinners where sin is imputed. And so when we read verses like
Psalm 55 that say, well, God hates all workers of iniquity,
and we ask ourselves this question, aren't I a worker of iniquity?
Well, here's the point. How then could I or you stand
before God and not be charged with our iniquity? How is that
possible? How can God love me? Because
I'm a sinner who deserved, I don't deserve his love, I can't earn
his love. So how can he do that and still
be God? Well, this is the answer right
here. Verse 33, he who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect. The way God can look at me and
love me and save me, who am by nature and practice a worker
of iniquity, is to look at me and find me in the glorious person
and finished work of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. You see,
without Christ, there is no love from God. Mark it down. Without Christ, without being
washed in his blood and clothed in his righteousness, all by
the grace and love and mercy of God, there is no love from
God. It's all hatred. It's all wrath from God. Flee from the wrath to come.
Well, where do I flee to? Flee to Christ. That's what he
said. Plead his blood, plead his righteousness,
not your own. Don't stand before God and say,
Lord, haven't I done this in your name? Haven't I done that
in your name? Don't stand before God and say,
God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. You may not be
like other men, but if that's what you're gonna plead before
God as your righteousness, as your entitlement to glory, you
know what you're gonna hear? Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. I never knew, that's a person
to whom God charges iniquity. Well, I want to be of that number
who can say there is therefore now no condemnation to them who
are in Christ Jesus. I want to be of that number of
whom it says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ. And
listen to what he says, shall tribulation, what's tribulation?
That's trouble. Now, I don't think any of us
would be so foolish to say that I don't have any troubles. What
kind of troubles you have, that's not the issue here. Tribulation,
whatever trouble you go through, what he's saying is if you're
in Christ, again, if you're washed in his blood, cleansed from all
your sins, clothed in his righteousness, justified before God, whatever
troubles you go through, They cannot separate you from the
love of Christ. You still cannot be condemned
in God's sight. Now, isn't that comforting? You
know, Christ told the disciples over in what, John 16, I think
it was, when he said, he said, in the world, you'll have tribulation. In other words, don't think it's
strange to have troubles because we're gonna have, even the lost
people have troubles, but for a believer, These troubles, these
tribulations cannot separate because he says, be of good cheer
for I have overcome the world. So in other words, he makes it
clear now, now we're gonna have troubles, but they can't separate
us from the love of Christ. They cannot put us in a state
of condemnation. Why not? Because we're just such
great stalwarts? No. Because he, Christ, has overcome
the world. He's overcome sin. He's overcome
Satan. He overcame the law that would
condemn us were it not for his righteousness imputed to us.
And then he goes on, he talks about tribulation, distress. You know what distress is. I
don't have to go through each one of these things, but that's
the anguish, feelings of despair. He says persecution. Now I do
want to stop at this one a little bit. What he's talking about
is persecution that comes because of our identification with and
confession of the truth as it is in Christ. Remember he told
us in the Sermon on the Mount, blessed are you when men persecute
you for righteousness sake. And I emphasize this, listen.
As Christians, we ought to be the most moral people in the
whole world, as far as morality goes. But when we talk about
persecution for righteousness sake, that's not talking about
human morality. That's talking about the gospel.
You see, what does the Bible tell us about the gospel light?
It tells us that by nature, men and women hate the light because
it exposes their deeds to be evil. That's another verse I'm
gonna invoke in the next message. That's what brings the persecution.
And he said, blessed are you when men revile you and persecute
you and say all manner of evil against you falsely, that kind
of persecution. Paul the apostle, he wrote in
2 Timothy 3 in verse 12. He says, yea, and all that will
live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. It comes
with the territory. Now listen. That doesn't mean
we're masochist, doesn't mean we've got a persecution complex. It's not something that we go
out looking for and trying to get. It just simply comes with
the territory. When we confess Christ before
men, when we tell them the truth, especially, and you know, the
greatest persecution in the New Testament came from religious
people. People who were holding on to a false refuge of religion
and works. Decisionism. And you come along
and you tell them, look now, that all is dead works. That's
all evil deeds in the sight of God. Run to Christ. That's a false refuge. You'll
perish in your sins that way. What do people do? Wait a minute.
Are you telling me I'm lost? I've been working hard all my
life. You know like that song, in our
hometown we work hard to get to heaven. Well my friend, your
efforts to work hard to get to heaven in God's sight are actually
evil deeds. Now why are they evil? It's because
they dishonor God. It's not because they're immoral
in the eyes of men. You may be a pillar of society. You may be like the Pharisees
who appear righteous unto men outwardly. You may be like Saul
of Tarsus who said, it's touching the law blameless. But it was
all evil deeds. It was all done, he said, because
it dishonors God. It denies Christ. You know, every
time a sinner puts forth an effort to try to earn his way into God's
favor, that is a denial of Christ. Why? Because that's what Christ
came to do fully for his people. You understand that? And that's
why this persecution comes. Christ, you know, the apostle
Paul wrote in Philippians 129, this is something. Listen to
this, this is Philippians 129. He says, for unto you it is given,
that is it's a gift, in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe
on him, faith is a gift, but also to suffer for his sake,
that's a gift too. Now, you might say, well that's
pretty much a gift I don't want. But you know what? Paul went
on there, if you read the rest of that in Philippians chapter
one, he said this, that suffering for Christ's sake, suffering
persecution from the world, is an evident token that you're
a true child of God. And it's an evident token of
them that they're not. So persecuted for righteousness
sake. Christ told his disciples in
John 15, 18, he said, don't be amazed if the world hates you.
It hated me before it hated you. Remember in John 16, he said,
they'll throw you out of their bars and their brothels. Is that
what he said? Now, I hope if you ever go into
the bar or the brothel or anything like that with evil intent, but
that's not, I hope you get thrown out. He said, they'll throw you
out of the synagogue. They'll throw you out of their
church services. They don't wanna hear what you
have to say because it exposes their evil deeds. Remember Luke
16, 15. That which is highly esteemed
among men is what? An abomination to God. And whenever
the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment, that which we before highly esteemed is now an abomination
to us too, because it denies God, it denies Christ. And that's
called repentance of dead works. Now we're gonna be talking about
that, so I've just preached my message for 11 o'clock, pretty
much. But stay, I'll back it up with
scripture. But he goes on, look it, okay,
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, these are
things that cannot separate us from his love. These things are,
you know how the world thinks generally, if a person's going
through troubles and trials and they go through famine, they
don't have enough to eat, they're going through peril, their life's
in danger, or they're fighting with the sword, whatever, they'll
think automatically this is the natural man. You must be doing
something wrong. What sin have you committed?
Remember Job? Remember Job's three counselors? He called them
miserable comforters. They come along and say, now
Job, let's sit down here and let's figure out what you've
done to bring this stuff upon you. Well, Job hadn't done anything
that was, you know, sometimes God chastises his people, not
for any specific sin. And we know that from the book
of Job. We know that from the whole Bible, actually. He chastises
us because he's wise enough and omnipotent enough and not omniscient
enough to know when we need it. And it's for our good. But somebody,
you know, they lose all their money in the stock market. Well,
you must have been doing something bad, you know. Or they win a
lot of money, win the lottery. Oh, you must have been doing
something good. I've always told you the story
about Up in Kentucky where we're from, there's a little community
called Westwood. And it's, you know, do they even
have a red light in that town? I don't think they do. We used
to say about a small town they have one red light. They don't
even have a red light in Westwood. I remember I used to go through
there as a teenager. We went through a park called Soggy Bottom. But
there was a fellow from Westwood who won the Kentucky Lottery.
I think he won like $45 million. And he was a rounder, but they
were interviewing him on TV. And you know what the first thing
he said when he got up at the microphone? He said, well, there
is a God. And I thought at that time, I
said, you fool, don't you know there was a God before you won
that money? And really what he was saying
is what the world believes. I've just been doing something
right. No, no, that's not the way it is at all. You see, the
only ones who can take comfort in the righteousness of God are
those who stand before God in the righteousness of Christ by
His grace. And that's it. He goes on, look
at verse 30. Now he quotes from Psalm, I think
it's Psalm 44 here. He says, as it is written, for
thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep
for the slaughter. Think about that. That's the
persecution. What he's showing there is that
those whom God saves by his grace, who are not under a state of
condemnation because of Christ and his work on the cross, those
who are eternally loved and kept and graced by God, they are so
apart from this world. This world is not our home, and
that we are killed all the day long, we're counted as sheep
for the slaughter. And that's something, isn't it?
We don't have religious fellowship with this world. And we're accounted
for sheep, that's as much the same as when Paul wrote, but
God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Remember what he said? By whom
the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. You know
what he meant by that? He meant because I glory or boast,
that's what the word is, because I boast or have confidence only
in the cross of Christ, What Christ, who he is and what he
accomplished is my whole salvation, that's what Paul said. And because
of that, and I don't plead my works or my efforts or my will
or my decision, but because I boast in Christ alone, I look upon
the world as being dead, spiritually. And they look upon me as being
dead. And that's much the same as what he's saying here. Listen, when Paul was converted,
And he relates this in Philippians 3. He counted all his past religion
as dung. You know what dung is? It's a
dead thing. Why? Because he saw the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face, the person,
the work of Jesus Christ. In light of that, think about
that. And I've told you this. I've
been preaching this gospel for over 30 years, but I wouldn't
ever dare compare my preaching, my act of preaching, to the beauty
and the glory of Christ and what he accomplished on Calvary. It's
not me standing here preaching that saves me or recommends me
to God. It's the grace of God in Christ.
And I've told you a thousand times about when I was a lost
person and I began to hear Brother Mahan preach, and I heard him
make this statement, there's enough, he said this, he said,
there's enough sin in my best prayer to sink a world to hell.
And I walked out, I thought the man was crazy. I did, I told
my mom, I said, he's crazy. But he was right. I didn't know
it till later. When I pray, when I preach, I
wanna honor God. I want to pray thy will be done.
But that's still not my righteousness before God. It's all Christ. You understand what I'm saying?
Debbie, we were reading the paper this morning, and I saw the headline.
I haven't read the article yet. But a fellow put it there and
said, it takes more than good works to get to heaven. I don't
know what he's talking about. I suspect he, I think he's a
church of Christ. He may be talking about baptism,
but I don't know. I haven't read the article. Well, my friend,
more than good works? Yeah, it takes more than good
works because any work that you think gets you to heaven is an
evil work. It's not a good one. It took
the work of Christ, God the Son incarnate to get this sinner
to heaven and you sinners. Isn't that right? Well, he says
in verse 37, he says, nay, in all these things we are more
than conquerors through him that loved us. Now, notice what it
says there. It doesn't just say we are more than conquerors. It does say that, but that's
not all it says. It says we are more than conquerors
how? Through him that loved us. Because if it weren't for the
through him that loved us, we wouldn't be more than conquerors,
we'd be less than losers. Our victories over sin, now and
forever, Our victories over Satan, our victory over the world is
not due to our efforts. It's due to Christ and what he's
accomplished. And any progress or any victory
or any progression that I make in living, it's all due to his
spirit, the power of his spirit through his word. And still I
cannot plead that as my ground of salvation. I must plead him,
whom alone is my holiness, my righteousness, my salvation. So I'm more than a conqueror
through him that loved us. In all these things. And he goes
on in verse 38, he kind of expounds upon it now. Verse 38, for I
am persuaded. Now we know it takes the Spirit
of God to persuade us, doesn't it? I love that passage in 2
Timothy 1, 12 where Paul writes, I know whom I have believed and
I am persuaded. I'm convinced. I'm dogmatic. Most people don't
like that word today, but I love it if it's in the truth. I'm
dogmatic. that he is able to keep that
which I've committed unto him against that day. And what have
I committed unto him? My whole salvation. It's all
committed to Christ. That's what David said, that
God has blessed me, I'm in a covenant that's ordered and sure in all
things and this is all my hope and all my salvation and all
my desire. So I'm persuaded that neither
death nor life nor angels, nor principalities. You know what
angels are, you know what principalities are. That's the powers of this
world and above, and he says, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come. He's covering a lot of ground
there, isn't he? You can't get above that. He says, verse 38,
nor height, even the dimensions. nor height, no matter how high
you go, nor depth, no matter how low you go, nor any other
creature, nothing in creation shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now, what's he saying? There's nothing left out. It's
impossible. If you stand before God in Christ,
it's impossible for you to be condemned or to be separated
from God. And we know it's all by his sovereign
grace. It's not because of our good
works. It's not because of anything we do or try to do, promise to
do, plan to do. It's all because of Christ and
his blood and righteousness alone. Okay.