Romans chapter eight and verse
33. The title of our sermon today
is I Am Persuaded, and we're going to be thinking particularly
about the last few verses of this little reading, but we'll
read from verse 33 down to the end of the chapter. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress,
or persecution or famine, or nakedness or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Saul of Tarsus was an arrogant
young man. He was an arrogant young man
with elitist attitudes. He thought that he was better
than everyone else. In his own words, he believed
himself to be blameless under the law. That's quite a statement
for anyone to make, but that was what Saul of Tarsus thought
of himself. And I suppose in some respects,
as a young man, he had grounds for this opinion. He had, after
all, been given a superior education in the Jewish faith and the Jews
thought that they were better than everyone else. He sat at
the feet of the finest religious professors of the age. He was tutored and he was celebrated
by devout doctors of the law. And he was a rising star in the
sect of the Pharisees. He was a safe pair of hands he
could be relied upon. He was sent out to debate opponents
and to argue tiny points of doctrine. And he could hold up his end.
He could get the job done. He was being groomed for greatness
in the Jewish faith. And even as a young man, he had
license given to him to represent the religious leaders of Jerusalem
and travel beyond the borders of his own country in order to
arrest dissidents and shipped them back to Jerusalem for trial
and punishment. That was a lot of responsibility
that was committed into the hands of this young man. No wonder
he thought he was something special. But for all his zeal, all his
religious zeal, Saul of Tarsus didn't know God. And for all
his instruction in the religious faith, the faith of the Jews,
he did not know the Messiah for whom they all were waiting. He did not know Christ. He did
not know Christ, but he hated him. and he hated his people. He argued against Christ's disciples. He laid allegations against his
apostles. He arrested and interrogated
his followers, men and women, and he had them put to death.
He persecuted the Church of Jesus Christ with great vigour and
he tried effectively to stamp it out entirely. Saul was convinced
that the faith of Jesus Christ had to be stopped in its tracks
and he did all in his power to do so. But the Lord Jesus had other
plans for Saul. It was Saul who was stopped in
his tracks. Saul was thrown to the ground
and he was humbled at the feet of his God. Christ met him on
the road to Damascus and convinced him of his divinity. Jesus of Nazareth met Saul of
Tarsus on the road to Damascus and convinced him of his divinity,
his identity, and his power. He converted Saul there and then,
and he commissioned him to serve the one whom he had previously
persecuted. It is surely one of the greatest
conversion stories in the history of the church. Certainly, the
phrase, a Damascus Road experience has gone down proverbially for
a complete transformation and a total turning around so that
men and women of the church would now say of Saul, He which persecuted
us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. However, it would be wrong for
us to think that Saul, or as he became known, Paul, He wasn't
called Saul of Tarsus after his conversion, or at least not long
after his conversion. He was called Paul. It would
be wrong for us to think that Paul was at once fitted to minister
the gospel. The Damascus Road experience
was the beginning for Paul. But Paul continued to learn about
the Lord Jesus Christ and learn from him for the rest of his
life. We don't just learn everything
about the Lord at once. Paul didn't, he learned a lot
undoubtedly, but he didn't learn everything at once. He tells
the Galatians, I certify you, I'm telling you the truth, I
certify you brethren, that the gospel which was preached of
me is not after man. For I neither received it of
man, neither was I taught it of man, but by the revelation
of Jesus Christ." When I think of Paul telling
us here in Romans, I am persuaded. That's what he says, that's what
we're thinking about here. The Apostle Paul's saying, I
am persuaded. He says, for I am persuaded that
neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers
nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. When I think
of the Apostle Paul here saying, I am persuaded. I always think
of the verse in the early part of Isaiah, where the Lord says,
come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins
be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Saul, calls himself
the chief of sinners. Perhaps he was thinking about
the fact that he did so much damage to that embryonic church,
that early church. He did so much harm to those
youngest of believers, almost to the point of stamping out
the faith of Christ, had it been within his power to do so. He
maybe thought about the men that he slew. He maybe thought about
the women that he put into chains. These men and women and their
testimony, their simple testimony for Christ, was what the apostle
Paul had had acted so vehemently against. But now the Lord says,
let us reason together. To Paul, now the Lord says to
him, here is who I am. Here is what I have done. Here
is what I am going to call you to. And the apostle Paul says,
I am persuaded. There is a process in the Lord's
dealings with us. The Lord uses means. He deals
with our minds as well as our hearts. The Lord converted Paul
there on the Damascus Road and then he taught him the gospel. The Lord does not convert men
and women and young people, boys and girls. The Lord does not
convert us. because the gospel is unreasonable
and we have to be converted in order to believe it. Rather, he does so because, like
Saul, we are implacably opposed to the gospel and to the Lord
Jesus Christ and to God himself because we are rebels and we
are enemies. We need to be made alive in order
to be reasoned with. And what Paul has been telling
the church at Rome and is telling us in this chapter is that the
doctrine of God, the gospel of his grace is true and powerful
and convincing and profound. He has been going through the
doctrines of the gospel. When a man or a woman has eyes
to see and ears to hear the gospel, it is thoroughly persuasive and
it sets out the eternal purpose of divine goodness and mercy. I think that is why very often
we find ourselves as believers looking at those who do not believe
and wondering why they don't. We are persuaded. We're persuaded
by the testimony of Scripture. We're persuaded by the witness
of the apostles. We're persuaded by the doctrine
of grace, that what God has said about himself, what God teaches
us about the way of salvation and the work of Christ is so
eminently true and wonderful that we cannot help but be persuaded. We're delighted to have been
persuaded. Without question, the gospel
is the greatest story ever told. And even if it were not true,
which it is, but even if it were not true, now that our natural
opposition has been removed, we would want it to be, we would
wish it to be, Such is the glory of its message. I mentioned yesterday
in the little note that I sent round, by way of introduction
to our thoughts today, that the doctrines of the Bible are not
to be thought about as some sort of checklist that is to be believed
for us to get to heaven, that it's a kind of test of our orthodoxy. I hope we believe the Bible. I'm sure that we believe the
Bible. Although I'm equally sure that
for all, most of us, if not all of us, would say we believe the
Bible, if we were to question each of us closely, we would
likely discover that there are differences in the things that
we believe. And so we need to acknowledge
that the Bible Doctrine, what we are being taught is God's
revelation of who he is. And we will continue to learn
about who the Lord Jesus Christ is and who God is all the days
of our life. I hope we never stop learning.
I hope that the Bible, as it opens to us at our conversion,
never stops opening to us. and leads us deeper and deeper
into the loveliness of the Saviour and the glory of the way of salvation. The Bible teaches us who God
is. It's his explanation of what
he has done to secure and accomplish the salvation of his people and
to bring us to glory. And yes, the Bible speaks about
other things as well, like how we should live and what is yet
to happen. But everything revolves around
Christ, like planets revolve around the sun. Everything revolves
around Christ. Christ is the fullness of God's
revelation of himself to his people. And if we read the Bible
and we hear its message pointing us to Christ, the Saviour, We
shall not go far wrong in our understanding of God's ways and
means of grace. The scriptures and the doctrines
of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ will persuade us as it persuaded
Paul and persuaded the church at Rome. Paul was fully persuaded
of his own salvation and of the salvation of others because God
showed him and Christ taught him how and by whom his salvation
had been obtained. And he was assured of the church's
inseparable union with Jesus Christ. because the Lord explained
what that was and how it had been achieved. He was not, as
somebody else was, almost persuaded, but he was fully persuaded. He could tell Timothy near the
end of his life I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that
he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against
that day. Paul was persuaded that nothing
could separate him from the love of God because he had learned
the powerful nature of God's love. Not some weak, inconsequential,
Feeling of goodwill towards everyone. But divine love. Love divine,
all loves excelling. Love that is everlasting and
effectual to save. That was the love that the Apostle
Paul believed in. This is what Paul had been saying. Remember, for whom he did foreknow,
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
son. Whom he did foreknow, whom he
everlastingly loved. That's what that word means.
These are those ones who are predestinated and ordained. Ordained means Ordered. Think of it as setting in place,
setting it in order, or think about it as being commanded,
because it's the same thing. To be ordained is to be ordered,
set in place or commanded. This is God ordaining, this is
God saying how it will be. He predestinated men and women
to be made like his son. and love formed the basis of
God's elective choice of certain sinners to salvation. Known and
named individuals were ordained in the mind and purpose of God
before ever time began. Their names were written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. Their names were written and
they were ordered to be conformed to the image and likeness of
Jesus Christ. So that those things that are
pleasing to the Father in the Son are pleasing to the Father
in us as well. It was in love that we were set
apart in Christ. In love that we were committed
into Christ's care and keeping. It was in love that we were justified
by the merits of his blood and redeemed to be righteous in him. This was the will of God and
nothing in time can disannul God's purpose in eternity. This is what Paul understood
and this was what he was persuaded of. Paul was persuaded of the
doctrine of grace. And this is what he had set out
before these believers at Rome and to us by them or with them. How the love of the Father, how
the intercession of the Son, how the quickening power of the
Holy Spirit all come together, all validate and endorse God's
purpose of grace and the promise of salvation to his people. These
are the things that God has taught us of himself, his sovereign
will, the roles and responsibilities, the offices fulfilled by each
person of the Godhead in the covenant of grace. These demonstrate
the absolute commitment of each person of the Godhead to accomplish
the purpose of grace. First of all, for our present
good on earth, remember what Paul had said, we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God. We know
that because it is part of God's love towards us so that the work
of God and the covenant purposes of grace demonstrate to us, fully
persuade us of the fact that God is working for our good here
upon earth. to them that love God, or we
could say just as readily, to them that God loves, because
we love Him because He first loved us. So that these things
show to us that God in His love will do us good here on earth.
but also secondly, for our eternal glory in heaven, because whom
he justified, them he also glorified. And our glory in heaven is as
certain as our election by grace and our justification by the
righteousness of God in Jesus Christ and our calling by the
Holy Spirit. This is why Paul was fully persuaded. Paul had learned these truths
from the Lord Jesus Christ and he trusted it to be so. He was
persuaded to trust his precious soul. He was persuaded to trust
his immortal soul and its eternal welfare into the hands of Christ. He was persuaded to give himself
to Christ to leave himself with Christ and to trust Christ for
salvation and eternal life. That's what it is to be saved,
to be persuaded, to be convinced. to know and to be assured that
we are safe in the hands of Christ. He believed Christ was able to
save him and keep him until the day of resurrection when body
and soul will be glorified together with the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember
that's what he had said to Timothy, I know whom I have believed and
I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed
unto him against that day. He had committed unto him, he
was persuaded that Christ was able to keep that which he had
committed unto him, his precious soul, until he was taken into
glory. Paul was persuaded that Jesus
Christ was a fit and able saviour for him. Christ who had accomplished
the great work of redemption, Christ who had fulfilled his
mediatorial duties. Christ who had reconciled and
delivered all the individuals committed to him in the covenant
of grace. Christ who had risen again from
the dead and now was ascended into heaven, seated at the right
hand of God and there making intercession for him. Paul was
fully persuaded that Christ was a fit and able saviour. The consideration
of all of this convinced the apostle and supported him in
all the trials and difficulties of his life, in every challenge,
through every doubt, for all his afflictions and his sufferings
for the sake of the gospel, even to the point of death itself. So the apostle tells us even
death cannot separate us from the love of God. Death is what
he lists first because it often appears such an ominous foe to
us. He lists it first in this list
of enemies that he brings forward to reinforce the extent of his
confidence. According to the apostle, not
the powers of evil nor the laws of nature can interfere with
God's goodness towards his church. Nothing in this created world,
and he lists angels, he lists principalities, he lists powers,
nothing in this created world I imagine he means wicked angels
here because good angels wouldn't attempt to separate us from the
love of God. So he says, angels, principalities
and powers, wicked angels, earthly rulers who might try as kings
and governors have tried. And as Paul himself once tried
to harass the church into oblivion. Can they separate us from the
love of God? No, says Paul. I've got personal
direct experience of that. Had it been possible, I would
have done it. But even principalities, even
religious teachers, false teachers, false prophets who might try
to deceive the elect with error and confound the church with
lies cannot separate us from the love of God. Paul insists
upon it. I am persuaded nothing can separate
us from the love of God. Nothing can dissolve our love
union with Christ. No event or circumstance in this
present life, nothing future, nothing which is yet to come
can sever the elect from God's love. Nothing can disinherit
we who believe from what God has for us. so entire is our security by God's divine will, by God's
sovereign grace, that nothing in heaven, nothing on earth,
nothing in hell can separate us from him. Holiness and justice
are our friends. Maybe you've heard the little
phrase, once saved, always saved. I remember when I was young hearing
that phrase and it was a big discussion. It was to be debated
and people would come up with one argument and someone else
would come up with another argument. And listen. When we are persuaded
of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, when we know who Christ
is and what he has done, when we understand the doctrines that
God has revealed, when we understand the nature of God himself through
what he has taught in his word, we understand that nothing can
separate us. that once saved, we are always
saved and safe in the Lord Jesus Christ, under the covering of
Christ's blood. We are reconciled to God. We
are sheltered. for time and eternity. Such is
the unchangeable nature of God. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today and forever. He doesn't change. He doesn't
love us one day and not love us the next. He doesn't save
us one day and forfeit us the next. He who has justified will
never condemn. He who has redeemed can never
let us go. He who has quickened and called
us to life will never let us die. He cannot deny himself. Nothing in heaven above, nothing
in earth beneath, nothing in hell below can disturb what we
have been given in Christ. It's fixed and it is sure. Paul is persuaded and we should
be persuaded too. No creature can remove us, nor
a devil, nor an angel, nor a man. Not our own foolish heart, not
our doubts, not our sin, not our fallen nature, not our evil
mind can pluck us out of God's hand. Now certainly the new man
may be called to war and to fight and to withstand the evil, yet
overcome he will and conquer he must because we are more than
conquerors. and God's own honour is at stake
in this matter. Not one of those for whom the
Lord Jesus Christ died will be lost. Not one will be separated
from the love of God. God may, it is true, for our
good, lead us through hardship and pain. and you will know hardship
and pain undoubtedly at some point in your life. And you may
wonder, why has the Lord brought me to this? He may take things
from us, things that we would like to keep close to us, perhaps
people, perhaps those that we love and we might find that we
are lonely for the rest of our days. He may bring us into circumstances
that we would rather not experience. He will chasten us. For whom
the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom
he receiveth. He may allow us to wander for
a time from him, far from him, but he will bring us back He
will never leave us finally to ourselves. He will never separate
us from his love. The strength of this body may
dissolve, but not God's love. The ability of our mind may weaken. We may become senile or suffer
from Alzheimer's. We may forget God, and forget
to love Him, but He will not forget to love us. The security
that we build around ourselves may fall away, but the love of
Christ and the love of God, the love that God has for His people
will never disappear. Brothers and sisters, What we
have in Christ is ours forever. And God's love is ours in Christ
Jesus, our Lord. Divine love comes to us in Christ. It comes with every other divine
grace that love inspires. God has great things in store
for his people. Some we have tasted now, some
are yet to be revealed. But they all come to us through
the love that God has for us, the love that we find in Jesus
Christ. And these gifts are conveyed
to us by Christ. All God's graces are in Christ
and surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days
of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Our God delights to give good gifts to his children and he
shall have all his pleasure. So I say to us all today, May
we all be persuaded, as was Paul, for nothing can frustrate our
inheritance in Jesus Christ, and nothing can separate us from
the love of God in him. Amen.