Speaker 1: 1st Baptist, baptist El Dorado, will you join me now in listening to our sermon from this week?
Speaker 1: Open up with me again to Romans, chapter 8.
Speaker 1: Romans, chapter 8.
Speaker 2: And again today we'll be in 28 through 30, just three verses this morning.
Speaker 2: I'm going to read them again for us now.
Speaker 2: And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of a son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and those whom he predestined he also called.
Speaker 2: Those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Speaker 2: Pray with me now, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Speaker 2: Pray with me now.
Speaker 2: Lord Jesus, would you speak to us by your spirit, through your word this morning, and transform us.
Speaker 2: I need you, we need you, and so give us your word.
Speaker 2: We ask in Christ's name, amen.
Speaker 2: You've heard me talk a few times about Martin Lloyd-Jones.
Speaker 2: The great pastor and preacher from the mid-20th century in London at Westminster Chapel Was there for many years, began in London, there at Westminster, early on in World War II as quite literally, mid-service, mid-sermon even Air raids were flying overhead and walked their congregation through that and then another 30, 35 years he spent there at Westminster Chapel Later on in his time there.
Speaker 2: I've told you he spent about 15 years walking through the Book of Romans in his Friday night sermon series of Romans in his Friday night sermon series.
Speaker 2: 15 years, on Friday night, people would come into the church, would fill up Westminster Chapel, which is not a small room, and would come hear sermons on Romans.
Speaker 2: In fact, on the verses we're going to look at this morning verse 28 through 33 verses he spent 17 weeks 17 weeks on those three verses.
Speaker 2: Now there's two ways I can look at this.
Speaker 2: Number one is this what it took Martin Lloyd-Jones 17 weeks to do, I'll be able to do in 25 minutes.
Speaker 2: Or, more accurately, the other way I could look I am so woefully inadequate for this task that they will cut me off after 25 minutes of preaching this passage.
Speaker 2: I think that's more accurate, because how can we sum up and really gain all the wisdom that exists in these three verses?
Speaker 2: Three verses relatively small, yet hold so many truths about what the Lord is up to in the midst of trial, in our suffering, but also carry so much truth about the assurance of salvation, the assurance of our sanctification, the assurance of our glorification.
Speaker 2: Isn't that what we all really want to know at the end of the day?
Speaker 2: We want to know that.
Speaker 2: We know that we are not only in Christ, but we will remain in Christ, not just now, but for eternity.
Speaker 2: We want that assurance and I just want to give us one point this morning, and I'll give it to you from the start God will fulfill his good purpose for your life.
Speaker 2: God will fulfill his good purpose for your life.
Speaker 2: Now, if any part of you heard me say anything other than that, maybe something like this God might fulfill his good purpose for your life.
Speaker 2: God could possibly fulfill his good purpose for your life.
Speaker 2: I hope you will erase that thought from your mind and look again at our point this morning.
Speaker 2: God will fulfill his good purpose for your life.
Speaker 2: Paul wants to prove that this morning, verse 28,.
Speaker 2: And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.
Speaker 2: Really, there's three parts to this verse.
Speaker 2: Part one and part three are really talking about the same people, that for those who love God, they're in part one and then part three for those who are called according to his purpose.
Speaker 2: And so again, that's the same group of people, the same individuals.
Speaker 2: The one who loves God.
Speaker 2: He's called according to his purpose.
Speaker 2: And what does Paul in this moment say is true of that individual who loves God and is called by God according to the good purposes of God.
Speaker 2: What Paul says is true of that person in part two of this verse is this that all things work together for good.
Speaker 2: And so, first, what does Paul mean by all things?
Speaker 2: Simply put, he means all things, he means everything, he means every single possible thing.
Speaker 2: And so, number one, that means all good things, all good moments in life, every good breakthrough, powerful moment.
Speaker 2: You were hoping this thing would happen and here it comes, it came through for you.
Speaker 2: Every good thing, every laugh, every smile, every joy of life, all these good things.
Speaker 2: God can do great work, even in those moments of great joy of life, to conform us more and more into the image of his son.
Speaker 2: But we also have to see this that if he's saying all things, then not only the good but also the bad, trials, tribulation and suffering.
Speaker 2: So the other side of the equation, because we're picking up now off of verses 18 through 27, where we saw last week that the sufferings of this present Paul says aren't worth comparing to the weight of glory that will be revealed.
Speaker 2: He talks about the groaning of creation.
Speaker 2: We saw the groaning of you and I as we await the return of our Savior we talked about.
Speaker 2: We live in the in-betweenness of life and so in this time we live in a broken world, and in this broken world there is sin, much of that sin you and I know of our own making, and there's just sin out in the world.
Speaker 2: And in this broken world there is sin, much of that sin you and I know of our own making, and there's just sin out in the world.
Speaker 2: We live as imperfect people amongst imperfect people.
Speaker 2: We see the sufferings of life, where maybe you've even suffered for your faith in Christ.
Speaker 2: We've seen the suffering that just takes place as living in a fallen world, and sometimes very difficult things come upon us and very difficult things happen, and so even not just the good, but even the sufferings of life.
Speaker 2: And what are these all things, or what is Paul doing with all things?
Speaker 2: God is working them together for what?
Speaker 2: For good, the good and the bad, the joy and the suffering.
Speaker 2: God is working all things together for good.
Speaker 2: Now we have to ask this question how in the world is that happening?
Speaker 2: How in the world is that possible?
Speaker 2: Because what we have here is two opposing ideas.
Speaker 2: I would think You've got good and you've got bad.
Speaker 2: Those are two opposing sides, seemingly to me going in two different directions.
Speaker 2: If you and I both leave this afternoon to go to Little Rock and you head north and I head south, we will not both arrive in Little Rock.
Speaker 2: We're going two different ways.
Speaker 2: And yet there's a way in which God, with good and with bad, somehow can turn us, or turn the situation into good and by that meaning conforming us into the image of his Son.
Speaker 2: How is this possible?
Speaker 2: Well, in one of his 17 sermons, lloyd-jones gives one illustration about a watch.
Speaker 2: I'll add this part that Lloyd-Jones couldn't have imagined this.
Speaker 2: But there was a day when a watch did not have a screen on it, that my watch couldn't be my GPS or make a phone call, or you know, tell me a story.
Speaker 2: There was a day that didn't happen.
Speaker 2: There was a day a watchmaker, way back when, would even wind up your watch and then it would just tick into eternity, it seems, and you would have these watches that were wound up and would keep perfect time.
Speaker 2: And Lloyd-Jones says if you could just for a moment look at the inside of that watch and the mechanism that exists inside.
Speaker 2: What you would see is something interesting.
Speaker 2: You would see one cog spinning clockwise and in that very same watch you'd see another cog spinning the exact opposite direction.
Speaker 2: And you've got these two cogs that are existing inside this watch, that are wound up and they are spinning the exact opposite way and yet somehow, when that watch is all the pieces come together, it tells one perfect time.
Speaker 2: How in the world is that possible?
Speaker 2: We don't look at the watchmaker and say do you really know what you're up to?
Speaker 2: Do you really know what's best about this watch?
Speaker 2: We look at the watchmaker and say, hey, I don't know how you do this, this is above my pay grade, but you do it well.
Speaker 2: And I think about the Christian life.
Speaker 2: You and I walk through good and we walk through bad, we walk through suffering and yet, somehow, some way, there is a sovereign God above it all who, even in the midst of the hardest of the hard or the best of the best, can use these moments and turn these moments for our good again, conforming us into the image of Christ.
Speaker 2: Now here's something important as we continue in this verse how do we define good?
Speaker 2: The better question is do we get to define good.
Speaker 2: Is this good according to my terms?
Speaker 2: Because here's how I would love for this verse to read that God will turn all things together for our good.
Speaker 2: And then Paul continues and by good I mean exactly what Taylor Guerin asks for right when he asks for it.
Speaker 2: That's what I wish he would have said that God can turn things for our good.
Speaker 2: I wanted to read this that even in hard circumstances, god will make it all okay in a very short amount of time and in a way where I actually come out ahead in all this.
Speaker 2: And I want to be clear about something there will be times praise God, there will be times in your life that bad things might happen, difficult moments might happen and God may turn a situation around in a hurry.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying that doesn't happen.
Speaker 2: You can probably recall moments when you were in despair, and yet not an hour a day.
Speaker 2: A week later, god showed you I'm up to something bigger.
Speaker 2: You were trying to get the promotion.
Speaker 2: You did not get the promotion.
Speaker 2: A week later, another opportunity came.
Speaker 2: That was the perfect opportunity for you, and you know for a fact, if you had gotten the promotion, you wouldn't have been in a place to explore this opportunity.
Speaker 2: That's just an example, but little things that God can do.
Speaker 2: From time to time that you think things are going south and in the very short term God does something.
Speaker 2: But we also know this.
Speaker 2: There are some events in our lives, some moments of suffering, some moments of despair that this side of eternity will never get past.
Speaker 2: We in our world use the term closure.
Speaker 2: There's been seasons of suffering.
Speaker 2: For you, that closure is not a word that's coming into the vocabulary.
Speaker 2: This side of eternity, there's not a way to fully say, quote unquote I'm on the other side of that.
Speaker 2: That doesn't mean God isn't faithful and doing great work and that doesn't mean you just live every moment in this devastating feel of life.
Speaker 2: But there are just some things that are deep and heavy and it's not the kind of thing we just talked about, where it feels like in the short term.
Speaker 2: And it's not the kind of thing we just talked about where it feels like in the short term the Lord ties every loose end, puts a bow on it and hands it over and we say thank you and all is well.
Speaker 2: There are things that happen in life that we would even look up and say God, how in the world could you bring any sort of good out of this?
Speaker 2: And yet, in God's sovereignty, I hope you've seen it that even in the midst of our suffering, that God can do something within us to conform us, through suffering, more and more into the image of Christ.
Speaker 2: That as you walk through suffering, you would say this and you would say this it was simply because I was at rock bottom.
Speaker 2: I had to, but I got to know Jesus better because I walked through this.
Speaker 2: I never want to walk through it again.
Speaker 2: I'm never going to ask for it back, wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, but I've seen the Lord.
Speaker 2: I quote it more than I should, but Job 42, verse 5.
Speaker 2: That when Job's on the other side of suffering, the end of that suffering.
Speaker 2: Not on the other side of it, and he'd probably never get on the other side of it, but you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: At the end of the book of Job he says this Lord, I had heard of you through the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you that before I walked through this, I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear.
Speaker 2: Basically, this Lord, I knew about you, but something happened in the midst of suffering.
Speaker 2: Something happened in the midst of all of these trials that on the other side of it I now see you for myself.
Speaker 2: I went from knowing about you to knowing you, and some of you have walked through trials that you can look back at that moment and again with me you would say I hope I never walked through that again.
Speaker 2: But I can say this I know my Savior better for having walked through it.
Speaker 2: You can say it.
Speaker 2: This is Joseph's story.
Speaker 2: We talked a few weeks ago in the second half of Genesis.
Speaker 2: Brothers sell him into slavery.
Speaker 2: Potiphar's wife accuses him with lies and he's thrown into prison, stays there much longer than he had expected In fact.
Speaker 2: He finally sees maybe his way out, and two more years he goes on in prison, finally gets out, raised to second in command.
Speaker 2: There's a famine in the land.
Speaker 2: The brothers have to come back to him, the very brothers that sold him into slavery.
Speaker 2: And at the very moment, if I were Joseph, I would give these brothers a very large piece of my mind.
Speaker 2: What does Joseph say?
Speaker 2: That what man meant for evil, god meant for good.
Speaker 2: That, though I've walked through this great suffering, god was working in the midst of it.
Speaker 2: This is the story of Paul in Philippians, chapter one, verse 15.
Speaker 2: Paul has been thrown in prison, as he often is, for preaching the gospel.
Speaker 2: And he actually says a strange term.
Speaker 2: He says it's actually served to our advantage that I'm here, that it actually served to the kingdom advantage that I am here in prison.
Speaker 2: Why does he say it?
Speaker 2: Because now the whole imperial guard has heard about Christ, don't you know?
Speaker 2: These guys hated when Paul showed up.
Speaker 2: They hated going to work and they said Paul, he's just, he's telling that same story again about Jesus.
Speaker 2: He's told me 48 times and now they're singing hymns again, he and Silas, all these guys.
Speaker 2: But Paul says this I was thrown in prison and you might think that's the end of the ministry.
Speaker 2: But guess what?
Speaker 2: That's the beginning of a ministry I could never have had if I were not right here right now, with these guards in these places.
Speaker 2: God knew what he was up to, that, even through suffering, god is doing what only he can do and God is conforming you and I into the image of Christ, and God is doing a mighty work.
Speaker 2: I love what John Piper says and I love this quote by John Piper that God might be up to 10 million things and you might know about three of them.
Speaker 2: That God may be doing 10 million things in your life right now and you might know three of them.
Speaker 2: That God may be doing 10 million things in your life right now and you might know three of them that are going on, but in God's sovereignty, he is conforming you into the image of Christ in the good moments and even in moments of suffering and pain.
Speaker 2: And here's what I love about the gospel, the story of Christ.
Speaker 2: What I love about the Christian worldview in general is simply this that in Christ I love it our suffering is not wasted.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of worldviews, there's a lot of ways of thinking about suffering, and yet in Christianity I find the one worldview that says this that suffering's going to happen.
Speaker 2: We live in this fallen world, but your suffering will not be wasted.
Speaker 2: That God is working in the midst of it.
Speaker 2: That even Job in Job, chapter 19,.
Speaker 2: When he's at the lowest of the lows, when it doesn't get any lower, what does he do?
Speaker 2: What does he say?
Speaker 2: He says this he's at his rock bottom, for I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last he will stand upon the earth after the skin has been thus destroyed.
Speaker 2: Yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself.
Speaker 2: My eyes shall behold and not another.
Speaker 2: My heart faints within me.
Speaker 2: He knew this, that even in my suffering, I am growing more and more into who the Lord desires me to be.
Speaker 2: And if, in this life, my suffering is never even taken away Job says this I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last day I will see him.
Speaker 2: We return to Romans 8, 28.
Speaker 2: As Paul says, we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.
Speaker 2: And before we move on from this verse, I just want us to see that word.
Speaker 2: And we know, we know it.
Speaker 2: Notice, paul doesn't say this.
Speaker 2: And we feel, we feel that for those who love God, everything works together for our good.
Speaker 2: Why do I make that point?
Speaker 2: It's because of this there will be days you do not feel it, there will be moments of suffering in your life and you just say this it doesn't really feel right now like God's turning this together for good.
Speaker 2: I don't know what it's supposed to feel like but, pastor, it doesn't feel like this.
Speaker 2: I don't feel.
Speaker 2: But there are moments in the Christian life In fact there's a lot of them when we have to put fact over feeling.
Speaker 2: That even when I don't feel it, I know, because God has told me in his word that here is the good God has for me, that even through this whether good, bad, ugly period of life, that God is conforming me more and more into the image of Christ, and God can use this for my sanctification and for his glory.
Speaker 2: That's Romans 8, 28.
Speaker 2: Now I want to read 29 through 30.
Speaker 2: As we continue to make one singular point God will fulfill his good promise for your life, for those whom he foreknew.
Speaker 2: He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and those whom he predestined.
Speaker 2: He also called those whom he called.
Speaker 2: He also justified those whom he justified.
Speaker 2: He also justified those whom he justified he also glorified.
Speaker 2: If you want two verses that will make our point today, look no further than 29 and 30.
Speaker 2: That again, it's not that he might do it, it's not that he could do it, it's not that if you know we better check these boxes and do this, that and the other, and then he'll do no, god will fulfill his good purpose.
Speaker 2: How do I know this?
Speaker 2: Because right here, in 29 through 30, again, for those he foreknew, he predestined.
Speaker 2: And now you may hear those words and you get a little nervous.
Speaker 2: What in the world do you mean?
Speaker 2: Whom he foreknew, whom he predestined to be conformed into the image of Christ?
Speaker 2: What do we do with these heavy phrases, of which there's many ideas of, maybe, what this meant?
Speaker 2: These may be terms that make you slightly nervous.
Speaker 2: I would tell you this that when you see these terms foreknew, predestined your response don't let it be nervous or curious about what the pastor is going to say about it.
Speaker 2: Let your response simply be this to give unending praise to the God who saved you and, in his infinite wisdom, has done all that it takes for you to receive salvation.
Speaker 2: Though you and I are greatly unworthy, christ has done so.
Speaker 2: What is our response when we see these big terms?
Speaker 2: It's to worship the Lord.
Speaker 2: It's to be filled with nothing but great joy and great worship and adoration of the only God who's saved.
Speaker 2: When you see whom God foreknew and predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, what you do in that moment is you just praise God that he saved you.
Speaker 2: Now you ask this question, pastor, now, do you really believe that before the foundation of the world, that God foreknew and predestined some for salvation, and not just for salvation but for sanctification and for glorification?
Speaker 2: Do you really believe that?
Speaker 2: Of course I do Not, because it's a good idea or something I made up.
Speaker 2: It's just simply what the Bible says over and over and over and for which the Bible has given us no alternative.
Speaker 2: It's what Jesus talks about.
Speaker 2: It's what Genesis to Jesus talks about.
Speaker 2: It's what the well Genesis to Revelation talks about that in God's sovereignty he saved those for salvation and all who would come to know him, whose hearts are opened by his spirit, will come to life in him.
Speaker 2: I believe two things to be true.
Speaker 2: Number one that before the foundation of the world, god knew those who would be saved.
Speaker 2: That's number one thing I believe to be true.
Speaker 2: The number two thing I believe to be true Number one, that before the foundation of the world, god knew those who would be saved.
Speaker 2: That's number one thing I believe to be true.
Speaker 2: The number two thing I believe to be true is this that I said at six years old in a Sunday school class and as the teacher taught the lesson.
Speaker 2: Something happened in my heart to which I knew I needed a savior, and so I asked Jesus to be the Lord of my life.
Speaker 2: You say wait, taylor, you just said two different things.
Speaker 2: I'd say I haven't.
Speaker 2: But if you want to research that deeper, I'm not the guy.
Speaker 2: Go to him.
Speaker 2: He knows how God's sovereignty and human responsibility work together.
Speaker 2: He knows how all of this works out, that all who come to him are saved.
Speaker 2: And yet, before the foundation of the world as well, he knew those who would come to know him.
Speaker 2: This is the sovereignty of God, that his spirit awakens hearts to this.
Speaker 2: And let me tell you, this leads us to nothing but heartfelt worship.
Speaker 2: And you say this, taylor, this is the age old question If God knew those who were going to be saved, why do we even sit here?
Speaker 2: Why do we go on mission trips?
Speaker 2: Why do we evangelize?
Speaker 2: Why do we do all these things?
Speaker 2: Well, we do all these things.
Speaker 2: One, because we're commanded to do all these things.
Speaker 2: But here's what JI Packer says, and I love it.
Speaker 2: He says this that when he's evangelizing, when he's preaching, he says this that, number one, the elect will be saved.
Speaker 2: And number two, come now and be among the elect.
Speaker 2: Come follow Jesus, come experience the justification of Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: Choose now to come follow Jesus.
Speaker 2: And that's the beauty of Christ, that not only he has called us.
Speaker 2: Look at this foreknew.
Speaker 2: He predestined to do what, to conform us into the image of his son.
Speaker 2: So not only has he called us, he has justified us.
Speaker 2: And here's the promise he is sanctifying us more into the image of Christ.
Speaker 2: Verse 30, those whom he predestined, he called, those who called, he justified, those who justified.
Speaker 2: And look at this all the way through the end, he glorified.
Speaker 2: And so this is the beautiful, sovereign promise of God that he who began a good work in you will carry it through to completion.
Speaker 2: Will God fulfill his good purpose for your life, absolutely?
Speaker 2: If you want an example of this, you can just look at scripture as a good illustration.
Speaker 2: I think of Acts 23, when Paul is in just a mess of a situation, as he often is, getting thrown around, thrown in this prison and that prison, this trial, that trial.
Speaker 2: God comes to him one evening and says as you have preached the gospel in Jerusalem, you will preach the gospel in Rome.
Speaker 2: He's sitting in Jerusalem in this moment.
Speaker 2: As you preach the gospel in Jerusalem, you will preach the gospel in Rome.
Speaker 2: My translation is this God simply says this no matter what, I'm getting you to Rome.
Speaker 2: It doesn't feel like you're going to get there.
Speaker 2: In fact, everything around you probably communicates.
Speaker 2: You're probably not going to get much further than this, but I'm getting you to Rome.
Speaker 2: And what does God do?
Speaker 2: He gets them there.
Speaker 2: What happens on the way?
Speaker 2: More trials, more authorities questioning him.
Speaker 2: He gets on a boat heading to Rome, a massive storm, then there's the shipwreck.
Speaker 2: Then he's deserted on this island, and this is really there.
Speaker 2: He's picking up firewood and a snake bites him.
Speaker 2: The locals are watching this happen, and you can read this the locals are watching it happen.
Speaker 2: They're sitting back waiting for him to die from this snake bite.
Speaker 2: He does not die from this snake bite.
Speaker 2: A ship comes to pick them all up.
Speaker 2: And where does the ship take him?
Speaker 2: To Rome.
Speaker 2: How'd he get there?
Speaker 2: Because God told him he'd get there, and if God says it, it's a done deal.
Speaker 2: Now, does that mean any of this was easy or enjoyable?
Speaker 2: Did he enjoy the storm and the shipwreck and the snake bite?
Speaker 2: Of course he didn't.
Speaker 2: He wouldn't wish it back if he could.
Speaker 2: And yet, in the midst of all of this, even the suffering, god was up to something.
Speaker 2: And he says this that I made you a promise and so I'm going to hold it.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna keep it until completion.
Speaker 2: And he got Paul to Rome.
Speaker 2: The same is true of our lives, that if God has saved us and called us and has promised us, even in this moment and throughout scripture, that he will sanctify us and glorify us, you can set your watch to it, you can mark it on your calendar, you can do it.
Speaker 2: It is happening, write it in stone.
Speaker 2: It is going to happen, no matter what comes in between, no matter the good, the bad, the suffering that you face.
Speaker 2: If God told you that you're his and you are his in Christ, and if you love Christ and you know he's savior, then here's the good news he's told you you are his in Christ.
Speaker 2: And if you love Christ and you know he's savior, then here's the good news he's told you you are his.
Speaker 2: He will carry you to completion.
Speaker 2: And I don't know what will happen in your life in between.
Speaker 2: I don't know how good it'll go, I don't know how difficult it will be, but I do know this that at the end of all things on the other side, you will stand before Christ Jesus fully sanctified, more than that, fully glorified, because what God began in you, the Christian life, is held up by the sovereignty of God, up by the sovereignty of God, and the sovereignty of God to hold on to you.
Speaker 2: If you asked me this morning, taylor, how in the world do you stay on the ground, like, quite literally, like, how do you keep two feet on the ground?
Speaker 2: And what in the world do you do to keep from floating up and flying up into the atmosphere and much more just flying into outer space and being gone from here, taylor, how in the world do you keep your feet on the ground?
Speaker 2: And I said that's an excellent question.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you my secret on the ground.
Speaker 2: And I said that's an excellent question.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you my secret that every morning I walk into this room and this pulpit is perfect for it.
Speaker 2: I grab this pulpit like this and I hold on as tight as I can.
Speaker 2: And as long as I can hold this pulpit as tight as I can, I'm not going to float up, I'm not going to go.
Speaker 2: You don't have to worry about me floating away, because I'm holding on as tight as I can.
Speaker 2: But you know that's not the answer.
Speaker 2: How do I stay on the ground?
Speaker 2: Because something outside of me holds me, because there's this thing called gravity.
Speaker 2: I don't understand it.
Speaker 2: Because there's this thing called gravity, I don't understand it and I'm kept on the ground and I don't have to.
Speaker 2: It's not that I'm doing anything special or anything, I'm just held.
Speaker 2: You might be tempted to say that the Christian life and my assurance, my justification, sanctification and future glorification, it's kind of held in place by how tightly I hold on to Christ.
Speaker 2: And if I can just hold on to Christ tight enough, and if I can just stay where I'm supposed to stay, and if I can check the boxes and do what I need to do, then he will carry me to completion and carry me to glory.
Speaker 2: The Christian life is not about how tightly you hold on to Christ.
Speaker 2: It's about the simple fact that Christ is holding on to you.
Speaker 2: And let me preface that with this idea.
Speaker 2: I'm not saying here that our spiritual life is all.
Speaker 2: We just sit on the spiritual lazy boy of our lives and do nothing and say God's gonna get me there.
Speaker 2: And we just sit on the spiritual lazy boy of our lives and do nothing and say God's going to get me there and we just sit back.
Speaker 2: No, we participate.
Speaker 2: We, as Paul says, work out our salvation with fear and trembling, for it's God who works in us.
Speaker 2: We are an active participant, and yet, even in the midst of us actively participating, we are not the ones that are holding us in Christ.
Speaker 2: Christ is holding us in his hands at all times, and so you want some assurance.
Speaker 2: You ask the question could I lose my salvation?
Speaker 2: Could it be that I can't keep my justification, that there's a world where he doesn't see me, through to sanctification and all the way to glorification?
Speaker 2: Could it be that I could lose my salvation?
Speaker 2: Well, I would just say this to say that you could lose your salvation is not simply to say you could lose your salvation, but it's more than that is not simply to say you could lose your salvation, but it's more than that To say.
Speaker 2: If you want to make the claim that you could lose your salvation, you also have to make this claim that God is not who God says God is.
Speaker 2: And if you'd like to make the claim that you can lose your salvation, then you also you are locked into this claim as well that the word of God is not the ultimate authority, that there are areas in this word where the Lord Jesus is not entirely accurate.
Speaker 2: And if you'd like to make the claim that you can lose your salvation, you also have to make the claim that it is possible that God could fail, that God could fail me, that God could fail us, that God could fail to see me through to completion.
Speaker 2: I'll just tell you this If you told me this morning, in the truest sense, that you were in Christ and you subsequently lost your salvation, you were in Christ and you subsequently lost your salvation.
Speaker 2: You were in Christ and now you are on the outside looking in because you've lost what you once had.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you my exact response.
Speaker 2: I'd tell you this I'd walk up to this pulpit, I'd close my Bible and I'd never open it again.
Speaker 2: I'd walk up to my office, I shut it down, pack up the books In fact, you can have them.
Speaker 2: I'd still hang out with you all and live in town, but I wouldn't be the pastor here anymore.
Speaker 2: I'd be looking for work.
Speaker 2: You could help me find some.
Speaker 2: If I found out you lost your salvation.
Speaker 2: I'd just have to be done, because that would mean God's not who God says God is.
Speaker 2: That would mean God is not the ultimate authority, and yet there is one that can pluck you and I from the hand of God, and that means that when God tells me in his word that nothing can separate us, that that is not entirely true.
Speaker 2: I just want to tell you this morning, not on the authority of me I've got none but on the authority of God's word what you have in Christ you cannot lose.
Speaker 2: It's not a possibility.
Speaker 2: Will God fulfill his purpose for you?
Speaker 2: Of course he will.
Speaker 2: There's no other way around it.
Speaker 2: Try your best to thwart his plan for your life and trust me, you and I have both tried our best.
Speaker 2: We've let our sin get in the way.
Speaker 2: We've let our stubbornness and pride get in God's way, and time and time again, what have you seen?
Speaker 2: He has walked with me patiently and got me to where I needed to be.
Speaker 2: You cannot lose your salvation because I'm just going to spoil next week a little bit.
Speaker 2: Verse 31,.
Speaker 2: What, then, shall we say to these things?
Speaker 2: If God's for us, who can be against us?
Speaker 2: He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us?
Speaker 2: How will he not graciously give us all things?
Speaker 2: Who shall bring us any charge against God's elect.
Speaker 2: It's God who justifies.
Speaker 2: Who is it to condemn?
Speaker 2: Christ Jesus is the one who died More than that, was raised at the right hand of God, who is indeed interceding for us.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna keep going.
Speaker 2: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Speaker 2: Shall tribulation or distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword as it's written for your sake.
Speaker 2: We're being killed all day long.
Speaker 2: We sword as it's written for your sake.
Speaker 2: We're being killed all day long.
Speaker 2: We're regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
Speaker 2: No, and all these things were more than conquerors.
Speaker 2: Through him who loved us.
Speaker 2: For I'm sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Speaker 2: It is an impossibility that what Christ has done in your life to raise you to life, to save you, to sanctify you, to one day glorify you, could be lost.
Speaker 2: It is an impossibility that Christ could say no more to you, that Christ could say no more to you, but instead you are held in the hand of Christ so firmly that no power of hell, no scheme of man, nothing can pluck you from the hand of your Father.
Speaker 2: You are held both now and for eternity, and these are my words that nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Speaker 2: So what is our response to this?
Speaker 2: What do we do in light of this?
Speaker 2: Well, in just a moment, we worship.
Speaker 2: And then, when we're done worshiping, you stand up and you don't walk out of here.
Speaker 2: You almost float out of here in your excitement and your realization, or at least a reminder, that there is nothing that can separate you from the love of God.
Speaker 2: And even when the evil one comes to you and says there is something, or even when the evil one comes to you and says, can God really do this, that or the other, you tell him hey, I just got to go to his word.
Speaker 2: And he tells me this that not death or life or anything else in all creation can separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Speaker 2: So I just end with this that 10 billion years from now, if you are in Christ I mean this you will be alive and well.
Speaker 2: Lord Jesus, thank you for your word, thank you for the gospel that nothing can separate us from the love of God.
Speaker 2: In Christ Jesus, our Lord, that he who called us, has justified us, is sanctifying us, will glorify us.
Speaker 2: And, lord, what a gift it is to know you, to be known by you.
Speaker 2: What a gift it is to be a child of God, not by any worth of our own, but through the work of Christ on the cross, in the resurrection raised to glorious life.
Speaker 2: And in your resurrection, Lord, you have raised all who know you.
Speaker 2: And so, lord, if there's one today that needs to come to know you for the first time, let it be.
Speaker 2: If they need to come talk to me about joining our church, about a prayer need, about any way I can help, let them come.
Speaker 2: Lord, if there's any decisions that need to be made, let them be made now.
Speaker 2: But, lord, the truth is we all have a response to make and for many of us, that response right now is simple worship, worshiping the God who has saved us, called us, saved us, justified us, sanctified us, will glorify us.
Speaker 2: So let us worship you now, lord, in Christ's name, amen.
Speaker 2: Would you stand and I'll be down front.