Answering Eternal Questions

You don't experience the fresh release of guilt from sin and then decide you want the stench of guilt back again. You don't hunger and thirst after God and then entirely forever altogether lose your appetite for God. You don't live in the light of heaven and be happy with living in the light of hell or the darkness of the underworld. You don't fellowship with the saints and sing the praises of God and then later despise the church of the living Lord.

You don't walk with Him and depend on Him and trust in Him and then say, I don't even need Him anymore. Have you ever worried about your salvation? Have you wondered if you can lose your salvation and if God might end up rejecting you when you meet Him face to face?

It's not uncommon to have those thoughts. But friend, God wants to help you think biblically about this issue. There's no lawyer cunning enough and no witness believable enough to convince God to change His verdict.

If you've trusted Christ, you've been declared innocent forever. And we need to understand this. And Stephen Davey is going to help you today.

This message is called Answering Eternal Questions. Romans Chapter 8 is where we will return today. And as you're turning, let me tell you a little bit of a story to sort of set the stage. On March 11th, 1898, a teenager by the name of Peter Dyneka sailed away from his home in Russia. He was bound for Nova Scotia. For him, it was literally the other side of the world.

And he would become an evangelist that would be greatly used by God. And on this voyage, God was about to teach him an unforgettable lesson. His parents had saved for many months to purchase for him a ticket to his future. And Peter's mother, in order to save costs, had packed enough food for him for the entire voyage in a big box.

Most of it was just rough bread and garlic, and they couldn't afford much more than that. And every day on this voyage, Peter would look longingly through the windows into the dining room at the wealthy patrons as they feasted on these scrumptious meals and how he envied them as he returned to his little room and eat one more piece of his black bread with garlic. About halfway through the voyage, some of the sailors noticed his plight, and they promised him that if he would do their work in the kitchen, that they would give him some food to eat. And so he was happy with this arrangement, and so he began to work very hard doing their chores. And the sailors kept their promise and gave him food that he would eat in the back of the kitchen. It wasn't until the very last day of the voyage that Peter discovered the truth.

The three meals a day in the ship's dining room were included in the price of the ticket. He belonged in there with everybody else. He had been tricked into doing all of this work to get food that literally belonged to him. And he never forgot that lesson as it related to salvation. You know, most of us today would believe if I asked you after the service if you thought your ticket to heaven was free, you'd probably say yes, but we don't understand all that it involves, all the things involved in this comprehensive ticket. We have been chosen by God and given a ticket to heaven, and those of me as chosen, he's called and then justified, and he has already in his own mind glorified us. Part of the believer's problem is that he doesn't understand what he has. We know we have this ticket to heaven, but we're not really all that secure because we don't understand how eternally, entirely comprehensive and unchangeable our ticket to heaven is. And so today many people are insecure in their faith as they journey their way to heaven. I'm afraid many have been led to believe that they can somehow lose their place on board. They have been taught that some were perhaps out in the middle of this journey, they can be put on another ship and taken back. Others are led to believe that they can on their own choosing jump overboard and, as it were, swim back to Russia. Anybody bound for heaven doesn't want to swim back, right? Any true believer is comprehensively secure in his salvation, bound in this journey by the power of God. It's all part of the all-expenses-paid ticket paid for by Christ, and that's the focus of Paul. And now he gets to the last paragraph of this great chapter. This is an incredibly wonderful paragraph. It's been called by some a hymn of assurance. It's been called a song of triumph. One Bible scholar called this paragraph the highest peak in the highest Himalayan range of Scripture. Another one called it the highest plateau in the whole of divine revelation. Paul begins in verse 31, as it were, by taking this deep breath and then exclaiming, What shall we then say to these things? What are we going to do about these things?

Now, what are the these things? Well, certainly it includes the preceding paragraph where Paul has announced the truth of the believer's predestination and the believer's calling and the believer's justification and the believer's glorification. But I would agree with those who have expounded this text in prior generations that Paul here has reached the climax of this letter. This is the midpoint, and this is sort of the peak of his logic and his his argument and his passion related to the gospel of Jesus Christ. He began in chapter one by introducing us to the corruption and depravity of man in chapters one and two, the inexcusability of man, and chapter three, the failure of man, and chapter four, the inability of man to impress God. In chapter five, the origin and inescapability of mankind's sinful nature. In chapter six, the enslavement of man to sin instead of to God. In chapter seven, the conflict that rages even in the life of the believer between sin and spirit. And in chapter eight, now the initiating life giving, electing, calling, redeeming God who moves on our behalf to bring us out of hopelessness and groaning into the light and life of God. Now, what are we going to say about all these things? Seven questions Paul poses in this paragraph, and I've put them into four categories, four categorical declarations or statements, four irrefutable, overwhelming, comprehensive proofs regarding the eternal security of the Christian.

Here's the first one. Because God has delivered you, there isn't anybody who can destroy you. And I want to say that again. Now, as I do, I know there are English teachers and students in this audience and you're not supposed to begin a sentence with the word because. I just like the way it sounds.

And so just don't put a period at the end and we'll pretend it's not a sentence. OK, here it is again. Because God has delivered you, there isn't anybody who can destroy you. Look at verse 31. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is or who can be against us?

With this question, Paul delivers his first declaration. The believer's salvation cannot be destroyed, doubted? Yes. Discouraged? Within it at times? Yes.

But destroyed? Salvation, security, relationship, position, acceptance, status? Never.

Ever. You might write into the margin of your Bible next to that little word if so it doesn't trip you up. The other translation of that word could be since. Since God is for us. The little Greek particle epsilon iota i translated if doesn't refer to a possibility of something happened.

It refers to a fulfilled condition. You could actually again use the word because. Because God is with us, who can be against us? Now, the obvious implication here is that if anybody were able to rob us of our salvation, they would have to be greater than God. And who is greater than God? Since there isn't anybody greater than God who both gave and sustains our salvation, then conceivably there isn't anybody powerful enough to take it away.

It's as if Paul is shouting out this question to the universe. Is there anybody stronger than God? Well, I guess not. Then who can be against us? Well, how about other people?

Let's think about some possibilities. Can other people take away our salvation? Well, most of the people reading this letter, by the way, were Jewish and would be well aware of the Judaizing heresy that taught that by legalistic Jews claiming to be Christians who insisted the Gentiles who said they were saved had to be circumcised. They had to adhere to the mosaic law, including circumcision. If they wanted to become part of God's people, they had to adhere to law. They had to go back into that covenant. They had to look like and act like a Jew.

So they were robbed of their security. Unless they fulfilled some act of obedience to the law or some duty, they could not be secure in their faith. And ladies and gentlemen, I want to tell you that some things never change.

They never change. Today, there are Protestant denominations that want to add to the work of God by requiring some work of men, such as baptism, in order to ensure their salvation. I mean, didn't Peter say repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sin? Yes, but that little word for, gar, could be rendered because of or in light of or as a result of. Repent and be baptized as a result of having had your sins remitted.

You could read it. The Roman Catholic Church teaches that salvation can be lost by committing mortal sins as if some sins aren't fatal. If any sin isn't fatal, the Roman church also claims the power and authority to revoke grace. That is, they can take it away.

They not only dispense it, but they can remove it. Well, these that teach the works of man add like the Pharisees to the word of God through Christ. There isn't any support in scripture anywhere that gives any church or any individual the right to take away anybody's salvation. The apostle Paul is implying in this verse to do that, you would have to be greater than God, for God has initiated salvation and he has promised to preserve the believer to the very end. Jesus said in John 10, my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give eternal life to them and they shall never perish.

Apollo me. They shall never be lost. Not one of them lost. Christ goes on to say, my father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. There's the same word. He is greater than anybody and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hands. In other words, anybody who is capable of taking your salvation away would have to be greater than God and more powerful to loosen his grip upon you. And since no one is greater or more powerful than God to loosen his grip upon you, nobody can take it away. Somebody might say, well, couldn't God give it away? Couldn't God lose you? Couldn't you slip out of God's hand?

Couldn't he change his mind? Well, for God to do that, that would require God to have failed. The triune God who chose us and called us and redeemed us and immersed us into Christ's life and imputed to us the righteousness of Christ and sealed us with his spirit and on and on and on and on. If he then decided to cast you out after doing all of that for you would require failure on his part to finish the last part of his promise that he would glorify and see you through. That's his argument in the very next verse, verse 32.

He who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all. How will he not also with him freely give us all things? That is a greater to lesser argument. In other words, if God is able to give us this great gift, he can give us little gifts.

It is this way. Suppose a millionaire comes up to you after the service and says, I want to give you a thousand dollars. If he can give you a thousand dollars, could he give you a nickel?

Well, sure, if he can do the greater, he can do the lesser. That's Paul's argument. If God would give his only son to die, can he not give you life? Well, some would say that God could give us away.

Well, if God gives us away, it would be failure on his part. But it would also require disunity among the Godhead. The son would need to change the eternal will of the father. The father would have to change the mind of the son who even now intercedes for us. They both would have to convince the spirit to somehow unseal us. If the father sent his son to sacrifice himself for you when you were an enemy of God, and they had agreed upon that, by the way, before the foundation of the world, that Christ would redeem the father's chosen people. Yet after the work of Christ is completed and the spirit who now continues to fulfill that work and that process ultimately bringing us to glorification with him in heaven, for the father to even reject any one of us, that would bring about great confusion in the Trinity. That would bring about great disunity.

And they have never voted any other way than unanimously on everything. But you would be the special case. And that would never happen. Well, others would add to this and say that, well, you can lose your salvation by committing some terrible sin. Well, the person or church that believes this doesn't understand the depravity and sinfulness of man to begin with. The person or church that believes this doesn't understand or believe the calling of the father of true believers. He doesn't understand or believe the initiating redeeming work of Christ independently of good works. You didn't do anything good to get it.

You won't do anything bad to lose it. It was the work of God on your behalf bringing you to life. In other words, since you were not saved by your own power or effort to decide now you're going to free yourself from sin, you're going to bring yourself to God, you're going to make yourself the child of God. God has done all of that. How then could it be that by your effort you can now nullify the work of God in his grace in accomplishing salvation for you? This is going to be shocking, but I want to say this. Even the Christian is not greater than God. Imagine that. But there are others who suggest a fourth possible cause of losing your salvation, and that is the Christian himself can choose to return the gift. He's kind of handed back.

Exchange it for something better or different. The individual who thinks they can return salvation for God or never learned that we came to God because God first what? Came to us. We love God because God first what?

Loved us. So the argument starts with the wrong person. And I want to add this. The so-called Christian who hands their salvation in and wants to exchange it for something that fits them better never had it to begin with. Anybody who doesn't want it proves they never had it. They are the one that seems to have fallen on good soil. There seems to be a little life there. But then things come along and they're scorched. They they fade away.

They say, well, you know, I really didn't want it to begin with and I've walked away from it all. They never had the genuine article to begin with. Now, that doesn't mean that a Christian can't backslide or sin or disobey or even deny the Lord temporarily. The disciples did all of that, right? But the individual who says they were once a Christian, but now they are happily reunited with the world and the flesh and the devil. And they're happy to be there.

They never had the light to begin with. Maybe, you know, somebody like that. They used to go to church. Maybe they even talked about the Lord. But now you run into them on the street or in the classroom or the neighborhood or whatever. And they say, you know, I really don't care about any of that. I was there once, but I guess I lost it.

No, they're revealing that they never had it because they prefer to have nothing to do with it. You know, we have a we have a dog at home named Patches. She's a beagle basset hound mix. Well, yesterday my oldest daughter gave her a bath. She immediately runs around outside looking for something to roll in, something that is counterproductive to the fact that she had a bath. We have a horse pasture behind us connected to our backyard, and she loves nothing more than running out there and finding some old dried manure to roll around in.

She rolls around and runs back. I'm convinced she is totally depraved and unredeemed. I'm sure of it. She evidently prefers that to the perfume smell of shampoo. She likes that better. Demas hath forsaken me, Paul lamented, having what? Loved this present world. He loves the world.

That's his true love. He would rather have the love of the world than the love of the Lord. You don't experience the fresh release of guilt from sin and then decide you want the stench of guilt back again. You don't hunger and thirst after God and then entirely forever altogether lose your appetite for God. You don't live in the light of heaven and be happy with living in the light of hell or the darkness of the underworld. You don't fellowship with the saints and understand as you sing the praises of God and then later despise the church of the living Lord.

You don't walk with him and commune with him and depend on him and trust in him and then say, I don't even need him anymore. That's the individual John had in mind when he wrote of some who had left the fellowship in 1 John 2 19. They went out from us, but they were not really of us, for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us.

But they went out in order that it might be revealed that they all were not of us. For the true believer, Paul declares, no one can destroy what God has done. No church, no person, no tradition, no rule, no regulation. Not even the Christian himself nor God will ever nullify what God has done. Listen, eternal life is eternal. It's eternal and you don't have to wait till you get to heaven to begin experiencing eternal life. You have it now. Whether or not you believe this, I still would say that you've probably never gone up to somebody and said, hey, look, I'd just like to share with you about the gift of temporary life.

Can I share that with you? I just want you to understand a little bit more of the doctrine of eternal insecurity. Now, before we leave this first declaration, I want to show you a play on words here in verse 32 that Paul uses.

His Jewish readers would have immediately caught on those who knew Greek and had read the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew text. Beginning in verse 32, you have the phrase, he who did not spare his own son. Those words are taken right out of the book of Genesis chapter 22, where we have the story of Abraham's faith in regard to sacrificing his only son, Isaac. Genesis 22 16 says, because you have done this and have not spared your only son, I will bless you.

Now, the irony of this story and the use of Paul's words would not have been lost on his Roman readers. Abraham, you remember, had been commanded by God to offer his only son as a burnt offering to God. And Isaac, as they're walking up Mount Moriah, Isaac asked his daddy, where's the lamb for the offering? And Abraham said to him, God will provide the lamb.

Right. Which God never did. He provided a ram, not a lamb.

So, you know, they went up to the top of Mount Moriah. This was a small ridge of hills and and they fashioned the altar. And evidently somewhere during that, Abraham explained to Isaac what he was going to do. And Isaac willingly offered himself on that altar. He, a picture of the Lord Jesus, the only son of God, willingly offering himself as the offering of sin for us. We're told that Isaac willingly allowed himself to be placed on this altar.

Evidently trusting what his father told him. We believe since Abraham knew the gospel, he had had it preached to him. We're told that he had explained the resurrection and God's promise through the seed of Abraham, through Isaac. We just believe he probably told the son of the resurrection.

God will bring you back to life. And you know the story how Abraham had raised that dagger and he was about to bring it down when God stopped him speaking from heaven. And he then began to praise the faith of Abraham and the promise of God concerning his seed. What happened next is probably more significant than what had just happened.

Yet it is most often overlooked. Abraham then glorifies God, praises God. They take the ram that was caught in the thick and they offer it there. And then Abraham prophesies by saying, as he names this mount, Jehovah what?

Jireh. The Lord will provide. That's future tense. The Lord is going to provide the lamb. In fact, if you go back to that text, you'll read Abraham said, the Lord on this mount will provide the lamb.

Abraham was speaking of the coming lamb of God who would be slain. And Mount Moriah was among other hills along that ridge just a little distance from Mount Moriah. Centuries later, a city would be built and inhabited off and on by Abraham's descendants, right? A city called what? Jerusalem. By the time of our Lord, that hill on that same ridge nearest the city had been given a slang Aramaic expression because of the way it was shaped. It was now called Golgotha. Ladies and gentlemen, the prophecy of Abraham would come true to the very last detail, including the geography of the promise on this mount the Lord will provide.

It would be on that mount and I can't prove it and I've researched all I can to say it's at that very spot. But it was on that mount on that ridge where the cross would stand and the lamb of God would not be spared. The only son of God would not be spared. The same language that said that the son of Abraham was spared.

A play on words that would take every Jew back to that story. God had designed every detail, every detail that now centuries later was fulfilled. Listen, my friend, God planned your redemption from eternity past and the power of God who redeemed you from the past has already prepared your future.

And he has come back as it were to escort you there. Since God is for us, who can be against us? In other words, Paul is saying there isn't anybody big enough to stop God. There isn't anybody powerful enough to overpower God because God has delivered you.

Nobody can destroy you. Here's the second declaration of your eternal security found in that next verse, verse 33. Because God has acquitted you, there isn't anybody who can indict you. Who will bring a charge against God's elect? Paul asks. God is the one who justifies.

And I love the anticipation of Paul in the life of the saint, the believer, because the enemy might whisper in your ear and maybe he's whispering it even today. Sure, OK, God did everything for you and Jesus died for you. But just look at yourself.

Just look at yourself. You don't deserve heaven. You don't deserve God's grace. You don't deserve forgiveness.

You don't deserve salvation. Job Chapter one informs us that Satan has the ability to accuse the believer before God. In other words, he goes back and forth accusing the saint before the believer. And he comes to us accusing God to us.

Right. In other words, he's saying and maybe even today. Do you see Jim down there? Do you see Susan down there? Do you see Steven down there? Do you see what Jim is thinking? Do you see what Susan has done? Do you see what Steven has done? Do you really want them? You can do better than that.

Why do you want to keep him or her? This is actually legal language. The words bring any charge can be literally rendered a reign before a judge. Are the charges real?

You bet they are. Add to that our consciences, our past, our present, the understanding of our sinful struggle, even in the future. We would certainly be indicted, but wait, Paul says we're acquitted. He provides the answer in the latter part of verse 33 of the High Court of Heaven. It is God who justifies.

He answers that legal argument with a legal word, justification. It means for a judge to declare righteous or sinless as it were. It is God who takes sinners and calls them saints. Even though they continue to sin.

It is God who imputes to bankrupt sinners the righteousness of Christ's own personal account. In other words, God says to the accuser, you cannot tell me anything new about Jim, Susan, or Steven. I already know that.

I already know that. And when I justified Jim and Susan and Steven, I knew the sins they had committed before they were saved. And I know the sins they're going to commit after they are saved. But my salvation is not dependent upon them sinning less or not sinning at all. I justified them. I declared them righteous before me.

So you can't tell me anything new. I know everything about them. And my son paid for everything about them. Past sin, present sin, future sin. All bundled up and placed upon the son. And my son, God the judge says, has paid this comprehensive entire all expenses, entire payment for their sin upon his payment. I declare them justified. They are clean in my sight by his blood.

1 John 1 to 7. In our country, if somebody is found guilty, they will immediately do what? They're going to appeal, right?

And this is Paul's idea. How can anybody bring a charge to God's elect when the highest court in the universe has exonerated them? When the highest judge has declared you justified? There isn't any higher court to overrule God's court. There isn't any more powerful judge to overrule God the judge. He says if, he says, God has taken the gavel in his hand and he has brought it crashing down upon his sovereign bench and the sound of it rings throughout the universe and his verdict will never ever be reversed.

Your case is closed forever. I hope the truth of this passage encourages you today. You've been listening to Wisdom for the Heart and our teacher, Stephen Davey. Stephen has a short booklet on this topic called Blessed Assurance. Today, we're sending a free copy of that book to everyone who makes their first contact with our ministry. We'd also like to send you the next three issues of our magazine. If you've never contacted us before, all you need to do is give us a call at 866-48-Bible. Again, that's 866-48-Bible. Call today. Stephen's going to continue through this series next time, so please be with us then right here on Wisdom for the Heart. .