The Five Points of Security

Paul writes, adding to our assurance, Christ is the one who died, yes rather, who was raised. You can render that word rather, but more than that.

I love what he says here. In other words, Jesus Christ died, but even more than that, he came back from the dead. Over a thousand men we know from historical record were crucified the same year our Lord was crucified, but none of them ever arose from the dead afterward.

If he were not raised, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, their faith would be null and void. The salvation that's offered in Christ is freely given, but it cost Christ his life. And Jesus Christ sees to it that your salvation is eternally secure. The Apostle Paul wanted all believers to know and understand eternal security, so he taught it several different ways. In the passage we examine today, he gives five airtight reasons why a believer's salvation is secure. Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart.

Stephen Davey is calling the message you're about to hear, the five points of security. Grab your Bible if you're able, and let's join Stephen right now. By the time of Paul's letter to the Romans, the religion of Buddhism had been in the empire for some 20 to 25, maybe as long as 30 years. And so the question this religion asks in every other man-made religion in the world asks is, how are you doing to make it to heaven for the religionist? How are you doing to earn paradise for the Jew? How are you doing in your faithful living to gain the third heaven for the Mormon? How are you doing to reach this nirvana, this state of divine consciousness?

How are you doing? And because it basically points to you, and you will never be able to do well enough, you are left with doubt about your eternal destination. But you open your Bibles to chapter 8 of Romans, and you may have noticed that verse 1, verse number 1 begins with the words, no condemnation. And it ends the chapter in verse 39 with no separation.

You can't get any more secure than that. You discover your security is not in how you did, but in what God did for you. Not in how you are doing, but in what God has done and is doing and will do for the one who has been born again by faith in Jesus Christ. Listen to John's confidence as he wrote in 1 John 5, these things I have written unto you believe in the name of the Son of God in order that you may what? In order that you may know that you have eternal life.

That you may know, not think so, hope so, maybe so, but know so. Listen to the clarity and confidence of John as he writes, this is the testimony. God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

He who has the Son has life. And he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. And you need to burn into the margins of your minds the words absolute confidence in God, not in you, but in God. Perhaps as you read the confidence of John and the security given to us in Paul, perhaps like others that have talked to me already today, you say to yourself, but what do I do about my doubting?

And I have had people over the years ask me, what do I do with the struggle that I have? I have a religion in my past that told me my confidence in God was dependent upon how I live my week, how many prayers I prayed, how many sins I resisted. So I doubt the truth of God's word even though I have placed my faith in Christ alone. I find it hard to speak with this kind of confidence like John, would my doubting ever cause me to lose my salvation? Does my doubting mean I don't have it?

I want to have another preacher answer that question for you, at least in this assembly today. His name was Henry Drummond, and in 1887 he preached a wonderful sermon entitled Dealing with Doubt. Here's what he said, Jesus Christ never failed to distinguish between doubt and unbelief. Doubt says I can't believe like that. Unbelief says I won't believe that. Doubt is honesty. Unbelief is obstinacy. Doubt may be looking for the light. Unbelief is loving the darkness.

Loving darkness rather than the light. This is what Christ attacked and attacked unsparingly. But for the doubting questions of Thomas and Philip and Nicodemus and many others who came to him to have their questions answered, he was generous in teaching them the truth. When Thomas came to him having denied the resurrection, doubting the life of Christ, and stood before the resurrected Christ expecting scathing words and a tongue lashing for his unbelief, they never came.

They never came. Instead, Jesus Christ showed him the facts. He gave him the facts. We cannot produce faith in those of you this morning who do not believe, but we can provide the facts for you who do believe, and your faith will grow stronger. For those of you here who do not believe, I want you to be saved. It is my longing and desire that you come to faith in Christ alone.

For those of you who do believe, I want you to be strong. I think that's what Paul had in mind as he comes to this paragraph. He says in effect, listen to the facts. Verse 31, what then shall we say to these things? What are we going to say about this truth? If God is for us, who is against us, 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? Now these questions in effect state of the first fact of our eternal security. And here it is again, because God has delivered you, there isn't anyone who can destroy you.

We dealt with that in our last session. Read on to verse 33. Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies. Here's the second fact we noted, because God has acquitted you, there isn't anybody who can indict you.

In other words, there isn't anybody that can bring up new evidence. And God will say, oh, I didn't know about that. But now that I know that, that changes everything. No, God is omniscient.

He knew everything about you from time beginning to time ending. And he has justified you by faith in his son, Jesus Christ. The third fact I want to give you this morning, and then we're going to race through the fourth, probably go back to it next Lord's Day, is this. Jesus Christ redeemed you because of that there isn't anyone who can condemn you because Jesus Christ redeemed you there isn't anybody who can condemn you and I love what Paul does here. Look at verse 34. Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died? Yes, rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God who also intercedes for us? Now you can approach this verse two different ways. And either way is fine.

And I'm not going to have you decide they're both wonderful ways to approach it. Paul might be thinking this, who can condemn you since Jesus Christ died for you rose and intercedes for you? Or Paul might be thinking of it this way, who can condemn you? And then he assumes that you're going to answer Well, Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ has been given the authority we learned from other scripture to condemn all the unbelieving world. Jesus Christ, we're told in John has been given by the Father the right to judge so that they will honor the Son, even as they honor the Father, John 5 22 and 23. What John informs us is then the final judgment of all the nations, all the unredeemed humanity is given to this judge this ascended resplendent Son of God, judgment that will eternally vindicate his holy righteousness and perfect justice. So what Paul might be saying is this, who can condemn you by Jesus Christ, he is the only one who has the right and authority. But Jesus Christ is the one who died for you and rose for you and intercedes for you before the Father, either way you take it, it's a win win. No one that even Christ himself will condemn you. In other words, men and women, what he's saying is the one with the authority to condemn you died for you. The one with the right to eternally denounce you and dismiss you has delivered you. Now Paul substantiates this fact of eternal security in this one verse alone with five different points. The first let's look back at it again, Jesus Christ died. He died.

It wasn't some mistake. This was part of God's eternal plan. Philippians two tells us in verse eight, Paul writes, he became obedient unto the point of death, even death on a cross.

Our security is bound up. It is based upon that incredible blood shedding life giving offering. Our security is based upon his sacrifice. James Montgomery Boyce provoked my thinking in his commentary on this text. He wrote this. If Paul were one of our contemporary Bible teachers or modern theologians, he might answer our doubting of God's love by saying, now you don't need to worry about your eternal future because remember God loves you and God is love.

But Paul was a pastor. He knew full well that we all easily doubt such statements, particularly when life becomes difficult. We might say, well, I grant that God is love, but does he really love me? How can I believe he loves me when I have lost my job or destitute?

My husband or wife has left me for someone else. When I have been diagnosed with some incurable disease, these are the times when I don't feel that God loves me or that even cares about me at all. Paul knew, Boyce wrote that mere assurances that God loves us are not effective. So instead of dealing with our doubting on the emotional level, which is what God loves you does, he turns from emotional experience to sure truth. According to this verse, we can know that God is for us and that we are redeemed, not because we somehow sense that it is his nature to be loving, but because he gave us his son to die for us. Look at the facts, he says.

I love that perspective, a perspective that was lived out in the life of the man I read about recently in Dundee, Scotland, who had been confined to his bed for 40 years, having broken his neck in a fall at age 15. His spirit remained unbroken, a believer in Jesus Christ, his cheer and his courage were just infectious. And it so inspired people that he enjoyed a constant stream of visitors, even those that came to him for encouragement. One day a visitor asked him, doesn't Satan ever tempt you to doubt the love of God? How can you believe God loves you? Does Satan ever whisper that in your ear? And he said, oh, yes, I lie here. And sometimes as I see my old schoolmates now grown up with families driving along, Satan will come along and say, if God loves you, why did he allow this?

And the guest asked him, what do you say when those thoughts are whispered to you? Ah, replied the invalid, I take him to Calvary and I show him Jesus Christ. I point to the wounds of Christ and I say, there, he loves me.

We don't just believe that God loves us, we have proof. This undeniable event in history that reveals the love of God. Number two, Jesus Christ not only died, he rose from the dead. Paul writes, adding to our assurance, Christ is the one who died. Yes, rather, who was raised.

You can render that word rather, but more than that, I love what he says here. In other words, Jesus Christ died, but even more than that, he came back from the dead. And that is so important, obviously, because without the resurrection from the dead of Jesus Christ, there would be no salvation for those of us who believe in him. If he were not raised, Paul wrote to the Corinthians, our faith would be null and void. Ladies and gentlemen, thousands of people were crucified.

It was the favorite form of execution by the Roman government. Over a thousand men we know from historical record were crucified the same year our Lord was crucified, but none of them ever arose from the dead afterward. Only he did that. He rose from the dead. I wonder if it was in Paul's mind. Buddha did not. His tomb is full of dust, but Christ is empty. I would rather follow someone who claimed to know how to get into eternity. And that's someone having come back to show us that he did it than someone who never did it, as far as we can tell.

There's even more to our security than this. Paul goes on and tells us 30 not only died and rose again, but he ascended. He ascended. The text tells us to the right hand of God.

This is the position of power and representative authority. This doesn't mean that Christ isn't God. It literally means Christ speaks as God. He is given the power and the authority of trying God. Colossians one verses 15 and 19 tell us that Jesus Christ is the embodiment of deity.

One day when we see God, we'll be looking at Jesus Christ, the father and spirit are still invisible to our human eye. He speaks, he judges, he rules for and with the authority of triune God. That's where he is seated. And that leads me to the fourth thing.

And that is this. Our case will never be reopened before the divine judge because Jesus Christ, we're told, is seated. Now it simply says in this text, he is at the right hand of God.

If you go outside of this text to others, you get a little more detail. Listen, as I read what he wrote to the Ephesians and God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms. Paul wrote to the Colossian believers, since then you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated.

This is a significant concept missed by us in the 21st century. The Jews then knew immediately and would to some degree know today what he means with these words regarding Jesus's physical arrangement. He doesn't mean that Jesus never stands up or he gets to walk around, nor is this some trivial detail.

You need to understand what every Jewish reader understood. In the temple, there were no chairs. There were no seats in the holy place.

Why? Because the priest was never finished. So he stood and he walked and he moved and he labored, sacrificing over and over again before the presence of an unsatisfied God. But Jesus Christ, our great high priest finished the redemptive work and satisfied the holiness of God. The father and Christ is now what?

He's seated. Hebrews 10, 11 announces this difference. And I quote, and every priest speaking of the Old Testament stands daily ministering and offering time after time, the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But he, Christ, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down. The significance is there are no seats in the temple.

There are no finished works there. But there is a seat in the high court of heaven. And the great high priest finished forever the work of redemption on our behalf. And he now is seated, signifying he rests from his labor on our behalf. Well, he's still doing something for us, though, not to redeem us, but because we are redeemed.

And that's the fifth thing you think Paul had said enough. But he goes on to give us a fifth assurance of our salvation. He informs us in the latter part of verse 34 that Jesus Christ is presently interceding for us.

What rich truth. What amazing truth about our comprehensive, complete, incorruptible, irrefutable, unstoppable deliverance. Jesus Christ is interceding for you, the believer. One preacher asked, if you knew Jesus was in the next room praying for you, would it make a difference? Would it? Would it make a difference if you could hear him? Would it make a difference if when you left today and you walked out through the lobby, there was Jesus Christ kneeling at a chair praying?

And as you walked by, you heard him mention your name. Would it make a difference in how you lived? Would it make a difference? Wouldn't it fill your heart with joy? Wouldn't it fill your heart with hope? Wouldn't it give you courage?

Wouldn't it overwhelm you with sorrow for sin that you may be leaving here today, cherishing? We're told he is interceding for us. Would the Father ever deny the intercessory prayer of his son who now defends and intercedes on our behalf? Is it conceivable that the Father would ever refuse to hear his son pray?

Didn't his son say? In John 11 42, as he began to pray, Father, I know that you always hear me. John writes in 1 John 2, 1, the Son of God speaks to the Father in our defense. On earth, the Spirit is pleading for us, in us, and the Son above us in heaven is interceding and defending us and our cause. Listen, for someone to condemn you now would mean that Christ's defense of you was ineffective, that the Spirit's safeguard over you was unsuccessful, and that is inconceivable.

They will succeed. Paul has delivered the facts because God has delivered you. There isn't anybody who can destroy you first, second, because God has acquitted you.

There isn't anybody who can indict you. Third, since Christ has redeemed you, there is no one who can condemn you. And here are the five proofs. He died, he rose from the dead, he ascended, he sat down, and he now intercedes for the believer. Now Paul anticipates the very next thought that could come from his reader. Since it's obvious that Christ has the believer securely wrapped up, he died, he rose, he ascended, he seated, he intercedes for the believer, it's obvious that the Father is satisfied. But what happens if Jesus Christ decides he doesn't want to intercede for you anymore? What happens if Jesus decides to stop loving you? I mean, he's tired of you. You're told he's praying for you and yet you walk out there and you continue to live like you live. Suppose he stops loving you, those who are truly redeemed. This is Paul's fourth fact.

Let me give it to you. Because Christ loves us eternally, there isn't anything that can separate us eternally. Notice verse 35. Here's what he says.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? And then he's just going to let his inspired imagination run. He's going to come up with about 17 things.

And I've got room and time for seven very quickly. Shall tribulation separate us? And he expects the answer? No. Or distress? No.

Persecution? No. Famine? No. Nakedness? No. Peril? No. Sword?

No. And by the way, would you notice as we race through those that all of those things are things that might cause you to stop loving him. But our security isn't based on our love for him. It's his love for us, right? They will never cause the Lord to stop loving the believer no matter what your response to them even might be. And I want you to know here, Paul is no armchair theologian. He isn't some best-selling author trying to make all the Christians feel better. Now if you look at the list, Paul has experienced every one of them except one.

Look again. Tribulation. This word refers to a heavy sled that was designed, used in the first century to be drug across wheat separating the chaff and the grain. It's the Latin word tribulum.

That was what the sled was called, a wonderful transliterated word for us, tribulation. And don't you feel that way at times? You feel the life is just rolling over you.

It is just crushing the life out of you. Paul used that word often. He felt that way often. The next word in his list is distress. Knock off the first two letters and you actually have a great word describing what the Greek word meant, stress.

It's a compound Greek word that means narrow space, confined, pressured in, squeezed in. You ever felt like that? With your obligations and your responsibilities and your duties and the details of life, right? Maybe you're in a dead end job and you're squeezed.

Maybe because you don't have a job. Maybe you're surrounded by small children and that makes for a very narrow space, right? Confined. It's a condition we all feel at times. In fact, it is our human nature to feel that way. You ever wonder why advertisements pander to our need and want for what? Freedom. To just be loose, be free. It doesn't matter what they're advertising.

It could be soap for the laundry. It'll show a commercial of a woman out in a big beautiful field hanging sheets on a long line. Who hangs sheets on a line and who owns a big beautiful field? But it panders to our, oh, she's free.

Wow. Automobile advertisements. They don't show people in parking lots and in traffic jams. You're on the Blue Ridge Parkway and the leaves are blowing and you're free. You've seen that commercial of that Chevy, that new Chevy pickup truck. It's a convertible.

Is that the greatest invention ever? I mean, that's freedom. Excuse me. Better get back to the text here.

All right. Number three is the word persecution, which I don't want to bring about any my way. Well, this is being rejected or mocked or abandoned or mistreated because of your faith. The next two words in the list are virtually unheard of by the American believer. Famine, number four.

And number five, nakedness. Literally not having anything to eat, not having anything to wear. But I want you to know around the world, the believer is suffering from this. They don't know where they're going to get their next meal from. They struggled for water. They don't have a change of clothing. And so they're reading today in their worship service and maybe they're studying when it gets to famine and nakedness, they're going to sit on the edge of their seat.

That's them. And they might be led to believe maybe God doesn't love us. Maybe Jesus doesn't love us anymore.

We're hungry. Paul says, even that can separate you from the love of Christ. Number six, peril. That word means danger.

We may not be in danger of physical persecution or danger because of our faith, but in effect, that danger is real because we are believers, right? We are to be alert to the danger of our enemy, the roaring lion who prowls about seeking. The context is believers whom he may what?

Devour, literally discredit. Finally, the word sword appears. That's the only one Paul hasn't experienced yet, but he will. He will experience all seven when he eventually is beheaded by the Emperor Nero. Ladies and gentlemen, you don't need to hope for reincarnation. You don't work your way into the third heaven. You don't earn your way into paradise. You don't suffer your way out of purgatory. You don't strive to become free of desire and become one with divine consciousness. No, you come to Jesus Christ and find that he has finished the work. You find that he is no longer dead, but ascended, not only ascended, but he sits resplendent in his glory, defending your cause, taken a seat for you.

If you have received him, you never need fear for nothing and no one can ever separate you from the love of this risen, ascended, interceding, sovereign savior. And I want to say you paid him nothing for his love. You paid him nothing. You had nothing to offer him, but we owe him everything.

Don't we? Because of his love, we owe him everything. Thanks for joining us today on Wisdom for the Heart. Today's lesson comes from Steven Davies teaching series entitled Blessed Assurance.

This particular message is called The Five Points of Security. In addition to producing these daily Bible lessons, we also publish a magazine. Each issue features a specific topic related to the Christian life. In the past we've explored topics such as a literal six-day creation, the importance of thankfulness, how to study the scriptures, how can we face trials and difficulties in a way that honors God. Each issue also includes a devotional guide for that month.

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