Secure Forever - Clairlea Park Presbyterian



Secure ForeverRomans 8.28-39A sermon preached by Rev. Dr. Kevin Livingston, Clairlea Park Presbyterian ChurchMarch 29, 202028?And we know that in all things God works for the good?of those who love him, who have been called?according to his purpose.?29?For those God foreknew?he also predestined?to be conformed to the image of his Son,?that he might be the firstborn?among many brothers and sisters.?30?And those he predestined,?he also called;?those he called, he also justified;?those he justified, he also glorified.31?What, then, shall we say in response to these things??If God is for us,?who can be against us??32?He who did not spare his own Son,?but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things??33?Who will bring any charge?against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.?34?Who then is the one who condemns??No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God?and is also interceding for us.35?Who shall separate us from the love of Christ??Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword??36?As it is written:“For your sake we face death all day long;???we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37?No, in all these things we are more than conquerors?through him who loved us.38?For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future,?nor any powers,?39?neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God?that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.Well, how’s everyone doing in this second week of physical isolation? Are you spending more time on the phone talking or keeping up with the news on TV or catching up on your reading or watching movies and Netflix? I’ve been scrambling to put the courses I teach at Tyndale Seminary online, and so I’ve actually been a little busier than normal. One of the things this Coronavirus time has revealed is that many of us don’t feel as safe and secure as we used to. When Irene and I go for a walk outside, we’re leery of getting too close to the people passing by us on the sidewalk. And when I go shopping to the grocery store, there’s big screens in place to separate me from the cashier, and tape on the floor to tell me where to stand so I keep six feet away from the next person in line. It fields strange. And it gives me a twinge of fear and trepidation. Is there any place that’s really safe and secure anymore? We used to think our homes were safe, but every time we get the mail or a package delivered from Amazon, I wonder what’s on the package or the person who’s delivered it. We used to think our hospitals were safe and secure, but just ask the staff and patients in New York City and other places over these last several weeks in light of the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus. What an ironic situation we’re facing right now that some of us fear getting sick if we go into the hospital! It’s not supposed to be that way. Is there any place that’s truly safe? We like to build an illusion of safety and security around us, but the reality is that our world can be a very painful, scary place.The apostle Paul knew that. He was no pie-in-the-sky optimist, telling people “Don’t worry, be happy.” Paul would be the last person to say that once you become a Christian all your problems will be over. On one occasion he listed some of the trials he had to put up with. He spoke - among other things - of being thrown into prison and flogged, of being exposed to death again and again, of shipwrecks, dangers, and sleepless nights (see 2 Corinthians 11.23-29). In other words, the walk of faith is no bed of roses. You don’t experience the triumph of Easter Sunday until you walk through the agony of Good Friday. Yet all the suffering we endure in the present time isn’t worthy of comparing with the glory that awaits God’s children, those who have been adopted into God’s family by faith in his Son. And even as we live in this time of hopeful waiting, we are supported by the prayers of the Spirit for us; and the knowledge that in all things, God is working for our good. And best of all, there is no one and no thing in all creation that can separate us from God’s love. That’s the message of Romans chapter 8, which I’d like to share with us right now. Romans 8:28-39Our passage begins with a central affirmation in Romans 8.28: In all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” This verse doesn’t mean that all the things that happen to us are good. That’s patently false. Cancer isn’t good. The breakup of a relationship isn’t good. The constant physical pain some of you live with 24 hours a day isn’t good. But what this verse affirms is that for put their hope and trust in the Lord, God can take those things that are adverse and painful – the groans, the persecution, the pain, the heartache, and even death itself - and bring profit out of it.This promise in Romans 8.28 likewise doesn’t mean that things always work out in a comfortable, convenient way for us. Rather, the ‘good’ Paul talks about here is that when God acts on our behalf, he allows even the difficult and painful experiences in your life to help in the process of your salvation.When it comes to dealing with the challenges and adversities that life throws at us, we need to learn the lesson that a dad once taught his daughter – the lesson of the coffee bean.A daughter complained to her dad about how hard things were for her. "As soon as I solve one problem," she said, "another one comes up. I'm tired of struggling."Her father, who was a chef, took her into the kitchen where he filled three pots with water and placed each on a hot burner. Soon the water in all three pots came to a boil. In one he placed carrots, in the second, eggs, and in the last, ground coffee beans. He let them sit and boil, without saying a word. The daughter impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. After a while, he went over and turned off the burners. He fished out the carrots and put them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and put them in a bowl too. Then he poured the ground coffee beans that had become coffee into a mug. Turning to her he asked, "Darling, what do you see?" And she replied: “Dad, I see carrots, eggs, and coffee.”He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she felt a hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. She smiled, as she tasted its rich flavor. She asked, "What are you trying to say, Dad?" He explained that each of them had faced the same adversity—boiling water—but each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong and hard, but after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg was fragile. Its thin, outer shell had protected its liquid interior but after sitting through the boiling water for five minutes, its inside hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. By being placed in the boiling water, they transformed the water, giving it a rich aroma and flavour.He asked his daughter, "When adversity knocks on your door, when problems come into your life, which one are you like?" Are you weakened like the carrot? Or hardened like the egg? Or are you transforming the situation you’re in like the coffee? Citation: From the Internet; submitted by Eric Reed, managing editor, Leadership JournalThe point of Romans 8.28 is that God is able to take everything that comes into our lives -- the good and the bad, the exciting and the dull, the pleasurable and the painful, the joyful and the tragic -- and God can use all of them to work for our ultimate good, for our salvation. Not to weaken us like a limp carrot or to harden us like a boiled egg -- God is able to transform us, and make something beautiful, something pleasing, something fragrant, out of your life and mine. Moving to verses 29 and 30, Paul goes on to affirm God’s great plan for his people, the church. And the central thrust of this section is that God is in control of the process of our salvation from start to finish.Even before the world was created, God knew who would have faith (Eph. 1.4; 2 Tim. 1.9). In the Old Testament, the word “know” is a relationship word. To know someone is to be in relationship with that person, and not merely to know facts about him or her. For God to know someone is for him to love and have a purpose for that person. And as you put your faith and trust in Christ, you are living out God’s purpose for your life, a destiny that God has planned from before the beginning of time! And in due course, you were called by God when you heard the gospel and responded in faith; you were put back in a right relationship with him and were justified, just as if you’d never sinned – that’s how God looks on those who put their whole trust and faith in Jesus Christ to save them. And what’s the goal of that salvation that God is working out in his people? It’s “to be conformed to the likeness of his son,” says Paul, to become like Jesus in our character and values and outlook, in the way we think and feel and respond to others. And the final link in this chain is God’s promise to glorify his people. Paul speaks of it in the past tense here because it’s as good as done; it’s guaranteed because of what God’s already done. Yet our experience of this glorification is still in the future, that time when our salvation is complete in heaven.Now the question arises – how, precisely, does God foreknow and predestine and call and justify? What’s the balance between God’s sovereignty and human responsibility? The Bible surely affirms both of these things. But the point Paul makes here is simply that God is in control of our salvation from start to finish. From eternity past to eternity future, God has been the primary one initiating the process. That doesn’t make us passive puppets on a string. We have a genuine response to make; but God is the initiator in the drama of salvation. And rather than speculate with my puny mind how this can be, I think it’s more fruitful to find comfort in the fact that God is in ultimate control.When we face painful or challenging circumstances, it’s easy to feel out of control. We begin to wonder if anyone’s running the universe. But these verses remind us that God is in control of the process. It’s not up to me to try harder or to be perfect -- God is the one doing the saving, from start to finish. With that summary of God’s saving work in verses 29 and 30, Paul goes on to raise a series of questions. In this awesome, eloquent passage, Paul hurls out a challenge to anyone or anything that would oppose believers, and his challenge is this – Nothing -- Absolutely nothing -- can separate those who trust God from God’s love.Notice how Paul begins in verse 31. “What then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?” Obviously, these are rhetorical questions. They are asked for effect and expect no answer. J. B. Phillips translates the first question: “In the face of all this, what is there left to say?” God’s provision for his children leaves us speechless! With God on our side it couldn’t matter less who might be against us. Like a small boy in the company of his big, strong older brother, we can walk through life unconcerned about the opposition and the bullies that would terrify us if we were all alone. Because God is for us, says Paul. That’s the heart of the good news. He took the initiative and came to our aid. Even when as sinners we rejected his love, “Christ died for us” (Rom. 5.8). And since God loves us, and Christ died for us, and the Spirit “intercedes for us,” as Paul says earlier in chapter 8, it can rightly be said that the entire Holy Trinity – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit – is entirely on our side. No wonder Paul writes, “What is there left to say?”Notice Paul doesn’t ask, “Who is against us?” In response, he could name many enemies. There’s a hostile pagan society surrounding him, and Satan, and the sinful inner nature he still wrestles with inside of himself, and the great foe Death. Instead, he prefaces his question with a grand assertion that “God is for us,” and then asks “who can be against us?” And all these potential enemies fade into relative obscurity and insignificance. They lose their power, in light of God’s infinitely greater power.I don't know what your experience was in school, but many of us certainly had to face a bully or two over the years. We knew he would be waiting on the corner for us, and we would plan our strategy of how to avoid him. Some of us had the luxury of having a friend in school who was older, bigger, stronger and tougher, but was on our side. And if we could persuade that friend to accompany us past the corner where the bully stood, we knew we were safe. It did not matter how strong we were, it mattered how strong our friend was. It mattered who was on our side, and if he could ever be persuaded to put out the word to the bullies of the school, “Look, if you mess with that guy, you mess with me,” we had it made. And that’s what it means when we say that God is for us. God says, ‘if you mess with that guy or that gal, you’re messing with me! God for us is much more than a theological statement. It's something we can know because of what God has done in history to prove it. God did not just say, “I love you.” He showed us. Now look at verse 32. Verse 32 indicates precisely how God is for us. He is for us in that He “did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all.” Paul uses the words that God spoke centuries earlier to Abraham on the occasion of the sacrifice of Isaac. Do you remember what God said just after the angel had kept the knife from coming down? God said: “Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son” (Genesis 22.12). And just as Abraham was willing to give us son in loyal obedience to divine command so also God freely offers up a part of himself – His very own Son – as a sacrifice on our behalf. For you! That’s how much God is for us.The next two questions Paul asks are set in the context of a law court. Verse 33 says: “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies.” In other words, “Who can accuse us?” Who accuses you? Well, the Devil does! Scripture describes him as a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. In Revelation, Satan is called the accuser of the brethren, who accuses believers around the clock, pointing a finger of condemnation against us. He brings to God's attention every flaw, every defect, every sin, every shortcoming, and every weakness you have. And if you’re anything like me, that’s a long list!But what does it matter if he accuses us? “It is God who justifies.” In other words, God is for us, and He justifies us on the basis of our coming to the Cross of Christ and casting ourselves on His mercy. God forgives us because of what Christ has done on the Cross. And if that’s true in your life, does it really matter who accuses you? Your past sins are forgiven. The power of the blood of Christ covers your present sins, even your future sins. So, what does it matter if Satan accuses you? Some people accuse us, too, and perhaps rightly so. The point is not that we need to be perfect. We can’t! The point is that we are forgiven. God is the One who justifies. When we come to God and confess our sins, the Bible says in 1 John 1:9 that “he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” It’s as if God stamps across our sins, “Forgiven.” So, when someone accuses us, God says, “Yes, you’re right, Kevin did do that, but he’s forgiven. My Son Jesus has accepted the penalty for Kevin’s sin.” So what does it matter who accuses you? Should we be intimidated? Should we be fearful? Should we be embarrassed? NO! Who can accuse us? Nobody. Nobody who matters. The next question is, “Who can condemn us?” Verse 34 says, “Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.” The only one who can condemn us is the Lord Jesus Christ, for He is revealed in Scripture as the One who will be the Judge of all the earth. He will be the judge of all people at the end of time. And he is the only one in the universe who has the power to condemn anyone. Yet in verse 34 it says that Jesus who is our judge is also our advocate. He is at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. The only One in the universe who could condemn us is the very One who is advocating for us, forgiving us, interceding for us, dying on the cross for us! So who can condemn us? Nobody! The next question, in verse 35, is “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” Or on down to verses 38 and 39. Can death or the trials and temptations and distractions of life separate us from God? Can spiritual forces get between us and God? Should we be fearing the events in this present age or in the future age to come as if they can determine our destiny? Can anything from the tallest mountaintop height to the lowest ocean depth, keep us from God’s presence?Remember the words of Jesus in John’s gospel: "My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. (John 10:2729). Are any of these potential obstacles powerful enough to separate us from God’s love? According to Jesus the answer is NO! They cannot.Verse 37 says, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” The implied question is, “Who can defeat us?” And the answer again is “Nobody!” Nobody can defeat us. We are “more than conquerors.” The term in the Greek is hyper-conquerors. We are super-abundant conquerors through Christ. And so we hold our heads up high, knowing that we are God's chosen people. He is the King -- and we are the King's Children.We are secure forever in the arms of God, which means that there’s nothing left to fear in this world, even in a time like this. On the basis of what God has done for us in Jesus Christ, on the basis of God’s promises to us, we’ve been made God’s children, secure forever.My brothers and sisters, who can oppose us? No one, because God is for us. Who can accuse us? Nobody, because Jesus Christ has forgiven us. Who can condemn us? No one, because God has already justified us. Who can separate us? Nobody, because God loves us. What can defeat us? Nothing, because God has already given us the victory. Dear friends, this week let’s live in that confidence, and claim that victory, giving all the praise and glory to the God. Amen. ................
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