But for now, let's get in fellowship if we need to, and then have a word of prayer. Father, thanks for this day. Teach us your word. We thank you for your spirit whom you've given us to indwell each one of us. The one who is down payment, who has sealed us until the day of redemption when we get our resurrection body. What security is this? Teach us about eternal security tonight. We pray for those who may be considering this lesson as they come from a position of loss of salvation. And we pray, Lord, that this your word would be the most influential thing in our lives and that you will watch over everything that's said and done tonight. We ask this in Jesus precious name. Amen. OK, Romans is easy as far as outline. It's super organized, super systematic. Right. So we've got condemnation in chapters one. through 320. We've got justification in 321 to 521. We've got sanctification in 61 through 817. We've got glorification in 817 to 839. Then we've got vindication in chapters 9, 10, and 11, and then application in 12 through 16. So it's very organized, and obviously what Paul's trying to do is write something to the Romans in preparation for his first visit there. He really hoped to come. And by writing this book, he's kind of writing down Christianity 101, like the basics of the whole Christian faith. And of course, the first thing you've got to do is show that everybody's lost or condemned. Then you've got to talk about how man is made right with God. That's justification. Then you've got to talk about sanctification. How is the man who is right with God increasingly set apart unto God? And then finally, how is the man who is in the process of being set apart into God, how is he ultimately glorified or put into a resurrection body? And so that's kind of where we are now. We're at the end of the section on glorification, which is the idea that you you ultimately get a resurrection body. We didn't quite finish last time because we got down to verse 33 and we mentioned this phrase, who will bring a charge against God's elect, this word, eclegomai, elect. And I got into that and discussions of. issues all related to election. If you really want to go into all that, I mean, by your grace, you would just allot me, I don't know, five or six months, and then we could just literally spend our time looking at every single passage and every single word that's related. and go through all that. I'm not saying I understand it all. I'm just saying that's the time allotment I would need to be able to develop that for everyone. So then I just apologize because my inadequacy to simply state it in 30 or 40 minutes is quite obvious. So let's back up, look at verse 31. What does Paul say? What then shall we say to these things? Well, what things? Well, the things in verse 29 and 30. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. And these whom he predestined, he also called. And these whom he called, he also justified. These whom he justified, he also glorified. So in verse 29, now these, you know, these are all believers. There's nothing here about any unbeliever. Verse 31's asking, what then are we going to say about these things? The foreknowing, the predestining, the calling, the justifying, the glorifying. What are we going to say about these things? And Paul asks, if God is for who? Us. Who is against who? Us. So it's obviously that we are the ones who are foreknown. We are the ones who are predestined. We are the ones whom he called. We are the ones whom he justified. We are the ones whom he glorified. It doesn't have anything to do with unbelievers. There in verse 29. This is all really an encouragement. Those whom he foreknew refers to believers. He only foreknew believers. He didn't foreknow unbelievers. He only foreknew believers. And what it means is that he has this very close understanding and knowledge of your character and how you will respond in whatever situation. And guess what? He still decided to use you in his plan, despite knowing all those things. That's what the foreknowledge is about. We're gonna see later that he foreknew Israel. And he foreknew Israel, meaning he knew them intimately and he knew their character as a nation. He knew their responses and so forth in every situation that the nation would face. And yet, guess what? He still decided to use them in his purpose for history. So that's the foreknow idea. Predestined has to do with being a believer, being conformed to the image of Christ and resurrection. So predestination has everything to do with being given Ultimately a resurrection body doesn't have anything at all to do with picking certain people to be saved and and Picking other people not to be saved. It just has nothing to do with that When it says he called he also called this is the word actually that means like to name something named He named you he called you named you if you understand the Hebrew Scriptures you understand that many people in the Old Testament Scriptures like Abram He gave a new what? Name. He renamed him. He named him Abraham. Sarai was renamed Sarah. Jacob was renamed Israel. And every time he gave them a new name, the purpose was to demarcate their purpose in his plan. And that's what this is saying. He called you, that means he gave you, in a sense, a new name in the sense that he's now giving you a purpose for your life as a believer. That's what this is about. And he also justified you, that is to credit you or declare you righteous, right? Perfectly righteous. We already saw that in chapter 3. 21 to 521, the doctrine of justification. And he also glorified you and it's viewed as already a completed act. And you think, well, I haven't been glorified yet, but it is as good as done. So Paul says he also glorified you. It's as good as done. It's going to happen. Now, that really is eternal security to the nth degree, right? I mean, if you're already glorified, if you're already viewed by God as in a resurrection body, What then shall we say to these things if God is for us, right? Who is against us? No one of any reputation can do anything or say anything to contradict these things. We'll just read and then we'll pick up with some details in 34. Verse 32, he who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all. How will he not also with him freely give us all things? The argument of equality. If he's done this one thing for you, how will he not also do these other things for you? Wonderful things. Who will bring a charge against God's elect? I said that should be translated in my humble opinion. Who will bring a charge against God's choice ones? And if we had time, yes, we would go into this term as a qualitative term. descriptive of believers, God's choice ones. How did you become a choice one? Because you believed in the choice one. You believed in Jesus Christ. In both Matthew one, I'm sorry, Mark one, Matthew three, when the voice came out of heaven, it said, this is my beloved one. Do whatever he says. In the Luke 9 passage, it says, this is my choice one. It's the Messiah, Isaiah 42. He is the choice one, the servant of God who came forth. Why are we choice? Because we're in the choice one. That's the bottom line. I mean, you and I are not choice. Look at our quality. Not so good. But the Messiah This doctrine is essentially about him. I mean, it's primarily about him and All those who are in him or believe in him they become choice because they're in him the choice one That's you know Ephesians 1 4 it says It says God chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in his presence, right? God chose us in him. No, no, it did not say God chose us to be in him. That's a whole Greek verb, eimi. Are you telling me that, you know, that's really what Paul meant when that's not what really Paul said? No, God chose us in him. In who? The choice one. So the whole idea is that because we're in him, that's why we're choice. That's why we're chosen, okay? And if we're chosen for something, which we are, it's a role of service in the plan of God. It doesn't have to do anything with why some people become believers and why some people don't become believers. No, if Paul wanted to bring up that, he would have said that in Romans 3.21 to 5.21 when he talked about how a person is made right with God. It's very clear, everybody, I don't know hardly anybody here in much of the wide Christian world who would say we're not really justified by faith but we're justified if we're elect. But this is the implication of their ideas and thinking when they think that election has to do with why certain individuals go to heaven and others don't. Because honestly, let's just say, for sake of argument, that God does have a specific set of people that he chose before the foundation of the world to be saved, and others he did not. Let me ask you a question. Can anyone who's not a part of that set actually have faith and be justified? No. It's impossible. So then, actually how to go to heaven is you must be elect. That's how you get right with God. because nobody who's not in that group could possibly ever be justified because God didn't select them to be. So, you know, it is literally something that is a serious problem to teach that God has a certain people that he chose from before the foundation of the world to go to heaven. That is a serious problem because the Bible teaches over and over, repeatedly, hundreds of times that the way to go to heaven is to believe. But if you can't believe because you're not elect, then that's really not gonna work for you, is it? And that would mean the Bible has a direct contradiction. So it's not, what I'm trying to do in my studies of all this is like work it out. Now some people say, well, it's an antimony. It's a paradox. And they'll draw a door, right? They'll draw a picture of a door. And they'll put everybody on this side and they look up and they see the door and it says, whosoever will, I mean, I'm not stupid, I've been through this like 30 years. And then you walk through the door after you've believed and you turn around and you look over the door and on the other side of the door it says, chosen from before the foundation of the world. Friend, that is just a way to say our contradictions are truth. Contradictions are truth. Because in all honesty, if you back away from that whole thing and you say, oh, on this side it says whosoever will, that's actually not true, is it? It's a lie. Because it's not so whosoever will. It's only those who are elect who will. Right? And yet, I mean, I really respect these people like Robert Lightner and other people. This is written in their books. I mean, I've seen the pictures. It's all over the place. But it's just a, honestly, it's just a lie. So it's not that. If you really get into this and you leave all this, I mean, okay, I could show you. I've got some really good quotes from the early church. from before Augustine, because Augustine's coming along in the 400s, right? Fifth century or so. And he's the one who really started developing this idea that God picked certain people to be saved and other people not to be saved. And then Calvin was an avid student of Augustine at the time of the Reformation, so all this is going on. But if you look at the early church prior to that, it's very interesting, because they're not viewing it that way. They're viewing it as those who are in Christ, they are chosen. Not to be in Christ, they're chosen because they're in Christ, and Christ is the chosen one. He's the choice one. That's the way they're viewing it. It's because of their involvement with Christ, not how they got involved with Christ, see? Those are very different things. I think that what happens when you believe in Christ, verse 33, who's gonna bring a charge against you? That's a legal charge. Who's gonna bring that against God's choice ones? See, you have a certain quality about you now because you're clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And when God looks at you, he sees you as having the very quality of the one you're in. That's Christ, that's the whole point. It's actually a beautiful thing. Then he says, we'll just press on, God is the one who justifies. In other words, he's the one who declares righteous. The moment a person believes, he credits their faith as righteousness. This goes all the way back, we go all the way back to Genesis, right? Abraham, how did Abraham get right with God? Well, it tells you right in Genesis 15, six, it says Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. That's the idea of justification. It's a legal declaration. The moment you believe in him, you are right with God and nothing can ever change that. So verse 34, who is the one who condemns? Who is going to bring a legal charge against us? See, there's no one who can do that because there in verse 34, Christ Jesus did four things for us. First of all, He died. Who is the one that condemns four things He did that refute any legal charge anybody could ever bring against you? First of all, He died for us. That's the first thing He did. When He died for us, He paid the penalty for our sin in full. Some people think he only paid the penalty for my sin up until the point I believed in Christ. And then after that, I keep committing sin, and that's not really paid for. So that has to be dealt with another way, such as a confessional going to a priest. Or if you're a Protestant, you know, that's if you're a Catholic. If you're a Protestant, then you got to do your own personal private confession. No, he paid for the penalty of all of our sin. And what it did. when we believed in him, is we now have a perfectly righteous position with him. But in our experience, yes, we still sin, and he wants us to deal with that by confession, not through a priest, because we're all believer priests. There's only one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, right? Second Timothy. So the first thing he did for us is he paid the penalty for all of our sins. So question, who was condemned? Somebody was condemned, but see, it's not you and I. It's because somebody was condemned for us in our place. Jesus Christ was condemned. That's hard to imagine, but that's exactly what happened. The second thing he did for us was he was raised. The resurrection shows that the payment that he made on the cross for us was accepted by the Father. The Father accepted that. So the payment's been accepted, who's gonna condemn you? Third thing he did for us is he is now seated at the right hand of God. The right hand, that's the position of privilege, to sit at the right hand. It's actually, where he is right now is what's called a dais. D-Y-A-S. This is where he is seated. It's called a dais or a platform. It is part, a part of the structure of God's throne. If you say, well, there's not a physical structure, you know what I mean? Like the spiritual structure, however it is, of God's throne, it's called a diocese or platform. That is where he's seated. It's a part of God's throne. Now it's not David's throne. Revelation 321 says he who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on my throne as I overcame and sat with my father on his Dias his throne. Okay, so they're not the same throne. It's not David's throne but he is going to come in the future and he's going to sit on David's throne the one he promised to David and to his offspring but for right now He is in the privileged position at the right hand of And this is a great thing. We are seated in him. Spiritually, positionally. Ephesians 1 3. We are seated in him in the heavenly places. Positionally, that's why we're choice. I mean, like where are you right now? I mean, I know geographically we're here experientially. We're here. But spiritually in our position, we're already seated him in him in the highest. heaven at the right hand of the Father on that dais, that platform. That's where we are. And that's our real position. And it's a position of privilege. That's why your choice, okay? The fourth thing that he did for us is he is interceding for us from that position, from the right hand. Now we already read in verse 26, 27, who is interceding for us in verse 26 and 27? The spirit, the spirit is interceding for us. Now he does that from within us, right? On a private line that he has directly to God. He does that from within us, but the son intercedes for us, not from within us, but from the right hand of the father on that platform. the dais, okay? So, those are the four things that he is doing for us, so who can condemn? Who can bring a charge? You know, Satan does accuse, right? Day and night, the book of Revelation says. He's charging us with sinning, right, and therefore having no rights. But Jesus Christ intercedes for us. First, John two one says we have an advocate with the father, right? Jesus Christ, the righteous. The word for advocate is a the word for a lawyer. I mean, Jesus Christ likened himself to a lawyer. What was he thinking? No. He's thinking we need someone who's an attorney who will stand up on our behalf. That's what he's thinking. And we do. And he stands up and he defends us in God's high court every time Satan brings accusation and the case is dismissed. The father says case dismissed. That's been paid for. So we. Have no one who can bring some accusation, some condemnation against us because of those four things. Verse 35. Now that's all legal. Verse 35 becomes much more personal and relational. I love it because I mean, legal is not. It's good, it's important, but. You know, we like to also have the personal, relational side of things. And that's what he shifts to in verse 35. I mean, obviously love, right? Who will separate us from the love of Christ? It's actually not just who, it's who or what will separate us. Tis, this little interrogative. Who or what can separate us from the love of Christ? Because he's about to mention a whole series of enemies that one might posit could separate us from the love of Christ. But it's a rhetorical question. And just the question alone, the assumption is that there's no person and there's no thing that could do this. There's nothing that could make this separation. That is the idea that we have eternal security from the moment we believe in Christ and are justified. We are eternally secure. I mean, what did he say in verse 30? What is the you know? It's obvious that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ because from God's vantage point. We're already glorified, right? So this isn't a surprise. Now, Paul posits seven things that one might posit could separate us from the love of Christ, and of course, none of them can. And these are all difficulties that Christians have faced. So let's just go through them. Tribulation, it's a word that means pressure. It refers to affliction, oppression, things that, you know, you feel pressured in life. You ever feel that way? I feel that way. Pressure because you got to make a decision. You got to make it now. You don't have time pressure, right? That's tribulation. Now, this doesn't mean the tribulation, you know, the future time of great difficulty or anything like that. It's just a lot of all Christians in this world. You know, you're going to face tribulation, difficulty, oppression. The second is the word distress. That's from a word that means narrow or constricted. Again, like who likes to feel that way? You feel crushed, constricted space. I kind of have a claustrophobia about being in certain places. Some people, they get on an elevator and all they can think is, is it gonna work? Because I really don't want to be stuck on here for the next 14 hours or something, right? So, you know, this is the idea of the distress, narrowness, okay? Third, the word persecution, that refers to some program to harass believers. And of course, we know that that goes on around the world. Various Christians are harassed for their beliefs, persecuted, even martyred. Fourth, famine. No need to explain all that. But we could say that there are Christians around the world who live under totalitarian regimes that if we try to give money to them, or food to them or things like that, it usually probably never gets to them because it goes straight to the regime, right? So that's why we have to be shrewd as Christians and find other ways to get things to these people. I'm 100% for doing that. Fifth, nakedness doesn't necessarily refer to being without clothing, but it can refer to just having inadequate clothing for the situation in life in which you are living. And sixth, peril, which of course refers to being in risky situations. Can that separate us from Christ? No, none of these can separate us. How about the sword, the machaira, the double-edged sword that was used in executions? So this word came to refer, this sword came to refer to a violent death. And Christians suffer under all these difficulties, and they suffer martyrdom, you know, violent death, having their heads cut off. I mean, I've watched it because I had to see what this looked like, you know, when ISIS and so forth were doing these things. What did the Lord Jesus Christ say about those who kill the body? They can kill the body, but they can't kill the soul, right? Matthew 10, 28, Luke 12, 4. So violent executions, can that separate us from the love of Christ? Can any of these seven things separate us? Well, no, none of this can separate us from the love of Christ. Verse 36, just as it is written, I love it, the Apostle Paul had all these verses memorized. He reminds us that he memorized scripture, and we should too. What he memorized here was Psalm 44, 22. I never memorized that one. Never even thought to memorize that one, right? But this guy knew his Old Testament, right? Here it is. He says, for your sake, we are being put to death all day long. We were considered a sheep to be slaughtered. That's a Psalm of Korah. And in the Psalm is describing how Israel was persecuted by the surrounding nations because of their identification with the one true God. That's why they were being persecuted by the surrounding nations. So why does Paul pick up Psalm 44, 22, not Psalm 44, 44, Psalm 44, 22, and apply it to the church? Why does he apply it to us? Well, because just as Israel was persecuted by foreign nations because of their identification with the one true God, so the church is being persecuted by others because of our identification with the one true Messiah. I mean, it's not that complicated to see these connections, right? Paul saw something that was similar between what happened to Israel in the Old Testament and what's happening to believers now in the church, and so he made application. And that's perfectly valid. Jesus predicted this. He said, if the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you, right? John 15, 18 to 21. And he also said, in this world, you will have tribulation, but take courage. I have overcome the world. And see, we've overcome the world too, because greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. You know, we already have the victory. And that's what this whole passage is about. We already have the victory. We face difficulties. I mean, we've got all of these problems, tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword. There's nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ. We have the victory. And that's why it says in verse 37. But in all these things, all seven of those things, he says, we not just conquer, we overwhelmingly conquer. Through him who loved us. Overwhelmingly conquer who pair Nakao. It means we are overwhelmingly victors. Over, who pair? You know, we have Uber. It's from the same word. Okay, Uber. Who pair? Okay, over to have victory, or Nike. You can see it there, Nike. There it is. Nike's symbol for victory. We're more than victors, see? through him who loved us. I mean, like, there's nothing, you're good, you're good, you can relax, right? No matter what happens in life, no matter what happens in life, it's fine, it's fine, it's fine. I know we don't feel that way because things go bad, things go wrong, and we feel like the whole world is falling around. I was feeling that way last Wednesday, I couldn't even come, right? You know, I mean, but we are more than overcomers. in him, through him who loved us. Now, Paul went through a few hard things. Sometimes, well yesterday I was, I had to read my whole book yesterday. That's a pain to read your own book. But anyway, 2 Corinthians 12, Paul goes through a lot of the sufferings that he went through, many of which are not even mentioned in the book of Acts. And in that, Passages is where you know he talks about the thorn in the flesh. I Don't know You've lived a bit, and you probably thought you know this is my thorn whatever it is something something What did the Lord Jesus Christ tell Paul he says my grace is sufficient for you for power is perfected in weakness You know it's when we're weak, right? That he is strong and And that's really where we have to get. To actually make progress in the Christian life. Paul says in 2nd Corinthians one he says we were. We were pressed in every city in every from every direction. We had a death sentence on us. There was nothing we could do. We were going to be executed, he says. He says that was for the purpose that we wouldn't depend on ourselves, but we depend on him. And that's exactly where he's trying to get every one of us. Stop trying to be independent, right? Depend on me. I'm sufficient. You're not sufficient. I'm all sufficient, right? So that's why Paul, you know, he boasted in his weaknesses. Do you remember? He boasted. He says, I'm content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties. For Christ's sakes, for when I'm weak, then I'm strong. I mean, that's it. That's when you're there. And what he meant was that that's when I prevail by God's grace. That's when I prevail by Christ's grace. It's a wonderful thing. So we are more than victors, overcomers in and through him who loved us. Verse 38 and verse 39, the last two verses before he gets to Israel, he describes something that he had become convinced of. Paul says, for I am convinced. That means that he didn't always believe this. But By the time he wrote this, he was convinced that there's nothing in this list, either before or the one he's about to give, that can separate us from the love of Christ. Now most of these are in pairs. There's only one here that's not a pair. Okay, so pairs. Neither death nor life. The two states of existence. Can death or life separate us from the love of Christ? Can either state of existence? No. Neither angels nor principalities, the two kinds of spirit beings, the good angels, the bad angels, neither can separate us from the love of Christ. Nor things present, nor things to come. That's the time continuum that we all live in. There's nothing in the time continuum that can separate us from the love of Christ. Nor powers, this is the only one that's not a pair. It refers to any power, political, financial, angelic, human, it doesn't matter. No power can separate us from the love of Christ. Nor height, nor depth. These are the spatial dimensions. Nothing in the spatial dimensions can separate us from the love of Christ. And then he says, nor any other created thing. So all these things are created things, and he says, as a catch-all, anything else you can imagine in all of creation, nothing in all of creation can separate us from the love of Christ. And yet, Arminians, Wesleyans, and some Roman Catholics say, yes, you can lose your salvation. That's just a blatant disregard for what scripture says. It's a direct contradiction. But the Arminian will say, but your will, we have free will. In fact, this is one reason I argue, do not use that phrase. And I know a lot of Christians use it in our camp. They'll say, well, we have free will. So I'd love to go through this exercise with people. So I'll do it real quick. This is what the Arminian says. Since we, by an act of our free will, chose to believe in Christ, we can, by an act of our free will, choose to reject Christ and lose our salvation. This is exactly their argument. Look it up. You got the internet, you can Google it, okay? Now, this is not why I don't like using the term. Here's why I don't like using the term. Is there any difference between Adam and Eve when they were originally created and in their will and Adam and Eve fallen in their will? Is there any difference at all? Yes or no? I don't want any maybes. I just want you to tell me straight up. Do you think there's any difference in their will before the fall and after the fall? And we're like, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Do you think there's any difference between your will now as a believer and what your will was before you were a believer? Do you think there's any difference in your will in the resurrection versus your will now? See, okay, here's the next question I'd love to ask. Do you have free will in the resurrection? I would actually argue that's when you finally do have it. And the reason is because free will means that you only choose in accordance with your nature as it's been designed to operate correctly. That's what true freedom is. If you're acting contrary to your design, you're not functioning correctly, you're functioning wrongly. That's not freedom, that's slavery. You know, the way that the Bible describes freedom, what? In the resurrection, you'll only, what I'm saying, in the resurrection, you'll only be able to choose in accordance with how you were designed to choose. So you will only choose always what is right, what is righteous. Now, if you can only choose what is righteous, do you have free will? Yes, because that's what freedom is. Let me ask you a question, is freedom choosing to sin? No. Okay, here's a good analogy. Israel in Egypt, and then Israel out of Egypt. Now these are two simple pictures, right? You're in Egypt, you are what? A slave. Did they have free will? No, they had to do whatever the taskmaster said or they die. Right? And they turn into bricks themselves as other Israelites stomp them out into the bricks. When they came out, did they have more freedom? Sure. Sure. And what's that whole story a picture of? Redemption. It's the key word of the book of Exodus. It's about redemption. It's how God redeemed them out of Egypt and set them Free, right? So if they're being viewed as unbelievers in Egypt, which they are, they're viewed corporately as an unbeliever, right? And then after they come out, they're viewed corporately as a believer. You can see that as unbelievers, do they have free will or are they actually slaves? Free will is an illusion. Unbelievers think that they have freedom because they think that they can sin and this is what they want to do and so somehow that's freedom. No, that's exactly what Satan, that's Satan's story. Satan's story is if you rebel against God, you're actually free. But in reality, you're actually a slave. It's called deception. When you are saved in Christ, then you have more freedom because you can now actually choose to live by faith and have righteousness produced. And that is freedom. What does Paul say in Galatians 5? Don't let anybody take your freedom. And he says, if you put yourself under the law, He says, you're not gonna be free. You're gonna be slaves because the law stirs up your sin nature to produce more sin, so you're not gonna have freedom. But he says, you need to live by Christ. If you live by Christ, then you experience freedom. So he says, don't let anybody take your freedom away. Live by faith, and then you'll enjoy freedom. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so I like to tell people, human beings are free agents. That just means that you're responsible for your choices. Right? You're responsible for your choices. But the whole idea is that in the resurrection, see, when you get to the resurrection, you're not going to be able to, is anybody going to sin in the resurrection? How about you? How about you? How about you? Anybody? Anybody? There's not even a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, right? It's just the tree of life. So isn't that, you're not, are you ever going to sin there? No. Are you going to feel confined? Like, man, I wish I had free will. Like, get over it, right? That's dumb. That's a dumb idea to even entertain, right? Of course you're, now is anybody gonna be unhappy there? Are you gonna feel like confined and oppressed and depressed and angry because you can't choose to sin? No, you're gonna, it's the very thing we're all dealing with now. It's like, boy, I wish I could be set free from the desire and temptation and frustration with sin. You wanna be set free from that. Well, that'll happen. That's gonna happen in the resurrection. And I call that the greatest amount of freedom you could ever enjoy. So anyway, for what it's worth, okay? But the Arminian says, no, no, no. See, your free will can separate you because you used your free will to become a believer. You can use it to become an unbeliever again. I say, oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. You can't do that. Paul says, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. See, our will is created, right? And he just said, nor any other created thing. We're using our volition. That's probably a lot like the free agency concept of volition. Yeah, I would use free agent just because I'm trying to offset free will because everybody, I'm not sure people who use volition see a difference with free will. And that's why I'm saying that. Yeah, they're different, yeah. So, yeah, volition is more like the idea of being a free agent. Because obviously we have choice, but that's what is, these are responsible choices, free agent choices. Free will, of course, always people have to define, so it gets a lot more involved than what we went into. But nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, okay? Once we're justified, we're always justified. We're already even viewed as glorified there in verse 30 again. So this section is probably the most, it is, it is the most powerful section on eternal security in the Bible. Paul became, it says, Paul became convinced of it. So not everybody instantly believes in this. Even Paul, he had to be convinced of it, right? But there is nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ. Now, if Paul was convinced of eternal security, can you be convinced of eternal security? I can be convinced because of that. Now, the verses that are used to say that we can lose our salvation tend to be cherry-picked. You know, we have, you know, first of all, what we're saying is, once justified, always justified. I think that's better than saying, once saved, always saved, for a number of reasons. Okay? Once justified, always justified. Because justification is a legal verdict that God makes in heaven. he declares the person who has faith as righteous. Now, to become unjustified, he would have to reverse his court decision. If he reversed his court decision, he would be admitting that he was wrong. He would have changed his decision. But that doesn't quite sit, it doesn't sit well with me. Another thing that we're told repeatedly is that we have eternal life John 5 24 he who believes in me has eternal life not will get Will get would mean yo you get it out in the future at some point when you die or something but he says he who believes has eternal life as a current possession in John 6 47 he says He has passed out of death and into life not will pass out of death and into life But has already in the past the moment you believe you pass out of death into life So are you saying that we could lose the life and then go back to death We could cross back But well, then it wouldn't be eternal life Eternal, I mean, I thought it meant like forever. Oh, no, we learned the loss of salvation. No, we learned from them that no, eternal doesn't really mean eternal. It just means until your will chooses not. But then it wouldn't really be eternal life to begin with. It would have been temporary life until, you know, you decided by your own will to not believe in Christ or something. That just doesn't work. We have eternal life. What about 2 Timothy 2.13? Even if we are faithless, he is what? Faithful. He won't deny himself. So, if I, as a believer, live a faithless Christian life, what Paul said in 2 Timothy 2.13 was, he is still faithful. He won't deny himself. See, eternal security doesn't rest on us. It rests on him. He's the one who made these promises. John 10 we are in Christ's hand and Christ is in the father's hand and he says no one can snatch them out of my hand That sounds pretty darn secure to me How could we get out of Christ's hand and if Christ is in the father's hand how could we get out of the father's hand that There's no way okay Even in 1st Corinthians 3 11 through 15. He's talking about you know going to this judgment and even if someone all their deeds in their life Believers deeds in their life or cast in the fire and burn up. It says he will be saved yet. So as through fire So let's say let's pause it that you're a believer and you have absolutely zero good works as a believer total nothing What does that verse mean then? You're lost? You never were a believer? You thought you were a believer, but you weren't? Or does it mean that you're still saved, yet so as through fire? It means you're still saved, yet so as through fire. So are good works necessary to be saved? No, not at all. Now, are we saved for the purpose of doing good works? Sure. But we're definitely not saved by doing good works. No way. If we were, then it would be Jesus plus our works, wouldn't it? And it wouldn't be Jesus alone. But the fact is, it is Jesus alone. He did everything. And when I have faith, I'm accepting what he did on my behalf. Now people will still say, and what are some of the verses? Anybody got some of the verses, the ideas that people say, well, you could lose your salvation because of this verse. What verse? Anyone? Verses? Oh, they've got their verses, right? How about Matthew 24, 13? He who endures to the end will be saved. Therefore, if you don't endure to the end, you won't be saved. Remember that one? He who endures to the end will be saved. So they'll say, well, not everybody endures to the end. Look at old Solomon. Solomon didn't endure to the end. Solomon ain't saved. Right? Stuff like that. What's Matthew 24, 13 all about? Israel in the tribulation. That's the context. And the Israelite who lives to the end will be saved, that is delivered by the Messiah when he returns. has nothing to do with eternal salvation. It's talking about the physical deliverance of Jews who are being surrounded by the Antichrist and his armies at the end of the tribulation, and they call him the Messiah, and he comes back and rescues them. People take this stuff out of context, like, wildly. How about the one in 1 Corinthians 9, 24 to 27? I think it's just a book before this. No, it's a book after this, sorry. You know, this one gets used all the time. First Corinthians 9, 27, they'll just quote this verse. They'll say, see, Paul, you know, Paul says, I discipline my body, make my slaves so that after I preach to others, I myself will not be disqualified. So they say, see, you could be disqualified. That means go to hell or go to purgatory. The Catholics say this is what that's talking about, purgatory. Protestants who believe in loss of salvation says it means lose your salvation. What's Paul talking about in this context? Running the Christian race. Running it well so you can win what? Win rewards, win the prize. He says it right in verse 24. Don't you know that everybody who runs in a race all run, but only one gets the prize? Run so you can win. He's talking about running the Christian race. He's saying it's a long race. Run. Run to win. Win what? Win rewards. And some people just wipe all that out about rewards, and they say, no, this is just talking about going to heaven and hell. Not at all talking about heaven and hell. Paul is really throwing that warning down here? He's been talking about how you should live among your brethren and how you shouldn't cause people to stumble, your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to stumble. That's what he's been talking about. Talking about eating in idol temples. That's what the Corinthians are doing. They go, oh, they got the best meat in town. Let's go up there and eat. And they thought, well, it doesn't really matter. We can eat that meat in the temple that's dedicated to an idol because we know there's not such thing as an idol. So God made that food. Let's just go eat it. That's good reasoning, right? I mean, there is nothing wrong with the food. God made it, created it to be enjoyed, but he said you can't go in there and eat in the idol temple because your fellow believer is gonna see you in there, and he is not quite past idolatry, and so you're gonna cause him to stumble. And all Paul's saying here is hey, run the Christian life in a way that is going to not cause your brother and sister to fall. Because if you run that way, if you live your Christian life that way, and you're always causing your brothers and sisters in Christ to fall, then you're gonna be disqualified from rewards. That's all he's talking about. People love to rip these verses out of context and just make them say, whoa, whoa, whoa. I mean, it's totally wild, okay? Every one of us have gone to university or high school or school, and whenever you read your textbooks, you have to read in context. You can't just pull sentences out of your textbook and say it means whatever. Your professor will laugh you out of the lecture hall, right? And you can't do that with the Bible either. You have to read these verses in context. That's the only way to understand the meaning. because obviously you can easily pull verses out and make them sound like, oh, you could lose your salvation here. But not when you read it in the story that is being told there. It won't work. How about Galatians 5? Galatians 5 is another one. And then we'll just, unless y'all wanna come up with one. What is it? Hebrews 6. Okay, so Hebrews 6. We can do that one, four through six. Here's what I love to do with this one, so I'll just do it with you guys. It's so much fun. Hebrews 6, four through six. Let's just take it out. I love taking stuff out of context. It's really fun. Because you can make it mean whatever you want. Hebrews 6, four. For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no. It's impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again to themselves the Son of God and put him to open shame. So these verses are always used to say, hey look, you can lose your salvation. The first thing I say about that is if you can lose it, there's obviously no way you could ever get it back. If that's what this means, you could never get your salvation back, right? Because you fall away, impossible to renew again to repentance, right? So if you did lose it, that's it. It's over, right? Well, back up. Back up in the, you know, context. Way back to chapter five, verse 11. Concerning him, we have much to say. That's the high priest Melchizedek, Christ, the high priest. He says, we have a lot to say about him. It's hard to explain because you've become dull of hearing. Now, would you say that to unbelievers? First of all, would you be teaching unbelievers about Melchizedekian priesthood? What are you talking about? No. But these believers had become dull of hearing. He says, by this time you ought to be teachers. Now would you ever say that to an unbeliever? You ought to be a teacher in a Christian church somewhere, Mr. Unbeliever. Now again, that's just complete nonsense, right? You have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God and you have come to need milk and not solid food. So what's he saying to these Hebrew believers? He's saying, hey, you guys, you're immature. You need someone to come back and remind you of the basics, the elementary principles. You need milk. He says, verse 13, everyone who takes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness. He's just an infant. But solid food is for the mature. So the difference here, what's going on is infancy and maturity. They're infant believers, but they need to go on to maturity. Those who are mature, he says in verse 14, have because of practice, their senses have been trained to discern good and evil. You know, it takes practice. You have to, you know, employ the Christian principles to grow to maturity and have your senses trained. Therefore, chapter six, verse one, leaving the elementary teachings about the Christ, let's press on to what? Maturity. What does he want them to do? This is the main goal of the whole passage. Go on to maturity. Now what's the whole book about, anyway? Hebrews, who are they? Jews or Gentiles? Jews, okay. They're believing Jews, they have dull senses. They're still infants, but they need to go on to maturity, right? They are under persecution in this book from their fellow Jews. They are going back to the temple system in Jerusalem. and that sacrificial system in order to avoid persecution, you know, get along with their fellow Jews, right? And when all that lifts, persecution lifts, oh yeah, then we'll go back to Christ. This is the plan. Let's avoid persecution. But he's saying, by doing this, you're not going on to maturity. You need to go on to maturity. So he says, let's press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God and of instruction about washings and laying on of hands. All basic stuff, okay, for a Jewish believer at this time. Like stuff that they should have already moved past, right? He says in verse three, and this we will do if God permits. So we will go on to this maturity, you know, if God permits it. OK, but if you've already had all these things, you've enjoyed all these things in verse four and five and so forth, which they had. And then you fall away from all these and you go back to that temple system in Jerusalem and the temple sacrifices and all of that, OK? It's. If that's what they choose, it's gonna be impossible to renew them to repentance because they're gonna get locked into that system under the Mosaic Law. And the problem is, if they did that, if you do that, you're not gonna go into maturity. You can't. You can't. How can you go into maturity if you're believing in a false system? You can't, you can only go to Christ. And so this passage really has nothing to do with that. It just means that you're going to have a permanently stunted Christian life. I mean, this is really actually totally practical. Let's say that I decide that I'm going to reject God's calling for my life. I'm going to leave the pastorate and I'm going to go become an alcoholic drug addict for the next 20 years. And then Let me ask you a question. Can I ever get that 20 years back? No, I threw it in the garbage can. And it destroyed and stunted my spiritual growth, didn't it? There's no way you can get that back. And that's what he's saying. Don't throw your lives in the garbage can. This is not that complicated of a passage, but people say, oh, you lose your salvation. Then they go to chapter 10 and say the same thing again. These kind of things go on and on, OK? But yeah, if you take them out of their surrounding context, you can misconstrue them to make them sound like they're saying you could lose your salvation. But not if you interpret it in the context. I mean, he goes on to talk about the reward and so forth in verses seven, eight, nine, and 10 that they could have, okay? Going on and imitating and inheriting the promises and getting all these blessings, but there's no versus. Does anybody have one? You're gonna lose your salvation? I don't know, people have different hangups. It is what it is. But I think it's very difficult when you interpret them in context to actually come up with that idea. And I really think that fundamentally, if someone thinks they can lose their salvation, I don't think that fundamentally they understand the gospel. I mean, if you could do something that could cause you to lose your salvation, then what you must be thinking is that you did something to gain it. And that's the fundamental issue with the gospel, is that you and I don't do anything to gain our salvation. Faith is not a work. Faith is not a work, is it? So just finish, we're in Romans, so just finish with Romans 4, 4, and 5 to see that indeed, faith is not a work. Faith isn't really doing anything, it's receiving a free gift. I think Luther said it that way, he said, faith is the hands that simply accept the gift that the giver gives. Or he used this, I think elsewhere he used a sack. And he says, faith are the hands that hold the sack so that the giver can fill the sack with the goods. Romans 4, the whole story of Abraham is in one nutshell right here. Verse two, if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but what's due? I mean, that's what you're owed. You worked. You should get paid, right? He says, but to the one who does not work, but believes. See, so belief is not a work. In fact, it is 100% the opposite of works. The Pharisees said to Jesus, what are the works that we must do to be accepted with God? And he says, this is the work that you must do, that you believe. The whole point is, though, that you're not doing anything. You're just believing something. Who did all the work? Jesus Christ. 99.9%? 99.99? 99999? Or 100%? Which is it? Are we gonna sing a thousand hymns to Jesus in heaven and one song to us? Or is it gonna be all praise to him? See? See, it's gonna be all praise to him. We're not gonna have any hymns for us. And that's because we don't do anything to go to heaven. We believe to go to heaven. And once we believe, that is the end of the story. You say, well, for how long do I have to believe? As long as it takes him to say, credited as righteous. The moment you believe in Jesus Christ, he counts you as righteous. It's not 10 seconds, 100 seconds, 10 years, or 100 years that you have to believe it. You have to believe it once, and that's it. And you say, but that just doesn't sound fair. I mean, what about those Christians who never lived a Christian life and they believe that? And I hear I worked my little fanny off to be a good Christian. What are you so worried about? Just get over yourself. God is the one that justifies. You have a problem with him, take it up with him, okay? He will deal with that in rewards, okay? But that doesn't have anything to do with going to heaven or hell. Once you believe that problem, that issue is solved. It is over. Could Hitler go to heaven? If he believed. Could Mao go to heaven? If he believed. Could Stalin go to heaven? If he believed. Did these people believe? I have no idea. I'm not the judge. God is. He knows. How many sins did Christ pay for? All of them or all of the ones that aren't so bad? Which ones? All of them. Did he pay for all the abortions, the murders? Did he pay? Yeah, he paid for all that. All of it was nailed to the cross. Once for all. The just for the unjust. That we might become the righteousness of God through faith in him. That is the gospel. If you can't say that you don't have to have any good works to go to heaven, you don't understand the gospel. You don't understand it. Because it's the greatest gift that's ever been given. It's the greatest gift that ever will be given. and it is totally free. No strings attached, nothing at all. No promises, no commitments. He is the one who promised us. He is the one who committed himself to us. That's it, over and out, complete, done, kaput. It's over, it's finished. Jesus Christ said it, that's it. The rest of it is up to us. Do we just believe that? Can we accept that? If you love free gifts and you love God, you'll understand what he's done for you, right? You understand, you understand. We are totally secure. Now, next week, what about Israel then? God made promises, what about Israel? Did Israel do something? And now Israel will not get their promises that God made because God is gonna renege on his promises. See, this is all a setup. Not my setup, Paul's setup. He set the whole thing up already. The rest is a piece of cake. It's a piece of cake. Let's pray. Father, thank you for this day. We thank you that you have done it all in your son, that you loved us so much that you sent your unique son into the world, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. The moment we believe in him, we cross out of death and into life. We enjoy this totally free gift. We don't do anything to earn that. We don't do anything to keep that. You are the one who is faithful, even if we are faithless. We love you and thank you so much for this. Help us to stay true to this and have a deeper appreciation for it day by day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.