Okay, we're gonna be studying Romans 8 verses 28 to 39 this morning for our communion service. One of the most often, if not the most often asked questions that I've had over my years of ministry is concerning the security of the believer in Jesus Christ. Christians of all ages, of all persuasions have struggled with this question, can I lose my salvation?

I remember when I was involved in a college ministry up at Northland College in Ashland, we had dozens of kids coming to a Bible study there, and sometimes my phone would ring at two or three in the morning, and there'd be some college kid in a dorm room somewhere, and he'd be like, give me some verses for eternal security, and I'd be like, 1 Peter 1, John 10, you know, a little different time for me to be up at three in the morning. 

I remember one of my children's teachers at the Christian school who did not believe in the security of the believer, and we had several discussions about the idea that a believer once saved could perish in the lake of fire. I've always thought that to not understand the security of the believer in Jesus Christ is to not understand the salvation that Jesus provides. 

To think that my salvation depends on something that I do or that somehow God will lose me having brought me to faith in Jesus is to totally miss the biblical truth of God's grace of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus alone. And it is to misunderstand the work of salvation, of justification, of regeneration, of the intercessory work of Jesus Christ. 

We come to a text this morning that is all about the security of the believer in Jesus Christ. Paul wants us to understand our inheritance as co-heirs with Christ, and he wants us to understand why it is that we are secure in him, that we can know that God will glorify everyone who has been justified by faith in Jesus, and that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The intent here is assurance, is comfort, confidence in the grace of God, the promise of God, and the work of Jesus Christ in our salvation, that we might know that we have eternal life and that we, having been saved, are being saved, and we shall be saved when Christ comes.

Let's look at our text. Let's begin in verse 28, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called, and whom he called, these he also justified, and whom he justified, these he also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I've given you four points on your outline this morning: all things, justified, glorified, God is for us, and secure in Christ's love. Well, in the last section we studied, we saw Paul give comfort and encouragement in light of the suffering, the groaning of this life in this world as we eagerly anticipate our adoption, the redemption of our bodies, he says. 

There's plenty of suffering to go around in this world. There's nothing that escapes the stain of sin, the corruption of the curse. And especially in these last days, it is often very difficult to deal with the sufferings and injustice of our world, the ups and downs of daily life in our trials and tribulations, emotions and struggles. It seems that my mother's prophetic words are becoming more and more true each day. The world truly is going to hell in a handbasket. 

I was thinking about what it is that we struggle with the most in our world, in our culture, in the United States. So many believers around the world are suffering with persecution, hunger, disease, even death. As I thought about this, I realized although we suffer sickness and pain and death that is common to all men, we really do not deal with any of these things in our lives because of our faith. 

Persecution, at least to the extent of prison or physical beating or bloodshed. Hunger, I'm not sure that I have ever been truly hungry. Disease, we have those conditions that come with living in this world, but we have health care, medicine, treatment available to us. Death, not death from persecution or from starvation or unclean water like so many around the world, but we have death from obesity, from comorbidities, they say. It's the first time in the history of the world that a society, its poorest people's greatest problem is obesity. 

So what is it that we struggle with the most? I think it's fear. I think it's uncertainty. And of course now in our time with technology the way it is, the phones in our hands and a whole enterprise of media stoking that fear ad nauseum, so many Americans truly live in fear with anxiety. We have so much wealth, comfort, ease of life, and yet we are plagued with fear and worry sometimes to a debilitating state. The COVID pandemic has illustrated this to such a great degree, people are scared. They live in fear.

But here's the good news from our text this morning for those who have been justified by faith. Remember Romans 5.1, the beginning of this whole section, therefore, having been justified by faith. All of these things, these tremendous and precious promises that we see in Romans chapter five through chapter eight are for those who have been justified by faith, who have turned from idols to serve the living and true God, whose heart has turned to the Lord. They're not for everyone. They're for those who believe. For those who have been justified by faith in Jesus, there is absolutely nothing to fear. There is nothing to fear. John said that perfect love casts out fear. We as believers in Jesus do not even have to fear death. 

Hebrews 2 says that we have been released from the bondage of fear of death. Romans 6 says death no longer has dominion over us. Why? Because we have present possession now and forever, eternal life. And I want you to notice the tremendous promise of verse 28 in our text. He says, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 

We live in this world, we are frail, we are dust, and sometimes we struggle with doubts and fears. But this verse is a promise that should end our doubts and fears. What does it say? All things. All things. Now the question is, will you believe God? Will you take this promise for yourself? If you have believed Jesus, if you are called according to His purpose, if you love God, and this verse is for you today and every day, all things work together for the good of those who love God. 

God works all things together for your good. It does not say that all things are good. Some things are bad. But even those bad things, those sufferings that we experience in this world, defeat, failure, sickness, disease, disaster, and the like, all things, all things, He works together for our good. And knowing this truth casts out our fears. Because we know and believe that God is sovereign and in control. And He is working in our lives for our good, specifically to conform us to the likeness of Christ and to bring us to glorification.

Look at verse 29 of our text, for whom He foreknew, He also predestined, predetermined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He predestined, these He also called whom He called, these He also justified, and whom He justified, these He also glorified. 

Here we see the sovereignty of God and salvation, and this means security for those who believe. Faith is inherent in these verses, those who have been justified by faith. For whom He foreknew, this means that in eternity past, God had a thought of affection toward you. He set His love on you, and He predestined you to be conformed to the image of His Son. Even before the world was, God's heart and mind was set on you to bring you to full and final salvation. That is security, my brothers and sisters, that is assurance, and that is the point of these words of this doctrine. 

We see it every time we see it in the scriptures, to encourage those who believe. To be justified is to be glorified. Foreknew does not simply mean to know ahead of time. The word speaks of an intimate relationship. God said, only among all the nations Israel have I known. That doesn't mean He didn't know about the other nations. It means only Israel was chosen to be His people, to have a special relationship with Him. 

It says Adam knew his wife and she bore a child. That's more than just knowing her. He predestined us to adoption, Ephesians 1 says. Second Thessalonians chapter 2 says, but we are bound to give thanks to God always for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth to which He called you by our gospel for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

He called you, how? By our gospel, Paul says. Why? For the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. God saved you for the very purpose of making you like Jesus, bringing you to glorification. He set this, determined this before the foundation of the world from the beginning. And then He brought it to pass in the person and work of Jesus Christ. 

Listen to Acts 2. This is Peter preaching. Acts 2.22, men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know, Him being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death. 

In eternity past, the Trinity conceived the plan of salvation and God brought it to pass. He delivered Jesus by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God. And He sanctified us, set us apart, called us by His gospel. Ephesians 1.13-14 says that we heard the word of truth. This is important to see the order. It's consistent throughout the Scriptures. We heard the word of truth, we believed, and we were saved, sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit, the earnest, the down payment, guaranteeing our inheritance. 

It does not say we were saved and we believed. It says we heard and we believed and we were saved. Faith comes by hearing a message about Jesus. For a man or woman to lose her salvation would be to thwart the eternal predetermined purpose of God. We are united to Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. What is true of Christ is true of us. We are co-heirs, Paul says. 

Jesus ever lives to make intercession for us. He will be glorified and we will be glorified together with Him. In order for that to be thwarted, Jesus would have to cease living. And He's in control and over all things. Those whom He justified, He also glorified. It's a done deal. Outside of time in the mind of God, He sees the end from the beginning. And we can trust His promise, that He works all things together for our good and He will keep His promise to bring us to glorification to spend eternity in heaven with Him.

Turn over to 1 Peter 1, let's look at what Peter has to say about this. Such strong words in 1 Peter 1. Verse 3, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 

Look at these words now. To an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love, though now you do not see Him yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

In John 10, 27, Jesus said, My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow Me and I give them eternal life. And they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my Father's hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one.

We are kept by the power of God. Our salvation is reserved in heaven for us, from which, he says, we eagerly wait. God will transform our lowly bodies that they might be transformed to His glorious body. These promises are sure and true. 

We see in our text all things. We see those whom He justified, He also glorified. And next we see that God is for us, as Paul builds his argument. Look at verse 31, Romans 8. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is He who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

Here we see tremendous arguments from the Apostle Paul that give us great assurance of our salvation. If God is for us, who can be against us? It's been said that me and God are a majority. If God is on your side, what do you have to fear? 

I remember the rough days of high school. Maybe you remember that. I attended a private school until seventh grade and then I was thrust into the public school system. I didn't know anyone. It was frightening, disconcerting, difficult at that age in those days. When I got into high school, I'd made some good friends. One of them happened to be a fellow farm boy who also happened to be about 6'4 and 220 pounds and he became an all-state middle linebacker on our football team. The ambulance used to take running backs off the football field quite regularly. Plus he was a little bit crazy and slightly unstable. But he was one of my best friends.

You know, after he and I became good friends, I had no more trouble with any bullies or potential adversaries. I in myself was not that impressive of a physical specimen. And I'm sure on my own there would have been trouble here and there back in the good old days of the ag and shop hall. But my buddy Mark was for me. I was with him. And everyone knew that if they messed with me, Mark was going to take care of that situation. 

Well, it's just a silly trivial illustration of what Paul's saying here. He's just taught us that God chose us, that He predestined us to be conformed to the likeness of Christ, that He's working all things together for my good, that if I have been justified by faith, then I will be glorified together with Christ at His coming. And now he says, what shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 

I walked the halls of Pendleton Heights High School without fear. Why? Because Mark was for me. How much more should I walk the halls of this life, even in light of all its trouble, dangers, doubts, and fears, with confidence and assurance, peace and surety, because the Almighty God of the universe is for me? 

How do I know that God is for me? He manifests His love for me in this, while I was yet a sinner against Him, Christ died for me. He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? This is an interesting verse. What is the all things that Paul refers to here? Is it Cadillacs and mansions and endless prosperity? No. What is the context? All things necessary to conform us to the likeness of Christ, to bring us to glorification. 

God did not choose us and predestine us and conceive and bring to pass the plan of salvation in time, bring us a faithful witness with the gospel and save us by faith, recreating us, regenerating us, indwelling us with His Holy Spirit so that He can now lose us along the way. We are kept by the power of God. He who is faithful will do it. He will continue the work until the day of Christ. He will give us all things necessary by His grace to bring us to full and final salvation. 

Adrian Rogers had an illustration about this. He said, if you came and asked for my son, knocked on my door and asked me for my son, and I said, what are you going to do with my son? He said, well, we want to beat him up and abuse him and kill him. He said, if I gave you my son for that great work that Jesus did on the cross, if I gave you my son, and you came back the next day and said we'd like to have his basketball and his blue jeans, that wouldn't be a great thing to me. 

That's what Paul's saying here, if He did the greater thing, if He gave His Son to die in our place on the cross to save us, like Romans 5 says, if He saved us by His death, how much more will He keep us by His life? How much more will He do the lesser thing, if He could save us when we were His enemies by His death, how much more can He keep us as His children by His life? He'll give us all things necessary by His grace to bring us to full and final salvation. 

You say, yes, but what if I sin? Well, John said in 1 John 2, we write you these things so that you may not sin, that's important, but if you sin, we have an advocate. Jesus Christ the righteous. Here Paul says, who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Jesus paid for my sins on the cross, it is God who justified me when I believed Jesus, He declared me to be righteous because of what Christ accomplished in His death, burial, and resurrection, He imputed to me the very righteousness of God and my sins to Jesus on the cross, I am justified, God did that by His grace.

Look at verse 34, who is He who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Jesus said that all judgment was committed to the Son. Jesus is the judge, the one who condemns men for sins. But for the one who believes in Him, who has placed full trust in what Jesus accomplished on the cross for His salvation, for this man, Jesus ever lives to make intercession. 

He is our advocate. He died for us and declared us righteous by grace through faith. For those who received Him, that is, believed on His name, to them He gave the right to become the children of God, and if children, then we're heirs, we're co-heirs with Christ. 

We are secure in Christ because God chose us, because He predestined us to be conformed to the likeness of Christ, because He is working all things together for our good and will give us all things necessary to bring us to glorification. Having been justified by faith, we will be glorified together with Him. God is for us. 

It's God who justified us from all punishment. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, and it is the judge Himself who died for us, who was buried and raised the third day, who ever lives to make intercession for us. That's how secure we are in Christ. We are secure in Christ's love. 

Look at verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter, yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 

For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. God has promised, predetermined, in fact, to bring those who believe Jesus, who are the called, according to His promise to glorification. 

Who is stronger than God? Who can thwart His plans? He is the God who cannot lie. He has promised to keep us by His power, to bring us to salvation, ready to be revealed in the glorious revealing of the sons of God. Paul gives us a comprehensive list here, meant to include any and all things as those which cannot separate us from the love of Christ. 

And he hits all those things that often bring us doubt and fear. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, the sword. As it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long, for we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. This was true for Paul, it was true for the Christians of the first century and for Christians around the world today and all through history, martyrs, witnesses for Christ, synonymous with death. They hated Jesus, they put Him to death on the cross. Why would they not hate you, you who love Him? 

But Paul writes, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. All of these things, these sufferings, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us and nothing, nothing can change this truth, can keep us from the love of God. He has us in His hand and He is greater than all. No one is able to snatch us out of His hand. Paul says, I'm persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels or principalities or powers nor things present or things to come, height or depth or any other created thing can separate us from the love of God. 

Are you afraid of death? You need not be. Or perhaps you're afraid of life. No worries, His grace is sufficient, He's accomplishing His will, He's in control of all the details. We are called to suffer, we should expect trouble, for man is born into trouble as the sparks fly upward. What about demons, principalities, powers, do these frighten you? The Lord rebuked them. He has power over them, the biggest and baddest are no match for the Lord who created them and will send them to eternal punishment in the pit. 

And my brothers and sisters, the Lord is for us, He is with us, He is in us, we have nothing to fear in the demonic realm, nor is it our business to be messing around there. Trust the Lord, as Michael did, to contend with the devil. The Lord rebuked you, He said. How about things present? Are things present a trouble? The troubles that are mountains today are molehills tomorrow. We worry about so many things that will never come to pass. And even if they do, God is still faithful. What about things to come? This can be very frightening if we lose our focus. 

What do we fear for tomorrow? Losing our comfortable lifestyle? Our freedom? In Philippians 4.10 Paul says, but I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at last your care for me has flourished again though you surely did care but lacked opportunity. Not that I speak in regard to need for I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 

My friends, we must learn to be content in Christ, in His love, in His grace, in His promise. Paul says, no height or depth nor any other created thing. I love that he says this, any created thing. What things are not created? Only God. Remember God is for us. God is the one who justifies. Jesus is the one who ever lives to make intercession for us. God has promised to never leave us or forsake us. No created thing, including ourselves, can threaten our salvation, our security in the love of Christ. Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Nowhere else. Only in Christ. And we can only be in Christ one way, and that is through faith in Him alone in what He has accomplished. We are in Christ. 

I want you to turn to Romans 6 with me as we close, Romans 6, 1. Romans 6, 1, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized or placed into Christ Jesus were placed into His death? 

Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection. 

Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin, for he who has died has been freed from sin. Now, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him. Knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more, death no longer has dominion over Him. 

For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise, you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God. God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Our salvation, our new life, our new destiny is all wrapped up in the truth that we are in Christ, that we have been united together with Him in His death, burial, and resurrection at the cross. We died with Him. We were placed into His death, buried with Him, and we were raised to a newness of life. We have been recreated, regenerated with a new heart and a new spirit, and the Spirit of God living in us, God did this. You cannot, nor would you want, to undo this. You did not recreate yourself, nor can you uncreate yourself. 

God took you from being in Adam, under sin and law, destined for eternal death, and placed you into Christ. Now you are under grace, experiencing righteousness and destined for eternal life. This is the salvation that we have in Him. We are new creations, changed on the inside, and now that life is manifest out through us as a witness to the world of the glory of God. 

Do not fear, my friends, if you believe Jesus. You are forever secure in Him and you will be glorified together with Him. John said in 1 John 3, Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God. Therefore the world does not know us. 

Anybody have any experiences over the holidays? The world does not know us because it did not know Him. But now we are children of God. Now we are children of God. It has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure. 

You are in Him. He died for you that you might now live for Him. What a blessing! What a privilege! What a purpose we have in this life to be in Christ and know that we are secure forever because God is for us. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank You. We thank You for Your grace, Your mercy. Thank You for the salvation that You provide in Christ. Thank You for the message of the Gospel and the hope and the promise that we have in Jesus. And thank You for the privilege of being Your witnesses in this world to bring that saving good news to every lost man, to every creature. And thank You that every man can come and believe Jesus when he hears the truth. Thank You for Your sufficiency today, Your promise for tomorrow, the surety of eternal life. Thank You that You are for us and You're our Father. In Jesus' name we pray.