Summer of Romans 2018 (Part 14): God's Security (Part 1)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Abendroth.

Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse, with No Compromise.

Wasn't that long ago someone said to me, when I listen to your podcasts, I usually do it at about 1 .5

speeds so I can get more done during the day. Well, you won't have to speed up this sermon.

Turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 8 and brace yourselves. We have so many things to cover and we're going to go quickly, but hopefully efficiently and most of all, biblically and Christ -centeredly,

Romans chapter 8. Usually it takes us four or five years to get through books of the Bible, but we're doing 16 chapters of Romans in 16 weeks to hit the highlights of this great book.

So you kind of get a little bit of the flavor that you might want to go study it more on your own, Romans chapter 8.

We live in a security conscious world, don't we? Pin numbers, passwords, deadbolts, alarm companies, firewalls, everyone is concerned these days about security, financial security, home security, health security.

People need assurance. People want security and this chapter is a good dose of God's security found in Christ Jesus, safe and secure from all alarm.

Charles Hodge said, the theme of chapter 8 is the security of believers and it's all based on the unchanging love of who

God is in Christ Jesus. Are we secure? Will it last to the end? Sometimes my theology changes a little bit, hopefully for the better, not very much over the years, but maybe this next statement might make you think

I've changed my theology. You can lose your salvation, you should see your faces.

Left to yourself, you could lose your salvation, but because of who Christ Jesus is, he has gained it for you and you can't lose what

God has gained and thankfully Romans 8 talks about the security of the believers. The perseverance of the saints because of the preservation of God.

You can't lose what you didn't own and it would cost God the Father more if you lost your salvation than it would you because the glory of God rides on it.

We still sin, we still as Christians deal with the flesh.

Is there hope of heaven for us? Are we secure? The law has shown us all kinds of things in chapter 7, can we make it to the end?

We're weak, we're frail. What does God think of Christians?

Romans chapter 8 answers the question. When I'm weak and dying on my deathbed, you come and you read

Romans chapter 8 to me, would you? Because it's all about who God is. Take a look at these bookends of Romans first verse and even last verse,

Romans 8, 1. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and there's no separation either, verse 39, 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. The security for the Christian because of the work of Christ applied by the

Holy Spirit. That is Romans chapter 8 and it's important for you because this will help you with your

Christian growth. If you're a Christian, wouldn't you like to grow? Now let's think big picture for a second.

Romans 1, 2, and 3a dealt with sin. We have no righteousness of our own. We need

God's righteousness. 3b, 4, and 5 dealt with justification, how God imputes righteousness, forensically,

Christ's righteousness to our account even though we didn't deserve it because Christ's life is great enough to be imputed to all those who would believe.

Our sins placed on Christ, Christ's righteousness placed on us. So you've got sin, salvation, and now we move to the sanctification section of Romans.

6, 7, and 8 all deal with sanctification with the exclamation point in 8 about security.

And so how do we live the Christian life? If you're like me, this will be good for you because here's how

I live the Christian life left to myself. I got to try harder. I got to do more.

And you know what? If I get up early enough and I have my devotions and I have my prayer time and if maybe

I evangelize to a few people this day and if I love my wife like I should, you know what, boy,

God loves me so much more, doesn't He? I'm just loved by God more. That's wrong thinking and Romans 8 clears that up because God can't love you more.

He loves you the most in Christ Jesus. He loves you as much as He loves His Son. Now it's good to read the

Bible. Honey, is it good if I love you? It's very good. But that doesn't earn anything.

Actually, I take good Bible principles, read your Bible and pray and evangelize and then

I turn them into a new Christian law. If I do those then everything goes well in my life.

Friends, chapter 8 is walking by faith in what the Spirit of God does. We walk by faith and not by sight.

Rules are bad. The law is bad if you try to live by the law to earn God's pleasure.

This is so good. It takes us back to the power of the Spirit for our sanctification.

You know what's going to be the best about this? For you, if you're a Christian and you struggle with your assurance, am

I really a Christian or not? This chapter is going to teach you when you look to yourself, you are going to lose your assurance.

You won't be able to feel like you're saved when you look at yourself because we always fall short even as Christians.

This whole chapter is going to be, Christian, look up. Christian, look away from yourself.

Christian, look around instead of trying to grab hold of assurance and chase it like an idol.

I've got to have assurance. I've got to have assurance. I've got to have assurance. When you try to grab that idol, it's like a grease pig slips away.

What's that going to sound like at 1 .5 speed? I don't know. I'm not really sped up yet. But if you keep your eyes on the

Lord Jesus Christ and what He's done for you at Calvary, His life, His death, then the dove of assurance just comes and floats down and just sits on your shoulder.

When you struggle with assurance, it's because maybe there's sin in your life, but the main sin is looking to self instead of looking to the

Lord. And this is a great chapter to keep our eyes right where they should be. Am I secure?

Romans 8. Yes. Will salvation last? Yes. Is there any condemnation for those

Christians who still sin? No condemnation. Who is old enough to remember the wide world of sports?

Some proudly raised their hand. It was an ABC show, and it just showed you different sporting events around the world.

And remember the very beginning, the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

Showed some guy wiping out, flipping over 500 times on skis. Now switch those two around, and you've got

Romans 7 and you've got Romans 8. The agony of defeat, Romans 7, and the thrill of victory.

Victory achieved by the work of another. This is going to be so good because I don't have to tell you today, be good and do good.

Be nice. It's nice to be nice, isn't it? Of course. But you don't need the

Bible to have that said to you, but you do need to have the Bible to say this to you. There's nothing you can do to undo

God's work for you. Nothing. You see a little glimmer in Romans 7 .25,

don't you? It's a flicker. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. He just got done saying how wretched he is.

There's a flicker of hope, but now Romans 8, we get the halogen beam of a lighthouse bursting forth.

The mighty fortress is our God. Let me give you seven indestructible promises that will forever guide your walk of faith for our outline today.

Guide your walk of faith by the Spirit's power all derived from Christ Jesus. Seven indestructible promises, the fortress of the

Christian's assurance. For those of you that maybe can identify with this, let me additionally call it seven kryptonite -like assurances, vice grip -like assurances.

Every one of them starts with no, N -O, because friends, it's actually good sometimes to teach by bringing the point home with a negative.

1 Peter 1, our inheritance is imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away.

So we'll do the same thing. They all start with no. Oh, just a quick side note before we get into the text. Outside on the billboard,

AM service, it says, no, no, no. And then PM service, it says,

Greek update. So we had our outreach concert the other night, and we had a lot of Greek people come from Boston for the concert, and so they were walking up to the church, and it says, no, no, no,

Greek update. So they didn't know what to expect. It's AM, PM, and tonight we won't have a

Greek update, tonight's 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. But the point is, no, no, no.

And Paul teaches right from the very beginning, promise number one, no condemnation.

Assurance number one, security number one, no condemnation, verses one through four. This is the flip side of positive justification.

Christ died for us. We have imputed righteousness. What's the opposite of justification? Condemnation. The penalty has been paid, verse one.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Could there be greater assurance?

And if you're a Greek writer, what you do is to make an emphasis, you put words to the front of the sentence, or you could put them to the back of the sentence.

Any guesses in Greek what the first word is in this sentence? Read the sign.

No, no condemnation. He's trying to make it emphatic. No, none, impossible, not a whit, not an ounce, not a smidgen.

Judicially you're declared righteous, and therefore there's no condemnation of any kind for you.

The law condemns, but Jesus Christ fulfilled the law. Jesus Christ died to the law, and you in Christ died to the law.

No condemnation. There's no law to condemn you. Jesus fulfilled it. Isn't this the banner for Christians?

Shouldn't this be the trumpet? No condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Friends, I deserved it, and you deserved it.

Hell, we deserved. And yet there's no condemnation based on the work of Christ Jesus, forgiven.

The price has been paid. No Damocles sword of condemnation anymore because the cross of Christ provided the solution for sin and condemnation.

Jesus was condemned in our place. We have our sins forgiven. No wonder

Paul says in Romans 4, blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven. All those old haunting sins, all those sins now even, past, present, future, no condemnation, paid.

And what I like about this, friends, is when you know you don't have to pay for your sins, instead of running around trying to make sure you don't die with those sins placed on your account and then go to hell, you know you're free to serve.

I love the Golden Gate Bridge, and I like to visit there every year and just look at this massive structure, the

Golden Gate Bridge, and I think about all kinds of things, like Jesus was the bridge between man and God, but another thing

I think about is before they had safety nets installed, 23 men fell and died.

Well then they put safety nets there and some apparatus so there would be security. Ten men fell but didn't die, and the amazing thing is, production went up 25%.

Why? I'm going to work hard and I'm not going to have to worry about dying. Christian, what's the worst thing that can happen to you?

You can serve not trying to say to yourself like I did when I was a kid, you know what, alright, it's time to confess my sins, it's 1030 at night,

I'm in bed, Lord, I didn't do this and I should have, and I did do this and I shouldn't have, and let's see, is there anything else?

Because if I forget to confess one sin, I'm going to go to hell for that one sin that's unconfessed. What kind of life to live is that?

Friends, there's no condemnation for any of those in Christ Jesus because Jesus paid for all your sins, past, present, and future.

Is it good to confess? Yes, but if you forget one, Jesus didn't forget about that sin and he paid for it in your place.

No condemnation. You're able to serve the Lord. James Denny said, assurance is a sin in Romanism, it's a duty in much of Protestantism, but in the

New Testament, it's simply a fact. You have assurance, you have security.

Penalty's been paid. More than that, verses two through four, the power of sin is broken, liberated from the law's bondage.

Verse two, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in the

Messiah Jesus from the law of sin and death. This is like the practical application of no condemnation.

The law of sin gravity is reversed. And now we're going to focus here on the spirit in chapter eight,

I, I, I in chapter seven, the spirit working in chapter eight, the spirit of life, not the law of death,

Jesus acquired by his death, burial, resurrection, life for us.

Now the spirit applies it practically, how? What's the divine method?

Verse three, for God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do.

How? By sending his own son. Now look at the words here, carefully worded in the likeness of sinful flesh.

It doesn't say in the likeness of flesh, like he's some ghost. It doesn't say in the sinful flesh, Jesus committed no sin, 1

Peter. He knew no sin, 2 Corinthians, and in him there's no sin, 1 John. But he was our representative, wasn't he?

In the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh.

Oh, the law's good, the law's holy, the law's righteous, but it can't save, but Jesus can. Notice here, everything is bound up in what

Jesus did. You want security, you have to look back away from yourself and look to the cross.

And what's the purpose here of verse three? It's found in verse four. In order that the righteous requirement of the law, perfect obedience, perfectly obeying the law, might be fulfilled in us.

Oh, we have a responsibility, we'll get to that later, but you see the passive language where it's the spirit of God working in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

The just requirement and demand of God's law has been fulfilled by those who are in Christ Jesus.

Charles Finney wrote, it is self -evident that the entire obedience to God's law is possible on the ground of natural ability.

Really? That's not what we're reading here. The life of holiness is because of what the

Son did applied by the spirit. No condemnation. I think Charles Wesley wrote a song about that, didn't he?

Number two, no vacancy. Second indestructible promise. Number one, no condemnation.

Number two, no vacancy. You need help and sanctification. The spirit of God dwells in you.

Verses five through 13. What a neglected topic these days, the role of the spirit in the life of the believer.

Assurance. Christian friend, your life is not one long, hard endeavor to be good.

We fight the good fight of faith, not the good fight. Mount said how to live in and by the spirit is the single most important lesson the believer can ever learn.

And Paul teaches us here, liberating. You can't live by your own strength. And when you do frustration, angst, really you go back to Romans 7,

I, I, I, I, maybe 30 times I in English. And here in chapter 8, it's the spirit of God, probably 20 times used.

And the spirit of God helps us set our minds on his desires, verses five and following. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh.

That's how unbelievers live. But those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit.

That's their desire. That's their yearning. And there's a good result to that because there's a bad result to what the unbelievers do, verse six.

For to set the mind on the flesh is death. But to set the mind on the spirit is, it's life and peace, contentment, sense of security.

That describes a Christian powered by the spirit of God. We don't want the opposite. You want to go back to who you used to be, verse seven.

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot.

Those who are in the flesh, unbelievers, cannot please God. That's a good reason not to go according to the flesh.

But here's the good news. The spirit dwells in you. The spirit of God lives in you.

You, however, verse nine, are not in the flesh. He's not talking about skin here, but in the spirit.

If, in fact, the spirit of God dwells in you, anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. All Christians get all the spirit.

But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.

Christian, you are in the spirit. You have the spirit dwelling in you. We read it in Ephesians chapter one. That's why when we do things, it's not by might nor by power, but by my sola bootstrapsa, sayeth the

Lord. We have resources to obey.

And do you know what? One day, even the ultimate, this body, I'm going to get a new body, and so will you, verse 11, if the spirit of him who raised

Jesus from the dead dwells in you. He raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.

And so, the spirit of God comes along, and he woos, and he obliges us to live for him, verse 12.

So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.

No, that's not us. For if you live, verse 13, according to the flesh, you will die.

But if by the spirit, see, this is the Christian life, living by the spirit, a walk of faith, you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

No wonder Paul said to the Galatians, you foolish Galatians who has bewitched you to run back to the law again when you have the spirit of God.

Promise number three, these are building, aren't they? Promise one, no condemnation. Promise two, no vacancy.

Promise three, no orphans. No orphans. Boy, just how horrible it is when you read another story of the

Boston Logan Airport where a 20 -year -old delivers a baby and then puts the baby in the toilet stall.

Abandoned. You, Christian, have a father. You have a father, and the spirit of God is involved in making sure you understand that, verse 14.

For all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God.

By legal right, by nature, this is tied into assurance. You're led by God. Now, this isn't led by God like, where do

I go out to lunch today? This is led by God progressively in sanctification. If you're a

Christian, the spirit of God leads you into growth into Christ Jesus. Question, do fathers give guidelines to children?

Do fathers lead their children in the right paths? Wouldn't God the father then lead you in the right path too?

Say, well, I had a bad father. Well, this is a good father. And even when you're hurting and you need to cry out, guess what?

You get to cry out, dad. Now, some people, they take a look at this next verse and they think it's kind of when my kids couldn't sleep at night and I would just go pick them up and I would sing this little song.

I'd rock them like this and I would sing. I won't sing it. I'll just say it. Everything's all right in my father's house.

I would just sing it back and forth and they would just kind of whimper cry. You know, you ever heard those little whimper?

This is different. This is a cry of, I've got a thorn stuck in my finger and I need help, dad.

Take a look. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoptions as sons by whom we cry,

Abba, father, daddy. We don't have slave -like fear.

We can call him this name with full privilege, daddy, Aramaic for father.

But that cry is emphatic. That cry is shriek of a woman in childbirth,

Revelation chapter 12. Sinclair Ferguson said, the picture is not that of a believer resting quietly in the father's arms in childlike faith, but of the child who has tripped and fallen, crying out in pain, daddy, daddy.

That cry, Sinclair said, is the mark of the presence of the spirit of adoption, not least because it shows that in time of need, it is towards our father in heaven that we look.

Don't kids want to do that? I have a problem. Dad, could you help? Well, they asked their mother too as well, but the illustration here is

God is a father. And when you're hurting, you can go to God as father. When you used to hurt, you didn't say it, but it was true.

You probably yelled out for your father, except for the unbeliever, the father that they have is

Satan. Now you have a heavenly father. Luther said, although I be oppressed with anguish and on terror,

I have terror on every side and seem to be forsaken, yet I am your child and you are my father for Christ's sake.

I am beloved small B because of a beloved capital B. Wherefore, this little word father conceived effectually in the heart passes all the eloquence of Cicero.

You have a father. God help me. Verse 16, the spirit assures us and confirms that we are children.

God could have saved us and never given us assurance, but he saved us and gave us assurance. You're mine. Verse 16, the spirit himself emphatically, not just the spirit bears, but the spirit himself bears witness with our spirit.

It's a subjective thing that we're children of God and we get an inheritance too.

And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we also may be glorified with him.

Children have parents and they inherit things. When a parent dies, there's an inheritance that's split up.

If you're a child, you get an inheritance here. There's no doctrine of Old Testament.

The oldest son gets the double. We all are heirs. Everybody's an heir.

If you're a child, you're an heir of God and co -heir with Christ. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 830 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m.

We're located on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org

or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.