Romans 8:31-39

Coram Deo Reformed Baptist Church iconCoram Deo Reformed Baptist Church

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So, we have come to the end of Romans chapter 8,
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Paul's magnum opus here in Romans. The several weeks that it has taken us to get through it, to come to this point, the amount of wonderful assurance that Paul gives through this chapter.
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And here at the end of chapter 8, he goes into a set of rhetorical questions to, for lack of a better term, hammer down on that assurance.
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As we normally do, I'll start in verse 1. We'll go all the way through the chapter and then we'll get started.
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Verse 1, there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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The law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
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For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do. By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us.
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Who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.
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For those who live according to the flesh, set their minds on the things of the flesh.
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But those who live according to the spirit, set their minds on the things of the spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.
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For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law.
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Indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please
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God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if in fact the spirit of God dwells in you.
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Anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is life because of righteousness.
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If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised
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Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.
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So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, who live according to the flesh.
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For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
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For all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of God.
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For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry,
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Abba, Father. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.
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And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we might also be glorified with him.
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For I consider that the suffering of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
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For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
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For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of birth until now.
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And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the spirit, grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
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For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees?
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But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
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Likewise, the spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
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And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit, because the spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
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And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
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And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified.
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And those whom he justified, he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things?
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If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
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Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is
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God who justifies. Who is to condemn?
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Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us?
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Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
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As it is written, for your sake we are being killed all the day long.
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We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
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For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
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Lord. As I said before,
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Paul here at the end of chapter 8 is launching into a series of rhetorical questions to challenge logically any doubts that may remain in the mind of the reader, and to continue his reassurance.
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Verse 31, is what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
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If God, as in the God who spoke all things into existence, who flooded the earth, killing everything but a single family and what remained on the ark.
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God who delivered upon the Egyptians all of the plagues.
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God who exists eternally outside of time and space.
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If our sovereign God is for us, Paul says, who in all creation, in all the universe, has the ability to be against us?
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No one. Now I have a couple examples here, if you want to turn with me, because a couple of them are long, but they're in 2
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Kings. First one is in chapter 6. These are earthly examples.
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These are a few examples here from history that we can look at, and I want you to pay attention to how
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God in His Word speaks of this situation, and the specific words that He uses.
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In 2 Kings 6, starting in verse 8, it says,
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Once the king of Syria was warning or warring against Israel. He took counsel with his servants, saying,
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At such and such a place shall my camp be. But the man of God sent word to the king of Israel, Beware that you do not pass this place, for the
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Syrians are going down there. And the king of Israel sent to the place about which the man of God told him.
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Thus he used to warn him, so that he saved himself there more than once or twice.
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And the mind of the king of Syria was greatly troubled because of this thing. And he called his servants and said to them,
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Will you not show me who of us is for the king of Israel? And one of his servants said,
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None, my lord, O king, but Elisha the prophet, who is in Israel, tells the king of Israel the words that you speak in your bedroom.
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And he said, Go and see where he is that I may send and seize him.
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It was told him, Behold, he is in Dothan. So he sent there horses and chariots and a great army, and they came by night and surrounded the city.
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When the servant of the man of God rose early in the morning and went out, behold, an army with horses and chariots was all around the city.
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And the servant said, Alas, my master, what shall we do? He said,
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Do not be afraid for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.
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Then Elisha prayed and said, O lord, please open his eyes that he may see. So the lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
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And when the Syrians came down against him, Elisha prayed, and the lord,
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I'm sorry, Elisha prayed to the lord and said, Please strike these people with blindness.
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So he struck them with blindness in accordance with the prayer of Elisha. And Elisha said to them,
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This is not the way, and this is not the city. Follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom you seek.
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And he led them to Samaria. As soon as they entered Samaria, Elisha said,
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O lord, open the eyes of these men that they may see. So the lord opened their eyes, and they saw, and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria.
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As soon as the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, My father, shall
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I strike them down? Shall I strike them down? He answered,
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You shall not strike them down. Would you strike down those whom you have taken captive with your sword and with your bow?
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Set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master.
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So he prepared for them a great feast, and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master.
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And the Syrians did not come again on raids into the land of Israel.
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There's a few things in here I want to point out that we have talked about over the course of chapter 8 in Romans.
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The first I want to point out is notice where it says that the city is surrounded by the army that is sent by the king of Syria, okay?
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And then notice where the heavenly army surrounds. You see it?
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God does not say in his word that the city was surrounded by the host of heaven.
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It specifically says that they were around Elisha. So the
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Lord opened the eyes of the young man, and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
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Now, not to infer anything into the text, but it is odd that the city is not protected.
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Elisha is specifically said to have the host of heaven around him. I also want you to notice how
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Elisha reacts to this, knowing that not necessarily that he, but that God has full advantage over this threat.
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He doesn't pray that they be killed. He prays that they be struck with blindness.
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And then he goes out himself, and he leads them into the land of Samaria. And because of this, when they regain their sight, again, the king of Israel asks him, should
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I strike them down? And Elisha again says, no, no. Once they've eaten and they've drank, and they return to Syria, they never come back.
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The greater purpose here is that they never come back. The next example that I have is in 2
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Kings 19, verses 32 through 37.
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It's a bit smaller than the last one. Verse 32, it says, therefore, thus says the
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Lord concerning the king of Assyria, he shall not come into the city, or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield, or cast up a siege mount against it, by the way that he came, by the same way he shall return.
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And he shall not come into the city, declares the Lord, for I will defend this city to save it for my own sake and for the sake of my servant
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David. I want you to take note of that again.
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It's also in context of the last example.
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Why is God saving the city? Does he save for the sake of all of the people in the city?
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No, he says, for my own sake, for my own purpose, I'm saving the city and for the sake of my servant
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David. And that night, the angel of the
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Lord went out and struck down 185 ,000 in the camp of the
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Assyrians. And when the people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies.
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Then, Shennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and went home and lived in Nineveh.
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Just like the
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He gives us a bit more detail about Shennacherib's end here.
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He says, and he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch, his god. Adremalek and Sherezer, his son, struck him down with a sword and escaped to the land of Ararat.
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And Esarhaddon, his son, reigned in his place. So it doesn't give us any detail about how long between these two events this happened.
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That's beside the point. God again protected a city for his own purpose.
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One more example here. Turn to Acts chapter 12, verses 6 through 19.
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Starting in verse 6, it says, Now, when Herod was about to bring him out on that very night,
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Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains and centuries before the door.
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Now, I want to point out back to the reading that we heard before in Acts 5.
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Peter is imprisoned and he is let out of prison by an angel.
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And then they go to look for him later and he is not there. And they're like, where did he go?
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And then some people come down and they say, he's preaching in the temple. And they're like, how?
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How? Right? The guards were still there. The doors were still locked. Right? So notice now the second time that he is sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains and centuries before the door.
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They know they got to go the extra mile with Peter now. We can't just lock him in a cell.
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We got to make sure he doesn't get out this time. Right? And centuries before the door were guarding the prison.
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And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him and a light shone in the cell.
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He struck Peter on the side and woke him up saying, get up quickly. And the chains fell off his hands.
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And the angel said to him, dress yourself and put on your sandals. And he went out and followed him.
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He did not know what was being done by the angel. He did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.
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When they had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city and it opened for them of its own accord.
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And they went out and went along one street and immediately the angel left him.
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When Peter came to himself, when he regained his faculties, he said to himself, now
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I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the
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Jewish people were expecting. Now I will be honest, this next part
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I included for the sake of including it. It doesn't necessarily lend to the point that we're making here.
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The point that I'm making here is that in all of these examples, God has set aside these specific people and done these specific things for His purpose.
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Not for the sake of Peter, not for the sake of Elisha, but for His purpose.
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But we'll continue here in verse 12. He says, when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose other name was
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Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.
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And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named
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Hroda came to answer. Recognizing Peter's voice in her joy, she did not open the gate, but ran in and reported that Peter was standing at the gate.
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They said to her, you are out of your mind. But she kept insisting that it was so.
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And they kept saying it is his angel.
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Now in the ESV, it says angel. In other translations, it says his spirit. General consensus is that they assumed that it was his spirit.
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Peter had been killed, and this was his ghost, for lack of a better term, that was appearing.
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But Peter continued knocking, and when they opened, they saw him and were amazed.
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But motioning to them with his hands to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison.
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And he said, tell these things to James and to the brothers. And then he departed and went to another place.
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I also want to point you back where we discussed Joseph's life and all that happened to Joseph, all of the evil that was done to Joseph.
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And yet, all of the evil that was intended towards Joseph ultimately only served
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God's purpose. The life of Paul, consider that.
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Even just from Stephen's execution to the sharing of the gospel with the emperor of Rome.
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All that befell Paul, the beatings, the shipwrecks, the lashes, his missionary work, all of that was for God's purpose.
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In each of these cases, God protected those he had set aside for his purpose.
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Even great armies were defeated. This isn't necessarily the limit of what Paul is talking about here in the last part of chapter eight.
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As we continue, keep in mind our triune
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God, especially in regards to this next verse.
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Verse 32, he says, he did not, he referring to the father, did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.
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How will we not also with him graciously? How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
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The father did not spare the son, Christ, who is preeminent, who is above all things, one who is more valuable than all of creation, who we confess is co -equal, co -eternal with the father and the
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Holy Spirit. Paul is saying that if the father gave his son for us, the most important thing, the most important being in all of creation, in all of time and space outside creation,
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God the son, how will he not also with Christ give graciously to us that which is also given to the son?
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Throwing back to verses 16 and 17 in this chapter, the spirit himself bears witness with us, with our spirits, that we are children of God.
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And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
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Paul is hammering in this point that if the father has already given the son, how can you expect that he won't give everything else that he has promised?
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If you're assured in your salvation in Christ alone, that Christ died for you on the cross to cleanse you of your sins, to cover you with his righteousness, then how dare you expect that God will not fulfill the smaller promises that he has made?
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Now, I also want to point out that this has nothing to do with riches, nothing.
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This is not a verse to be spouted out for some prosperity gospel nonsense. This is in regards to God's promises that he makes to his elect, especially within the context of the last verse, that if God promises that what
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Paul talked about before in chapter 8, that all of the terrible things, all of the good things, all the things that you go through in your life serve to sanctify you and conform you to the image of Christ.
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If he has already given his son, how can you expect that that is not also the case?
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He promises that it is. He says that it is in 33.
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It says, who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies.
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I also want to point out that this question is aimed at the very, very heart of the gospel itself, but it doesn't matter what charge is brought against us.
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We are not justified by our works. We're justified by Christ.
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We're covered with his righteousness. So in all intents and purposes, to fling a charge at us is to fling a charge at the righteousness of Christ.
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God has declared us righteous in his sight already. Therefore, there is nothing that can change that.
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Nothing. It's already been done. It's not a matter of when you die and you go to heaven and you stand before the judgment seat and the devil is there flinging accusations at you, and God kind of has to wonder what he's going to do with you.
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No, it's already done. You're already righteous in his sight. In verse 1 and 2 of this chapter that I just read, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
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For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. It is
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God who justifies. The scriptures are very clear about this fact that our justification comes from God, that we are justified only by God and Christ's righteousness is imputed to us.
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Let me ask you this. If we cannot justify ourselves before God, and it takes the sacrifice of his son and the imputation of his righteousness to us, if we cannot affect our own justification, it is not a work that we can do.
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It is only a work of God. Then also, how can you expect to affect it after the fact?
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If you can't affect the bringing on of your justification, how do you think you can affect the relieving of it?
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Not a works thing. Works on both ends. I'll also point out here that this is not the only doctrine to keep in mind, but more especially one that the church itself and us being of the church should never be willing to negotiate.
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Ever. The doctrine of justification should never be negotiated.
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We are justified by God alone. Any attempt to compromise even the smallest point of our justification beforehand or after should be considered in the same camp as Roman Catholicism or federal visionists or any other gospel plus theology that we have to fight against.
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Let me remind you that most of these are considered absolute heresy.
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Gospel plus is heresy. I didn't put it in here, so I'll just talk about it, but I do want to point out what is commonly referred to in history as the remonstration.
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This is a point in the Dutch Reformed Church where there were several people who disagreed with not just the doctrines of grace, but primarily the doctrines of grace.
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There were several people of note that were included in this, and by doing so, they called down upon themselves judgment from the
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Senate of Dortrich. They declared them heretics on the doctrines of grace.
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They disagreed with them, but we'll move on.
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Verse 34 says, Who is to condemn? Jesus Christ is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
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At the end of Matthew's gospel in chapter 28, verse 18, he recalls
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Christ's words to the apostles in Galilee. Scripture says,
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And Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
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I want to point out, it should be quite obvious that he doesn't say some authority.
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He doesn't say most authority. He says, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
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Also, take note of the fact, who is doing the judging in Revelation? Who returns?
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He returns to judge the living and the dead. It's Christ.
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So if we are to be condemned, we are to be condemned by Christ who will judge the living and the dead.
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And yet, as the elect, Christ is the very one interceding for us,
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Paul says. So who is to condemn? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
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Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
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Paul here is summarizing the myriad of situations that Christians may find themselves in. Poverty, and distress, and tribulation, with nothing, find yourself in danger, facing execution.
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None of these things, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.
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While these situations may very well cause our assurance, may cause doubt, they may cause us to be afraid, these are the very moments that Christ is with us.
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And these are the moments that we spoke about before when the Holy Spirit reminds us of the hope that we have in Christ.
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As it is written, For your sake we are being killed all the day long. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
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In this verse, Paul reminds us that the rest of humanity, to the rest of humanity, we are but, because they hate
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God. Scripture is very plain about this, that unbelievers hate
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God. Natural man hates God. And because they cannot get to God, they hate
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His saints, and they kill His saints. What happened to every prophet?
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What happened to every apostle except one? We have the blessing where we live, that we have enjoyed 300 -ish years of not being persecuted for being
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Christians. For being God's saints. But this is only because we built a nation based on God's moral law.
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We built a Christian nation. It isn't one now that is rapidly coming to an end, but we have enjoyed a time of peace that is rare in all of the history of the church.
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Even when you want to include the last thousand years of the Roman church, what did the
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Roman church do to Protestant believers? I will not take this opportunity to point out that Christendom doesn't work.
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There will come a time when just as it was during the time of the early church, people will again regard
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Christians, and they already do, as nothing more than cockroaches to be eradicated.
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Shut up. Go away. And the easiest way to do that currently is just to cancel you.
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It's a big thing. It's been a big thing for the past several years, is to just cancel you, get you kicked off, all of your platforms, make you go away.
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That is a prelude to permanently removing you from the physical public square, which means kill you.
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I will also point you to Fox's Book of Martyrs. If you do not have it, get it.
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If you have not read it, read it. I also wanted to add this.
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In Matthew Poole's commentary, he adds this. He says, here, let me insert a tragic story of the
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Christians of Calabria that suffered persecution in AD 1560.
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They were all shut up in one house together, as in a sheepfold. An executioner comes in.
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I am translating this to modern English, by the way. An executioner comes in, and among them takes one, blindfolds him, covers his eyes, and leads him forth to a larger place where he commands him to kneel down, which being done, cuts his throat.
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The blindfold, being covered in blood, he comes again to the rest, and so leading them one after the other, dispatches them to the number of 88, as calm and collected as a butcher with his sheep, as if it is nothing.
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If you have an expectation that natural man doesn't consider you in this fashion, get it out of your head, because when the time comes, your sight will be on Christ and Christ's purpose.
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If you are indwelt with the Holy Spirit, I do not believe that it can be on anything else. How many of us saints have been martyred?
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Simply because, just in Rome, because we would not deny
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Christ. Only an act of the Holy Spirit can cause a man to do such a thing.
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It continues in 37. Paul starts with no.
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No. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
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In 37, Paul reminds us that we are more than conquerors in Christ.
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Rather than having the desired effect, oppression and persecution only makes us stronger in our faith and our resolve for the
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Lord. Throughout history, the persecution of the church has only served to make it flourish.
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In the end, their weapons ultimately, just as in the examples we read before, ultimately only serve
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God's purpose. The conquering here that Paul is referring to in this verse is not physical conquest.
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It is not a gathering together of the saints to be activists or a political body going forth to create civil change.
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Notice when he writes this, that is not a possibility anywhere in the world.
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The place that we live in now is the first place in all of human history where you literally had that right.
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That is obviously not what Paul is talking about. It is a reminder that we serve a sovereign
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God, and just as it glorifies Him to keep us safe to the ends of His purpose, it also glorifies
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Him that we be martyred for His purpose. That may be a very hard pill to swallow for some, but remember we have been through chapter 8 and through other parts of Romans that we have already been through.
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God is sovereign over all things. If it did not serve
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God's sovereign will that His saints be martyred, they wouldn't be. The evil that the world does to the church only serves to spread the wonderful grace of the gospel.
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The height of the spread of the church is at the greatest time in history when
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Christians are being persecuted. Notice in China now, in places now like China, the
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Middle East, where Christians are heavily persecuted. They're thrown in camps, in re -education camps, thrown in cages and burned alive.
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Those are the places where the church is growing quicker than anywhere else in the world. I will also point out that if that's the case, what are we doing wrong?
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Slacking in our comfort. If saints in other parts of the world were on pain of death, they share the gospel.
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How dare we not do the same in a place where people will say bad words to us.
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Now there is the rare occasion of assault and murder here in the
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United States. It seems to be growing, but I will point that out.
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I'll also point you to this just to help drive this home for you about the conquering that Paul is referring to.
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Think back or turn back to Acts chapter 5 verse 33.
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It is recorded, not Paul, but it's recorded. When they heard this, they were enraged and went to kill them, referring to the apostles.
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But a Pharisee in the council named
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Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, held in honor by all the people, stood up and gave orders to put the men outside for a little while.
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And he said to them, men of Israel, take care what you are about to do to these men.
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For before these days, Thaddeus, forgive me,
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Thaddeus rose up claiming to be somebody. I wonder. And a number of men, about 400 joined him.
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He was killed and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. The leader was killed and everyone else scattered.
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After him, Judas the Galilean rose up in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him.
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He too perished and all who followed him were scattered, both being political revolutions.
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So in the present case, I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone. For if this plan or this undertaking is of men, it will fail.
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But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing
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God. Now, I want to point out that he makes such a strong argument in that they let them go.
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They tell them to shut up, stop speaking in the name of Jesus, and get out of our sight.
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And what do they do? They rejoice. I think they're flogged, but they rejoice that they were able to be persecuted for the name of Jesus.
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And they go on from synagogue to synagogue, from house to house, preaching the name of Jesus.
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In reference to the conquering, the two gentlemen that this
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Pharisee mentions are what the Jews were looking for.
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Someone to rise up among the people and free them from Roman rule, a political act, an act of physical rebellion.
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They rejected the true Messiah that came to set them free from their real enemy, sin and death.
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And this Pharisee, I don't know anything else about this man, but makes a very good point that, look, if this is a political movement, their leader is already dead, just as these men are.
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They'll scatter at some point. But if it is of God, you will never be able to overthrow them.
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So let's just see what happens. So that way we don't find ourselves opposing
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God. And what has happened to the church?
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Two thousand years of persecution in Christianity, in its various forms,
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I will admit, in the various forms, even the perverted ones, is considered in the top three.
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Now, we do have an issue of, as I said before, Roman Catholicism. Christian cults, things like that.
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So the number is not as large as people would like to propose that it is. But over two thousand years and all the church did was grow.
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It says in 38, we're coming to the end. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
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Lord. This has been Paul's point the entirety of chapter eight.
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We are safe in Christ. Be assured that there is nothing in all the universe that can separate us from Christ.
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Why do you think that Paul throughout chapter eight has labored the point of God's sovereignty? Because that is where our assurance lies.
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God has elected us from all eternity to be given to the Son. All the tribulation can be given by the world to the church is not enough.
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It's not enough to separate us from Christ because it is sovereign
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God who has elected us. I'll point you to this.
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I'll end with this. Even in the moments when we have issues in our association, when we have issues in the church, and churches separate, and these people fall away, and those people fall away, and this church becomes a liberal church, and this church becomes crazy legalistic, understand this.
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That is God purifying His church. Paul has given an absolute myriad of examples of things that cannot affect our relationship with God that we have in Christ.
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Even measurements. Did you notice that? Neither height nor depth. Why a measurement?
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Why up or down? He's gotten to the point to where he's understanding nothing.
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Even things you don't think of. Nothing. But as I was saying before, as churches fall away, and when tribulation comes, and people reject
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Christ, remember what John said in 1 John. In chapter 2, in verse 19, they went out from us, but they were not of us.
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If they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out that it might become plain that they are not of us.
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No one loses their salvation. There are only those who never had it in the first place.
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Dear friends, please mark this chapter. Mark it down.
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Crease the page. Put another book in it so that it's there readily available for you in your arsenal of Scripture when you need it.
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When your assurance runs thin, when you're in troubled times, it's there for you.
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God took the time to have Paul pen chapter 8 for you, for us, for his saints.