Eternally Secure
8 September 2013 – Romans 8:31-39 – Romans – Scott Childs
Introduction: The Bible teaches that if you sin, you lose your fellowship with God but not your relationship with God. Since no one can be good enough to earn salvation, certainly no one can be good enough to keep salvation. Salvation is a gift of God’s grace. If God has truly saved your soul, you are eternally secure.
Transition: This morning we are going to examine four solid reasons why you do not need to worry about losing your salvation if you are truly saved.
I. No One Can Compete With Your God (Ro 8:31-32)
A. God is for you!
1. Yes, the Creator of the universe is for you! Think of that. God is ready to defend you. You are His.
Psalm 56:11 In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.
1 John 4:4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
2. God is for you and no one is greater than Him, so there is no one who can legitimately be against you.
B. God gave His Son for you!
1. God gave the greatest gift for you – His own Son.
a) God delivered His own Son to die in your place.
b) He gave Himself for us all.
There is no greater love than that of Christ above, That made Him stoop to earth, become a Man, And by His death provide redemption’s plan; There is no greater love. — J. W. Peterson
c) Since God gave the greatest gift for you, you can be absolutely sure that He will gladly give you all that He has promised – that includes heaven.
Do not worry, God is for you, and NO ONE can compete with Him.
The 2nd solid reason you do not need to worry about losing your salvation is because:
II. No One Can Lay a Charge Against You (Ro 8:33)
A. You are God’s elect.
1. God chose all who repent and believe on Christ for salvation. In eternity past, God knew every person who would one day repent and believe.
1 Peter 1:2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.
2. If you are saved, you are one of His elect. When anyone tries to lay a charge against one of God’s elect, he has no ground to stand on because the debt is fully paid.
B. God justified you.
1. To justify means, “to declare you to be 100% right with God.” When the Lord forgives sin, He erases every trace of it.
In high school shop class, I got varnish on my good shirt. That varnish left a permanent stain on my shirt. Sin leaves an even more permanent stain on our lives. Nothing can remove it, except the blood of Christ. His justification erases every trace of our sin.
2. The devil himself cannot charge us with guilt after Christ justifies us.
a) It is true that the devil is the accuser of the brethren. He accuses us before God, but he cannot lay a charge against us.
b) When we sin, we lose our fellowship with God but not our relationship with God.
c) When God justified you, it was permanent.
Psalm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
Do not worry, NO ONE can lay a charge against you because God justified you.
The 3rd solid reason you do not need to worry about losing your salvation is because:
III. No One Can Condemn You (Ro 8:34)
A. Christ paid for your sins
1. God set the price that must be paid for our sin as eternal death. Thus, sin condemns every person to eternal death in hell.
2. Because Jesus Christ is the eternal God, He was able to pay that eternal debt for you.
a) He died to pay for your sins.
b) He rose from the dead to give you eternal life.
Romans 4:25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
3. Because He paid your debt in full, Christ is just when He forgives sins that you confess to Him.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
That is amazing, but that is not all.
B. Christ now intercedes for you when you sin
1. He is at God’s right hand.
Hebrews 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
“This metaphor speaks of the place of power, authority and preeminence.” – Bob Utley
a) He has the authority to help us.
b) He has the ability to help us.
2. Christ helps by continually interceding for us. He makes petitions on our behalf. He acts as our advocate, lawyer, or solicitor.
1 John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
3. Since Christ paid our sin debt in full and rose again to give us eternal life, and since He is at God’s right hand continually interceding for us, NO ONE can possibly condemn us to hell.
Do not worry, NO ONE can condemn you after all Christ has done for you.
The 4th solid reason you do not need to worry about losing your salvation is because:
IV. No One Can Separate You From God’s Love (Ro 8:35-39)
God loves the world, but He is able to express His love more readily to Christians. He longs to meet our need for mercy, tenderness, forgiveness, compassion, protection, a listening ear, help, peace, pity, reconciliation after we sin, instruction, strength, encouragement, and comfort. The word separate means to divide or to put a barrier between you and God.
A. Christ’s love conquers all threats to separate us
1. Satan uses all kinds of troubles to try to get Christians to doubt God’s love (Ro 8:35): tribulation (pressure from without), distress (squeezing from within, anguish), persecution (hostile pursuit), famine (hunger), nakedness (lack of clothing, poverty), peril (danger, risks), or sword (martyrs death).
2. The Psalmist wrote of such troubles a thousand years before Christ.
Psalm 44:22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
Paul confirmed this fact. 2 Timothy 3:12 Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
3. Even in all such troubles, we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us (Ro 8:37). God’s love is able to give us a landslide victory over any trouble that Satan sends our way.
William Nicoll reminds us that “these trials not only do not cut us off from Christ’s love, they actually give us more intimate and thrilling experiences of it.”
4. If we draw close to the Lord during a trial, we will sense His love far more than before we had the trial.
B. God’s love is stronger than any power
1. Many powers will try to separate us from God’s love.
a) Threat of death, trials of life, demonic angels, principalities (civil dictators), cruel powers, present enemies, future enemies, height nor depth (perhaps false gods above and below), nor any other creature.
2. Not one will be able to separate us from God’s love.
Do not worry, NO ONE can separate you from God’s love.
Conclusion: Have you truly repented of your sins and trusted Christ to save your soul? If so, you are eternally secure. No one can change that. You have nothing to fear. Focus your life on living to please the Lord who saved you. If you are not sure you are saved, trust Him alone today!
Song: We Have an Anchor, 265