Would you take your Bibles please and turn to Romans chapter 8 is tonight We approach the end of our Study of the Ordo Salutus the order or the way of salvation literally and in Latin the the order or the way of blessing We talk about How those who are in Christ can never truly and finally fall from grace You know I get the articles that are sent to me over the Email and Internet and sometimes they just find their way in my inbox at work. I don't know who Sent me this particular one but a couple weeks ago. There was an article that had on the top and blazing with big words What kind of mother leaves her children? It was from a magazine. I'm not familiar with I had to go online to find out if it What kind of it was called Marie Claire and it looks like a lady's magazine. I see the girl smiling so they know what it is It's not one that I'm familiar with But there was an article written by Leo Goldman in March of this year about women who have just left their children and gone off to start a new life The subtitle said Divorcing dads give up custody every day Increasingly so do moms so why are they judged more harshly for it? Three women tell their story Now the story or about three women one was named Maria and she had a tragic Event in her life. She had a little girl named Hannah and Hannah died of a rare and a very painful death and So she decided she needed to be free to write a book about Hannah's death She divorced her husband gave him the custody of the three children Moved into an apartment fell in love with another writer moved in with him moved to San Francisco Got married to him and wrote her book. It's a best-selling book It's been translated into 15 languages called Hannah's gift But Goldman says of her just a year later Maria who'd fallen in love with a writer she met while on her retreat moved across the country to San Francisco to be with him And they were wed in the year 2000 Myler daughters were too young to comprehend the distance her eldest son William Then 12 was crushed by it I kept telling the kids that I'd see them as often as I had before and true to her word She drained her savings flying back and forth every other weekend until the sale of the book Another woman was named Ella She was 39 and decided to move to London. She had a child by a boyfriend Then got married to a second man. It had two daughters by him Then got divorced and scraped by to make a living and then decided to move to London for a fresh start She gave up custody of her three children to their two fathers and met a guy in London They got engaged and then married and she entered into law school The article said two months after Ella's ex arrived for the girls I gave them a big hug and told them that they were going to have a great time with their dad and that I'd be seeing them soon The girls watched their mother waving them off just as she did when they boarded the bus for school holding back the tears Ella shuffled back to her apartment Distracted herself with her own impending move And that first year abroad She vacillated between blurry eyed enthusiasm for her new life and home And a new marriage and some Interminable longing for her girls it took over a year before they settled into her routine of weekly calls and seasonal visits The third woman was young woman age 30 named Rebecca She grew up in California Many young men when she was in high school Got pregnant out of wedlock They got married 10 days after the child was born He was a Mexican immigrant who worked hard as a cook and became a naturalized citizen She desired to become a writer and to work in film So she entered into a community college to study film while he took care of their little boy and and provided for them And she soon said that in order to progress in her career She needed to move to New York City and he said he was not going to move His family and the support network and his life was there in Santa Maria, California. So she left She went to New York. He fought for custody one custody of their little boy She's now remarried, but it's sad about what happened Emotionally spent she flew to New York that summer Subletter room from a jazz musician and immersed herself in the boho lifestyle she She began to think I I had to examine the world that was opening up to me She dated played guitar explored the city between shifts as the waitress She told virtually no one about her failed marriage and their five-year-old son I just bottled it up inside and related to people as the person I now was rather than the person I had once been Two years ago She remarried and moved to New York permanently But she regrets Leaving her son What made these women do this thing Let's go back to the original question Divorcing dads give up custody every day Increasingly so do moms So why are they judged more harshly for it Well the answer is candidly they are not The society because of common grace and natural revelation Has always looked down upon those who Leave marriages and forsake their vows and abandon their children All my life I have heard names for these people Deadbeat dads negligent fathers absentee fathers Home records Spiritual zero another names that are not repeatable here in the sanctuary Why should women Be let off any easier if they leave their marriage and forsake the kids Now to be candid with you I'm not here to castigate or condemn them although it sounds like it I'm here to use their Lives and their tragedies as an example The things come into the lives of people like the death of a children Like a marriage they were too young to really make and to carry on with Maybe a bad husband unemployment different kinds of stresses and strains and It has the reality and the fact of life that it drives them to the point of desperation and then they do things That later on They may really regret And in the process They break their vows They desert their covenants they never intend to do that And there are a lot of people like that And rather than judge them perhaps they need us to understand why they do the things they do And yet the fact remains that the children they leave behind Are broken and bruised by this They once said that they would take this man or this woman To be they'll often with a wife or husband To live together in the holy state of matrimony To love her and comfort her Honor and keep her in sickness and in health and forsaking all others Keeping themselves only unto her as long as they both should live Men will take the vow that says I take you to be my lawfully wedded wife From this day forward for better for worse For richer for poor in sickness and in health To love and to cherish till death do us part according to God's holy ordinance And there too I pledge thee my faith There's something instinctual in us In people That makes us recoil from and even at times be harsh with those Who break their promises even if poverty Or worsen circumstances or sickness Or lack of love or death Causes them to walk away from their original commitment
One of the problems with life Is perseverance Jane and I Celebrated 33 years of marriage this July We went out to a restaurant that evening And Jane said You know what the key to marry just now I expected her to say Having a wonderful husband like you I wanted to say you know of Michael you just You're like a good wine you seasoned over time You were more handsome than when I first married you You're just Devastatingly exciting to live with She said you know what the key of marriage is I said what is a sweetheart? She said First of errands Just refusing to get up and just sticking it out And I said well um Yeah, that's part of it. She said no That's the key And she's right I've had a delightful 33 years Jane has learned the grace of perseverance living with me but it's true it is The one thing that and if you think about it folks in any intimate relationship it's the thing That makes it last We can ask the question What kind of Father leaves his children and our answer is I don't know But not our father in heaven Perseverance with us He sticks it out He just refuses to give up Until he brings us safely into his presence Were these sorts of things that caused divorces between man and wife and between God and his people Cannot happen anymore We're starting this orthosolutus this order of salvation About how God's grace from the beginning to the end holds us In his love and his devotion until he delivers us Totally from the domain of darkness and transfers us to the kingdom of his beloved son in heaven We're talking about what the Holy Spirit does To save a person from beginning to end from eternity past When we were chosen before the foundation of the world to eternity in the future when we are glorified And are just like Jesus Christ in a sinless perfection Everything from calling to regeneration to conversion to justification to adoption to sanctification and perseverance And glorification all of this is this unfolding Story of the prevailing the unfailing purpose and love of God In his wonderful little book called the Holy Spirit In a series called the contours of christian theology Sinclair Ferguson says that there's a danger in looking at the order of solutus In the way that we historically do And that is to see a chain of cause and effects events That could if we're not careful leave out the central person of Jesus Christ And ignore the effectual and powerful and faithful work of the Holy Spirit Ferguson says it's better to see the order of salvation As different dimensions of what it means to be united to Jesus Christ For he says the Holy Spirit's main ministry Is to bring us to Jesus Christ that Christ might bring us home to heaven with the Father So that if we look at all the different Colors in this this rainbow of grace and salvation Each one of them is a manifestation of how the spirit unites us to Christ So that Christ holds us in grace and takes us to the Father for eternal life We are chosen in Christ the Bible says before the foundation of the world We are called to Christ in the gospel message Both an external calling through the word and an internal calling through the conviction of sin and a growing confidence in Jesus Christ To save your Lord we are born again by the spirit of Christ We are converted to Christ justified in Christ adopted to become brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ We are sanctified so that we can become Christ like in our character and conduct So we can be made to be just as holy as Christ is We are preserved in Christ grace fraternity And in heaven we are glorified To be just like him So the John the Apostle says See what kind of love the Father has given to us That we should be called the children of God Now beloved We are God's children now But what we shall be has not yet appeared Yet we know this that when he appears we shall be like him Because we shall see him just as he is And everyone who has this hope in him Purifies himself just as he is pure The operating hope the spiritual confidence of the Christian life Is the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints It tells us that God will never stop loving us He will never forsake his children He will never break his promise in the covenant of grace And never allow a believer to perish in hell Or fall away from grace totally We confess these truths just a minute ago on the screen Taken from the west mystic confession of faith They whom God has accepted in his beloved He factually called and sanctified by his spirit Can neither totally nor finally Fall away from the state of grace But shall certainly persevere thereunto And be eternally saved There is No greater passage in the bible that talks about this in such succinct And such comprehensive terms at the same time as Romans chapter 8 Verses 31 through 39 It asks us the question what kind of God Leaves his children and the answer is Not our God Romans chapter 8 verse 31 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 gave him up for us all Howling also with him graciously give us all things Who shall bring any charge against God's elect It is God who justifies who is to condemn 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 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ Chapter abulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword As it is written for your sake we are being killed all day long We're regarded as sheep to be slaughtered No In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us 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 or anything else in all creation We'll be able to separate us from the love of God In Christ Jesus our Lord James boy says We are all familiar with the old saying That people sometimes cannot see the forest for the trees And you may know people like that even Bible teachers like that I do not want this to be true of our study of Romans chapter 8 So at this point in our study having examined each of the great terms of in detail I want to step back and look at the great doctrine Of which they are all an individual part It is not at all hard to recognize what that doctrine is For we have been mentioning it one way or another In each of the different parts of the order of salvation It is the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints Or eternal security Or as people say colloquially one saved all we saved It is the truth that those who have been truly brought to faith in Jesus Christ Having been foreknown and predestined by God from eternity past Having been called by the spirit and the word Having been regenerated justified in this life And having been set on the road to ultimate glorification through sanctification This culminating glorification can even be spoken of in the past tense These persons will never and can never be lost Perseverance is implied in each of the terms that we have studied But this is the place to go back and look at the entire forest of these beautiful trees Paul Talks about the Perseverance of the saints by asking five Poignant questions Five questions in staccato repetitive style Question number one Who can be against us first 31 What then shall we say to these things now what things well We know that those who love God For them all things work together for good For those who are called according to his purpose For those of me for new he also predestined To be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the first one among many brothers And these whom he predestined he also called and those whom he called he also justified And those whom he justified he also glorified so what shall we say to these things What is our response to this great ordo saluteists But believe it or not It's to ask the question If God is for us who can be against us Now some people say pastor There are many who are against us You yourself have said That in this life we we always face three great powerful and destructive enemies the world and the flesh and the devil That's true Paul would say in first Corinthians chapter 16 Why do our for effective services open to me but there are many adversaries Tell us in Rome and in in in vision chapter six that we struggle against the devil not against flesh and blood But against spiritual forces in the heavenly places against different realms of demonic spirits Peter tells us that Satan like a roaring lion prowls about the earth seeking to devour us We have many many at plenty of enemies
so What does the question mean? The question means If God is for us Who can be against us that matters I remember when I was first converted Our pastor was going through Romans on Sunday night and he was a country guy from Diarsburg West Tennessee and he got to this thing and he said now the answer to this question is this All them people against us don't mean the hill of beings Well, that's what he's saying There are plenty against us, but if you stack them up all of them from Satan and all the demons by the tens of thousands And all the evil men in the world every persecutor every defame or every troublemaker And all those people who genuinely think that Christianity is a hoax and we're stupid for believing in it They amount to nothing And when set against us They will lose the conflict for our souls Because God is for us and on our side Doesn't really matter Who and how many are against us Because we can never be lost from what the old Puritans called the grip of grace Jesus talked about this and in John chapter 10 My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they they follow me And I give eternal life to them and they will never perish For my father who has given them to me is greater than all And no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand The Bible tells us that we have been chosen by God the Father we are resting in the palm of his hand The Bible often talks about the hand of God in our life And that we are covered by the blood of Jesus Christ And that we are sealed by the Holy Spirit God has taken all of his people including you and placed them between the hands of Father and Son and sealed every crack By the sealing Holy Spirit who seals our redemption And he extends his hands to all of his enemies and says now which one of you is big enough to pry open my hands And to destroy the apple of my eye They're all whips Compared to God they huff and they puff But they can't blow anything down And Jesus says we are more than secure in Jesus Christ blessed be the God and Father Of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places Even as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of rule that we should be wholly and blameless before him In love he predestined us for adoption of sons through Jesus Christ According to the purpose of his will and the praise of his glorious grace which he has blessed us in the beloved In Christ we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of our sins According to the riches of his great grace which he lavished upon us and all wisdom and insight Making known to us the mystery of his will According to his purpose which he set in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him Things in heaven and things on earth In him we have obtained an inheritance Having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things According to the counsel of his own will so that we who are the first to hope in Christ Might be to the praise of his glory in him you also when you heard the word of the gospel truth The gospel of your salvation You believed in him and were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who was the guarantee of our inheritance Until we acquire possession of it to the praise of God's glorious name
When John Wesley was dying He meditated upon this truth He was surrounded by his friends and loved ones He was growing increasingly weak This is the description of his final moment Weakness grew upon him daily He was taken to the house of city road Where he was very feeble One day he wanted to write something but could not wield the pen So miss Ritchie suggested Let me write for you sir. Tell me what you would say Nothing he replied except this That God is with us He begged the friends who had gathered around him to pray and praise Responding with a fervent amen to their petitions He grasped their hands and said farewell farewell As others entered the room he tried to speak But finding they could not understand him He summoned all of his earthly remaining strength And cried out the best thing of all is this That God is with us Then lifting up his dying arms and token of victory And raising his feeble voice With a holy triumph not to be expressed again He repeated one more time in heart riveting words The best thing of all is that God is with us What a way to die There is the perseverance of the saints Doesn't matter who is against us What matters is what That God is with us There's the first great question and the first great answer If God is for us who could be against us and the answer is who cares God is with us it leads to a second question 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 In other words Will God choose somewhere along the line Because he gets Frustrated Living with the likes of me and you Come to a point where he says you know I look Look enough is enough I've done enough for you I'm giving nothing else the rest of it's up to you Will there ever come a time where he will not Freely give us all things that we need For life for godliness Preservation for heaven Because the proof of that Is that he's already given his very best God so loved us that he gave us his only son And that is the ceiling proof It's an argument from what they call the greater to the lesser God starts not with a little gift and works up to big things you know when you have children You know when you have a two-year-old that likes cars You don't buy him A BMW 380 s Roadster Red Black top Leather interior with a buck i sticker on the back You don't buy in that You get in these little plastic things that he can break and it doesn't make any difference And you work up to the point where he's responsible enough to handle a classic car Well, God's not your typical parent He gives us the Mercedes Benz of heaven To drive us to heaven He gives us his very best I remember in the church that I grew up in as a little boy in Columbus, Ohio There were murals over the the two doors on the east and west and in the back And the one over the west side I would see it as I sat in my place as an altar boy those years I would be looking at that door as the minister preached And over the pulpit noverse head was the was the drawing of a lamb That had been wounded in the side and and across its soldiers was across and under it were the words What more could I do for you That what I have all ready done He who gave his own son How will he not also with him Freely give us all things third question Who will bring charges against us look at verse 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect it is God who justifies what you will say pastor The devil will Isn't he called the accuser of the brethren yes he is but you need to read the whole verse In Revelation chapter 12 I heard a loud voice in heaven saying now The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down Who accuses them day and night before God he has been cast down The word can mean to be taken physically in thrust down it can also mean to be humiliated To be wrestled down and pinned as in a wrestling match Night and day he accuses us the book of revelation says and yet in each case He is pinned He is humiliated He never wins a case He is a prosecuting attorney Whose record is absolutely abysmal Because he never brings his accusations to fruition Why look at the end of verse 33 Because it is God who justifies He is accusing people who have already been declared Not guilty They have been justified In and through the work of Jesus Christ I want you to keep your finger in Romans chapter 8 and I want you to turn to the Old Testament Just two or three books back from Matthew towards the end of the minor prophets to a guy named Zechariah Zechariah chapter three Zechariah is a prophet who had lots of visions And what are the visions he has was the vision of Joshua who in Greek is named Jesus Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord the pre incarnate Christ And Joshua was in trouble Satan was there to bring charges against him Zechariah chapter three beginning in verse one then he showed me Joshua the high priest Standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand and accusing him And the Lord said to Satan the Lord rebuke you, O Satan The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you Is this not a brand plucked from the fire Now Joshua was standing for the angel clothed with filthy garments And the angel said to those who were standing before him remove the filthy garments from him And to him he said behold I have taken your nicotine away from you and I will clothe you with pure vestments And I said let them put a clean turban on his head So they put a clean turban on his head and clothe him with garments And the angel of the Lord was standing by There is the scene of the courtroom in heaven Joshua the high priest who was prescribed in the book of litvidicus to come in garments that were completely white From turban to ephod to the undergarments Completely white without a spot on them every morning appeared before God in filthy rags And the evil one the prosecuting attorney who's there to say you see you see you see we've got him now The problem is that standing beside him was the angel of the Lord The pre-incarnate Christ his defending attorney And he said put clean garments on him Rob him with righteousness Give to Joshua the righteousness of Jesus Christ And then see if he can be condemned for he is justified He called Joshua a brand plucked from the fire You know that that's what John Wesley called himself throughout his life In fact one of his biographies is entitled the brand plucked from the fire because when he was a little boy Just about seven or eight years old his house called on fire The mance in which his father the minister lived went up in blaze and little John was upstairs trapped The house was about to collapse when two brave men went up to the wall One stood on the shoulders of the other and they reached up and lifted little Johnny they called him Out of the house and fell back into the arms of people as the house collapsed But John did not use that phrase A brand plucked from the fire he did not use that for himself because of his rescue as a child but because He was saved from the fires of hell By the one he called the Joshua of God our high priest Jesus Christ Who took my filthy rags and placed them on himself and took his robe of righteousness and placed it on Johnny And then said to the king in the court of heaven He is justified not guilty Who will bring a charge against us This doesn't matter We have already been justified But you say what if What if the first hearing was called a mistrial What if after you were justified You did such horrible things that God said you know It's time for you to be judged again and this time you were not found not guilty That's the fourth question Who will condemn us verse 34 Who is to condemn 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 What if somewhere along in your life After you confessed Christ After you were born from above and converted You did some horrible thing What if as our confession said You were left to the displeasure of God and his temporal judgments for a season And lost a sense of your assurance And the fairness of your hope And the good graces of God in life what if you angered God that's what the confession said you displeaser angered him for a season Would God ever say it's time for a retrial Paul answers No, it can't happen
Because it's not a fair trial
You and I know that when we were tried in the court of heaven We did not receive a fair trial
Everything was stacked in our favor Nothing was stacked against us You know why our father is the judge Now that helps a lot
His son is our defending attorney If anyone sins we have an advocate with a father who is Jesus Christ the righteous This defending attorney happens to sit in the law firm in heaven By the right hand of the one who is both the senior partner of the firm and the judge On earth illegal in heaven God sets the rules And our personal attorney the assistant defender who lives with us now Who's on the other side of us Happens to be the one we spoke of this morning The advocate of paraclete the Holy Spirit who lives within us So here Lucifer brings a charge into a court Where our dad is the judge Our older brother is the defending attorney who is the apple of the judge's eye And the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us is giving us legal advice There is not a chance in hell or in heaven That we are ever going to be found guilty It's simply not a fair trial This divine practice James voice calls With two branches has a heavenly office and an earthly one On earth the Holy Spirit pleads for us Interpreting our petitions correctly and in heaven Our Lord Jesus Christ please the efficacy of his shed blood To show that we are saved persons and that nothing can rise up to cause our condemnation by God So that when Lucifer brings a case before us The two attorneys that stand beside us the person of the son and of the spirit say father We move that case be dismissed and it always is
We are never found worthy of even a trial
You cannot be tried two times for the same offense And we were tried once There and we were forgiven Jesus paid it all All to himio Sin had left the crimson stain He washed me Why does snow Who is to condemn Christ Jesus as the one who died more than that was raised Who is at the right hand of God who indeed is interceding for us Isn't it interesting that Romans eight ends with a statement about condemnation Just as it began with that statement There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. We shall never be condemned Because the law firm in heaven has signed Sealed and delivered the the verdict once and for all it is an immutable verdict by an immutable court We are not guilty Case closed the fifth question Is the hardest one Who shall separate us From the love of Christ I want you to notice he does not ask what He asked who Who shall separate us from the love of Christ Shall tribulation distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword As it is written and he quotes Psalm 44 For your sick we are being killed all day long We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered No And all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us For I am littlely reads the best translation is I am convinced 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 of creation We will be able to separate us From the love of God In Christ Jesus our Lord Now here's the question All the previous four questions were things that came from outside of us those who might be our enemies The one who might accuse us The condemnation we might receive The judgment that might go against us But here the enemy is within us The enemy the question being asked here is Could you get to the point now we know listen We've just had it nailed down in four different questions and answers that God will never stop loving us There's nothing that will make God Not love you anymore But here's the question for you could something happen in your life to make you not love God anymore A marriage always has two parties I love my wife My wife loves me Jane has said the success of our marriage has been perseverance She loves me as much or more than she loved him when we were first married but what if I Stop loving Jane What if you stop loving God could that happen Paul says well There's a lot of things to get happen There are a lot of evil people in the world to bring us Tribulation unsettling affairs Life of trouble Jesus talks about going through the great tribulation and many Falling away from the faith he says in those days Because the love of people is grown cold Or distress those who drive us to the point of desperation These women that I read about in the story rather than castigate and condemn them They were driven to the point of desperation or persecution oppressing and Violent behavior against the saint's famine Denying them work and daily bread nakedness Because they are poor and persecuted in prison Danger fleeing for their lives and though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo its Luther saying
or sword War martyrdom death Death of a husband Death of a child Death of a mom and dad They could make you wake up one day and say you know God I've just I just had enough and I don't love you anymore I don't want to follow you anymore. I don't I don't believe in you and your Christ anymore. Could that happen to you?
Paul says no Listen to these I believe this with all my heart that These three verses are the most marvelous verses in all of the Bible no In all of these things we are more than victors Through him who loved us 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 Six sets of active forces on each end of the continuum death and life Angels and heaven rulers on the earth things present that we face now fears that we will face in the future powers earthly and spiritual height heaven depth hell nor any other thing in all of creation from the east to the west and all that God has made there is nothing that will separate us from the love of God Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord in fact when Paul says no we are more than conquerors Here is what I believe he's saying for those who are truly elect Those who are truly born again Those in whom the Holy Spirit really lives all these difficult things do not ever threaten To make them not love God anymore they drive them further and deeper into Jesus Christ and more in love with him The proof of that is to look at the persecuted church Look at our brothers and sisters in Korea or in China or in Cuba or in all of these Muslim places All day long we are being put to death. We are like she pled to a slaughter And their love for Jesus Christ for God their power in the spirit dwarfs Anything that you and I have ever experienced in America. Why Because we arrived at the conclusion That what God wants from us is to shield us from all that is difficult So that all of our wizardry and all of our prosperity and all of our programs has one Ultimate goal that we protect ourselves from anything that God Might throw in the way of our children or us and make our life difficult the American dream is to protect ourselves From all that would drive us deeper in love with Jesus Christ proof you say I am rich I have prospered I need nothing and You do not realize that you are wretched and pitiful Poor blind and naked I advise you to buy from the gold refined by fire So that you may be rich and white garments so that you may clothe yourselves and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen And saff to anoint your eyes So that indeed you may see For those whom I love I approve and discipline So be zealous and repent Behold I stand at the door knock If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into him and eat with him and he with me The one who conquers I will grant him to sit with me on the throne As I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne He who has an ear to hear Let him hear what the spirit is saying To the churches There is my friends no other way to heaven But the way of Jesus Christ which is the way of the cross Which is the via Dororosa the way of sorrow Look at verses 16 and 17 The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit That we are children of God 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 You're marriage difficult now
It is God's instrument to draw you deeper into his grace deeper into faith deeper into resting in him It's refining your character You're struggling in school Your boyfriend or girlfriend just broke up with you've lost your job You have what they call a serious even a terminal illness All these things That could drive us away from Christ will not They will drive us deeper into him because the one thing That the perseverance of the saints speaks about Is this laboring under grace In Christ over long season of time so that the one thing we never think about Can be prepared for heaven which is our character There are some things in me many things in me and much in you That must be put to death in order for us to live for God and with God forever and those things are painful But in all of these things We will be more than just victorious We will fall deeper in love with Jesus Christ just as the difficulties of marriage Drive a man and a woman to have a deeper love than they ever imagined was possible on their honeymoon So a life with Jesus Christ through all of these difficulties drives the elect into a deeper security With the lover of their soul Jesus Christ What kind of parent leaves their kids It's not even a question you ask God He pursues us with grace Sends his son into the far country to bring us back Dispatches a spirit to live inside of us And use whatever is necessary even bad things in life To perfect our character And take us all the way On the order soluteous the way of blessing Into the arms of Almighty God Can anyone ever be successfully against us? No
Would God ever withhold from us any spiritual good? No Can anyone bring a charge against us that sticks? No Can we ever be condemned because of our sins? No
Can anything ever cause you Not to love God Nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God Which is in Christ Jesus Our Lord How was all this possible because your life is not your own anymore You've been bought with the price and you have no identity in yourself anymore You are united to Christ in fact You are never your own Not really before the world began You were God's little boy And God's little girl You always belonged to him There's never been a moment in all eternity When God began to love you Because there's never been a moment in all of eternity When God was not thinking about you all the time And God does not break his promises He will bring us home to heaven We're not the ones who persevere He does That is the glory of the hero of all Jesus Christ Amen That's pray Father we give you such great praise and thanksgiving tonight We find perhaps this to be the most glorious truth in all of the order of salvation And the one that is most difficult to accept That you love us Simply because you've chosen to do so that is because Lord we never love In this world even as As mature Christians we never love With the purely unconditional affection But you do Since you are self-existing And there is nothing outside of you that can cause you to any action So there is nothing outside of your own love that could cause you to love us or not love us You love us because you choose to do so And as the author of Peebres reminds us You swear by two immutable things your character in your oath That you will save us and preserve us for eternity Because the hope of our souls Jesus Christ the anchor Of our great faith has entered into your presence through the veil And has delivered us into your hands Now nothing Can separate us from your love Which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Our only prayer is this That you continue to work in us Use the difficulties of our lives Our circumstances Of our world To drive us deeper in love with Christ and with you And to seal ever tighter This redemptive grace of the Holy Spirit That we might be delivered safe and sound Into your present on the great day of the Lord And forever praise you For your perseverance On behalf of the saints And now we pray this in Jesus name Amen