The Guarantor

[0:00] Well, we're going to get started, and I have to tell you, for me personally, this seems almost surreal.

[0:16] ! I taught lesson 53 of Salvation God's Way on November 9, 2020. A few hours after teaching, I was actually upstairs.

[0:30] I was in my home, laying on the floor, looking for a position that might be comfortable, and I couldn't find one. I knew I didn't want to call my wife downstairs, because she'd made me go to the hospital.

[0:42] But after a few more hours, I just finally said, I'm going to run up the flag, and I called her, and she came running up. She said, well, I'm going to call an ambulance. I said, well, are you going to follow them in? She said, yes. Well, let's just go together. You don't need an ambulance.

[0:55] So we went in, and I was over across the way until 5 o'clock that evening, and they said, we don't know. We're sending you to Tulsa by ambulance. So I went down there, and as you all know, the rest is history.

[1:09] The following Monday, I had my gallbladder removed, and so got a clean bill of health from the surgeon last Thursday. I'm feeling a whole lot better. Got some pains. They drilled five holes in me, but it's a different pain than bad gallbladder.

[1:25] And for some reason, I thought a gallbladder was about that big. It's about that big. But they took that puppy out of there, and I was sure glad. And it's good to be back with you all.

[1:39] We are still developing our theme of perseverance of the saints. Baptist folks like eternal security of the believer, the true believer. We live in a time where you have to add terms.

[1:50] And when we met on November 9th, we only covered three little words, but very important words in Romans verse 28.

[2:02] And those three words were, and we know. Very important. And we know. God wants us to know. 1 John chapter 5. These things I've written to you that you may know that you have eternal life.

[2:16] Those three words, and we know, are found at the beginning of verse 28 in Romans chapter 8. If you get a copy of this and you read Romans chapter 9, chalk that up to a typo.

[2:31] The only way we can know Bible truth, though, is if the Holy Spirit reveals it to us. There's no other way. So this evening we're going to look at more of verse 28, which is a lead-in to the most important section of Scripture, in my opinion, on perseverance or eternal security in the whole Bible.

[2:53] And that's the 8th chapter of Romans from 28 to the end of the chapter. Let me read verse 28 again. And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

[3:19] As it pertains to the believer's security or perseverance, it is only limited by the one who serves as the guarantor.

[3:32] And we know that the guarantor of our perseverance or our eternal security is God Himself revealed in the three persons of the Trinity.

[3:43] It is God who causes everything to ultimately end in blessing. He causes all things to work together for good.

[3:55] That does not mean that it is a journey without bumps in the road. We've all had bumps in the road, and we're going to see some more bumps throughout our study.

[4:08] But the emphasis here is that it is God who brings about the good that comes to His people. Now, obviously, this is not a reference to some impersonal God who chooses to remain aloof and distant from His people.

[4:30] I'll let the theistic evolutionists believe that. They think God wound up the clock and then took a walk for a few counties over it and said, let's sit here and see what happens next. I have no idea what's going to happen next.

[4:41] That's not the God of the Bible. God is not distant from His people. I like what Dr. Schaeffer said.

[4:51] He is there and He has not been silent. This requires divine action for God to fulfill. By design, the Father carries out His decree of security through the work of the divine Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the work of the Holy Spirit who indwells every true member of the church.

[5:20] This truth is captured in Hebrews 7. Verse 25, Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost. That's quite a bit of salvation, isn't it?

[5:31] To the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

[5:42] And we should not be confused about this drawing near to God. Based upon the Hebrews passage, it would be easy for some to conjure up a vision that God is waiting patiently in the hopes that someone might draw near so He can save them.

[6:02] That would place salvation in the hands of fallen men and that would make me very uncomfortable. I don't want my salvation to depend upon me primarily because I know me.

[6:16] I know me. We should remember the words that we've studied many weeks ago that Jesus told us in John 6, verse 44, No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.

[6:34] There we have the drawing. It's the Father who drew us to the cross. In Hebrews, we see people drawing near to Christ and we learn that He is busy making intercession for them.

[6:51] I've said this many times, but when you wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning and you're looking at the ceiling, in my case, you're watching the ceiling fan go around and you're freezing because my wife likes a ceiling fan year-round.

[7:04] And sometimes I'll think, I wonder what Jesus is doing right now. He ever lives to make intercession for us. He's interceding for His people. That's what He is doing.

[7:17] And so we see people drawing near to Christ and in Romans 8, verses 26 to 27, and that's in the chapter we're studying, we hear these words concerning the Holy Spirit's role in our security.

[7:33] 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.

[7:52] 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.

[8:04] So we really see the Trinity interceding, don't we? Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That's a pretty powerful team to have on your side.

[8:16] That sounds secure to me when you've got those three interceding for you. And I think of the Lord Jesus Christ. He never prayed a prayer that the Father didn't answer.

[8:26] And if He is interceding for us, I don't think God is going to say, no, no, I'm not going to answer that prayer. He's going to remain lost.

[8:38] I don't think that's going to happen. Again, in verse 28, two English words in our translation, all things.

[8:49] That's comprehensive, isn't it? That covers all things. There are no qualifiers there. We find no restrictions or preconditions for this to happen.

[9:01] There's nothing in heaven or on earth that can or will separate us from the love of God that's found in Christ Jesus. We're going to be studying that weeks from now.

[9:14] I need to emphasize, however, that this truth is not a blank check. God does allow things to happen in the life of a believer. Even things that have the potential to harm us.

[9:26] That happens all the time. Our VOM guys know that. Persecution around the world. There are people that laid down their life today because they wouldn't deny Christ somewhere in this world.

[9:37] And they're going to do that tonight before we leave here somewhere in the world. But God takes all of our life experiences, good and bad, and works them for ultimate blessing.

[9:53] That is a most important concept because many people believe and some teach that God only causes good things to happen to us.

[10:03] And then they will say something like, and if something bad happens to you, that's Satan, that's the devil, or the world. You know, I tend to think that if something bad happens, it's probably our flesh.

[10:19] Because we're battling, what, the world, the devil, and the flesh. I think the flesh has a whole lot to do with it. But that's just not true.

[10:30] Again, He causes all things to work together for good. This has been a frequent theme of the Apostle Paul in his other writings.

[10:43] 1 Corinthians 3, verses 21 and 22, So let no one boast in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours.

[11:01] And then 2 Corinthians, For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.

[11:13] And then I love Romans 8, 32, which we'll be looking at in a few weeks. He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for all of us, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

[11:28] Talking about the triune God. So in our earthly walk, we find ourselves in many different situations, don't we? Many.

[11:40] We may be in a situation that has brought about our suffering. We may be in a situation that has brought about our persecution. Perhaps we have experienced great failures in our life caused by sinfulness or our lack of faith at times of critical need.

[11:59] In all of these things and many more such situations, our Heavenly Father is at work producing His children's ultimate victory.

[12:12] victory. And who's the victory who belongs to? The victory belongs to the Lord. The truth is that because of God's grace and glory, nothing will overcome the true believer.

[12:29] Now we may be bruised, might be a little bloody, but we're not going to be overcome. God's not going to allow that. God uses all things for our ultimate benefit and His ultimate glory.

[12:47] Again, let me appeal to the Apostle Paul this time in 2 Corinthians 12, starting in verse 7. So, to keep me from becoming conceited, this is Paul talking, by the way, because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being conceited.

[13:20] Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But He said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

[13:33] Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.

[13:52] For when I am weak, then I am strong. Dr. MacArthur's preached on this section many times, and somewhere in there He will tell the congregation, He said, We don't know what that thorn in the flesh was, so don't ask.

[14:07] And He says, Immediately after the service, someone comes and says, What is that thorn in the flesh? He says, I don't know. We don't know, but He had a thorn in the flesh. The words work together are very instructive.

[14:20] They form in English a concept of synergism. That basically means two working together to achieve the result.

[14:33] Try this for an example. Our salvation is monergistic. Mono meaning from one person, and that's God, right? Our sanctification is synergistic in that God works with us to produce the desired result.

[14:50] But we're working also, not to the level of God, I can assure you, and sanctification ultimately belongs to Him. But He uses our life circumstances, our Bible studies, our church membership, our attendance, our missions, all this working together to sanctify us.

[15:10] So we see this great truth that God causes all things to work together for good. But this leads to another question. Who are the recipients of this great promise?

[15:26] And it should be clear that only the true children of God receive this gift. And in fact, later in this very verse, Romans 8, 28, what I call the third part, or C, this is given to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.

[15:49] That's the identity of those who receive this. Those who love God and those who are called of God are two of many descriptions for being a true believer.

[16:02] That's a Christian. Love God and called by God. From our perspective, we are those who love God.

[16:14] And by the way, when's the last time you told Him you loved Him? You might want to do that tonight. I encourage you to do that. But the other side of that coin has to do with God's part of the equation.

[16:25] Believers are also described as here as those that were called by God. He called them to be what they are. So those who really belong to God in salvation are those who genuinely love Him.

[16:40] Nothing can or should describe a Christ follower's relationship with the triune God than to have an intense and real love relationship with the Almighty.

[16:53] All 66 books that make up the Word of God are filled with descriptions on how we are to love God. They're everywhere.

[17:05] The hallmark and centerpiece of redeemed people is that they love the God who saved them. Who saved them. And when we get an understanding in some meager way of the cross, why wouldn't we love someone that took our place on that piece of wood?

[17:24] Over and against this, we have the redeemed. I'm sorry, the unredeemed, the unsaved. They may well play lip service to some vague notion of loving God.

[17:36] I've heard people say, God, whoever he or she might be. I've heard the liberal guys do that. And they pay lip service, but the truth is they hate God and hate everything about Him.

[17:49] They hate everything about Him. This is part of their, that depraved or sinful nature. However, when God was making His covenant with Israel, He was very clear in contrasting those who love Him with those who hate Him.

[18:07] And there was a mixture of both in that great nation of Israel. They're called out ones. This is made explicit in the Ten Commandments. Exodus chapter 20.

[18:18] I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. There's an expression of love right there, isn't it?

[18:31] You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourselves a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.

[18:46] You shall not bow down to them or serve them for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me.

[19:02] But listen to this. But showing steadfast love to thousands of those and what's His criteria? Who love me.

[19:14] and keep my commandments. And keeping commandments is active love, right? I mean, you can't say I love God and break His commandments.

[19:26] I've tried. It doesn't work. It makes you miserable too. In God's sight, there are two types of people. There are those who hate Him. There are those who love Him.

[19:37] This is the same truth that Jesus referred to in Matthew's gospel. He said, whoever is not with me is against me. You know, there's no confusion with that.

[19:51] There's no confusion there. There's not some dark area. There's not a third choice. We're for Him or against Him. There's not a third neutral area.

[20:02] We're the undecided over here. Now, as far back as the Mosaic covenant, God was dealing with the nation of Israel.

[20:14] But even then, and it's interesting to do a word study in the Old Testament of Gentile, it was clear that Gentiles were brought into a living relationship with God by their love for Him.

[20:31] And a righteous Jew back then would have said, a Gentile? But it's all over the Old Testament. Isaiah spoke of this, Isaiah 56, and the foreigners, that's any Gentile, the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord to minister to Him, to love the name of the Lord and to be His servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it and holds fast My covenant, these I will bring to My holy mountain.

[21:03] God's speaking. I want to bring them to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar, for My house shall be called a house of prayer, and listen to this, for all peoples.

[21:23] Wow! That's the God of the Bible talking about Gentiles. The New Testament makes very clear that true believers are responsible to love God as He has been revealed to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

[21:43] Listen to Paul in one of the Corinthian letters, this is actually 1 Corinthians, and he's actually quoting Isaiah here. What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined what God has prepared for those who love Him.

[22:00] We can't even imagine what's out there for those who truly love Him. A few chapters later, Paul says this, If anyone loves God, he is known by God.

[22:14] Can we flip that around? If you don't love Him, does He know you? And I'm talking about savingly? No. No, but the Scripture says, If anyone loves God, he is known by God.

[22:30] Back in Romans chapter 8, Paul says this next. He talks about those who are called according to His purpose. The recipients of eternal security are those who are called.

[22:46] Now, we actually studied calling many months ago, maybe a year ago, and here it comes back up in this great chapter on the perseverance of the saints.

[22:59] Perseverance or preservation or eternal security is granted to those who are called of God. He issues a call.

[23:09] And just as love originates with God, so does our calling. We are incapable of calling on God based upon our own initiative.

[23:23] Why? Well, prior to salvation, we're dead in trespasses and sin. And the very definition of a dead man is the incapacity to do anything.

[23:33] That's how you define a dead person. They can't do anything. They just lay there. They can't even breathe. They're just there. In fallenness, men are actually enemies of God and children of wrath.

[23:47] Let's verify these two truths with Scripture. In Romans 5.10, for if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, well, how could that happen?

[23:59] We're enemies through the death of His Son. There we have the cross. There we have propitiation, appeasement. Appeasing the wrath of God.

[24:13] Reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And then in Ephesians 2.3, among them, we too all formerly live, this is in unbelief, in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest.

[24:42] In a couple weeks on Wednesday night here, I'm going to be talking about Genesis 3. And the fall in the garden, not autumn, fall, the lapse into sin by Adam and Eve.

[24:54] We're going to be talking about that very thing. And we received, as humans, a new nature in the fall, a sin nature. And we're going to be developing that.

[25:05] In Matthew's Gospel, chapter 22, verse 14, the Lord Jesus said this, Many are called, but few are chosen. Now you may remember that we studied that verse back yonder and discovered that this is a reference to the external call of God.

[25:27] God issues an external call. To humanity, to all humanity. Romans, Romans chapter 1. Paul says, you're without excuse, fallen man. You've got no excuse.

[25:38] You can look up at the night sky and know there's a God. You can know that. But this is an external call. And, and he can do that through creation.

[25:51] He can do it through conscience, for conscience sake and so forth. But the external call doesn't save anyone. Because it's external. It is only the internal call of God extended to his elect children that saves.

[26:12] That's the internal call. We find the internal call throughout the epistles. They're everywhere. There we see that the writers are referring to the sovereign, regenerating work of God in a believer's heart that brings him to new life in Christ Jesus.

[26:35] And, and we're going to be studying this as we continue our look at Romans chapter 8. It's a pivotal chapter. And this is a pivotal verse because it leads us in.

[26:49] Romans 8.28 is the doorway into some of the deepest truths and really most encouraging truths that a believer can ever receive. Most encouraging.

[27:02] Theologians refer to this call I'm talking about as the effectual call. That's the effectual call. That is the internal call that actually has a positive effect or impact upon the life of God's chosen vessels.

[27:21] In other words, it's effectual. It does what it says it can do. The internal call never fails to save. The external call does, but the internal call does not.

[27:34] The internal call is the foundational level Thank you.