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Jack Graham: What we know is that we are God's children, that we can cry out Abba Father, Papa Daddy, Father, to a God who loves us and cares for us. What we know is that all of our sins and the impact of sins are forever forgiven.

Guest (Male): Welcome to PowerPoint with Jack Graham. What we know is that we are God's children, that we can cry out Abba Father, Papa Daddy, Father, to a God who loves us and cares for us. What we know is that all of our sins and the impact of sins are forever forgiven. On today's PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about why you can be certain of your salvation through Christ. Now here's Dr. Graham with his message, The Eternal Security of the Gospel.

Jack Graham: Take your Bibles and turn with me to Romans chapter eight. And I want to show you four certainties that I believe guarantees our salvation forever in Christ. And the first one of these is found in the first four verses, what we're going to describe as we believe in the eternal security of the gospel because of the sufficiency of God's Son. Look at verse one, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." Verse two, "For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death."

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. When did he do that? Of course, when he bore our sins on the cross. In his humanity and in his deity, he bore our sins and he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.

This is a description of the justification that we have in Christ now, that we stand in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne. We are no longer living under the condemnation or the sentence of sin and the death that goes with it, but we are now alive by the spirit of life. We are now empowered by God himself.

When this chapter begins with therefore now, of course, it's referring to what Paul has been writing and saying earlier. And what Paul has been writing and saying earlier is it is as though he is a prosecuting attorney, and he is pointing out word after word the guilt of all mankind. That every person is guilty before a holy God, that man has sinned, and that there is a witness in creation, there's a witness in the human conscience, there's witness in Christ of God's gospel, and that everyone therefore is accountable and responsible to God. And he declares therefore the whole world guilty of sin, and all of us standing in the face of a fearful judgment.

Two verses exemplify this. Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." And Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." The scripture says there therefore is no condemnation to those who are in, in Christ Jesus. Key phrase that Paul uses, two words that describe this relationship. We are no longer standing in judgment and in sin, but we are now in Christ. Therefore, we are secure in Christ.

A good illustration of this is Noah and the ark. In fact, Peter uses this as an illustration of salvation and eternal security in his own writings. And it was when God put Noah and his family in the ark, they were secure in that ark. And though judgment fell upon the earth and the earth and every inhabitant of the earth was condemned in that judgment, Noah and the family along with the animals on the ark, they were saved. Why? Because they were in the ark.

Noah invited everyone in, God invited everyone in, but there came a day when the door was shut. So Noah in the ark, that ark is a picture, an illustration of Christ. And as someone said, Noah may have fallen down many times in the ark, but he never fell out of the ark. Christ is the ark. We are in Christ. And therefore judgment cannot touch us. We are secure. We can never be severed from the presence of Christ in our lives. We're in a place of protection where God's judgment will never touch us, where the wrath of judgment can never reach us.

Verse two of Romans 8 says, "For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death." This is the truth in which we stand. This is the truth in which we are secure. This is the truth in which we live. We are in Christ. There was a definitive moment in our lives when we made a decision to follow Christ, to turn from our sins and our journey to hell and to follow Christ all the way to heaven.

We are forever forgiven. We are freely and forever secured because of what Christ has done for us. Now salvation therefore is not trying harder, promising to do better, chalking up points with God, trying to do our best. Salvation is not man-centered. Man-centered salvation is what we do for God. You're not saved because of what you do for God. You're not saved because of what you do for yourself, promising to be a better person or promising to try harder.

You're not saved because of what you do for others. Some people have the idea that if I help enough people... but salvation is not in helping others, that's man-centered salvation. Our salvation is God-centered. It is gospel-centered. It is centered in Christ and his cross and his resurrection. It is knowing what Christ has done for us, we could never do for ourselves. Therefore that same love that saves us, keeps us. We are loved eternally. We are secure in Christ. It is the provision of Christ. It is what Christ has done. We are now in Christ. And as Jesus said, no man shall pluck them out of my Father's hand.

Secondly, the second section of Romans chapter eight deals with our eternal security as it relates to the sanctification of God's spirit. The word sanctification, if I could just say it plainly, means that we're being made more like Christ. But how does that happen? Look at verse five, "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit."

Now earlier, Paul in the seventh chapter of Romans had described a spiritual struggle going on inside of him. Though he was the greatest Christian who ever lived, there was a time in the apostle Paul's life that he was fighting this war within, a battle within. And that was the battle, the conflict, the competition that exists in all of us between the flesh and the spirit.

The flesh has to do with the old nature, who we are before Christ, but the flesh doesn't disappear when we come to faith in Christ. We still live in human bodies. We are still subject to human frailties, to the flesh and therefore to temptations and this struggle, this conflict. Maybe that surprised you when you began to follow Christ. You thought, all of these old fears and temptations and struggles and addictions and habits, they're just going to go away just like that.

And many times God instantaneously, miraculously removes habits and addictions and things like that, but many times people struggle throughout their entire lives with these kinds of conflicts, sinful habits, sinful behavior, sinful actions. And Paul went on to express that he was fighting. He said, "The very things that I want to do, I don't do. I want to pray. I want to read my Bible. I want to share my faith. I want to be faithful to my church. Those are the things I want to do, but I find myself pulled away. I want to sleep in on Sunday morning and the Bible, I'd rather read the sports page or pray, I go to sleep when I pray."

The flesh is struggling constantly, you see. Paul said the things that I want to do, I don't do, and the things that I don't want to do, those are the very things I find myself doing all over again. Paul said it in 7:18 of Romans, "For I know that nothing good dwells in me." Now again, this is one of the greatest men and believers that ever lived. He said, "In me there's no good thing." If there's anything good about me, good about you, it's Jesus. In our flesh, there is no good thing.

I have a desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. Have you made the discovery that the Christian life is not hard but impossible? There's no good thing in us. We can't do this ourselves. We conclude as the apostle did in Romans seven, "O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?" He went on to say, "Thanks be unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." And then in the eighth chapter, he tells us the wonderful discovery that he made, that we made, that we are now no longer living under the dominion of sin and the power of sin but now we can live in the freedom of the spirit. That we have life and power in the spirit to overcome.

Sin no longer controls our attitudes, our appetites, our ambitions, our assets, our actions. We're no longer under the dominion of sin and its power. Now if you still have the mindset of sin, if you are still living in sin, if you are still living under the dominion and the power of sin, that's your mindset, that's your motivation, there's a good chance you don't know Christ as Savior. But if you know this struggle that Paul's talking about, that we're talking about today, if you understand that the spirit of God is in you and that when you do something wrong or don't do something you ought to do, you're convicted of that and you're no longer controlled by this thing of sin and the fleshly nature, then that means that God is at work by his spirit.

You see, it's not that we can't sin, it's that we cannot now live in sin. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature, old things are passed away and all things become new.

Guest (Male): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, The Eternal Security of the Gospel. Be sure to sign up to receive Dr. Graham's daily video devotional on the Seven Words from the Cross. This powerful study will remind you of the sacrifice Jesus made so that we can be forgiven of our sins and reconciled to God. Dr. Graham will share a short devotional about the final words that Jesus spoke from the cross and what they mean to us today. To sign up, text Cross to 59789. It's absolutely free to join, so text Cross to 59789.

Right now you have an incredible opportunity to help someone experience the hope and truth of Jesus Christ. And thanks to an exciting 150,000 dollar matching grant, your gifts this month will be doubled to help proclaim God's word even farther through PowerPoint Ministries. And as our way of saying thanks, we'd love to send you Dr. Graham's book, Help, a powerful resource showing you how Jesus meets you in your struggles with strength, comfort, and hope. Text Mar to 59789 to give today. Again, that's Mar, M-A-R, to 59789. Now let's get back to today's message, The Eternal Security of the Gospel.

Jack Graham: You say, "Well how do I stop these old habits? How do I deal with these constant temptations?" When you became a Christian, the holy spirit of God entered your life. That's why Romans 5:5 says God's love has been poured into our hearts through the holy spirit who has been given unto us. When you came to Christ, the spirit of God moved in. He lives in you. Romans 8:14, "For all who are led by the spirit of God are the sons of God." You have now by God's spirit the power to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. To live and win over sin. You don't have to lose.

You can win over sin by the power of God's spirit, and the key to that is being controlled by the spirit, which the Bible calls the filling of the spirit. So what you need to do, the spirit of God now lives in you, he inhabits you. Are you feeding the things of the spirit? You feed the flesh, guess who wins. You feed the spirit with the word of God, with prayer, with worship, fellowship with God's people by God's wisdom, you feed the spirit and the spirit of God will dominate the old life and the old nature.

Allow God's spirit to continuously control your life. Think as he thinks, do what he does, and he will dominate your life. Saturate your mind with the word of God, the will of God, the wisdom of God in his truth, and you will discover there is power to defeat the enemy every time. Living the spirit-filled life is not something that happens just one time, but it is a daily decision to honor God and to ask the spirit of God to control your life. Therefore, we are secure because this is the work of the spirit of God.

Thirdly, we are eternally secure in this gospel because of the sovereignty of God's purposes. Verses 18 and following deals with the problem of pain. First, the problem of pain in creation. It says all creation groans. In the beginning, God's creation was perfect but now because of sin, it is scarred and stained by a curse and so the earth and everything and everyone in it is impacted by suffering and groaning. Look at the words Paul chooses to describe the condition of the world. In verse 18, he describes it as sufferings, the sufferings of this present time. Verse 20 as futility, the creation was subjected to futility, that is, meaninglessness. Bondage, verse 21, bondage to corruption, and then there's pains. We know that suffering is not funny, and everyone, I mean everyone, suffers in life.

And we as Christians are not immune to pain and suffering and heartache and heartbreak. We know it's true. But verse 18 is the key verse. "For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is revealed in us." You see when it comes down to it, the questions regarding why we suffer and how we suffer, when we suffer, how long we suffer, that's not really the question. The question regarding our pain, our problems, our suffering in life, the question we need to answer is to what purpose and for what purpose do we suffer? We may not know this side of eternity, but that's the question.

But we have a hope. Romans 8:24, "For in this hope we were saved." Past tense, it happened, we were with present tense application. We were saved and future, "Now hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for what he sees." We have a hope in a Savior that we have not yet seen except by faith. And one day we will see him and that hope is a blessed hope. We will see him face to face, the future return of Christ, what Paul describes here in Romans chapter eight as the resolution, the redemption of our bodies. These aching bodies, these bodies that are being torn down will be immortalized in the presence of God forever. We shall be like Christ. We wait Titus 2 for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

Therefore, our pain is only temporary and you can't compare it to the glory and the greatness. One day all the groans by grace will be transformed into glory, and in the meantime, God's spirit guarantees to pray us through. That's why when we read verse 26, it talks about the spirit interceding for us and praying for us, even when we hurt so much we don't even know how to pray. The holy spirit prays with us and for us and he sustains us and strengthens us when we hurt.

And then to what purpose? Romans 8:28, "And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose." Now there are many times in life when I talk to people about tragedies and trials and struggles and suffering, you get the why question and people are struggling with their pain. There are many times in life I simply have to say, "I don't know." I learned a long time ago as a young pastor that I didn't have all the answers to the questions of pain and evil and suffering and why things happen. And as long as we walk around on this earth, we're going to have to walk around with some unanswered questions. We are. Don't trade what you don't know for what you do know.

And what we know is that our Savior and our God has conquered sin and death and hell. What we know is that we are God's children, that we can cry out Abba Father, Papa Daddy, Father, to a God who loves us and cares for us. What we know is that all of our sins and the impact of sins are forever forgiven. What we know is that we are in the grip of his grace and that God will never let us go. What we know is that our circumstances in life, good or bad, are under the control of a sovereign God and everything that goes through my life is permitted by God and is filtered through a nail-scarred hand, a God who understands.

That's what we know. What we know is that one day we will be with him forever and ever. There's coming a day of redemption and realization to everything in your life, that all of life's experiences for those who are called according to his purpose, all of life's experiences are ordained by God. There is no such thing as chance or good luck or bad luck. Get that out of your vocabulary.

Everything is in the hand of a loving, merciful God. No exception, all things. No matter what happens, his promise is true. God is faithful. His love will never let you go and this is temporarily true and it is eternally true. God is at work bringing you to glory, making you more like Christ, and he overrules and he overcomes every situation in our lives that isn't good and transforms it into good for his glory.

One final word and that's we believe in the eternal security of the gospel because of the steadfastness of God's love. That's this great hymn of praise that closes Romans eight. You see, when God works in your life the way we've been talking, he gives you a greater capacity to experience his love and to express his love. Your heart opens up to him in times like these and therefore to others. And so the apostle says, "What can separate us from the love of Christ?" He ransacks heaven and earth. He talks about the things in heaven, the things on earth, the things above, the things below.

He says it's the grace of God is greater than time and space. That the love of God will last, neither height nor depth, past, present, future, any created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Not tribulation, not distress, not persecution, not famine, not nakedness, not peril, not sword, no foe, no fault, no failure will defeat us or destroy us. Why? Because of the steadfastness of God's love.

The steadfastness of a God who never will stop loving you. Therefore, we exclaim, "If God be for us, who can be against us?" If God be for us, who can be against us? You say, "How do we know God is for us?" All you have to do is look at verse 32. If he didn't spare his only Son Jesus, will he not freely give you all things? If he would hang his own darling Son upon the cross to die for you, to accept the suffering and the pain and the sin and the guilt, don't you think if he gave his Son for you that he will freely give you all things? That he will bring you through every circumstance in life?

What God starts, he finishes. "He who began the good work in you will perfect it, perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ." No wonder we can say with the apostle verse 37, "We are more than conquerors through Christ who hyper-nikon, hyper-nike, super-victorious." It's not just that we get barely through life and survive and get to heaven all beaten up. No, we are more than conquerors. We win. The gospel assures us that we can live in confidence and that life can defeat death, that faith will conquer fear, that hope will destroy despair, that love will crush hate and that joy will overcome depression and defeat.

Thanks be unto God who gives us the victory in Jesus Christ. We cannot lose. We are totally secure in Christ now and forever. We are more than confident. We are more than certain. We are more than conquerors because of what Jesus Christ has done and is doing for us.

Guest (Male): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, The Eternal Security of the Gospel. I want you to know that right now, your support goes even farther to help share the hope of Jesus with people around the world. Thanks to a generous 150,000 dollar matching grant, every gift this month will be doubled to help proclaim God's word through PowerPoint Ministries. That means you'll help reach even more people who desperately need truth, encouragement, and the gospel.

And as a heartfelt thank you for your generous gift this month, we'll send you Dr. Graham's book, Help, to remind you that you are not alone, your pain is not unseen, and God's peace is real. Text Mar to 59789 to have your gift doubled and request your copy today. Again, text Mar, that's M-A-R, to 59789. Be sure to sign up to receive Dr. Graham's daily video devotional on the Seven Words from the Cross. This powerful study will remind you of the sacrifice Jesus made so that we can be forgiven of our sins and reconciled to God.

Dr. Graham will share a short devotional about the final words that Jesus spoke from the cross and what they mean to us today. To sign up, just text Cross to 59789. It's absolutely free to join, so text Cross to 59789. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today?

Jack Graham: Well, if our salvation rests solely with just us alone, then we would certainly fail. But the great message of Romans 8 is that our salvation is solely, completely, totally the work of Christ. So let me walk with you once again through the four assurances that we found here in this chapter, this great chapter of Romans 8. First we are introduced to the assurance of the sufficiency of Christ. Christ is all sufficient. Romans 8:1-3, "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death."

You see our salvation isn't dependent upon us but in Christ and his sacrifice, which is all sufficient. That means Jesus covers it all. The second assurance Romans 8 speaks to is the sanctification of God's spirit within us. This means that once we are saved, the spirit of God is at work in us, making us more and more like Jesus and less and less like our sinful self and the world. God secures us in our salvation by helping us become more and more holy even as he is holy. And Romans 8:5 tells us precisely how this sanctification process happens. "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds or their mindset on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their mindset on the things of the spirit."

The third assurance of our eternal security comes as a result of the sovereignty of God's purposes. Romans 8:18, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us." Now how's that for assurance? No matter what we go through in life, no matter the pain, the problem, the suffering, the creator of this universe plans to reveal his glory in you even through your circumstances right now. And finally, the fourth assurance of our eternal salvation rests on the steadfast love of God. Romans 8:35 explains, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?"

The answer: nada, nothing. Nothing can separate you from God's love. Please, please take the words of God from Romans chapter 8 to heart. And as a believer, you are totally secure now and forever because of what Jesus has done and is doing for you. So give thanks for the eternal security of Christ and his gospel.

Guest (Male): And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember, when you give a gift to PowerPoint, we'll send you Dr. Graham's book, Help. Just text Mar to 59789. And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about how to have faith that looks for the miraculous. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.