I Am Convinced

So I had a thought just as I was sitting there a minute ago. Why would God go through all the trouble to talk about God's love for us and list all those things that might interfere? Because nothing stops God from doing what he does. We're the ones that are ignorant and we're the ones that let things like we're gonna study interfere with receiving God's love for us. So, last week Andrew did a great job.

Who shall separate us from the love of God or what shall separate us? It's a good question. Is it possible? Will tribulation, distress, persecution, or famine, nakedness, peril, or sword? And the answer that Andrew gave us was no, it can't. And then the interesting phrase, just as it is written for your sake, we are being put to death all day long. were considered sheep for the slaughter. So is this our love to Christ? Is it Christ's love to us or our sense of Christ's love to us? I am a sheep for the slaughter. I think that it's really Christ's love for me.

Newell said it's evident that those whose description is killed all the day long, sheep for the slaughter, will never become more than conquerors or conquerors at all through moral influence, through human merits, the ballot box, the betterment of humanity, Interracial understanding? No, not with Satan, Prince, and God here. He will be such until cast into the abyss at Christ's coming. It's a pretty interesting statement. Killed all the day long. She will be separated. Will all of these things matter? No, they don't.

So our verse today, all these things, our first verse today talks about, but all of these things, in all of these things, we are overwhelmingly conquerors through him who loved us. I want you to notice first, the victory is ours through Christ. So three things in this verse.

We're conquerors in every single situation. because of him and we're more than conquerors in every single situation. It is totally through the Lord Jesus who loves us and not through human energy of any kind that we are more than conquerors, more than. What does a more than a conqueror experience? If you're a more than conqueror, what's your experience gonna be like? Well, first of all, you never lose.

Eccle loved that, because he doesn't want any of his teams ever to lose. He knows that divine power is for him in any battle that he's in. He's absolutely confident that this limitless divine power will be given to him in any future urgent situation. He knows that he gets to divide the spoils after every victory. You read the Old Testament, it's great. Every time that the Jews or one of God's called won a battle, they'd sit down and divide the spoils. I think it's a great thing.

So the phrase, more than conquerors, hupo nikao, made up of nekao, to conquer or to carry off the victory, to come off victorious, and hupere, which is one of Roger's favorite words, which means above or over the top, thus to come off more than victorious, to gain a surpassing victory. So it's, if you're a sports fan, you either win or lose. What is a surpassing victory? How do you get more than you went into the fight for?

Isaiah 53 tells us, therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he will divide the booty with the strong. because he poured out himself to death, talking about the Lord Jesus, and was numbered with the transgressors, yet he himself bore the sin of many. and interceded for the transgressors.

So Lord Jesus Christ is the one that's more than conqueror, more than conqueror, and because we're in him, positioned in him, we share that conquering. So Paul says, for I'm convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present nor things to come nor powers, We'll deal with that verse first. Nor height nor depth nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Those are the verses for today. I am persuaded. It's a really interesting word. It means that I've come through the process of persuasion to a settled conclusion. So I would ask you, Have you gone through the process and come to a settled conclusion that there is nothing that can separate you from the love of God? Nothing? Including your own feelings about it?

2 Timothy 1.12, for this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed in and I am convinced I have been through the process of a settled conclusion that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day. Now there's a man who's convinced. He is not even gonna entertain a thought other than that settled conclusion he has come to.

So, putting in the right order, Newell says, how we misquote, well, I better read the verse first. We're up to neither, for I'm convinced that neither death nor life will deal with death or life. Newell says, we misquote this verse by, according to the natural thought, neither life or death. And we think about life and death in that order. Well, the word of God says, death and life. God says, neither death nor life. To be instructed believer, the fear of death is gone. Christ has been to death and back.

Hebrews 2.14 says, therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself, the Lord Jesus, also partook of the same, that through death, excuse me, There's those really good cookies back there that Donna made, they're lemon, and I've been eating them for three days. And they always cause me to joke, but they're really good. Through death that he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil. He might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all of their lives.

So he's convinced that death can't have any effect. Because really, how do we look at death? Maybe how should we look at death? It's just a doorway into home. That's how you get home. Now, lots of you are hoping that Friday is gonna be the rapture, so you don't have to die. But dying's no big deal. It's just going home.

So, What's interesting, which is more difficult to navigate, life or death? Well, the world thinks death is the most difficult issue to deal with, but really life is so much more difficult than death. It's really harder to live than it is to die. Life with its burdens, its bitternesses, its disappointments, its uncertainties, often with its physical miseries.

Those of you who are over 35 know what physical miseries are. But just as death cannot separate us from the unchangeable love of God and Christ, neither can any circumstances of life do it. You know, we pray for people's maladies, we pray for their, what'll look like difficult circumstances, and they may be.

And we look and we study about what are the reasons for trials. Trials are designed for us to learn patience and have tried character. You're not gonna get the tried character without the trial. The natural man immediately upon a trial pleads with God to take it away. The informed believer knows what a trial's there for and doesn't plead for it to go away. That he might learn what God has in store for him through the trial.

So, death nor life nor angels. Angels are kind of interesting characters. They're really messengers. They deliver messages. That's what they do. They're sent whether by God or by man or by Satan. Satan got a few of those angels in his camp. Whether we speak of elect angels or angels of God's power in the presence of whom the saints have felt overwhelmed by their utter unworthiness. Just refer you to Daniel 10, eight through 17. whether it be the malicious angels who chose Satan as their captain and are in unity with him in evil. And Weiss says that in his opinion, angels only refers to fallen angels of whom Satan is one. I don't know if I agree with him or not. Angels are always spoken of though in the masculine gender. The gender people wouldn't like that, but that's the way God does it.

I was reading the other day, I shared with Bob, we had a discussion going about what's the, what are the letters for DEI? Is it discrimination? So I'm listening to Chester McCauley the other day, and he just asked a question. He said, do you know who the greatest discriminator ever was?

And the answer is, it's God. He picks who he wants. He doesn't care. He picks whoever he wants. I thought, well, okay. He gets to pick. He is God. So if you become God, let me know, then you get to pick. No angel. can separate us from the love of God, which is fixed forever in Christ Jesus. Or principalities. Principalities, the revelation that there are creatures beyond nature, or worldly, or terrestrial, who under divine permission are existing, I'm sorry, are exercising transcendental authority is important. We need to be aware of the fact, and a principality isn't necessarily an angel.

He's just a creature that God created, and God allows him to exercise a lot of authority. And I don't know how many of you are fans of Andy Woods. Andy Woods has a program in which he talks about, from a biblical standpoint, what's going on in the world every week. And he looks at it and he sees it from the principality's power to manipulate.

And he goes through, not that I recommend you spend all your time listening to him, but he understands that there are creatures, with tremendous power that manipulate our society and the world, and they're at it all the time. I've often said that if someone says, gee, Satan has been bothering me lately, I say, he doesn't know your name, nor does he know your address, because he's in Washington.

Ephesians 6.12 says, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places.

Now, does that mean you need to run around and find out where they are? Well, you're never gonna see them. You just see their influence. Those celestial creatures are now exercising their power in conflict with the saints on the earth. The first word, principalities, conveys the fact of their energy, how powerful they are, meaning in a high position in an unseen world.

Do you really think that that makes sense? Do you think that there's just you and God and heaven and then there are these guys that are, these principalities and powers, they're kind of sort of not messing with us? Do you think that they mess with us all the time? I think they do.

I think you see it in everything that the world presents to us is factual, somehow is tainted, and that's their influence. Now we're gonna, at the end of this verse, we're gonna deal with the word power. Exclusia is directly connected with principalities being a word indicative of the authority they have. One of them is the power, authority. The other is the position that they hold, okay?

Weymouth said it this way, for I'm convinced that neither death nor life nor any lower ranks of evil angels nor higher, he's assuming that all of these celestial creatures are angels and I'm not sure that they are. Neither things present nor things future nor forces of nature.

Ephesians 2.2 says, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, the course of this world. Oh, who controls the course of this world? The prince of the power of the air.

It's Satan and his group who now work in the souls and the sons of disobedience. They're working all the time against the Lord, against you as members of the body of Christ. but none of them have anything to do for whatever they do, they cannot separate us from God's love in Christ, no matter how hard they try. The Apostle Paul states that among all the opposing forces, not even the principalities and powers, are able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ. So they're pretty powerful. And they have a lot of authority, but they can't do it either. Nor are things present. What's going on right now? Haven't you ever awoken in the morning or had a circumstance in your life and you thought, boy, where did God go? Does he love, this circumstance, does he love me in this?

Well, our boy Job is a perfect example of that. Satan dealt with him in present things. And they were really bad, as an insane, fallen, powerful angel could make them. But they didn't separate Job from God's love. Job 42, he says, it's interesting. Think about what Job says. This is at the end. Then Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do all things. and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have declared that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me which I didn't know. Hear now and I will speak. I will ask you and you instruct me. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore I retract and I repent in dust and ashes. The Lord never leads, even though it seems dark.

So things are not mentioned here, like sins and that kind of stuff, because Hebrews 10.22, which we've been studying on Tuesday, And this last Tuesday, we studied these verses.

Let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith. Actually, I should say fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. If a Christian brother, and I had an email after this class, said, if a Christian brother who teaches in a church steals from people and is obviously a carnal Christian, In his own words, no less, shouldn't he feel guilty about his ongoing sin to drive him to repentance?

Can he draw near? You would say, well, he probably can. But in our conversation, we decided that when a believer sins, he loses fellowship with the Lord, but he doesn't lose his position. or his standing. He's in. He's in. My position in the holies is based on what Christ did and allows me access into the presence of God without guilt. So that conversation went like this.

If I understand Hebrews 10.22, but I also Think of my own sinfulness, am I not allowed to go? Am I not allowed to draw near with a sincere heart? No, I'm allowed. Because when I and you approach the Lord Jesus, is sin an issue? Is there an issue between God and you about your sins? No, there isn't. There's no issue because Christ took care of them. And if there's an accusation made about you by the accuser of the brethren, you have an advocate with the Father, the Lord Jesus.

When you go in and you draw near, we're to stay there. We're to stay right there. And God, the three persons of the Godhead have made sure that we belong there and we can stay there. Does that mean we have to, we don't confess? No, it means we do confess. We know, we understand. What I'm saying is is that your sinfulness can never affect your position. It certainly can affect how you enjoy your position or if you even do. But it can't affect your standing. Nor things to come.

In David's case, and Elijah, Satan dealt with future things. It's really interesting, watch this one. David said, I shall now one day perish by the hand of Saul. What happened to David? Shortly, he sat on the throne. Jezebel threatened Elijah and said, I will make your life as the life of one of them, the slain prophets, by tomorrow about this time. Imagine calling somebody up and say, I'm so angry with you that I'm gonna make your life as the life of one of those slain prophets by this time tomorrow. And when Elijah saw that, he arose and went for his life. What happened? God took him up in a chariot of fire into heaven. So both of these situations, there's a threat made. to the men of God, what happens? God fixes it. In one case, he took Elijah to heaven. In the other case, he put David in charge.

So, nor powers. The powers that we talked about really here, the word is dunamis, where we get the word dynamite. It means energy, has reference to those uncanny and horrible workings of Satan and his hosts. The word powers in 6.12 is directly connected with the word principalities. A principal in charge has tremendous power. Being a word indicative of authority rather than energy.

In Acts 8.10, concerning Simon the Magician, and I think we just covered this last time we were on the Acts. They said, this man is that power of God which is called great. Same word. The man, Simon, could do powerful things. But he's the one that tried to buy the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So people will ask William Newell, do you believe there's anything to the spiritism? He says, I certainly do, the devil's in it.

But none of these powers can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. There's no such thing as luck. Let us cease to dishonor God by mentioning that God works all things after the counsels of his own will. Does it take a lifetime to learn that? That God does everything according to his own will? Newell says, I've seen professing Christians knock on wood. if making some confident statement. I'm ashamed to write this. Let us be persuaded of the love which God without cause in us is unchangeable towards us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

No matter how real, insidious, terrifying these demon powers may be, we are safe in Christ. Remember when you were a kid and you played tag in the playground, there was always a safe place at the bottom of the steps that went up to the slide. If I'm holding on to that, I'm safe. You can't tag me. If you want to be free from superstition and fears, do as James directs.

You ought to say, if the Lord will, we shall both live and do this or do that. Why is that such an important verse? Because it brings God into the equation. I'm not going to do anything that isn't the will of God. That's all I want to do. And that's what made the Lord Jesus the beloved of the Father. He was the first man that came to do His will only. And that's the same life that's in us.

Nor height nor depth, verse 39. Nor height nor depth. That's interesting, height. Just means mountain, something really high, a high thing lifted up as a barrier or an antagonistic exaltation. Second Corinthians 10, five, we are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and we are taking away, we are taking every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. That's Vine's definition, and he uses that verse in 10.5. There is so much speculation, so much lofty information, that really is raised up against just the simple intimacy, personal knowledge of who God is. And he says we're taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. In other words, I reject that. I believe who I know. It's like we started out, I know who I am persuaded and who I am believed in and I know he's capable. I'm persuaded he's capable to complete what he started in me. He's gonna do it.

So astronomers were frightening us with their figures of the vastness of the universe. But Christ has passed through the heavens and is at the right hand of the Father and God has loved us in Christ. There's no separation from his love. I saw a thing the other day from the NASA channel about ion propulsion and how it It's an old theory, but out in space, you keep getting faster and faster and faster, and I thought, you know, if I was writing on one of those things, I could have been on it for 1,000 years, and it wouldn't even reach the center of the universe, and I couldn't be separated from God's love. So location doesn't matter. He loves us.

Nor depth, depth is kind of a self-explanatory word. I hate Courtney's biggest criticism of the dictionary is that you define a word with the word. Well, in this case, this is what Vine did. Romans 11, 23 says, if you want to talk about depth, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are His judgments, and unfathomable are His ways. You talk about some serious depth there.

First Corinthians 2.10, for to us God revealed them through His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. You recognize, of course, that we are in the loop of God. So to speak of those who get all the information about God, there's nothing held back.

Ephesians 3.18, may be able to separate or to comprehend with all the saints. what is the breadth, length, height, and depth, and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. What a prayer that is. We ought to pray that here every Sunday.

So Christ descended in the lower parts of the earth into the abyss into the heart of the earth. Moreover, he has said that his church would not enter the gates of Hades, Matthew 16, 18, And guess what, it won't. But even if God had arranged that they should, Christ said to John, fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever, and I have the keys to death, keys of death and of Hades. No depth can separate us from the love of Christ, none.

Any other created things? You notice he's gone through this long list and now he gets down to the, well, I'll give you the omnibus last statement. I'm God, I created everything, so now we're gonna cover everything that I ever did in terms of creation. Nothing left out, because nobody else can create but me. No other created thing or creature. There, that should eliminate all of our fears, no matter what they might be. When the creator says any other created thing, he as the creator hasn't left anything out that he created in the first place.

Not created things shall be able to separate, no created things shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. in Christ Jesus. Separate, it's interesting. Separation is a really interesting word because if you look at Vine's definition, Corizo, he said, all requirements of the law, ritual, or even the thoughts I must do better place room between the believer and Christ's love. Is that clear? The requirements of the law Any ritual that you wanna be involved with, even the thought that I gotta do better, actually separates us from the love of Christ. Because it puts the focus on me and not on him.

Notice that this love of God is in Christ our Lord. Why God has set his love upon us, we can't tell. Why he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, connecting our destiny eternally with Christ, his beloved son, we can't tell. However, whatsoever Jehovah does, it shall be forever. We must therefore hold in mind the fact that God has loved us even as he loved Christ, because he loved us in him. It's not humility according to Newell to doubt God's elect. Romans has shown us the way to be certain. Don't try to assure yourself in your heart that you are one of God's loved ones.

That's like me trying to convince myself that Donna loves me. She already does. It's like something simple like I look outside and there's a car in the driveway and it's mine. I don't have to worry about whether it's mine. I don't ever have to worry about whether God loves me.

If you're troubled with doubts, go and sit down on the sinner's seat and say, God declares righteousness to the ungodly who trust in him. I renounce all thoughts of my own righteousness and as a sinner I trust God who raised Christ from the dead, who was delivered up for my trespasses. Believers are those who have received Christ Jesus, whom God in his great love gave to the world, and they, by divine grace, welcome this, his only begotten son. Therefore, the love of God in Christ Jesus is forever ours. I'm gonna close with a quote from J.B. Stoney, and I divided it up so hopefully we can understand it better.

In Ephesians 3, the apostle's prayer here is not a prayer to the believer being in heaven. but on his reaching this wonderful standing in consequence of Christ being there and the result is the desire that they may supersede everything. It is exactly like Jacob having come to Bethel. He was not confirmed in the name Israel until he got there. So until we come to heaven, you will not be able to enter into the wondrous fact of what Christ is to you.

So he prays, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, length, and height, and depth, It's not like the first chapter that you may know what is the hope of his glory calling. It's not like that.

But that you may be able to enter into the fullness of that scene into which wisdom has brought you. And you to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to all the fullness of God. Christ is that. He has asked you, he asks that you may get a deeper sense of what Christ is to you.

Let's close. Father, how careful we are to study your word, to look and see exactly what you say. It has to do with how you view us and how precious we are to you and how you love us. And I would agree with what the verses in Ephesians say. I wanna know, not only know Christ, but I wanna know the core of who he is and that he's a lover and that he loves me and that I am with him wherever he is. So we thank you, Father. We pray in your son's precious name, amen.