Study Through Romans: Lesson 25 :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: June 30, 2020 by RR7

Chapter 8:31-39

Oh, Victory in Jesus!

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? ³³ Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“‘For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.’ ³⁷ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.“

We live in turbulent times. There is a lot of unrest in the world around, and there is a lot of death. Just this week I was on my way to work, and just before I got to work, I saw the remains of an investigation involving the death of a cyclist just around the block from my dealership. It reminded me of how fragile life is. Most likely, that person did not leave home thinking that today would be their last day. They had plans, maybe a family, a job expecting them to show up, a Facebook page waiting to be updated, and on and on we can go. But that day, that Tuesday morning was that day, the day that they died and then had to face the judgment (Hebrews 9:27).

My wife and I put close to 100,000 km per year, about 60,000 miles for my US readers, on the road. We drive in all manner of weather and conditions. We have driven when we are tired and sick; we have driven in the middle of the night; often we have driven 24 hrs. with just washroom and fuel stops. God has been gracious to us and has watched over us all these years. The Word of God is the only sure footing we have in this life. In it are the promises that grant us security in the insecurity of this world. It is the true foundation that cannot be moved.

We celebrated Father’s Day last Sunday, and I enjoyed it. I had dinner the night before at my daughter’s home. On Sunday I got a couple of nice gifts and enjoyed some Chinese food. I got a card from my son; we have had a tumultuous relationship for the past 2-3 years, one filled with arguments, lots of tears, broken hearts and, at times, long periods of silence. He has been asked to leave our home at times and has been back just 6 months. He gave me a card thanking me for being his dad and letting me know that he is still working on making better decisions. It surprised me and brought me great joy.

This chapter that we are considering in Romans is so powerful that it is one of those chapters that one can read over and over and not get tired of. It completes the journey that we take from Salvation on and gives us a very in-depth understanding of the Christian life. Let us do a quick review;

No Condemnation, verse 1

Those who are in Christ Jesus are no longer condemned before God. While God does love all mankind and, in his Holy love, has provided a way for us to be saved (John 3:16), He also reminds us that those who are not in Jesus are under the wrath of God (John 3:36);

“He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

So, we have two classes of people on earth – just two; no more – those who are in Jesus and are no longer under condemnation, and those who are not in Jesus and are under the wrath of God. It is that simple; we like to complicate things. God makes things really simple for us. We that are in Jesus should not fear the wrath of God. God, we are told in Hebrews, deals with us as children, and He lovingly chastens us (Hebrews 12:6-11);

“‘For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.’ If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

To chasten is to discipline and to instruct in righteous behavior. God deals with us as children. We all understand children; we have all been children or have children, and we understand the relationship that is there; it is permanent. Once you have a child, there is nothing that child can do to stop being your child. You may disown him or her, but that does not change the fact that they are your children. Being born into a family is a permanent situation. As God has allowed mankind to discover the science of life, we have come to understand DNA, and that we can trace one’s ancestry back for generations with DNA; you are family to people you did not even know and vice-versa because of blood. In the spiritual world, we are washed in the blood of Jesus and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and we are children of God, and no longer under the condemnation of the 2nd Death (Revelation 20: 11-15).

We are told that God works on us to help us learn to live by the Spirit and not to the flesh. He chastens us and trains us to give ourselves to Him (verses 9-17). And then last week we talked about our sonship in Jesus and the special relationship we have in Him with God the Father (verses 18-30). This is the journey that the Christian’s life takes.

Salvation (many want us to believe that sonship is seen by rampant prosperity, health and favor), rather, is seen by chastening and correction. Then, as we mature in Jesus, we begin to have this sweet relationship with God the Father. We see it in our human lives. A child is born into the family, and they grow up; and over the years there is chastening – some little, like being denied a privilege; some harsher by a spanking – and then, maybe as they get older, the loss of freedoms. There may be a lot of hard moments, fights, raised voices, tears and long periods of silence; but as children mature, the vast majority enter into this loving relationship with their parents. There is less conflict and more harmony and more joy. Parents and their children can be friends, they can laugh at things that went on, forgive, forget and love.

Eternal Confidence verses 31-39

We, you and I, who are saved and washed in the blood of Jesus, are no longer under the wrath of God. On the contrary, we are now targeted by the devil. We have bullseyes on our backs and fronts, so to speak. At times it may feel that we are abandoned; we are not. It may feel that we are under the wrath of God; in Jesus, we are not. It may feel as if we are not safe in His hands; we are. Paul comes to the conclusion that NOTHING can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. You did nothing to earn it, and you can do nothing to keep it; it is a gift. A child does not earn our love, even as human parents. If we sinful people understand that power of love for a child, then imagine the powerful love of our Holy Heavenly Father.

The goal, of course, is that of friendship, for us to move beyond being mere children of God; that is done in a one-time act of instant salvation at the time of belief. And, to become the friends of God. In John 15:14-15 we see these words,

“You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not understand what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything I have learned from My Father, I have made known to you.”

In Genesis 18: 17-19, God revealed what He was about to do in Sodom to Abraham because they were friends. There are parts of the Bible you will only understand as a friend of God. God will only reveal them to His friends. There were saved persons in Jesus’ day that did not get the same revelations and personal teaching that the apostles did. He showed them things that only they knew, and only they understood; and only they could understand. Friendship opens doors that other relationships can’t, even the relationship of being a parent. Thus, we have two secure relationships in Jesus: We are children of God, saved and secure forever. And, we have friendship with God, one that is intimate and personal.

Nothing can separate us from God; neither external nor internal forces can separate from God. In His love, according to 1 Corinthians 13:6, God does not keep a record of our sins and failures; they are cast into the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19) and are covered by the blood and in His love (Proverbs 10:12). Not even our sins as saved persons can separate us from God; they were and are covered by Jesus’ blood. We will be chastened lovingly, but never condemned. We are secured in Jesus, secured by Jesus, secured with Jesus; and in John 10: 28-30, Jesus puts the cherry on the cake with these powerful words,

“I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them out of My hand. My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all. No one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Are you secure in Jesus? Are you under the wrath of God? Are you a child of God? And, if you are a child, are you learning to be His friend? Do you have eternal life in Jesus?

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding

Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

Email: missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch

Online: https://www.mississaugamissionarybaptistchurch.com/

The Signs of The Times: PART 2 :: By Ron Ferguson

Published on: June 30, 2020 by RR7

THE DANGERS: In studying and teaching prophecy, there is a great danger to go too far with trying to understand events. This has been a common failing by some who begin making predictions and claims; only one of those has to fail, and all credibility is lost. As an example of this, I will post this review from TIME Magazine. In the 1970s and in 1988, I was teaching Revelation in the places where I was living, and we had to debunk these silly ideas which were sweeping the churches at that time.

“Edgar Whisenant published a book in 1988 called 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988, which sold some 4.5 million copies. Whisenant once famously said, “Only if the Bible is in error am I wrong.” When 1989 rolled around, a discredited Whisenant published another book, saying the Rapture would occur that year instead. It did not sell as well, nor did later titles that predicted the world would end in 1993 and again in 1994. The genre’s most popular tales are in the Left Behind series, written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, which, though they do not predict an end date, provide a vivid fictional account of how Earth’s final days could go. The 16 novels have sold more than 63 million copies worldwide.“

As mentioned earlier, this is what happens to those who made predictions in the past, and now again, predictions for 2020 or for some other year, or who try reading events into blood moons or distorting a person’s name to make it read something someone wants it to read (like President Trump = “the last trump” [1 Thess 4, KJV] the trumpet leading to the Rapture).

All biblical prophecy is literal, but making it fit the times is something that needs caution. For example, in Zechariah 14, Jerusalem is surrounded by all the nations’ armies (yes, that is what the verse says), and it is written in terms the writer knew in his own day. With modern warfare, things are different, and Jerusalem could be destroyed with just one bomb. However, taking the Zechariah passage literally, Jerusalem WILL be surrounded and WILL be sieged as Zechariah says. (We must take note that Zechariah 14 is set for the Second Coming [time of Armageddon] and beyond. It ends the Tribulation; and if you study Revelation taking note of the judgments of God through those 7 years, it seems only a small minority of people are left on earth. Mind you, right through the Tribulation, people have the opportunity to repent, but this is typical of their attitude (Rev 9:20-21).

I caution again – anyone calling him or herself a prophet is not one. There are no prophets past the completion of scripture. These are false prophets, and we are warned about many false teachers arising.

Study the Bible, comparing scripture with scripture, and have all that you find meld together as a flawless whole. If a Bible prophecy does not fit harmoniously with other biblical prophecies, then you are applying it wrongly.

There were commentators who lived a few hundred years ago who really did not understand the position of physical Israel, mainly because back then no one remotely saw the beginning again of the Jewish nation; that happened in 1947 thanks to WW2. These commentators used to take the Old Testament prophecies about Israel and apply them to the Church, which is where they placed their fulfillment. Look at Joel 2 and 3, where these great chapters deal with Israel’s future and restoration in terms that could never be applied to the Church, and it does not fit; but a lot of commentators try making it fit the Church. That is what happens when you force prophecy to fit some wrong theology or wrong event or wrong timescale. That, though, is a different kettle of fish from the modern herd, those who arise and claim for themselves the title “prophet.”

We know from chapters 38 and 39 of Ezekiel that Gog and Magog and their allies will be part of the world’s armies in Israel at the end of the Tribulation, leading up to Armageddon. This is one small part – Ezek 38:1-6, “The word of the LORD came to me saying, Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him . . . Persia, Ethiopia, and Put with them, all of them with shield and helmet; Gomer with all its troops; Beth-togarmah from the remote parts of the north with all its troops — many peoples with you.”

There you see Persia (Iran) and the nations of the remote north (of Israel), which has to be Russia and its allies (and possibly current Islamic nations). They will have a hatred for Israel, and assemble for the battle of Armageddon. Today, Iran is building its forces and supplying Israel’s enemies in ‘Palestine’ with weapons. Iran is threatening to exterminate Israel. Also, Russia is developing a military base in Syria where Putin and Assad are in an alliance. Assad is one of the world’s most evil men. This is most significant: Gog and Magog is taking shape. These are the signs of the times.

Jesus said of His Jewish believers in the Tribulation, “You will be hated of all men for My Name’s sake.” The world will increasingly hate Israel, and has started to legislate against God’s nation.

Here is a report on the United Nations vote on Israel from 30 November 2017:

“The UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to disavow (disallow) Israeli ties to Jerusalem as part of six anti-Israel resolutions condemning Israel it approved on Thursday in New York. The vote was 128 in favor and 9 against, with 35 abstentions. The resolution came as the Trump Administration decided to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem.

“In New York, only nine countries out of 193 UN member states fully supported Israel’s ties to Jerusalem: Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Togo, Guatemala, Palau, Honduras, the United States and Israel itself, voted against the UN resolution. There were 35 abstentions. The full list of abstaining countries (a bit cowardly of them) was: Antigua-Barbuda, Argentina, Australia, the Bahamas, Benin, Bhutan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cameroon, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Haiti, Hungary, Jamaica, Kiribati, Latvia, Lesotho, Malawi, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, the Philippines, Poland, Romania, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands, South Sudan, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda and Vanuatu.“

When speaking on “the signs of the times,” one must be careful not to read too much into what is observed, because it is possible that events in coming years or even months might alter or clarify one’s view. We read the signs of the times according to our current estimations.

False prophets and false teachers are definitely on the increase, and because of the social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.), have worldwide exposure. There are two of these at present who have huge YouTube followings, and I am following the errors on both sites. One is an Arian (from the Arianism heresy in the 300s A.D. that taught Jesus was begotten of God in heaven = He was created by God and has existed from that time, and many other falsehoods). The other believes we are in the Tribulation and explains the 4 horses of Revelation 6 as matching world events now. He reads messages into numbers and signs of the moon.

The Pandemic of Lawlessness

There is one important matter emerging as we look at the Signs of the Time. I call this a pandemic because it has gone worldwide. Let us consider these verses:

2 Thessalonians 2:1-3, “Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him [THE RAPTURE], that you may not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. [THE DAY OF THE LORD COMES AFTER THE RAPTURE.] Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.”

The man of lawlessness is the Antichrist/World Leader who arrives on the scene with the opening of the first seal in Rev 6:1. Lawlessness is rebellion, and the one who fits that description is Satan who rebelled against God and was cast from heaven. Those who do not follow God are sons of rebellion. It is Satan and his demonic forces who stir up lawlessness in the world.

Decent people in June of 2020 were horrified and saddened at the unfolding events over the death of a man in the USA. As a result of that, there have been protests worldwide, marches with banners saying “black lives matter,” and emerging from that, an attack on statues and institutions everywhere, but not in totalitarian nations like China and North Korea. Why is this movement of protest and rebellion the way it is?

Nothing will justify the way the black man in the US died, but why is it that we are seeing such violence and retribution and anger being spread throughout because of it? These people are protesting against the violence that killed him, but are themselves far more destructive and horrifying and violent than the initial act. Then to follow that wickedness and to turn against statues of ones like Winston Churchill and Captain James Cook, and even a threat to Abraham Lincoln’s Memorial, is a sinister move. It can only be understood in terms of increasing lawlessness in this world. I believe we must expect that as we near the end of the Church age, because it won’t be long before this world finds itself in the Tribulation where lawlessness will be rampant, because the lawless one will have control.

There is no time to talk about the anarchists and agitators, mainly from the left, who inflame these protests.

Personally, I get really saddened about the unfolding of chaos the nations are entering, but I know lawlessness will increase. Paul says so: 2 Thess 2:7, “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.” (The Restrainer is the Holy Spirit, but that is another topic.)

Our redemption is drawing near (and fast). The Lord is our Hope! The rapture is our blessed hope.

LASTLY, THE VIRUS: There is a lot of discussion about this corona thing from what could be called “Christian websites,” from the utter ridiculous to some sane comments. Can we say anything about its relationship with the signs of the time? No doubt, this is the greatest tragedy to hit the world since the second world war, but can we read anything into it or match it with some Bible prediction?

There is no link whatever to any biblical event or prophecy. This is another health disaster like the Spanish flu was in 1918/19 when one-third (or 500 million) of the world’s population was inflected, and at least 50 million people died. That is over 300 times more than those who have died with corona. The Spanish flu (from bird origins) was a pandemic as corona is.

I have said this before, but what I see in it is God allowing a slight glimpse into what is one small detail of what the soon-coming Tribulation will contain.

The fourth horse at the start of chapter 6 (verse 8) is a pale or dappled horse and represents “pestilences” which include infections, diseases, etc.; following the third horse which is famine; following the second horse which is wars and rumours of war when peace is taken away from the earth. All that follows the first horse in Revelation 6:2 which is the appearing of the Revived Roman Empire, or Antichrist if you like. The Church WILL NOT ENTER THE TRIBULATION, FOR THE RAPTURE TAKES THE CHURCH AWAY BEFORE ANTICHRIST CAN BE REVEALED.

1 John 4:1, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”

Matt 7:15, “Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”

2 Timothy 2:15-16, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth, but avoid worldly and empty chatter, for it will lead to further ungodliness.”

Look up, for your redemption draws near. The Lord is coming again, and that should be soon.

ronaldf@aapt.net.au