Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20001008.htm

ROMANS: CHARTER OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH
"Part XII: Conquering Insecure Living With Our Position In Christ"
(Romans 8:1-39)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

(1) Often our lives, if viewed simply from the human view, contain challenging circumstances! For example, our Church Prayer Meeting "list" of prayer requests for August 30th, filled out just before my summer vacation reflected this reality:

(a) Maggie Mischak had asked for prayer for her job functioning needs. Maggie's request reminded me of the numerous ADDITIONAL job concerns right then throughout our Church!

(b) Then there was a request for someone to get some sleep. I couldn't help but think of others in our Church who right probably had that very same need for a host of personal reasons!

(c) Marge Kacir asked prayer for college students who were returning to school-- for their adjustment and walk with God. I thought of the many young adults from our Church who are in college, launching out into the adult world, and of the stretch this is for their parents as well as these students!

(d) Then somebody asked prayer for our Church Sunday School. Todd Baldwin, our Sunday School Superintendent was in the thick of trying to figure out what to do about all the sudden vacancies there while I was about to go away for two weeks on vacation!

(2) Well, most of us at Nepaug "know" we need to "trust the Lord" for such things, and we cleave to that truth in hope. However, we can fall prey to an INSECURITY when trials mount up to where we WONDER if our FAITH is MISDIRECTED! In other words, one may wonder, (a) "Am I in the right job so I can expect God to HELP me when I PRAY about it?" (b) "Have the college students chosen the right majors so we can expect God's blessing for them when we pray for them?" (c) "ARE we having sleepless nights because we face trials, or is GOD trying to convict us of something wrong as we are AWAKE so much?" (d) "How do we know God is pleased with our Sunday School program as it now stands so we can expect Him to help with our prayers about it?"

What do we do about the insecurity we might feel over uncertainties of being in God's will in life's challenges? How then can we live CONFIDENTLY at ALL in the end, ANYWAY?

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "I know I should trust God' with life's potentially COSTLY uncertainties, but I fear I may not be ABLE to KNOW for SURE God's will and so ERR in WHAT I trust God about, thus ruining any chance of gaining God's blessings! What can I DO about this?!"
  1. Paul noted a CONFIDENCE in LIVING a Christian can have BECAUSE of the SALVATION SECURITY that forms its BASIS:
    1. Romans 8 reveals the path of a confident life, B.K.C., O.T., p. 469.
    2. The basis of this confident life is one's salvation security, Rom. 8:1:
      1. Though the KJV in Romans 8:1b adds the phrase that a believer is uncondemned if he lives rightly, the best manuscripts omit it:
        1. "Every early manuscript known" omits the KJV's phrase "who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit" in Rom. 8:1b, M. A. King, "Should Conservatives Abandon Textual Criticism?" Bib. Sac., Jan.-Mar., 1973, p. 39-40. Thus, we omit it also.
        2. By thus omitting this phrase, there is no future condition that can RE-condemn the believer: his salvation is eternally secure!
      2. Thus, Romans 8:1 with the rest of Romans 8 shows the believer's eternal security in Christ forms a basis of confident godly living.
  2. Accordingly, believers can use the list of SURE BLESSINGS in Romans 8:2-39 that grow OUT OF their SONSHIP SECURITY in Christ to offset insecurity and LIVE CONFIDENTLY (as follows):
    1. The believer is unconditionally freed from the Mosaic Law to live by the Spirit's power, freeing him from false guilt for not viewing himself as being under that Law's jurisdiction, Romans 8:2.
    2. The believer is unconditionally equipped by God to live victoriously IF he walks by faith, and then given sure insight to determine IF he lives by faith so he is never inexcusably confused about it:
      1. The following things are experienced IF a believer lives by faith:
        1. He lives righteously when he depends on the Spirit, 8:3-6.
        2. He assuredly adopts God's view on any issue he faces by way of his new nature in Christ if he lives by faith, Romans 8:6-7a.
        3. He will submit to God's will if he lives by faith, Rom. 8:7b-9.
        4. He will live free of God's discipline if he lives by faith, 8:12f.
      2. Then, in case the believer wonders IF he is rightly depending on the Spirit to be sure he will experience the blessings of "II,B,1" above, Romans 8:14 reveals he unconditionally ALWAYS enjoys the leading of the Spirit, one way or the other, 8:14: (1) If he heads down any sinful path, the Spirit WILL PRESSURE him to repent, Ps. 32:3-5; (2) if he follows the righteous path, God WILL CALM him, giving him assurance he is upright, Is. 26:3; Phil. 4:6f!
    3. The believer in Christ unconditionally has the hope of bodily resurrection, a great encouragement when facing death, Rom. 8:10-11.
    4. Because of the indwelling Spirit, the believer is always experientially unconditionally assured of his sonship with the Father, 8:15-16: the leading of the Spirit (8:14) is just one means of exposing that fact!
    5. For believing in Christ, one unconditionally enjoys joint-heirship of the universe with Jesus, i.e., he owns it all with Christ, 8:17a. This encourages him to rest in both God's ability and His desire to provide whatever earthly needs he has to do God's will, Phil. 4:19!
    6. The believer will unconditionally have all he suffers in this life swallowed up in the future glory he will share with Christ, Rom. 8:17b. This encourages him to keep obeying God in hard times!
    7. The believer unconditionally will enjoy glory with Christ that far surpasses his current sufferings, an encouragement in trials, 8:18.
    8. The believer unconditionally has the hope that the universe awaits his receiving a glorified body, a hope of great honor to offset his hurts at being dishonored in events of this life, Romans 8:19-25.
    9. The believer has the Holy Spirit unconditionally praying for his prayer efforts as he does not know how to pray as he ought, 8:26-27. This encourages him to pray even in times of great human frailty!
    10. The believer has God unconditionally working all things in his life's experiences for God's glorious GOOD, Romans 8:28-30. This truth gives encouragement when facing life's uncertainties or trials.
    11. God is unconditionally so pulling for the believer's arriving at God's charted destiny for him that nothing can hinder his making it, 8:31-34. This equips one to look beyond his current trials with joy!
    12. The believer has God's love directed toward him so unconditionally that NOTHING will ever separate him from it; this insures his eternal destiny of gaining Christ's blessed glory and having access by faith all the blessings named in Romans 8:1-34 above, cf. Romans 8:35-39.
Lesson Application: To conquer insecurity in life, (1) believe in Christ for salvation from sin as a START, Rom. 8:1, John 3:16. (2) Then, we can FOCUS on the great and comprehensive ASSURANCES of blessings given us in Christ as displayed in Romans 8:2-39. (3) Applying each of these to the appropriate insecurity challenge' faced, we will find God's applicable help to KEEP living CONFIDENTLY in ALL we face in life's future!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 (1) While working on this sermon lesson during the "Home Missions Week" work-a-thon headed by David Slate, and everything from the bell tower to the rain drainage system around the foundation was a bit disheveled, I opened the door from the "couch room" as we call it to look at what was going on in the parking lot outside.

Suzanne Pombar was painting in the room, and noticed me looking about. She remarked, "I suppose it must be hard for you to concentrate on your sermon studies with all that is going on!"

I replied, "No, I have a one-track mind and find it easy to concentrate on my studies, anyway. In fact, I love seeing everything askew like this, because I have been praying for years for a number of these projects to be addressed. This is all a great encouragement!"

(2) What was more of a blessing was the private testimony of one of the men in our Church who had given of his time for this work.

He had dedicated his time, effort and equipment to work at the Church site though doing so humanly meant possible lost time and money in efforts at landing a contract to do a job elsewhere. Yet, he had put what he was convinced was the Lord's leading to be at the Church as first priority regardless of such a potential income "loss."

Well, he later reported to me that while working here, one of the secular business men who had come to the Church to perform a service for us on Monday of that week had offered him a very lucrative employment contract right here in our Church parking lot!

This man in our Church reported, and I paraphrase his words, "While I was using my time to serve the Lord here at the Church, God was busy saving me time in having to look into bids elsewhere by actually bringing me a lucrative job at the Church! When you put the Lord first in your business, God sure protects it for you!"