Sermon: Sing the Song of Security

Most of us probably don’t feel as secure as we did a few years (or decades) ago.

When I was 8-years-old my family lived just north of downtown Dallas (not a good neighborhood now, or then), and on a Saturday morning, I would tell my folks where I was going, get on my bike, and be gone for hours and they would have no idea where I was at a particular moment.  No one thought about accidents or criminal behavior against children like we do now.  When our children were young I wouldn’t let them play unsupervised in my front yard in Granbury, TX (ostensibly a much safer place than downtown Dallas).

We lock our houses and our cars and have security systems on both.  We have passcodes on our computers and our cell phones and dozens (hundreds?) of passwords for various websites and technological devices.  Seemingly every week we hear news of another major internet company that was hacked and lost millions of credit card numbers or passwords and logins to cybercriminals.  We have apps to keep bad guys from getting our bank information and computer access and we have other apps to keep us from going to bad places on the web.

We have devices that turn lights on and off in our homes at different times and door bells that are cameras to help us evaluate who is coming to our home.  We have fences and gates around our homes and lock boxes and safes inside our homes.  And we have weapons in those safes to protect us should things go suddenly wrong in our homes.

A few years ago I was talking to a neighbor about some of those weapons and I innocently asked, “how many guns do you have?”  “I have no idea,” he responded, which I thought was kind of curious.  A couple of minutes later he said, “I don’t know how many guns I have, but I know it’s over a hundred.”  “Wow.”  Then he paused and thought a little more — “I can reach seven guns without getting out of bed.”  I didn’t know whether that made me feel more safe or more insecure!  (We do have a good relationship with him.)

Too often we feel unsafe and insecure.  But no insecurity is as great as any insecurity experienced by the believer in Christ.  Perhaps that’s why the apostle Paul crescendos Romans 8 with a song of the believer’s security.  As we’ve noted, this chapter is about sanctification (as are chs. 5-8), and it is about the work of the Spirit of God particularly to sanctify us.  But because it is about sanctification and the Spirit, it is also about the security of the one who belongs to Christ and the assurance we should experience, being His.

As we begin examining this final section of the greatest chapter in the greatest letter in the greatest book ever written, we will see this morning that,

Because our salvation is God’s work of salvation, we are safely saved.

This passage builds on the work God did from eternal past to eternal future to save us (vv. 29-30).  Since God has saved us, how should we think of that salvation?

Paul answers that question by asking six of his own questions (I combine the two questions of v. 35 into one question).  Those questions are oriented around two themes — we are secure because of God’s judicial provision (vv. 31-34) and we are secure because of God’s provision of love (vv. 35-39).  We want to look at the theme of God’s justice in securing us this morning.

When you are questioning your position in Christ, here are four questions to ask yourself, and answer from God’s Word (and from this passage):

1. What Should We Think About Our Salvation? (v. 31a)
2. Who is Against Us? (v. 31b)
3. Will God Give Us What We Need? (v. 32)
4. Who Can Justly Accuse Us? (v. 33)
5. Who Can Condemn Us? (v. 34)
6. What Will Separate Us from the Love of Christ? (vv. 35-39)

Download the rest of this sermon on Romans 8:31-33.

The audio will be posted on the GBC website by tomorrow.