Thank you for joining us at Key Life Fellowship for our Pulpit
Ministry Podcast. Each sermon on this podcast is
from our 11:00 AM Sunday service.
We are glad that you have joined us digitally, but would love to
see you in person on Sunday mornings at either 9:00 AM or
11:00 AM. Now let's open God's word and
ask Him to reveal His truths for our lives.
Romans chapter 8 Today, beginning in in verse 28, we're
going to read all the way through the end of the chapter,
Paul writes. And we know that in all things
God works for the good of those who love him who have been
called according to his purpose. For those God fore knew He also
predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he
might be the first born among many brothers and sisters.
And those he predestined he also called.
And those he called he also justified.
Those he justified he also glorified.
What then shall we say in response to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all,
how will he not also along with him graciously give us all
things? Who will bring any charge
against those whom God has chosen?
It is God who justifies. Who, then, is the one who
condemns? No one.
Christ Jesus, who died more than that who was raised to life, is
at the right hand of God, and is also interceding for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall trouble or hardship, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or danger, or sword. As it is written, for your sake,
we face death. All day long we are considered
as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
For I'm convinced. But neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the
future, nor any powers, neither height nor death nor anything
else, and all creation will be able to separate us from the
love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen. Our passage today is a familiar
one, isn't it? If if you've read the Bible at
all, you've probably heard these verses that we've just.
Read, Quoted One way or another. You have heard no doubt, Romans
828, that that God works all the things for the good of those who
love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.
You have maybe heard that nothing can separate us from the
love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
You maybe heard that we are more than conquerors through Him who
loved us. You may have heard, if God is
for us, who can be against us, all of these beautiful truths?
Have almost become Christian cliches that we erase from the
context that they are here in Romans chapter 8.
And these verses that we're at today belong in one of the most
profound chapters in all of Scripture, all of which here in
Romans 8 applies specifically and only to the believer in
Christ Jesus. Martin Luther said of this
passage He he said that if the Bible were a ring.
Then Romans chapter 8 would be the diamond at the center of
that ring. I believe if you took Romans
chapter 8 and you were to take the rest of the Bible and throw
it out, though, you should never do and just take Romans 8, you
would have enough truth. You would have enough doctrine.
You would have enough about Christ and about what he has
done and who he is, that you would never need anything else.
You would never get to the bottom of all these truths.
You would spend your whole life, and probably the life to come.
Grappling and and trying to understand all that's there and
continuously being overwhelmed by it.
Just to give us kind of some context, this chapter speaks of
Christ freeing us from condemnation in our rule of sin
by his substitutionary death. It speaks of life through the
indwelling Holy Spirit. It it speaks of our adoption as
sons unto God. It speaks of the sanctifying
power even of suffering. It speaks of the doctrine of
Providence. Foreknowledge, predestination,
effectual call, justification, glorification, and even eternal
security to just begin to scratch the surface, might I
add, our verses today, verses 28 through 39, are some of the most
theologically rich in all of the Bible.
We can spend months, literally months, attempting.
To get to the bottom of these verses and if you were here for
our Monday night or Wednesday night, what night did we have?
Men's Bible Study Thursday night?
There's so many Bible studies Is I got a shameless plug here?
If you're not a part of a Bible study at Key Life Fellowship,
there's ample opportunities Get in one.
But on our men's Thursday night Bible study, it took it took us
two months, 7 studies to go through these verses.
Some of us thought that was bad. When are we ever going to get
the verse 31 right? Martin Lloyd Jones in the 1900s
in in in London, it took him 20-4 weeks to preach to these
verses between 5:00 and six months.
And so this goes without saying that more qualified men have
dealt with in detail these verses we're looking at today.
But the goal for this morning is not to give a deep dive study on
everything that we see here. No, we will talk about these
things. The goal this morning is to see
the driving point. Behind all of these verses, that
is very basic yet often overlooked for our title today.
Oh love that will not let me go. This love of God for some of us
who have been studying the Bible and we are committed to biblical
truth. We don't want to have our ears
tickled by just the love of God. Can I say something?
Maybe we have overcorrected in running from maybe being afraid
of the love of God because we have been so committed to the
true gospel that in my life maybe sometimes I have neglected
the great love of God. We see this in these verses, and
I and I say these things greatly to our shame, from this text
alone. We see that the love of God
first is an always love. It's an always love.
Verse 29 tells us that this always love was first rooted in
the past. Look with me if you will in
verse 29 for those God for new He also predestined to be
conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first
born among many brothers and sisters.
Very clear. Let's talk about the word for
new, He for new. What is foreknowledge?
Forknowledge is not. Simply that God knows what's
going to happen before it happens.
That's his omniscience. God knows all things.
His foreknowledge is something a little bit deeper.
In fact, First Peter chapter one, verse 2 says that we were
chosen according to the foreknowledge of God.
What is this foreknowledge? Is it that God, as so many have
wrongfully thought that God looks into time and sees you
making a good choice And then therefore I choose to say them
absolutely not. That would be us doing
something. Foreknowledge is so much.
Deeper and so much more beautiful than just God knowing
something before it happened. $4.00 refers to God intimately
knowing someone before. Scripturally, when we see God
knowing of humans, it's not that he knows they exist or has has
this cognizant reality that yeah, there's a human being
there and their name is Andy or their name is Andario.
This is not that. God knows these things.
It is that he has a special interest in those whom he knows,
Arthur Pink said about this same concept that they When we read
in scripture of God knowing certain people, the word is used
in the sense of knowing with approbation and love.
Not that it's up here, it's that God knows them intimately in the
Garden of Eden. Adam knew his wife, right?
He didn't just know that there was a woman there.
He intimately knew her. When God knows people, he knows
them intimately. The Bible backs the truth up as
well. Not just the quote.
I just gave you Amos 3 verse two, talking about the chosen
people of God, the Israelites. You alone?
Have I chosen or known? Deeply loved.
You alone have I known? Is it that God doesn't know the
other nations of the world? Does he not know they exist?
No, He has a special affection for his people.
Deuteronomy 7 verse two says the Lord did not set his affection
on you and choose you because you were more numerous than all
other people, for you are the fewest of all peoples, he says.
You Israelites, remember this. You were nothing.
You had nothing to offer. You had no worse.
Yet I chose you. Here's why.
But it was because he loved you. This is the root in the past
that God for knew all his own people, not just for knew them,
but for loved them. Jeremiah 31 verse three says, I
have loved you with an everlasting love.
No beginning, no end. It is steadfast, It is eternal.
It is everlasting. This is foreknowledge.
And when we grasp this we are so deeply humbled.
Or we should be? Now on the flip side, when Jesus
says in Matthew 7, depart for me.
I never knew you. You know he's not saying I
didn't know you. Who are you?
I don't know who you are. He's saying I never intimately
loved you. You were never mine.
But for us who were in Christ, we have this hope that before
time began, God loved us, God knew us, and those who were for
loved or forknown, it says in verse 29.
He did predestined to be conformed to the image of his
Son, that Christ loved us, we sinned, we rebelled against God.
And yet he loved us and chose us out of His love for a purpose,
to be like his Son, Jesus Christ.
So Christ died to save you, to save me, because the Father has
always loved you and I. That's why Christ died, Pink
continues in his thoughts here, and he says that God's elect
stood present before his mind. They were foreknown by him and
they were the definite object of his eternal love.
God said his love upon us. He said it.
It was uninfluenced. Nobody said I think you should
love Jake because they would have never said that.
And everybody who knows me says Amen.
God did not ask anyone else should I love them.
He didn't have a committee. He he he didn't go out to the
outer aliens. And say what do you think about
these people that never happened?
God's love is uninfluenced God. God loved and loves because he
loves and because he is loved. There's nothing that changes his
love. He just loves this love.
This is always love is rooted in the past and foreknowledge.
It is also revealed. In the present we look together.
In verse 28. This verse hopefully we love.
And if this verse is new to you, like it was to all of us at one
point in time, it should blow us away.
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those
who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose.
This is the doctrine of Providence, perfectly stated,
that God is working all things for the good of his own.
How does that work? I don't know.
My life looks like it's terrible.
How is God working for the good? Not quite.
Sure, maybe we never see it on this side of eternity, but we
can know that God is somehow working it for our good.
How many times in your daily life has God provided for you?
Has he cared for you? Has he, as we like to say,
showed up so many times? There were no answers.
The math wouldn't do. There's no way we can make ends
meet and then somehow God provides.
Somehow God works the times that are tough and the times that are
trying. How am I going to get it?
Make it through. Why am I going through this?
Because God is working it for your good if you are in him.
Oh what hope? What promise?
We can hold fast to that. God has revealed His always love
in the present. It's deeper than just today,
though. This is deeper than just the
day-to-day. God is just doing things.
He says in verse 30 that the predestined those who were
foreknown and chosen by God, they're then called, not just
called, hearing it with their ears.
This is an effectual internal call that every person who was
foreknown and chosen by God hears and answers.
This cannot be resisted by those who God has fore loved.
This is an irresistible grace call.
That God chose to give out to his own.
Some of you remember this day. Oh, we should go back to this
day. All the time that God called me,
He drew me. That that we heard the good
shepherd's voice, He called us into his fold.
This is because His eternal love has been revealed in the
present. And do you remember when you
were called the love of God just overwhelmed you?
I love to hear from people who are just literally overwhelmed
by God's love. They don't even know what to
say, because how could God love me?
How could God love me? I'll tell you how he could love
you because he sought to love you in spite of you before you
were ever born. He said his love and his
affection on you. Christian, He called us.
This call supersedes our plans, doesn't it?
We might have had great plans for our life.
It had nothing to do with God. It had everything to do with the
love of our sin. But God and His grace and his
love interrupted. Isn't it good that God's love is
not just an affirming love, it's a calling out love.
It's a hatred to affirm the things that God hates.
There's a trend Trend today. Is your church in affirming
church to affirm certain sins that we like to celebrate in the
month of June? Yeah, Our church is in affirming
church. We affirm sin, flee from it.
We affirm Christ. He's Lord.
We affirm Christ. He's Savior.
We affirm Christ. He's risen.
We affirm You should repent and turn to Christ.
That's our affirmations. We're in affirming church.
Congratulations. But if God had just affirmed us
in our sin, would He ever call us out of our sin?
Would He ever reveal to us our need for Him?
Absolutely not. True love sometimes presses
where it hurts. Sometimes true love does not
affirm. True love calls out.
And the perfect true love of God called us from our sin to trust
in Jesus Christ. And it says here the called are
justified. Guaranteed.
Wiped away all their sin. God declared and made righteous
by God, you say? Wait a minute.
I don't feel righteous. God says you are.
You're justified if you're in him.
What hope you know what we can do to be justified?
Nothing. You know what Christ has done to
justify us. Everything.
It's all in him. It's all him.
He called He justified. He declares righteous and then
he says the justified he also glorified.
This tells us that the always love of God remains in the
future. All of this in verse 30 is past
tense. Notice that that we think of
being glorified. Isn't that when you die, aren't
you dead and you're glorified? And then and that How are we
glorified in the past? Because the love of God says
it's as good as done. Because God's plan is so
unsportable and unchangeable that it is good as glorified
because of the love of God, your future is fixed.
My future is fixed. Love that began in eternity past
will carry us to eternity future.
Never to fail, never to waver, never to change.
Because the sovereign, always love of God, always plays out to
save fully His eternally beloved.
Wouldn't it be a shame? With it, if God fore knew us and
chose us and called us and justified, and then after that
we just had to figure it out on our own, because we would, as we
say in the South, we would be up the Creek without a paddle, what
do we do if it weren't for the love of God that carries us to
the end? Why is this?
Why? Why can't we?
Why can't we have this hope that his love will remain in the
future? One word 4 letters Love, you
say. Wait, wait a minute.
We can have assurance that his love will carry us to the future
Because of love. Yes, Abuses one.
Verse four and five says in love he predestined us to adoption,
to sonship. In love, he predestined, He
chose us out of his love. He's not going to unchoose.
He's not going to unadopt. He's not going to kick you out
of his house. The truth is that God loves you
if you're in Christ now the exact same as He loves you in
eternity. And He will love you for all of
eternity. Why?
Because it's based on Him and not us.
And so the idea of losing your salvation ends right here,
right? Completely gone.
Blown away. But if we keep reading.
We're going to beat that dead horse a little bit more.
It's going to become clearly evident that you cannot lose
what God has set forth to do. It's an always love.
Secondly, it's an adamant love. Adamant love.
God is adamant about showing His love and proving to us that He
does love us. It's an adamant love that causes
us to stand firm in the love of God.
Verse 31, of course. It doesn't just end in verse 30,
the thought continues. If you learn to read your Bible
without the subheadings, it helps so much reverse 30 to 31.
What then shall we say in response to these things?
What things? What he's just been saying for
the last three verses? If God is for us, who can be
against us? This is a simple rhetorical
question that we should all answer nobody.
Nobody who can stand against God.
Isn't that just the basic elementary truth that God is all
powerful and everybody else is not?
Who can stand against him? Who can stand against us?
If we are in Him, how do we respond to God's love?
This is His response. We respond confidently.
We respond confidently to God's love.
Now, if we will read the verse a little bit differently than a
lot of times, we will see this first taken way out of context.
A lot of times, just to prove, I don't know, for a football game,
if God is for us, who can be against us?
What about the other team? Is God for them?
Or maybe what if they're God's in a conflict here, right?
No, not at all. We respond confidently and
humbly when we read this first like this.
What shall we say in response to these things?
If God is for us, who can be against us?
See the confidence and the emphasis is on God.
The emphasis is not on us, not on our endeavors, not on ours
striving, not on our effort. But it's on the God who has
eternally loved and has been adamant about showing this love.
What can we say? We got all we need.
We have God. It's an adamant love that
contains secondly, solid proof for the love of God.
Isn't it wonderful that God didn't just say he loved you,
but he showed it and he proved it and we see more in these
verses. He's going to prove it over and
over and over and over again. But this solid proof is in verse
32. He God, who did not spare his
own son but gave him up for us all.
Here's an action, Here's a giving.
If you have kids, some of you guys, or maybe you are a kid or
you've been a kid at some point in time with siblings.
If you had a good parent, they told you, don't just say you
love them. Actually, what?
Show it. Yeah, it doesn't mean anything
unless you show it. God shows it.
God acts by giving and his gift was Jesus.
He did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all.
God the Father sent Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son,
to this world to be, as John 129 says, the Lamb of God, who takes
away the sin of the world, the most elementary verse that we've
ever known in our whole life, John 316.
For God so loved the world that he what gave his only Son, He
loved, so he gave, He loved, so he acted.
He gave his son for those four loved people to save the US from
our sin by his substitutionary death.
He didn't just give his son as an example, He didn't just give
his son. So we can say, oh man, that's
super nice that he would give his son and have to go through
life and stuff. That's terrible.
He gave his son unto death. He sent his son to the old
rugged cross To bear the nails, to bear the beatings, to bear
the scourging, To bear the spit in the face, To bear the spear
and the side, and to bear the eternal wrath of his Father for
all of us. And so if you want to see real
love, don't look to a spouse. They'll let you down.
Don't look to a pastor, They'll let you down.
Look to a friend. They'll let you down.
Don't look to anyone else. They'll let you down.
Don't see real love. Look to the cross.
As Christians, we should run to the cross.
We should live at the cross. We should be constantly going to
the cross of Jesus Christ in times of trouble, in times of
good, in times of bad, in times of sin.
We should be so fixing our eyes on the cross that nothing in
this world matters. And if you're a non believer
today, I beg you, you run to the cross today and find eternal
salvation in him and him alone. The cross should be our most
frequent vacation spot. If you don't make a habit of
fixing your eyes and fixing your life upon the cross of Jesus
Christ, I beg you to It's our only hope, the only source of
true love. But God.
God doesn't love us because Jesus died for us.
Understand this. Jesus died for us because God
loves us well. This is a beautiful truth.
Then at creation, wasn't there the loving God before, Before
creation, we've already tackled this.
At creation He needed nothing, wanted nothing.
But out of His own good pleasure and will and love, He created
mankind. And out of love He put them in
the garden. And he they were to walk with
Him and and talk with Him. And they were, they were, they
were to be in perfect harmony and peace, and they were to rule
over all the animals. And out of love He gave them one
command, to not eat from the fruit of the knowledge of good
and evil. And in their disobedience and
sin and lack of love toward the God who loved them, they ate the
one fruit and sent mankind into the curse of sin.
Ever since that we are still under but God in his perfect
time He sent Jesus Christ, born of a virgin woman, to come and
to live a sinless perfect life as fully man and fully God, and
then to lay his life down onto the cross to bring us into the
eternal love of God that we had been separated from because of
our sin. Aren't you thankful for Jesus?
Then he says he gave himself up for us all.
How will he not also along with him graciously give us all
things? Now he's not talking about.
Give us all things that we want. Some of the things that he's
talking about here is that all things in Christ.
Ephesians, one verse 3 says that we have been blessed with every
spiritual blessing in Christ. Every single spiritual blessing.
We have it. If we're in Christ.
Nobody's missing out. There's no second blessing.
You got it all when you got Christ.
He's all you need. He's giving us all these things.
And secondly, he's giving us all the things to finish.
The purpose for choosing US1 of the purposes is that we would be
rooted and established in love. Feesians, one verse 17.
Paul praise that we would be rooted and established in love,
but not just to be rooted and established in love for each
other, but to be rooted and established in knowing the love
of God for us, and in this in us knowing God's love.
And in us showing God's love, we will begin to be conformed to
the image of Jesus Christ, who is love.
A true Christian, a mature Christian, will grow in their
love for other people. Jesus, in fact, said this in the
Gospel of John, that they will know you to his disciples by
your love for one another. How do people know you disciple
of Jesus Christ? They know you by your love.
Or do they know you by that person who goes to church?
Do they know you by your distinct love for God and for
others? They should.
That's a mark of a mature, growing Christian who is
conforming to the image of Jesus Christ, which he loved us and
chose us to conform to. It's an adamant love, isn't it?
There's no doubts left. And if there were any doubts,
Paul's going to just hammer us with any more doubt killers than
verse 33. These are substantiated claims
because of the love of God. Verse 33 he says this Who will
bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?
It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who
condemns? No one Christ Jesus who died
more than that it was raised to life, is at the right hand of
God and is also interceding for us. 5 substantiated claims here
that we see from these two verses.
The 1st is that God has justified.
God has dropped the charges. God has declared us righteous.
Who can condemn no one? Romans 8 verse one says.
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those of us who
are in Christ Jesus. It's gone.
Jesus came and was condemned for us to save us from our
condemnation. And God justified.
Meaning this there's no one higher than God.
Everybody agrees that right hope we know this by now.
God is the highest judge. If God says justified, who can
say I object your honor no one who can condemn not a soul
because God is justified. Secondly, Christ died.
He sent Christ to die. The Father crushes the Son under
the weight of His eternal wrath for all of our sin.
And he didn't just do this because he's some mean tyrant.
He did it in love. The greatest act of love is the
wrath of God poured out on the Son of God.
Why? Because his eternal love was set
on his eternally beloved ones. And Christ Jesus took on our
sin, and God the Father punished him on our behalf.
Why? Because he loved us, and he
loved us so much. And he hated our sins so much
that the only perfect sacrifice that would be fitting was his
only begotten Son. 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 21.
The great gospel hope that he who knew no sin Jesus Christ
became sin for us so that in him we may become the righteousness
of God. God is then the just justifier
because he punishes Jesus and lets us off free the pot.
The the fine has been paid in Jesus.
You trust in Jesus, you are justified, you are washed clean.
No more debt you owe to God the Father praise God, Christ has
died. Secondly, thirdly, Christ has
resurrected says more than that He was raised to life.
Romans 4 verse 25 says he was raised to life for our
justification. Now wait, I thought he died for
our justification. Then it says he's raised for our
justification. Every time Jesus talks about his
death when he's on this earth and the Gospels, he doesn't just
say I'm going to die. He says I'm going to die and we
hand it over to crucified and three days later I will
resurrect. I heard it explained to me like
this that the death of Christ was the payment and his
resurrection was the receipt. He proved it.
Not only did I die, but I rose again to prove all that I said I
would do. All that I have actually done is
actually valid. He resurrected, He was not
resuscitated. He rose to new life and then
shortly after he was exalted, He was exalted.
It says to the right hand of the Father.
Meaning this, Jesus Christ now has full rights and all
authority under heaven and on earth, right Great Commission.
Jesus Christ has all authority, all authority to judge, all
authority to justify. And his verdict is that they're
free. They're free.
Because I have died and resurrected, I make the claim, I
make the charge, I drop the charges.
And Jesus says they're off as the eternal judge of all full
rights, full authority, Fifthly, from here, Christ intercedes.
It says that he is interceding for us right now.
Christ intercession is not that. Every time we sin, God has to
look in Jesus and say you die for that one, You got that one,
you got that one covered, you get that one covered.
He's been forever just doing that to me.
That's not how it works. It is that eternally the Father
sees us in the righteousness of the Son and sees us as as
righteous as Jesus Christ because he is our eternal
representative because of the cross.
You want to wonder if I'm standing firm in God's love
still? Does God still love me?
How could he still love me? I really blew it This time is
because Christ has not undied, Christ has not unresurrected,
Christ has not got off the throne, and he has not stopped
interceding for you and for me. And he won't.
There's no doubts left. Does God really love us?
There's no doubt. No questions, because he hasn't
changed in his love and he won't change in His love.
And finally, it's an assuring love.
This love of God that will not let me go is so assuring.
Read in verse 35 with me, if you will, Who shall separate us from
the love of Christ? You may want to answer that one.
No one shall trouble, or hardship, or persecution, or
famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword.
As it is written, for your sake we face death all day long.
We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him
who loved us, where I'm convinced that neither death nor
life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the
future, nor any powers, neither height nor death, nor anything
else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the
love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is an assuring love with an airtight case being made that no
person can separate, no person can separate us from the love of
God. The Word separate here has to do
with divorce. Other places in the Scripture
when Jesus talking about marriage says that what God has
joined together, let no man separate, let no man divorce.
We cannot be divorced from the love of God.
We can never be separated from this eternal, adamant and
assuring love. This can't happen by any person,
he says. Who who can separate us?
You think of your mind of all the people and persons that you
know. Certainly it's not God.
God's not going to separate us from His love.
He's set out to love us. This is so helpful to me because
not even me, not even I, not even you, can separate you or me
from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
You can't send your way out. I know the scripts.
Really. I don't know this personally.
Some of us have tried to no avail.
Outsending God's love is completely impossible.
If you couldn't outsend God's love and he still pursued you
when you were lost, what makes you think when you're saved
you're going to do it? You're not.
Oh, the apostle Peter was a prime candidate.
If there ever was one who could separate himself from the love
of God, that is in Christ Jesus, isn't it?
Peter blows it over and over and over again.
And you read the Gospels and it's like, do these guys have
something against Peter? Because he looks like a buffoon
over and over again. And he was slow.
John, maybe you'll get that when you get home.
Peter denies even knowing Christ three times the same night that
he said if all abandon you, I never will.
The same night that he pulls out his sword and cuts off a guy's
ear. He denies knowing Jesus and
calls down curses from heaven on a little girl.
If somebody would have sent their way out of God's love,
it's that guy. But he didn't.
Peter was restored. We keep on reading.
Peter gave his life valiantly for Jesus Christ because our
love for God will fail. Your love for God will fail.
My love for God will fail. But God's love for us will never
will fall short. He never will, No.
As some skeptics like to point out at this time, and if you are
one, just keep paying attention. This does not promote
disobedience or trying to live any way you can, because God's
going to love me anyway. When you truly understand this,
this will promote holiness and obedience and worship to God.
But if you do not understand this truth, you're going to live
however you want to live, and it may prove that you're not in the
love of God. You may still be separated and
need to be saved. But not even you, Christian, can
separate yourself from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
Not even Satan can separate us. We think in our mind a lot of
times that there is God and there is Satan and some battle.
Satan wins and he gets to rule our life for a couple days.
And then God overtake, wins, wins for a day or two, and then
that we're back in the God's love.
And then Satan sometimes separates us.
And then there's this battle going on and that is not true.
Satan was defeated at the cross. Satan cannot separate us from
the love of God that is in Christ Jesus or Lord.
He may accuse us because he is the accuser of the brethren.
He may bring up the past through temptation.
He may keep reminding us of who we once were.
But I'll tell you this. Bring up the cross.
Bring up and to mind the eternal and unwavering love of God.
That Satan you are powerless to defeat, you are powerless
against Christ is 1. Nothing no person can separate.
Next, no problem can separate us from this love of God.
There will be many problems in our lives.
He asked the question. I love how we ask questions that
are just so simple to answer. They didn't even need an answer.
He says shall trouble, no trouble won't separate us from
the love of God in Christ. How about hardship?
Hard times? No about persecution.
Oh, the Roman Church was about to face the most fierce
persecution possibly this world has ever seen.
They are about to become body lanterns at the emperor's
parties. Is that going to separate us
from the love of God that's in Christ?
No. In fact, Jesus says in Matthew
5, blessed are you when you were persecuted.
How about famine when you came and eat?
There's no food on the table, no food anywhere around.
Will this separate us from God's love?
No, He still loves us. How about nakedness?
Not just clothing wise, but just simple doing without?
No will not separate us from God's love.
How about any danger we face? Dangers and it feels like it's
just us going in there alone? Will that separate us?
Has God abandoned us in dangerous times?
No. How about sword?
It's a figure of speech there. The word sword for murder.
How about if we're murdered, is that going to separate us from
the love of God that's in Christ?
Nope. Not even murder.
Not even the sword. How about death or life?
When we die, is something? Is it going to, is it going to
carry over? How about when we live?
Is anything in this life going to throw at us, going to
separate us from God's love? No.
We don't know what really we we we can think about heaven, we
can think about the afterlife. But there's so much unknown, and
there's some way we don't know what can happen in the unknown.
Not even the unknown will separate you from the love of
God that's in Christ Jesus. Not even death.
It says in verse 36 that for your sake, we face death all day
long. We do it for you.
We quote Psalm 44, verse 22. We we we give our lives for the
lover of our soul. How about angels?
How about demons? How about the supernatural?
Can the supernatural forces separate us from the love of God
in Christ Jesus? No.
The present of the future. You want to take this one?
No. Why?
Because of the eternal love of God.
If the love of God is there in eternity past, we see it in
eternity future. Why would present or future
separate us from the love of God?
What if I send really bad next week?
If you're in Christ, nothing. What about right now?
I don't feel love. Doesn't matter what you feel.
What does God say? How about any power?
There's some powerful forces in the world, Psalm 89 verse six
says, for who in the skies above can compare with the Lord?
No power can separate you from the powerful love of God.
Daniel 4 verse 35 says all the peoples of the earth are
regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases.
With the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth no one
can hold back his hand or say to him, what have you done.
No one can even stand against him our God who says, I love
you. Second Chronicles 20 verse six
says of God you rule over all the kingdoms of the nations.
Power and might are in your hand and no one can withstand you.
No one can stand against God. No one can stand in the way of
God loving us. No person, no problem, no
height, no depth. And he just says OK, in case you
have anything else to throw out there in your argumentation, how
about anything else in all creation?
Can anything else separate us from the love of God that's in
Christ? This includes economy, crashes,
pandemics, nuclear wars. Includes anything else, Any
evil. No way, he says.
Nothing can separate us from the love of God that's in Christ
Jesus. There's no change in it.
No matter the circumstance, no matter the person, no matter the
problem, God's love remains. Since His love was initially
uninfluenced, it will eternally remain unchanged.
It's there, this promise. It says in verse 39 for those of
us who are in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is only for the believer. You can only be in Christ Jesus
through faith in Jesus Christ. You can only have this hope by
turning from your sin and your unbelief and trusting in the
sacrifice of Christ to save you by faith.
That is it. If you're an unbeliever, you
have no hope and assurance of the love of God.
You have only to face His wrath and justice.
But can I tell you this? You can have hope.
Today. You can be brought into the love
of God through faith in Jesus Christ by turning to Him and
calling on him for mercy and salvation.
I promise he will save your soul and bring you into His eternal
love. This is an assuring love.
Thirdly, that propels us to VV. He says in verse 37 and all
these things we are more than conquerors.
Through Him who loved us more than conquerors literally means
we are super conquerors. Through Him who loved us, we can
conquer all this that comes, not us conquering it, but we can
remain in the steadfast love of God because He loved us.
It propels us to victory. Verse 28 We know that in all
things God works for the good of those who love Him and were
called according to His purpose. This is great assurance, isn't
it? Because when we face the these
things, the trouble, the hardship, the persecution, the
famine, the nakedness, the danger, the sword, the death,
the life, the present, the future, the powers, the height,
or death, or anything else at all creation, we can stand firm
that God is working all of these things for the good of those who
love Him and who are called according to His purpose.
Every trial, every hard time, every suffering, every
persecution is for our good. It is winning for us, an eternal
reward that will never perish, spoil or fade.
Romans, age 17, says if we share in Christ's sufferings, we may
also share in his glory. Oh, we have hard times and
trying times and face all these things because God loves us.
What if we looked at it like that?
There's no ho hum attitude anymore, is there?
We get to do this because God loves me and he's working it for
my good to accomplish what verse 29 says, to conform us to
Christ. A Christian never goes through a
trial unchanged. They go out the other side
victorious and they go out the other side change to be more
like Christ, don't they? Their faith grows, their
maturity grows. In fact, James chapter one,
verse 2 says we should consider it pure joy when we face trials
of many kinds. Because you know that the
testing of your faith produces perseverance.
Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be complete and
mature, not lacking anything. God loves us enough to put us
through the fire, if you will, In order we can get out the
other side, refined like Christ. Oh, this is love.
This is love we need. And so when you face all of
these things, have this assurance in Christ.
Have this assurance in the great love of God that will not let
you go. This is things we need to
remember, isn't it? The God's love for maternity was
full. It has never once wavered.
It has never once waxed or waned.
It has never changed. It has remained throughout our
rebellion. It was shown fully at the cross.
It was revealed to us when we recalled.
And it will endure forever. Someone 36 says 26 times that
his love endures forever. You think after the 35th time or
25th time, we'd get the point. It just goes on.
It goes on, it goes on. Then we're not convinced by
that. Christ died for sinners.
God demonstrated his love for us in this while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. It's an amazing thing to just
ponder. Very rarely will anyone give
their life for a righteous man. I'm not even righteous.
I'm unrighteous. I'm unholy.
I'm sinful. I'm a rebel against this God.
Yet he sent his Son to die for me, to save me from my sin.
Paul is, and Paul was convinced of this truth.
Are you? Are you?
Can you stand with Paul and say I am convinced and nothing can
separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus?
Maybe you're convinced, Praise God.
Maybe you're not yet convinced. Maybe you're a Christian.
Stop arguing with God. God says nothing can separate,
messing yourself up in your head.
Trust him. Can you join with Paul?
Can you join with David, who writes in Psalm 23 First word
that even though I walked to the valley of the shadow of death, I
will fear no evil, for you are with me.
Can you say that? Or can you join with him?
In Psalm 27, verse one? The Lord is the stronghold of my
life. Of whom shall I be afraid?
Why? Because the Lord loves me.
I don't know why He loves me, but He does.
Do you have that same confidence in the love of God to keep you
forever, no matter what may come?
Do you have this hope? Are you even in Christ?
Do you know the love of God intimately?
Do you know the saving love of Jesus Christ?
You can know it today. Maybe You're a Christian and you
have salvation and you do know Jesus and you are born again.
But you don't understand this love of God like this, and
you're trying to wrap your brain around all this, help you out.
You will not enjoy the Christian life until you understand the
always the adamant and the assuring love of God.
In 1862, a young minister and theologian named George
Matheson, he was engaged to be married.
And if you've been engaged to be married, you know this is an
exciting time, 20 years old, his whole life, him and his future
future spouse, everything's looking up for them until during
this engagement period, he goes blind, begins to go blind, and
it worsens and it worsens and his worsens and his then fiancee
decides. Through that time, I don't think
I can be married to a blind man. And so she calls off the
engagement. So George, I was over to go.
And so he goes to live with his sister and his sister became his
caretaker for for 20 years. She takes care of him and she
watches over him and George faithfully preaches and
ministers and does his duties until his sister falls in love,
meets the man of her dreams. And you know how the story goes.
They, they, they fall in love and they begin to be engaged and
they they get engaged and they're planning the wedding.
And you can imagine the thoughts going through poor George's head
when his sister, his only really love that he's ever known, who's
ever cared for him. He's getting married, getting
ready to be married. And he's just thinking, man, I
was getting ready to be married one time.
In this blindness, he could have the biggest ho hum attitude you
could ever think of as he hears about this going on and he's
there and and he's taking part of the festivities and maybe the
wedding planning. And if you've been around
planning a wedding, you know that everybody that you know is
involved. No doubt George is there on the
night before his sister's wedding.
All the family goes to prepare for the wedding day, and they go
and do their duties and they leave George at home by himself.
Oh, the thoughts that were raging through his mind at this
point that everybody has left me.
Everyone who hasn't left me yet is about to leave me.
Finally, he's there in the house, all alone, and he sits
down and he writes the hymn that serves as our title today.
Oh, love that will not let me go.
From the last verse of this hymn goes like this.
O cross that liftest up my head. I dare not ask to fly from thee.
Oh, his focus was on the cross, wasn't it?
I lay in dust life's glory dead and from the ground their
blossoms read. Life that shall endless be O
love that will not let me go. George said it at him that it
took him all of 5 minutes to write and it was the only him
that he ever wrote that needed no editing.
It is overflowed from his life. Why?
Because he was content and stood firm in the love of God that
would not let him go. Though everything else may let
you go, though everything else may abandon you, God's love
remains because of Christ. He will keep you.
He will hold you in his love through all life's troubles.
He has proven it time and time again, hasn't he?
And so I ask you, will you trust the God who is love?
Let's pray together when we humbly come before you with just
amazement. That you would love a Sinner,
condemned, unclean. That you would send your son to
rescue us. That you would give his life as
a ransom. That you would redeem us from
our sin. You would wash ups.
You would cleanse us. You would justify us, Lord, that
you would sanctify us. You would one day glorify us
because of the eternal love that you've had for your own.
I pray today that we would be filled with this love and we
would understand this love and we would stand firm.
And you who says you are love, we thank you for loving us.
We were so unlovable. We ask that you would continue
to work in our hearts and change us into the image of Christ
every day. And His name we pray.
Amen. Thank you for listening to the
Key Life Fellowship Pulpit Ministry Podcast.
If you would like to talk with one of our pastors, please
e-mail us at info@keylifefellowship.org or
call us at 281-689-1604. You can also visit our website
at W www.keylifefellowship.com. We hope and pray you have a
blessed week and remember you are liked.
In the darkness.