1 00:00:06,280 --> 00:00:09,440 Thank you for joining us at Key Life Fellowship for our Pulpit 2 00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:13,040 Ministry Podcast. Each sermon on this podcast is 3 00:00:13,040 --> 00:00:15,200 from our 11:00 AM Sunday service. 4 00:00:15,760 --> 00:00:18,880 We are glad that you have joined us digitally, but would love to 5 00:00:18,880 --> 00:00:22,680 see you in person on Sunday mornings at either 9:00 AM or 6 00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:27,040 11:00 AM. Now let's open God's word and 7 00:00:27,040 --> 00:00:30,080 ask Him to reveal His truths for our lives. 8 00:00:33,120 --> 00:00:36,560 Romans chapter 8 Today, beginning in in verse 28, we're 9 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:38,760 going to read all the way through the end of the chapter, 10 00:00:43,990 --> 00:00:47,790 Paul writes. And we know that in all things 11 00:00:47,790 --> 00:00:50,030 God works for the good of those who love him who have been 12 00:00:50,030 --> 00:00:53,910 called according to his purpose. For those God fore knew He also 13 00:00:53,910 --> 00:00:56,990 predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he 14 00:00:56,990 --> 00:00:59,430 might be the first born among many brothers and sisters. 15 00:01:00,240 --> 00:01:02,200 And those he predestined he also called. 16 00:01:02,840 --> 00:01:04,640 And those he called he also justified. 17 00:01:05,480 --> 00:01:07,360 Those he justified he also glorified. 18 00:01:08,400 --> 00:01:10,720 What then shall we say in response to these things? 19 00:01:11,480 --> 00:01:13,800 If God is for us, who can be against us? 20 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:17,680 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, 21 00:01:18,040 --> 00:01:20,600 how will he not also along with him graciously give us all 22 00:01:20,600 --> 00:01:22,960 things? Who will bring any charge 23 00:01:22,960 --> 00:01:24,480 against those whom God has chosen? 24 00:01:25,160 --> 00:01:28,120 It is God who justifies. Who, then, is the one who 25 00:01:28,120 --> 00:01:29,360 condemns? No one. 26 00:01:29,820 --> 00:01:33,060 Christ Jesus, who died more than that who was raised to life, is 27 00:01:33,060 --> 00:01:35,740 at the right hand of God, and is also interceding for us. 28 00:01:36,660 --> 00:01:39,500 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? 29 00:01:40,180 --> 00:01:44,020 Shall trouble or hardship, or persecution, or famine, or 30 00:01:44,020 --> 00:01:48,300 nakedness, or danger, or sword. As it is written, for your sake, 31 00:01:48,300 --> 00:01:51,220 we face death. All day long we are considered 32 00:01:51,220 --> 00:01:55,260 as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are 33 00:01:55,260 --> 00:01:57,220 more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 34 00:01:57,900 --> 00:02:01,720 For I'm convinced. But neither death nor life, 35 00:02:02,280 --> 00:02:05,920 neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the 36 00:02:05,920 --> 00:02:11,000 future, nor any powers, neither height nor death nor anything 37 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:14,720 else, and all creation will be able to separate us from the 38 00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:18,040 love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 39 00:02:18,920 --> 00:02:21,440 Amen. Our passage today is a familiar 40 00:02:21,440 --> 00:02:24,480 one, isn't it? If if you've read the Bible at 41 00:02:24,480 --> 00:02:27,520 all, you've probably heard these verses that we've just. 42 00:02:27,940 --> 00:02:32,020 Read, Quoted One way or another. You have heard no doubt, Romans 43 00:02:32,020 --> 00:02:35,220 828, that that God works all the things for the good of those who 44 00:02:35,220 --> 00:02:37,140 love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. 45 00:02:37,380 --> 00:02:39,780 You have maybe heard that nothing can separate us from the 46 00:02:39,780 --> 00:02:41,700 love of God that is in Christ Jesus. 47 00:02:41,820 --> 00:02:44,420 You maybe heard that we are more than conquerors through Him who 48 00:02:44,420 --> 00:02:46,940 loved us. You may have heard, if God is 49 00:02:46,940 --> 00:02:52,060 for us, who can be against us, all of these beautiful truths? 50 00:02:52,420 --> 00:02:56,580 Have almost become Christian cliches that we erase from the 51 00:02:56,580 --> 00:03:00,300 context that they are here in Romans chapter 8. 52 00:03:00,820 --> 00:03:05,340 And these verses that we're at today belong in one of the most 53 00:03:05,340 --> 00:03:10,860 profound chapters in all of Scripture, all of which here in 54 00:03:10,860 --> 00:03:15,260 Romans 8 applies specifically and only to the believer in 55 00:03:15,260 --> 00:03:17,780 Christ Jesus. Martin Luther said of this 56 00:03:17,780 --> 00:03:20,660 passage He he said that if the Bible were a ring. 57 00:03:21,640 --> 00:03:24,600 Then Romans chapter 8 would be the diamond at the center of 58 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:27,120 that ring. I believe if you took Romans 59 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:30,800 chapter 8 and you were to take the rest of the Bible and throw 60 00:03:30,800 --> 00:03:34,600 it out, though, you should never do and just take Romans 8, you 61 00:03:34,600 --> 00:03:37,920 would have enough truth. You would have enough doctrine. 62 00:03:38,080 --> 00:03:42,720 You would have enough about Christ and about what he has 63 00:03:42,720 --> 00:03:45,920 done and who he is, that you would never need anything else. 64 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:47,920 You would never get to the bottom of all these truths. 65 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:50,920 You would spend your whole life, and probably the life to come. 66 00:03:51,930 --> 00:03:56,010 Grappling and and trying to understand all that's there and 67 00:03:56,010 --> 00:03:58,650 continuously being overwhelmed by it. 68 00:03:59,370 --> 00:04:01,610 Just to give us kind of some context, this chapter speaks of 69 00:04:01,850 --> 00:04:05,010 Christ freeing us from condemnation in our rule of sin 70 00:04:05,530 --> 00:04:08,330 by his substitutionary death. It speaks of life through the 71 00:04:08,330 --> 00:04:11,210 indwelling Holy Spirit. It it speaks of our adoption as 72 00:04:11,210 --> 00:04:13,530 sons unto God. It speaks of the sanctifying 73 00:04:13,530 --> 00:04:16,730 power even of suffering. It speaks of the doctrine of 74 00:04:16,730 --> 00:04:19,709 Providence. Foreknowledge, predestination, 75 00:04:19,709 --> 00:04:23,030 effectual call, justification, glorification, and even eternal 76 00:04:23,030 --> 00:04:27,190 security to just begin to scratch the surface, might I 77 00:04:27,190 --> 00:04:32,550 add, our verses today, verses 28 through 39, are some of the most 78 00:04:32,550 --> 00:04:34,750 theologically rich in all of the Bible. 79 00:04:35,990 --> 00:04:39,270 We can spend months, literally months, attempting. 80 00:04:40,340 --> 00:04:42,500 To get to the bottom of these verses and if you were here for 81 00:04:42,500 --> 00:04:44,860 our Monday night or Wednesday night, what night did we have? 82 00:04:44,860 --> 00:04:46,460 Men's Bible Study Thursday night? 83 00:04:46,580 --> 00:04:49,100 There's so many Bible studies Is I got a shameless plug here? 84 00:04:49,100 --> 00:04:51,900 If you're not a part of a Bible study at Key Life Fellowship, 85 00:04:52,540 --> 00:04:54,740 there's ample opportunities Get in one. 86 00:04:56,620 --> 00:04:59,740 But on our men's Thursday night Bible study, it took it took us 87 00:04:59,980 --> 00:05:03,740 two months, 7 studies to go through these verses. 88 00:05:05,060 --> 00:05:06,980 Some of us thought that was bad. When are we ever going to get 89 00:05:06,980 --> 00:05:11,490 the verse 31 right? Martin Lloyd Jones in the 1900s 90 00:05:11,490 --> 00:05:15,530 in in in London, it took him 20-4 weeks to preach to these 91 00:05:15,530 --> 00:05:18,370 verses between 5:00 and six months. 92 00:05:19,650 --> 00:05:22,650 And so this goes without saying that more qualified men have 93 00:05:22,970 --> 00:05:26,610 dealt with in detail these verses we're looking at today. 94 00:05:26,610 --> 00:05:30,930 But the goal for this morning is not to give a deep dive study on 95 00:05:30,930 --> 00:05:34,610 everything that we see here. No, we will talk about these 96 00:05:34,610 --> 00:05:36,570 things. The goal this morning is to see 97 00:05:36,570 --> 00:05:40,440 the driving point. Behind all of these verses, that 98 00:05:40,800 --> 00:05:46,000 is very basic yet often overlooked for our title today. 99 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:51,440 Oh love that will not let me go. This love of God for some of us 100 00:05:51,440 --> 00:05:54,320 who have been studying the Bible and we are committed to biblical 101 00:05:54,320 --> 00:05:59,640 truth. We don't want to have our ears 102 00:05:59,640 --> 00:06:06,240 tickled by just the love of God. Can I say something? 103 00:06:07,480 --> 00:06:13,520 Maybe we have overcorrected in running from maybe being afraid 104 00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:18,000 of the love of God because we have been so committed to the 105 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:22,560 true gospel that in my life maybe sometimes I have neglected 106 00:06:22,560 --> 00:06:27,640 the great love of God. We see this in these verses, and 107 00:06:27,640 --> 00:06:34,280 I and I say these things greatly to our shame, from this text 108 00:06:34,280 --> 00:06:36,620 alone. We see that the love of God 109 00:06:36,740 --> 00:06:40,060 first is an always love. It's an always love. 110 00:06:40,060 --> 00:06:43,660 Verse 29 tells us that this always love was first rooted in 111 00:06:43,660 --> 00:06:46,020 the past. Look with me if you will in 112 00:06:46,020 --> 00:06:50,140 verse 29 for those God for new He also predestined to be 113 00:06:50,140 --> 00:06:52,860 conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first 114 00:06:52,860 --> 00:06:55,060 born among many brothers and sisters. 115 00:06:55,220 --> 00:06:57,900 Very clear. Let's talk about the word for 116 00:06:57,900 --> 00:07:00,740 new, He for new. What is foreknowledge? 117 00:07:01,060 --> 00:07:04,380 Forknowledge is not. Simply that God knows what's 118 00:07:04,380 --> 00:07:05,700 going to happen before it happens. 119 00:07:06,340 --> 00:07:09,060 That's his omniscience. God knows all things. 120 00:07:09,220 --> 00:07:11,300 His foreknowledge is something a little bit deeper. 121 00:07:11,300 --> 00:07:14,100 In fact, First Peter chapter one, verse 2 says that we were 122 00:07:14,100 --> 00:07:16,580 chosen according to the foreknowledge of God. 123 00:07:16,620 --> 00:07:20,220 What is this foreknowledge? Is it that God, as so many have 124 00:07:20,220 --> 00:07:22,540 wrongfully thought that God looks into time and sees you 125 00:07:22,540 --> 00:07:25,300 making a good choice And then therefore I choose to say them 126 00:07:25,420 --> 00:07:27,940 absolutely not. That would be us doing 127 00:07:27,940 --> 00:07:30,420 something. Foreknowledge is so much. 128 00:07:30,780 --> 00:07:34,340 Deeper and so much more beautiful than just God knowing 129 00:07:34,340 --> 00:07:39,060 something before it happened. $4.00 refers to God intimately 130 00:07:39,100 --> 00:07:43,660 knowing someone before. Scripturally, when we see God 131 00:07:43,740 --> 00:07:48,780 knowing of humans, it's not that he knows they exist or has has 132 00:07:48,820 --> 00:07:51,580 this cognizant reality that yeah, there's a human being 133 00:07:51,580 --> 00:07:55,020 there and their name is Andy or their name is Andario. 134 00:07:55,020 --> 00:07:57,740 This is not that. God knows these things. 135 00:08:00,170 --> 00:08:04,690 It is that he has a special interest in those whom he knows, 136 00:08:06,770 --> 00:08:09,610 Arthur Pink said about this same concept that they When we read 137 00:08:09,610 --> 00:08:13,570 in scripture of God knowing certain people, the word is used 138 00:08:13,570 --> 00:08:16,770 in the sense of knowing with approbation and love. 139 00:08:17,530 --> 00:08:23,090 Not that it's up here, it's that God knows them intimately in the 140 00:08:23,090 --> 00:08:27,570 Garden of Eden. Adam knew his wife, right? 141 00:08:28,150 --> 00:08:29,790 He didn't just know that there was a woman there. 142 00:08:29,870 --> 00:08:33,950 He intimately knew her. When God knows people, he knows 143 00:08:33,950 --> 00:08:36,990 them intimately. The Bible backs the truth up as 144 00:08:36,990 --> 00:08:38,270 well. Not just the quote. 145 00:08:38,309 --> 00:08:42,030 I just gave you Amos 3 verse two, talking about the chosen 146 00:08:42,030 --> 00:08:44,230 people of God, the Israelites. You alone? 147 00:08:44,390 --> 00:08:47,710 Have I chosen or known? Deeply loved. 148 00:08:47,910 --> 00:08:52,030 You alone have I known? Is it that God doesn't know the 149 00:08:52,030 --> 00:08:54,470 other nations of the world? Does he not know they exist? 150 00:08:55,220 --> 00:08:58,620 No, He has a special affection for his people. 151 00:08:59,460 --> 00:09:02,980 Deuteronomy 7 verse two says the Lord did not set his affection 152 00:09:02,980 --> 00:09:07,180 on you and choose you because you were more numerous than all 153 00:09:07,460 --> 00:09:11,780 other people, for you are the fewest of all peoples, he says. 154 00:09:11,780 --> 00:09:14,300 You Israelites, remember this. You were nothing. 155 00:09:14,980 --> 00:09:17,300 You had nothing to offer. You had no worse. 156 00:09:17,620 --> 00:09:19,100 Yet I chose you. Here's why. 157 00:09:19,380 --> 00:09:26,770 But it was because he loved you. This is the root in the past 158 00:09:26,890 --> 00:09:32,050 that God for knew all his own people, not just for knew them, 159 00:09:32,050 --> 00:09:37,690 but for loved them. Jeremiah 31 verse three says, I 160 00:09:37,690 --> 00:09:40,850 have loved you with an everlasting love. 161 00:09:41,130 --> 00:09:44,810 No beginning, no end. It is steadfast, It is eternal. 162 00:09:44,930 --> 00:09:47,330 It is everlasting. This is foreknowledge. 163 00:09:47,730 --> 00:09:50,770 And when we grasp this we are so deeply humbled. 164 00:09:51,690 --> 00:09:55,420 Or we should be? Now on the flip side, when Jesus 165 00:09:55,420 --> 00:09:57,420 says in Matthew 7, depart for me. 166 00:09:57,420 --> 00:10:02,300 I never knew you. You know he's not saying I 167 00:10:02,300 --> 00:10:04,180 didn't know you. Who are you? 168 00:10:04,180 --> 00:10:09,620 I don't know who you are. He's saying I never intimately 169 00:10:11,100 --> 00:10:14,460 loved you. You were never mine. 170 00:10:14,980 --> 00:10:17,980 But for us who were in Christ, we have this hope that before 171 00:10:17,980 --> 00:10:27,980 time began, God loved us, God knew us, and those who were for 172 00:10:27,980 --> 00:10:30,020 loved or forknown, it says in verse 29. 173 00:10:30,020 --> 00:10:33,020 He did predestined to be conformed to the image of his 174 00:10:33,020 --> 00:10:41,460 Son, that Christ loved us, we sinned, we rebelled against God. 175 00:10:43,940 --> 00:10:50,380 And yet he loved us and chose us out of His love for a purpose, 176 00:10:50,820 --> 00:10:52,700 to be like his Son, Jesus Christ. 177 00:10:54,380 --> 00:10:59,540 So Christ died to save you, to save me, because the Father has 178 00:10:59,540 --> 00:11:04,420 always loved you and I. That's why Christ died, Pink 179 00:11:04,420 --> 00:11:07,260 continues in his thoughts here, and he says that God's elect 180 00:11:07,260 --> 00:11:11,690 stood present before his mind. They were foreknown by him and 181 00:11:11,690 --> 00:11:15,130 they were the definite object of his eternal love. 182 00:11:15,170 --> 00:11:17,690 God said his love upon us. He said it. 183 00:11:17,730 --> 00:11:20,250 It was uninfluenced. Nobody said I think you should 184 00:11:20,250 --> 00:11:22,570 love Jake because they would have never said that. 185 00:11:22,810 --> 00:11:24,450 And everybody who knows me says Amen. 186 00:11:26,050 --> 00:11:30,010 God did not ask anyone else should I love them. 187 00:11:30,770 --> 00:11:36,410 He didn't have a committee. He he he didn't go out to the 188 00:11:36,450 --> 00:11:40,310 outer aliens. And say what do you think about 189 00:11:40,310 --> 00:11:43,550 these people that never happened? 190 00:11:44,790 --> 00:11:49,590 God's love is uninfluenced God. God loved and loves because he 191 00:11:49,590 --> 00:11:55,830 loves and because he is loved. There's nothing that changes his 192 00:11:55,830 --> 00:12:01,030 love. He just loves this love. 193 00:12:01,030 --> 00:12:05,390 This is always love is rooted in the past and foreknowledge. 194 00:12:06,590 --> 00:12:10,470 It is also revealed. In the present we look together. 195 00:12:10,470 --> 00:12:13,350 In verse 28. This verse hopefully we love. 196 00:12:13,350 --> 00:12:16,710 And if this verse is new to you, like it was to all of us at one 197 00:12:16,710 --> 00:12:18,910 point in time, it should blow us away. 198 00:12:19,550 --> 00:12:22,990 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those 199 00:12:22,990 --> 00:12:26,190 who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose. 200 00:12:26,190 --> 00:12:29,230 This is the doctrine of Providence, perfectly stated, 201 00:12:29,590 --> 00:12:32,270 that God is working all things for the good of his own. 202 00:12:32,700 --> 00:12:34,020 How does that work? I don't know. 203 00:12:34,060 --> 00:12:35,380 My life looks like it's terrible. 204 00:12:35,380 --> 00:12:37,380 How is God working for the good? Not quite. 205 00:12:37,380 --> 00:12:40,260 Sure, maybe we never see it on this side of eternity, but we 206 00:12:40,260 --> 00:12:43,540 can know that God is somehow working it for our good. 207 00:12:43,660 --> 00:12:47,140 How many times in your daily life has God provided for you? 208 00:12:47,140 --> 00:12:49,940 Has he cared for you? Has he, as we like to say, 209 00:12:49,980 --> 00:12:55,610 showed up so many times? There were no answers. 210 00:12:55,610 --> 00:12:58,170 The math wouldn't do. There's no way we can make ends 211 00:12:58,170 --> 00:13:00,850 meet and then somehow God provides. 212 00:13:00,930 --> 00:13:06,330 Somehow God works the times that are tough and the times that are 213 00:13:06,570 --> 00:13:08,330 trying. How am I going to get it? 214 00:13:08,330 --> 00:13:10,170 Make it through. Why am I going through this? 215 00:13:10,170 --> 00:13:14,850 Because God is working it for your good if you are in him. 216 00:13:15,250 --> 00:13:16,530 Oh what hope? What promise? 217 00:13:16,530 --> 00:13:20,410 We can hold fast to that. God has revealed His always love 218 00:13:20,530 --> 00:13:23,890 in the present. It's deeper than just today, 219 00:13:23,890 --> 00:13:26,800 though. This is deeper than just the 220 00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:28,840 day-to-day. God is just doing things. 221 00:13:28,840 --> 00:13:31,320 He says in verse 30 that the predestined those who were 222 00:13:31,320 --> 00:13:35,880 foreknown and chosen by God, they're then called, not just 223 00:13:36,360 --> 00:13:38,920 called, hearing it with their ears. 224 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:43,040 This is an effectual internal call that every person who was 225 00:13:43,040 --> 00:13:46,200 foreknown and chosen by God hears and answers. 226 00:13:46,760 --> 00:13:49,960 This cannot be resisted by those who God has fore loved. 227 00:13:50,240 --> 00:13:52,440 This is an irresistible grace call. 228 00:13:53,940 --> 00:13:59,060 That God chose to give out to his own. 229 00:14:00,180 --> 00:14:04,060 Some of you remember this day. Oh, we should go back to this 230 00:14:04,060 --> 00:14:06,420 day. All the time that God called me, 231 00:14:06,420 --> 00:14:09,140 He drew me. That that we heard the good 232 00:14:09,140 --> 00:14:12,580 shepherd's voice, He called us into his fold. 233 00:14:15,020 --> 00:14:20,060 This is because His eternal love has been revealed in the 234 00:14:20,060 --> 00:14:22,710 present. And do you remember when you 235 00:14:22,710 --> 00:14:25,110 were called the love of God just overwhelmed you? 236 00:14:25,830 --> 00:14:28,390 I love to hear from people who are just literally overwhelmed 237 00:14:28,390 --> 00:14:29,990 by God's love. They don't even know what to 238 00:14:29,990 --> 00:14:31,510 say, because how could God love me? 239 00:14:33,390 --> 00:14:37,190 How could God love me? I'll tell you how he could love 240 00:14:37,190 --> 00:14:42,390 you because he sought to love you in spite of you before you 241 00:14:42,390 --> 00:14:45,430 were ever born. He said his love and his 242 00:14:45,430 --> 00:14:51,150 affection on you. Christian, He called us. 243 00:14:51,800 --> 00:14:54,200 This call supersedes our plans, doesn't it? 244 00:14:54,840 --> 00:14:56,600 We might have had great plans for our life. 245 00:14:57,800 --> 00:15:01,480 It had nothing to do with God. It had everything to do with the 246 00:15:01,480 --> 00:15:04,960 love of our sin. But God and His grace and his 247 00:15:04,960 --> 00:15:08,680 love interrupted. Isn't it good that God's love is 248 00:15:08,680 --> 00:15:13,200 not just an affirming love, it's a calling out love. 249 00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:16,680 It's a hatred to affirm the things that God hates. 250 00:15:17,520 --> 00:15:22,180 There's a trend Trend today. Is your church in affirming 251 00:15:22,180 --> 00:15:26,620 church to affirm certain sins that we like to celebrate in the 252 00:15:26,620 --> 00:15:30,340 month of June? Yeah, Our church is in affirming 253 00:15:30,340 --> 00:15:35,820 church. We affirm sin, flee from it. 254 00:15:36,420 --> 00:15:38,540 We affirm Christ. He's Lord. 255 00:15:39,700 --> 00:15:41,660 We affirm Christ. He's Savior. 256 00:15:41,700 --> 00:15:43,420 We affirm Christ. He's risen. 257 00:15:43,620 --> 00:15:45,500 We affirm You should repent and turn to Christ. 258 00:15:45,500 --> 00:15:47,100 That's our affirmations. We're in affirming church. 259 00:15:47,100 --> 00:15:51,140 Congratulations. But if God had just affirmed us 260 00:15:51,140 --> 00:15:54,340 in our sin, would He ever call us out of our sin? 261 00:15:54,860 --> 00:15:57,060 Would He ever reveal to us our need for Him? 262 00:15:57,060 --> 00:16:01,620 Absolutely not. True love sometimes presses 263 00:16:01,620 --> 00:16:05,900 where it hurts. Sometimes true love does not 264 00:16:05,900 --> 00:16:08,340 affirm. True love calls out. 265 00:16:09,180 --> 00:16:12,500 And the perfect true love of God called us from our sin to trust 266 00:16:12,780 --> 00:16:16,820 in Jesus Christ. And it says here the called are 267 00:16:16,820 --> 00:16:19,140 justified. Guaranteed. 268 00:16:19,700 --> 00:16:23,860 Wiped away all their sin. God declared and made righteous 269 00:16:24,020 --> 00:16:26,700 by God, you say? Wait a minute. 270 00:16:26,700 --> 00:16:29,340 I don't feel righteous. God says you are. 271 00:16:29,340 --> 00:16:30,860 You're justified if you're in him. 272 00:16:31,340 --> 00:16:34,300 What hope you know what we can do to be justified? 273 00:16:34,660 --> 00:16:36,540 Nothing. You know what Christ has done to 274 00:16:36,540 --> 00:16:38,180 justify us. Everything. 275 00:16:38,660 --> 00:16:40,420 It's all in him. It's all him. 276 00:16:40,420 --> 00:16:42,940 He called He justified. He declares righteous and then 277 00:16:42,940 --> 00:16:45,460 he says the justified he also glorified. 278 00:16:46,220 --> 00:16:49,780 This tells us that the always love of God remains in the 279 00:16:49,780 --> 00:16:53,820 future. All of this in verse 30 is past 280 00:16:53,820 --> 00:16:57,220 tense. Notice that that we think of 281 00:16:57,220 --> 00:17:00,820 being glorified. Isn't that when you die, aren't 282 00:17:00,820 --> 00:17:04,980 you dead and you're glorified? And then and that How are we 283 00:17:04,980 --> 00:17:09,060 glorified in the past? Because the love of God says 284 00:17:09,140 --> 00:17:12,470 it's as good as done. Because God's plan is so 285 00:17:12,510 --> 00:17:17,190 unsportable and unchangeable that it is good as glorified 286 00:17:17,230 --> 00:17:19,030 because of the love of God, your future is fixed. 287 00:17:19,030 --> 00:17:21,750 My future is fixed. Love that began in eternity past 288 00:17:21,829 --> 00:17:23,829 will carry us to eternity future. 289 00:17:23,910 --> 00:17:26,550 Never to fail, never to waver, never to change. 290 00:17:27,670 --> 00:17:33,470 Because the sovereign, always love of God, always plays out to 291 00:17:33,470 --> 00:17:36,470 save fully His eternally beloved. 292 00:17:36,870 --> 00:17:41,770 Wouldn't it be a shame? With it, if God fore knew us and 293 00:17:42,290 --> 00:17:46,050 chose us and called us and justified, and then after that 294 00:17:46,050 --> 00:17:51,850 we just had to figure it out on our own, because we would, as we 295 00:17:51,850 --> 00:17:56,690 say in the South, we would be up the Creek without a paddle, what 296 00:17:56,690 --> 00:18:00,810 do we do if it weren't for the love of God that carries us to 297 00:18:00,810 --> 00:18:03,050 the end? Why is this? 298 00:18:04,300 --> 00:18:05,100 Why? Why can't we? 299 00:18:05,100 --> 00:18:07,540 Why can't we have this hope that his love will remain in the 300 00:18:07,540 --> 00:18:10,380 future? One word 4 letters Love, you 301 00:18:10,380 --> 00:18:11,220 say. Wait, wait a minute. 302 00:18:12,660 --> 00:18:15,140 We can have assurance that his love will carry us to the future 303 00:18:15,140 --> 00:18:18,060 Because of love. Yes, Abuses one. 304 00:18:18,060 --> 00:18:21,620 Verse four and five says in love he predestined us to adoption, 305 00:18:21,820 --> 00:18:26,100 to sonship. In love, he predestined, He 306 00:18:26,100 --> 00:18:30,060 chose us out of his love. He's not going to unchoose. 307 00:18:30,860 --> 00:18:34,090 He's not going to unadopt. He's not going to kick you out 308 00:18:34,090 --> 00:18:38,970 of his house. The truth is that God loves you 309 00:18:39,810 --> 00:18:45,370 if you're in Christ now the exact same as He loves you in 310 00:18:45,370 --> 00:18:49,290 eternity. And He will love you for all of 311 00:18:49,290 --> 00:18:50,450 eternity. Why? 312 00:18:50,450 --> 00:18:52,570 Because it's based on Him and not us. 313 00:18:53,530 --> 00:18:56,050 And so the idea of losing your salvation ends right here, 314 00:18:56,050 --> 00:18:58,610 right? Completely gone. 315 00:18:58,610 --> 00:19:00,610 Blown away. But if we keep reading. 316 00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:03,480 We're going to beat that dead horse a little bit more. 317 00:19:04,120 --> 00:19:07,640 It's going to become clearly evident that you cannot lose 318 00:19:07,640 --> 00:19:11,480 what God has set forth to do. It's an always love. 319 00:19:11,480 --> 00:19:15,040 Secondly, it's an adamant love. Adamant love. 320 00:19:15,200 --> 00:19:19,880 God is adamant about showing His love and proving to us that He 321 00:19:19,880 --> 00:19:23,120 does love us. It's an adamant love that causes 322 00:19:23,120 --> 00:19:25,840 us to stand firm in the love of God. 323 00:19:25,840 --> 00:19:32,850 Verse 31, of course. It doesn't just end in verse 30, 324 00:19:32,850 --> 00:19:35,210 the thought continues. If you learn to read your Bible 325 00:19:35,210 --> 00:19:39,530 without the subheadings, it helps so much reverse 30 to 31. 326 00:19:39,570 --> 00:19:41,810 What then shall we say in response to these things? 327 00:19:41,890 --> 00:19:43,930 What things? What he's just been saying for 328 00:19:43,930 --> 00:19:49,170 the last three verses? If God is for us, who can be 329 00:19:49,170 --> 00:19:52,330 against us? This is a simple rhetorical 330 00:19:52,330 --> 00:19:54,330 question that we should all answer nobody. 331 00:19:55,290 --> 00:19:56,810 Nobody who can stand against God. 332 00:19:56,810 --> 00:19:59,490 Isn't that just the basic elementary truth that God is all 333 00:19:59,490 --> 00:20:00,930 powerful and everybody else is not? 334 00:20:01,650 --> 00:20:03,930 Who can stand against him? Who can stand against us? 335 00:20:03,930 --> 00:20:07,330 If we are in Him, how do we respond to God's love? 336 00:20:07,330 --> 00:20:10,090 This is His response. We respond confidently. 337 00:20:10,490 --> 00:20:12,450 We respond confidently to God's love. 338 00:20:12,450 --> 00:20:15,250 Now, if we will read the verse a little bit differently than a 339 00:20:15,250 --> 00:20:18,130 lot of times, we will see this first taken way out of context. 340 00:20:18,130 --> 00:20:21,050 A lot of times, just to prove, I don't know, for a football game, 341 00:20:21,050 --> 00:20:22,610 if God is for us, who can be against us? 342 00:20:22,690 --> 00:20:24,290 What about the other team? Is God for them? 343 00:20:24,290 --> 00:20:27,530 Or maybe what if they're God's in a conflict here, right? 344 00:20:27,530 --> 00:20:32,670 No, not at all. We respond confidently and 345 00:20:32,670 --> 00:20:34,510 humbly when we read this first like this. 346 00:20:35,710 --> 00:20:37,190 What shall we say in response to these things? 347 00:20:38,190 --> 00:20:44,150 If God is for us, who can be against us? 348 00:20:45,150 --> 00:20:47,110 See the confidence and the emphasis is on God. 349 00:20:47,110 --> 00:20:50,590 The emphasis is not on us, not on our endeavors, not on ours 350 00:20:50,670 --> 00:20:53,510 striving, not on our effort. But it's on the God who has 351 00:20:53,510 --> 00:20:57,150 eternally loved and has been adamant about showing this love. 352 00:20:57,670 --> 00:21:00,700 What can we say? We got all we need. 353 00:21:01,460 --> 00:21:04,420 We have God. It's an adamant love that 354 00:21:04,420 --> 00:21:07,660 contains secondly, solid proof for the love of God. 355 00:21:07,660 --> 00:21:10,660 Isn't it wonderful that God didn't just say he loved you, 356 00:21:10,660 --> 00:21:14,700 but he showed it and he proved it and we see more in these 357 00:21:14,700 --> 00:21:16,740 verses. He's going to prove it over and 358 00:21:16,740 --> 00:21:20,980 over and over and over again. But this solid proof is in verse 359 00:21:20,980 --> 00:21:24,900 32. He God, who did not spare his 360 00:21:24,900 --> 00:21:29,510 own son but gave him up for us all. 361 00:21:29,550 --> 00:21:31,270 Here's an action, Here's a giving. 362 00:21:33,710 --> 00:21:37,510 If you have kids, some of you guys, or maybe you are a kid or 363 00:21:37,510 --> 00:21:39,550 you've been a kid at some point in time with siblings. 364 00:21:40,030 --> 00:21:42,110 If you had a good parent, they told you, don't just say you 365 00:21:42,110 --> 00:21:43,230 love them. Actually, what? 366 00:21:44,150 --> 00:21:46,630 Show it. Yeah, it doesn't mean anything 367 00:21:46,630 --> 00:21:48,950 unless you show it. God shows it. 368 00:21:48,950 --> 00:21:53,070 God acts by giving and his gift was Jesus. 369 00:21:53,070 --> 00:21:58,620 He did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all. 370 00:21:58,620 --> 00:22:02,060 God the Father sent Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, 371 00:22:02,300 --> 00:22:06,660 to this world to be, as John 129 says, the Lamb of God, who takes 372 00:22:06,660 --> 00:22:09,540 away the sin of the world, the most elementary verse that we've 373 00:22:09,540 --> 00:22:11,500 ever known in our whole life, John 316. 374 00:22:11,500 --> 00:22:18,100 For God so loved the world that he what gave his only Son, He 375 00:22:18,100 --> 00:22:22,580 loved, so he gave, He loved, so he acted. 376 00:22:23,770 --> 00:22:28,810 He gave his son for those four loved people to save the US from 377 00:22:28,810 --> 00:22:33,330 our sin by his substitutionary death. 378 00:22:33,530 --> 00:22:36,290 He didn't just give his son as an example, He didn't just give 379 00:22:36,290 --> 00:22:38,090 his son. So we can say, oh man, that's 380 00:22:38,090 --> 00:22:40,050 super nice that he would give his son and have to go through 381 00:22:40,050 --> 00:22:41,370 life and stuff. That's terrible. 382 00:22:41,490 --> 00:22:46,970 He gave his son unto death. He sent his son to the old 383 00:22:46,970 --> 00:22:51,210 rugged cross To bear the nails, to bear the beatings, to bear 384 00:22:51,450 --> 00:22:55,610 the scourging, To bear the spit in the face, To bear the spear 385 00:22:55,770 --> 00:22:58,890 and the side, and to bear the eternal wrath of his Father for 386 00:22:58,890 --> 00:23:01,450 all of us. And so if you want to see real 387 00:23:01,450 --> 00:23:04,930 love, don't look to a spouse. They'll let you down. 388 00:23:04,930 --> 00:23:06,370 Don't look to a pastor, They'll let you down. 389 00:23:06,690 --> 00:23:07,930 Look to a friend. They'll let you down. 390 00:23:08,810 --> 00:23:10,370 Don't look to anyone else. They'll let you down. 391 00:23:11,890 --> 00:23:13,330 Don't see real love. Look to the cross. 392 00:23:14,450 --> 00:23:16,090 As Christians, we should run to the cross. 393 00:23:16,090 --> 00:23:19,850 We should live at the cross. We should be constantly going to 394 00:23:20,230 --> 00:23:22,750 the cross of Jesus Christ in times of trouble, in times of 395 00:23:22,750 --> 00:23:24,750 good, in times of bad, in times of sin. 396 00:23:24,910 --> 00:23:28,950 We should be so fixing our eyes on the cross that nothing in 397 00:23:28,950 --> 00:23:31,470 this world matters. And if you're a non believer 398 00:23:31,470 --> 00:23:34,830 today, I beg you, you run to the cross today and find eternal 399 00:23:34,830 --> 00:23:40,110 salvation in him and him alone. The cross should be our most 400 00:23:40,110 --> 00:23:46,070 frequent vacation spot. If you don't make a habit of 401 00:23:46,980 --> 00:23:49,620 fixing your eyes and fixing your life upon the cross of Jesus 402 00:23:49,620 --> 00:23:55,740 Christ, I beg you to It's our only hope, the only source of 403 00:23:55,740 --> 00:23:58,700 true love. But God. 404 00:24:00,540 --> 00:24:04,860 God doesn't love us because Jesus died for us. 405 00:24:05,740 --> 00:24:09,300 Understand this. Jesus died for us because God 406 00:24:09,300 --> 00:24:13,700 loves us well. This is a beautiful truth. 407 00:24:14,660 --> 00:24:19,080 Then at creation, wasn't there the loving God before, Before 408 00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:20,560 creation, we've already tackled this. 409 00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:23,360 At creation He needed nothing, wanted nothing. 410 00:24:23,360 --> 00:24:26,920 But out of His own good pleasure and will and love, He created 411 00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:30,480 mankind. And out of love He put them in 412 00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:32,440 the garden. And he they were to walk with 413 00:24:32,440 --> 00:24:34,440 Him and and talk with Him. And they were, they were, they 414 00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:37,040 were to be in perfect harmony and peace, and they were to rule 415 00:24:37,040 --> 00:24:41,160 over all the animals. And out of love He gave them one 416 00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:43,840 command, to not eat from the fruit of the knowledge of good 417 00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:47,560 and evil. And in their disobedience and 418 00:24:47,560 --> 00:24:51,400 sin and lack of love toward the God who loved them, they ate the 419 00:24:51,400 --> 00:24:54,840 one fruit and sent mankind into the curse of sin. 420 00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:59,440 Ever since that we are still under but God in his perfect 421 00:24:59,440 --> 00:25:02,920 time He sent Jesus Christ, born of a virgin woman, to come and 422 00:25:02,920 --> 00:25:07,240 to live a sinless perfect life as fully man and fully God, and 423 00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:13,880 then to lay his life down onto the cross to bring us into the 424 00:25:13,880 --> 00:25:16,800 eternal love of God that we had been separated from because of 425 00:25:16,800 --> 00:25:18,880 our sin. Aren't you thankful for Jesus? 426 00:25:20,960 --> 00:25:23,160 Then he says he gave himself up for us all. 427 00:25:23,360 --> 00:25:26,480 How will he not also along with him graciously give us all 428 00:25:26,480 --> 00:25:28,800 things? Now he's not talking about. 429 00:25:28,800 --> 00:25:32,120 Give us all things that we want. Some of the things that he's 430 00:25:32,120 --> 00:25:33,960 talking about here is that all things in Christ. 431 00:25:34,760 --> 00:25:38,160 Ephesians, one verse 3 says that we have been blessed with every 432 00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:40,960 spiritual blessing in Christ. Every single spiritual blessing. 433 00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:42,320 We have it. If we're in Christ. 434 00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:44,440 Nobody's missing out. There's no second blessing. 435 00:25:44,560 --> 00:25:46,360 You got it all when you got Christ. 436 00:25:47,680 --> 00:25:50,680 He's all you need. He's giving us all these things. 437 00:25:50,920 --> 00:25:52,680 And secondly, he's giving us all the things to finish. 438 00:25:52,680 --> 00:25:58,320 The purpose for choosing US1 of the purposes is that we would be 439 00:25:58,320 --> 00:26:02,840 rooted and established in love. Feesians, one verse 17. 440 00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:05,240 Paul praise that we would be rooted and established in love, 441 00:26:07,090 --> 00:26:10,610 but not just to be rooted and established in love for each 442 00:26:10,610 --> 00:26:14,650 other, but to be rooted and established in knowing the love 443 00:26:14,650 --> 00:26:18,730 of God for us, and in this in us knowing God's love. 444 00:26:18,730 --> 00:26:22,370 And in us showing God's love, we will begin to be conformed to 445 00:26:22,370 --> 00:26:25,330 the image of Jesus Christ, who is love. 446 00:26:26,730 --> 00:26:29,370 A true Christian, a mature Christian, will grow in their 447 00:26:29,370 --> 00:26:32,930 love for other people. Jesus, in fact, said this in the 448 00:26:32,930 --> 00:26:36,930 Gospel of John, that they will know you to his disciples by 449 00:26:36,930 --> 00:26:42,370 your love for one another. How do people know you disciple 450 00:26:42,370 --> 00:26:43,850 of Jesus Christ? They know you by your love. 451 00:26:43,850 --> 00:26:45,650 Or do they know you by that person who goes to church? 452 00:26:46,610 --> 00:26:51,650 Do they know you by your distinct love for God and for 453 00:26:51,650 --> 00:26:52,970 others? They should. 454 00:26:53,010 --> 00:26:56,370 That's a mark of a mature, growing Christian who is 455 00:26:56,370 --> 00:27:00,900 conforming to the image of Jesus Christ, which he loved us and 456 00:27:00,900 --> 00:27:06,620 chose us to conform to. It's an adamant love, isn't it? 457 00:27:07,460 --> 00:27:09,900 There's no doubts left. And if there were any doubts, 458 00:27:10,140 --> 00:27:12,860 Paul's going to just hammer us with any more doubt killers than 459 00:27:12,860 --> 00:27:15,540 verse 33. These are substantiated claims 460 00:27:15,540 --> 00:27:20,420 because of the love of God. Verse 33 he says this Who will 461 00:27:20,420 --> 00:27:22,900 bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? 462 00:27:23,620 --> 00:27:27,420 It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who 463 00:27:27,420 --> 00:27:31,510 condemns? No one Christ Jesus who died 464 00:27:31,830 --> 00:27:34,630 more than that it was raised to life, is at the right hand of 465 00:27:34,630 --> 00:27:39,790 God and is also interceding for us. 5 substantiated claims here 466 00:27:39,790 --> 00:27:41,110 that we see from these two verses. 467 00:27:41,310 --> 00:27:43,110 The 1st is that God has justified. 468 00:27:44,550 --> 00:27:48,990 God has dropped the charges. God has declared us righteous. 469 00:27:50,110 --> 00:27:53,430 Who can condemn no one? Romans 8 verse one says. 470 00:27:53,430 --> 00:27:55,830 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those of us who 471 00:27:55,830 --> 00:27:57,590 are in Christ Jesus. It's gone. 472 00:27:58,190 --> 00:28:01,070 Jesus came and was condemned for us to save us from our 473 00:28:01,070 --> 00:28:04,430 condemnation. And God justified. 474 00:28:04,430 --> 00:28:06,910 Meaning this there's no one higher than God. 475 00:28:06,910 --> 00:28:09,350 Everybody agrees that right hope we know this by now. 476 00:28:09,430 --> 00:28:15,390 God is the highest judge. If God says justified, who can 477 00:28:15,390 --> 00:28:20,070 say I object your honor no one who can condemn not a soul 478 00:28:21,350 --> 00:28:23,710 because God is justified. Secondly, Christ died. 479 00:28:24,230 --> 00:28:29,060 He sent Christ to die. The Father crushes the Son under 480 00:28:29,060 --> 00:28:33,060 the weight of His eternal wrath for all of our sin. 481 00:28:36,580 --> 00:28:39,420 And he didn't just do this because he's some mean tyrant. 482 00:28:40,140 --> 00:28:43,940 He did it in love. The greatest act of love is the 483 00:28:43,940 --> 00:28:45,780 wrath of God poured out on the Son of God. 484 00:28:45,780 --> 00:28:48,660 Why? Because his eternal love was set 485 00:28:48,860 --> 00:28:52,780 on his eternally beloved ones. And Christ Jesus took on our 486 00:28:52,780 --> 00:28:57,110 sin, and God the Father punished him on our behalf. 487 00:28:57,630 --> 00:29:00,910 Why? Because he loved us, and he 488 00:29:00,910 --> 00:29:03,350 loved us so much. And he hated our sins so much 489 00:29:03,470 --> 00:29:08,110 that the only perfect sacrifice that would be fitting was his 490 00:29:08,150 --> 00:29:16,550 only begotten Son. 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 21. 491 00:29:16,670 --> 00:29:19,870 The great gospel hope that he who knew no sin Jesus Christ 492 00:29:19,950 --> 00:29:24,450 became sin for us so that in him we may become the righteousness 493 00:29:24,450 --> 00:29:27,530 of God. God is then the just justifier 494 00:29:27,530 --> 00:29:31,370 because he punishes Jesus and lets us off free the pot. 495 00:29:31,370 --> 00:29:33,610 The the fine has been paid in Jesus. 496 00:29:33,730 --> 00:29:37,730 You trust in Jesus, you are justified, you are washed clean. 497 00:29:37,890 --> 00:29:44,890 No more debt you owe to God the Father praise God, Christ has 498 00:29:44,890 --> 00:29:46,850 died. Secondly, thirdly, Christ has 499 00:29:47,050 --> 00:29:51,570 resurrected says more than that He was raised to life. 500 00:29:51,650 --> 00:29:54,930 Romans 4 verse 25 says he was raised to life for our 501 00:29:54,930 --> 00:29:57,890 justification. Now wait, I thought he died for 502 00:29:57,890 --> 00:30:00,570 our justification. Then it says he's raised for our 503 00:30:00,570 --> 00:30:04,890 justification. Every time Jesus talks about his 504 00:30:04,890 --> 00:30:07,530 death when he's on this earth and the Gospels, he doesn't just 505 00:30:07,530 --> 00:30:09,890 say I'm going to die. He says I'm going to die and we 506 00:30:09,890 --> 00:30:11,730 hand it over to crucified and three days later I will 507 00:30:12,370 --> 00:30:15,330 resurrect. I heard it explained to me like 508 00:30:15,330 --> 00:30:17,610 this that the death of Christ was the payment and his 509 00:30:17,610 --> 00:30:21,280 resurrection was the receipt. He proved it. 510 00:30:21,640 --> 00:30:26,080 Not only did I die, but I rose again to prove all that I said I 511 00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:28,040 would do. All that I have actually done is 512 00:30:28,040 --> 00:30:31,320 actually valid. He resurrected, He was not 513 00:30:31,320 --> 00:30:37,560 resuscitated. He rose to new life and then 514 00:30:37,560 --> 00:30:40,160 shortly after he was exalted, He was exalted. 515 00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:42,120 It says to the right hand of the Father. 516 00:30:44,160 --> 00:30:48,440 Meaning this, Jesus Christ now has full rights and all 517 00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:53,010 authority under heaven and on earth, right Great Commission. 518 00:30:53,370 --> 00:30:58,250 Jesus Christ has all authority, all authority to judge, all 519 00:30:58,250 --> 00:31:03,450 authority to justify. And his verdict is that they're 520 00:31:03,450 --> 00:31:04,650 free. They're free. 521 00:31:04,650 --> 00:31:08,290 Because I have died and resurrected, I make the claim, I 522 00:31:08,290 --> 00:31:10,130 make the charge, I drop the charges. 523 00:31:10,250 --> 00:31:16,010 And Jesus says they're off as the eternal judge of all full 524 00:31:16,010 --> 00:31:19,330 rights, full authority, Fifthly, from here, Christ intercedes. 525 00:31:19,330 --> 00:31:23,250 It says that he is interceding for us right now. 526 00:31:25,290 --> 00:31:29,010 Christ intercession is not that. Every time we sin, God has to 527 00:31:29,010 --> 00:31:32,410 look in Jesus and say you die for that one, You got that one, 528 00:31:32,410 --> 00:31:35,490 you got that one covered, you get that one covered. 529 00:31:35,490 --> 00:31:37,090 He's been forever just doing that to me. 530 00:31:37,650 --> 00:31:41,160 That's not how it works. It is that eternally the Father 531 00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:45,120 sees us in the righteousness of the Son and sees us as as 532 00:31:45,120 --> 00:31:48,000 righteous as Jesus Christ because he is our eternal 533 00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:50,880 representative because of the cross. 534 00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:54,800 You want to wonder if I'm standing firm in God's love 535 00:31:54,800 --> 00:31:56,880 still? Does God still love me? 536 00:31:57,520 --> 00:32:00,040 How could he still love me? I really blew it This time is 537 00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:05,130 because Christ has not undied, Christ has not unresurrected, 538 00:32:05,290 --> 00:32:08,810 Christ has not got off the throne, and he has not stopped 539 00:32:08,810 --> 00:32:12,490 interceding for you and for me. And he won't. 540 00:32:14,170 --> 00:32:16,450 There's no doubts left. Does God really love us? 541 00:32:17,050 --> 00:32:19,730 There's no doubt. No questions, because he hasn't 542 00:32:19,730 --> 00:32:22,170 changed in his love and he won't change in His love. 543 00:32:23,850 --> 00:32:25,210 And finally, it's an assuring love. 544 00:32:26,650 --> 00:32:29,730 This love of God that will not let me go is so assuring. 545 00:32:30,050 --> 00:32:36,340 Read in verse 35 with me, if you will, Who shall separate us from 546 00:32:36,340 --> 00:32:39,660 the love of Christ? You may want to answer that one. 547 00:32:40,900 --> 00:32:45,860 No one shall trouble, or hardship, or persecution, or 548 00:32:45,860 --> 00:32:48,260 famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword. 549 00:32:49,020 --> 00:32:53,180 As it is written, for your sake we face death all day long. 550 00:32:53,700 --> 00:32:55,340 We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. 551 00:32:56,500 --> 00:33:00,300 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him 552 00:33:00,300 --> 00:33:03,170 who loved us, where I'm convinced that neither death nor 553 00:33:03,170 --> 00:33:06,090 life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the 554 00:33:06,090 --> 00:33:10,970 future, nor any powers, neither height nor death, nor anything 555 00:33:10,970 --> 00:33:13,770 else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the 556 00:33:13,770 --> 00:33:17,330 love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 557 00:33:17,450 --> 00:33:21,410 This is an assuring love with an airtight case being made that no 558 00:33:21,410 --> 00:33:25,170 person can separate, no person can separate us from the love of 559 00:33:25,170 --> 00:33:27,490 God. The Word separate here has to do 560 00:33:27,610 --> 00:33:30,010 with divorce. Other places in the Scripture 561 00:33:30,910 --> 00:33:33,630 when Jesus talking about marriage says that what God has 562 00:33:33,630 --> 00:33:37,670 joined together, let no man separate, let no man divorce. 563 00:33:37,910 --> 00:33:40,350 We cannot be divorced from the love of God. 564 00:33:40,430 --> 00:33:45,070 We can never be separated from this eternal, adamant and 565 00:33:45,070 --> 00:33:49,510 assuring love. This can't happen by any person, 566 00:33:50,350 --> 00:33:52,310 he says. Who who can separate us? 567 00:33:53,230 --> 00:33:55,950 You think of your mind of all the people and persons that you 568 00:33:55,950 --> 00:33:57,790 know. Certainly it's not God. 569 00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:00,080 God's not going to separate us from His love. 570 00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:06,520 He's set out to love us. This is so helpful to me because 571 00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:10,639 not even me, not even I, not even you, can separate you or me 572 00:34:10,719 --> 00:34:13,159 from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 573 00:34:13,920 --> 00:34:17,440 You can't send your way out. I know the scripts. 574 00:34:17,440 --> 00:34:18,480 Really. I don't know this personally. 575 00:34:19,800 --> 00:34:22,080 Some of us have tried to no avail. 576 00:34:24,679 --> 00:34:26,800 Outsending God's love is completely impossible. 577 00:34:27,510 --> 00:34:30,949 If you couldn't outsend God's love and he still pursued you 578 00:34:30,949 --> 00:34:32,909 when you were lost, what makes you think when you're saved 579 00:34:32,909 --> 00:34:35,230 you're going to do it? You're not. 580 00:34:36,150 --> 00:34:38,030 Oh, the apostle Peter was a prime candidate. 581 00:34:38,030 --> 00:34:40,389 If there ever was one who could separate himself from the love 582 00:34:40,389 --> 00:34:41,949 of God, that is in Christ Jesus, isn't it? 583 00:34:43,949 --> 00:34:49,030 Peter blows it over and over and over again. 584 00:34:49,590 --> 00:34:52,110 And you read the Gospels and it's like, do these guys have 585 00:34:52,110 --> 00:34:55,150 something against Peter? Because he looks like a buffoon 586 00:34:56,650 --> 00:34:59,610 over and over again. And he was slow. 587 00:34:59,970 --> 00:35:02,970 John, maybe you'll get that when you get home. 588 00:35:05,450 --> 00:35:10,850 Peter denies even knowing Christ three times the same night that 589 00:35:10,850 --> 00:35:13,770 he said if all abandon you, I never will. 590 00:35:14,930 --> 00:35:17,370 The same night that he pulls out his sword and cuts off a guy's 591 00:35:17,370 --> 00:35:20,370 ear. He denies knowing Jesus and 592 00:35:20,370 --> 00:35:22,650 calls down curses from heaven on a little girl. 593 00:35:25,490 --> 00:35:29,410 If somebody would have sent their way out of God's love, 594 00:35:29,570 --> 00:35:34,210 it's that guy. But he didn't. 595 00:35:35,210 --> 00:35:37,930 Peter was restored. We keep on reading. 596 00:35:37,930 --> 00:35:44,770 Peter gave his life valiantly for Jesus Christ because our 597 00:35:44,770 --> 00:35:47,530 love for God will fail. Your love for God will fail. 598 00:35:47,530 --> 00:35:52,010 My love for God will fail. But God's love for us will never 599 00:35:52,450 --> 00:35:56,220 will fall short. He never will, No. 600 00:35:57,620 --> 00:36:01,140 As some skeptics like to point out at this time, and if you are 601 00:36:01,140 --> 00:36:05,260 one, just keep paying attention. This does not promote 602 00:36:05,260 --> 00:36:08,420 disobedience or trying to live any way you can, because God's 603 00:36:08,420 --> 00:36:12,060 going to love me anyway. When you truly understand this, 604 00:36:13,380 --> 00:36:17,900 this will promote holiness and obedience and worship to God. 605 00:36:18,020 --> 00:36:22,180 But if you do not understand this truth, you're going to live 606 00:36:22,180 --> 00:36:25,210 however you want to live, and it may prove that you're not in the 607 00:36:25,210 --> 00:36:28,650 love of God. You may still be separated and 608 00:36:28,650 --> 00:36:34,290 need to be saved. But not even you, Christian, can 609 00:36:34,290 --> 00:36:36,970 separate yourself from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. 610 00:36:38,330 --> 00:36:42,650 Not even Satan can separate us. We think in our mind a lot of 611 00:36:42,650 --> 00:36:46,050 times that there is God and there is Satan and some battle. 612 00:36:46,050 --> 00:36:48,410 Satan wins and he gets to rule our life for a couple days. 613 00:36:48,410 --> 00:36:52,250 And then God overtake, wins, wins for a day or two, and then 614 00:36:52,250 --> 00:36:53,410 that we're back in the God's love. 615 00:36:53,410 --> 00:36:55,210 And then Satan sometimes separates us. 616 00:36:55,410 --> 00:36:58,050 And then there's this battle going on and that is not true. 617 00:36:58,050 --> 00:37:04,730 Satan was defeated at the cross. Satan cannot separate us from 618 00:37:04,730 --> 00:37:07,330 the love of God that is in Christ Jesus or Lord. 619 00:37:07,330 --> 00:37:10,210 He may accuse us because he is the accuser of the brethren. 620 00:37:10,330 --> 00:37:12,450 He may bring up the past through temptation. 621 00:37:13,020 --> 00:37:15,420 He may keep reminding us of who we once were. 622 00:37:15,580 --> 00:37:17,740 But I'll tell you this. Bring up the cross. 623 00:37:19,340 --> 00:37:22,100 Bring up and to mind the eternal and unwavering love of God. 624 00:37:22,260 --> 00:37:24,740 That Satan you are powerless to defeat, you are powerless 625 00:37:24,740 --> 00:37:29,940 against Christ is 1. Nothing no person can separate. 626 00:37:30,460 --> 00:37:34,020 Next, no problem can separate us from this love of God. 627 00:37:34,020 --> 00:37:36,540 There will be many problems in our lives. 628 00:37:38,340 --> 00:37:41,570 He asked the question. I love how we ask questions that 629 00:37:41,570 --> 00:37:45,170 are just so simple to answer. They didn't even need an answer. 630 00:37:46,730 --> 00:37:53,130 He says shall trouble, no trouble won't separate us from 631 00:37:53,130 --> 00:37:56,250 the love of God in Christ. How about hardship? 632 00:37:57,250 --> 00:38:01,250 Hard times? No about persecution. 633 00:38:02,910 --> 00:38:05,750 Oh, the Roman Church was about to face the most fierce 634 00:38:05,910 --> 00:38:08,630 persecution possibly this world has ever seen. 635 00:38:08,750 --> 00:38:12,710 They are about to become body lanterns at the emperor's 636 00:38:12,830 --> 00:38:15,510 parties. Is that going to separate us 637 00:38:15,510 --> 00:38:16,910 from the love of God that's in Christ? 638 00:38:17,110 --> 00:38:19,270 No. In fact, Jesus says in Matthew 639 00:38:19,270 --> 00:38:21,790 5, blessed are you when you were persecuted. 640 00:38:24,830 --> 00:38:27,190 How about famine when you came and eat? 641 00:38:28,150 --> 00:38:30,590 There's no food on the table, no food anywhere around. 642 00:38:30,830 --> 00:38:32,590 Will this separate us from God's love? 643 00:38:34,620 --> 00:38:39,020 No, He still loves us. How about nakedness? 644 00:38:39,420 --> 00:38:42,820 Not just clothing wise, but just simple doing without? 645 00:38:44,180 --> 00:38:46,740 No will not separate us from God's love. 646 00:38:48,580 --> 00:38:52,220 How about any danger we face? Dangers and it feels like it's 647 00:38:52,220 --> 00:38:56,100 just us going in there alone? Will that separate us? 648 00:38:56,100 --> 00:38:57,860 Has God abandoned us in dangerous times? 649 00:38:57,900 --> 00:39:00,700 No. How about sword? 650 00:39:01,120 --> 00:39:03,200 It's a figure of speech there. The word sword for murder. 651 00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:05,760 How about if we're murdered, is that going to separate us from 652 00:39:05,760 --> 00:39:06,880 the love of God that's in Christ? 653 00:39:07,080 --> 00:39:08,960 Nope. Not even murder. 654 00:39:10,080 --> 00:39:12,440 Not even the sword. How about death or life? 655 00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:15,200 When we die, is something? Is it going to, is it going to 656 00:39:15,200 --> 00:39:16,920 carry over? How about when we live? 657 00:39:16,920 --> 00:39:18,680 Is anything in this life going to throw at us, going to 658 00:39:18,680 --> 00:39:20,200 separate us from God's love? No. 659 00:39:20,920 --> 00:39:23,800 We don't know what really we we we can think about heaven, we 660 00:39:23,800 --> 00:39:26,240 can think about the afterlife. But there's so much unknown, and 661 00:39:26,240 --> 00:39:28,760 there's some way we don't know what can happen in the unknown. 662 00:39:29,600 --> 00:39:31,760 Not even the unknown will separate you from the love of 663 00:39:31,760 --> 00:39:35,520 God that's in Christ Jesus. Not even death. 664 00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:38,040 It says in verse 36 that for your sake, we face death all day 665 00:39:38,040 --> 00:39:39,920 long. We do it for you. 666 00:39:39,920 --> 00:39:46,360 We quote Psalm 44, verse 22. We we we give our lives for the 667 00:39:46,360 --> 00:39:49,880 lover of our soul. How about angels? 668 00:39:49,880 --> 00:39:52,440 How about demons? How about the supernatural? 669 00:39:52,440 --> 00:39:55,880 Can the supernatural forces separate us from the love of God 670 00:39:55,880 --> 00:39:58,120 in Christ Jesus? No. 671 00:39:59,910 --> 00:40:04,270 The present of the future. You want to take this one? 672 00:40:05,630 --> 00:40:08,310 No. Why? 673 00:40:08,310 --> 00:40:10,710 Because of the eternal love of God. 674 00:40:11,150 --> 00:40:15,270 If the love of God is there in eternity past, we see it in 675 00:40:15,270 --> 00:40:18,510 eternity future. Why would present or future 676 00:40:18,510 --> 00:40:19,910 separate us from the love of God? 677 00:40:20,590 --> 00:40:22,430 What if I send really bad next week? 678 00:40:23,350 --> 00:40:27,090 If you're in Christ, nothing. What about right now? 679 00:40:27,090 --> 00:40:30,170 I don't feel love. Doesn't matter what you feel. 680 00:40:30,170 --> 00:40:34,770 What does God say? How about any power? 681 00:40:35,530 --> 00:40:39,850 There's some powerful forces in the world, Psalm 89 verse six 682 00:40:39,850 --> 00:40:42,570 says, for who in the skies above can compare with the Lord? 683 00:40:43,570 --> 00:40:45,850 No power can separate you from the powerful love of God. 684 00:40:46,050 --> 00:40:48,570 Daniel 4 verse 35 says all the peoples of the earth are 685 00:40:48,570 --> 00:40:51,460 regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases. 686 00:40:51,460 --> 00:40:54,460 With the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth no one 687 00:40:54,460 --> 00:40:56,980 can hold back his hand or say to him, what have you done. 688 00:40:57,260 --> 00:41:01,540 No one can even stand against him our God who says, I love 689 00:41:01,540 --> 00:41:05,420 you. Second Chronicles 20 verse six 690 00:41:05,700 --> 00:41:08,220 says of God you rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. 691 00:41:08,500 --> 00:41:11,740 Power and might are in your hand and no one can withstand you. 692 00:41:13,180 --> 00:41:16,220 No one can stand against God. No one can stand in the way of 693 00:41:16,220 --> 00:41:21,920 God loving us. No person, no problem, no 694 00:41:21,920 --> 00:41:28,120 height, no depth. And he just says OK, in case you 695 00:41:28,120 --> 00:41:32,200 have anything else to throw out there in your argumentation, how 696 00:41:32,200 --> 00:41:34,680 about anything else in all creation? 697 00:41:34,760 --> 00:41:37,040 Can anything else separate us from the love of God that's in 698 00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:39,760 Christ? This includes economy, crashes, 699 00:41:41,120 --> 00:41:48,640 pandemics, nuclear wars. Includes anything else, Any 700 00:41:48,640 --> 00:41:50,830 evil. No way, he says. 701 00:41:50,990 --> 00:41:55,030 Nothing can separate us from the love of God that's in Christ 702 00:41:55,310 --> 00:41:57,630 Jesus. There's no change in it. 703 00:41:58,270 --> 00:42:00,550 No matter the circumstance, no matter the person, no matter the 704 00:42:00,550 --> 00:42:07,070 problem, God's love remains. Since His love was initially 705 00:42:07,070 --> 00:42:12,230 uninfluenced, it will eternally remain unchanged. 706 00:42:13,510 --> 00:42:20,350 It's there, this promise. It says in verse 39 for those of 707 00:42:20,350 --> 00:42:22,590 us who are in Christ Jesus our Lord. 708 00:42:24,750 --> 00:42:30,190 This is only for the believer. You can only be in Christ Jesus 709 00:42:30,190 --> 00:42:35,790 through faith in Jesus Christ. You can only have this hope by 710 00:42:35,790 --> 00:42:38,670 turning from your sin and your unbelief and trusting in the 711 00:42:38,670 --> 00:42:40,710 sacrifice of Christ to save you by faith. 712 00:42:40,950 --> 00:42:44,550 That is it. If you're an unbeliever, you 713 00:42:44,550 --> 00:42:48,230 have no hope and assurance of the love of God. 714 00:42:49,880 --> 00:42:52,600 You have only to face His wrath and justice. 715 00:42:52,680 --> 00:42:55,760 But can I tell you this? You can have hope. 716 00:42:56,000 --> 00:42:57,720 Today. You can be brought into the love 717 00:42:57,720 --> 00:43:00,880 of God through faith in Jesus Christ by turning to Him and 718 00:43:00,880 --> 00:43:03,360 calling on him for mercy and salvation. 719 00:43:03,360 --> 00:43:07,520 I promise he will save your soul and bring you into His eternal 720 00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:13,000 love. This is an assuring love. 721 00:43:14,720 --> 00:43:19,480 Thirdly, that propels us to VV. He says in verse 37 and all 722 00:43:19,480 --> 00:43:22,200 these things we are more than conquerors. 723 00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:24,640 Through Him who loved us more than conquerors literally means 724 00:43:24,680 --> 00:43:28,280 we are super conquerors. Through Him who loved us, we can 725 00:43:28,280 --> 00:43:32,080 conquer all this that comes, not us conquering it, but we can 726 00:43:32,080 --> 00:43:37,480 remain in the steadfast love of God because He loved us. 727 00:43:38,560 --> 00:43:41,560 It propels us to victory. Verse 28 We know that in all 728 00:43:41,560 --> 00:43:43,640 things God works for the good of those who love Him and were 729 00:43:43,640 --> 00:43:46,580 called according to His purpose. This is great assurance, isn't 730 00:43:46,580 --> 00:43:48,660 it? Because when we face the these 731 00:43:48,660 --> 00:43:51,740 things, the trouble, the hardship, the persecution, the 732 00:43:51,740 --> 00:43:54,180 famine, the nakedness, the danger, the sword, the death, 733 00:43:54,180 --> 00:43:56,420 the life, the present, the future, the powers, the height, 734 00:43:56,420 --> 00:44:00,100 or death, or anything else at all creation, we can stand firm 735 00:44:00,260 --> 00:44:04,060 that God is working all of these things for the good of those who 736 00:44:04,060 --> 00:44:06,140 love Him and who are called according to His purpose. 737 00:44:06,260 --> 00:44:09,460 Every trial, every hard time, every suffering, every 738 00:44:09,460 --> 00:44:16,460 persecution is for our good. It is winning for us, an eternal 739 00:44:16,460 --> 00:44:19,300 reward that will never perish, spoil or fade. 740 00:44:19,420 --> 00:44:22,740 Romans, age 17, says if we share in Christ's sufferings, we may 741 00:44:22,740 --> 00:44:28,940 also share in his glory. Oh, we have hard times and 742 00:44:28,940 --> 00:44:33,860 trying times and face all these things because God loves us. 743 00:44:34,540 --> 00:44:35,740 What if we looked at it like that? 744 00:44:37,340 --> 00:44:39,420 There's no ho hum attitude anymore, is there? 745 00:44:40,040 --> 00:44:44,800 We get to do this because God loves me and he's working it for 746 00:44:44,800 --> 00:44:51,720 my good to accomplish what verse 29 says, to conform us to 747 00:44:51,720 --> 00:44:54,120 Christ. A Christian never goes through a 748 00:44:54,120 --> 00:44:56,920 trial unchanged. They go out the other side 749 00:44:57,040 --> 00:45:00,400 victorious and they go out the other side change to be more 750 00:45:00,400 --> 00:45:03,760 like Christ, don't they? Their faith grows, their 751 00:45:03,760 --> 00:45:06,040 maturity grows. In fact, James chapter one, 752 00:45:06,040 --> 00:45:09,920 verse 2 says we should consider it pure joy when we face trials 753 00:45:09,920 --> 00:45:12,800 of many kinds. Because you know that the 754 00:45:12,800 --> 00:45:15,320 testing of your faith produces perseverance. 755 00:45:15,440 --> 00:45:18,080 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be complete and 756 00:45:18,080 --> 00:45:22,640 mature, not lacking anything. God loves us enough to put us 757 00:45:22,640 --> 00:45:25,560 through the fire, if you will, In order we can get out the 758 00:45:25,560 --> 00:45:30,360 other side, refined like Christ. Oh, this is love. 759 00:45:31,600 --> 00:45:36,920 This is love we need. And so when you face all of 760 00:45:36,920 --> 00:45:40,880 these things, have this assurance in Christ. 761 00:45:40,960 --> 00:45:44,880 Have this assurance in the great love of God that will not let 762 00:45:44,880 --> 00:45:50,120 you go. This is things we need to 763 00:45:50,240 --> 00:45:53,920 remember, isn't it? The God's love for maternity was 764 00:45:53,920 --> 00:45:57,120 full. It has never once wavered. 765 00:45:57,120 --> 00:45:59,120 It has never once waxed or waned. 766 00:45:59,120 --> 00:46:04,120 It has never changed. It has remained throughout our 767 00:46:04,120 --> 00:46:09,020 rebellion. It was shown fully at the cross. 768 00:46:10,820 --> 00:46:12,620 It was revealed to us when we recalled. 769 00:46:13,700 --> 00:46:20,220 And it will endure forever. Someone 36 says 26 times that 770 00:46:20,220 --> 00:46:25,700 his love endures forever. You think after the 35th time or 771 00:46:25,700 --> 00:46:28,860 25th time, we'd get the point. It just goes on. 772 00:46:29,660 --> 00:46:34,340 It goes on, it goes on. Then we're not convinced by 773 00:46:34,340 --> 00:46:39,610 that. Christ died for sinners. 774 00:46:40,090 --> 00:46:43,250 God demonstrated his love for us in this while we were yet 775 00:46:43,250 --> 00:46:47,930 sinners, Christ died for us. It's an amazing thing to just 776 00:46:47,930 --> 00:46:51,330 ponder. Very rarely will anyone give 777 00:46:51,330 --> 00:46:55,090 their life for a righteous man. I'm not even righteous. 778 00:46:55,650 --> 00:46:57,210 I'm unrighteous. I'm unholy. 779 00:46:57,250 --> 00:46:59,490 I'm sinful. I'm a rebel against this God. 780 00:46:59,690 --> 00:47:04,450 Yet he sent his Son to die for me, to save me from my sin. 781 00:47:08,290 --> 00:47:11,170 Paul is, and Paul was convinced of this truth. 782 00:47:12,210 --> 00:47:13,450 Are you? Are you? 783 00:47:13,450 --> 00:47:18,330 Can you stand with Paul and say I am convinced and nothing can 784 00:47:18,330 --> 00:47:20,210 separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus? 785 00:47:21,410 --> 00:47:23,130 Maybe you're convinced, Praise God. 786 00:47:23,730 --> 00:47:27,410 Maybe you're not yet convinced. Maybe you're a Christian. 787 00:47:27,690 --> 00:47:31,730 Stop arguing with God. God says nothing can separate, 788 00:47:34,220 --> 00:47:35,420 messing yourself up in your head. 789 00:47:36,420 --> 00:47:38,380 Trust him. Can you join with Paul? 790 00:47:38,380 --> 00:47:41,260 Can you join with David, who writes in Psalm 23 First word 791 00:47:41,260 --> 00:47:43,740 that even though I walked to the valley of the shadow of death, I 792 00:47:43,740 --> 00:47:45,420 will fear no evil, for you are with me. 793 00:47:46,660 --> 00:47:48,420 Can you say that? Or can you join with him? 794 00:47:48,420 --> 00:47:51,180 In Psalm 27, verse one? The Lord is the stronghold of my 795 00:47:51,180 --> 00:47:53,660 life. Of whom shall I be afraid? 796 00:47:53,660 --> 00:47:55,940 Why? Because the Lord loves me. 797 00:47:57,260 --> 00:47:59,420 I don't know why He loves me, but He does. 798 00:48:01,300 --> 00:48:05,340 Do you have that same confidence in the love of God to keep you 799 00:48:05,340 --> 00:48:07,580 forever, no matter what may come? 800 00:48:07,580 --> 00:48:12,940 Do you have this hope? Are you even in Christ? 801 00:48:14,460 --> 00:48:16,700 Do you know the love of God intimately? 802 00:48:16,780 --> 00:48:18,980 Do you know the saving love of Jesus Christ? 803 00:48:20,340 --> 00:48:23,220 You can know it today. Maybe You're a Christian and you 804 00:48:23,220 --> 00:48:28,660 have salvation and you do know Jesus and you are born again. 805 00:48:29,100 --> 00:48:31,340 But you don't understand this love of God like this, and 806 00:48:31,340 --> 00:48:35,510 you're trying to wrap your brain around all this, help you out. 807 00:48:36,350 --> 00:48:40,630 You will not enjoy the Christian life until you understand the 808 00:48:40,670 --> 00:48:44,470 always the adamant and the assuring love of God. 809 00:48:46,790 --> 00:48:50,350 In 1862, a young minister and theologian named George 810 00:48:50,350 --> 00:48:53,430 Matheson, he was engaged to be married. 811 00:48:54,590 --> 00:48:57,870 And if you've been engaged to be married, you know this is an 812 00:48:57,870 --> 00:49:02,810 exciting time, 20 years old, his whole life, him and his future 813 00:49:03,050 --> 00:49:08,850 future spouse, everything's looking up for them until during 814 00:49:08,850 --> 00:49:12,570 this engagement period, he goes blind, begins to go blind, and 815 00:49:12,570 --> 00:49:15,490 it worsens and it worsens and his worsens and his then fiancee 816 00:49:15,490 --> 00:49:18,170 decides. Through that time, I don't think 817 00:49:18,170 --> 00:49:21,530 I can be married to a blind man. And so she calls off the 818 00:49:21,530 --> 00:49:26,010 engagement. So George, I was over to go. 819 00:49:26,010 --> 00:49:29,650 And so he goes to live with his sister and his sister became his 820 00:49:29,650 --> 00:49:35,870 caretaker for for 20 years. She takes care of him and she 821 00:49:35,870 --> 00:49:38,150 watches over him and George faithfully preaches and 822 00:49:38,150 --> 00:49:45,070 ministers and does his duties until his sister falls in love, 823 00:49:45,790 --> 00:49:49,590 meets the man of her dreams. And you know how the story goes. 824 00:49:49,710 --> 00:49:53,830 They, they, they fall in love and they begin to be engaged and 825 00:49:53,830 --> 00:49:56,110 they they get engaged and they're planning the wedding. 826 00:49:56,110 --> 00:49:59,330 And you can imagine the thoughts going through poor George's head 827 00:49:59,330 --> 00:50:01,930 when his sister, his only really love that he's ever known, who's 828 00:50:01,930 --> 00:50:05,570 ever cared for him. He's getting married, getting 829 00:50:05,570 --> 00:50:07,410 ready to be married. And he's just thinking, man, I 830 00:50:07,410 --> 00:50:08,930 was getting ready to be married one time. 831 00:50:08,930 --> 00:50:11,490 In this blindness, he could have the biggest ho hum attitude you 832 00:50:11,490 --> 00:50:15,170 could ever think of as he hears about this going on and he's 833 00:50:15,170 --> 00:50:18,130 there and and he's taking part of the festivities and maybe the 834 00:50:18,130 --> 00:50:19,770 wedding planning. And if you've been around 835 00:50:19,770 --> 00:50:21,970 planning a wedding, you know that everybody that you know is 836 00:50:21,970 --> 00:50:26,500 involved. No doubt George is there on the 837 00:50:26,500 --> 00:50:28,500 night before his sister's wedding. 838 00:50:28,580 --> 00:50:32,740 All the family goes to prepare for the wedding day, and they go 839 00:50:32,740 --> 00:50:35,500 and do their duties and they leave George at home by himself. 840 00:50:37,660 --> 00:50:39,900 Oh, the thoughts that were raging through his mind at this 841 00:50:39,900 --> 00:50:41,340 point that everybody has left me. 842 00:50:41,540 --> 00:50:43,780 Everyone who hasn't left me yet is about to leave me. 843 00:50:44,300 --> 00:50:49,460 Finally, he's there in the house, all alone, and he sits 844 00:50:49,460 --> 00:50:55,100 down and he writes the hymn that serves as our title today. 845 00:50:55,100 --> 00:50:58,020 Oh, love that will not let me go. 846 00:51:00,500 --> 00:51:02,780 From the last verse of this hymn goes like this. 847 00:51:04,220 --> 00:51:09,580 O cross that liftest up my head. I dare not ask to fly from thee. 848 00:51:10,900 --> 00:51:12,700 Oh, his focus was on the cross, wasn't it? 849 00:51:13,820 --> 00:51:17,260 I lay in dust life's glory dead and from the ground their 850 00:51:17,260 --> 00:51:21,900 blossoms read. Life that shall endless be O 851 00:51:21,900 --> 00:51:27,300 love that will not let me go. George said it at him that it 852 00:51:27,300 --> 00:51:29,780 took him all of 5 minutes to write and it was the only him 853 00:51:29,780 --> 00:51:31,900 that he ever wrote that needed no editing. 854 00:51:32,980 --> 00:51:35,740 It is overflowed from his life. Why? 855 00:51:35,820 --> 00:51:40,500 Because he was content and stood firm in the love of God that 856 00:51:40,500 --> 00:51:42,940 would not let him go. Though everything else may let 857 00:51:42,940 --> 00:51:47,500 you go, though everything else may abandon you, God's love 858 00:51:47,620 --> 00:51:52,580 remains because of Christ. He will keep you. 859 00:51:53,260 --> 00:51:59,680 He will hold you in his love through all life's troubles. 860 00:51:59,800 --> 00:52:03,560 He has proven it time and time again, hasn't he? 861 00:52:05,440 --> 00:52:10,560 And so I ask you, will you trust the God who is love? 862 00:52:11,720 --> 00:52:19,520 Let's pray together when we humbly come before you with just 863 00:52:19,520 --> 00:52:22,920 amazement. That you would love a Sinner, 864 00:52:22,920 --> 00:52:29,610 condemned, unclean. That you would send your son to 865 00:52:29,610 --> 00:52:35,090 rescue us. That you would give his life as 866 00:52:35,090 --> 00:52:37,890 a ransom. That you would redeem us from 867 00:52:37,890 --> 00:52:39,090 our sin. You would wash ups. 868 00:52:39,090 --> 00:52:41,290 You would cleanse us. You would justify us, Lord, that 869 00:52:41,290 --> 00:52:43,690 you would sanctify us. You would one day glorify us 870 00:52:43,850 --> 00:52:47,290 because of the eternal love that you've had for your own. 871 00:52:49,750 --> 00:52:52,230 I pray today that we would be filled with this love and we 872 00:52:52,230 --> 00:52:55,590 would understand this love and we would stand firm. 873 00:52:57,230 --> 00:53:04,990 And you who says you are love, we thank you for loving us. 874 00:53:05,150 --> 00:53:09,310 We were so unlovable. We ask that you would continue 875 00:53:09,310 --> 00:53:12,310 to work in our hearts and change us into the image of Christ 876 00:53:12,390 --> 00:53:14,390 every day. And His name we pray. 877 00:53:15,350 --> 00:53:19,280 Amen. Thank you for listening to the 878 00:53:19,280 --> 00:53:22,000 Key Life Fellowship Pulpit Ministry Podcast. 879 00:53:22,600 --> 00:53:25,080 If you would like to talk with one of our pastors, please 880 00:53:25,160 --> 00:53:30,440 e-mail us at info@keylifefellowship.org or 881 00:53:30,440 --> 00:53:37,680 call us at 281-689-1604. You can also visit our website 882 00:53:37,680 --> 00:53:43,320 at W www.keylifefellowship.com. We hope and pray you have a 883 00:53:43,320 --> 00:53:46,320 blessed week and remember you are liked. 884 00:53:46,820 --> 00:53:47,620 In the darkness.