May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this evening as we meditate in his holy word. Let us turn to the epistle of
Paul to the Romans and the eighth chapter and we'll read the last
two verses. Verses 38 and verses 39 in the
eighth chapter of Paul's epistle to the Romans. For I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We should be very thankful that
the Word of God contains such wonderful truths, some wonderful
positive statements to encourage us as we travel through this
world. And we must realise that we have
a great adversary, the devil, who endeavours to separate us
from the truth of God, separate us from the Word of God and how
we need to continue to be on our watch to realise how keen
he is and active he is to bring these things before us. And yet
we have a wonderful truth in this chapter, the eighth chapter
of Romans that we've read together tonight. And in verse 35 we read,
who shall separate us from the love of Christ and the apostle
lists, shell tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or
famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. Well, he gives us that
list. And then he says, as it is written,
for thy sake, we are killed all the day long. We are counted
as sheep for the slaughter. But then he says, no, no, in
all these things, all these things which Satan uses to try and separate
us, in all these things, we, the true believers, are more
than conquerors through him that loved us. So the apostle is confident
of that which God has spoken, and in his case, done very clearly
in his life, and that's why he's able to come then and conclude
with this wonderful statement, for I am persuaded. Well, it's
a great blessing for you and me tonight if we are persuaded,
like the Apostle was. You see, there are many things
to tempt us and turn us away from the things of God, but what
a blessing when the Holy Spirit enters into our hearts, so that
we are, by that Spirit, persuaded. And what are we persuaded? A
whole list. As the Apostle says that neither
death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, and principalities
really means civil magistrates, nor civil magistrates, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
Any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love
of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. You may say, well,
why is that? Because God's love never changes. Once he loves, once he has loved,
he always loves. How humbling that is. to think
of that. So you look at your life and
look at my life and we see how often we fail in so many ways
and yet we have a very glorious and a very faithful God. All my friends, never underestimate
the wonderful favour and the wonderful blessing and privilege
this is. You know, when God's prophet
Jeremiah wrote his Lamentations, he speaks of this wonderful point
and wonderful favour and how good it is to realise, he tells
us, He says, it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed
because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. And so he's overly gone and say,
the Lord is my portion. Great is thy faithfulness. Oh, what a mercy. If that is
so, the Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore would I hope
in him. Well, tonight, are you and I
hoping in the Lord? Is our trust in the Lord? And are we persuaded of the great
truths of God's word as they speak to us, speak to our hearts,
and we're confirmed that the Lord is our God, He is our Master,
He is our Lord and He is our Saviour. Oh what a blessing then
if the Holy Spirit enters into our hearts and we have the evidence
therefore that we are amongst those who are born again of the
Spirit of God. You see all those who are born
again have passed, as we spoke this morning from darkness to
light and are partakers of that great favour of God's love towards
them and it is again as Jeremiah says an everlasting love an everlasting
love and God's love is the same our love fluctuates, doesn't
it? sometimes it's lively and sometimes
hot sometimes almost dead and cold. But Jesus is the same. His love does not vary. If he's
loved us once, he's always loved. And to think that he loved us
back in eternity, before creation. It's very hard isn't it for our
minds to recognize and contemplate such an amazing favor in the
eternity past the Lord set his love upon individuals and to
think of the great mercy and the wonderful love of God
to such an unworthy sinner. Well, do you sometimes ponder
these things? It's good if we do. And if we
think along the lines of the hymn writer who said, what was
there in me to marry esteem or give my creator delight? Well, if we're honest, naturally
there's nothing. But it's because Almighty God
has set his love upon us. And because he set his love upon
us, he will never remove it because the Lord does not change his
mind. If he did, my friends, you and
I wouldn't have any hope. But we have a God who describes
himself as immutable. doesn't change. What a mercy
that is and what a blessing it is. And in the epistle to Paul
to the Hebrews, we're told about this immutability. And this is
what the apostle says, that by two immutable things in which
it was impossible for God to lie, that we might have a strong
consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope
set before us. And you might ask, what are the
two immutable things? The two immutable things are
really the counsel of God and His oath. And those things were
ordained before time in that counsel with the Father, Son
and Holy Spirit. That was agreed upon and it will
not and cannot be changed, because if it was possible to be changed,
then God wouldn't be what he said he is. So tonight, may we
rest indeed with the humble assurance that the Lord God omnipotent
reigns, and as he said, I am the Lord, I change not, and therefore
ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. However, the great and important
question for each of us tonight is to know whether, whether we
do know this love of God. And it's not something that you
and I can just dream about and dream up or merit or work for
and find ourselves worthy of it. No, it's that which God shows
to us and gives to us and places upon us his wonderful, wonderful
love. Love is a very glorious thing
and especially when we think that here we have the creator
of the universe who tells us that he's loved us with an everlasting
love. And because of that great truth,
which cannot change, We can understand perhaps a little why the Apostle
comes to this great conclusion at the end of this chapter and
says, for I am persuaded. And he tells us that after having
spoken and said we are more than conquerors through him that loved
us. We're not conquerors because
of our own ability. We're not conquerors because
we've been able to resist the devil. We're not conquerors because
we walked in a right way. We're conquerors through Him. Now you see, because we're conquerors
through Him, then surely we can be really thankful that we have
such a great and glorious Saviour who has condescended to come
into this sinful world to redeem our souls. Now the Apostle was
very familiar with God's grace. He tells us, by grace we are
saved. And that not of ourselves, it
is the gift of God. And because of that, he's able
to come and then say, for I am persuaded. My friends, sometimes,
We turn away from a clause like this, being persuaded. What a blessing it is, we don't
persuade ourselves, but it's when God persuades us. And God persuades us when he
shows forth to us what he's done for us and how he's loved us. He loved us so much because He
was willing to go to Calvary to pay the price for our sin
so that we might be clean and that by His grace then one day
be with Him forever and ever. Ponder that, to think that God
so loved us that He died for us so that we might be with Him
throughout eternity. An utterly unworthy, hell-deserving
sinner. We have to say, saved by grace. Saved by grace. And to be then
persuaded. Like the Apostle, we want to
be persuaded. We want to have the wonderful
evidence in our own hearts. that what the Apostle has said
for himself, we by his grace, the grace of God, are also able
to say and confirm that we are persuaded. We don't want to wander
on in this world unconcerned and not persuaded. Many people
today are just content to ramble on in their religion and just
hope, hope that somehow at the end things will work out. Well,
the Apostle tells us, I know whom I have believed. And he
tells us that because he knew it by the grace of God. He had the evidence of it in
his own heart that the glorious Savior had revealed himself to
the Apostle as his Savior. He had no hope in himself. He
was dead in trespasses. and in sins. But the appointed
time rolled on apace, not to propose, but call by grace. The hymn writer has it right
when he penned those lines. It isn't just a proposition. You see, when the Lord calls
us, we hear his voice. What does it do? It produces
a change. our life so my friends this evening
let's just pause for a moment let's just look into our spiritual
life and just search there to see whether we have a time when
God because of his great and infinite love toward us called
us he called us we may have been in Very strange places. We may have been in far off places,
naturally and spiritually. We may have been in very wrong
places. We may have been in very evil places. But nonetheless,
my friends, how necessary it is to be able to trace out in
our spiritual life the wonderful evidence of God's call. call and that call produces life. It means that our ears, which
had been stopped up and did not hear the glorious gospel, by
the grace of God, our ears were unstopped and the truth of God
entered in, entered in. We were a new creature. We were
a changed person. Well, I wonder whether you Understand
what I'm saying, because it is true. Old things are passed away. All things become new. It's a
different world. We see things differently. We
view things differently. We pray differently. Yes, there's
a wonderful change, a wonderful blessing. You see, because the
Lord graciously does these things, That's why we're able to understand
what the Apostle says, for I am persuaded. God gloriously persuades
us. We don't persuade ourselves.
God comes and persuades us. God speaks to our heart. He brings
us into contact with truths in God's Word. perhaps in his written
words for the preaching of the Gospel and we find there are
those things which are suddenly an encouragement to us and we
suddenly understand and we suddenly realise I do know what the man's
speaking about I do know what the Bible's explaining to me
we're able to confirm whereas I was blind now I see And it's through the wonderful
and glorious grace of God. Oh, what a mercy, my friends
this evening, if you and I come into that category. We do need
to, we do need to. You see these, the eighth chapter
of the Romans is pretty well known and probably most of us
have read it a few times and are familiar with at least some
of the phrases. But what we all need is the blessing
and wonderful application of God's word to our heart. You see, you and I can learn
the whole Word of God in our head and never do us any real
spiritual good. But when the Holy Spirit applies
His Word to our hearts, then you see, there is that new nature,
there is that change. And it's then that we can understand
what the Apostle directs us to here. For I am persuaded Persuaded,
well, again, let's ask ourselves the question, by the grace of
God, are we tonight persuaded of these truths that the apostles
are able to lay down? And he goes on with this list,
and he says, I'm persuaded that neither, none of these things,
none of these things will be able to separate us from the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Nothing can
separate us. It's wonderful, remember, the
devil's aim is to separate, but he will never be able to separate
his people from Almighty God, from his love. Once in him, in
him forever. Because there is that covenant
Or did all things ensure which can never fail? What a mercy
it is. A covenant is a sworn conditional
promise. And that condition indeed was
fulfilled by the great and glorious Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ,
when He did His Father's will at a tremendous cost in order
to redeem our souls. You and I have heard about Calvary. We've heard about the cross.
We've heard about the crucifixion. My friends, have we had the evidence
that it was done for us? That we can say. Christ died
to redeem my soul. Christ died that by his grace,
one day I am worthy sinner. should be with him in glory. Oh, my friends, the hymn writer
has it right when he says, on such love my soul still ponder. Love so great, so rich, so free,
so whilst lost in holy wonder, why, oh God, such love to me? And then he concludes by saying,
hallelujah, grace shall reign eternally. It's a wonderful truth
in that hymn 766. You can read it at your leisure. And to realise what a wonderful
blessing it is to be a partaker of that love and therefore to
be persuaded in our souls, to realise that we are not relying
on what we've done, but we're relying upon what Christ has
done. He's fulfilled the law and made
it honourable. And therefore, says the Apostle,
standing on that rock, the blessed Saviour tells us, I am persuaded,
he is, that neither death nor life, neither of those things,
we'll be able to separate him from the love of God. Because
while he lives, he will be a partaker of that love. And when he dies,
he will go to be with Christ eternally and be found in safe
in the arms of Jesus. Oh, the apostle gives this list
for our encouragement and the strengthening of our faith because
it is a very embracing and comprehensive final two verses to this chapter. Persuaded that neither death
nor life, and then he says, nor angels. We mustn't be confused
here, of course. This is evil angels, wicked angels, the devil's
angels, and not, of course, God's angels. And what a mercy it is
to think that although they are active all around us, trying
to cause us to turn away from God, They won't be able to separate
us because these things are ordered in all things. And sure, the word of God is certain. The
word of God cannot be changed. God's promises cannot be altered. So we should be able tonight
to rejoice in these great things. As you and I wander on, through
life and all the many, many temptations. And perhaps we find ourselves
sometimes crying out, can ever God dwell here in such a heart
as mine? Well, it's good when we're tempted
like that to be able to recognize this great and wonderful truth
that nothing shall separate us. from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. And he said not angels nor principalities
and as I've said civil magistrates and we find ourselves in a day
and age in which people are being arrested for speaking the truth
people are being arrested arrested even for praying in their minds
but you see the great truth is that as the apostasy persuaded
that even that totally unjust, an unfair situation, will not
separate from the love of Christ. And surely these considerations
should be a strength and a comfort to us in the day and age in which
we live. Life doesn't get any easier.
We're not promised it will, but we are promised that Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday and today and forever. And we do know that
the promises of God are true and certain, they are yea and
amen, and they cannot and will not be changed. And so here we
have this statement, nor principalities, nor powers, whatever powers may
be erected in an endeavor to make us recant indeed like it
was in the days of the Reformation with Many godly men and women
lost their lives because of their unwillingness to recant, to deny
the name of the Saviour. He didn't count their life dear. That's a great test, isn't it?
If you and I were faced with death tomorrow, unless we denied
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not an easy thing. to stand,
but you see, the Lord says, nor powers whatever powers that may
be given to mankind, it cannot separate us from the love of
God. It is, as I spoke this morning,
it is immutable. It cannot be changed. What a
wonderful blessing that is to know that it is so true. We commented this morning, it's
worth saying again, that by two immutable things, in which it
was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation,
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us. A refuge for sinners, the gospel
makes known, is found in the merits of Jesus alone. Well, what a mercy if you and
I have found the Saviour to be a refuge in our time of need,
when the devil has risen up and tried to separate us, and tried
perhaps to get us to deny what God is doing and brings into
situations and says, well, if you were a Christian, of course,
you wouldn't walk this path. You wouldn't have a scene like
this. You wouldn't have a difficulty like this. Well, we can tell
the devil that the Lord Jesus Christ himself said, it is through
much tribulation that we shall inherit the kingdom. But he says,
be of good joy. I have overcome the world. And surely that fits in so well
with this previous verse. We are more than conquerors through
him that loved us. So my friends, let us not have
any confidence in ourselves. Let us have confidence in our
great and glorious and victorious Savior. Let's not forget that. He was the victor. Yes, he wasn't
conquered. No, the devil did all he could.
And no doubt he thought when Christ died, when he gave up
the ghost, when he said it was finished, that he'd gained the
victory. He didn't realize it was all
part of the glorious plan of Almighty God that on the third
day he should rise again. Yes, what a blessing it is for
us. Death could not hold him. Night
could not hold him. And he rose again, that wonderful
conqueror. And now he's in glory to intercede
for us. And one day, by his grace, he
will come and receive us unto himself. That where he is there,
we shall be also eternally. I hope it's a wonderful and encouraging
prospect to each one of us. I hope it's not a morbid one. I hope it's not one that we think,
well, I don't want to think about my death, I don't want to consider
that. In actual fact, of course, the day of one's death to a believer
is, of course, the most glorious day in their life, because they
are freed eternally from sin and from all the temptations
of the evil one. Well then, says Paul, for I am
persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, whatever that may be, that presents
itself. And as I've hinted, there's many
today of evil things, things present, nor things to come. There may be worse things to
come that we may have to witness and we may have to stand firm
for. Don't ever think that your life and my life is going to
be an easy life on this earth. We're not promised it. We are
promised a good end. We are promised eternal life,
but we're not promised a comfortable life on this earth. And if we
have a comfortable life on this earth, we ought to examine ourselves
to see whether we are a true believer or not, because the
devil leaves alone those who are not his. He doesn't tempt
them. He doesn't try them. They have
a nice smooth path. So it's a good test to look into
our hearts to see if we are amongst those who are facing difficulties
and oppositions because of our faith in the Saviour. So he says,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature. It seems as though he's trying
to encompass as much as he can to persuade us that by the grace
of God, none of these things, however great they are, will
be able to separate him, and he says, shall be able to separate
us from the love of God. which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord. Well, tonight, what a wonderful
blessing it is if we know something of this love of God, love of
Christ to us and to realize the cost of our salvation. We need
to go back to just examine what that really means, the cost of
our salvation. You know, we can read about it,
can't we? I wonder if it's really touched
our hearts. We really understand what was
involved. Well, the Apostle John in his
first epistle speaks about it for our encouragement. He tells
us, hereby, hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid
down his life for us. Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ gave
his life. for unworthy sinners. Let us
never think you and I are worthy. We're utterly unworthy. And yet
this gracious, glorious God, nonetheless, he laid down his
life for us. The apostle goes on to say, and
we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. That's a tremendous
consideration, isn't it? It's a great cost, isn't it?
to give up our life. Well, that's what the apostle
says. But whoso hath this world's goods and saith his brother have
need, and shutteth up his bowels in compassion from him, how dwelleth
the love of God in him. We do want to demonstrate that
we do possess the love of God. And the Lord Jesus Christ did
indeed die upon Calvary's cross And that cost for our salvation
was his life. Well, what's Christianity cost
us today? Perhaps we say, well, nothing
really. I was carried on and been pleased to do what I want
to do. Well, true Christians find that
true Christianity is not easy. No, it's a path which is dogged
with difficult situations and opposition and temptations. You see, the devil's aim is to
make us sin. The devil's aim is to make us
to give up religion. And sometimes the devil brings
that about by saying, well, there you are, you prayed and God hasn't
answered that prayer. You see, there's no God really.
And in any event, if there is, He's not hearing and answering
your prayers. So you may as well give up and stop praying. You
see, that's what the devil tries to do. And he worries us. And he nags at us that we don't
possess the faith of God. We don't possess the life of
God. And there we are, wandering aimlessly
through life and at last we'll perish in our sins or perhaps
He convinces us that He's convinced so many. There is no hell. No, we should just be annihilated
and just disappear. Well, that's one of the devil's
greatest ploys. But my friends, the Word of God
is very clear and we have so many evidences that the Word
of God is true. And there is life after death
without any reason to doubt it. And you may say, well, how do
you know that? Well, I know it because of this.
And there aren't very many occasions, but there are occasions when
people who have passed out of time testify very clearly that
their eyes are set upon the country they are going to. It's as though
the Lord grants them a vision of heavenly things. And they're
looking forward, and they're looking upward. And that's a
wonderful blessing and a wonderful mercy. And it's a confirmation
to believers that what they have believed in has come to pass. And it is true, and I've seen
it myself on occasions. I say fairly rare, but it's good
to actually witness what we might turn the glorious entry into
heaven by the saints. The Lord takes them and he gives
them a view. We have the pictures of it in
the Word of God. In particular, we have God's
servant Stephen, who when he was being stoned and he prayed
for those that accused him and stoned him. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. And
then he said, I see Jesus, the Son of Man, standing at the right
hand of God to receive me. What a wonderful blessing that
was. And there we have, therefore, a clear view and a clear truth
that these things are to be looked forward to. We don't just disappear. We're not just annihilated. It's
one of the great ploys the devil uses in the day and age in which
we live. And it's good, therefore, to
have words like we have here, the scene before us, so positive,
as the Apostle says, for I am persuaded. Yeah, it's good, isn't
it? If you and I are truly persuaded. And the last bit is, none of
these things shall be able to separate us from the love of
God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. There is, of course,
the love of the Father. God so loved the world, he sent
his only begotten Son into the world, that whosoever believeth
on him should not perish, but have eternal life. We see there
the wonderful love of the Father. We see the wonderful love of
the Son in willingly obeying his Father, willingly doing his
Father's will, looking steadfastly to Jerusalem, not backing away. but willing to serve his Father. And we see the glorious work
of the Holy Spirit in so many souls recorded in the Word of
God. And we see, therefore, the united
love of the Trinity to unworthy sinners. And here we can tonight
truly rejoice then in what God has done. And when we can read
in the Thessalonians these wonderful words, and the Lord direct your
hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting
for Christ. Direct your hearts into the love
of God. My friends, if tonight you should
say, well, I don't know if I know anything in the love of God.
Well, my friends, pray for it. That God will direct your hearts
into that love because it's the greatest blessing. And every
true believer is favoured to know something of God's great
love to them as such unworthy sinners. And we are unworthy
sinners. And it's wonderful when the Lord
brings us to that position, to confess the position. And we
come back then and we can read as to that very first verse in
this chapter how wonderful it is. There is therefore now no
condemnation to who? to them which are in Christ Jesus,
born again in the Spirit, converted, and made sons and daughters of
the Most High God. Now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit. Well, it will be a great blessing
therefore as we read together in this chapter tonight to be
spiritually minded. By nature, we are carnally minded. That means we go after the things
of the flesh. We go after the things of this
world. They occupy our lives. They occupy
our thoughts. When we're sitting in chapel,
we're carnally minded, left to ourselves. What a blessing though
to be spiritually minded. It's spiritually minded because
spiritually minded is life and peace. And that's the peace of
God which passes all understanding because we have then the evidence
that our souls are right with God. My friends, we don't want
to come down to the end of our life and find that we're an enemy
with God, that we walk contrary to Him all our life. We've ignored
his word, and we're an enemy. Oh, friends, be of concern that
you and I, might and truly be found a friend of God, and a
follower of our great and glorious Saviour, and one who knows something,
may not be very much, but something of the love of Christ, which
passes knowledge, It's outside of this world because it's love
to such unworthy people. People don't deserve it. If you
think you deserve the love of Christ, you're wrong. None of
us deserve it. as the Apostle says, by grace
we are saved. The unmerited favor of God, through
faith, God-given faith, and that not of ourselves, it is the gift
of God. Well, we can praise God for it. Well, tonight, my friends,
I hope you enjoyed reading this eighth chapter tonight in Romans,
and as it concluded, to realize the wonderful truth, and I'll
just read the last few verses to conclude, who shall Separate
us from the love of Christ, the question. And then the points
show tribulation or distress, distress or persecution or famine
or nakedness or perilous sword, as it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter. Nay, in all these things, all
these things, we are more than conquerors through him. That's
the secret. that loved us, for I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.