I have a message that is both
critical to me and wonderful to me. Very critical to me and
very wonderful for me, to me. From Romans chapter eight, if
you want to turn there, Romans chapter eight, a man told the story one time. of a soldier who had been wounded
on the battlefield. And this young soldier had been
taken to a field hospital and he was dying. And a chaplain came up to this
young man's bed and the chaplain asked him, he was going man to
man, and the chaplain asked him, he said, and what persuasion
are you of? Meaning, what would you like
for me to say to you right now? He said, in what persuasion are
you of? That dying young soldier looked
at him and he said, 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 me from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus my Lord." Now that's a wonderful persuasion,
isn't it? If we'd have to be persuaded
of something, what a wonderful persuasion. That's what verses
38 and 39 say here in Romans chapter 8. 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." That
is a wonderful thing to be persuaded of. Oh, may God persuade us of
that. Persuade us that nothing can
separate us from the love of God. Nothing. I'd like for us
to look at that for just a moment. The love of God. People talk
about the love of God all the time. All the time. Many people will quote 1 John
4 verse 7, which says, love is of God. And it is. Love is of God. And people will
quote 1 John 4 verse 8, which says, God is love. God is love. From that, people
assume that God's love is everywhere because God is everywhere. God
is love and people assume that God's love is everywhere. I can
see how they would assume that. I can see how they would make
that assumption and naturally think that. If God is everywhere,
and He is, where is God? He's everywhere. He's omnipresent. If God is everywhere and if God
is love, then naturally I could see how people would assume that
God's love is everywhere. But do you know that it's not? It's not. Look with me if you
would at John chapter 5. Over in John 5 verse 42 it says, But I know
you that you have not the love of God in you. This is our Lord
speaking. Our Lord is saying this. And
do you know who he's speaking to right here? He's speaking
to Pharisees. He's speaking to religious leader.
He's talking to the religious people. And he said, I know you
that you have not the love of God in you. That's an eye-opening
verse, isn't it? For someone who's never seen
that, that's an eye-opening verse. You ask people, ask them the
question, where is God's love? You ask somebody that, where
is God's love? And they answer and they say,
well, it's everywhere. It's everywhere. It's in me.
That'll be an answer people give. Well, it's in me. It's in you. It's in everyone. It's in everything. Unfortunately, that's not so.
That's not so. The Lord himself said, I know
you that you have not the love of God in you. So that's a question that many
people often oftentimes answer wrongly. You ask them that question
and oftentimes they answer wrongly. Another question that people
quite often answer wrongly is who does God love? Who does God
love? You ask people that, who does
God love? This is an often answer you'll hear. God loves everybody. God loves everybody. God doesn't
hate anybody. Look with me if you would at
Malachi chapter one. That's the last book in the Old
Testament. Malachi chapter one, verse one says, The burden of
the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. The burden of the
word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith
the Lord. Yet you say, wherein hast thou
loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother,
saith the Lord? Yet I loved Jacob. and I hated
Esau." That's a shocking verse. If a person has never seen that
verse, that is a shocking verse of Scripture. Many people will
say, well, that doesn't mean he hated Esau. I know it says
that, but that doesn't mean he hated Esau. That means he hated
Esau's sin. That's what it means. It just
means he hated his sin. He didn't hate the person. He
hated the person's sin. Let's go over to Psalm 5. Psalm chapter 5. This is David speaking to God
and he said in Psalm 5 verse 5, the foolish shall not stand
in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Not just works. Does he hate
the works? Sure he does. But this says workers. That's people. That's people. David said you hate the people. That is strong language. That
is strong, strong language. Shocking language. Difficult
to hear language, isn't it? You may say, why are you telling
me this, Gabe? Why have you come on right now
to tell me this? Why would you want to bring me
such negative, depressing news? Here's the reason why. It's because
you and I both are workers of iniquity. That's the reason why. You and I both are workers of
iniquity, and we need to hear this. It is desperate that we
hear this. Look with me at Psalm 14. In Psalm 14, verse 2, it says,
the Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see
if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone
aside. They are all together become
filthy. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. People say, you'll
hear this often. People say, well, now the Lord
looked down through time to see who would believe on him and
who would seek him and who would trust his word and do good. And
the Lord did look down through time. He did. He looked down through all time
on all men. And here's the problem for all
men. None did. None did. Verse two says, the Lord looked
down from heaven upon the children of men, all men, all nations,
tribes, kindreds, tongues, generations, all men, to see if there were
any that did understand and seek God. They are all Gone aside,
they are all together become filthy. There's none that doeth
good. No, not one. No, not one. David said, and David was a man
after God's own heart. David said, I was shapen in iniquity. Iniquity is sin. That's what
iniquity is, sin. He said, it's what made me. It's
what I am. It's what I am. It's what I do.
Absolutely. But only because it's what I
am. It's what I am. Job 15 verse 16 says, All men
drink iniquity like water. And we do. We do. Here's the absolute truth that
we need to face. Love is of God. And God is love. That's true. But God hates sin. And sin is all that we are. That's the truth. It's all that
we are. Naturally, people do not believe
that they are sin. Ask people, do you believe you
are head to toe, crown of the head to sole of your foot, sin? Do you believe you're eaten up
with sin? People naturally do not believe
that. But they are, we are. People do not want to believe
that. But whether a person wants to
believe that or not, it doesn't change the fact that we are.
We are. And either, this is what's gonna
happen, either God is going to reveal that to us right now,
and He's gonna cause us to bow down and start begging Him for
mercy. Mercy on a sinner like me. Or
He is going to reveal that to us at the day of judgment, when
it's too late. Too late. Like when Noah, when
God shut the door on Noah's ark for seven days, that door was
wide open. Whoever wanted to could walk
right into that ark. But on the day that God shut
the door, it was too late. Oh, may God reveal to us our
need to be in that ark right now. That ark is Christ. That
ark is the Lord Jesus Christ. Either way, now or then, God
is going to reveal to us our sin against him. Many, many people
have no idea of the sin that they are and they commit against
him, but every soul will have that revealed to him. Every knee
will bow. Every tongue will confess. Now,
the great question in all of this is, how can a sinner, be
vitally joined to God's love in such a way that nothing can
separate him from it. That's the question, isn't it?
That's the question. The Apostle Paul is the man who
said in Romans 8, that's what we just read, I am persuaded
that nothing can separate me from the love of God. Nothing.
He was persuaded of that. That very same man said, Though
in Romans 7, in Romans 8, he said, I'm persuaded
nothing can separate me from the love of God. But in Romans
7, if you want to turn with me there to Romans chapter 7, this is the very same man. Romans 7 verse 14. The apostle Paul said, for we
know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. He said, I am sold under sin. I am sold to sin. The very same man said that.
Sold out to sin. He said, that's me, I'm sold
out to sin. Verse 15, he said, for that which I do, I allow
not. I don't know why I do it. Have you ever said that? I don't
know why I do the things I do. Have you ever said that? I just, I'm so put out with me. A man named John Newton, he wrote
a poem, wrote a song. And this is what he said in that
song. He said, "'Tis a point I long to know, oft it causes
anxious thought." Do you ever have anxious thought concerning
God and judgment and eternity? He said, "'Tis a point I long
to know, oft it causes anxious thought. Do I love the Lord or
no? Am I His or am I not? If I love, why am I thus? Why this dull and lifeless frame? Hardly sure can they be worse
who have never heard His name. Could my heart so hard remain? Prayer a task and burden prove. So hard to pray. Every trifle
give me pain. If I knew a Savior's love, everything,
just tear me all to pieces. Do I really trust Him? When I
turn my eyes within, all is dark and vain and wild, filled with
unbelief and sin. Can I deem myself a child? If
I pray or hear or read, sin is mixed with all I do. You who
love the Lord indeed, tell me, is it thus with you? That's what
Paul is saying. I don't know why I do these things.
I claim to be his child. I claim to be a believer on him. I claim to love him. Why do I keep sinning against
him? Verse 15, he said, that which I do, I allow not, I know
not. What I would, that do I not. What I wish I did, I don't do
it. But what I hate, that I do. Things that I just, It just grieves
me that I do them. I can't stop doing them. I just
cannot stop doing them. Verse 18, Paul said, I know that
in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. I know that. Not one good thing. I can't find
one good thing. For to will is present with me,
I wish I could. But how to perform that which
is good, I find not. I can't find a way to do it. For the good that I would, I
do not, but the evil which I would not, that's what I do. The will
is there, I wish I could. John Newton in his song went
on to say, yet I mourn my stubborn will. Find my sin a grief and
thrall, I hate it. Should I grieve at what I feel
if I did not love at all? Could I joy his saints to meet,
choose the ways I once abhorred, find at times the promise sweet,
if I did not love the Lord? He says, Lord, decide this doubtful
case. I can't do anything with it.
This is in your hands. Lord, decide this doubtful case.
Thou who art the people's son, sense upon thy work of grace,
if indeed it be begun. Let me love thee more and more.
If I love it all, I pray. If I have not loved before, help
me to begin today. Help me. The Apostle Paul said
down in verse 24, Romans 7, 24, this is all I can say about myself.
Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me? Help me. Who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? Paul told Timothy,
this very man, he said, I'm the chief sinner. That's what he
said. He said, there's no greater sinner
on earth than me. None greater. The worst one. Now, when God, who is holy and
righteous and just, when He has said in Exodus 34, verse 7, that
He will by no means clear the guilty, when He has clearly said
that He hates sin and He must punish it, here's the question. How can a wretched, miserable
sinner like me and a wretched, miserable sinner like you, how
can a sinner say that he is persuaded that nothing will ever be able
to separate him from the love of God? How can a sinner say
that? The answer to that is in those
two questions we just asked a moment ago. Number one, where is God's
love? Where is God's love? And number
two, who does God love? Where is God's love and who does
God love? Look at Romans 8 verse 38. It
says, 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." Where is God's love? Where is God's
love? It's in Christ Jesus our Lord. It's in Christ Jesus our Lord. That is wonderful news. That
is a specific place. This right here is critical information. This is critical information.
God's love is not everywhere. It's not in me. It's not in you. It's in Christ Jesus, our Lord. It's in him, that's where God's
love is, all of God's love. All of his love is in Christ
Jesus, our Lord. If I am going to be vitally joined
to God's love, that's where I need to be because that's where it
is. Second question, who does God
love? Who does God love? I'll tell
you who it is. God loves the only man, the one
and only man who never committed iniquity. That's who he loves. The one man who never, not one
time, committed sin, not one time. Jesus Christ, his son,
he said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. He never committed one sin against
me, not one iniquity. He said, behold, my servant,
look at him. Look at him. My elect, I choose
him. You want to see perfection? Look
at him. He said, I put my spirit upon Him because He is the blessed
man. Read Psalm 1, that's talking
about Christ. He is the blessed man. He's the
only man who never walked in the counsel of the ungodly and
never stood in the way of sinners and never sat in the seat of
the scornful. He is the only man who ever walked
this earth with clean hands and a pure heart, who never lifted
up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. The Father
said, my love and my affection is on Him. It's on Him. He's my beloved. Now, that ought
to tell us something. If all of God's love is to and
in the person of Jesus Christ, His Son, then what is the only
hope? of a miserable, wretched sinner
being vitally joined to God's love. What is the only hope?
Here it is. He must be vitally joined to
God's Son. He must be. The only way a sinner
can be united to God's love is by being united to God's Son. Because God so loved the world,
He gave His only begotten Son. He sent His love when He sent
His Son. Romans 5 verse 8 says, God commended
His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. That's how He commended His love
toward us, in, by, through, the giving, the sacrifice, the death
of His precious Son. He gave His Son for us. That was His love. That was His
love. That's how He commended His love
toward us. He commended His Son toward us. Ephesians 2 says, God, who's
rich in mercy for His great love, wherewith He loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, He quickened us together with Christ. By grace
you are saved. He quickened us together with
His love when He quickened us together with Christ. That's
what it is to be joined, vitally joined to the love of God. It's to be vitally joined to
the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 8 right
here tells us exactly how He did it. If you look at verse
29, it says, Whom He did foreknow, That means elect, choose. That's what it means. God chose
who he wanted to give his love to. God chose who he wanted to
give his love to. Some people say that's not fair.
God can't choose who he gives his love to. Well, why not? Don't we choose who we give our
love to? Don't we marry who we want to
marry and don't we befriend who we want to befriend? How much
more of a right does God the Creator have than us the creation? God selected who He would extend
His love to. And the most beautiful part about
it is who He selected to extend His love to. Verse 29, it says,
Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate. He ordered. He purposed. For them to be conformed
to the image of His Son. He chose to make sinners just
like His Son. That He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Verse 30 says, Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called. That means quickened. He gave life to them. Gave them the ability to come
to Him. Verse 30 says, Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them
He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified. He made
it so that they were perfect, without sin before Him. Made
it so that they had done no wrong in His eyes. That's what it means
to be justified before God. When God looks at us, He sees
no wrong. None whatsoever. Made it so that
we were justified in everything we'd done. How can a miserable,
wretched sinner be justified before God? Well, he goes on
to tell us, verse 30, moreover, whom he did predestinate, them
he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom
he justified, them he also glorified. He prepared a place for them
in the heavens. He honored them, he rewarded them with an inheritance,
a spotless, eternal inheritance of life. Verse 31 says, what
shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? That's what gave Paul that confidence
to be able to say, I'm persuaded of this. If God is for us, if
God chose of his own will to be for us in the person of his
son, who can be against us? I'm persuaded. I'm persuaded. Now this is what it took for
God the Father to quicken his people together with his son
in his love. Verse 32 says, he that spared
not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, who are the
us all? All he did for now, every soul
he chose. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justified. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. This
was the only way that God's sinful people could be united with God
and His love. God the Father had to take that
sin from His sinful people, everything He hated in them. He had to take that sin that
He could not clear and He had to punish because He's holy and
He's just. God the Father took all of that
dreadful sin and He laid it on His precious Son. laid every
bit of it on His perfect, only begotten, only loved Son. He took everything He hated and
laid it on the one He loved. And with our sin on Christ, God
the Father saw Him covered in all that sin. And in judgment
and in punishment and in all of the consuming fire of His
wrath, He spared not His own Son, the only one He loved. You think about that. The only
one he loved. He spared not his own son. He
killed him. He delivered him up as the sacrifice
payment to put all of that sin away for us. And the moment he
did that, it was gone. It was done. The judgment was
over. And the moment it was over, the
moment that iniquity was removed and destroyed, at that very moment,
God's people were acknowledged by God Himself. They were made
to be, by God Himself, clean. Completely clean. Verse 34 says,
Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. In what Christ did for His
people, because they had been vitally joined together with
Him, through that union, All of God's people were made to
be holy and without blame before Him in love. That's what Ephesians
1 verse 4 says. Christ paid the price in full. Therefore God the Father raised
Him from the dead. He's paid in full. Payment's
done. So God raised him from the dead
and seated him on the throne. And now Paul said he lives forever
to make intercession for every soul he did that for. What comfort? Continual daily intercession. I paid for that sin. I paid for
the sin they'll live out the rest of their days. So if Christ
endured all of that to secure his love to us, if Christ did
that, Verse 35 says, who shall separate us from the love of
Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or
famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, anything that could
come. As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long. We're accounted as sheep for
the slaughter. He said, but we're not. Nay,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that
loved us. Loved us in Christ. Loved us
because of Christ. Loved us for Christ's sake. And
because of Christ, all because of Christ, because He endured
all that to save a wretch like me, because it was such amazing
grace, that saved a wretch like me. Paul said, because of that,
verse 38, I am persuaded, and I pray we all are. 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. He is our security. He is our hope. As He is, so
are we. That's a believer's comfort.
As He is, so are we. As God the Father loves Him,
God the Father loves us in Him. Let me read three verses of Scripture
to you. This is John 17, verses 21 to
23. It says, that they all may be
one. Christ is praying to His Father,
this is my desire, that they all may be one. As thou, Father,
art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. I pray they might be in us. that
the world may believe that thou hast sent me, and the glory which
thou gavest me I've given them, that they may be one even as
we are, I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect
in one, in Christ, and that the world may know that thou hast
sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Loved them
as thou hast loved me. As the apostle Paul said, oh,
may we be found in Christ. We need to be in God's love,
therefore we need to be in God's son. May we be found in Christ. Let's all cry, let's all beg,
Lord, keep us in Christ for Christ's sake. All right, let's all have
a word of prayer. We'll be dismissed with a word
of prayer.