Well, I'm going to be thinking
again this evening predominantly on the verses that we read a
little earlier and that we spent a little bit of time on as well
last evening. I want to just continue some
thoughts on the verses Romans 8, 38 and 39. So let me just read them over
to you one more time. 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. The great foundation of our hope
as believers in this world and our hope for the world to come
is the love of God in Jesus Christ. Without the love of God, there's
no meaning to life. Without the love of God, there
is no satisfaction in life. There may be the pursuit of passions,
there may be the enjoyment of temporal things, but ultimately
there is a vanity, there is an emptiness, and there is a frustration. without the love of God. And if people go through their
lives without knowing God, if people go through their lives
without any sense of the love of God, then they have no hope
in this life and no hope in the life to come. All existence is
furile and everything that we imagine to be valuable in this
world simply becomes meaningless and has to be laid down and left
behind and amounts to nothing. The love of God changes that. The love of God gives men and
women hope. And the power of the message
of the love of God is that we as sinners have been reached
by God's love as he has revealed himself in the gospel. And we are reminded that everything
we know of God's plan and way of salvation finds its origin
in God's love. It was God's love according to
the Apostle Paul in the verses preceding the passage that we
read tonight, that established the work of predestination. It was God's love that elected
a people to everlasting life. It was God's love and the love
of the Lord Jesus Christ that brought the Son of God from heaven
into this world and brought Him to take the flesh of a human
and to represent His people on the cross. It was God's love
that took the Lord Jesus Christ to His death. The Lord God loves
his people and that love of God, his foreknowledge, his election
and our redemption is evidenced in the work of salvation. When men and women fell in Adam,
when the sin entered into this world and brought us into that
place of condemnation, it was the love of God that found a
way of escape, the love of God that brought forth the covenant
of grace and the plan of salvation. The Apostle Paul says that the
great aim and purpose of God is the eternal union of that
chosen people with the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a union that is
forged in God's love. And in Ephesians chapter 1 and
verse 4, the apostle wrote, according as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. So it's the love of God that
is this foundation to all the other dealings that the Lord
has with his people. And no matter what it is that
we want to think about as far as the revelation of God is concerned
in the scriptures and in the gospel, the foundation and the
heart and the core of the matter is the love of God for his people. and any fitness that we might
ever have for the presence of God will find its origin in God's
love for us. Not our love for God, not our
desire to follow God, not our will exhibited in choosing God. If we love Him, it is because
He first loved us. And that righteousness and that
acceptance and that fitness for the presence of God comes to
us because God loved us and on the basis of that love he forged
that way of salvation. And we can trace all the blessings
of God whether it's our conversion, whether it's our quickening,
whether it's our redemption, whether it's our predestination,
whether it's our election, all the way back to the love of God. Every blessing, every inheritance
flows to us by grace founded upon God's love. And it is because
God loved us that he gave his only begotten son to die. We know the verse, I'm sure it's
very familiar to us all. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son. And again, we find that sometimes
we struggle to use that verse in perhaps the most appropriate
ways of just reminding ourselves of God's love. because we feel
that in some way we're jeopardised in our particular theology. God
loves the world of his chosen people and it is that which caused
him to send the Lord Jesus Christ into this world to die for us. And we previously saw how the
Apostle Paul comforted these Roman brethren in their trials
and in their problems with the statements that he makes at the
end of this chapter concerning his love. And he was a good pastor
because he realized that these people were going through problems.
He realized that there were challenges in the world all around about
them, which would cause them to be distracted from the experience
of the love of God. Would cause them to doubt that
love, to doubt that interest in God's love. And so the Apostle
Paul was very eager and keen at the end of this amazing chapter
where he speaks about all of the wonderful things that God
has done for his people to remind them of the source and the cause
and the foundation, the love of God. We spent a couple of
minutes on a previous occasion thinking about a few of the items
that Paul lists in the last few verses, and I want to just draw
your attention to the remaining items this evening. The Apostle
identifies several more of those conspirators in the world that
want to hurt the Lord's people, who want to damage his church,
who want to take away the joy of the experience of a personal
walk and interest with the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Apostle
speaks about death, and he speaks about life, and then he goes
on to speak about angels. He said death can't separate
us from the love of God, life can't separate us from the love
of God. What about angels? Could angels
separate us from the love of God? If I ask that question a
few times this evening, the answer will always be no, because that
is the whole point of what Paul is saying. Good angels wouldn't
want to separate us from the love of God. But there are powers
in this world which are ranged against the Church of Christ
and who will happily engage themselves in disturbing and disrupting
the people of God as best they are able. Satan and the fallen
angels wish and desire to separate the Lord's people from the experience
of the Lord's love and cause us to doubt and cause us to be
troubled. They cannot succeed but they
attack the church. They attack the church, whether
personally and individually, and the troubles that we face,
or congregationally, as far as the doctrines are concerned that
we preach. They tempt the saints with error. They endeavour to instil a sense
of doubt in the minds of the Lord's people. And we are reminded
that the power of the devil is contained because the Lord Jesus
Christ on the cross defeated Satan and defeated the devil. So the devil is on a chain. The
devil is not able to do what he wants to do. Hebrews tells
us, for as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself likewise took part of the same. The Lord Jesus
Christ became flesh and blood like his people for this reason
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death
that is the devil and so the devil is destroyed or at least
he is contained. And while he continues in this
world and is evidenced in evil, and while he works against the
Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, he cannot separate us from that
salvation that we have and the love of God for us. The demons
and the dabblers in the occult like to think that they've got
an access into another form of power. And we see it so much
around about us. There are literally retail shops
that sell all things satanic. There are countless programs
on the television about demons and devils. There are games that
are played with the children. There are books to be found in
the library shelves and bookshelves all over the country. And there
is an increasing interest in satanic activity. But for all
of that, They cannot curse the church. There is a movement of
spiritual evil and it is bringing this world into ever greater
condemnation. The Lord allows people to pursue
these things because it will bring judgment upon their heads,
but they cannot curse the church and they cannot curse the Lord's
people because the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taken our
curse. He has soaked it all up. He has
broken its bands and he has crushed its head. When the apostle speaks here
of angels, we sometimes think about those heavenly angelic
hosts or the fallen angels that we hear about in Scripture also,
Satan and his host. But angel actually means messenger. And I think there's another way
that we can think about these angels, and that is in the context
of false teachers that bring error into churches. And the
way in which these false teachers if we are right in applying the
word in this way, attack the church is by endeavouring to
undermine the power of the love of God in our understanding. Because they teach a universal
love of God. They teach a love of God that
is extended to everybody without exception. And the whole point
is that if everybody has the same love of God, then the love
of God doesn't distinguish in any way between one and another. And that undermines the whole
of the gospel. And it brings in a gospel that
is merely provisional, a gospel that is impotent, a gospel that
is empty, because it is not motivated and energized by the love of
God. And that's what we've seen already.
These great pillars of gospel truth that we have a love and
affection for are founded in the love of God. Take away the
particularity, the discriminating nature of the love of God and
you've removed all of those pillars in a single stroke. They teach
a universal love of God and they teach a salvation that is offered
freely to everyone. The Bible doesn't. They say that
it's dependent on man's free will to choose the way of life
or the way of death. But the scripture says that salvation
is the gift of God and that faith is the gift of God. If God loved
everyone, then that might be a good gospel, but that's not
the truth of scripture. The love of God is particular
for the elect. And we read that in Romans 8
and 29. The love of God sent the Lord
Jesus Christ to die for his elect, his chosen people. We read that
in Romans 5, verse 8. The love of God sends the Holy
Spirit to quicken the elect. We read that in Ephesians 2,
verse 5. The love of God gifts faith only to the elect. And we read that in Ephesians
2, verse 8. And the love of God leads the
elect and only the elect home to glory at life's end, according
to John 14, verse 3. And so the love of God is particular
and distinctive, and those Angels or messengers, these false teachers
who teach otherwise, are a distraction and are a trial and a tribulation
to the true Church of Jesus Christ. Universalism, because that's
what it can be called. is that teaching that God loves
everyone, Christ died for everyone and that the Holy Spirit is trying
to save everyone. And it is a doctrine from hell
and it is very much applicable to the false angels and the fallen
demons. The Lord God loves his people
alone and the love of God preserves his people and the Holy Spirit
leads into truth so that the Holy Spirit will not allow the
true Church of Jesus Christ to believe such a lie. And here's
another one of these items, these words, these topics that the
love of God will not be separated from, or that will not separate
us from the love of God. The apostle speaks about principalities. What are principalities? What's
he referring to in this verse? Well, this is a threat which
seems to cause a lot of believers today quite a degree of anxiety. And by principalities, we mean
civil governments. And I don't know that I've ever
remembered a time when people perhaps in this country and in
other countries have been so politically divided. And the
fear arises in people's minds that these principalities, these
princes, if you like, over the people, these who take the principal
position, these leaders in our country and in our land are a
threat which is going to remove our freedoms. Now these civil
authorities can pass laws, they can accuse people of crimes,
they can convict people, they can send people to prison and
they can separate them from their homes and families, their loved
ones and fellow believers. And there is a lot of anxiety
in the world today about principalities and overreach of power and all
these sorts of things. But what Paul is saying here
is that these principalities cannot separate the believer
from their God. no matter what they're able to
do otherwise. And we should not give these
principalities too much credit by worrying about them or over-worrying
about them. Let them get on in their own
folly. Let them pursue their own blindness,
because they cannot touch, for all their ranting and their raving,
they cannot touch the people of God. There are those who have
been condemned by principalities. We remember the martyrs of the
church down through the ages, men and women who have honoured
the Lord and said, no, this is the truth, we will live by it.
And the authorities of their day have said, if you continue
to do that, then we will take your life. We will take your
freedom. We will take your homes. We will
take your families. And there are people who have
suffered like that in very many different countries. Stephen
faced the ravenous wolves of civil and ecclesiastical judges
in the early days of the apostles, and he lost his life. He was
known as the first martyr in the New Testament. And there
have been many others In the Old Testament, Daniel was subject
to the anger of the King Nebuchadnezzar and with Shadrach, Meshach and
Abednego he was put into the fiery furnace for not bowing
down to the statue. Let us follow the example of
Daniel and his three friends and not bow down to the idolatrous
statutes of the principalities of our age. We stand upon the
truth of the Word of God and upon that basis we will continue
to serve the Lord as he gives us grace. Perhaps persecution
will come to the United States of America and other countries
as it has done in communist countries and authoritarian countries and
in Islamic countries where the principalities have taken power
and have been able to grind down upon the Church of Jesus Christ. But the true Church of Christ
will survive because the Lord will not leave himself without
a witness. And I think it probably more
likely that the true church of Christ will not be persecuted
by the civil authorities. It will be more likely to be
the ecclesiastical authorities. It will be the authorities of
the denominations who are in the pockets of the government
who will end up bringing about persecution on those independent
believers who stand separate and upon the gospel truth. We shall see the love of God
preserving us through the difficulties of our day. Here's another one
that God or the Apostle Paul speaks about. He speaks about
powers. So there are principalities and
there are powers. And by powers, we mean all kinds
of power that might be levied against the Lord's people. And
interestingly enough, the word is in plural. So it's powers
wherever those might be. And again, in our own day, we
see that there are things which cause anxiety to the people of
God. Maybe it's big business, maybe
that's the powers that we see around about us. Maybe it's the
big tech companies that seem to have all our information at
their fingertips and are able to manipulate events in order
to track down who it is that they want to isolate and marginalise. Perhaps it's because they have
power to ban us from meeting or getting together or are able
in some way to restrict our activities. Religious powers, church governments,
false teachers, denominations that pretend to be able to excommunicate
you, People who are able to say, because you don't believe what
we believe, that you are in some way no longer fit to be a member
of the church. What power is it that we fear?
What power are we going to fear? Who can separate us from the
love of God? You see, none of these things,
when you say it like that, are actually meaningful at all. because
we're setting in place powers that are temporary, powers that
are feeble and fickle, no matter how much money and resource and
information they have, because ultimately they are setting themselves
not simply against a few independent worshippers, Not simply against
a few believers, but against God Himself. And God has promised
that He will fight our battles. And God has promised us the victory.
So that the love of God will ensure that the people of God
are preserved, and are defended, and are fought for. Matthew 24
verse 5 says, For many shall come in my name, saying, I am
Christ, and shall deceive many. And many false prophets shall
rise and shall deceive many. But they shall not deceive the
elect, because the elect will be preserved. What about things
present? Principalities, powers, things
present. Things present are today's trials,
whatever that might have been. And I guess we could spend a
couple of hours if I went round you all one by one and said,
what was your trouble today? What was your problem today?
What was the thing that got you down today? These are present
trials, and we all have them. No matter where we work, no matter
what our day is like, there's always something that is getting
us down. I used to say that worrying was
just a case of removing the top one and the next one just filled
its place because we were just worriers all the time about the
things that are going on around about us. Some people have big
problems to worry about, real things to do with their health,
to do with their family, to do with their employment, to do
with their homes or their lack of homes, to do with illness,
to do with loss of bereavement, hunger, poverty, these are real
issues in people's lives. But the love of God transcends
these things. The love of God when we understand
what God has done for us in Christ. The love of God when we see in
the Lord Jesus Christ that way of salvation, that redemption
that has been accomplished, that eternal life that is laid up
for us in heaven. It puts all of these other things
into a perspective and we need to be aware as we consider even
in our present daily activities that the Lord God is in control
of all of these things. True love, God's love is the
highest expression of care and protection and provision and
goodwill towards his people. So actually the Lord is day by
day helping us and blessing us and seeing us through our challenges.
So while I'm sure that you will continue to worry, let us put
our worry in the proper perspective and let us see it as already
defeated by God and that God is bringing about his purposes
in our life. It may be hard in some respects
when we look around about us. One of the big temptations that
we have is to compare ourselves with others. And then we think
to ourselves, well, this person's getting on and that person's
getting on and I seem to have a hard time in life. and we long for a security and
we long for ease in our daily lives. There is a psalm, Psalm
73, in which the psalmist Asaph wrestles with that very question
concerning believers in all ages of the church who look at the
prosperity of the wicked and they can't understand why they're
getting on so well when life is so hard for me. And the Prophet
describes the trials that he was enduring and his struggle
with the apparent well-being of those around about him. And
he couldn't understand why it was that here was him, Endeavouring
to do good, endeavouring to honour the Lord, endeavouring to live
right, and not getting on, never feeling to be out of the groove,
and those who were careless and heedless and enjoying themselves
and living however they wanted, just seemed to go on and on and
on without any troubles. And then he says that he finds
the answer. He tells us where this answer
is found, and he gives us an explanation. And this is what
he says. He went to the sanctuary of God. He went to the temple, basically,
is what he said. And when he got to the temple,
he went to worship, and he went into the sanctuary. And there
he realised that the Lord was in control of all these events. Just basically what I've been
saying to you. This is what he writes. I am
continually with thee. Thou hast holden me by my right
hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy
counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. Whom have I in heaven
but thee? And there is none upon earth
that I desire beside thee. The sanctuary, as far as Asaph
was concerned, was in the temple. The sanctuary, as far as you
and I are concerned, is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is
the set apart one. And if we go to Christ, if we
go to the work of Christ, if we understand what God has done
for us in Christ, out of his love for us, then we will understand
better the experiences of our present day. And if God's providence
brings us into trouble and tests our faith and causes us frustration,
and exercises our patience, it will be in order that we might
learn to lean more fully upon him and to prove the nature and
the extent of his love. There's one more thing that's
present with us every day that I just want to touch on, and
that is our sin. We are sinners every day, but
the Apostle says that present things cannot separate us from
the love of God, and our sin cannot separate us from the love
of God. We who are believers, we who
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have had our sins forgiven. That doesn't mean to say that
our sins are gone and never to be experienced again. We still
have this body of flesh, we still have this battle that goes on,
this old nature that contends with the regenerated spirit,
the new creation. Sin separates. Sin separated
the angels. A third of the angels fell from
heaven because of rebellion against God. Sin drove Adam out of the
garden and out of fellowship with God. Sin will exclude the
wicked from heaven for all eternity. They will not be in the presence
of God. And yet, though sin can separate
from the love of God, It will not, as far as its experience
is concerned, it will not separate those whose sins have been forgiven
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is why we always have
to go back to the cross. That is the manifestation of
the love of God towards us. God loves his people, and with
respect to our felt communion of that love, he will never let
us go. That union together with him
is assured, and our sins are forgiven in Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ, Paul
says, cleanses us from all sin. Past, present and future. Our sin cannot separate us from
the love of God. The Lord God knew all our sin
when he brought us to that experience of grace. He knew what we would
be like when he put his mercy upon us. And through all the
corruptions of nature and sin, he leads us on to experience
his love day by day. He does not change. and the expression
of his love towards us will not change, even when we have been
guilty of sin. We've been thinking recently
about the Apostle Peter and some of the sin that he committed
in the way in which he denied the Lord Jesus. But even Peter
in his denial, even Peter in his folly, was always loved by
Christ. And we need to remember that.
Some of you, I am sure, in the days ahead will find yourselves
under deep conviction for the things that go wrong in your
life. If you are a believer in Christ,
the love of God will always be your portion and you can always
find forgiveness in turning to Him. Esau could say at the end
of the psalm, my flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the
strength of my heart and my portion forever. So if not present things,
what about things to come? And this is the next one that
the apostle identifies. What about things to come? And
for many of us, the fear of the unknown is a big concern, a dread
for what might happen tomorrow, what the future might hold. Pressures about raising children,
troubles about job security, not sure what finances are going
to be like in times of rising cost. All of these things cause us
concern, anxiety about old age and illness, unseen events, because
we are afraid of the future. Things to come, whatever they
may be, cannot separate us from the love of God. Deuteronomy
31 says, And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee,
he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake
thee, fear not, neither be dismayed. Have not I commanded thee, be
strong and of a good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou
dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou
goest. And we can take these verses
literally, we can lean on these verses. We can say that the Lord
dealt with his people thus in the past, he will deal with his
people in the same way today. The God who gives the bread of
life, he will not withhold the bread that we need for our bodies. He fed hundreds of thousands,
maybe millions in the wilderness with quails and manna. He gave
them water from a rock. He brought forth food and nourishment
and refreshment from the barren earth and he looked after his
people. And these are emblems in the
scriptures to show us that the same caring, loving, providing
God is still the same today. And we are to lean on Him even
in the anxieties of today and of tomorrow. The list continues with the height,
and we're going to think about the height and the depth. Nothing
in heaven, no glory, justice, holy wrath, holy law, holy angel,
or divine precept. will ever exclude from heaven
one of those little ones upon whom the love of God was placed
and the blood of Christ anoints and cleanses. There's nothing
in God's holiness will separate us from his love because the
Lord Jesus Christ has stood in our place. Because the Lord Jesus
Christ took the wrath of God and the anger of God and the
curse of God. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
satisfied the law of God and every demand that was required
of us was settled upon the person of our substitute and our saviour. The Lord Jesus Christ has taken
our place. The Lord has found that way of
escape, and He has provided it for His people. And so there
is nothing in the heights, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son,
cleanseth us from all sin. It was the love of God that set
in place the covenant of life, that brought grace and peace.
The everlasting covenant is just that, it is everlasting. And that plan and purpose of
God to save His people whom He loved was worked out through
the death of our Saviour Jesus Christ. That was a treaty that
was established in the decrees of God. It was sealed with the
blood of Jesus Christ. And when Jesus Christ no longer
sits upon the throne of His Father's glory, then we might have reason
to question and doubt the love of God, but not until then. The
love of God foreknew a people whom he would choose. He provided
the way of life for us in the person of Jesus Christ, who redeemed
us and who continues to say, I go to prepare a place for you
and I will come again and receive you to myself. The Lord Jesus
Christ welcomes His people, those who have been set at peace with
His Father. He will gather them, He will
bring them into His presence, and we will enjoy the enduring
love of God for all eternity, and nothing in heaven will prevent
it. What about the depths of hell?
Nothing in the depths beneath can separate us from the love
of God and that's surely delightful to know for any who daily feel
our sin and our unworthiness and the accusations of the devil
against us. Many of us feel that there is
that ongoing weakness and some people say oh well as you get
older maybe you don't have as much temptation or maybe you
don't have as much opportunity or maybe you get into patterns
of life and they take away the temptation. You know, I think
there's maybe some truthfulness in that. But I also think that
the older that I get, the more I feel the residual sin in my
body and in my flesh. And maybe I'm not fired up the
way I used to be as a younger man, but that doesn't mean to
say that the sin in my flesh is any less. It is a constant
troubler of the Lord's people. And Satan uses that. Satan leverages
that. He uses the weakness of our flesh
in order to disturb and distress us. But there's nothing in hell
that can separate us from the love of God. There's no judgment,
there's no demon, there's no binding chain, there's no pit
viper that can lay a finger upon us except Christ allows it and
that for His glory and our good. The gospel of sovereign grace
is the only true gospel of comfort because it shows us that everything
has been accomplished to secure our well-being and the love of
God will never let us go. If you're a believer, Satan will
never have you. Now we've been looking at these
passages and I just wanted to give you a couple of verses in
that context as we close here with this last one. Believers
are tried, they're tempted, they fall and they fail in many ways. But Christ prays for his people
and Christ will not allow the demons of hell to stand against
that intercession. The tenth one is any other creature. That's the last one in the list
that the Apostle gives us here. And really I think what Paul
is doing is he's catching up on everything. He's saying there's
nothing that can separate us from the love of God. He's emphatic,
he's comprehensive, he's total. It takes in and encompasses the
whole world and he says that there is nothing in heaven or
hell, there is nothing past, present or future, there's nothing
in the heights or the depths, there's no living creature that
can touch the people of God. We are safe and secure. Nothing that we can conceive
of will separate us from the love of God. And the Apostle
Paul is here stressing that inseparableness as the saints experience and
enjoy the love of God. This Bible that we have in our
hands, it means something. These truths that are set before
us, they mean something. There's a message here. There's
a communication and a revelation. The Word of God is telling us
there is hope in this life, there is hope in this world for those
who know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. There is a
love of God that has secured a salvation for sinners like
you and like me. And if we have tasted and seen
that the Lord is good, then nothing in this life and nothing in this
world will ever separate us from the love of God, the accomplishments
of Christ or the heavenly inheritance that is laid up for us. These
are our possessions. These are our blessings. As brothers
and sisters in Christ, this is our inheritance and we are to
live in the light of that and enjoy the blessings of it. We are to seek the face of Christ
and find the forgiveness that is in him. We are to rest with
the promises of God and day by day find his faithfulness to
be sure. They're fresh, they're new every
morning, and we are to be a people who are looking constantly to
the Lord to enjoy that. In 1 John 4, verse 9, we read
this, And this was manifested the love of God towards us. Here's
how you see, here's how you know, here's how the love of God is
manifested. because God sent his only begotten
son into the world that we might live through him. I think I mentioned
it before, God has commended his love towards us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And so we look to the
cross as a testimony of the love of God for us because there at
the cross our Lord Jesus Christ proved God's love and in His
accomplishments ascertained that that love will never be taken
from us and we will never be separated from it. Let us thank
the Lord God our Saviour Jesus Christ for setting His love upon
us with its ever enduring promises and its inseparable union. May the Lord bless you and thank
you for your attention.