The secret of all spiritual understanding, peace, and assurance is in the
little phrase, in Christ Jesus. I'm asking, what do people fear more
than anything? There's many fears in this world,
I know. But I think the greatest fear in the minds and hearts of people is the thought of being condemned. by God himself
standing before God and being turned away into hell. Well,
this chapter begins with this. There is therefore now right
now. No. Condemnation. How beautiful that is to God's
child. From whence does it come? Notice
it's to them which are in Christ Jesus. See that little phrase
in Christ Jesus. No condemnation to begin the
chapter. And no separation. To end the
chapter. Verse 38 and 39. 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. There it is. No separation shall
be able to separate us from the love of God. And again,
it's because the love of God for us. is in Christ Jesus. Nothing shall be able to separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
There's the little phrase again, in Christ Jesus. So the no condemnation
is from God in Christ Jesus, and the no separation from the
love of God is in Christ Jesus. Everything worthwhile is in Christ
Jesus. And if you never get a hold of
this, if you never get a hold of this, in Christ Jesus, the
devil will beat you to death trying to do better. That's what
your life will be. He'll keep you buried in guilt
and crush you with shame because you're such a poor excuse for
a Christian. But if you can get a hold of this in Christ Jesus
and rest in him, you'll strive to do better for his honor and
his glory, but you won't go crazy trying because your arrest and
your peace is in Christ, not in your doing. I want to read
three more verses. 35 through 37, who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or 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 we are more than conquerors
through Him that loved us." Verse 35 began, "...with the love of
Christ, who shall separate us from the love of Christ." And
verse 37 concludes with, "...nay, nothing shall separate us. We
are more than conquerors through Him loved us. So it's about Him that
loved us. John wrote over in the epistle,
I John 3.1, Behold, which means look up, look at this, listen,
behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us,
God's children, that we should be called his children. For every one of us here today, why God should choose to damn
us is no mystery. But why he should choose to save
us is a great mystery. All pretense of Christian religion
speaks of the love of God. But like every other subject
under the sun, it is twisted, it is misinterpreted, misunderstood,
and abused by sinful man. The love of God. Probably the
most familiar verse in the Bible. Most of you could quote it. John
3.16, for God so loved the world. Now, that can't be the same world
that He told us not to love. Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. For for man loved the world,
the love of the Father is not in him. So that can't be the world God
so loved. This world and especially world
system is not the world God loves. He loves His people to the extent
He's not going to allow sin and Satan to destroy it. John 3.16, not many people ever
realize this or even look to find out, was spoken to an individual. A very, very prejudiced Jew named Nicodemus. And what our Lord is saying to
him is, Bud, this is not just about you. This is for all who believe. For God so loved the world, He
sent His Son, that whosoever believeth, that is, them that do, is what
that's saying. It don't say whosoever decides
to believe. I've read some modern versions
that say that. But it says, whosoever believeth,
that is, them that do, should not perish but have everlasting
life. That's the promise. John 3.16
is not a proposition to unbelievers. It's a promise to believers. Repeatedly the Father said of
Christ, this is my beloved Son. I love Him. And God loves nothing or no one
apart from His beloved Son. He loves you in Christ. Or not
at all. So God's own Word is the only
authority concerning God's love. It is a very healthy to our spiritual health to meditate
on God's love to His children. But not just according to our
natural thinking. According to the world, especially
the religious world, God's love is made out to be everything
and everybody. But we must study it only according
to God's word, what he himself says about his love. So I want to just give us a few
brief thoughts this morning about it. Some of you have never heard
anything like this. And I'm an old man. You may never hear it
again. You certainly won't hear it on every corner. But God sent
it this morning and he sent you this morning to hear this. And you need to know this. The love of God. Number one is
uninfluenced. One of the greatest errors in
most religious teaching today is folks being told how to live
in order to get God to love them more. or to love them at all. But God's love is uninfluenced. That is, there is absolutely
nothing in the objects of His love that causes Him to love. Now, in the human family, the love that one person has
for another is because of something in that other. But God's love is not affected
by something in us, but something in Him. He couldn't find anything in
us worth loving. It's uninfluenced in Him. He
told the Israelites through Moses back in Deuteronomy seven verses
seven and eight. The Lord did not set his love
upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than
any people. For you were the fewest of all
people, but because the Lord loved you. That's the bottom line. God needs
no reason outside of Himself to love. There is no reason outside
of Himself to love. He is the reason. And 1 John
4, 19 tells us that we love Him because He first loved us. God is the first great cause
always. He did not love us because we
loved Him. One of the awful effects of sin
is thinking we're the first great cause and God responds to us. No, if you experience the love
of God, He's the cause. And we respond to Him. If you ask the question this
morning, what was there in me to attract the heart of God?
The answer is absolutely nothing in you. An old poet wrote, was there,
what was there in me that could merit esteem or give the Creator
delight? T'was even so, Father, I must
ever sing. because it seemed good in thy
sight. That's what it is. The disciples
asked the Lord, why do you speak in parables? He said, because
unto you it's given to understand what I'm talking about. Unto
them it's not given. It seemed good in the Father's sight. So you'll never enjoy God's love
thinking there's the least bit of any good in you to merit it. That's first. Number two, God's
love is eternal. These thoughts are brief. I'll
hurry through it if you'll hurry and listen. God's love is eternal. It has no beginning. And it has
no end. God never started loving you. And He won't stop loving you.
Regardless of what you do or don't do, if He loves you, He
loves you. And if He don't, He don't. Jeremiah
31.3, He said, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. He loves His people from eternity
past to eternity future. We had no part in starting it.
We have no part in sustaining it. And we certainly can't stop
it. If God loves you, it matters
not that no one else does. Because His love is supreme.
How much better That He loves you if no one else does. Then
if everyone else loved you and He didn't, His love is the issue. Ephesians
1, Paul says God chose us. Talking about believers now,
His children, His elect chose us in Christ from the foundation
of the world. And in love predestinated us. That is predetermined our final
destination. Predestinated us to what? To go to heaven? No. To be conformed
to the image of His Son. God loves His Son. And if He
loves you, He's working in your life to make you like His Son. The history of this world is
God manifesting His love to whom He wills. The rest of humanity
don't know why they're here and where they're headed. But God's
eternal love is right on course, working His purpose in His children
in time, on time, every time. And His in time, on time, and
every time is not our in time, on time, and every time. Number three, God's love is sovereign. That means His rule is above
all. That word sovereign, you may
or may not have heard it. The prefix sov means highest. And the suffix reign, of course,
means to rule. You know what reign means? It
means to rule. So sovereign means the highest rule. It means that
God answers to none. He's his own boss. He is under
obligation to none. And all that he loves is according
to his own good pleasure. There is no motivation outside
of himself. God loves because he is love. He said, Jacob have I loved,
but he saw have I hated." It's no mystery that God should
hate. We've all earned His hate. He's not wrong to hate because of sin. The great mystery
is that God would love any of a fallen race like ours. None
have earned it. But God's not wrong to love the
unlovely. Number four, God's love is infinite.
It is without limits in time or space or eternity. It reaches
limitless into the past, present and future. What am I saying? God has forever
loved. whom he loves and shall forever love whom he
loves. A W pink wrote in God's love. There is a depth, which none
can fathom a height, which none can scale a length and breadth,
which defies measurement by any creature standard. Paul said
in Ephesians 3.19, it passeth knowledge. That says it plainly,
doesn't it? The supposed demented man wrote,
could we with ink the ocean fill? In other words, if we could fill
up the whole ocean with ink instead of water, And were the skies
of parchment made, if the whole heavens, as far as you could
see, was one big scroll of paper, parchment, to write on? Were every stalk on earth a quill,
every corn stalk, every ragweed, everything that grows, Every
stalk was a writing stick that you could dip into that ocean
of ink and write something up yonder. And every man a scribe by trade,
every man who ever lived was a writer. Go out and get him
a stalk, dip it in the ocean of ink, and write something up
yonder. If all that could be so, the
songwriter went on to say, to write the love of God would drain the ocean dry. And the scroll wouldn't be big
enough, though stretched from sky to sky. God's love is infinite. And the older I get and the more
I learn, the more I'm not afraid to say that it takes a real dummy
to think we know much of anything about God. Five, God's love is immutable,
which means unchangeable. The book of James chapter 1 and
verse 17, says of God Himself, that He is one in whom is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning. If He don't change, His love
don't change. For God is love. And His love for all whom He
loves can neither increase nor diminish. He can't love you more tomorrow
than He does today because He loves you with all the love there
is. Nor can it diminish by anything
you do or don't do because His love is not in you and in me,
it's in Him. In this world, one of the greatest
causes of happiness from day to day is in change. Things change for the better.
And one of the greatest causes of sadness is change. Things change for the worse. God's love does not and cannot
change. Solomon wrote that many waters
cannot quench it. Neither can the floods drown
it. Paul says here in Romans 8, nothing
can separate us from it. The poet said his love no end
nor measure knows. No change can turn its course.
Eternally the same it flows. from one eternal source. You will not do anything to make
God love you more or less. It's immutable. Six, God's love
is holy. His love is never at the expense
of his holiness. People go out and play the fool,
do something stupid, do something wrong, do something bad, and
say, well, I'm glad God loves me. God loves me. People speak of God's love in
the sense that He's okay with our being unholy. The truth is, His love manifested
in our hearts moves us to holiness and obedience. People who have
no heart for God, no heart for His Word, no heart for His church,
no heart for His honor, they need not speak of His love for
them. God's love is holy love. And He works in the hearts of
those whom He loves to hate sin. Not just hate little things we
call sins, but to hate sin, the corruption in this wicked heart. Job got a hold of it and he said, I abhor myself. I despise myself. Behold, I am
vile. Paul said, Romans 7, 24, Oh,
wretched man that I am. Everybody else looked at Apostle
Paul and said, Boy, you talk about a great Christian. Now
there goes one. Well, he was. Here's what he said about himself.
Oh, wretched man that I am. Not used to be, but am. Anyone not moved in the heart
by God's holiness to repent of what we are and seek Him and
His righteousness That person need not speak of God's love
for them. Number seven, God's love is gracious. So gracious that he sent his
son into the world to die for sinners. Christ did not die in order to
make God love us. He died because God did love
us. Calvary's cross is the supreme
demonstration of God's love for His own. And Calvary's cross
is also the extremity of men's hatred for a holy God. But the Bible teaches us that
men didn't really kill Christ. Oh, they physically crucified
Him. There's always a God behind the scenes. Isaiah 53, it pleased
God to bruise Him. There was a purpose in His dying. And it was because of the love
He has for His people. To rescue us from our sin and shame. And finally,
number eight, God's love is transcendent. It goes beyond
the high star and reaches to the lowest hell. Things seem all mixed up in this
world right now. Like God has no control. and no love. And we hear the questions, why
do good people suffer so much? And many have to die so young.
Why do the wicked prosper and party and blaspheme and just
seem to live happily ever after? Well, we're not to the ever after. This is where God-given faith
really works in the midst of all this mess we're in in this
country and in the world. If you have faith, you'll spend
your years rejoicing in Him, that He knows what's going on,
even if we don't. You'll never doubt His control,
His love. And if you don't have God-given
faith this morning, here's what you'll do. You'll struggle and
strive to fit in the rat race of this
world and to be something and to be somebody. And even though
you claim to be a Christian, you want to look like the world,
act like the world, run with the world, have the approval
of the world, and succeed in it. I want to tell you what the
Apostle Paul said about that. And about all his religious pretense,
he said, I counted it all as a pile of dung. If you don't
know what that is, get your dictionary. It's in there. But I promise you this morning
when eternity dawns, when time is no more, then and then only
will a measure of the transcendence of God's love be seen by us. Every sorrow and every tear of
God's children in this world will then make sense. It will prove to have been profitable because all God's children will
have been conformed to the image of his son. Then and only then
will we truly understand and agree that yes, all things do
work together. for good to them that love the
Lord. And who are them that love the
Lord? Them who are the called according to His purpose. Bless
His holy name. All right.