Would you turn to Romans, the
eighth chapter? We'll get back to the Psalms
next week, Lord willing, but Romans, chapter eight, beginning in verse 35. 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's 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. 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. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
love that is in your son. And we ask in his high and holy
name that you will be pleased to make known your saving love
through the death of thy son. Lord, enable us to stand in awe
of him. Enable us to believe him completely. Enable us to glory in him. Lord, we're so thankful for who
you are. We're so thankful for your gospel. We're so thankful
for the forgiveness of sins. We're so thankful for our acceptance
in the beloved. Now speak to us according to
your will for your glory. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Here's what is the cause of God's
salvation. Look in verse 29 for whom he
did foreknow. Whom he did foreknow. Now, what does that mean? For
no, it means he knew them beforehand. Behold, I have loved you with
an everlasting love. And this is before every blessing
of salvation. God's love. You know, I think
it's, interesting is not the right word. It is amazing how men think they
are entitled to the love of God. This sense of entitlement. Entitlement's
ugly. And to have a sense of entitlement
to the love of, he made me, he ought to love me. Now wait a
minute. Wait a minute. That's a completely
wrong idea. For whom he did for know whom
he did love beforehand. That's before every one of these
blessings mentioned in Romans eight, look in verse 31. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against it? What's what's before that God's
love. If God loves you, he's for you. I want you to think of the magnitude
of that statement. If God loves you, he's for you. Verse 32, 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? Now what's before
this? God's love. If God loves you,
he didn't spare his own son for you. And there's absolutely nothing
that can prevent him from freely giving you all things if God
loves you. Look in verse 33, who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies.
What's behind that? His love. He loved you. Nothing can be laid to your charge.
You can't be accused of anything if you're somebody he loves.
Verse 34, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Yea,
rather if it's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God,
who also make a thinner session for us, who shall separate us
from the love of Christ. Now, understand this, God did
not send his son into the world to make a way for him to love. He sent his son into the world
because he did love. Behold, I have loved you with
an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness,
have I drawn thee. Take that personal, if you're
a believer. He loved you with an everlasting
love. He loved me with an everlasting
love, a love that has no beginning. Now, who shall separate us from
the love of Christ. Now, like I said, to most, really
the great majority of people, it's a given that God loves everybody.
He should. That's the way men think. He
made us. He should. Turn with me to John
chapter 17. I don't know of a more amazing
verse of scripture than this. Verse 23, the Lord is praying
for his people and he says, I and them, if you believe it's because of
him in you. Amen. You know that so. And thou in me, that they may
be made perfect in one that the world may know that thou has
sent me and has loved them as thou has loved me. However, it is that God loves
his son. That's how he loves every single
one of his people. Now I wouldn't dare believe that
or say it, did not the word of God say this to us? One of my favorite lines in the
hymns we sing is I love to sing that hymn where he says, I stand
amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how he
could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. Now this thought that God loves
all men without exception, can it be supported by Holy Scripture?
The answer is no. Thou, Psalm 55, thou hatest all
workers of iniquity. Now that's a very large demographic,
isn't it? Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. Then we all know the scripture
from Romans 9.13. That's a quotation from Malachi
1. Jacob ever loved, Esau have I
hated. Now, as long as those scriptures
stand, you can't even begin to believe in universal love. That God loves all men the same. Now here's what most folks believe. Listen real carefully. Most people
believe God loves everybody, all men, all women, all boys
and girls. God loves everybody and he wants
to save everybody, but he can't do it unless those persons as
an act of their will decide to let him save them. And they accept
him as their personal savior. Now that is a fair representation
of what most people believe. God loves everybody. He ought
to. He made everybody. And he's made
everybody savable. He's made salvation an option
if you'll just accept his love. Now there's no difference between
that I've even heard people say, God's a gentleman. He won't break
the door down. He'll wait to be invited in.
God's a gentleman. Have you ever heard that? God's
a gentleman. Now what would you think of a
mother who loved her child, and her
child was out in the street playing, and a car was coming, And she
said, get out of the street. And the child said, no. And she
thought, well, I can't violate their will. Can't do that. I can't violate their will. And
all of a sudden, the car comes along and runs over the child.
What kind of love was that? You would be put in prison for
a love like that. You would be guilty of murder
for a love like that, manslaughter on some way. That is not love, yet that is
the love many people bring upon or accuse God of. Now, the love
of God, the love of the Spirit, the love of the Son is saving
love. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Now, if God loves somebody and
they end up going to hell, they're separated from his love, aren't
they? Can you imagine? The cruelty of saying to someone
while they're cast into hell, smile. God loves you, and I do
too. Why, that's preposterous. That is completely contrary to
the love of God. Now, let me say this. When we
talk about God's love, somebody says, you all put an emphasis
on the fact that God doesn't love everybody. If that's all
I get out of this, I've missed the point. That's not the point. The point is not, well, God doesn't
love everybody. The point is God loves saving love. If he
loves you, you must be saved. His love is saving love. And we need to bring that out
because the Bible does. The Bible says, he's all but
hated. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. The Lord will abhor
the bloody and deceitful man. And remember, God's hatred is
not like our hatred. My hatred is sin. If I hate somebody,
it's sinful. It's wrong. It's vindicative. They did me wrong, therefore,
that's ugly. The Lord's hatred is not like
our hatred. His hatred is a perfect hatred.
It's a holy hatred. part of his perfection, that
he cannot look upon iniquity. That's God's hatred, so don't
mix up his hatred with human hatred. He's not like us, aren't
you thankful? He's not like us in any way,
any degree. That's what holy means, other.
That means he's not like me and you. But his love is saving love,
the love of Christ that he would willingly leave heaven and willingly
suffer all he suffered out of love first to his father because
it was his father's will and love to his people. Behold, I've
already quoted this. Think about it again. Behold,
I have loved you. I have loved you. with an everlasting
love, a love that had no beginning, a love that will never end, a
love that nothing can separate you from my love. Now, verse 35, who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? He named seven things that can't
separate us. So tribulation. Trouble, trial, anything that
stresses, or distress, calamity, or persecution, or famine, want,
nakedness, lack of clothing, yes, but vulnerability,
being exposed, peril, Danger of any kind, the sword against
us. You know, I think when Paul was
writing this, you know, the church tradition says Paul is beheaded.
That's a gruesome thing, isn't it? To be beheaded. Did Christ stop loving Paul when
he was being beheaded? Did Paul stop loving Christ when
he was being beheaded? How can he let this happen to
me? No, nothing, nothing can separate us from the love of
Christ. Look what he says in verse 36,
as it's written. Now, aren't you thankful for
that statement as it's written? What's written is what we believe.
What's written is who we believe, and thank God for the scriptures. You know, there is, I'm gonna
say this in the service out there, there is such thing as a true
prophet that speaks for God, a preacher that speaks for God.
Well, how can you tell if he is? It's written. You can examine
what he's saying from the scripture. You're not left to say, well,
he says he's a prophet, I ought to listen to what he's saying.
No, you search the scripture. daily, whether these things be
so to the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to
this word, it's because there's no light in them." It's written. Now, this is what Paul's appeal
is, and that's our appeal, the scripture, as it's written. As it's written, and he quotes
Psalm 44, for thy sake, We are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter. By his grace, for his sake, we
are killed all the day long. And by his grace, now here's
the point behind this. By his grace, we are willing
to die for the gospel we believe. willingly. And we realize that
we would chicken out apart from his grace if it were come to,
well, you're going to be burned at the stake. We realize that
we would chicken out apart from his grace. But in our heart of
hearts, every believer is willing to die for the cause of Christ. A gospel worth dying for. And if it's worth dying for,
it's worth living for, isn't it? Paul put it this way in Galatians
6, verse 14, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom, and I love the way he talked
about the the cross and then he said, by whom? Not by what,
but by whom? By whom the world is crucified to me. Now by that he didn't mean, you
know, the beauties of the world. I mean, this is my father's world
and there's much in this world to love. And it's my father's
world and there's much to enjoy. God has given us all things richly
to enjoy. This is not talking about some
kind of asceticism, but it's talking about the world that
has no love for God. The world that has no love for
Jesus Christ, the world that has no love for his way of saving
sinners, it's crucified to me. I see no beauty in it. I see
there's nothing about it that's attractive to me because it's
anti-God, it's anti-gospel, it's anti-Jesus Christ. It's a crucified
thing to me and I under the world. You see, if I confess who Christ
is, here's what the world is going to think of me. Crucified. Crucified. No love to Christ. Now this is as it's written,
for thy sake were killed all the day long. We are counted
as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, verse 37. Nay, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." Now,
everything I've mentioned, he says, we're more than conquerors.
More than conquerors. Now, let me remind you, every
believer is more than a conqueror. You say, I don't feel like more
than a conqueror. Well, you are. That's what the
Bible says. And I've heard preachers talk
about living defeated Christian lives. When I hear that, it just
makes my blood boil. You know why? Christ is my victory,
so I'm not leading a defeated Christian life. As a matter of
fact, the scripture says, now thanks be unto God, which always
causes us to triumph in Christ. Show me where there's defeat
there. We're more than conquerors. Listen, I'm more than a conqueror
and it's not because I'm preaching. It's not because I'm reading
the Bible or praying or what. I'm more than a conqueror through
him that loved me. He is my victory. And this describes
every believer without exception. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. Four, verse 38. I am persuaded. Now, I love it
when Paul says this. He says this four or five times
in the New Testament. And it's literally, I have been
persuaded. If God persuades you, you're
persuaded, aren't you? I have been persuaded. I am persuaded. I've been persuaded
that neither death nor life nor angels Good angels, bad angels,
nor principalities, nor powers. I think that's talking about
powers that we really don't know anything about. The scripture's
called Satan, the prince of the power of the air. Spiritual wickedness
in high places. You know, there's a world that's
in operation that me and you know very little about, and I'm
happy to not know much about it. I simply want to be found
in Christ, but none of these things, these principalities
and powers, demons. Then he says, nor things present,
stuff that's going on right now, nor things to come, things that
haven't happened yet, nor height, nor depth. And just in case I've
left out anything, nor any other creature. shall be able to separate
us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God. Oh, the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Now, here's the thought I wanna
leave with. Do you know there's no such thing
in this universe as unconditional love. Now this is very important
really. God loves us unconditionally.
No, no. There's no such thing in this
universe as unconditional love. As he is. Well, let's talk about
God's love to his son. Does God love his son unconditionally?
No. He loves him because he's altogether
lovely. He loves him because he's the
fairest of 10,000. He loves him because he's beautiful, glorious,
glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. God
looks at his son and he says, this is my beloved son. the son of my love, in whom I
am well pleased." And I love the way he didn't say, with whom
I'm well pleased. He said, in whom I'm well pleased. If I'm in Christ, oh, he's well
pleased with me. He sees me as altogether lovely. You see, God doesn't love me
unconditionally. It's almost scary saying that,
because are you saying there's a reason in you that God loves
you? No, there's a reason in Christ that God loves me. I'm
in Him. He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. In the Beloved accepted am I. Now this is God's love, it's
in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father loveth the Son and
hath given all things into his hand. Turn with me to 1 John
chapter 4. Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in
the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world
right now. Is he lovely to his father? Does the father see in him everything
to love? That's every believer. As he
is, so are we in this world. Now turn to one other scripture. Turn to John chapter 15. Verse nine. As the father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Now you continue, abide in my
love. His love to me, uh, is behind
everything he's done for me. And his love to me is utterly
and completely in his son. And as the father loves the son,
Christ says to every one of his people, that's the way I have
loved you. Continue ye in my love. Now that passage we just looked
at Romans chapter eight, verse 31. If God be for us, who can be
against us? There's absolutely nothing to
fear, nothing to be intimidated by. 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? There's nothing that can prevent
him from giving you all things. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Nothing can even be brought by
way of accusation against you in Christ. Who is he that it is God that
justify it, that's why. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. You can't be condemned. Who shall
separate us? Verse 35. Who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Nothing. At any time. Nothing shall separate us. Look
at the last verse once again. Nor high, nor depth, nor any
other creature shall be able to separate us from the love
of God. Which is in Christ Jesus, our
Lord. One thing to remember. There is a such a thing as the
hatred of God. But the Bible never says God
is hatred, does it? Never says that. But I'll tell
you something, it does say God is love. Thank the Lord for that.