Romans chapter 8, and I want
to begin reading in verse 28. Let's read this text through
the remainder of this chapter. Romans chapter 8 and verse 28.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose,
for whom he did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among
many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate,
them He also called. Whom He called, them He also
justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified. What
shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? 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 any thing to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. 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 makes intercessions for us. 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 counted 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 nor thanks present, nor thanks to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the
love of God which we have in Christ Jesus the Lord." Paul
had already been setting forth in this chapter tremendous blessings
that are awaiting God's saints, God's children, and inheritance. that's incorruptible, that's
undefiled, that they'd be raised from the dead, their hope would
be realized, that they would be with Christ forever. And he
tells us here in the middle of this verse that we've not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear in verse 15, but we've received
the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Father, We don't have any reason to fear. The child of God has no reason
to fear. But I tell you, sometimes they
do. Sometimes they do. As a matter of fact, you find
it all through the scriptures. Fear not. Fear not. The Lord
spoke to the church in Isaiah and said, Fear not, but fear,
fear. The Lord said, Fear not, thou
worm, Jacob. And yet Jacob fears. And one
of the reasons he fears is because he knows he's a worm. He's nothing. He's just so useless in this
world. He looks at himself and sees
the plagues of his heart, and he fears. Fear not, little flock. But that's one of the reasons
that we fear, because we're a little flock. It seems like we're so
few and accomplish so little, and we fear because of it. But
the Lord Jesus knows, doesn't he? Fear not, little flock. John Bunyan made a wonderful
statement. He said that all the hopes of
the wicked will not bring them to heaven. But he said, thank
God that all the fears of the righteous will not bring them
down to hell. Well, if fearing could bring
the righteous down to hell, they'd be brought there. Because, bless
their hearts, we have these fears that we cannot shake. And that's
what these verses here are about, dispelling some of our fears. You've not received the spirit
of bondage to fear. And he gives us these passages
to dispel our fears. And that's what I want to look
at this morning, some fears dispelled. But verse 28 qualifies who this
message is for. Did you notice there in verse
28, he qualifies who he's speaking to? We know that all things work
together for good. To who? To them who love God. To them who love God. I tell you, it's an amazing thing
that there are some people in this world who love God. They
weren't born loving Him. As a matter of fact, they never
loved Him at all. They were in darkness and they
loved their darkness. But through a turn of events,
they were brought to love God. And I tell you why they love
Him. Because God has done something for their soul. David said this,
I love the Lord, the cause. He has heard my voice. He said,
the pains of death had got hold upon me and hell had beset me
around. I found trouble. I found sorrow. I thought, surely I'm a goner.
I've lost my soul. And he said, I began to cry unto
the Lord. Oh Lord, have mercy upon me.
And he said, the Lord heard my voice. He heard my supplication,
and He said, I love him because of it. I tell you, if the Lord
has saved you, if God has mercy upon your soul, you love Him.
You love Him. You love Him because of what
He's done for you. Your love is not unconditional.
Somebody said it's really a selfish love, because you love Him because
of what He's done for you. Well, that's so, but it's a God-caused
love, ain't it? You love him because. He has
no cause for loving us. He loves us because he loves
us. But I tell you, if you're here this morning and you love
God, you love him because. We love him because. So, you have a reason here to
have your fears dispelled if you love God. But the second
thing he says about it is this, not only to those who love God,
but those who are the called. Be called those He calls. He calls people. He calls people
out of darkness into His marvelous life. And I tell you, you can
look back now. If you want to know something
about how you know that you're called, what do you see when
you look back? You see darkness, don't you? That's all that's
there. You saw it, a little bit of it,
when you lived there. But boy, looking back, you say,
my, that's where I was in that awful darkness. You can't see
it until you get out in the light and look back. And it's like
this thick, dark cloud that you're looking into. He's called you
out of that darkness into His marvelous light. He's called
you to repentance. Those whom He hath called. The Lord Jesus said, I didn't
come to call the righteous. I called sinners. to forsake
their sins, to forsake themselves, to forsake their rivals. And
you know repentance is a lifelong principle in the heart. We're
still repenting, aren't we? We're still turning from ourselves.
We're still turning from our sins to God, He called us. And He says this about this call.
He said, God is faithful who has called you into the fellowship
of His If you want to know you've been called, what think you of
Christ? Do you have a high opinion of
Him? Is He precious to your soul? Do you see beauty in Him now
that you never saw before? Do you cleave to Him? Do you
love Him? Do you fellowship with Him? Is your fellowship with
the Father and with His Son? Then He's called you. He's called
you. And therefore this message this
morning isn't to you. You love God, and you've been
called. And look at this, you were called
according to His purpose. That's why you were called. God
had a purpose. And you were included in His
purpose. It's not that God has a wonderful plan for your life
if you'll just let Him have His way. No. If He's called you,
He's called you according to His purpose. And it's not dependent
upon you. Before you realized He had a
purpose. He had a purpose. And it was
concerning you. And you found out about it when?
When He called you. When He called you. And then
you begin to see, my soul, he didn't call me on accident, he
called me on purpose. God has this purpose for my life. And then he goes on here in verses
29 and verse 30, and he tells us what that purpose is. And
here is the first fear that should be dispelled for every child
of God. If you're here this morning and
you have a nagging fear that torments you, but you just can't
shake it, and it's this, I'm not for sure if I'm going to
make it. I don't know if I'm going to make it. Well, I tell
you this, if you love God and He's called you, you're going
to make it. You're going to make it. And
that ain't just me saying that. That's God saying that. And here
we have it in verses 29 and 30. And I don't care where you get
at, you could go right in the middle of these two verses and
go in either direction. Or you could start at the end
of it and go backwards, or at the first of it and go forwards.
And wherever you start at this, there's comfort here, and there's
something to dispel your fears if you think you're not going
to make it. I'm telling you, if God's called you to Christ,
you're going to make it. Because your making it is settled,
and God is settled. Now, look at this. Let's start
from this end of it. Let's start from the accomplishment
of this purpose. He said in verse 28, they're
called according to this purpose. Well, in verse 29 and 30, he
tells what that purpose is. And what is that purpose? In
the last portion of verse 30, he tells us the consummation
of this purpose. And what is it? To glorify. To glorify. You know what that
means? You're going to be raised and
made in the very likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going
to descend from heaven and He's going to change your vile body
and fashion it like unto His glorious body. Then God's purpose
is going to be finished. But who is it that he glorified? Who is it that God will glorify?
Well, go back one step. Whom he justified, them he also
glorified. Every one of them. Every one
of them. Now, if you hear this morning,
you say, Bruce, really, really, I have some confidence and I
believe God gave me this confidence that I am justified. The blood
of Christ, my faith is in His blood to justify me. That I'm
cleared from all my charges. I've been justified. I believe
that. Well, who does He glorify? Are you justified? Has God given
you some confidence of that? Then you'll be glorified. It's
sure as God has a purpose, but go back one more step. Who is
it that He justifies? Them He calls. Have you been
called out of darkness? You say, I believe I have. I
believe I have. I believe He's called me to repentance.
I weep over my sin. I'm grieved by my sin. I want to be freed from my sin.
I'm tired of my sin. Oh, I'm fleeing to God. I'm turning
from Him. Have you been called? Then who
does He justify? Those He calls. And who's He
going to glorify? Those He justifies. Go back one
more step. Who does he call here in verse
29? Whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of the Son. In verse
30, whom he did predestinate, them he called. Who does he call?
Those he predestinated. He predestinated. He set them
aside. He ordained them. and said, There's
coming a day when I'm going to call old Glenn Whitehead. I set
him aside for that very purpose. I have set him aside, him personally. There's coming a day in his lifetime.
I'm going to let him wonder. I'm going to move him from one
state to another. And he ain't going to know me,
but there's coming a time. I will call Glenn Whitehead. And he did it. Why did he call
you, Glenn? Because he predestinated you
to be called. Who does he call? Those he predestinated.
Who did he predestinate? Well, look at this, in verse
29. Those whom he foreknew, he did
predestinate. All of them he foreknew. This
word is only mentioned four times in the Scripture, this word foreknow.
Every time you see it, it has to do with the person. Nothing
the person does. It's not that God looked down
through time and said, I saw Glenn Whitehead was going to
do this or going to do that. That's not it at all. He did
not say he foreknew what Glenn would do, but he foreknew Glenn.
Those whom he foreknew. Now, what do we have? All of
those who are in heaven are the same ones that he foreknew before
time. Now you take it from the other
way. Everyone that he foreknew, he predestinated them. Everyone
he predestinated, he called. Everyone he called, he justified.
And everyone he justified, he glorified. Now, if you're sitting
here this morning and you're a justified sinner, and you're
a lover of God, I tell you, your destiny has been fixed. In the
mind and purpose of God, you're already at the end of the way.
You're already glorified. As sure as God is true, as sure
as He'll fulfill His purpose, it is well with your soul. And
as it is this morning, it will forever be. Doesn't that dispel
that fear? Doesn't it go a long way in shaking
that loose from your soul that I'm not for sure I'm going to
make it? It's God's prayer for sure. Then you'll make it. Then you'll make it. I tell you, I saw this one day
years ago, probably thirty years ago. I was so down in my soul. And suddenly, I saw this passage.
And boy, it lifted my soul up in heavenly places. All my fears
that I was having, will not change the purpose of God. And all the
fear that you have will not change His purpose. You shall be glorified. That's God's purpose. Ain't that
wonderful? Fear dispels. Here's another fear, secondly,
and it's this. And I think we all have this.
I have this fear sometimes of myself. I have this fear sometimes
of this church, of being brought to nothing. of being brought
to desolation. I've often told you this before,
but this used to afflict me, and still does sometimes. Did you ever wish that you had
foreknowledge? That you could see 10, 20, or
30 years down the road? I used to think, if I could just
wake up 30 years from now, what would it be like with me? And
everything I thought of was negative. I thought my wife left me. My
kids is dead. I've lost everything. My health
is gone. I'm in poverty. And I thought,
man, I don't want poor knowledge. I don't want to even think about
that. We go to the nursing home. And
I tell you, I've sat in there and talked with some of those
people. And it is so sad. Some of it is so sad because
they can tell you what happy lives they had. They can tell
you about their children, what good jobs they had. And now here
they're in there, their mind is going, their health is lost.
You'll see them one day and you'll think to yourself, why is that
person even in here? Why aren't they home taking care
of themselves? And you go back the next time and see them, they
don't even know who you are. They look crazy. Desolation. You know something? This is a
fear that torments us sometimes. What's going to happen to this
church? What's going to happen to this little church? It's a
little flock now, but what's going to happen to it in 10 or
15 years? And I can't help sometimes to think about that for you and
myself. What's going to come on me before
I leave this world? Am I going to be desolate? You
know Job had this fear himself. When Job had lost his children,
every one of his children suddenly got killed. He got all of his
cattle stolen, and then he got these boils all over his body. He was terribly afflicted and
sick. His wife said, why don't you
just cuss God and die? And he sat down in a big heap
of ashes and took a little poster to scratch himself with. He became
destitute. And here is what he said. I knew
this was going to come on me. I just knew this was coming.
That which I feared is coming upon me. But here is something that will
dispel this fear if we can get a hold of it. And he is spelling
here in verse 31. What shall we then say to these
things if God before us, who can be against us. What does it matter what happens
to us in this life? What does it matter if we're
brought to desolation? If we lose everything that we
possess in this world, including our health and even our body?
If we stand with nothing but our naked souls and that's all
we have left, if we've got God, if God is for us, then you know
something? We possess all. We possess all. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us, shall he not with him also freely
give us all things? If God be for you, who can be
against you, and what can be against you? David said this,
and his imagination just ran wild with him. He said, Though
the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into
the midst of the sea, and though the waters roar and be troubled,
and the mountains shake. Man, that's pretty bad, ain't
it? The earth be removed? Where's
that going to put us? If all the mountains are plucked
up and cast into the sea and they begin to roar and come over
the earth, where does that leave us? And David imagined that. But here is what he said, Yet
will not we fear. Why? For God is our refuge and
a very present help in the time of trouble. If God is for you,
Who can be against you? What can be against you? One
old man said, if God's against you, who can be for you? But
let's turn that around. If God is for you, who can be
against you? If we possess Him, we possess
everything, don't we? Job said right in the midst of
his affliction, I know my Redeemer lives. I know my Redeemer lives. He's for me. He's for me. I've
lost everything but Him, and that's all right, ain't it? That's
all right. I know Him. And thirdly, here's
something else I think that some of the children of God are afflicted
with when we think of eternity and standing before God and the
judgment. And that's this fear, this anxiety that I'll be condemned. I'll be condemned. But I'll stand
ashamed when I stand before the Lord. I don't know very much
about the judgment. I know there's a judgment set.
I know we'll all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. But I tell you this, brothers
and sisters, there will be no child of God stand there and
be condemned. There will be no child of God
stand there and be guilty before God. Now, if that is your fear
this morning, then let this passage right here dispel your fear in
verses 33 and 34. Who shall lay anything, anything,
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. On what ground? He tells us in
verse 34. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, brother, who is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercessions for
us. Who is he that condemneth?" Well,
our own conscience condemns us sometimes, does it not? Don't
you accuse yourself? Why, sure you do. Satan accuses
us. He condemns us. The world may
condemn us, but you know something? And here is where it counts.
Here is where it counts. God will never condemn those
for whom Christ died. He tells us here in chapter 8
in verse 1, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. There is no judgment against
them. God will not impute guilt to
them? When? Right now. Well, if God
does not impute guilt right now, He never will. And why doesn't
He? Why is there no condemnation
to them who are in Christ? He tells us here in our text,
doesn't He? It's Christ that died. It's Christ
that died. Brother Glenn said it very plainly
this morning in his Sunday school class. Boy, in the death of Christ. All the demands of justice were
met. It's finished. It's finished.
And the Bible would prove this old saying of the dear hymn writer,
God cannot payment twice demand. First at my bleeding charity's
hands and then again at mine. You know, we look at ourselves
and we judge ourselves and we may condemn ourselves. And when
we look at ourselves, we can find all kinds of reasons why
God would condemn us. But you know God is not looking
to us. What we need to do is find out
not how God feels about us, but how does God feel about Christ?
If we can find out about how God feels about Christ, then
I'm telling you, this will dispel this fear of our facing God at
the judgment. How does God feel about Christ?
Well, He says here in Romans 8, verse 3, look at this. For what the law could not do,
the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,
God sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and
as a sacrifice for sin, put sin to death in the flesh." That's
how we read that. He condemned sin, he judged it,
he punished it, he put it to death in the body of his Son. And let me ask you this question,
brothers and sisters. Does God condemn Christ this
morning? That would be almost blasphemous,
wouldn't it? God raised him from the dead
and said, son, sit here on my right hand. By the way, I see
sin in you. I condemn you. No, God is well pleased with
his son. He said, my son, there is no
more sin. You paid it. You punished it. You put it away.
Will God withhold anything good from Christ? No. Is he well pleased
with Christ? As our representative? Yes, He
is. He is. He is. Yeah, we look at ourselves and
we find good reason to condemn ourselves, to judge ourselves.
But we mustn't look at ourselves. We must sit down and see how
God feels about His dear and blessed Son. As our representative,
you see. We have two representatives.
The first one got us in all kinds of trouble, didn't it? When Adam
sinned, we sinned in him. By one man, sin entered this
world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men. But there
was another representative, you see. And the scripture says,
For as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
Christ Himself also took part of the same. See what a representative
He is? He took part of the same. He took everything but sin when
He came into this world. I'm telling you, if you looked
at the Lord Jesus Christ when He laid in that manger, He was
a real human being. I'm telling you, He was real.
And He was such a real representative for us. You know what He did? He was born and He lived just
like you did. Just like you. Just like the
common man. He could have came to this world
and been born in a palace. He could have lived in luxury
and needed nothing. And then went and died upon the
cross and paid the sin debt. But He didn't do that. And you
know why? You'd have looked at him and you'd say, man, that's
not the way I lived. I wasn't born like that. I've
not lived like that. Well, neither did he. He said, how was my people born? A lot of them was born in poverty,
aren't they? That's the way he was born. A
lot of them suffered need. He suffered need. He thirsted. Glenn told us this morning. One
of the last things he said upon the cross, I thirst. Why would
he have to go through that? He had to to be a proper representative,
because his people have thirsted. So to be a good representative,
he hungered, he thirsted, he was tempted in all forms like
as we are. From his cradle to the grave,
he represented his people. And God looked upon him and said,
My son, oh my son, Everything my people suffered all their
lifetime, you've now suffered it. You've suffered it yourself. And He comes at the end of His
life and looked back over His life, and He lived the life of
a common man. Just a common man. You take away
all the miracles and you just look at His life. It was just
the life of you and the life of me. Why did He live like that? Our representative. And then
upon the cross of Calvary, He took our sins and made them His
own, and there He was condemned for.
The wrath of Almighty God fell upon Him, and those sins were
punished. Now, could you stand before God
if you knew you didn't have one sin laid at your charge? Ain't
that what concerns you? Ain't that what concerns me?
I can stand before God if He won't lay any sin to my charge.
I'm not afraid of Him at all if He don't lay any sin to my
charge. The controversy between me and God is my sin. But my
sin has been punished, and God Himself punished it. Oh, my soul,
I'm not afraid then. I'm not afraid of dying. I'm
not afraid to stand before Him. God has justified us because
Christ has died. Therefore, who is he that condemneth? Fourthly and lastly, here's a
fear. That Christ will cease to love
me, I'll cease to be loved, I'll be separated from his love. I
believe this morning he loves me. But I've got just this nagging,
gnawing fear that something is going to separate me from that
life. John Bunyan said he had seven abominations that he found
in his heart to the day he died, I guess he carried them. And
one of them was this, forgetting Christ's love for him. If we could live in the confidence
of this. But you know what we do, and
we're so guilty of this. We start thinking, He's like
us. He's like us. And when we start thinking that,
we look around us and we see people who did love one another,
and they don't love each other anymore. And somebody says, well, how
in the world could you love somebody today and not love them next
week or next year? But that happens. And don't you
feel that in yourself? Don't you feel your own love
sometimes for your relatives or somebody growing cold? And
you think in yourself, could I stop loving that person? Yes,
you could. That's human love, ain't it?
That's human love. And sometimes because we see
this Hollywood-type love, You see the people out in Hollywood,
they're married and oh, they love each other with all their
heart, and next year they're divorced and they hate each other,
really, but they say, oh, I still love them. We think, what kind
of love is that? That's not Christ's love, brothers
and sisters. That's not His love. He says here in my text, what
shall separate us, who shall separate us from the love of
And then he mentions all of these things, tribulation, what people
can do to us, distress, what we feel in ourselves, persecutions,
the harm that people can do to us, the nakedness, famine, peril,
what comes upon us through nature. And the Lord Jesus says this.
He says, You know what I'm going to do to prove my love? He said, I'm going to open the
door and let all of these things come. Not to try you, but to try my
love. See, he has so much confidence
in his love for his people, he don't care to open the door and
just let it all come against you like a mighty flood, because
he says, you'll not separate them. Old peril you come, old
tribulations you come, old swords you come, famine you come, but
I tell you this, as mighty as you are, you'll not separate
them from my love." He's pretty confident. It's us that's doubtful,
you see. He knows. He knows. Let me show you three things
right quickly about the love of Christ in closing. Hosea chapter 14. If you go to Daniel,
turn to your right, and you'll find Hosea. If you go to Amos,
you've turned too far. Hosea chapter 14. Here's one
of the things that you and I cannot get a hold of concerning the
love of Christ. It's such a mystery to us. It's
difficult to believe it, and you can't believe it apart from
grace. Especially when you get in some dark places in your life,
and in some awful trials and temptations. This will be most
difficult to believe concerning the love of Christ, because it's
not like our love. It's not like human love. And
here's what he says about it in Hosea chapter 14, and look
in verse 14. I will heal their backsliding. Well, if it's me, I'd curse their
backsliding. If it's me, I'd say, I'm fed
up with you. But he says, no, I'm going to
heal their backslidings. I will love them freely. Freely. That word means without
any obligation on their part. Without looking for a cause found
in them. Why would Christ love anybody?
The cause is found in Him. Now, brothers and sisters, I
challenge anybody here this morning to look at anything or anybody
that you love and see what it is that motivates you to love.
And you know what? You'll find it in the object,
not in yourself. You've never loved anybody freely. That's not human love. Human
love has to be attracted. It has to see something in the
object. Then it says, oh, I love that.
But let that wear out. And you say, I don't love it
anymore. Let that person whom you love
and looked upon as attractive one time start hating you, and
it won't be long. I don't love that person anymore.
I got over them, thank God for it. But that's not Christ's love. His love is truly unconditional. He does not look at the objects
of it and find anything attractive in them. He loves them because
of what's in Himself. Freely. Can you get a hold of
that? And you look at yourself and
you say, boy, I still feel so bad. But what about when you
were dead in sin? How bad did you look then? How
bad were you then? And here's what the Scripture
says. That God, who is rich in mercy for His great love, wherewith
He loved us even when we were dead in sin. What was it in us
that attracted His love then? Nothing. Nothing. And there's still nothing in
you that attracts His love. The cause is found in Him. And
if the cause is found in Him, if He stops loving you, it ain't
going to be because of you. He's changed. And you know something? He says, I'm the Lord. I ain't
going to change. I never change. If He loved you
yesterday, Bob, He loves you today. If He loves you today,
He'll love you tomorrow. Because the love, the cause is
found in Him. Look here in Jeremiah chapter
31, over to your left. Jeremiah 31. Look in verse 3. Here's something
else that's amazing about the love of Christ. In chapter 31 of Jeremiah, in
verse 3, Jeremiah was a poor, destitute
prophet. They threw him down in the pits.
They cussed him. They hated him. They whipped
him. And the Lord appeared to him one day, and this is what
he said to him, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying,
Yea, I have loved thee." The Bible never says the Lord loves
us. It's always in past tense. I have loved thee. Lord, for how long have you loved
me? With an everlasting love. As long as there's been a God,
Glenn, He's loved you. As long as there's been a Christ,
He's loved you. From everlasting to everlasting,
I'm God. That's how long I've loved you,
from everlasting. You can't trace, you cannot trace
the beginning of the love of Christ to your soul. If He's
called you, if He's put His love in your heart, you love Him,
I tell you, you cannot trace its beginning. And you think
if it goes back that far, that it's suddenly just going to stop?
That something is going to separate you from it? Oh, we sin against Christ when
we think this about Him. One more place, look in John's
Gospel, chapter 13, and look in verse 1. John's Gospel, chapter
13, and verse 1. Now, before the Feast of the
Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should
depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his
own, how long had he loved them? From everlasting. Why did he
love them? How did he love them? Freely.
Having loved his own, which were in the world. They were still
in this world. What does that mean? That means
they were still in this rotten body of death. That means they
were still subject to sin and fall as they did. As long as
you and I are in this world, brothers and sisters, no telling
what situation we're going to find ourselves in. But He loved
His own even though they were in this world. I'm not surprised
that He loves them when they get to heaven. It'll be no surprise
there. We won't be concerned about it
there. We'll be free from these fears and doubts there. It's
right now, while I'm living in this world, I'm concerned to
know, will I be separated from the love of Christ? Does He love
me now, living in this God-forsaken world? Does He love me now? But he said, having loved his
own, which were in the world. And look at this. He loved them
until the end. He never quit loving Peter when
Peter said, I know not the man. He never quit loving them when
they all forsook him and went to their own house. He never
quit loving them when they had all these questions and doubts
that arose in their minds. Lord, how? How? How? That's what
Thomas kept asking and Philip kept asking. How, Lord? But you
know something? That didn't change His love for
us. I am persuaded that neither death,
nor life, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall separate us from the love
of Christ, the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus the Lord.
May God bless His Word. Let's pray.