WEBVTT 00:00:18.480 --> 00:00:25.359 Today's reading is in Romans eight, verse thirty-one to thirty-nine, if you want to turn there in your own Bibles. 00:00:25.839 --> 00:00:30.559 And today's question is what can separate us from the love of God? 00:00:31.679 --> 00:00:37.920 So, Romans 8:31 says, What then shall we say to these things? 00:00:38.159 --> 00:00:41.039 If God is for us, who can be against us? 00:00:41.359 --> 00:00:49.200 He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 00:00:49.520 --> 00:00:52.240 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? 00:00:52.399 --> 00:00:55.359 It is God who justifies, who is to condemn. 00:00:55.679 --> 00:00:59.439 Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that who was raised. 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:13.359 He is the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us, who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 00:01:13.599 --> 00:01:20.159 As it is written, For your sake we are being killed all the day long, we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. 00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:25.040 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:41.760 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:43.359 And so reads God's word. 00:01:51.599 --> 00:01:59.200 If I can invite you to turn to the passage that that Anna read for us, which is the very end of Romans chapter 8. 00:01:59.280 --> 00:02:05.040 Either if you have a Bible with you or on your phone, just by searching for Romans 8 ESV. 00:02:05.120 --> 00:02:06.480 That's the English Standard Version. 00:02:06.560 --> 00:02:09.120 That's the the version that we that we go through. 00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:16.400 This is the uh the last uh sermon that we're doing uh in the book of Romans now for the next uh couple of months. 00:02:16.560 --> 00:02:26.800 We're taking a pause uh during the summer to go back into the Old Testament, look at the the Psalms, and so we pick up Psalm uh 77 next uh six. 00:02:27.039 --> 00:02:28.000 Psalm 76. 00:02:28.240 --> 00:02:34.400 Gus just freaked out because he's preaching Psalm 77, uh 76 uh next week. 00:02:34.560 --> 00:02:39.599 You can tell uh that uh that I don't know what's happening next week because I'm gonna be on holiday. 00:02:39.759 --> 00:02:45.840 Um and uh we will pick up Romans again in uh in the autumn. 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:54.000 This morning I really only have one point uh you will be delighted uh to know because you're probably looking at your watch and go, Mark's getting out a quarter past 11. 00:02:54.159 --> 00:02:59.120 Uh I just have one point that I'm just gonna repeat over and over and over again. 00:02:59.360 --> 00:03:16.080 The one point is uh is very simple but very profound, and one which we need to massage into our soul, because if we do, it will transform how we live today. 00:03:16.319 --> 00:03:32.639 Here's the one point that you need to take with you today it is that nothing and no one will separate a believer in Jesus from the love of God. 00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:33.919 I say that again. 00:03:34.159 --> 00:03:41.199 Nothing and no one will separate the believer in Jesus from the love of God. 00:03:42.080 --> 00:03:54.719 Between God and the one who is trusting in Christ, there is an indestructible bond of love that nothing and no one can break. 00:03:56.400 --> 00:04:22.800 This, in part, is what we're symbolizing uh today in the baptism of uh of Liam and Ruin and Victoria, that one of the things that has happened in their life is that that bond of love, that eternal, unbreakable connection, has been forged by God and between God and them, and that nothing and no one can separate them from him. 00:04:24.399 --> 00:04:29.519 And that is true for all those who are trusting in Jesus. 00:04:30.800 --> 00:04:55.120 Now, if you have been journeying with us from January when we started the book of Romans, the fact that Paul crescendoes here, the fact that Romans 8 concludes with such a monumental, glorious, beautiful truth, given where he started, is quite remarkable. 00:04:56.000 --> 00:05:14.720 Because in those opening chapters of Romans, what we were learning was that at base human beings are fundamentally estranged from God, almost irreconcilably separated from him. 00:05:15.199 --> 00:05:15.759 Why? 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:36.160 Well, because of our own willful refusal to acknowledge him as who he is, and our desire, rather than to acknowledge that truth, to suppress it and to follow any other small g god than the God who made us. 00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:39.120 You know, I don't follow small g gods. 00:05:39.199 --> 00:05:40.000 Well, we all do. 00:05:40.160 --> 00:06:07.839 That's Paul's point in Romans 1, that if we're not living for uh the God of all creation, the transcendent one of the cosmos who stands behind all things, then we're living for these substitute gods, gods like uh like money, sex, power, control, comfort, success, affirmation, intimacy, that we pour ourselves out for those things rather than the one who made them. 00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:12.639 We turn the gifts of his good creation into gods over us. 00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:18.879 And in doing so, we we harm ourselves and we harm others. 00:06:20.480 --> 00:06:24.720 And it is really no better, Paul goes on to say, for the religious person. 00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:36.800 The religious person and the non-religious person are equally as estranged from God, equally in need of his saving action. 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:55.680 The religious person is just as much given to pride, the religious person is just as much given to saying one thing and doing another, of setting a standard for themselves and for others, and then failing themselves to meet that standard. 00:06:55.759 --> 00:07:02.959 And so Paul said, well, if you're trying to kind of forge this link between God, it can't start from earth up. 00:07:03.120 --> 00:07:08.639 You can't try and build those links by your moral goodness. 00:07:09.199 --> 00:07:25.360 This is one of the things that we were talking about in Ruin's testimony, that this idea of exerting more willpower in keeping the rules doesn't save you. 00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:31.759 It cannot forge that bond of love between God and us. 00:07:33.759 --> 00:07:35.360 But God has acted. 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:52.720 And this is where the the fortunes of humanity in the book of Romans uh changed right at the end of chapter three, where Paul says that God has done what no human being could do, that God has done what the law, the rules, could not do. 00:07:52.959 --> 00:08:16.639 He has acted in history through the sending of his son, who lived perfectly under the rules, perfectly keeping them in a way that we could never do, and yet goes on to die for our rule breaking, for our sin, that it might be taken from us, that we might be freed from its penalty. 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:24.399 And then he then begins Romans chapter 8 with this great declaration that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 00:08:24.560 --> 00:08:25.600 What does he mean by that? 00:08:25.680 --> 00:08:35.519 Well, all of the uh all of the sin that would condemn you, all of the sin that would separate you from God has been dealt with. 00:08:35.679 --> 00:08:49.039 And so there's now no condemnation, and in its place there is this unbreakable, eternally secure bond of love that exists between God and the believer. 00:08:50.639 --> 00:08:52.960 This is true for every believer. 00:08:53.039 --> 00:09:05.039 And we heard in our interviews that we all come to realize this truth through 10,000 different ways, different times, different people, different testimonies. 00:09:06.960 --> 00:09:10.240 But the eternal reality is the same for each one of us. 00:09:10.480 --> 00:09:26.159 That between Jesus and the believer in Jesus, there is an inextricable, unbreakable bond of love that pulls us through into eternity that will never be thwarted. 00:09:28.879 --> 00:09:31.120 Paul says that that is true. 00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:49.919 So verse 28, for all those who are called by God, all those who have heard that call to follow him, and who have responded by faith and trust. 00:09:51.200 --> 00:09:54.000 The result is that this bond has been forged. 00:09:54.159 --> 00:10:01.679 And Paul, essentially, in these last nine verses, asks five rhetorical questions. 00:10:02.320 --> 00:10:06.399 The answer to all of the questions is no, nothing, no one. 00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:10.799 I'm a preacher, so I'm gonna answer them with more words than that. 00:10:11.039 --> 00:10:16.080 Um, and then he he gives basically a bunch of pairs. 00:10:16.159 --> 00:10:18.080 Uh, what can separate us from the love of God? 00:10:18.639 --> 00:10:20.399 Life, death, angels, demons. 00:10:20.559 --> 00:10:22.240 We'll look at what that means. 00:10:22.399 --> 00:10:30.399 But the point is the same, that there is nothing that can pluck you from your Savior's hand if you are a believer in Jesus. 00:10:30.799 --> 00:10:33.440 So let's unpack these five questions. 00:10:33.679 --> 00:10:39.120 Let me answer these rhetorical questions, even though the answer to all of them is essentially no. 00:10:39.360 --> 00:10:42.240 So verse 31, what shall we say to these things? 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:44.799 What are the things that he's responding to? 00:10:44.960 --> 00:10:59.360 Well, he's respond responding to this idea that God acts in eternity past to set his love upon people who don't deserve it. 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:08.960 And then he acts in history to save them, to do, to take their sin, declare them innocent, and preserve them through to glory. 00:11:09.440 --> 00:11:13.279 That is the the things that he is responding to in verse 31. 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:14.799 And so he asks that first question. 00:11:14.960 --> 00:11:19.600 If God is for us, who can be against us? 00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:36.240 If the Almighty God has set his love on you, then what opposition could you possibly face that would pluck you from his hand? 00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:38.879 That's what Paul's asking. 00:11:39.039 --> 00:11:40.559 And the answer is nothing. 00:11:41.039 --> 00:11:41.679 No one. 00:11:42.720 --> 00:11:57.519 If the one who has all power, all life, all goodness, all knowledge and all benevolence, if he is the one who has grabbed hold of you, who's going to wrestle you from his hand? 00:11:58.159 --> 00:11:58.960 Nothing. 00:11:59.200 --> 00:11:59.840 No one. 00:12:01.759 --> 00:12:04.639 Second question is there in verse 32. 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:14.240 It says, He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how would he not also with him graciously give us all things? 00:12:14.559 --> 00:12:15.519 What's he saying there? 00:12:15.679 --> 00:13:02.720 He's saying essentially, well, if God was willing to give the most precious thing he had in the person of his son, the Lord Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, the Prince of Heaven, if God was willing to send him to become the man of sorrows and to live that perfect life and to die that sacrificial death, if God was willing to give up the most precious thing that he had in order to make you his own, do you really think now that he will withhold something else that would not keep you secure and keep you through to his glory? 00:13:02.879 --> 00:13:12.639 Do you really think that if he was willing to give you Jesus to make you his own, that he'd say, well, I've given Jesus, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't want to give any more than that. 00:13:12.720 --> 00:13:19.600 No, no, no, Paul's saying he's given the most precious thing he has in order to secure you as his own. 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:30.320 He will not withhold anything that will ensure that you are kept by him all the way to glory. 00:13:32.879 --> 00:13:35.039 Third question, verse 33. 00:13:35.360 --> 00:13:38.720 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:41.360 It is God who justifies. 00:13:42.000 --> 00:13:43.200 Who is to condemn? 00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:44.320 Fourth question. 00:13:44.559 --> 00:13:53.360 Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, and who indeed is interceding for us. 00:13:54.080 --> 00:14:00.320 Verse 33 brings us dramatically back into that heavenly courtroom. 00:14:00.559 --> 00:14:15.600 And Paul is asking essentially, what charges in that heavenly courtroom, what sin, what wrongdoing is left to condemn you? 00:14:16.879 --> 00:14:35.279 If God has declared you innocent, if God has declared you righteous, and if God is the one who has done it, there is no one, there is no other jurisdiction that could overrule him, you are free. 00:14:35.600 --> 00:14:44.320 If God has declared you to be one who is righteous, that's what justification means, then who will overrule that sentence? 00:14:44.559 --> 00:14:46.639 Who will overrule that absolution? 00:14:46.879 --> 00:14:48.320 No one, nothing. 00:14:48.720 --> 00:14:56.480 Think about what that does to how you approach your shame and your guilt. 00:14:56.720 --> 00:15:02.080 Yes, there's a sense in which uh we still we still do wrong things. 00:15:02.480 --> 00:15:11.039 And there's a there is a right sense in which our awareness of that wrongness drives us back to our Father. 00:15:11.279 --> 00:15:27.200 But it drives us back to our Father because we are so assured that He has declared us innocent and will receive us back and reassure us again of that declaration over our lives. 00:15:27.360 --> 00:15:34.399 And so shame and guilt no longer need to estrange us, cause us to hide, right? 00:15:34.879 --> 00:15:36.879 That's what that's what sin always does. 00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:38.639 That's what it did back in the garden. 00:15:38.799 --> 00:15:39.200 What happened? 00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:44.639 Adam and Eve sinned, they hid from one another and they hid from the Lord God. 00:15:45.200 --> 00:15:48.399 Sin and shame will always cause you to withdraw. 00:15:48.480 --> 00:16:08.480 But if you know that there is an a there is an eternal, unbreakable declaration of you are innocent, your sin has been dealt with, you are righteous, then you will run back and you will claim again that glorious declaration that you are free, sin dealt with. 00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:15.120 So the next question, verse 34, flows quickly on the heels of that. 00:16:15.759 --> 00:16:17.440 Who can condemn you? 00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:20.159 Christ Jesus is the one who died. 00:16:20.320 --> 00:16:23.840 That is, your sin has already been condemned. 00:16:24.720 --> 00:16:25.360 Where? 00:16:26.720 --> 00:16:27.840 In Him. 00:16:30.639 --> 00:16:33.039 Remember what Paul said earlier in the letter. 00:16:33.200 --> 00:16:36.480 Jesus condemns sin in the flesh. 00:16:37.200 --> 00:16:38.080 Whose sin? 00:16:39.279 --> 00:16:40.240 My sin. 00:16:40.960 --> 00:16:41.759 Your sin. 00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:44.080 Whose flesh? 00:16:44.879 --> 00:16:46.320 His flesh. 00:16:47.759 --> 00:16:52.399 So what condemnation is left to separate you from your God? 00:16:53.200 --> 00:16:53.840 None. 00:16:56.720 --> 00:16:59.279 Notice as well what he's doing here in verse 34. 00:16:59.360 --> 00:17:02.559 So he's his whole point is to encourage you. 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:07.200 If you don't leave encouraged this morning, I've done this wrong, or you're not looking at it right. 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:13.599 His whole desire is to give you confidence and assurance. 00:17:14.720 --> 00:17:19.359 I want you to notice how it is that he does that in verse 34. 00:17:19.599 --> 00:17:23.440 How does he give you confidence, encouragement, and assurance? 00:17:23.839 --> 00:17:26.720 Let me read it to you again, see if you can notice what Paul's doing. 00:17:26.880 --> 00:17:28.160 Who is to condemn? 00:17:28.480 --> 00:17:30.799 Jesus Christ is the one who died. 00:17:31.039 --> 00:17:37.920 More than that, who was raised, who was at the right hand of God, who is indeed interceding for us. 00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:40.240 What's Paul doing? 00:17:40.319 --> 00:17:41.039 Did you notice? 00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:43.200 He wants to encourage you. 00:17:43.920 --> 00:17:46.000 He wants to give you confidence. 00:17:46.319 --> 00:17:47.599 He wants to assure you. 00:17:47.680 --> 00:17:48.960 And how does he do it? 00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:55.759 He takes your head and he focuses your attention on Jesus. 00:17:56.559 --> 00:18:01.359 He doesn't come and say, Oh, yeah, but you're like, you're such a great person. 00:18:02.880 --> 00:18:07.599 Like, Peter, you're so cool and like handsome and funny. 00:18:07.680 --> 00:18:19.680 And he doesn't, you know, and and Owen, like you're so good at like leading Wednesday central Bible study and on and you know Ross and David, the sound is amazing. 00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:23.119 You know, he doesn't come and massage your ego. 00:18:23.279 --> 00:18:29.440 He says, you want to be eternally confident, assured, encouraged. 00:18:29.759 --> 00:18:32.240 But don't look at, don't look at yourself. 00:18:32.559 --> 00:18:33.839 And you know that instinctively. 00:18:34.480 --> 00:18:35.359 Oh, okay. 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:37.599 Don't wanna don't want to do that too long. 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:39.039 He says, Don't look at yourself. 00:18:39.119 --> 00:18:46.079 Let me give you four ways in which you can behold who Jesus is. 00:18:46.559 --> 00:18:48.319 He died more than that. 00:18:48.559 --> 00:18:49.680 See, hot on the heels. 00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:50.799 He died more than that. 00:18:50.960 --> 00:18:52.000 He was raised to life. 00:18:52.079 --> 00:18:53.440 He didn't stay dead. 00:18:53.680 --> 00:18:54.799 And where is he now? 00:18:54.880 --> 00:18:56.960 Well, he's at the right hand of the Father. 00:18:57.119 --> 00:18:58.640 And what's he doing there? 00:18:58.960 --> 00:19:01.759 He's praying for you. 00:19:05.200 --> 00:19:07.920 Jesus died, that death for sin. 00:19:08.319 --> 00:19:10.079 And do you know what the resurrection does? 00:19:10.240 --> 00:19:12.000 Why the resurrection matters? 00:19:12.640 --> 00:19:19.119 The resurrection is the great yes and amen that Jesus really did die for sin. 00:19:20.160 --> 00:19:30.079 It is God's confirmation that sinners really can be forgiven, that we really can know the grace of God. 00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:40.000 Because Jesus was saying that he would give his life a ransom for many, that his death would be on behalf of others, that his death would be for sin. 00:19:40.559 --> 00:19:49.680 And if he stayed dead, if he's just in the ground somewhere outside of Jerusalem, then we have no idea whether or not that's really true. 00:19:49.839 --> 00:19:57.599 We have no idea whether or not his claims that he could take sin were actually verifiable. 00:19:57.920 --> 00:19:58.960 So what does God do? 00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:04.400 God raises him from the dead as proof, as confirmation. 00:20:05.440 --> 00:20:09.759 That you can be assured, that you can be encouraged, that your sin has been dealt with. 00:20:09.920 --> 00:20:13.599 If you are a follower, if you're trusting in Jesus. 00:20:14.960 --> 00:20:16.799 And so he's now at the right hand. 00:20:16.960 --> 00:20:17.920 What does the right hand mean? 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:24.240 Well, it's that place of rule, that place of authority over everything and everyone. 00:20:25.759 --> 00:20:28.640 The one who has died is now Lord of all. 00:20:30.079 --> 00:20:36.400 And if he is Lord of all, who on earth would seek to harm you eternally? 00:20:37.039 --> 00:20:41.680 And there at his right hand, at the right hand of God, he prays for you. 00:20:44.480 --> 00:20:56.640 You have been looking in this passage at uh different aspects of salvation, and one of the things that is is the father adopts us into his family. 00:20:56.799 --> 00:21:02.079 And last week we saw that the Spirit is praying for us, and now here the Son prays for us. 00:21:02.160 --> 00:21:08.640 You know that God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, those names will be evoked in the baptism a little bit later on. 00:21:08.720 --> 00:21:25.359 That God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that eternal community of perfect life-giving joy and love is concerned with you, concerned to bring you into that love. 00:21:26.799 --> 00:21:32.400 We see these verse 34, who is indeed interceding for us, he's praying for us. 00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:44.319 Think about that, believer, massage that into your soul and ask yourself the question what preoccupies Jesus' thoughts in heaven? 00:21:44.960 --> 00:21:49.279 Is it how cool the angels sound when they sing? 00:21:50.319 --> 00:21:57.680 Is it how glorious he looks and how much he loves his father? 00:21:58.000 --> 00:21:59.839 No, what preoccupies your relationship? 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:02.400 Redeemer's thoughts in heaven. 00:22:03.599 --> 00:22:04.240 You do. 00:22:06.960 --> 00:22:07.599 You do. 00:22:09.359 --> 00:22:11.599 He's interceding for us. 00:22:12.400 --> 00:22:14.640 He prays for you. 00:22:16.720 --> 00:22:24.720 Nothing can assure us more of his eternal and unbreaking love that he ever lives and pleads for us. 00:22:29.839 --> 00:22:32.880 And so Paul asks the fifth question. 00:22:34.559 --> 00:22:39.440 Can anything separate us from the love of Christ? 00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:52.240 Shall tribulation or distress or persecution, famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword, as it is written, For your sake we're being killed all the day long, we're regarded as sheep to be slaughtered? 00:22:52.960 --> 00:22:58.319 Can any of the things in this world Paul is asking break that bond that exists between you and Jesus? 00:22:58.559 --> 00:23:00.240 No, it can't. 00:23:00.880 --> 00:23:12.960 Then Paul quotes Psalm 44, and I think what's going on with the quoting of Psalm 44 is that he's essentially saying something like, It's always been this way. 00:23:14.079 --> 00:23:26.000 God's people have always been regarded and looked upon as weak, that we've always found ourselves at various points in history on the fringes of society. 00:23:26.160 --> 00:23:35.759 We've always felt marginalized and scorned and disregarded and had socially awkward moments, and we've always experienced the suffering of the world. 00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:39.680 There's the suffering that we feel in our own lives. 00:23:41.200 --> 00:23:46.480 And then there's the particular suffering of being persecuted as a follower of God. 00:23:47.519 --> 00:23:50.400 But none of it can separate us from his love. 00:23:51.759 --> 00:23:54.079 No, in fact, Paul goes on, verse 37. 00:23:54.160 --> 00:23:59.119 He says, No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 00:23:59.519 --> 00:24:06.720 Paul wants to emphasize how wonderful it is that nothing can separate you from the love of God. 00:24:06.880 --> 00:24:08.640 That he makes up a new word. 00:24:09.519 --> 00:24:18.640 More than conquerors in the English is actually one new, unique to Paul, unique in this moment word. 00:24:19.039 --> 00:24:21.279 It is essentially hyper-conqueror. 00:24:21.519 --> 00:24:26.400 You are a super-conqueror because of Jesus. 00:24:27.519 --> 00:24:34.000 You know, a conqueror, a great man like Napoleon or Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar. 00:24:34.079 --> 00:24:37.200 Yeah, because we we men, we think about the Roman Empire quite frequently. 00:24:37.359 --> 00:24:46.160 So uh those great conquerors may be victorious in the field of battle for a day. 00:24:46.720 --> 00:24:49.599 Or a person who succeeds at all they do. 00:24:50.640 --> 00:24:53.119 Even those, one day they will come to an end. 00:24:53.279 --> 00:25:00.880 One day all conquerors eventually either fail or they die, but not the super conquerors, not the hyper-conquerors. 00:25:01.039 --> 00:25:01.359 Why? 00:25:01.519 --> 00:25:04.799 Because death doesn't break the bond. 00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:10.799 Death only ushers us into the ever nearer presence of the one who loved us. 00:25:13.519 --> 00:25:22.240 And so, as though that's not enough, Paul heaps more onto our plate. 00:25:22.400 --> 00:25:28.640 This is the this is the dessert buffet at the end of this section of Romans. 00:25:28.720 --> 00:25:33.920 We've gone through, we've gone through the kind of fairly bitter salad starter of the opening chapters. 00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:38.400 You go for a buffet, you're like, I should probably, I should probably have some salad, right? 00:25:38.480 --> 00:25:38.799 Okay. 00:25:38.880 --> 00:25:55.039 Uh and then you get into the real meat of things, uh, where we're learning about the uh the sacrificial death of Jesus and what it means to be either in Adam or in Christ, and all of those things that just kind of over the last few months have just been pickling our brain. 00:25:55.200 --> 00:26:05.599 And then in Romans chapter 8, he's leading us to the desserts and he's heaping more great treats onto our plate and saying, Don't enjoy this one, enjoy this. 00:26:05.839 --> 00:26:06.640 You don't like that one? 00:26:06.799 --> 00:26:08.480 Well, also have this as well. 00:26:08.640 --> 00:26:16.240 And so he's heaping up and he finishes with these great pairings in these final couple of verses. 00:26:16.400 --> 00:26:17.200 Look at them with me. 00:26:17.519 --> 00:26:41.359 38, for I am sure, and the older versions, for I am persuaded, I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. 00:26:41.680 --> 00:26:43.519 Neither death nor life. 00:26:45.279 --> 00:26:46.480 What does that encompass? 00:26:46.640 --> 00:26:50.160 Well, that encompasses the whole realm of human experience. 00:26:51.279 --> 00:26:53.119 Life, death. 00:26:54.160 --> 00:27:01.440 There is nothing in that realm of human experience that can separate you from the love of God. 00:27:02.559 --> 00:27:08.000 No death, no grief will be able to pluck you finally from his hand. 00:27:08.400 --> 00:27:18.559 Yes, there will be seasons where you must strain through the clouds of sorrow to perceive his love. 00:27:19.119 --> 00:27:31.759 But Paul is wanting to assure you that behind those clouds, there is an enduring providence, that nothing in the realm of human experience can separate you from his love. 00:27:32.000 --> 00:27:34.000 Neither angels nor demons. 00:27:35.519 --> 00:27:43.759 Paul was in the realm of human experience, and I were in the realm of spiritual experience, that there is nothing in that unseen realm. 00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:52.319 There is no power forged against you that can pluck you out of your Savior's hand. 00:27:52.640 --> 00:28:06.480 There is nothing that would that would seek to scare or menace you, that could take you away from your savior, nothing that can accuse you. 00:28:17.359 --> 00:28:18.400 It's your sin. 00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:23.920 Satan is uh not a guy with horns and a pitchfork. 00:28:24.000 --> 00:28:26.240 Satan's a prosecution lawyer. 00:28:26.480 --> 00:28:28.880 If you're a lawyer here, I'm sorry. 00:28:31.680 --> 00:28:34.319 He's a great prosecutorial lawyer. 00:28:34.640 --> 00:28:38.799 He stands in that heavenly court and he says, God, you are a holy judge. 00:28:39.599 --> 00:28:41.759 Look at what Mark has done. 00:28:42.240 --> 00:28:50.640 Look at the things that Mark has thought, look at the things that Mark has said, the way he has acted, the things that have happened in secret that nobody knows about. 00:28:52.160 --> 00:28:53.279 You're a holy judge. 00:28:53.359 --> 00:28:55.599 How can you possibly let him into your heaven? 00:28:55.759 --> 00:28:58.000 And do you know what my problem is at that moment? 00:28:58.559 --> 00:29:01.839 Everything that the prosecution has said is true. 00:29:03.440 --> 00:29:14.880 But this is why we're back to this question of who can condemn, because what has happened on the cross on Good Friday is Jesus has taken that charge sheet and he has died for it. 00:29:14.960 --> 00:29:16.559 He has paid the penalty for it. 00:29:16.720 --> 00:29:21.119 He has disarmed Satan of his chief weapon, which is my sin. 00:29:21.759 --> 00:29:27.359 So neither angels nor demons can separate us from the love of God. 00:29:28.160 --> 00:29:30.640 No things present nor things to come. 00:29:31.359 --> 00:29:34.079 Can anything in your past separate you from Jesus? 00:29:34.400 --> 00:29:34.720 No. 00:29:35.359 --> 00:29:39.680 Can anything that you might do or befall you in the future separate you from Jesus? 00:29:40.240 --> 00:29:40.559 No. 00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:44.160 Neither height nor depth. 00:29:44.640 --> 00:29:48.000 Paul has been in past and future, that's the realm of time. 00:29:48.079 --> 00:29:52.640 And here Paul is in the realm of sp in the realm of space. 00:29:52.880 --> 00:29:55.039 Again, he's encompassing everything. 00:29:55.119 --> 00:30:00.960 That there is no circumstance, no event, no sin, no situation that can separate you from Christ. 00:30:01.359 --> 00:30:11.920 You are held secure by him, kept forever by his love, brought safely and securely through every trial, through every suffering into his eternal glory. 00:30:12.079 --> 00:30:13.599 You cannot wreck it. 00:30:15.200 --> 00:30:17.200 You cannot wreck it by your sin. 00:30:17.359 --> 00:30:18.000 Why? 00:30:18.880 --> 00:30:23.680 Well, if you didn't earn your salvation, you can't unearn it. 00:30:26.319 --> 00:30:28.559 There is an unbreakable bond. 00:30:28.799 --> 00:30:30.160 Why does any of this matter? 00:30:30.319 --> 00:30:31.519 So that's one point. 00:30:31.759 --> 00:30:34.400 Let me just give you a couple of reasons why this matters. 00:30:35.440 --> 00:30:44.640 Of course, Paul wants to assure you that if you are trusting in Christ, but you worry about the persistent presence of sin, he's saying, take heart. 00:30:44.799 --> 00:30:46.720 Christ will not let you go. 00:30:47.200 --> 00:30:50.400 Keep fighting with all of the strength that he supplies. 00:30:50.960 --> 00:30:53.279 If you've fallen down, get up again. 00:30:56.799 --> 00:31:00.160 He also wants to give us a kind of humble confidence. 00:31:00.400 --> 00:31:06.000 The bond of love that exists between God and us is not something that was created by us, but by him. 00:31:06.720 --> 00:31:11.680 But because it was created by him, it's forged with unbreakable links. 00:31:11.759 --> 00:31:15.200 And so we can have a confidence to live for him. 00:31:15.440 --> 00:31:31.359 We can have a confidence to go out and speak of him to the world, knowing that whatever happens, however people respond, however weak are witness, his love for us remains eternally with us. 00:31:32.799 --> 00:31:58.160 And finally, he gives us these things in order that we might have an unassailable joy, unassailable because it's a joy that exists through every season of life, a joy that preserves and perseveres through every trial, a joy that seeks us through every pain, a joy that transcends the circumstances of this life and roots itself far deeper than mere happiness. 00:32:08.559 --> 00:32:12.240 That is what Paul would seek to encourage you with this morning. 00:32:12.880 --> 00:32:18.559 Can anything separate you, if you are a believer in Jesus, from the love of God? 00:32:19.440 --> 00:32:19.759 No. 00:32:20.480 --> 00:32:21.200 Nothing. 00:32:21.839 --> 00:32:22.400 No one.