No Condemnation, No Separation

Welcome to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Podcast, featuring the radio ministry of Pastor James W.

Knox of the Bible Baptist Church of Delane, Florida.

Our prayer is that these half-hour Bible study programs will bring the lost to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and enable the saved to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Savior.

Now here's your host, Pastor James W.

Knox.

Good day to one and all.

I'm Brother James, and I greet you one more time in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, and I welcome you to the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast.

This program is heard on this radio station and many, many others around the world.

By the grace of God and through the help of God's people, thank you for being a part of this radio ministry.

Others of you are watching a simulcast online, and we thank you for joining us.

There are advantages both ways, I suppose.

We started on the last program a series of Bible studies on the eternal security of the believer.

A controversial topic, needlessly so.

Controversial only because most people believe salvation is earned by good works.

And very few people believe that salvation is the gift of God, eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We believe that God sent his son into the world to suffer and bleed and die, to rise again, because there was no other way to be saved.

If man could save himself, God would not have sent his son to die.

If man could pay for his own sins, Jesus Christ would not have paid for the sins of the world.

We believe that.

And having believed that, we put our faith and our trust in what Jesus Christ did for us.

We don't put our faith and trust in what we do for Jesus Christ.

Our faith, our hope is in what God does for the sinner, not what the sinner does for God.

So when I say believer, I don't mean Roman Catholic or Episcopalian.

I don't mean Methodist or Presbyterian.

I don't mean Baptist, Independent Baptist, Southern Baptist, Northern Baptist, Eastern Baptist, Western Baptist.

We don't mean church member, church attender.

We mean those people who have put their faith and their trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ for the salvation of their soul.

We are persuaded from Romans 8, verse 38 and 39.

Romans 8:38

I'll read it to you again.

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 separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That persuasion is ours because the Holy Spirit wrote it in the Holy Bible.

The apostle recorded the words given by inspiration, inspiration of God.

They are preserved for us to this very day, so that we might know it's not a hope, it's not a wish, it's not a dream, it's not a maybe.

It is a certainty about which one may be persuaded that having trusted Jesus Christ as Savior, having been given a full free pardon of sin, having been justified by Almighty God, nothing will ever separate the child of God from his or her Heavenly Father.

On the last program, we talked about the matter of death.

Death cannot separate the believer from the love of God.

What about life?

That's an odd phrase.

Life can't separate me from the love of God.

Well, if I'm going to do anything wrong, it will be in life, it won't be after death.

If I'm to do anything that could put my salvation at risk, it would be done at life, it won't be done after death.

And there are those poor souls, many of them, who fear life in the same way that others fear death.

When Jesus spoke of the sufficient evil of every day in Matthew 6 and verse 34, when the Bible talks about wars and rumors of wars and earthquakes and pestilences and famines and all of these awful things that happen, it refers to men's hearts failing them for fear of the things which they see coming to pass upon the earth.

They look at the news of the day, they look at the headlines, they scan the web pages, they surf the channels, and all the reports are of evil and bad things and terrible people doing terrible things.

And the Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 8, some are pressed out of measure, above strength, even to the point that they despair of life.

2 Corinthians 1:8

What a sad condition.

But it's the case of many people.

Some of you listening to my voice right now, I'm not trying to be mean-spirited, I'm not trying to be critical.

But those medications that you're on and those uh counselors that you consult and those attempts that you make to calm yourself or to steady yourself, uh it's it's sad.

I I sympathize.

I feel sorry for you that life makes you afraid.

And there's a lot of fearful things that happen in life.

I'm I'm I'm not denying that.

Life can be filled with such hardships that many have thought that death would be a relief.

Can I name you a few?

Moses, David, Elijah, Jonah, Paul, Job.

That's that's quite a company of people we think are very strong men, very, very firm believers, but sometimes death is more than one can handle mentally, emotionally.

It's it's it's just our life more than one can handle.

It's just too much.

But God says in Romans 8 38, whatever may occur, throughout the course of one's life, there will be one constant if you're saved.

One constant.

God's love for his child abides.

Money may come and go, friends may come and go, health may come and go, in fact, health may go and never return.

But the love of God, nothing in this life will cause a retreat of God's love, a withdrawal of God's love, a severing of God's love.

You can count on that.

Some of you today are brokenhearted because a loved one is gone.

They passed through the door of death.

Others of you are torn emotionally, you're you're shaken because someone you trusted, loved, counted upon, has been unfaithful, has betrayed you.

Uh some of you have have had such uh setbacks.

You you live in a war-torn country or uh an economically ravaged country, a dictatorship, and and everything you worked for and labored for and enjoyed has been stripped away from you.

And life can be very, very hard.

Others of you are listening right now, watching right now, in places where you never really had anything to be taken away from you.

Born into poverty, raised in poverty, struggling in this very hour with poverty, life has not been good to you or for you.

But I'm telling you, whatever happens between sunrise and sunset, good or evil, whatever befalls you between the setting of the sun and the rising of the sun the following day, God's love is yours every hour of every day forever, if you have trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior.

That's what the Bible promises you.

And God wants you to be persuaded of that.

One writer said, the hope of life, the love of life, the offer of life made to us by our persecutors on condition of objuring our Christian faith, that's out there.

Many people around the world.

Do you want to live?

Deny Christ.

If you deny Christ, we'll let you live.

If you cling to Christ, we'll we'll put you to death.

That's a that's a tough choice to make.

The words in this verse of Romans 8 evidently refer to times of persecution.

It was not uncommon for persecutors to offer life to Christians on condition of their renouncing attachment to faith in their Savior, or offering a sacrifice to an idol or false god.

All that was demanded in the times of persecution under the Roman emperors was that they should just throw a few grains of incense, few grams of incense on the altar of a heathen god as an expression of homage to the idol.

But even this, the believers would not do.

The hope of life on so very easy terms would not, could not alienate them from the love of Jesus Christ.

I've been blessed, I really have been blessed, I've had a good life.

For the most part, I've really enjoyed my life.

But there have been some bad times.

There's been some deep, dark valleys, as the saying goes.

And from every mountaintop down into every valley, there was one thing I always took with me, even in times when I wasn't aware of it.

It was the love of God.

And on the way back out of those valleys to the next mountaintop, it soon became evident it wasn't my strength or my spirituality or my dedication that was elevating my life once again.

It was God's unfailing love.

My brother, my sister, God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

That's Romans chapter 5 and verse 5.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

How much more?

Now that we are his children, will his love for us be certain?

Sure.

You can, you must count upon it.

You have nothing else to count upon.

Then the verse says, uh, life, death, life will not separate us, nor angels.

There are evil angels.

Did you know that?

The Bible says in Psalm 78, 49, evil angels.

Oh, I saw an angel.

Well, that might not be a good thing.

I have an angel watching over me.

I hope it's a good one.

Oh, people are so shallow in their understanding of the Bible.

Evil angels, Psalm 78.49.

There are devil's angels.

Did you know that?

In Matthew 25, 41, Jesus says hell was prepared for the devil and his angels.

I don't like the sound of that.

There are fallen angels, Jude chapter 1, verse 6.

Jude 1:6

There are sinning angels, 2 Peter 2, verse 4.

2 Peter 2:4

There are deceiving angels.

2 Corinthians 11 verses 14 and 15.

2 Corinthians 11:14

Think about that.

Angels, angels, evil, devils, fallen, sinning, deceiving.

The world thinks very highly of angels.

Usually a safe substitute for God.

But they lack biblical knowledge that would help them to know that all angels are not good.

All angels are not something, someone you want to be associated with.

But we're assured in Romans 8 that whatever bad intents some of these angels who gave allegiance to Lucifer may have, they lack the power to take us out of God's love.

What a blessing.

Consider from a more positive angle, there is an innumerable company of angels and numberless saints of the ages past gathered around God's throne.

We read about that in Hebrews 12 and verse number 22.

So think about here's the throne of God, and around that throne are more angels than you could count, innumerable.

We don't even have a number for them.

And then in that company, all the saints of all the prior ages all gathered around that throne.

Their presence, their praise, their worship doesn't keep the love of God from continually reaching through and past them to fill our hearts.

In the Gospels, we read about a woman, and she had an issue of blood for twelve years, and she wanted to get to Jesus, and she had to fight her way there and could just barely reach and touch the hem of his garment.

Why?

Because, well, there was a few hundred villagers surrounding him.

Some friends brought a man uh lame because he had palsy, and they brought him on a bed, and the house was so full of people, a few dozen, that they couldn't get the man to Jesus.

They had to had to haul this crippled man up on the roof and tear the roof up and lower him down.

Well, suppose you got up this morning and your heart was heavy, you had a burden, or your heart was full of joy and you wanted to praise the Lord, and you thought, I can't get to him.

There's more angels than you can count, there's more saints than you can number, and they're all gathered around his throne and praising and shouting and singing and worshiping, and how could he even know I'm here?

And the Bible says, all of those angels combined cannot cut you off from the love of God.

It'll reach through any distance, through any crowd, through any opposition, through any obstacle, and it will be right there in your heart, every moment of your life, from the time you trust Christ till the time you're with him.

I'm persuaded of that.

That's what the Bible says.

Wesley pairs this verse with verse 34.

Uh Romans 8:34 says, Who is he that condemneth?

Romans 8:34

It is Christ that died, yea, rather than is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us.

Neither death, for Christ is dead, nor life, for Christ is risen, nor angels or principalities or powers, for Christ is seated at the Father's right hand, nor any other creature, for Christ maketh intercession for us.

It's amazing.

It's a blessing.

And then the scripture says, nor principalities nor powers.

You might recall in Job chapter one and chapter two, Satan took almost everything that belonged to Job.

But the love of God did not depart from him.

Saul hunted David, drove him from home, from friends, from family, from power, from prestige, from everything that was rightfully his.

But Saul couldn't cut David off from the love of God.

Jezebel sent Elijah running into a cave.

Pharaoh sent Joseph to prison.

The apostles were beaten and worse.

But nothing done by these principal figures, these principalities, these rulers, could separate the believers from God's love.

Nebuchadnezzar could throw Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael into the burning fiery furnace.

And there's the Lord right there walking with them.

He could imprison Daniel in a lion's den.

And here comes God's love to shut the mouth of those lions.

Principalities may be human-earthly rulers, according to Titus 3.1, Jeremiah 13.18, or mighty entities in heavenly places, according to Ephesians 6.12 and Ephesians 3.10.

But in either case, they were created by God.

Colossians 1.16.

And God reinforced his dominion over them when he rose from the dead.

Who's the superior power?

Well, it's no earthly power.

Pilate, high priest, soldiers, centurions, Caiaphas, Caesar?

Who would it be?

Well, who kept him from rising from the dead?

No one.

Oh, what about all those, all those crazy powerful beings up there in the heavenly places that the Bible mentions here and there?

And oh, they seem so so powerful, oh, so scary.

Well, none of them prevented the risen Christ from ascending all the way to the Father's right hand.

He is clearly, he is clearly the greater power when matched with any other power.

Of these principalities, the Lord wrote in Isaiah 24, verse 21.

Isaiah 24:21

Let's I want to read that one to you.

Isaiah 24, verse 21.

Isaiah 24:21

Of these principalities and these powers, whoever they are, whatever they are, we're not going to get into that today, but Isaiah 24, 21, the Bible says, and it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall punish the host of the high ones that are on high and the kings of the earth upon the earth.

And they shall be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in the pit and shall be shut up in the prison.

That's the Lord.

That's your Savior, Jesus Christ.

Are you saved?

That's your Savior.

Earthly kings.

He'll take them down whenever he's ready to do so.

Heavenly entities and beings, powerful supernatural spiritual forces.

He'll bring them down whenever He is ready.

My friend, are you persuaded?

Are you persuaded that there is nothing more powerful in your life than God's love for you?

Oh, it would help you.

It would help you not only to cope with life, but to ward off all this false teaching in Protestant churches and sacramental churches and evangelical churches and all the other religions that teach that your salvation depends upon your works.

If you don't do enough good works, and if you don't hold on strong enough, and if you don't live straight enough, God will throw you away.

That's not a Bible persuasion.

That's a religious persuasion.

And that persuasion calls upon you to trust in yourself, not in your Savior.

And self-trust is the very opposite of biblical Christianity.

Romans 838 goes on to say, nor things present.

Any listener right now, anyone listening right now, in any circumstance, enjoying any blessing, suffering any hardship, whatever is present, wherever you are present, in this moment, in every moment, the unfailing love of God toward his children abides.

Somewhere in this world, somewhere in this world, a man and a woman are rejoicing in the birth of a child.

And somewhere in this world right now, a man and a woman are experiencing the greatest pain known to human beings, the loss of a child.

Somewhere, somewhere in this world right now, a man and a woman are saying, I do, I do, and becoming thrillingly, blessedly, happily married.

And somewhere in this world right now, a man is in a courtroom putting away his wife.

A woman is in a courtroom putting away her husband.

Some people right now are celebrating peace.

Some people right now are experiencing the terrors of war.

Listener, hear me.

Friend, hear me.

If you are saved, if you know Jesus Christ is your Savior, whatever else may be present in your life right now, so too, equally so, more so, is the present love of God through Jesus Christ.

I have failed him.

I have doubted him.

I have served him.

I have proclaimed him.

I've had very, very good days and very bad days.

I've had days of extreme spiritual confidence and victory, and have had days of extreme spiritual doubt and defeat.

And I'm persuaded of this.

The love of God has never departed from my life.

Not for a day, not for an hour, not for a minute, not for a second.

You say, Brother James, how can you be so sure?

The God who cannot lie put it in writing in the pages of the Holy Bible.

Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, and this Word of God works effectually in you that believe.

Would you believe God?

Would you believe the Word of God?

Would you stop letting religious people and internet people and authors and friends persuade you that your salvation hangs by such a very thin and fragile thread as your good works?

No wonder you're afraid.

My salvation is not hanging by that thread.

My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness, on Christ the solid rock I stand.

And why wouldn't I?

All other ground is sinking sand.

My friend, the Bible says, You may be persuaded that the God who promised you everlasting life meant what he said, and that the God who gave you eternal life really did give you what he said he gave you.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved for time and for eternity.

If you don't know Christ as Savior, you need to get that settled today.

Please settle that today.

You've been listening to and watching the Preaching of the Cross Radio Broadcast.

We have dozens and dozens of books available to help you in your Christian life, thousands of hours of recorded sermons and Bible studies.

You can find them all at our website.

That's jameswnox.org.

You can just go online and click a little button for store or another button there for help for resources, all kinds of material there on that website.

If you're not an internet person, you can still contact us the old-fashioned way.

Our mailing address is 872 Glenwood Road, 872 Glenwood Road in D-Land.

D-E-L-A-N-D, Deland, Florida, the zip code number 32724.

That mailing address is in the USA.

The announcement will be on now in just a moment to let you know when you can hear this program again on this radio station.

We hope you'll join us then for the Preaching of the Cross radio broadcast.

Until that time, I'm Brother James.

May the Lord richly bless you, and good day.

Join us every weekday for another episode of the Preaching of the Cross Radio Podcast.

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Knox Sermons, our sermon audio page, Bible Baptistoland, or our website, Bible BaptistTaland.com.

Until next time and throughout eternity, may Jesus Christ be praised.