Oh Love That Will Not Let Me Go - Romans 8:28-39

Thank you for joining us at Key Life Fellowship for our Pulpit

Ministry Podcast. Each sermon on this podcast is

from our 11:00 AM Sunday service.

We are glad that you have joined us digitally, but would love to

see you in person on Sunday mornings at either 9:00 AM or

11:00 AM. Now let's open God's word and

ask Him to reveal His truths for our lives.

Romans chapter 8 Today, beginning in in verse 28, we're

Romans 8 · chapter mention

going to read all the way through the end of the chapter,

Paul writes. And we know that in all things

God works for the good of those who love him who have been

called according to his purpose. For those God fore knew He also

predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he

might be the first born among many brothers and sisters.

And those he predestined he also called.

And those he called he also justified.

Those he justified he also glorified.

What then shall we say in response to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all,

how will he not also along with him graciously give us all

things? Who will bring any charge

against those whom God has chosen?

It is God who justifies. Who, then, is the one who

condemns? No one.

Christ Jesus, who died more than that who was raised to life, is

at the right hand of God, and is also interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall trouble or hardship, or persecution, or famine, or

nakedness, or danger, or sword. As it is written, for your sake,

we face death. All day long we are considered

as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are

more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

For I'm convinced. But neither death nor life,

neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the

future, nor any powers, neither height nor death nor anything

else, and all creation will be able to separate us from the

love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen. Our passage today is a familiar

one, isn't it? If if you've read the Bible at

all, you've probably heard these verses that we've just.

Read, Quoted One way or another. You have heard no doubt, Romans

828, that that God works all the things for the good of those who

love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.

You have maybe heard that nothing can separate us from the

love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

You maybe heard that we are more than conquerors through Him who

loved us. You may have heard, if God is

for us, who can be against us, all of these beautiful truths?

Have almost become Christian cliches that we erase from the

context that they are here in Romans chapter 8.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

And these verses that we're at today belong in one of the most

profound chapters in all of Scripture, all of which here in

Romans 8 applies specifically and only to the believer in

Christ Jesus. Martin Luther said of this

passage He he said that if the Bible were a ring.

Then Romans chapter 8 would be the diamond at the center of

Romans 8 · chapter mention

that ring. I believe if you took Romans

Romans 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8 and you were to take the rest of the Bible and throw

it out, though, you should never do and just take Romans 8, you

would have enough truth. You would have enough doctrine.

You would have enough about Christ and about what he has

done and who he is, that you would never need anything else.

You would never get to the bottom of all these truths.

You would spend your whole life, and probably the life to come.

Grappling and and trying to understand all that's there and

continuously being overwhelmed by it.

Just to give us kind of some context, this chapter speaks of

Christ freeing us from condemnation in our rule of sin

by his substitutionary death. It speaks of life through the

indwelling Holy Spirit. It it speaks of our adoption as

sons unto God. It speaks of the sanctifying

power even of suffering. It speaks of the doctrine of

Providence. Foreknowledge, predestination,

effectual call, justification, glorification, and even eternal

security to just begin to scratch the surface, might I

add, our verses today, verses 28 through 39, are some of the most

theologically rich in all of the Bible.

We can spend months, literally months, attempting.

To get to the bottom of these verses and if you were here for

our Monday night or Wednesday night, what night did we have?

Men's Bible Study Thursday night?

There's so many Bible studies Is I got a shameless plug here?

If you're not a part of a Bible study at Key Life Fellowship,

there's ample opportunities Get in one.

But on our men's Thursday night Bible study, it took it took us

two months, 7 studies to go through these verses.

Some of us thought that was bad. When are we ever going to get

the verse 31 right? Martin Lloyd Jones in the 1900s

in in in London, it took him 20-4 weeks to preach to these

verses between 5:00 and six months.

And so this goes without saying that more qualified men have

dealt with in detail these verses we're looking at today.

But the goal for this morning is not to give a deep dive study on

everything that we see here. No, we will talk about these

things. The goal this morning is to see

the driving point. Behind all of these verses, that

is very basic yet often overlooked for our title today.

Oh love that will not let me go. This love of God for some of us

who have been studying the Bible and we are committed to biblical

truth. We don't want to have our ears

tickled by just the love of God. Can I say something?

Maybe we have overcorrected in running from maybe being afraid

of the love of God because we have been so committed to the

true gospel that in my life maybe sometimes I have neglected

the great love of God. We see this in these verses, and

I and I say these things greatly to our shame, from this text

alone. We see that the love of God

first is an always love. It's an always love.

Verse 29 tells us that this always love was first rooted in

the past. Look with me if you will in

verse 29 for those God for new He also predestined to be

conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first

born among many brothers and sisters.

Very clear. Let's talk about the word for

new, He for new. What is foreknowledge?

Forknowledge is not. Simply that God knows what's

going to happen before it happens.

That's his omniscience. God knows all things.

His foreknowledge is something a little bit deeper.

In fact, First Peter chapter one, verse 2 says that we were

chosen according to the foreknowledge of God.

What is this foreknowledge? Is it that God, as so many have

wrongfully thought that God looks into time and sees you

making a good choice And then therefore I choose to say them

absolutely not. That would be us doing

something. Foreknowledge is so much.

Deeper and so much more beautiful than just God knowing

something before it happened. $4.00 refers to God intimately

knowing someone before. Scripturally, when we see God

knowing of humans, it's not that he knows they exist or has has

this cognizant reality that yeah, there's a human being

there and their name is Andy or their name is Andario.

This is not that. God knows these things.

It is that he has a special interest in those whom he knows,

Arthur Pink said about this same concept that they When we read

in scripture of God knowing certain people, the word is used

in the sense of knowing with approbation and love.

Not that it's up here, it's that God knows them intimately in the

Garden of Eden. Adam knew his wife, right?

He didn't just know that there was a woman there.

He intimately knew her. When God knows people, he knows

them intimately. The Bible backs the truth up as

well. Not just the quote.

I just gave you Amos 3 verse two, talking about the chosen

people of God, the Israelites. You alone?

Have I chosen or known? Deeply loved.

You alone have I known? Is it that God doesn't know the

other nations of the world? Does he not know they exist?

No, He has a special affection for his people.

Deuteronomy 7 verse two says the Lord did not set his affection

on you and choose you because you were more numerous than all

other people, for you are the fewest of all peoples, he says.

You Israelites, remember this. You were nothing.

You had nothing to offer. You had no worse.

Yet I chose you. Here's why.

But it was because he loved you. This is the root in the past

that God for knew all his own people, not just for knew them,

but for loved them. Jeremiah 31 verse three says, I

have loved you with an everlasting love.

No beginning, no end. It is steadfast, It is eternal.

It is everlasting. This is foreknowledge.

And when we grasp this we are so deeply humbled.

Or we should be? Now on the flip side, when Jesus

says in Matthew 7, depart for me.

I never knew you. You know he's not saying I

didn't know you. Who are you?

I don't know who you are. He's saying I never intimately

loved you. You were never mine.

But for us who were in Christ, we have this hope that before

time began, God loved us, God knew us, and those who were for

loved or forknown, it says in verse 29.

He did predestined to be conformed to the image of his

Son, that Christ loved us, we sinned, we rebelled against God.

And yet he loved us and chose us out of His love for a purpose,

to be like his Son, Jesus Christ.

So Christ died to save you, to save me, because the Father has

always loved you and I. That's why Christ died, Pink

continues in his thoughts here, and he says that God's elect

stood present before his mind. They were foreknown by him and

they were the definite object of his eternal love.

God said his love upon us. He said it.

It was uninfluenced. Nobody said I think you should

love Jake because they would have never said that.

And everybody who knows me says Amen.

God did not ask anyone else should I love them.

He didn't have a committee. He he he didn't go out to the

outer aliens. And say what do you think about

these people that never happened?

God's love is uninfluenced God. God loved and loves because he

loves and because he is loved. There's nothing that changes his

love. He just loves this love.

This is always love is rooted in the past and foreknowledge.

It is also revealed. In the present we look together.

In verse 28. This verse hopefully we love.

And if this verse is new to you, like it was to all of us at one

point in time, it should blow us away.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those

who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose.

This is the doctrine of Providence, perfectly stated,

that God is working all things for the good of his own.

How does that work? I don't know.

My life looks like it's terrible.

How is God working for the good? Not quite.

Sure, maybe we never see it on this side of eternity, but we

can know that God is somehow working it for our good.

How many times in your daily life has God provided for you?

Has he cared for you? Has he, as we like to say,

showed up so many times? There were no answers.

The math wouldn't do. There's no way we can make ends

meet and then somehow God provides.

Somehow God works the times that are tough and the times that are

trying. How am I going to get it?

Make it through. Why am I going through this?

Because God is working it for your good if you are in him.

Oh what hope? What promise?

We can hold fast to that. God has revealed His always love

in the present. It's deeper than just today,

though. This is deeper than just the

day-to-day. God is just doing things.

He says in verse 30 that the predestined those who were

foreknown and chosen by God, they're then called, not just

called, hearing it with their ears.

This is an effectual internal call that every person who was

foreknown and chosen by God hears and answers.

This cannot be resisted by those who God has fore loved.

This is an irresistible grace call.

That God chose to give out to his own.

Some of you remember this day. Oh, we should go back to this

day. All the time that God called me,

He drew me. That that we heard the good

shepherd's voice, He called us into his fold.

This is because His eternal love has been revealed in the

present. And do you remember when you

were called the love of God just overwhelmed you?

I love to hear from people who are just literally overwhelmed

by God's love. They don't even know what to

say, because how could God love me?

How could God love me? I'll tell you how he could love

you because he sought to love you in spite of you before you

were ever born. He said his love and his

affection on you. Christian, He called us.

This call supersedes our plans, doesn't it?

We might have had great plans for our life.

It had nothing to do with God. It had everything to do with the

love of our sin. But God and His grace and his

love interrupted. Isn't it good that God's love is

not just an affirming love, it's a calling out love.

It's a hatred to affirm the things that God hates.

There's a trend Trend today. Is your church in affirming

church to affirm certain sins that we like to celebrate in the

month of June? Yeah, Our church is in affirming

church. We affirm sin, flee from it.

We affirm Christ. He's Lord.

We affirm Christ. He's Savior.

We affirm Christ. He's risen.

We affirm You should repent and turn to Christ.

That's our affirmations. We're in affirming church.

Congratulations. But if God had just affirmed us

in our sin, would He ever call us out of our sin?

Would He ever reveal to us our need for Him?

Absolutely not. True love sometimes presses

where it hurts. Sometimes true love does not

affirm. True love calls out.

And the perfect true love of God called us from our sin to trust

in Jesus Christ. And it says here the called are

justified. Guaranteed.

Wiped away all their sin. God declared and made righteous

by God, you say? Wait a minute.

I don't feel righteous. God says you are.

You're justified if you're in him.

What hope you know what we can do to be justified?

Nothing. You know what Christ has done to

justify us. Everything.

It's all in him. It's all him.

He called He justified. He declares righteous and then

he says the justified he also glorified.

This tells us that the always love of God remains in the

future. All of this in verse 30 is past

tense. Notice that that we think of

being glorified. Isn't that when you die, aren't

you dead and you're glorified? And then and that How are we

glorified in the past? Because the love of God says

it's as good as done. Because God's plan is so

unsportable and unchangeable that it is good as glorified

because of the love of God, your future is fixed.

My future is fixed. Love that began in eternity past

will carry us to eternity future.

Never to fail, never to waver, never to change.

Because the sovereign, always love of God, always plays out to

save fully His eternally beloved.

Wouldn't it be a shame? With it, if God fore knew us and

chose us and called us and justified, and then after that

we just had to figure it out on our own, because we would, as we

say in the South, we would be up the Creek without a paddle, what

do we do if it weren't for the love of God that carries us to

the end? Why is this?

Why? Why can't we?

Why can't we have this hope that his love will remain in the

future? One word 4 letters Love, you

say. Wait, wait a minute.

We can have assurance that his love will carry us to the future

Because of love. Yes, Abuses one.

Verse four and five says in love he predestined us to adoption,

to sonship. In love, he predestined, He

chose us out of his love. He's not going to unchoose.

He's not going to unadopt. He's not going to kick you out

of his house. The truth is that God loves you

if you're in Christ now the exact same as He loves you in

eternity. And He will love you for all of

eternity. Why?

Because it's based on Him and not us.

And so the idea of losing your salvation ends right here,

right? Completely gone.

Blown away. But if we keep reading.

We're going to beat that dead horse a little bit more.

It's going to become clearly evident that you cannot lose

what God has set forth to do. It's an always love.

Secondly, it's an adamant love. Adamant love.

God is adamant about showing His love and proving to us that He

does love us. It's an adamant love that causes

us to stand firm in the love of God.

Verse 31, of course. It doesn't just end in verse 30,

the thought continues. If you learn to read your Bible

without the subheadings, it helps so much reverse 30 to 31.

What then shall we say in response to these things?

What things? What he's just been saying for

the last three verses? If God is for us, who can be

against us? This is a simple rhetorical

question that we should all answer nobody.

Nobody who can stand against God.

Isn't that just the basic elementary truth that God is all

powerful and everybody else is not?

Who can stand against him? Who can stand against us?

If we are in Him, how do we respond to God's love?

This is His response. We respond confidently.

We respond confidently to God's love.

Now, if we will read the verse a little bit differently than a

lot of times, we will see this first taken way out of context.

A lot of times, just to prove, I don't know, for a football game,

if God is for us, who can be against us?

What about the other team? Is God for them?

Or maybe what if they're God's in a conflict here, right?

No, not at all. We respond confidently and

humbly when we read this first like this.

What shall we say in response to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

See the confidence and the emphasis is on God.

The emphasis is not on us, not on our endeavors, not on ours

striving, not on our effort. But it's on the God who has

eternally loved and has been adamant about showing this love.

What can we say? We got all we need.

We have God. It's an adamant love that

contains secondly, solid proof for the love of God.

Isn't it wonderful that God didn't just say he loved you,

but he showed it and he proved it and we see more in these

verses. He's going to prove it over and

over and over and over again. But this solid proof is in verse

32. He God, who did not spare his

own son but gave him up for us all.

Here's an action, Here's a giving.

If you have kids, some of you guys, or maybe you are a kid or

you've been a kid at some point in time with siblings.

If you had a good parent, they told you, don't just say you

love them. Actually, what?

Show it. Yeah, it doesn't mean anything

unless you show it. God shows it.

God acts by giving and his gift was Jesus.

He did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all.

God the Father sent Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son,

to this world to be, as John 129 says, the Lamb of God, who takes

away the sin of the world, the most elementary verse that we've

ever known in our whole life, John 316.

For God so loved the world that he what gave his only Son, He

loved, so he gave, He loved, so he acted.

He gave his son for those four loved people to save the US from

our sin by his substitutionary death.

He didn't just give his son as an example, He didn't just give

his son. So we can say, oh man, that's

super nice that he would give his son and have to go through

life and stuff. That's terrible.

He gave his son unto death. He sent his son to the old

rugged cross To bear the nails, to bear the beatings, to bear

the scourging, To bear the spit in the face, To bear the spear

and the side, and to bear the eternal wrath of his Father for

all of us. And so if you want to see real

love, don't look to a spouse. They'll let you down.

Don't look to a pastor, They'll let you down.

Look to a friend. They'll let you down.

Don't look to anyone else. They'll let you down.

Don't see real love. Look to the cross.

As Christians, we should run to the cross.

We should live at the cross. We should be constantly going to

the cross of Jesus Christ in times of trouble, in times of

good, in times of bad, in times of sin.

We should be so fixing our eyes on the cross that nothing in

this world matters. And if you're a non believer

today, I beg you, you run to the cross today and find eternal

salvation in him and him alone. The cross should be our most

frequent vacation spot. If you don't make a habit of

fixing your eyes and fixing your life upon the cross of Jesus

Christ, I beg you to It's our only hope, the only source of

true love. But God.

God doesn't love us because Jesus died for us.

Understand this. Jesus died for us because God

loves us well. This is a beautiful truth.

Then at creation, wasn't there the loving God before, Before

creation, we've already tackled this.

At creation He needed nothing, wanted nothing.

But out of His own good pleasure and will and love, He created

mankind. And out of love He put them in

the garden. And he they were to walk with

Him and and talk with Him. And they were, they were, they

were to be in perfect harmony and peace, and they were to rule

over all the animals. And out of love He gave them one

command, to not eat from the fruit of the knowledge of good

and evil. And in their disobedience and

sin and lack of love toward the God who loved them, they ate the

one fruit and sent mankind into the curse of sin.

Ever since that we are still under but God in his perfect

time He sent Jesus Christ, born of a virgin woman, to come and

to live a sinless perfect life as fully man and fully God, and

then to lay his life down onto the cross to bring us into the

eternal love of God that we had been separated from because of

our sin. Aren't you thankful for Jesus?

Then he says he gave himself up for us all.

How will he not also along with him graciously give us all

things? Now he's not talking about.

Give us all things that we want. Some of the things that he's

talking about here is that all things in Christ.

Ephesians, one verse 3 says that we have been blessed with every

spiritual blessing in Christ. Every single spiritual blessing.

We have it. If we're in Christ.

Nobody's missing out. There's no second blessing.

You got it all when you got Christ.

He's all you need. He's giving us all these things.

And secondly, he's giving us all the things to finish.

The purpose for choosing US1 of the purposes is that we would be

rooted and established in love. Feesians, one verse 17.

Paul praise that we would be rooted and established in love,

but not just to be rooted and established in love for each

other, but to be rooted and established in knowing the love

of God for us, and in this in us knowing God's love.

And in us showing God's love, we will begin to be conformed to

the image of Jesus Christ, who is love.

A true Christian, a mature Christian, will grow in their

love for other people. Jesus, in fact, said this in the

Gospel of John, that they will know you to his disciples by

your love for one another. How do people know you disciple

of Jesus Christ? They know you by your love.

Or do they know you by that person who goes to church?

Do they know you by your distinct love for God and for

others? They should.

That's a mark of a mature, growing Christian who is

conforming to the image of Jesus Christ, which he loved us and

chose us to conform to. It's an adamant love, isn't it?

There's no doubts left. And if there were any doubts,

Paul's going to just hammer us with any more doubt killers than

verse 33. These are substantiated claims

because of the love of God. Verse 33 he says this Who will

bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?

It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who

condemns? No one Christ Jesus who died

more than that it was raised to life, is at the right hand of

God and is also interceding for us. 5 substantiated claims here

that we see from these two verses.

The 1st is that God has justified.

God has dropped the charges. God has declared us righteous.

Who can condemn no one? Romans 8 verse one says.

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those of us who

are in Christ Jesus. It's gone.

Jesus came and was condemned for us to save us from our

condemnation. And God justified.

Meaning this there's no one higher than God.

Everybody agrees that right hope we know this by now.

God is the highest judge. If God says justified, who can

say I object your honor no one who can condemn not a soul

because God is justified. Secondly, Christ died.

He sent Christ to die. The Father crushes the Son under

the weight of His eternal wrath for all of our sin.

And he didn't just do this because he's some mean tyrant.

He did it in love. The greatest act of love is the

wrath of God poured out on the Son of God.

Why? Because his eternal love was set

on his eternally beloved ones. And Christ Jesus took on our

sin, and God the Father punished him on our behalf.

Why? Because he loved us, and he

loved us so much. And he hated our sins so much

that the only perfect sacrifice that would be fitting was his

only begotten Son. 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 21.

The great gospel hope that he who knew no sin Jesus Christ

became sin for us so that in him we may become the righteousness

of God. God is then the just justifier

because he punishes Jesus and lets us off free the pot.

The the fine has been paid in Jesus.

You trust in Jesus, you are justified, you are washed clean.

No more debt you owe to God the Father praise God, Christ has

died. Secondly, thirdly, Christ has

resurrected says more than that He was raised to life.

Romans 4 verse 25 says he was raised to life for our

Romans 4:25

justification. Now wait, I thought he died for

our justification. Then it says he's raised for our

justification. Every time Jesus talks about his

death when he's on this earth and the Gospels, he doesn't just

say I'm going to die. He says I'm going to die and we

hand it over to crucified and three days later I will

resurrect. I heard it explained to me like

this that the death of Christ was the payment and his

resurrection was the receipt. He proved it.

Not only did I die, but I rose again to prove all that I said I

would do. All that I have actually done is

actually valid. He resurrected, He was not

resuscitated. He rose to new life and then

shortly after he was exalted, He was exalted.

It says to the right hand of the Father.

Meaning this, Jesus Christ now has full rights and all

authority under heaven and on earth, right Great Commission.

Jesus Christ has all authority, all authority to judge, all

authority to justify. And his verdict is that they're

free. They're free.

Because I have died and resurrected, I make the claim, I

make the charge, I drop the charges.

And Jesus says they're off as the eternal judge of all full

rights, full authority, Fifthly, from here, Christ intercedes.

It says that he is interceding for us right now.

Christ intercession is not that. Every time we sin, God has to

look in Jesus and say you die for that one, You got that one,

you got that one covered, you get that one covered.

He's been forever just doing that to me.

That's not how it works. It is that eternally the Father

sees us in the righteousness of the Son and sees us as as

righteous as Jesus Christ because he is our eternal

representative because of the cross.

You want to wonder if I'm standing firm in God's love

still? Does God still love me?

How could he still love me? I really blew it This time is

because Christ has not undied, Christ has not unresurrected,

Christ has not got off the throne, and he has not stopped

interceding for you and for me. And he won't.

There's no doubts left. Does God really love us?

There's no doubt. No questions, because he hasn't

changed in his love and he won't change in His love.

And finally, it's an assuring love.

This love of God that will not let me go is so assuring.

Read in verse 35 with me, if you will, Who shall separate us from

the love of Christ? You may want to answer that one.

No one shall trouble, or hardship, or persecution, or

famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword.

As it is written, for your sake we face death all day long.

We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him

who loved us, where I'm convinced that neither death nor

life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the

future, nor any powers, neither height nor death, nor anything

else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the

love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is an assuring love with an airtight case being made that no

person can separate, no person can separate us from the love of

God. The Word separate here has to do

with divorce. Other places in the Scripture

when Jesus talking about marriage says that what God has

joined together, let no man separate, let no man divorce.

We cannot be divorced from the love of God.

We can never be separated from this eternal, adamant and

assuring love. This can't happen by any person,

he says. Who who can separate us?

You think of your mind of all the people and persons that you

know. Certainly it's not God.

God's not going to separate us from His love.

He's set out to love us. This is so helpful to me because

not even me, not even I, not even you, can separate you or me

from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

You can't send your way out. I know the scripts.

Really. I don't know this personally.

Some of us have tried to no avail.

Outsending God's love is completely impossible.

If you couldn't outsend God's love and he still pursued you

when you were lost, what makes you think when you're saved

you're going to do it? You're not.

Oh, the apostle Peter was a prime candidate.

If there ever was one who could separate himself from the love

of God, that is in Christ Jesus, isn't it?

Peter blows it over and over and over again.

And you read the Gospels and it's like, do these guys have

something against Peter? Because he looks like a buffoon

over and over again. And he was slow.

John, maybe you'll get that when you get home.

Peter denies even knowing Christ three times the same night that

he said if all abandon you, I never will.

The same night that he pulls out his sword and cuts off a guy's

ear. He denies knowing Jesus and

calls down curses from heaven on a little girl.

If somebody would have sent their way out of God's love,

it's that guy. But he didn't.

Peter was restored. We keep on reading.

Peter gave his life valiantly for Jesus Christ because our

love for God will fail. Your love for God will fail.

My love for God will fail. But God's love for us will never

will fall short. He never will, No.

As some skeptics like to point out at this time, and if you are

one, just keep paying attention. This does not promote

disobedience or trying to live any way you can, because God's

going to love me anyway. When you truly understand this,

this will promote holiness and obedience and worship to God.

But if you do not understand this truth, you're going to live

however you want to live, and it may prove that you're not in the

love of God. You may still be separated and

need to be saved. But not even you, Christian, can

separate yourself from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

Not even Satan can separate us. We think in our mind a lot of

times that there is God and there is Satan and some battle.

Satan wins and he gets to rule our life for a couple days.

And then God overtake, wins, wins for a day or two, and then

that we're back in the God's love.

And then Satan sometimes separates us.

And then there's this battle going on and that is not true.

Satan was defeated at the cross. Satan cannot separate us from

the love of God that is in Christ Jesus or Lord.

He may accuse us because he is the accuser of the brethren.

He may bring up the past through temptation.

He may keep reminding us of who we once were.

But I'll tell you this. Bring up the cross.

Bring up and to mind the eternal and unwavering love of God.

That Satan you are powerless to defeat, you are powerless

against Christ is 1. Nothing no person can separate.

Next, no problem can separate us from this love of God.

There will be many problems in our lives.

He asked the question. I love how we ask questions that

are just so simple to answer. They didn't even need an answer.

He says shall trouble, no trouble won't separate us from

the love of God in Christ. How about hardship?

Hard times? No about persecution.

Oh, the Roman Church was about to face the most fierce

persecution possibly this world has ever seen.

They are about to become body lanterns at the emperor's

parties. Is that going to separate us

from the love of God that's in Christ?

No. In fact, Jesus says in Matthew

5, blessed are you when you were persecuted.

How about famine when you came and eat?

There's no food on the table, no food anywhere around.

Will this separate us from God's love?

No, He still loves us. How about nakedness?

Not just clothing wise, but just simple doing without?

No will not separate us from God's love.

How about any danger we face? Dangers and it feels like it's

just us going in there alone? Will that separate us?

Has God abandoned us in dangerous times?

No. How about sword?

It's a figure of speech there. The word sword for murder.

How about if we're murdered, is that going to separate us from

the love of God that's in Christ?

Nope. Not even murder.

Not even the sword. How about death or life?

When we die, is something? Is it going to, is it going to

carry over? How about when we live?

Is anything in this life going to throw at us, going to

separate us from God's love? No.

We don't know what really we we we can think about heaven, we

can think about the afterlife. But there's so much unknown, and

there's some way we don't know what can happen in the unknown.

Not even the unknown will separate you from the love of

God that's in Christ Jesus. Not even death.

It says in verse 36 that for your sake, we face death all day

long. We do it for you.

We quote Psalm 44, verse 22. We we we give our lives for the

Psalms 44:22

lover of our soul. How about angels?

How about demons? How about the supernatural?

Can the supernatural forces separate us from the love of God

in Christ Jesus? No.

The present of the future. You want to take this one?

No. Why?

Because of the eternal love of God.

If the love of God is there in eternity past, we see it in

eternity future. Why would present or future

separate us from the love of God?

What if I send really bad next week?

If you're in Christ, nothing. What about right now?

I don't feel love. Doesn't matter what you feel.

What does God say? How about any power?

There's some powerful forces in the world, Psalm 89 verse six

says, for who in the skies above can compare with the Lord?

No power can separate you from the powerful love of God.

Daniel 4 verse 35 says all the peoples of the earth are

Daniel 4:35

regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases.

With the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth no one

can hold back his hand or say to him, what have you done.

No one can even stand against him our God who says, I love

you. Second Chronicles 20 verse six

says of God you rule over all the kingdoms of the nations.

Power and might are in your hand and no one can withstand you.

No one can stand against God. No one can stand in the way of

God loving us. No person, no problem, no

height, no depth. And he just says OK, in case you

have anything else to throw out there in your argumentation, how

about anything else in all creation?

Can anything else separate us from the love of God that's in

Christ? This includes economy, crashes,

pandemics, nuclear wars. Includes anything else, Any

evil. No way, he says.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God that's in Christ

Jesus. There's no change in it.

No matter the circumstance, no matter the person, no matter the

problem, God's love remains. Since His love was initially

uninfluenced, it will eternally remain unchanged.

It's there, this promise. It says in verse 39 for those of

us who are in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This is only for the believer. You can only be in Christ Jesus

through faith in Jesus Christ. You can only have this hope by

turning from your sin and your unbelief and trusting in the

sacrifice of Christ to save you by faith.

That is it. If you're an unbeliever, you

have no hope and assurance of the love of God.

You have only to face His wrath and justice.

But can I tell you this? You can have hope.

Today. You can be brought into the love

of God through faith in Jesus Christ by turning to Him and

calling on him for mercy and salvation.

I promise he will save your soul and bring you into His eternal

love. This is an assuring love.

Thirdly, that propels us to VV. He says in verse 37 and all

these things we are more than conquerors.

Through Him who loved us more than conquerors literally means

we are super conquerors. Through Him who loved us, we can

conquer all this that comes, not us conquering it, but we can

remain in the steadfast love of God because He loved us.

It propels us to victory. Verse 28 We know that in all

things God works for the good of those who love Him and were

called according to His purpose. This is great assurance, isn't

it? Because when we face the these

things, the trouble, the hardship, the persecution, the

famine, the nakedness, the danger, the sword, the death,

the life, the present, the future, the powers, the height,

or death, or anything else at all creation, we can stand firm

that God is working all of these things for the good of those who

love Him and who are called according to His purpose.

Every trial, every hard time, every suffering, every

persecution is for our good. It is winning for us, an eternal

reward that will never perish, spoil or fade.

Romans, age 17, says if we share in Christ's sufferings, we may

also share in his glory. Oh, we have hard times and

trying times and face all these things because God loves us.

What if we looked at it like that?

There's no ho hum attitude anymore, is there?

We get to do this because God loves me and he's working it for

my good to accomplish what verse 29 says, to conform us to

Christ. A Christian never goes through a

trial unchanged. They go out the other side

victorious and they go out the other side change to be more

like Christ, don't they? Their faith grows, their

maturity grows. In fact, James chapter one,

verse 2 says we should consider it pure joy when we face trials

of many kinds. Because you know that the

testing of your faith produces perseverance.

Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be complete and

mature, not lacking anything. God loves us enough to put us

through the fire, if you will, In order we can get out the

other side, refined like Christ. Oh, this is love.

This is love we need. And so when you face all of

these things, have this assurance in Christ.

Have this assurance in the great love of God that will not let

you go. This is things we need to

remember, isn't it? The God's love for maternity was

full. It has never once wavered.

It has never once waxed or waned.

It has never changed. It has remained throughout our

rebellion. It was shown fully at the cross.

It was revealed to us when we recalled.

And it will endure forever. Someone 36 says 26 times that

his love endures forever. You think after the 35th time or

25th time, we'd get the point. It just goes on.

It goes on, it goes on. Then we're not convinced by

that. Christ died for sinners.

God demonstrated his love for us in this while we were yet

sinners, Christ died for us. It's an amazing thing to just

ponder. Very rarely will anyone give

their life for a righteous man. I'm not even righteous.

I'm unrighteous. I'm unholy.

I'm sinful. I'm a rebel against this God.

Yet he sent his Son to die for me, to save me from my sin.

Paul is, and Paul was convinced of this truth.

Are you? Are you?

Can you stand with Paul and say I am convinced and nothing can

separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus?

Maybe you're convinced, Praise God.

Maybe you're not yet convinced. Maybe you're a Christian.

Stop arguing with God. God says nothing can separate,

messing yourself up in your head.

Trust him. Can you join with Paul?

Can you join with David, who writes in Psalm 23 First word

that even though I walked to the valley of the shadow of death, I

will fear no evil, for you are with me.

Can you say that? Or can you join with him?

In Psalm 27, verse one? The Lord is the stronghold of my

life. Of whom shall I be afraid?

Why? Because the Lord loves me.

I don't know why He loves me, but He does.

Do you have that same confidence in the love of God to keep you

forever, no matter what may come?

Do you have this hope? Are you even in Christ?

Do you know the love of God intimately?

Do you know the saving love of Jesus Christ?

You can know it today. Maybe You're a Christian and you

have salvation and you do know Jesus and you are born again.

But you don't understand this love of God like this, and

you're trying to wrap your brain around all this, help you out.

You will not enjoy the Christian life until you understand the

always the adamant and the assuring love of God.

In 1862, a young minister and theologian named George

Matheson, he was engaged to be married.

And if you've been engaged to be married, you know this is an

exciting time, 20 years old, his whole life, him and his future

future spouse, everything's looking up for them until during

this engagement period, he goes blind, begins to go blind, and

it worsens and it worsens and his worsens and his then fiancee

decides. Through that time, I don't think

I can be married to a blind man. And so she calls off the

engagement. So George, I was over to go.

And so he goes to live with his sister and his sister became his

caretaker for for 20 years. She takes care of him and she

watches over him and George faithfully preaches and

ministers and does his duties until his sister falls in love,

meets the man of her dreams. And you know how the story goes.

They, they, they fall in love and they begin to be engaged and

they they get engaged and they're planning the wedding.

And you can imagine the thoughts going through poor George's head

when his sister, his only really love that he's ever known, who's

ever cared for him. He's getting married, getting

ready to be married. And he's just thinking, man, I

was getting ready to be married one time.

In this blindness, he could have the biggest ho hum attitude you

could ever think of as he hears about this going on and he's

there and and he's taking part of the festivities and maybe the

wedding planning. And if you've been around

planning a wedding, you know that everybody that you know is

involved. No doubt George is there on the

night before his sister's wedding.

All the family goes to prepare for the wedding day, and they go

and do their duties and they leave George at home by himself.

Oh, the thoughts that were raging through his mind at this

point that everybody has left me.

Everyone who hasn't left me yet is about to leave me.

Finally, he's there in the house, all alone, and he sits

down and he writes the hymn that serves as our title today.

Oh, love that will not let me go.

From the last verse of this hymn goes like this.

O cross that liftest up my head. I dare not ask to fly from thee.

Oh, his focus was on the cross, wasn't it?

I lay in dust life's glory dead and from the ground their

blossoms read. Life that shall endless be O

love that will not let me go. George said it at him that it

took him all of 5 minutes to write and it was the only him

that he ever wrote that needed no editing.

It is overflowed from his life. Why?

Because he was content and stood firm in the love of God that

would not let him go. Though everything else may let

you go, though everything else may abandon you, God's love

remains because of Christ. He will keep you.

He will hold you in his love through all life's troubles.

He has proven it time and time again, hasn't he?

And so I ask you, will you trust the God who is love?

Let's pray together when we humbly come before you with just

amazement. That you would love a Sinner,

condemned, unclean. That you would send your son to

rescue us. That you would give his life as

a ransom. That you would redeem us from

our sin. You would wash ups.

You would cleanse us. You would justify us, Lord, that

you would sanctify us. You would one day glorify us

because of the eternal love that you've had for your own.

I pray today that we would be filled with this love and we

would understand this love and we would stand firm.

And you who says you are love, we thank you for loving us.

We were so unlovable. We ask that you would continue

to work in our hearts and change us into the image of Christ

every day. And His name we pray.

Amen. Thank you for listening to the

Key Life Fellowship Pulpit Ministry Podcast.

If you would like to talk with one of our pastors, please

e-mail us at [email protected] or

call us at 281-689-1604. You can also visit our website

at W www.keylifefellowship.com. We hope and pray you have a

blessed week and remember you are liked.

In the darkness.