What You Need to Know on the Worst Day of Your Life (Romans Week 19) by Rich Nathan

Well, let me begin.

I have a dear friend who is a brilliant psychiatrist, uh, and uh he was the head of the Department of Psychiatry at uh uh the uh College of Medicine at Ohio State.

He then got a chaired position at Johns Hopkins uh and published dozens and dozens of scholarly articles.

A year ago, he uh suddenly had some numbness in his left arm.

He found that he couldn't move his arm, his face began to droop, he was having trouble seeing because he's a physician, he thought he was having a stroke.

His wife took him to the emergency room after multiple tests.

They discovered he has an inoperable brain tumor.

What do you do?

What do you need to know on the worst day of your life?

I have another dear friend who uh had a daughter, and uh her his wife struggled to uh keep babies to term.

They went through several miscarriages, kept praying and praying, and finally they had a little boy after about ten years.

Loved the little boy as parents do their children, but particularly so because they were now older parents, and they had waited so long for this little boy.

Well, he was three and a half years old, he was sick one evening, dad sat up with him in bed, uh just taking care of him, and and all of a sudden his son just kind of slumped over, and he um tried to rouse him, he couldn't.

A virus jumped to this little boy's heart, and he was instantly dead.

What do you do?

What do you need to know on the worst day of your life?

You know, I could multiply examples as many of you could.

About uh friends and families who suddenly lost a spouse, or perhaps felt betrayed by uh some secret life that they discovered about their spouse, or uh betrayal by a dear friend or business uh partner, uh others who have lost children, uh people I know who have lost loved ones to suicide.

Uh of course some of us have experienced really dark days, really dark days, uh and traumatic events sexual abuse in childhood and uh terrible diagnoses, the loss of loved ones.

What do you need to know on the worst day of your life?

You know, Michael said that we've been going through the book of Romans, we have since this church started in January.

And uh you might recall that this book of Romans was written by the Apostle Paul.

It was about 57 A.D.

in the spring, they scholars tell us that Paul sent this letter to the Romans.

Just seven years after they received the letter, these Romans faced a terrible outbreak of persecution.

You see, uh, Rome uh had a just tragic disaster.

The city caught on fire, the fire spread by the winds, the fire burned for six days and seven nights, and ten of the fourteen districts of Rome were completely, completely destroyed.

Rumors spread throughout Rome that the Emperor Nero was behind the fires and uh that he deliberately set them in order to have his grand building project take place in Rome.

He wanted to transform Rome by great building projects, and he actually did extend his estate and all of that in the cleared land.

But in order to deflect blame away from himself, the Emperor Nero chose a politically powerless group of Christians and said they started the fire because they were already suspect, they didn't worship the gods.

Many people believed that the Romans were guilty.

Nero sent his troops out, they arrested Christians, tortured them, got more names of more Christians, many of whom would have received this letter just seven years before.

And uh terrible things happened to them.

They were, uh historians tell us, sewn into animal skins and fed to dogs.

They were crucified.

Worst of all, they were tied to stakes, covered with tar, and set on fire to burn as torches to light the Emperor Nero's parties.

The Apostle Peter died during these executions.

Uh church tradition tells us with some good evidence that Peter was crucified upside down on Vatican Hill, where we have the Vatican today, St.

Peter's Cathedral.

The Apostle Paul was beheaded outside the walls of Rome on the Ostian Way.

I visited with Marlene, the very spot where Paul was beheaded.

As these Christians face terrible times, dark days.

I believe the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul prophetically to give them words that they needed to hear in order to face what they were facing.

I believe the Holy Spirit gave these words to the Apostle Paul so that we could hear and know some things that we need to know on the worst day of our lives.

And so, I ask again, what do you need to know?

On the worst day of your life, let's invite God's presence and we'll look at his word together.

Heavenly Father, we thank you that you don't leave us to ourselves or our own devices or our own ideas, Lord.

That your thoughts are above our thoughts, your ways are above our ways, as high as the heaven is above the earth.

So are your thoughts above our thoughts and your ways above our ways.

I pray, Lord.

That this talk would be a great encouragement and a great strength.

Whether for us or for someone we love and know.

Would you use this, Lord?

Whether now or perhaps in some other way in the future, in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Here's what the Apostle Paul says, beginning in verse 28.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and who are called according to his purpose.

For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

And those he predestined, he also called, those he called, he also justified, those he justified, he also glorified.

What 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 am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels, nor demons, neither the present, nor the future, nor any powers, neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Let me set the broader context for this wonderful text that we just heard.

The broader context is that beginning in Romans chapter 5 and extending here, we have a bookended argument.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

In Romans 5, the Apostle Paul sets forth the case regarding why it is that we can be absolutely certain of our ultimate salvation.

And he closes that argument.

The other side of the bookend is here in Romans 8.

Here's why you can know that you know that nothing will ever separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

And in a moment we'll consider his reasons from Romans 8.

But it's a book-ended argument of absolute assurance of salvation for those who are in Christ.

Now the immediate context is Romans 8, 18 to 27.

That's the immediate context.

And the immediate context is the passage that we looked at last week.

It's all about groaning.

It's all about living between the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ in this world where we have so much not yet in life.

We want things to happen.

We pray for things to happen, and yet often they don't happen.

And our hearts are broken.

And so the Apostle Paul speaks about three groanings.

We heard that in the text last week.

First of all, we have the groaning of creation.

And then we have our own groaning as we live in a fallen world.

And then finally the groaning of the Holy Spirit.

And so, what do we do with that groaning?

What do we need to know on the worst day of our life?

And here's one great conviction.

Let me read verse 28 again.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

Picture that comes to my mind as the Apostle Paul is writing this is a story that I've told before.

When Marlene and I were younger, before we had children, we decided we were going to camp on a beach.

And we went to the Outer Banks, and I thought this is going to be so romantic.

It's just going to be the best.

Because we're going to wake up to the ocean breeze and the sound of the waves, and we'll be able to snuggle in our tent at night as we sleep on the beach.

And I don't know if you've ever camped on a beach.

I never did before.

But I tried to set up the tent and I had these little tent pegs and I put them in the sand, but sand doesn't work the way a campground does.

And the least little breeze pulled the pegs up from my tent.

And so I tried to put them in on an angle, and I thought that might work.

Well, of course, that didn't work at all.

So then I found some rocks to put on top of the pegs.

That didn't help.

You know, it just kept blowing over.

I was so frustrated.

And I said to Marlene, listen, let's just get in the tent.

Our weight will hold the tenth floor down.

Marlene said, I'm not getting in that tent.

We're going to be blown all over the beach.

I'm not going to get in the tent and have our weight hold it down.

And then I looked down the beach, and there was a person who's a lot smarter than me who looked like they know what they were doing.

They were setting up a tent, so I went over to them and said, How are you doing this?

My tent pegs keep getting pulled out.

And he said, Oh, you can't use regular tent pegs.

You need, and he had tent pegs that were like this, you know, and they were made of plastic and drove into the ground.

I said, Wow, I didn't know those things existed.

Where do you get them?

He said, Oh, there's a place there.

And listen, sometimes when the wind is blowing really hard and you feel like your life is going to be just blown all over the beach, you need tent pegs that will be driven so deeply in your soul that no matter what happens, they can't be pulled out.

And the Apostle Paul gives us, as it were, four tent pegs to pound into our souls, four convictions.

Here's what you need to know on the worst day of your life.

And pound these things down.

These are four firm convictions.

The first thing that we know, Paul says, is that God is at work.

God is at work.

You know, when we go through hard times, there's lots of things we don't know.

We often don't know why this is happening.

We ask ourselves, you know, why would God allow this particular struggle, this particular suffering?

Why would why would good God, who has all power, why, why this?

There's so many things we don't know, and we Christians should not pretend that we know more than we know.

We're not in the signal box with God.

He doesn't reveal everything to us, and sometimes Christians speak with so much certainty, oh, here's what God is doing.

God is up to this, and God is up to that.

And sometimes even very helpful, well-meaning friends tell us when we're going through hard times, here's what God is doing.

They don't know.

They don't know.

And it's okay for us as Christians to, you know, like what's God up to?

And you just go, I don't know.

Beats me.

Our God is in heaven, he does whatever he pleases.

I don't know what he's doing.

While we don't know everything, the Apostle Paul says we do know some things.

And the first thing we know is that God is at work.

Whatever I'm going through, I can say God has not abandoned me, God is not asleep, God is not too busy working with someone else or on the other side of the world with people who are a lot more important than me.

God is at work.

That's the first ten peg that I can pound in my soul.

The second thing I can pound in is that God is at work for the good.

God is not just up to something, God is up to something good.

And we find that in verses 29 and 30, the definition of the good, and I'll get to that in just a moment.

But God is always, always at work expressing his good character.

God is good, and everything God does is good.

You can take that to the bank.

Everything God does is an expression of his good character.

Psalm 119 says this, you are good, and what you do is good.

Teach me your decrees.

Psalm 145, verse 9 says, The Lord is good to all, he has compassion on all, he is made.

Psalms 145:9

No matter what you go through, friends, remember who God is.

God is good.

He is not cruel, he is not a torturer, he is at work for the good, and you can ground that conviction in your soul.

I know whatever else is going on.

I might not understand it all, but I know that God is up to good.

And here's the third thing you need to know on the worst day of your life.

God is at work for good in all things.

In all things.

Now we need to be very careful here, and Paul is very careful in saying God is at work in all things.

He doesn't say that all things are good.

Rape isn't good.

Cancer isn't good.

Having your house broken into isn't good.

Getting in a car accident isn't good.

Being a victim of crime is not good.

Experiencing sexual abuse as a child is not good.

Paul is not some polyannished person, you know, oh, it's all all good, we just need to look for the silver lining here.

That's not what he's saying.

He's not saying that evil somehow is transmuted into good.

He's not saying that at all.

He's saying something very different.

He's saying, rather, God can take anything.

Anything, however horrible, and he is at work for the good in that thing.

Evil people might intend really bad things by what they do.

Satan certainly intends evil by what he does.

But God is always working for good.

Even in suffering.

You haven't been abandoned, you haven't been forgotten, God is not turning a blind eye to what you're going through.

In everything, and I mean literally everything that could ever happen to you.

No matter what you ever encounter in life, God is always at work for the good.

That's the third thing.

And the fourth tent peg is God works all things for the good for those who love him.

For those who are called according to his purpose.

There is a great separation in the end.

There is.

And I know in this particular moment of history, it's very difficult for many of us to hear this truth that not everyone will in the end be embraced by the love of God.

We live in a time of tolerance in which if you say that someone might not be accepted in the end, that's just not acceptable.

And yet the Bible speaks over and over again about a great separation.

That the rapist who doesn't repent won't be embraced by the love of God.

The dictator who doesn't repent, the the uh person who says to God, I don't want you, won't get God in the end.

The person who rejects the rule of God and says, I will not surrender to God, I will not yield.

The person who gives God a stiff arm will not in the end be embraced by the Lord.

There is a great separation.

My favorite Christian author, C.

S.

Lewis, wrote this famous line in his wonderful story of heaven and hell called the Great Divorce.

If you haven't read it, I would really encourage you to read The Great Divorce.

But here's what Lewis wrote.

He said, There are only two kinds of people in the end.

Those who say to God, Thy will be done.

And those to whom God says in the end, Thy will be done.

And that immediately raises a problem for us, and we say to ourselves, Well, my goodness, I know I don't love God the way I should.

All of us, if we're honest about ourselves, we know that we don't love God with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength.

And we do so many things that are not the will of God, and so we can begin to ask ourselves, well, then what about me?

I want to love God more, but I know I don't, and and perhaps God is allowing this thing to happen as a as a foreshadowing of what's going to happen in the end.

How do I know that I won't be separated from the love of God?

God.

How do I know that I'm secure, that I'm one of those people that God is at work doing good for?

How can I be sure of that?

And that's what the Apostle Paul is getting at in verses 29 and 30.

Our entire confidence, he says, is never to be in ourselves.

It's never that Paul wants us to become self-dependent and look inside.

Our entire confidence on the worst day of our life is in God.

My hope is in the Lord.

My hope is in what God is up to, not what I'm up to, and what God is up to.

And let's look at verses 29 and 30.

The Apostle Paul writes this for those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

And those he predestined, he also called.

Those he called, he also justified.

Those he justified, he also glorified.

On the worst day of our lives, we need to have these four firm convictions, like ten pegs, drilled and pounded into our soul.

And we also need to have this one great affirmation that we know.

Our entire salvation from first to last is because of God.

Our entire salvation from first to last is because of God.

What the Apostle Paul is essentially saying in verses 29 and 30 is, let me define the good that I just mentioned in verse 28, where we said that we know that in all things God works for the good.

Well, what is the good?

The good is not that if you love God enough, He will give you the body you've always wanted.

I wish that was the good.

It's not.

The good is not that if you love God enough and you pray hard enough that you'll get the spouse of your dreams, the partner of your dreams, the job of your dreams, that you'll get into the college of your choice, that you'll have the grade point average that you've always wanted.

The good is not all the things that we think when we say, well, God works for the good.

Well, this is good.

I know what the good is.

Paul says, let God's word define the good for you.

The good is your ultimate salvation, that you will be embraced by the love of God.

And in the end, you will be conformed to the image of Jesus.

You will look like Jesus.

That's the good, that's what God is working for.

The Apostle Paul tells us about this golden chain of salvation.

That's what it's been called: foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, glorification.

Our experience of the good is entirely dependent upon God and what God is up to, not what we're up to.

We struggle with that.

We go, well, well, surely I have to add something to what Christ has done.

Surely.

Surely I know he died for me on a cross, but surely I've got to do something.

And what Paul is saying in verses 29 and 30 is, no, you don't.

You can't add anything to the precious blood of Christ.

You cannot.

You can't add anything to not only the cross, but the resurrection, his ascension, his prayers before the throne of God?

You can receive that.

You can surrender to what God is doing.

But you can't add anything to it.

Our salvation is entirely due to God.

So what does that sovereignty of God then speak to us in our darkest days about?

What do we need to know about the sovereignty of God?

It means that everything that I would ever hope for that would be good on the worst day of my life has always depended just on God.

Any success we've ever had, it's due to God.

Not only is our ultimate salvation from first to last due to God.

But every good and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights.

Everything.

Friends, terrible times are not a time for bitterness.

You can never say to God, I deserve more than this.

Lord, I deserve better than this.

I deserve different than this.

Every good thing we've ever had is because of the gift of God.

Everything.

So many folks, when they go through hard times, do a really dumb thing.

They become bitter.

Say, well, if the Lord's going to treat me this way, I'm not going to honor him.

If God allowed this to happen to me and bring this tragedy into my life, well, I'm just going to go my own way.

I was reading the other day in 2 Chronicles a story about King Ahaz.

King Ahaz was an evil king.

He sacrificed to idols.

He even sacrificed his own children to the false gods of Canaan.

And God allowed an enemy army to attack Judah, that King Ahaz was ruling.

And King Ahaz, in that time of crisis, did the stupidest thing you could do.

He locked the doors of the temple.

And he forbid people to seek the Lord.

When we go through hard times, that's the time we need to turn to the Lord.

It's not the time we turn away from the Lord.

That's the time we turn to the Lord.

And we say to the Lord, Lord, I didn't deserve the success I had all those years.

And now that it's gone, well, I enjoyed it for so long.

I didn't deserve a happy marriage for so many years to my wife.

And if she's taken, all I can say is thank you for the years we had.

Don't add to your pain by becoming independent from God on the worst day of your life.

We need to know that everything we've ever enjoyed for however long we got to enjoy them.

Just like our salvation from first to last is entirely of God.

And here's one unshakable truth that we need to know.

Nothing can ever separate us from the love of God.

Two times in this text, we can almost imagine the Apostle Paul yelling this great truth.

Nothing can separate you from the love of God.

Nothing.

He says this in verse 35.

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

And then in verses 38 and 39, Paul repeats this unshakable truth.

I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul's point is on the worst day of your life, every foundation that you try to build your life on, it won't keep you up.

It won't allow you to stand.

Everything has the potential of letting you down.

That's why we're so crushed when we go through hard times.

Because we build on foundations that do let us down.

Think about the foundation of morality, the foundation of virtue.

How many of you have ever experienced having a Christian leader or a pastor who you counted on?

And maybe you even put that person on a pedestal and you said, This person, I know I can count on their virtue.

And then some shocking thing is revealed.

There's some secret that came out.

And what do you do when a Christian pastor or leader disappoints you?

What do you do?

Do you say, well, I just knew that Christianity was just a big fraud and fake?

I just knew that everyone was just a hypocrite.

Do you get cynical?

Do you deconstruct your faith?

Do you just walk away?

What if, it's even worse, what if it's not someone else's virtue that disappoints you?

What if it's your own virtue?

What if you turn the guns on yourself and you go, oh, I'm counting on my moral fiber to carry me through?

And your own moral fiber collapses.

You do something that betrays what you said you would never do.

You make choices that you used to judge other people for.

And you're exposed, you're caught.

What if the worst day of your life is due to your own stupidity?

What do you do then?

If you're like Peter and you've denied knowing the Lord, or you've distanced yourself from God, or you hurt somebody that you love.

The Apostle Paul says, brothers and sisters, everything, I've been trying to tell you the truth that everything in this world will ultimately let you down.

It will.

Our circumstances will let us down.

Co-workers will let us down.

The church that we love and belong to, that could let us down.

Christian leaders can let us down.

We'll let ourselves down.

And if we're not let down, everything in this world is subject to loss.

Even if we're not disappointed, everything is subject to loss.

Our loved ones.

Who we just couldn't love more.

We can lose them.

We can lose them through death.

We can lose them through conflict.

We can lose them by them moving away from us, and we're separated by thousands of miles.

Our property.

That's subject to loss from inflation and theft and fraud.

Our own health.

Our own lives.

We will one day return to the dust.

Brothers and sisters, what I'm saying is, is all history testifies to this truth that everything in this world is subject to loss.

The Bible tells us this over and over again, and we don't want to hear it.

1 Timothy 6, verse 7 says, we brought nothing into the world.

1 Timothy 6:7

And I'll add, most assuredly, we can take nothing out of it.

So, since everything is subject to loss and every foundation will give way, is there anything I can hang my life on on the worst day of my life?

Is there anything that I can count on that won't let me down?

Anything that you can count on, wrap your life around and say, this is solid.

And Paul says, Oh, there is one thing.

One thing.

The love of God found in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That you will never be able, never be separated from God's love in Christ.

I think of a hymn, it's titled, He Will Hold Me Fast.

And it goes this way when I feel my when I fear my faith will fail, Christ will hold me fast.

When the tempter would prevail, he will hold me fast.

I could never keep my hold through life's fearful path.

For my love is often cold, he must hold me fast.

He will hold me fast, he will hold me fast.

For my Savior loves me so, he will hold me fast.

No matter how awful things are, no matter how awful I am or you are, God's love in Christ will win the day.

That's what the book of Hosea is all about.

The book of Hosea tells us that God sends the prophet to go after an unfaithful spouse.

She's committed adultery, she's being sold into prostitution.

Things couldn't get worse.

What does God do?

Hosea, go back and bring your wife back to yourself.

What is God saying through this prophetic action?

He's saying, that's what I'm like.

My love for you is stronger than your unfaithfulness.

I will never let go.

Because of the time, I'm going to drop to my last point, and I know that some of you who were ACE students in school are really upset right now.

You don't get to fill in the whole outline.

It's so frustrating.

Many of you will ask me after the service what were the points?

I've got to fill this in.

I'm not going to push away from the table until I get everything that was planned.

There are five unanswerable questions, but let me drop to the last one.

The Apostle Paul turns this screw into our hearts about the unfailing love of Christ.

He keeps turning and turning and turning and turning until we cannot pull the love of Christ out of our hearts.

And he closes this way: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

In verses 35 to 37, Paul mentions seven things that he says, even if these things come into your life, God's got you.

He'll hold you fast.

Says, you could experience bad circumstances, you could experience bad people, you could run out of money, you could experience martyrdom, attacks, nakedness, dangers.

But in all these things, we're more than conquerors.

And here's the climax of his argument in verses 38 and 39.

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 ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Apostle Paul says, I am convinced, better translated, I have become convinced.

Let's remember who's writing this.

He's not an armchair theologian, he's not some Harvard professor sitting in the Harvard faculty lounge sipping latte and trying to hand out all these platitudes.

Paul says, I've been through this.

Everything that I'm mentioning that could separate you from the love of God, I personally have experienced.

I've been beaten, I've been stoned, I've been left shipwrecked, I've been rejected by friends, I've been betrayed.

People have let me down, I've suffered bad health, I've lost friends, I've been in prison, I've had multiple worst days of my life, and I can tell you from my experience that nothing will ever separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Nothing can and nothing will.

Not the crisis of death nor the calamities of life, not any spiritual power, either good or bad, not the passage of time or the distance of space.

Nothing in the heavens above, in hell below, or on the earth in between.

Nothing in all creation will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

On the worst day of your life, you need to know God still got me.

He will hold me fast, and I will experience the goodness of God.

Why don't you stand?