Romans 8:31-39 - ”Real Love” - Advent Series

Hear

these words from God's word, Psalm 44.

All this has come upon us, though we

have not forgotten you, and we have not

been false to your covenant. Our heart

has not turned back, nor have our steps

departed from your way. Yet you have

broken us in the place of jackals and

covered us with a shadow of death.

If we had forgotten the name of our God

or spread out our hands to a foreign

god, would not God discover this?

For he knows the secrets of the heart.

Yet for your sake we are killed all the

day long. We are regarded as sheep to be

slaughtered. Awake.

Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse

yourself. Do not reject us forever. Why

do you hide your face? Why do you forget

our affliction and oppression?

For our souls bow down to the dust. Our

belly clings to the ground. Rise up.

Come to our help. Redeem us for the sake

of your steadfast love.

And from Romans 8,

what then shall we say 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 with him graciously give us all

things?

Who shall bring any charge against God's

elect? It is God who justifies.

Who is to condemn?

Christ Jesus is the one who died. More

than that, who was raised, who is at the

right hand of God, who indeed is

interceding for us.

Who shall separate us from the love of

Christ?

Shall tribulation

or distress

or persecution

or famine or nakedness

or danger

or sword.

As it is written, for your sake we are

being killed all the day long. We are

regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

No, in all these things we are more than

conquerors through him who loved us. For

I am sure that neither death nor life,

nor angels, nor rulers, nor things

present, nor things to come, nor powers,

nor height, nor depth, nor anything else

in all creation will be able to separate

us from the love of God in Christ Jesus

our Lord.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be

to God.

>> All right. I love that text. Eh, that

Roman text. Does it get better than

that? Often we um read that text and if

you're anything like me, you get to that

part where he says, "But we are all

sheep to be slaughtered." And you think,

"But hold on. I thought this was all

good."

The truth is, this is a profound,

profound text about what love means. And

that's why I preached it this week. No,

it's not an advent story, but it's all

an advent story if you see what I mean.

Because the advent is pointing to the

full gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. So

I thought, what what when I'm doing

love, what do I what do I what should I

go to? I thought I'll go to marriage,

right? Because marriage is always happy

and full of love. So

actually the number of marriages have

dropped to a record amount. This is

2010.

It's dropped even more. This is a

percentage of people getting married in

North America.

Now this is actually kind of startling

for most people. Most people in my day

still thought marriage was a pretty good

thing. But it is decreasing

exponentially. So many people are

looking for the reasons why and here

have been some that the sociologists

have told us significant shifts in

social attitudes that includes religious

practices economic conditions people

can't afford and of course gender roles

and this is more under the idea that

marriages was to take care of a woman

they say I think there's probably truth

to some of those maybe more than some

maybe less than others but they're

missing one. They're missing one huge

one.

Hallmark.

Now, you laugh. My wife and my daughter

like Hallmark movies,

but see, they look at them differently.

My wife sees it as a nice escape,

but she knows this is fake cuz she's

been married.

She's lived with me for 20ome years and

she knows guys don't act like that.

Hey, easy.

But my daughter is 18.

So every time they're watching, I'm

going, "This is a lie, Haley.

There's no man who looks like that who

never goes to work and owns a tree farm.

And you're never going to meet a guy

named Nol Christmas. Trust me.

But the whole point of Hallmark is one

simple thing. It's about a mode of

romantic love, isn't it? And that is

what feeds us. When we say I love you,

we genuinely mean or it is heard you. I

I have emotional feelings for you.

Right? that there's this romantic almost

mystical love that comes.

Well, that's incredibly hard when that

word love is what we are hearing in our

culture when you talk about love of God

because God is not that love.

What God is was read to me and you today

by Merina and it was beautiful.

listen again to God's love and let's let

go of this romanticism love and find the

truth this Christmas.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your

living word. We thank you for Paul

writing this incredible ending to that

section in Romans.

We pray it breathes life that we come to

understand it as you would have had it

be understood.

in Jesus' name. Amen.

Starts off, what shall we say then to

these things? Well, what are the things

he's been saying? Here basically is your

two second Romans up till now. People

bad religion can't help. Jesus steps in,

dies on a cross, saves us if we believe

in him because he rose from the dead and

we can now be the children of God again.

And not only that, I'm going to leave

you. He's going to leave us with his

Holy Spirit. That's the it the gospel in

a nutshell.

That God loved thus so much that he died

for our sins. So he says, "What can we

say to all this stuff that I've laid

eight chapters out building up

if God is for us?" That's a big one

because I don't believe many Christians

actually believe God is for them. I

generally don't.

I genuinely don't believe that we have

any idea how much God is for us. It's

almost like I don't know if I should

even assume that.

But Paul seems to have no trouble.

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

In other words, if God, the one who

rules everything, then who ultimately

can go against us? He who did not spare

his own son. There's no doubt there's an

Abrahamic echo there because a lot of

Jews in the ancient world talked about

salvation through Abraham as the reason

being that he was willing to give his

child. Well, I think Paul oneups it and

says, "No, he actually gave his child

for all of us.

How will he not also with him graciously

give us all things?" I mean, if he

loves, he's so for us that he gave the

one thing he loves more than anything.

Why would you think he doesn't love you?

He's not for you. He'll give you

everything if he'll give you that.

There's that action again.

Who will bring any charge against God's

elect? This was always in the second

temple period. There's this image of us

all having to come into the courtroom of

God and we would be fed how much we had

done right and wrong. And it would be

whether we would be really were the

people of God.

And this is what Paul the Pharisee would

have believed. But Paul is no longer the

Pharisee. Paul is the Christian. And now

he looks at that same story and he says,

"Okay, so let's go back to the

courtroom.

Who shall bring any charge against God's

elect, the people he died for? It is God

who justifies. The guy on the throne,

the judge is Jesus Christ. Do you see?

It's not some grumpy old man sitting

there or woman. Women can be grumpy.

Not my wife, but a lot can.

I got to make up some points right now.

Um,

it is God who justifies. So, hold on.

You're saying God's for us. How can and

and he and he's died. He's given

everything up for us. How can we be

stopped from all these things? And if

and how can we be afraid of judgment

when it says it's God on the throne and

he's the one who's already died for you

and justified you. Oh, beautiful. You

can feel Paul's writing like the end of

a a musical musical uh classic music.

He's just peeking at this time.

Who is there to condemn?

Well, we know who the accuser is, but

he's been dealt with. The accuser being

Satan. Christ Jesus is the one who died

more than that who was raised and who is

at the right hand of God. Psalm 110 when

he says who's at the right hand of God,

you know what he's really saying? He's

God.

So who's our left to condemn? Jesus

Christ is the one who's on the judgement

seat. He's already died and he's at the

right hand of God and he is indeed

spending time being the pariclete or the

intercessor.

How many people see a God like that? How

many of us see a God like that when we

have a bad day?

How many of us see God like that when

sin knocks on the door and we answer?

Who shall separate us from the love of

Christ?

Now, there's lots of people who are

going to try in their world. Paul is

writing to the church in Rome. And if

you know your history within Paul's

lifetime, they're going to get the worst

persecutions ever on a Christian up to

that time called Romans p Nero's

persecutions.

Nero is going to come and take these

same people listening to this within 5

years, hang them in Tara at his parties

and burn them as party lanterns.

He's going to go take them into the

coliseum and feed them to animals. This

is the reality, the historical reality.

This stuff isn't written in a as a

philosophy or in a vacuum. This is

written to real people who are going to

have to face real real evil.

So he says, "Who indeed is who shall

separate us from the love of Christ?"

That seems to be his main concern.

Whatever judgment is, it's a separation

from Christ for Paul.

Who shall do that? Shall. And then he

uses these words that are all going to

come upon them. shall tribulation or

distress or persecutions or famine or

nakedness or danger or sword. Those

things were regular things in the

ancient world and the church is going to

suffer under these things for hundreds

of years.

And then he uses this word as it is

written for your sake we are being

killed all the day long. We are regarded

as sheep to be slaughtered. Now, it

seems odd that he said, "If God is for

us, who is against us?" All this stuff.

And then he drops this little diddy in

here, but for your sake, we are being

killed all day long. We are sheep to be

slaughtered. I don't know if I like

that,

but

he's actually making a point. What you

have to do to understand this is you

have to be a first century thinker.

Anytime you get into your Bible and it's

quoting an Old Testament text, and I

want you to remember this, he's not

asking you, it's not proof texting, he's

saying he wants you to look at the whole

area, the whole paricopy that this text

comes out of. Okay? So, you have to go

back to Psalm 44, which Marina read by

the way. You get that influence. You

could see the desperation in them.

Israel, the psalmist says, is looking

back and saying, "How wonderful God is,

how he made them his people, how he did

incredible things,

but now they were suffering persecution.

The armies were beating them. Their

their uh everything was going wrong.

And they he says, "We have not turned

from you. We have not turned from you,

Yahweh." It says,

and then he leaves this line, "For we"

and then how he feels. for your sake we

have been killed all day long. We are

regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. His

argument is we are not turning back to

the idols and we're losing. It must be

that we're just there to be slaughtered

by you. What he's saying is because we

become worshippers of Yahweh now we're

getting persecuted.

And he ends that section saying a wake

up God.

Wake up. Where are you? And he ends that

whole section by this. Rise up. Come to

our help. Redeem us for the sake of your

steadfast love. That's what the psalmist

ends.

Well, guess what Paul has just said to

them? Psalm 44 has been answered.

They have been suffering. They have been

persecuted for no reason except

following Yahweh. And God did rise up.

And he did it for the sake of his love.

And he died on a cross. and he rose

again and he conquered death and he

conquered this world, right?

And so when he's saying this to these

people, what he's saying is you folks,

who can get you? The [clears throat]

love of God covers you. He's the one

who's your judge. He's the one that does

everything for you. He is for you.

And guess what? Even though you'll be

persecuted, God had already answered

this psalm.

You have no fear whatever your

persecution is in because he has

answered it by overcoming the world

through the cross. So in other words,

because he's so for you, who cares if

you lose in this world? You see,

that's why he says we are like sheep to

be slaughtered because he wants to

emphasize that God's already overcome

the ultimate death of a slaughter.

And he wants these people in Rome to

realize that the love of God is amongst

them. He's overwhelming them with his

promise that he has dealt with their

sins. They are his children. They are

his elect. And even though what's going

to happen with Nero is going to happen.

They can hang on to these words because

unlike the psalmist, they know that God

has risen up. He has come to our help.

He's redeemed us for the sake of his

steadfast love.

That's the good news.

So how can he end this section but to

say no in all these things we are more

than conquerors

through him who loved us.

It's always through him not through

ourselves. For I am sure that neither

death nor life, nor angels, nor demons,

or rulers, depends how you interpret it,

nor thing present, nor the things to

come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth,

nor anything else in all creation will

be able to separate us from the love of

God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Not even

Nero,

because all of our faith and our hope is

on what he's done. God is for us. He's

done the work. All we have to be is

faithful to him. Yes, just like the

psalmist people who followed Yahweh when

we followed Jesus. Maybe bad things

happen, but who cares? God is for us.

No matter what, God is for us. He's for

you.

And it's so hard because Christians

don't understand that. And you know why

they don't understand that? cuz they

look at God kind of like a Hallmark

movie.

What I mean by that is they think the

relationship with like God should be

that kind of romantic back and forth

that we feel and we have all those

wonderful warm touchy feelings all the

time.

We believe that love is some emotion

that we must be encountering all the

time. And when things go badly and it's

both the liberal and the evangelical

churches do this. Why do you think so

much church is about entertaining you?

Because I want you to get a feeling

because ultimately that points to love.

Paul would have no understanding of

this.

Carl Bart speaking against the liberals

and the pitists in the 1930s. National

socialism's on the rise and it's really

about God and me having our own little

experience.

He once said this, "God is love.

Love isn't God."

What do you think he meant?

First, he announced that God is love.

Okay? But when he said love isn't God,

he means our understanding of love does

not mean that's God. We only know love

because God is love. And we can only

know love by looking at God. that that's

what love is. Not our sentimentality,

not our touchy feelings.

God loves us

his way. And we know that love through

who he is as a being, not because we

feel good that particular Sunday

morning.

I'm going to tell you something right

now.

The Bible has no place where it says on

your worst Christian day, he loves you

less than on your best. And on your best

Christian day, he loves you more than on

your worst.

Because his love is not dependent

on us, on what we feel, and what we

think.

It's based on his character.

Bart said, "We will now try to give the

briefest possible outline of what the

love of God is, which is the real basis

of our love to God, determining its

character.

One thing is certain that according to

holy scripture, love has nothing to do

with some mere sentiment, opinion, or

feeling. It just doesn't.

On the contrary, it consists in a

definite being, God, a relationship,

God, and an action and what he does,

God. That's what love is. All our

sentiment, all our opinions and feelings

at best are the caboose on the train.

We know and we celebrate God's love this

season because it transcends our idea of

love.

And how great did he show it

on the day that he came into this world?

You do know God didn't have to do that,

right?

We read the story and it's so

sentimental,

so domesticated.

My daughter just turned 18. 18 years

ago, I was in the room and I'm not one

of those people who's like, "Oh, it's so

beautiful. Everyone should see this. The

baby's coming out. A I'm like, nope.

I wish I was a generation before where

they're waiting in the waiting room.

But I go in cuz I'm loyal. And I'm

sitting there and I'm watching and it

was not a good birth. I was given

permission to say that. Was a bad one.

Baby came out. They don't look normal,

by the way.

I'd wait two weeks to visit the baby.

And after all of that, the baby, the

doctors, everything, we're in this

isolated

hospital room. And I'm lucky to have a

wife, to be honest.

And as I'm walking out of that place,

blown away, shaken, 38 years old

or whatever I was.

I don't know how old I was.

What happened was it hit me. That was

December 19th and I had to write on

Christmas Eve.

This God did that

with a teenage girl,

a young man, husband, no doctors,

nothing.

He took risk.

That's love.

Yes, the cross is love, but let me say

the incarnation

is love. It's insane when you think

about it.

Now, if God loved us so much that he did

that,

why do we think of him as a tyrant,

a moody person dependent on our moods

when he went that far?

And he did that. You know why he did

that? So you might know him and live

with him for eternity.

Irenaeus.

For this is why the word became man and

the son of God became the son of man so

that man by entering into communion with

the word and thus receiving divine

sunship might become a son of God. He

did all of that not because he had some

[sighs]

philosophical concepts to share with us,

not because he wanted to forensically

solve theological problems.

Because he desperately wants to be with

you,

my friends,

God is for us.

You all sitting here, if you believe in

Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,

the biggest lie you can have is God

hates you.

God is for us.

He came into this world. He was spit

upon and abused

and he did it for us.

So, how do we know God is love? Because

it shows in his action. That's my point.

Bard again, God is so for the human race

that God wills not only to be God in

himself, but without having to do so,

God becomes our God and makes him his

people. This is the depths of the love

of God for us. He didn't have to do any

of this, but he loves us so much. In all

our brutality and all our stupidness as

humanity has shown, he has come into

this world and we should be blown away.

We should be dancing

that do you have a God like that that's

not dependent on my particularly

manic moods.

And the greatest part of all this is

this God who came like he did, who

showed us his love, that this is what

Paul's calling an eternal love.

This is not a temporary love that you

might get in. I mean, one of the things

that saddens me the most in the church

is someone will be baptized, someone

will be doing confession, getting

involved in groups, and all of a sudden

they'll look at me and go, "I don't know

if I'm saved."

I always tell him, "Well, you uh it's

not about you."

It isn't. You know why you're saved? Cuz

he did what he did.

The problem is this world has taught you

it's about you and your emotions and

your opinions. I can tell you you are

loved and saved because of his action.

Your hope should never be on anything

else than the cross and what he did.

And by the way, this eternal love means

that whatever happens to you in the here

and now, whether you feel like you are

sheep being slaughtered, he has already

won and so you have won.

He has not rested.

He has overcome. He has got up and he

has overcome through the cross. So that

even if you die, God forbid, for your

faith,

that love is still there. And it's that

which you cling on to. Dietrich

Bonhaofer

sang to the noose. Did you know that?

Sang hymns to the noose.

Dietri Bonhaofer was going to be killed

to Hitler

on the last days of the war. You know

who cried when he was taken out there?

SS officers.

Because he believed in a God that

transcended his experience, his emotion.

a God who had overcome.

And so even facing death, he believed in

love, the right love, God's love.

Jimmy Dunn who wrote the best in my

opinion commentary on Romans

said, "With the one God, creator of all

things and all things being for us, the

opportunity of anything else or any

other beings

is in is the opposition of infinitely

less forces whose power, however

terrible it may be, appear to those

still within this age, is still as

nothing beside the power of God.

Think of the worst things, people,

powers in the world and they pale

because our God has conquered death and

we have conquered too.

He is good and he is love

and he's got a love for you that

stretches out for eternity. And the good

news for you guys

is you can have bad days.

The good news for you guys is you don't

have to feel it every moment. But you

can tell yourself that again and again.

He's for us because Paul told us he's

for us.

Having laid out that incredible love,

that incredible love from

that stable or born as they said.

We are now sent with a commission. You

might wonder, well, if he loved me so

much and we're going to eternity, why

didn't he just take me away? I'm going

to tell you why. Because he wants you to

go proclaim it.

He's always wants the church to exist to

proclaim

The church that goes out of its doors

and actually shares this love, that is

motivated, that reads it and hangs out

and you share and you proclaim that love

when you hang out with one another.

And what a season to do that, eh? Listen

to RC Sproul. Christ is still in

Christmas. After one brief season, the

secular world broadcasts the message of

Christ over every radio station and

television channel in the land. Never

does a church get as much free airtime

as during the Christmas season.

This is a time you can actually proclaim

it.

You can actually say God loves. And when

somebody says, "Well, I don't feel like

God's loving." You can say, "Well, he's

still loving all the same. Look what he

did.

I'm really liking Mountain View right

now, more than ever.

And it's not just cuz I got a few more

pretty faces,

but because people here are starting to

fall more and more in love with God. And

you know what they can't help but do?

Proclaim.

It's in them. They come up to me now and

they tell me how they want to. So Joe,

bless his heart. Where's Joe? There's

Joe. Hi, Joe.

He says to me, Emry, why don't we have a

nativity scene out there?

He wants to proclaim.

A bunch of people like Joy and Ella and

Adam and whoever else came down and you

know what? Our session didn't even

approve it or organize it. And they

started singing songs to the neighbors,

Christmas carols.

When we fall in love with God and this

stuff hits me hits us, our churches will

start to do the stuff because they'll

love God and they'll want others to be a

part of it.

The love of God on the cross, he came

and he proclaimed who God was to us and

unbelievably

he opened our eyes. How can we not share

this same love?

I knew the Dutch were coming today, so I

thought I'd quote Corey Tenboom.

I know my audience.

She says, "Who can add to Christmas?

The perfect Who can add to Christmas?

The perfect motive is that God so loved

the world.

The perfect gift is that he gave his

only son. The only requirement is to

believe in him. The reward of faith is

that you have everlasting life.

Christmas is the most awesome time of

the year because we're celebrating the

truth that Paul didn't know until he ran

into the resurrected Messiah. Those guys

in the Psalms didn't know

that our God has overcome.

That he really, really does love us. And

because of that love, because he came,

because he carried our cross,

that love promises to overcome all

things.

And you get to be a part of that.

If you can't worship,

then I tell you, there's no other God

like this you'll ever run into anywhere

else.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank

you for your great mercy

and your tender love.

We thank you for the hope that you've

put on our heart and the love that

you've shown us.

We ask you, Father,

to send us out as a people who believe

we are loved and then help us to live

that love and the