Romans 8 C Confidence in God’s Love
John Bunyan was a preacher from the 1600’s. He preached the Gospel. In those days, one was only allowed to preach what the Church of England told you was appropriate. Bunyan refused to allow anyone but the Holy Spirit tell him what to preach, and preached the authority of God’s Word without compromise, so he was arrested and in prisoned numerous times. On one occasion he was asked to simply stop and be set free. He answered, “If you release me today, I will preach tomorrow.” Those now famous words led to a nearly 12 year imprisonment.
It was during that imprisonment that he began to write his now famous book “The Pilgrim’s Progress” a book believed by many to be the second most widely distributed book in the world, behind the Bible, being translated into 200 languages, and having never been out of print.
What many people don’t know is that during his life and frequent prison stays, Bunyan wrote over 70 books, one of them covering just one verse, John 6:37 which says,
> Read John 6:37 Everyone the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never cast out.
Can you imagine? A whole book on one verse? The one who comes to Me I will never cast out. But what about the sins I’ve committed in the past? I will never cast out. But what about my lukewarm love? I will never cast out. But what about my partial obedience? I will never cast out. But what about my hit and miss church attendance? I will never cast out. But what about how I disappointed you this week, and embarrassed You? I will never cast out.
Evidently Paul felt the need to stress a similar concern for in Romans 8 he writes, “I am persuaded that nothing can separate us from God’s love.”
Open your Bibles this morning and turn with me please to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8 and verse 31, as this morning we see together how we can be confident in God’s Great Love.
- Read Romans 8:28-39
It must be a terrible thing to live in a home where you never know when one of your parents is going to blow up and fly off the handle. It must be a terrible thing to live in a home where you never know if you’re being good enough to be loved or accepted, when you never know if you are going to hear words of encouragement, or words of belittling judgment.
Sadly, some in our churches teach that God is like that. So folks go from week to week not sure if they are still saved, not knowing if they have sinned enough that God no longer loves them or cares for them. Did I mess up enough this week that God no longer wants to hear from me? Have I messed up so much that God is embarrassed by me? Have I done enough good this week, have I spent enough time reading the Bible and praying that God still wants to hear from me?
What a terrible, schizophrenic, way to live. Evidently Paul was dealing with some of these religious rule-keepers, for in this passage he attempts to nail down the unquestioning permanence of God’s love for His children.
Look there again please at verse 31. If God is for us. If God is for us. What an unfortunate use of the word if. Perhaps a better word to use here would be the word, “Since.” Since God is for us, because it is very clear that God is for us.
Turn to someone near you and tell them, “God loves you and He’s not quitting.” God loves you and He’s not quitting.
You ever see a person on trial, and you think to yourself, “That person is about sorry. He’s getting what he deserves”? And then you see a mom in the crowd, who’s still there to support her child in spite of the many times he has let her down, in spite of what everyone else in the room thinks about her child? That’s how God loves you. His love is not conditional. It is not dependent on your obedience. It is not dependent on your church attendance.
My friend, God loves you and He’s not quitting. We know this for several reasons. First, we know it because of the foreknowledge of God. Look there again please at verse 28.
- Read vvs 28-30
I. GOD LOVES YOU AND HE’S NOT QUITTING
1. Because you can’t surprise Him.
These verses speak of God’s foreknowledge of us. In other words, God has known us, and known about us, since before our parents even knew each other. There is nothing that sneaks up on God and nothing we do can surprise Him.
I remember years ago, one of the deacons in the church I grew up in, left his wife and ran away with another woman in the community. When the deacons heard about it, they held an emergency meeting and immediately removed him as a deacon in the church. God’s people are held to certain standards and leadership to an even higher standard of accountability.
Well let me tell you my friend, there are no emergency sessions in heaven. God has foreknowledge of the future. You and I may look at life like a kid sitting on a curb watching the parade go by one float at a time, one day at a time, but God is over the top. He sees the whole parade from beginning to end at one glance. He sees the floats gathering. He sees the floats as they go by, and He sees the end where they mingle about.
There are no emergency sessions in heaven where God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit get together and say to one another, “Did you see what Gene did? I didn’t see that one coming. I can’t believe he did that. Well, I guess he won’t be part of the family any more. I guess I won’t love him anymore. I guess I won’t take his calls anymore when he prays and tries to talk to Me. I never had any idea he’d hurt Me like that. I guess it’s over between us.”
No. There is nothing you can do that will surprise God or that will make Him stop loving you, because He knew it all ready.
God loves you and He’s not quitting because you can’t surprise Him.
2. God loves you and He’s not quitting because of what Jesus did.
- Read Romans 8:32
Look at the price God paid for you.
> Romans 5:8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
When did Christ die for us? When we were cleaned up? When we were living good respectable lives? No. God loved us so much that He paid for us with the life of His Son, and that was while we were still sinners.
God’s not going to have buyer’s remorse. After the great sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ, the Father is not suddenly going to turn us loose. He’s not going to return us to the store for a refund.
You’re not going to wake up one day, having messed up, and God say, “I’m sorry what I paid for you.” No! God loves you and He’s not going to quit because of the great price He paid for you.
God loves you and He’s not quitting because you can’t surprise Him. God loves you and He’s not quitting because of the price He paid for you. God loves you and He’s not quitting because He adopted you.
3. God loves you and He’s not quitting because He adopted you.
- Read Romans 8:14-17
These verses tell us that we have been adopted as children of God. Can you imagine? We have been adopted by God and we can call Him Abba. Daddy.
Years ago, about the time Drew was about to begin talking, I heard that the first word children usually say is Dada, or Daddy. I had a horrifying vision of Drew waking up night after night, in the middle of the night and crying out for daddy. Scared me to death, so for a month or more I went around the house saying, “Mommy. Mommy.” I wanted him to call her in the middle of the night.
Well, it didn’t work out exactly like I planned. I would take him with me to feed the cows first thing every morning, so the first word he ended up saying was Moo, but his second word was Mama.
It is a chid’s nature to cry out for its parent, to cry out for his daddy.
Now, there are 2 words here with which a child might address his dad. One of them is the word, “Father”.
Father is a name used by a person who understands intellectually the relationship he has with another. It is a word demonstrating child-like confidence, communion and obedience, answering to and expressing dependence on another.
Abba isn’t intellectual. It’s emotional. Abba is the cry of an infant, the simple, helpless cry of unreasoning trust, the effect of feeling; rather than trust. It was a form of address forbidden among the Jews to be used by a slave to the he’d of the family.
The 2 words taken together indicate the love and intelligent trust of a child.
God says, I love you and I’m not quitting because I have adopted you. You are part of my family and I’m not giving up on you because you can’t surprise Me, because of what Jesus did, and because you are part of My family.
Isn’t it great being loved by God and being part of the family?
God loves you and He’s not quitting because Jesus is praying for you.
4. God loves you so much that He has Jesus praying for you
- Read Romans 8:34
Why would God have Jesus praying for someone He’s given up on? Some have the mistaken idea that Jesus did all He was going to do for us on the cross. Not so. Verse 29 calls Jesus our brother. We are all His brothers and sisters. And He’s pulling for us.
He died on the cross for us, but now He is praying for us. He is a brother, sitting on the sidelines, watching us compete in life and as we compete He is praying for us and cheering us on. Hollering from the sidelines. Come on Gene, you got this. Come on Marc, I’m praying for you.
When you are struggling in a relationship, you pray about it. When you are trying to make a decision, you pray about it. When you are trying to sell your house, you pray about it. You quit praying when the relationship is over, when the sickness has claimed its victim. It’s too late then. It’s over. You’ve given up.
Listen, God loves you and you can’t stop Him, because He still has Jesus praying for you.
God loves you and He’s not quitting! Isn’t that great news?
II. THERE ARE SOME TIMES TO REMEMBER GOD’S LOVE
Paul points out that there are some times when we really need to remember God’s love.
1. Remember God loves you when the accuser comes
- Read Romans 8:33
Paul asks, “Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect?”
In Revelation 12:10 we read, “Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have now come, because the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been thrown down.”
The Bible calls Satan the accuser of the brethren. He loves to accuse us before God, but he also loves to accuse us to ourselves.
There is not a one of us who lives up to his potential. There is not a one of us who lives in sinless perfection. There is not a one of us, who walks as closely to God as is possible. So the Devil loaves to accuse us.
He tempts us to sin, or to compromise, and then he comes along and whispers in our ears, “What kind of a Christian are you? What kind of a dad, of a mother are you? A good Christian wouldn’t do something like that. A good Christian would read his Bible more than you do, would pray more than you do, would witness more than you do. You can’t be a good Christian. God can’t use you. God can’t love you, not after the way you messed up.
Don’t you imagine that’s the way Peter felt after he denied Jesus 3 times, and the rooster crowed, and Jesus looked at him. Matthew 26:75
> Read Matthew 26:75 And Peter remembered the saying of Jesus, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.
Can’t you see Peter crying. I guess it’s over. After walking with Jesus these 3 years, after telling Him I wouldn’t leave Him even if everybody else did, here I have denied Him 3 times. I guess it’s over. He can never use me again.
But, on the day Jesus rose from the dead Jesus told the women, “Go tell the disciples and PETER.”
Tell Peter, cause I prayed for him and I’m not done with him yet.
On those days when you are disappointed in yourself, on those days when others point out your failures and shortcomings, remember, God loves you and He’s not quitting.
Remember God loves you when the accuser comes.
2. Remember God loves you when difficulties come
- Read Romans 8:35
Don’t know about you, but those don’t sound like very good things. They don’t sound like things I would enjoy. Affliction, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword. I don’t want any of that stuff in my life. I don’t want to lose my eyesight like Isaac. I don’t want to get Parkinson’s like Billy Graham. I don’t want to get snake bit like Paul. I want to enjoy God’s blessings on my life and just cruise into heaven.
There are some who will try to tell you that if there is sickness, or disease, or death in your life that somehow you’ve messed up, or you’re being disobedient, or God doesn’t love you or some such thing. They teach that God’s greatest goal is to bless His children and make them all healthy and wealthy, and that if that’s not the way things are going then either you are out of God’s will or He doesn’t love you. What sad nonsense.
> 1 Timothy 5:23 Don’t continue drinking only water, but use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.
Timothy was frequently sick. God chose not to heal him. Instead, Paul told him to drink a little wine, one of the medicines of the day.
Did the fact that God chose not to heal Timothy mean that Timothy was out of God’s will? No. Did it mean that God didn’t love him anymore? No. Timothy was pastoring a growing church and God chose to use Timothy to demonstrate faithfulness through difficulties.
I don’t know why God operates the way He does. I attended a funeral for a relative yesterday. He was in his 40s and died of cancer. I don’t know why God allowed that to happen, but I do know that people sometimes begin to question God’s love when difficulties come.
> Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,?and your ways are not my ways.”This is the Lord’s declaration. “For as heaven is higher than earth, so my ways are higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
I don’t know why God allows pain and suffering in tis world. I don’t know why God allows grief to come into some homes, while others seem to avoid much of it. But I do know that even during those times Jesus is praying for you, and God still loves you.
Remember God loves you when the accuser comes. Remember God loves you when difficulties come. Third, remember God loves you when persecution comes.
3. Remember God loves you when persecution comes
- Read Romans 8:36
Because of the funeral and some other things, I got to visit with some of my extended family this week. During one of those visits I found out that one of my nieces, that’s what I call her. She’s really my cousin’s daughter, anyway, I found out that she was dismissed from an internship she’s been a part of.
She’s working on her masters degree in counseling. Well, in one of the internships she was in as part of that program, she was counseling and was dismissed with a poor grade because she refused to pretend that a guy was a girl or a girl was a guy.
You know, until 2013, people who thought they were supposed to be a different sex were said to be suffering from gender identity disorder. In other words, they were recognized as having a mental disease. In 2013, it was renamed Gender dysphoria, because they wanted to remove the stigma associated with the word, disorder. In other words, in 2013 it was decided by some that we are supposed to now play pretend, and that we are supposed to pretend that someone is whatever they claim to be, and if we don’t, we are the ones in the wrong.
This isn’t the first time stupidity and evil have permeated society. In Isaiah 5 Isaiah warned back in his day,
> Isaiah 5:20-21 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness, who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Woe to those who consider themselves wise and judge themselves clever.
My friends, persecution is coming, and God says, “When persecution comes, remember I still love you.”
Remember God loves you when the accuser comes. Remember God loves you when difficulties come. Remember God loves you when persecution comes.
God loves you, and He’s not quitting, even when you don’t understand.
God loves you, so you can be victorious.
III. GOD LOVES YOU SO YOU CAN BE VICTORIOUS
- Read Romans 8:37-39
Yesterday, on the way back from Deland, I saw a sign for a yard sale. I used to hit them looking for Christmas trees. Now I hit yard sales looking for nativity sets. Well, they didn’t have any nativity sets, but he did have some extension cords so I bought them. He said, “You can never have enough extension cords.” I’m like, “Nope, not when you decorate 10 1/2 acres every year. We got to talk about Christmas in the Country for a while, and he and his wife, and a couple of friends that were there are looking forward to visiting us.
Anyway, He told me they were selling their house and they were going to start living in an RV. He said, “First it’s getting too crowded. When we moved to Florida there were 800 people a day moving here. Now it’s over 1,500. It’s getting too crowded. Second, they put in that round about out there on 40, so now traffic is coming down our road to avoid it, including semi-trucks. We’re tired of the traffic. He said, the final straw was when our insurance jumped from $1,800 a year, to $5,000 a year, plus they want us to get flood insurance, even though we’re not in a flood plain. That was the last straw. We’re selling out. Getting out, and going RVing. We quit!”
In these verses Paul lays out some of man’s greatest fears. He lays out 10 what ifs, that people often worry about. What if I die? What if angels or other spiritual beings come against me. What if the government turns against me? What if this happens in the future? What if?
Paul says, “Shoot, the Devil and the world can send all they want against us. Discouragement, pain, persecution, accusations. They can send all they want, but we are more than conquerors, because there is nothing they can do that can separate us from God’s love.”
After the Germans ran allied troops out of France, and the British evacuated their soldiers at Dunkirk, many thought the war was lost. The battle was done. The hope had ended.
Winston Churchill stood before Commons, and in one of his first speeches said, “We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
And my friends, we shall not surrender either. IN Christ we are more than conquerors, because nothing can separate us from God’s love!
