NOTHING SHALL SEPARATE US FROM THE LOVE OF GOD!
Rom. 8:38-39
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. 3 men went deer hunting together. One of them was a preacher. A deer stopped where all three could see him and all three shot.
2. All three men said the deer was theirs and an argument broke out. Just then a game warden appeared and they asked him to tell who’d shot it. He looked at it and said the preacher had shot it.
3. “Why” they said? “Because the bullet went in one ear and came out the other ear.”
B. OLYMPICS IN PARIS NOW
1. Psychiatrists years ago identified a phenomenon called 'The Paris Effect.' It’s the disappointment many first-time visitors to Paris experience after the hyped up expectations from the media. Visitors arrive expecting a friendly European capital where slim, beautiful Parisians walk around smelling of Chanel. Instead, they find pavements peppered with cigarette butts and aggravated commuters in packed metro trains. The romanticized vision of Paris leaves a lot of room for disappointment.
2. Not so the experience of knowing Jesus. To meet Him is to be transformed. It is to encounter the love of God in Christ. I experienced and still experience this phenomenon every day & I want you to have it!
C. TEXT & THESIS
1. “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 8:38-39.
2. Title: “Nothing Shall Separate Us From the Love of God.” We see 3 things Paul was persuaded of:
I. 1st, HE IS PERSUADED OF THE LOVE OF GOD
First Paul was persuaded that God is a God of love, and that God loved him! Are you persuaded that God loves you?
A. GENERAL SIGNS OF HIS LOVE FOR US
1. God made us with intellect and creative powers like His own. He gave us this beautiful world to live in. He gave us many joys – food, families, children, sensual pleasures and opportunities for growth & achievement.
2. He made us spiritual creatures who can commune with Him and develop a personal relationship with our Creator. He gives us all things to enjoy. But He did more.
3. When we sinned and cut ourselves off from fellowship with Him, He (from before the world) decided to humble Himself, become a human, and die a cruel death for us to redeem us with His perfect life. His Spirit was willing to come into our rebellious, sinful hearts and wrestle with us and persuade us to walk with Him.
4. He states that He loves us with an everlasting love; a love greater than any other human, including our own mothers! His whole purpose is to redeem us and transport us into a new and beautiful universe that He will make specially for us and that He will personally dwell among us from that time on, forever.
B. THE OVERWHELMING SIGN OF HIS LOVE
1. Paul sees, in the death of God’s Son for us, the incontrovertible proof of the love of God for us. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,” John 3:16. It’s as though God bartered a diamond to buy a common pebble from the brook, or gave away an empire to purchase something of little worth. “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Rom. 5:8
2. In not sparing His own Son, God gave us the greatest pledge of His good will. When God delivered up His Son, He gave to us His greatest Gift. If God was willing to do this most difficult thing, it implies that all lesser sacrifices (of God) would be given without hesitation. “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Rom. 8:32.
3. So we are persuaded of these three things, first, that God loves us; next, that God has shown His love to us by the gift of His Son; and third, that His divine love comes streaming down to us because we are in Christ, and are loved for His sake.
4. Dear friends, I want you to get this persuasion into your heart. Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the person who trusts in Him! Secondly, Paul was persuaded that...
II. BELIEVERS ARE JOINED TO GOD BY LOVE
A. PAUL SAID, “NOTHING SHALL BE ABLE TO SEPARATE US”
Now Paul wouldn’t have said “nothing can separate us from God” if we weren’t joined to Him. How can we picture this union in the bonds of love with God?
1. God loves Christ and we love Christ, so we have a meeting place; we love the same blessed Person and that brings us to love one another. There are two things that join God and a believer together; first God loves the believer, and second, the believer loves God.
2. It's as when a mother puts her arms around the neck of her little child, and her child puts its tiny arms about her mother’s neck. There’s a two-fold bond. That’s how we and God are joined together.
3. God says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. Jer. 31:3. Are you persuaded of that? Can you say tonight that God loves you like this? Two links exist between you and the great God: one to Christ and one between the Father and you (John 16:27.) “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” 1 John 3:1.
4. Is it so with you? Are your arms around the neck of your great Father? Are the Father’s arms around your neck? Be persuaded of this wonderful truth!
B. ILLUSTRATION: WHICH MOLECULES HAVE POWER
1. There are certain molecules that can begin to glow with phosphorescence, called fluorophores. It happens when they are exposed to the right kind of light source.
2. But the fluorophores don’t begin to glow unless they’re aligned or in synch with the light source’s polarized plane. If they’re not aligned they won’t glow, but will remain inactive and dormant.
3. It's like God’s People; those who are focusing in on God will shine with the glow of God’s Presence. But if we fail to focus on God, that power won’t be in our lives. Johnny Wilson, (http://www.iss.com/resources/tech2/.)
III. HE IS PERSUADED THAT NOTHING CAN EVER SEPARATE US:
Paul names a few of the great powers which could.
A. NOT DEATH
1. He begins by naming a chief separator of humans – death. The bravest of men have trembled at the thought of meeting the king of terrors! But many believers who’ve crossed the barrier of death tell, on their death-beds, of their joy:
a. Margaret Prior: "Eternity rolls up before me like a sea of glory."
b. Martha McCrackin: "How bright the room! How full of angels."
c. Trotter: "I am in perfect peace, resting alone on the blood of Christ."
d. Mary Frances: "I am full of rapture. The Lord doth shine with such power upon my soul. He is come! He is come!”
e. Philip Heck: "How beautiful! The opening heavens around me shine!"
2. The Lord said that the Angels will come and escort us to heaven (Lk. 16:22); it’s like being picked up in a limousine, and your driver is an angel!
3. JOKE. Like the time the Pope came to the USA and asked his chauffer if he could drive the limousine, since he hadn’t driven in years. He got pulled over by a policeman, who, after taking his I.D., called his captain. “Captain, I’ve got trouble. I’ve pulled over someone really important.” “Really? How important?” “Well, He’s so important that the Pope is His chauffer!”
B. NOR LIFE
1. We all know that dying isn’t the hard work, living is! Think of the temptations, the trials, the disappointments. Retirement is a far-distant dream at the end of a life of work. Life is a struggle!
2. But we don’t face it alone. Jesus said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you; I will be with you always, even until the end of the world.” Paul said that neither death nor life, shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
C. NEXT ANGELS, PRINCIPALITIES, POWERS
1. Paul doesn’t mean the good angels; they wouldn’t want to separate us from the love of God. He means the fallen angels. Yet, no matter how powerful or diabolical such beings are – because we’re “in Christ” and under the blood of Jesus, those nefarious beings cannot pass the “bloodline” (like in Egypt, the death angel couldn’t cross the blood). “The wicked one touches him (the righteous) not” 1 Jn. 5:18. “We are more than conquerors.” We can “tread on serpents and scorpions” Luke 10:19.
2. In Eph. 6:12-13 Paul tells us, “Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
3. If we fought this battle by ourselves, we’d certainly lose. But Jesus has already defeated all the satanic forces at Calvary; they are “under His feet” (Eph. 1:22). And, as we’re part of the Body of Christ, Satan is under OUR FEET!
D. “NOR THINGS PRESENT;” present troubles, financial lack, sickness & disease, depression – whatever it may be – nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ.
E. “NOR THINGS TO COME” – whatever difficulties arise in the future. We cannot help wondering what the “things to come” will be for us; we may not be alive next year. But one thing we can be sure of, nothing in the future that can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
F. “NOR HEIGHT, NOR DEPTH, NOR ANY OTHER CREATURE”
1. No height of achievement or low of disaster, physically or spiritually, can separate us. Lastly Paul says, “nor any other creature” as a summary meaning, “Not anything in creation, nor anything that ever will be created,” nothing shall ever separate us from the love of Christ. Oh, what a sweet persuasion is this!
2. Let us go forward into the future, however dark it is, with this confidence, that one thing at least we know—the love of Christ will hold us fast, and by His grace, we will hold fast to Him. We are married to Him, and we shall never be divorced. We are joined to Him by a living, loving, lasting union that never shall be broken.
3. And this universal truth defeats of all possibilities of failure. It stirred Paul up to deeds of daring. Like the old guy said, “I can’t lose for winning!” “There’s no one who can defeat me, so I can’t help but win!” Can you say “Praise the Lord?”
4. It’s the believer who trusts in Jesus’ eternal love, and believes that He will never change that will have the joy of the Lord and always walk in victory!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: A pastor invited an elderly man to speak in his church. The man told the following story;
1. "A father, his son and a friend of his son were sailing off the Pacific coast. In a fast-approaching storm all three were swept into the ocean and the boat capsized."
2. The father located the two teenagers; they were in opposite directions. He had a lifeline to the boat in his hand. He had to decide which boy to throw the it to first before the waves scattered them. The father knew that his son was a Christian and that his son's friend was not.
3. As the father yelled out, "I love you, son!" he threw out the lifeline to his son's friend.” By the time the father had pulled the friend back to the capsized boat, his son had disappeared beneath the raging swells and was never seen again.”
4. The Old Man said, “That’s what God did for you. He gave up His own Son so you could live. God is throwing you a lifeline tonight so you can live." With that, the elderly man took his seat.
5. After the service two young men went up to the elderly man. "That was a nice story, but I don't think it’s very realistic for a father to give up his only son's life in hopes that the other boy would become a Christian."
6. He answered, "And yet, that's what GOD DID the for you! And as for my story being realistic, the truth is, I was that father, and your pastor was my son's friend!"
B. ALTAR CALL
1. Have you accepted God's gift of eternal life in his Son? Have you taken hold of God's lifeline thrown to you?
2. Are you staying in fellowship with Jesus and trying to conform your life to His?
3. Are you helping other people to find Christ? Are you getting enough of the light of Jesus in your life so that others can see Him?
4. Are you facing hindrances? Persevere! All who continue seeking WILL find!
[This is a rewrite of C.H. Spurgeon’s message, “Paul’s Persuasion”]
