Fully Convinced in the Love of God

All of you, last weekend was a wonderful weekend of being able to minister to. quite a volume of people. We had 320 people at our Good Friday service and ended up having, about 30 people in the overflow. room and had just under 570 people last Sunday.

so, when we think about, giving out the gospel of Christ and encouraging God's people, it's a real blessing to know that that volume of, of, souls were ministered to. By the truth of, of the gospel, so keep inviting your friends and family and coworkers to be a part of what is going on here. I don't know that there's ever a service where I wouldn't be ecstatic to know that a nonbeliever attended. Given what they see and what they hear as we worship the Lord, and as we open up, God's word, together.

And as we do that this morning, let me invite you to turn to Romans 8. Romans chapter 8. For our time of study in the word this morning, we, We are doing a verse by verse study through Romans 567 and 8, a journey to the heart of the gospel, and as we continue in our study through this section of the book of Romans, we come to Romans chapter 8, verses 38 and 39. My goal this morning is to cover these two verses.

this morning, and if you want a title for the message, it would be Fully convinced in the Love of God. Fully convinced in the love of God. Let me read these two verses to you. Paul says, for I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your word and for the comfort and the security that you speak to us, who are your people in your word. This is the power base of our living of the Christian life and so bring us to a deeper place of conviction and persuasion of these things. As we look at what you have for us in these two verses.

take us closer to your heart, Lord, establish us firmly in the truth of your saving grace. And if there's any here today who have not been established in your saving grace. They've never received the saving grace, Lord, that you would draw them in grace and mercy to yourself and use the words that are spoken in this message to Draw them to yourself, to awaken them to their need for a savior. And to awaken them to a sight of the one and only true savior, Jesus Christ.

We just ask these things, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Sinclair Ferguson said in his book, Children of the Living God, He said the reality of the love of God for us is often the last thing in the world to dawn upon us. As we fix our eyes upon ourselves, our past failures, our present guilt, it seems impossible to us that the Father could love us.

I think that's a true statement that is borne out in many of our lives that the reality of the love of God in all of its dimensions is often the last thing in the world. to dawn upon us, and many believers live lives plagued with insecurity and fear and doubting and despair, and condemnation and not certain that God loves them and favors them in Christ. And their life may end up being like William Cooper, a friend of John Newton, who often found himself in places of despair, condemnation, to the point where on a couple of occasions he attempted suicide.

And just not just doubting his salvation, but certain that he was one of the damned at some of his places of dark and deep doubt.

But on his deathbed, just in the moments before he passed, his face brightened and he said, I am not shut out of heaven after all. So a moment of certitude came to him in the final moments of his life, and I'm sure he was thankful for that. But the better way to live is to experience and enjoy certitude in The love of God. Paul, as he reaches this crescendo in this section of the book of Romans, up to this point of the book, we've seen that the word love only shows up twice, Romans 5:5.

In Romans 5:8, but now we come to these verses in Romans chapter 8, verse 35 to 39 and three times just in these few verses, he speaks of the love of God or the love of Christ. And as he comes into our passage this morning, look at how the text begins, he says, I am convinced. I am Convinced. Paul is going to assert something that is absolutely true, but he doesn't want to just state that truth.

He is saying, look at me and observe something about me, and that is that I am convinced that what I'm about to say is true. I am persuaded and the tense of this. verb convinced is a perfect tense and it denotes that I've come to a, a place at some point in the past of conviction and persuasion about what I am about to say with the abiding ongoing result that I am established in this conviction. I am convinced of what I am about to say.

And that raises for us, I think a, a valid question to ask ourselves at this point as we reach the end of our study through this section of Romans, are you convinced? Are you convinced of the love of God as it has been portrayed for us in these chapters of the book of Romans? I've talked to a number of people over the last year and 8 months as we've been going through this series. And many of us have become more established and secure in the love of God because of what we've learned, but many have testified, and I have felt this as well, that there's something slippery about this and it's so easy to, to feel secure in the love of God when we're preaching through this and studying through it on Sunday.

But then we wake up Monday and these truths slip right through our fingers and the security we knew. The previous day has eluded us. And I, I feel reluctant to let go of this series and to move on because I want us to be convinced as Paul was convinced. Are you convinced?

of the love of God for you. Are you convinced of the fact of the love of God? Are you convinced of the eternality of the love of God? Are you convinced of God's continuous and eternal commitment to making sure that nothing ever separates you from his love?

Are you convinced of the unrivaled power of the love of God. Are you convinced of the fact that it just so happens that we are loved by God with a love that is unrivaled in power? There is no greater power in the universe than this love that we are loved with. It would be one thing to be loved by God, but let's say theoretically that this love that we were loved with was the 20th most powerful thing in the universe.

We would always live in fear that maybe those 19 things that are more powerful than the love of God, might end up being able to quench the love of God or diminish the love of God or stop God from loving us, or separate us from the love of God. We would always live in fear. of that. But what Paul is affirming in our text today is that God's love for us is unrivaled in its power.

There is no greater power in the universe that could ever mitigate, diminish, lessen or quench, or separate us from the love of God. And we must be convinced of this. Horatius Bonar, and I, I've read this to you guys before and I want to read it to you again. He says terror accomplishes no real obedience.

Suspense brings forth no fruit on the holiness. No gloomy uncertainty as to God's favor can subdue one lust or correct our crookedness of will. So look at that guys., real obedience, fruit unto holiness, subduing lust, correcting our crookedness of will, we all want those things. And he says terror, suspense, and uncertainty cannot produce any of that.

He goes on to say, but the free pardon of the cross uproots sin and withers all its branches. Only the certainty of love, forgiving love can do this. He doesn't just say only love can do this. He says only the certainty of love can do this.

In other words, your real obedience and fruit unto holiness, and victory in your life will go as deep as is your certainty. In God's loving favor upon you as a child of God. All the things we want to see in our Christian life is merely the fruit of the certitude at our core of God's loving favor towards us and our conviction. That nothing can separate us from his love.

The way we're gonna unpack the text this morning is, really, it's one sentence. and so it's one conviction, one persuasion, but what we're gonna do is we're gonna break this down into 6 convictions that the apostle Paul is expressing here, 6 convictions that God wants us who are his children. To have regarding his love for us in Christ. When we hear Paul say, I am convinced we ought to sit up and say, Paul, what are you convinced of?

Because whatever you're convinced of as an apostle of Christ, we too are entitled to be convinced of that. And so we want to be convinced along with him. 6 convictions that we are entitled to, that Paul gives expression to here. In these verses.

Conviction number one, you'll notice in this passage that there's a lot of couplets, things that are coupled together. Conviction number one, we'll word it this way, neither death nor life can separate us from the love of God in Christ. He says, for I am convinced that neither death nor life shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Two things he's talking about.

two potential candidates that one might wonder, could these things separate us from the love of God. Paul entertains them and concludes that they can't. And that is death cannot separate us from the love of God, and life cannot separate us from the love of God. In Christ.

He starts off with death. Death cannot separate us from the love of God. The essence of death in Scripture is separation. Physical death is the separation of the soul from the body.

Eternal death is the separation of a person from God. spiritual death, the separation of a person from God as he lives in this world, eternal death is eternal separation of an individual soul from God for all of eternity. Death conveys the idea of separation. And even for those of us in this church that are over 28 or so, As we say often, we're not waiting for death to come and pay us a visit on the day that we die.

Death is showing up every day and separating us from things, separating us from our hair follicles. On the top of our head, separating us from the ability to see and sometimes to think and to remember the way that we once did, separating us from abilities and from beauty that maybe we once had. These daily separations are occurring. Death separates us ultimately from everything including physical life on the day that we die.

And yet Paul says, death, as powerful as it is, cannot separate us from the love of God. All these separations are occurring as we are dying every day, but we're not being separated progressively from the love of God. And on the day that we breathe our last, we will pass through death. And on the other side of death, there will be the love of God.

Death will not succeed. And separating us from the love of God. It may separate us from everything else, but not his love. You think about in a normal wedding ceremony.

That it's a downer if you stopped and thought about it, but no one really does. But you have a bride and a groom and They're making their vows to each other and pledging their life, I'm gonna love you for the rest of my life, and they're making all these glorious, wonderful vows. But at the end of their vows, they say till death do us part, or till death separates us. In this beautiful ceremony where everyone's happy of two lives coming together, death gets an honorable mention and both the bride and the groom offer a humble acknowledgment to the power of death.

And they acknowledge as much as I love you. As much as I love you, I will love you for the rest of my life until death steps in and separates me from you. When that day comes, our marriage is over. Death is in a sense more powerful than the institution of marriage, and it will ultimately separate husband and wife from each other.

I actually, this week as I put this slide together, I had a, a picture of the Grim Reaper standing by the bride and groom. I didn't want to frighten small children, so I removed it. But how's that for a wedding photo if But that's the reality. And we understand that, that separation will occur between a husband and wife.

And so in all human relationships, death is powerful. We understand the power of death, but death is not more powerful than the love of God. How powerful must be the love of God that death cannot separate from us from God's love. Paul doesn't stop there though.

He says, I'm convinced that neither death nor life can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ, our Lord. Life cannot separate us from the love of God. Now does that seem odd to you? as Paul is entertaining possible candidates that might theoretically be able to separate us from the love of God.

We're, we're not surprised that he mentions death. But that he would call life to step forward and say, even life cannot separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Why would Paul even mention life in this context? Well, understand that as long as we're alive in this world, We are not in heaven.

In heaven, which is where Jesus is and where our home is, we will be with Jesus in unfiltered and unmitigated fullness for all of eternity. as we make our way through this life, we are just pilgrims, we are aliens, we are Strangers, we are away from home. And when we get to heaven, we're going to experience Jesus in an unfiltered, unhindered way for all of eternity. And so there is a sense in which as long as we're alive on this earth, that we're not as close to Jesus as we would want to be in terms of the fullness of His presence that we will know in heaven.

In 2 Corinthians 5, the apostle Paul speaks this way. He says, therefore, being always of good courage and knowing that while we are at home, In the body, so we're alive on this earth, and so we're at home in the body, we're absent from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight, we're a good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. The word that is translated absent means out of home or away from home. There's a sense in which right now, as long as we are alive, physically alive, we're away from home, the home that we are heading towards.

And yet, what Paul is affirming in this passage is even though we are away from home, the home that we are heading towards, we are not separated from God's love. God's love is here, God's love is with us. God is always in this fallen world working all things together for our good and for His glory, and He has given us His Holy Spirit, who is continuously pouring out his love inside of our hearts. So we are experiencing the love of God.

And as long as we're alive here, though we are absent from the Lord in terms of not being in heaven, Experiencing Him and unhindered fullness. Paul says we still absolutely are not separated from his love. He sends as it were, his love on a head. of Himself, and his love is what enshrouds us and shepherds us and brings us ultimately home.

His love is that emissary that comes And accompanies us as we are making our way to our home to experience Jesus in absolute fullness. Paul says neither death nor life can separate us, has the power to separate us from the love of God in Christ. The second conviction is no good angel or evil angel can separate us from the love of God in Christ. he says, I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

He says angels cannot separate us from the love of God. In Christ. Whenever the word angels is used in the New Testament without any qualifier, it almost always speaks of good angels. So he's saying no good angel can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ.

And you might say, well, why would he even entertain that thought of a good angel? Even wanting to separate us from the love of Christ. Well, he's speaking hypothetically, the same way he does in Galatians 1:8, where he says, even if an angel came from heaven and preached to you a different gospel than the one I preached to you, let that angel be damned. That's how certain Paul was of the rightness and the truthfulness of the gospel that he preached, that even if a good angel came from heaven and preached something different, let him be anathema.

Not that that would ever happen, but he's trying to make a point. Paul is saying here, that even if there was a good angel, that angel with all of the power that it possesses would not be able to separate us from the love of God. Understand that angels are powerful beings. Generally, when they appear in the Old Testament and the New Testament, whoever those angels are appearing to falls to the ground and assumes they're going to die.

That's how impressive angelic beings are. And Isaiah 37. the Assyrians had come against the people of Judah, and God intervened on behalf of the people of Judah by sending one angel into the camp of the Assyrians, and one angel in one night slew 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. That's powerful.

And Paul is saying that angelic beings like that, any individual angel, or even if all of them were to come together in a unified effort to seek to separate us from God's love with all of their power and all of their might, they would not be able to separate us from the love of God. He says, nor principalities. And by way of contrast, the likelihood is that he's speaking of evil spiritual beings, demons and demons that possess great authority, that rule over other spiritual demonic beings is what's being conveyed here.

And so Paul is saying both good spiritual beings and evil spiritual beings, demons, Satan himself, who is a principality, they are always seeking to separate us from the love of God, and they always fail.

we here at Cornerstone, we believe in eternal security and we believe that the Bible teaches that no true Christian Who has been saved ever has or ever will, in fact, lose his salvation. So we believe in that doctrine, but don't think the devil believes in that doctrine. Once you're saved, he doesn't say, well, eternal security, I guess I'm never going to be able to get this person to lose their salvation. No, he's trying every day to get God's people to lose their salvation.

He's accusing them before God and trying every day to get God to change his mind about you and about me, to get God to stop loving us. He's trying every day to create situations that create separation between us and the love of God, and he fails day after day after day. Because as powerful as Satan is, as powerful as all the demonic hosts are, as powerful as all of the good angels of heaven are, none of them have the power to separate us from the love of God. It just so happens that we are loved with a love that is unrivaled in its power.

Now, why can we be so secure about this? Well, if you think about it, we don't have to worry about angels, principalities that are they're up there, here we are, and, and they're up here. The reason we don't fear them separating us from the love of God is because Christ died, he was raised, and he was exalted. vaulted to the right hand of God above those principalities and powers.

And so we look at our Savior, who's up there over them, having subjected them under his feet. And that's where our security comes from. Christ crucified, raised, and exalted. Paul says that God raised him from the dead, seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come, and he put all things in subjection under his feet.

And it's because our Savior is at the right hand of God with all authority and all power, that we can be absolutely secure in the love of God for us. Our security is in Christ who is in heaven. One commentator says the source of our confidence, it's not in our performance. I'm sure God loves me because I'm a pretty good person.

And I'm better than other people, and I'm growing, and whatever else we might point to in ourselves, know the source of our confidence is Christ. It is the career of Christ, summarized in verse 34. Our hope began at Christ's victory at Calvary, and is as invincible as Christ's reign is in heaven. So fix your eyes upon Him, get your eyes off of yourself.

You don't have security in the love of God because you've been doing well the last week or so. No, it is because of Christ, and where Christ is at the right hand of God. No good angel or evil angel could ever separate you or me from the love of God in Christ. There's a third conviction that Paul gives expression to that God wants us to be able to express, and that is that nothing present nor to come can separate us from the love of God in Christ.

Paul says, I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come. will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Paul says, let's just make it real simple. Anything that right now exists in the physical, material, spiritual universe, none of that will be able to separate you and me from the love of God that is in Christ.

And you might say, well, is it possible that even though that may be true, that there might be something that comes into existence in the future, that might have the power to separate us from the love of Christ. And Paul says, I got that covered too. There's nothing even to come. We live in a rapidly changing world.

And you think about how different our lives are today than, than even 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago with the advances in technology. It's just amazing. And you think about how we're on the fast track towards just radical changes in our society, technology, and what have you, there are things to come, and scary things to come. You look at where our country may be headed.

There are scary things to come. The Bible tells us that there is a time to come in which the Antichrist will arise in power, and there will be a coalition of nations that are under him and behind him, and he will wield that power against us. the people of God. There are tremendous and awful things to come.

But Paul says there is nothing that right now exists, nor is there anything to come that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ. In fact, here at Cornerstone, we believe that before the anti-Christ rises the power to power and the tribulation begins, God will rapture us. And rescue us from his wrath and from those judgments, and from the evil designs of the antichrist to come. And even if we're wrong on that, we're pre-tribulational, maybe that's wrong, even if it's wrong, I do know this, if we have to go through the tribulation period, there is nothing that the anti-Christ can do that will ever separate us from the love of Christ.

Nothing present, nor to come can separate us from the love of God in Christ. There's 1/4 conviction that he expresses here that Paul would say, I, I'm talking this way because I want you to say it with me, say it with me, be convinced with me. No powers, be they spiritual or physical, can separate us from the love of God in Christ. Paul says, I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

This word powers is the word that We get our word dynamic or dynamite from, it's interesting, commentators are all over the place in terms of identifying what this means. just some of the suggestions made by commentators, John MacArthur says this word speaks of miracles or persons in positions of authority, whether spiritual or, or human authority. Anyone that has power. And I, I couldn't argue against either of those interpretations.

Another commentator says this word speaks of mighty works or miracles. I couldn't argue against that. Lensky says that this word speaks of powers of nature as manifested in storms, thunder and lightning and earthquakes. I don't know that I could argue with that.

we've seen in the news just this past week, the last couple of days, terrific power, demonstrations of power being displayed in the tornadoes. That have hit Oklahoma and Kansas, wreaking incredible damage, separating people from, from life and from their homes and from their loved ones and everything they hold dear. And yet, Paul would say, as powerful as these things may be, they cannot separate us from the love of God. No tornado.

With all of its power can separate you from the love of God. William Newell says that this word possibly speaks of all kinds of magic, bewitchment, sorcery, and spells. I couldn't argue against that interpretation either. There's even some indication that it may mean that based on Simon, the sorcerer, the magician that We see this word power is used in connection with him having the power of God or being viewed as such.

And so, if the word is big enough to be inclusive of this idea, it would mean that we as Christians have nothing to fear from spells. People can cast whatever spells they want upon us, and those spells may be binding upon upon those who don't know Christ, but they have no power over us. They wield no power and they cannot separate us from the love of God. If every sorcerer, and which of any pagan power got together and they had this massive ceremony, and they're naming your name and doing all of these rituals in order to pronounce you damned eternally, it would mean nothing.

It cannot separate you from the love of God. So we as Christians, we, we have no need of being superstitious, like we got to tend to this and that, and, and thinking that there might be something above the love of God that we got to make sure is appeased or it might act and intervene and separate us from his love. Newell goes on to say this, it is a sad fact that many dear saints are troubled by these things. Speaking of magic, bewitchment, sorcery, and spells.

They are afraid of Friday the 13th, which we just had this past Friday. of passing under a ladder, of seeing a black cat, of breaking a mirror. I have seen professing Christians knock on wood if making some confident statement. As, as Christians that, that's just irrelevant.

We, we don't need any of that. We, we need not fear anything in connection with that. People can make their little voodoo dolls, dolls and put our name on it and, and start poking them with needles everywhere. It doesn't, it has no power over us.

It cannot separate us from the love of God. There is no power, be it spiritual or physical that can separate us from The love of God in Christ. There's a 5th conviction that Paul expresses here, and that is that there is no height nor depth that can separate us from the love of God in Christ. No height nor depth can separate us from the love of God in Christ.

He says, I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth. shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. I think the primary idea here is that of location. He's saying there is no location.

where you might ever find yourself wherein it could be said that in that location, you are separated from the love of God. There's no location to fear from that standpoint that, oh, if I find myself here, or if someone takes me here, and I'm in this location, then I am outside of the love of God or separated from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, my Lord. What we're learning here is that God's love is not only unrivaled in its power, but it is unrivaled in its omnipresence.

It's everywhere and wherever you may go, or wherever anyone may take you against your will, no one can ever take you to a location where God's love is not.

A day may come when people may arrest you and take you where you do not want to go, but they can never take you to a location where God's love is not there. They may take you to the deepest and darkest. High security prison surrounded by layer upon layer of fences and barbed wire and take you into the prison compound down many hallways behind hundreds of feet of concrete, and then cast you into the deepest dungeon. In that prison.

And yet God's love is in that dungeon. It's everywhere. You will never find yourself in a location. Where God's love is not.

They may lock you up, but they cannot shut out the love of God. They may be able to keep you from getting out, but they cannot keep God's love from getting in and being with you, wherever you may find yourself. There is no location, height or depth, where God's love and loving presence is not. I'm sure some of you are already thinking of Psalm 139.

As we're talking about this, the psalmist is entertaining the possibility, where could I go and maybe be away from not just the presence of God, but the intimate, the close presence of God. Literally, you could translate this, where can I go from thy breath? Where can I go from your breath, Lord? In other words, you're not just there, but you're close.

I can, I can almost feel and hear you breathing wherever I am. Where can I go from thy breath? Where can I flee literally from thy face? Where can I go that your face is not close enough to me to where as it were, I can feel your breath upon me?

If I ascend to the heights of heaven, You're there. If I make my bed in the grave, behold, you're there. If I take the wings of the dawn. So if I go as far east as I can, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, which was west, the Mediterranean, even there thy hand will lead me, and thy right hand will lay hold of me.

Even if I try. In fact, if the spirit of this part of the Psalm is the psalmist is like in the first several verses, he's like, oh God, you, you are so close to me and you scrutinize my path and my lying down and you're acquainted with all of my ways and you're behind me and in front of me and wherever I am, you're there and this knowledge is so great, it's so wonderful and he's enjoying it and then all of a sudden he gets freaked out. And he, the instinct is I gotta flee. I have to get away.

And then he, he starts entertaining, where, where can I go to get away from your breath and from your face? If I, if I go to the heights of heaven, you're there, if I make my bed in the grave, you're there. If I go as far to the east as I can, you're there. If I go as far as the west, you're there.

Your face, your breath, and even your hand is upon me wherever I find myself. I cannot get away. From your presence. And God would not say, of course, you can't get away from my presence because I'm omnipresent.

Don't that doctrine? No, God would say, I'm not always with you. Don't think I'm always with you because I'm omnipresent and I have to be because I'm omnipresent. I'm always with you because I want to always be with you.

Even when you're not overly keen on that idea. If I say surely the darkness will overwhelm me and the light around me will be night, even the darkness is not dark to thee, and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to thee. There is no height, there is no depth.

Even though I think the primary idea is that of location. I think there's some nuance here of there is no height nor depth of circumstance. that you will ever find yourself in, wherein it is happening that you're being separated from the love of God, whatever your circumstances may be, no matter how painful, how difficult they are, no matter how those circumstances may be actually, in fact, separating you from your hopes and dreams and the things that you would desire, separating you from things that you find meaningful.

There is no height nor depth of circumstance that in any way, Lessens the love of God for you, or separates you from His love.

Be convinced of that. Paul says, what are we going to speak to these things in verse 31, Open your mouth, put these words on your tongue, and see what they feel like and then form the words and speak them aloud and listen to yourself as you say them. There is no height, there's no depth of circumstance that can separate me from God's love. A 6th and final conviction that Paul expresses is that nothing created by God or man can separate us from His love in Christ.

He says, I'm convinced that neither death nor life nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God. This word that is translated created thing. generally speaks of something created by God. In fact, earlier in Romans 8, this word is used 4 times.

in verse 19, Paul speaks of creation, verse 20, creation, verse 21, creation, verse 22, creation. And it speaks of that which is created and established by God. And so, This, what Paul is saying in Romans 8 here, in our verse today is that there's nothing at all that God has created that can actually succeed in separating us from His love. How could something God has created actually overpower the God who created it?

That can't happen. This word though, sometimes does have the idea of not just something God creates, but something man creates or establishes and it's used this way in 1 Peter 2:13, where Peter says, submit yourself for the Lord's sake to every human institution. And that word institution is this word that is translated created thing, whether to a king as one. and authority and so forth.

The point is that governments that are established, yes, we know theologically they're actually established by God, but there's also human involvement and so there are government entities and agencies. and, and plans that are executed, that are established and created. There are laws that are created by, by people in power. And what we can know is that there is no creation, no establishment created by either God or man that can ever succeed.

And separating us from the love of God. We are absolutely, totally secure in the love of God. Now, there are some commentators, let me just say this real quick, who, who look at verses 38 and 39, and they're like, they say now this passage doesn't say, this passage is not a promise that you can't separate yourself from the love of God. You better be careful, even though none of these things can, you could, by making wrong choices, you can succeed in separating yourself from the love of God, and thus cut yourself off from salvation.

Well, I, I tend to think that I'm included in this. because he says things present. Am I presently? Alive?

Yeah, so I'm involved in things present. He says no height nor depth, nor any other created thing. Am I a created thing? Have I been created by God?

Yes. So we are included. And these things that Paul is saying are unable to separate ourselves from the love of God. It's just like we saw in Psalm 139, there's, there's a movement in, in, in that, that Psalm where the psalmist is seeking to flee from God and he can't get away from him.

Jonah tried to flee from God. He didn't want to do God's. bidding and so he didn't escape the love of God. He ended up being thrown into the sea and a great fish came and swallowed him, not as an act of judgment, that was an act of rescue and salvation, and God brought Jonah back to where God wanted Jonah to be.

We cannot separate ourselves from the love of God. Were we to try, God would not let us succeed in that. Let me close with this quote by John Stott, which I think gives very, beautiful, expression to what Paul is affirming here. He says our confidence is not in our love for him, for God, which is frail and fickle and faltering, but in his love for us, which is steadfast, faithful and persevering.

The doctrine of the preservation, perseverance of the saints needs to be renamed. It is the perseverance of God with the saints, and we can know that nothing will separate us from His love, not because we've got such a tight hold on him, but because he has a tight hold on us. Let's pray together. Lord, you are an amazing God.

We thank you for your love, but this is not just the love of a of someone who's not very powerful, we happen to be loved by Almighty God. We happen to be loved with a love that is unrivaled in its power. There's nothing that can challenge this power. that can stop this, this power or diminish it one iota, even we can't.

Lord, may we take your almighty power and whatever visions we have of that, and then bring that together with your love when the Almighty God sets his love one upon someone. That love is unstoppable. And it is greater than the deepest ocean, and wields a power we cannot believe. And there are powers in this universe, Lord, that are far greater than whatever power we possess.

Some of those evil powers are daily seeking to separate us from your love, and they fail every day. Because we are loved with a love that is unrivaled in its power. Lord, we say this to you knowing that we still fall short of truly living up to it, but we, we just want to say with Paul, we are convinced. We are convinced we are persuaded.

All of the gospel stuff we've learned in these chapters has brought us to this place where we want to say, We have come to a point of persuasion that God loves us, His love is eternal, and his love is unrivaled in its power, and nothing can separate us from His love. There's any that are here today, Lord, that have never entered into this love. May they see this is the greatest love of all, the greatest power of all. And all human love, no matter how good or noble is merely a shadow of this vast and mighty thing called the love of God.

May they see the love that you have shown them and surrendering your son in death and raising him from the dead and ascending them to your right hand so that from that position of absolute power, Jesus can give out righteousness and relationship and love and forgiveness to all those who would see their need of Him and cry out to Him for salvation. Lord, we thank you also for the opportunity to give up our funds to you. Receive these funds and do much with them for the glory of Jesus.

We say all these things to you, Lord, in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said.

Amen.