Well, nice to see some people in already. prayer reading or Bible study. I'll start at 8 o'clock. Nice to see Emma watching, Marabeth watching. Ruth and Hazel watching. Laura Ann watching. I trust everyone's keeping well. Nice to see Ruth and William watching. No comments about the hair. It got the chop on Monday. So no comments. Hello Colin, nice to have you in. Pamela, nice to see you in. Trust everybody's keeping well. Nice to have Nan watching in again. Good to have you Nan. Trust you're keeping well. Cheryl, nice to see you. Alistair and Linda watching in. Nice to have Alistair and Sian and Isaac and Ethan watching in. Good to have Sarah watching in. Danny and Margaret watching in. Good to have you all folks. Nice to see that you're keeping well and safe. Nice to have Johnny and Sue watching in. All the way from County Down. I'll pass by that comment, Robert, but nice to have Robert and Lane, Jonathan, Joe, Thomas, all watching in. Nice to have you joining us. Nice to have Reverend Henderson watching in. There's another money-slaying friend, Eileen. Nice to see you watching in. Thank you all for joining us tonight. I used to have Kim from Dunmerry watching. I used to have May watching in. I used to have Sharon watching in. Well, we welcome you in our Saviour's precious name to our Bible study this evening, live here from the Manse in Portlanone. And wherever you are in the province or in the world, we want to thank you for watching in this evening. And we're praying that the message from the Word of God will be a blessing, comfort, consolation to your hearts in these days. The hymn writer said, there is a spot where spirits blend where friend holds fellowship with friend, though sundered far by faith we meet, around one common mercy seat. And so let's go to the mercy seat. Let's go to the Lord in a word of prayer. We want to commit our time to him as we come to seek his face and as we come to preach his word that the Lord will enable and help us even this evening. Let's unite in a word of prayer together. Let's pray. Our loving Father, we come before Thee in our Saviour's precious name, with grateful hearts for the health and strength that we enjoy. We praise Thee, O God, for Thy mercies. We can say in the words of the inspired penman that it is because of Thy mercies that we are not consumed. We thank Thee that Thy mercies are new every morning, and great is Thy faithfulness. We rejoice in a faithful God, one who never fails, one who never disappoints, one who never is at a loss with regard to our needs. We thank Thee that all of our needs are met in Jesus Christ and according to the riches that are found within Him. We rejoice in all the treasures that are found in our Saviour. We thank Thee for the greatest treasure, that of redemption and salvation from sin. Lord, we pray, O God, that we might rest upon the very fact that our sins, which were many, have been washed in the blood of Christ and have been dealt with to the satisfaction of God. We thank thee for the verifying of that satisfaction by the raising of thy dear Son from the dead. And as we make our way towards Easter Sunday, as we come to Resurrection, the Lord's Day, We pray, O God, that our hearts might be taken off to the cross. And Lord, not only to the cross, but to the empty tomb and to the occupied throne. We thank thee for Christ, who has made a sacrifice for sin, a worthy sacrifice, a sufficient sacrifice. We thank thee that he has put an end to sin by his own death on Calvary's middle cross. Lord, as we come tonight around, O God, the Word of God, we pray that we might know blood-bought liberty and help, even in the preaching of thy Word. Bless our families, our congregations, the friends of our congregation who are now joining us by way of virtual congregation. Bless, Lord, thy dear people, we pray, where'er they be found in this world. We pray that the blessing will be the word. Lord, though we miss one another, and though our fellowship is sundered, yet, dear Father, we thank thee that we find a common meeting place. We thank thee for the cross. We thank thee for the throne of heavenly grace. that we can resort to in this our time of need. We do pray for those within our congregation who are on the front line as it were, those who work in the NHS, those who work in the care sector, Those who are involved in the supply of foodstuffs and all that is needed to maintain life, even in our own frames. We pray that thou will bless thy people, we pray. And for those who are not yet saved, we pray that thou will bring them to saving union with Jesus Christ and bring them to know Thee, whom to know is life eternal. Come Lord, bless Lord, thy dear saints, every family, every individual connected with our congregation. Bless them in their homes and in their families. Keep them safe. O God, may they shelter under Thy wing in these days of calamity. May they hide themselves in Thee. We thank Thee that when our hearts are overwhelmed, then we can resort and run to the rock that is higher than I. And so bless our hearts, encourage our souls, meet with us around, O God, Thy precious Word, and grant, dear Father, a blessing now, even to be among us. For we offer prayer in and through our Saviour's precious and worthy name, amen and amen. Again, we welcome you. Thank you for joining with us. And we're going to open the scriptures at this time. And so if you have a copy of God's precious word, I invite you to turn to the book of Romans tonight and the chapter eight. So it's Romans and the chapter number eight. And we're going to commence our reading at the verse 26. Romans chapter eight. and the verse number 26. Likewise, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities. For we know not what which we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, then he also called, and whom he called, then he also justified, and whom he justified, then he also glorified. What shall we say, then, to these things, if God before us, who can be against us, He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all of these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 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. Amen. And we'll end our reading at the nocturnal break there at the end of the chapter. number eight of the Book of Romans. And with the Word of God open before us, let's briefly pray. And you pray in your family, pray in your home, that God will minister by His Spirit. He is as much God as the Father and the Son. And as thus, He is omnipresent. And thank God He can be with you in your home, just as He's with the preacher here in the mountains, as we bring God's precious Word. So let's unite in a word of prayer together, please. Let's pray. Our loving Father, we now come around thy precious word. ever thankful for the freedoms that we still enjoy, to open up the scriptures and to meet around, O God, thy holy word. We pray that our hearts might be encouraged and blessed and helped. We recognize that in these days of great uncertainty that we come to a word that is fixed and sure. It is, O God, a more sure word of prophecy. And thereby, dear Father, we rely not on the visions or the prophecies of men, and how many there are, Lord, doing the rounds even on the internet and on religious channels on the television, prophesying about all that is befalling us. But we thank Thee, Father, that we've got something better than that. We've got the Word of God. And Lord, we can say that's enough. We thank Thee that when the Bible says it, I believe it. And that's enough. And therefore, O God, may we be men and women of the book, and may our faith not be in the utterances of men, but may our confidence be in the Word of God that liveth and abideth forever. We find that heaven and earth, they'll pass away, but God's words will never pass away. And therefore, we anchor ourselves in to the Word of God tonight. So bless our hearts and encourage us and give help now in the preaching of thy Word, for I pray these prayers in and through the Saviour's precious name. Amen and amen. Never has there been a time in my own personal Christian experience when I have cherished the Word of God more than in these days. These are days of great uncertainty. This is a time when fears are most certainly at their height, a period in the world's history when all around us is being shaken. And yet amidst the uncertainty, amidst the fear and amidst the shaking, the child of God can go to the Word of God and anchor their fearful spirits and their fearful hearts that impregnable and that unshakable rock that is the Word of God. Now there are portions of Scripture that we naturally gravitate to in times of need and in days of crisis and I suppose Romans chapter 8 is one such chapter in God's precious Word. It is a chapter that begins with the truth of no condemnation. Romans chapter 8 verse 1, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Romans 8 continues in verse 33 to speak of no accusation. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. The chapter closes with the truth that there is no separation. Romans 8 verse 35, verse 38 and verse 39. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress? persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is that third and concluding truth within this chapter that there is no separation from the love of God that I want us to focus on this evening in a message that I've entitled An Inseparable Love. An Inseparable Love. Now can I begin this short Bible study by stating that it is hard to decipher whether the Apostle Paul is speaking here of our love for Christ or Christ's love for us. Both thoughts are worthy of our consideration and meditation and rich in their comfort. Whether we think that there is no separation between my love as a Christian for Christ or we think On the other side, that there is no separation between Christ's love for me as his child. I would, however, lean towards the thinking that the Apostle Paul here is more speaking of God's love to us, God's love for the child of God, rather than our love to him. Because Paul in his writings, as with every inspired pen man, always keeps God at the forefront and man within the background. Robert Haldane wrote, our love is subject to many feelings and infirmities. And as we are liable to change, to endeavor, to impart consolation from the firmness of our love, he said, would be less efficacious than holding forth to us the love of God. in whom there is no variableness, neither is there shadow of change. Haldane believed that it would be better for us to think of these verses as God's love to us, love that knows no change, a love that knows no variableness. Now the love of God is a matter that the Apostle Paul has already written about within this epistle to the Roman believers. In Romans chapter 5 and verse 8, Paul pens those great words, that in while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We're coming to Easter weekend, Good Friday and then to Resurrection Sunday. And these words remind us of the Saviour's love. the love that brought him down from the heights of heaven to live into and live in this sin-cursed world. Calvary, the cross, was to be the climax, the pinnacle, as it were, the epitome of the Saviour's love. It would be the full manifestation of His love within a public setting, but I want to remind you that long before Calvary, God in the Trinity of his person showed his love for us. When redemption's plan was devised and ratified in the Council of Eternity, God's love was very much to the fore within those deliberations and with regard to all that was decided with regard to redemption and the covenant of redemption and the covenant of grace. And yet, and yet, That love continued, continued when he came into this world and lived for us and then went to the cross. Listen to these tremendous and insightful words from the pen of Octavius Winslow concerning the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. He wrote this, all that Jesus did for his church was but an unfolding and expression of his love. Traveling to Bethlehem, I see love incarnate. Tracking his steps as he went about doing good, I see love laboring. Visiting the house of Bethlehem, I see love sympathizing. Standing by the grave of Lazarus, I see love weeping. Entering the gloomy precincts of Gethsemane, I see love sorrowing. Passing on to Calvary, I see love suffering and bleeding and expiring. The whole scene of his life was but an unfolding of the deep and awesome and precious mystery of redeeming love. Think of that final statement again. The whole scene of Christ's life is but an unfolding of the deep and awesome and precious mystery of redeeming love. The love of God is a theme. We could give the rest of our time over to this evening, but there is something particular, something specific about God's love for his people that Paul mentions here specifically that is worthy of our meditation tonight. And it is the inseparable nature of God's love for his child. What a comfort. What a consolation just to dwell upon in all that is happening around us, child of God, in all of the uncertainty, in all of the fears that are within and all the fears that are without, to dwell upon this truth of the inseparable love that God has for His child. So I want to take the words of Romans chapter 8 verse 35, verse 38 and verse 39 as our text verses for this evening and there are just a number of things that I want us to see. I want you to notice first of all a question that is poised here, a question that is poised. The question is asked in verse 35, who shall separate us? from the love of Christ. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? The word separate here means to divide, to part, to put us under. It actually carries the thought of divorce. That's how the word can be literally translated to divorce. Who shall divorce us? from the love of Christ. Now, if you understand anything about our union with Jesus Christ, we have been brought into a saving union with our Redeemer. And as a result, we have become part of the Bride of Christ. That is how the church is referred to in the Scriptures. We belong to part of Christ's Bride. Thank God with regard to that marriage union. regard to that relationship between Christ and His Church, Christ the Husband and the Church being His Bride, there is no divorce, there is no separation, there is no sundering, there is no parting, there is no dividing between Christ and His Bride. Because it is an inseparable love, an inseparable love. Now the Apostle Paul in this chapter has been presenting to his readership the truth of the Christians eternal security. Throughout the chapter we learn about how we are securing Christ because of the work of Christ for us and also the ministry of the Holy Spirit in us. Now Paul comes to speak of Christ's love for his own people from which they can never be separated. Now the question that we have is most obviously a rhetorical question. It's like the one that's asked in the verse number 33. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? This is a rhetorical question and the answer to it is most very obvious, especially to the one who knows anything about what the Bible has to say about the love of God. You see, the Christian can confidently answer that there is nothing, there is nothing or there is no one that can separate us from the love of God. And they can say that because they remember texts of scripture, promises, statements, Divine inspired statements that we have in scripture that reminds us That nothing and no one can separate us from the love of christ. They remember statements like the one we find in jeremiah 31 in the verse 3 When god says yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love This is not a temporary love This is not a love that comes and goes, waxes and wanes, here today and gone tomorrow. No, God says, speaks to our hearts, Jeremiah 31 verse 3, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. John 13 verse 1, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. What consolation in this truth. brings to our hearts tonight that there is no one, no one, that can separate us from the love of Christ. No child of God, the devil, cannot separate you from the love of Christ. The fallen angels cannot separate you from the love of Christ. Our most fearsome foe, our most formidable enemy cannot separate us from the love of Christ. Government ministers or civil servants cannot separate us from the love of Christ. The world's most wicked dictator cannot separate us from the love of Christ. But like an ever rolling stream, God's love to us is unremitted. It is unceasing. It is unfailing. It is unfaltering. It is unending in its very nature. Nothing, no one can separate you or I from the love of Christ. What a thought. But the second thing to note, and really it is the main part of The message is that there are a catalogue of distresses that are listed here. Paul proceeds to list various distresses that, naturally speaking, we would think would lead to us being separated from the love of God. But Paul wants to put such things to bed. He wants to list these various matters And then to remind the believers that whatever he has mentioned, that none of these things are able to separate the child of God from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. You know, maybe some of these things are distressing you, troubling you in these days, and you're maybe at a point where you feel that The love of God is no longer being experienced by you or you feel that God has withdrawn himself from your life. And yet I want to remind you tonight that there is nothing, nothing can separate you from the love of Christ. And so I want us to look at these particular matters and make a few comments on them. And I trust that what we say will be a help and a consolation to you. I want you to notice first of all that tribulation, tribulation cannot separate you from the love of Christ. The word used here, verse number 35, the word used by the Holy Spirit properly refers to pressure that comes to us from without us, something that comes from outside of us. affliction that arises from an external cause. That's what the word tribulation means here. The word itself means to press or to pinch or to vax. Our Lord told us that we are to expect tribulation in our lives. John 16 verse 33, the Savior speaking to his disciples, he said, in the world ye shall have tribulation. You're going to have it, no doubt about it. Don't be surprised then when it arises within your lives. I have told you, you are to expect it. The child of God is to understand that in this world of sin, this fallen world, this world blighted by the fall, this world will have its times of tribulation. The Apostle Paul exhorted the brethren to continue in the faith, reminding them that through much tribulation, they must enter into the kingdom of God. The world that we live in can be a source of much tribulation, no doubt about that. Our own sinful hearts can be the seedbed of many a tribulation. Our families, those within them, can prove to be the cause of much tribulation if we were honest as well. Thus on every side Whether it is within, whether it is without, there are multiple sources of tribulation. And yet, no amount of tribulation that we face in our lives, that comes to us from the outside world, will be ever able to separate us from the love of God. No God will continue to love us in our tribulation, in our trials. Yes, His love will be the same. But Paul also speaks about distress and how distress cannot separate us from the love of Christ. The word distress here signifies to be pent up. It means a narrowness of room. It can also translate to mean calamity or anguish. As a word it represents difficulties and troubles through which every believer has to pass. Now many are found in distress tonight. There are those who are in distress of mind. There are others who are in distress of heart. Others who are in distress of soul. And yet the difficulties that we have to combat and the straits that we have to pass through and the anxieties that we have to endure will not and cannot separate us from Christ or His love. Not distress. The third matter that Paul identifies is persecution. Persecution. The word signifies to cast out, to pursue and then to punish, is what the word means. The child of God often suffers persecution in this world at the hands of their enemies. That persecution may take the form of some physical suffering. Though we do not endure such in our nation, there are many of our brothers and sisters in Christ across the world who are presently enduring affliction and persecution for the testimony of Jesus Christ. Many find themselves beaten, others imprisoned, even others martyred for their faith in Christ. But there can be mental suffering that comes from persecution as well. And yet, whatever the form of persecution takes, it cannot separate us from the love of Christ. No, rather, that persecution only makes the Christian cleave closer to their Saviour, as they come to appreciate in a deeper and in a fuller way the love that Christ has for them. Persecution. Cannot separate us from the love of Christ, famine. Cannot separate us from the love of Christ, times when food is scarce, when famine grips the nation, can be times when we might feel that God's love has been withdrawn from us. And yet, even in such times of want, in times of such scarcity, in times of such famine, God's love is still towards his people. He has promised to give us our daily bread. And we ask him in faith. Paul mentions nakedness. The word nakedness conjures up the thought of exposure. Exposure, yes, to heat and to cold, but also exposure to the devices and to the schemes and the plans and the snares of the enemy as well as to the shame of this world. Will nakedness separate us from the love of Christ? Never. we might be stripped down to our bare skin. We might be derived of the clothes on our backs, but we'll never be stripped of God's love. No God will continue to love his people. Paul then mentions in verse 35 of Romans chapter eight, that peril, peril shall not separate us from the love of Christ. The word refers to any kind of imminent danger. We live in perilous times and we're reminded in scripture that as the coming of Jesus Christ draws ever near, perilous times will come. We are to expect this to continue the intensity of it, the frequency of it to, as it were, ratchet up as Christ soon comes to appear and to take his children to be with himself. We are to expect perilous times. We are to expect days of peril. And surely we're living in such a day of peril. And yet such, again, cannot separate us. from the love of Christ. Paul mentions the sword. The sword speaks of violent death that is inflicted in any way or by any means. We may not be presently, as again, as I've said, threatened with such, and yet, in Islamic countries, believers are being put to death by the sword of the jihadists. Others in the past within our nation, I'm thinking of the Covenanters, men and women that were beheaded for the sake of Jesus Christ and his gospel. However death, by the public executioner, or death in any way, however cruel, however lingering, or however dreadful, can never separate the saints from Christ's love, death, the sword, cannot separate us from the love of Christ. The reason why the Apostle Paul was able to say confidently that none of these things in verse 35 would be able to separate the believer from the love of Christ was because he went through them all. And he found, by personal experience, that none of them separated them from Christ's love. Let me explain. You know, Paul spoke about his own tribulations. Ephesians chapter 3 verse 13 he said, Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. Paul spoke about his own personal distress in 2 Corinthians 6 verse 4, but in all things approving yourselves as ministers of God in much patience and afflictions and necessities and distresses. He spoke about his own personal persecutions in 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 10 and 11, but thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions which came on to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. He spoke about famine, hunger, nakedness, and peril in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 26 and 27. in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. And what about the sword? Well, Paul is believed to have died a martyr's death, and that may well have been by a sword. And so Paul is speaking here from personal experience, and surely there's nobody, nobody that we are more willing to take counsel and advice from than somebody who is speaking and who speaks from personal experience. It could be all well and good for me to say to you, brethren and sisters tonight, that none of these things will be able to separate us from the love of Christ. But let me ask the question, have I experienced famine in my life? No. Nakedness? No. The sword? No. And yet here's a man speaking from personal experience. And I believe that we can Take then to heart the counsel of this man. the truth that he's presenting, because he has proven it to be so. He's speaking here from the personal experience, having went through tribulation, having went through distress and persecution and famine, nakedness or peril, and having the threat of even the sword over my life. Yet I have proven in all of these various circumstances that none of these things have ever separated me from the love of God. Love of Christ. You know folks, if Paul underwent all of these distresses and found none of them separated him from the love of Christ, I asked you, is God going to treat you, his child, any differently than the Apostle Paul? Is he going to treat you any differently than the Apostle Paul? Christ died for you as much as he died for Paul. Christ shed his blood for you as much as he did for the Apostle Paul. Christ lived for you, died for you and rose again. for you just as much as he did for the Apostle Paul. And the grace of God that saved Paul is the grace of God that has saved you. Then why would you ever doubt that God is going to love you any differently than the Apostle Paul or any other Bible character you care to mention from the Word of God? Now you may say, but preacher, I'm not as well known as the Apostle Paul. You may say, preacher, but I don't have the faith that Paul had. You may say, Preacher, but I haven't served God as zealously as Paul served God, and yet neither our notoriety, neither our faith or our service are factors that determine whether or not God is going to love us. Nothing, did you hear me? Nothing shall separate me or you from the love of Christ. Paul then returns in the verse 38 and verse 39 to speak of some other things that the believer may think could separate them from the love of Christ. Let's quickly look at them. Paul was fully persuaded that death cannot separate the Christian from the love of Christ. Oh, death doesn't see to the severance of God's love in our lives. Rather, death brings us into the fullest experience of God's love as it transports us from this world into the world that is to come into heaven itself, where we will bask in God's love forevermore. Therefore, death, death cannot affect God's love to us. cannot separate us from the love of Christ. Life with its many trials, life with its many troubles, life with its many temptations, life with its many valleys, life with its many mountains, life with its many dangers, life with its many difficulties, life with its many distresses, cannot separate us from the love of Christ. Angels, cannot separate us from the love of Christ. Angels are powerful beings. Great study, the study of angels. I think of that event in the Old Testament, when God sent an angel to defend King Hezekiah and his people against the Assyrian forces. In 2 Kings, in the chapter number 19, in the verse 35, we read, and it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went out and smote the camp of the Assyrians a hundred, four score, and five thousand. And when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. Single-handedly, this angel killed one hundred and eighty-five thousand armed men. And so the power of an angel is immense. It's immense, the power of an angel, and yet not even a powerful being such as an angel can separate a Christian from God's love. Principalities cannot separate us from the love of Christ, neither emperors nor kings, judges or magistrates, popes or prelates, priests or inquisitors, with all of their power, with all of their craft, with all of their refined cruelty, can separate us from the love of God. Something else, powers, cannot separate us from the love of Christ. There are unseen powers that work in this world. There is the power of evil. There is the power of darkness. There is the power of death. And yet none of these powers can separate the child of God from the love of God. And then Paul goes on to speak there at the end of the verse 38, nor things present, things present cannot separate us from the love of Christ. Paul was persuaded that things present cannot separate the believer from the love of God. For us all, COVID-19 is a present thing, and yet that cannot separate us from the love of God. For you it might be some other sickness, either in body and mind, but that'll not separate you from the love of God. For others the thing present may be dwindling finances, but that'll not separate you from the love of God. For someone else, it may be the prospect of being evicted from your home, but that'll not separate you from the love of God. Whatever it may be, there is nothing present that can separate us from the love of Christ. And yes, there's nothing future, because Paul goes on to say, nor things to come, things to come, None of us know what lies ahead in coming days, weeks, months, years. And I suppose that is maybe best, because we would worry and fret if we really knew what the future held for any of us. And yet there is nothing in the believer's future. No future trouble, no future trial, no future sickness, no future death, not even eternity that will sever us from the love of God. Paul speaks about height and depth. Nor height nor depth will be able to separate us from the love of Christ. There's nothing that comes to us from heaven, from out of the sky, from the earth, from the sea, or from hell that can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So whether it be divine judgment, whether it be a storm, whether it be a hurricane, whether it be drought, whether it be earthquake, whether it be pestilence, whether it be plague, whether it be tsunami, whether it be demonic assault or satanic attack, none of these things will result in God withdrawing his love from you as a child of God. And then Paul says, nor any other creature. Wanting to ensure that he had not omitted anything within the created universe, Paul adds the statement, nor any other creature, to this long list. Nothing that God has created will be able to separate us from the love of God. which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, nothing, nothing and no one can separate us from the love of Christ and the love of God. What a rich vein of consolation we have before us then in these closing words of Romans chapter eight. It is a singular truth. that Paul presents to us in these verses. That of the inseparable love that God has for his child, a love that cannot be broken, a love that cannot be severed, a love that cannot end. God's inseparable love for his child. Christian, let me then encourage you to receive this truth by faith tonight. revel in it, rejoice over it, and rest upon it. The truth that nothing can separate me from the love of Christ. I close with the words that Spurgeon gave his congregation, words of counsel, When he preached upon this very passage, he said, in light of this truth, that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of Christ. He said, let us go forward into the future, however dark it is, with this confidence that at least one thing we know, the love of Christ will hold us fast, and by his grace, we will hold fast to him. Thank God nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. May the Lord bless his word to your heart tonight for Christ's sake. Well tonight we just want to remind you of matters to pray for and we encourage you to spend just a little time with your family around the throne of heavenly grace and to participate from the youngest to the oldest that's there tonight. I want you to pray for our Prime Minister. I want you to pray for Mr. Johnson. God's healing hand will be upon him and God will raise him up to lead our nation again in these days of crisis and that those who minister to him and who help him and who are involved in his care that if there be Christians there that they will have that opportunity to speak to him about his own personal need of Christ and that he would turn to the Saviour. And so let's pray for not only him but others within our government that wise decisions will be taken. Pray for those families who do continue to sorrow. Remember sister Miss Cook as she sorrows the loss of her mother. Remember Margaret and Mandy and Sam and Georgia and Kirsten as they mourn the loss of Joey as well as others within the family. Remember the Duncan family as they continue to sorrow over the passing of our friend Danai and the other families in the area that have been bereaved. We're praying for you all and we trust that God will bless you. Can I say if you do need help, if you need spiritual counsel, I'm here to help. I suppose the quickest way to receive that help is via the telephone number here at the manse and that telephone number is 02825 821 765. That's 02825 821 765. You can also contact us via email portlanonefpc.hotmail.co.uk or by Facebook Messenger and we'll be able to get back to you. We're praying for you. We're all keeping well. I trust you're keeping well and you're being encouraged in the Lord. I trust that you're redeeming your time and you're spending much time with the Lord in prayer and in the word and may that be a blessing and may you be built up in your most holy faith. Don't forget the meetings at the weekend. Please make them known. Share the various advertisements that go out from our own personal Facebook page, the church Facebook page. Make the meetings known. 12 noon and 6pm. Come prepared. Bring your Bibles, Aedes, again, your head covered. It is a worship service and so we remind you of that. And let's be faithful in these days and let's keep looking to the Lord and may God in his mercy permit us to meet again soon. We remind you that on Saturday night, I believe it's at 8 o'clock, there will be a broadcast with regard to our Easter Convention. And I believe also on Monday afternoon at 3.30 there will also be a broadcast from the Martyrs Memorial. And so if you want to look up those various Facebook pages then you'll be able to do so. I trust that the Lord will bless. Now let's unite in prayer and let's just commit our time to the Lord now in prayer together please. Let's pray. Our loving Father we do lift our hearts to Thee with ever thankfulness to think that God loves me, Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. We thank Thee that nothing, Lord, nothing will be able to separate us from the love of Christ, and we praise Thee for this, and we pray that we may receive this truth by faith, and that as we have said, that we would revel in it, that we would rejoice over it, and that we would rest upon it, that we go forth into each day knowing that God loves us and will not allow anything to befall us that does not first pass his loving heart. We pray for our Prime Minister tonight in all of his great need. Lord show him mercy in these days. Lord we pray that in thy good grace that thou will raise him up to lead our nation give him great wisdom, give him time, O God, to ponder the brevity of life, the frailty of the human body, and the sureness of God's great eternity. May his heart be turned to thee, and many within our nation bring multitudes to a saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Bless, O God, those again, O God, within our own church fellowship and beyond, who serve on the front line of this great pandemic. Preserve their lives, we pray. Lord, calm their fears and their worries and shelter them under the blood of the Lamb of God and be with them in coming days and weeks, we pray. And so bless us until we meet again. We say in the words, O God of the Old Testament,