share God's Word together. This is not something that we do lightly, so we bless the Lord. Romans 8, 31 through 39, we're talking today about the inseparable love of God. Kind of part two on what I shared a few weeks ago, but let's listen as we read. What shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Jesus Christ is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, indeed is interceding for us. Praise God to that, interceding. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written, For your sake, we are being killed all the day long, and we regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him, through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels or rulers, nor present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else, in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God who is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. This is God's word. Let me pray. Lord, we bow to exalt Christ, to magnify Christ, to thank the Father for sending Christ. We rely on the work of the Spirit this hour that we may see and know and trust this love of God. We cannot do this of ourselves. We are weak and frail. Lord, we are so desperately in need of you. We bring nothing to this table, but we want to honor and glorify our Savior this day. Lord, there's nothing in me that is worthy of speaking if it's not of you. In Jesus we say, amen. Sinclair Ferguson says that passage that we just read, he says this, these are surely some of the most magnificent words found anywhere in scripture. These are amazing words. About 15 years ago, there was a homicide off a main street near I-20. A woman was killed by an alleged boyfriend. I normally don't follow these things, as you might imagine, but I had a personal involvement. Yes, I was called for jury duty. And double yes, I was the jury foreman. It was a week-long trial and it was indeed quite a week. We literally watched before us the unfolding of a murder trial. It was somewhat surreal to be sitting there. Lawyers, witnesses, detectives, charges, allegations, legal terms, legal hoops, legal wranglings. The jury being escorted in and out all the time by bailiffs because inadmissibility of evidence and things that, it's just a very complex. And the alleged motives was broken love and unfaithfulness. Then there were the charges. There was first degree on the table, second degree and manslaughter. All leading to the deliberations. And the climax was certainly the reading of the verdict. Sheriffs, deputies, shoulder to shoulder, rounded the entire courtroom. Life-changing for this defendant. I'll tell you the rest of the story later. In our passage, we see these same themes, charges, accusations. But in Romans, the stakes are even higher. What is it to gain if I lose my life? Sidney Shelton, a secular author, is quoted as saying, nothing lasts forever. Nothing, nothing, nothing. Even love doesn't last forever. So we see broken relationships, broken love, false love all around us. Our culture is just flooded with this everywhere. And sadly, even in a murder trial, this was the root. So then our minds can easily turn and ask, what about the love of God? Is it unfaithful? Is it broken? R.C. Sproul says this, we may at times feel that God has departed from us. And when we believe this, we must believe his word rather than our feelings. So the Apostle Paul in this passage, he knows this. And he sets before us this amazing text about God's love. Is there separation from God's love? What about his goodness? What about his mercy? What about the power of God? All of this is packed in this passage. So my primary goal today is this. It is to awaken us afresh to the unshakable commitment of the love of God. The unshakable commitment of the love of God. We're very familiar with this passage. A popular sermon website that some of us go to, there are twice as many sermons posted for chapter eight than the entire book of Hosea that Mike just preached. This passage resonates, it is thought about, it is talked about, but I wanna guard us today against easily tossing the easy answer onto our mental Bible stack and say, I know this, I got this. So here's the outline for today, there's four points. First is, what is at stake? Second is, how do we answer the who's in this question? Third is, what is our anchor? And fourth is, will the charges stick? Will the charges stick? So as I've studied this passage, two fundamental questions keep bubbling up in my mind for these several weeks. First is this, is there an entity powerful enough to defeat God? That's a huge question. And the second question, Does God himself really love and care for me? These are here in this text. John Stott says of this passage, it's a little lengthy, but it's a great quote. The apostle in this passage hurls these questions out into space. as it were, defiantly, triumphantly challenging any creature in heaven or earth or hell to answer them or defy the truth that contains in them. But there is no answer, he says, for nobody can harm the redeemed people of God. Amen? Wow. So what's at stake, number one? In one way, the stakes couldn't be higher. And what do I mean? So in this section of Romans, we're familiar with it, Romans 5, 6, 7, and 8, there are amazing truths, there are amazing passages about union with Christ, freedom of Christ, the work of the Spirit. And then it ends in this, it ends in chapter 8. So Paul in our passage is driving us, he's pressing us towards something. He's pressing us to ask a question, and here is the question. Is there something in the universe that is greater or can ultimately separate me from God? That would thwart his purposes, his good pleasure, his plans, is there something greater? This is the question before us today that I want us to think about, and we do this corporately. If you notice the verb tense, Paul uses we, us. We have to answer this. But also look at verse 38, Paul changes to I, for I am sure. So believer, you and I have to answer this question individually. And if you ask many Christians privately, especially when pressed, They will easily pull out this answer from the Bible stack again, but maybe it's tougher to live it out. Maybe the answer's a little filtered. Maybe it's a little murky. Does God really love me? And ultimately, where will we stand on this question? Where are you gonna stand on the question, is there something that can separate us? So let me highlight two things that are at stake here that I see. First is the kingdom of God and his kingship. So how is the kingdom of God and his kingship at stake? Well, John 17, Jesus prays these words, listen to these words. Father, I will that they also whom you have given me be with me, be with me, that they may behold my glory. So Jesus desires that we are with him to see his glory. He prayed this specifically. See, Jesus is not satisfied that he saves us, simply delivers us from the pollution of this world, and then puts us off into a off-storage unit facility for the misfits. That is not his purpose. Nick talked about the banquet of banquets. That's what we're talking about here. It's amazing. And in John 17, the last verse of John 17, these are amazing words that Jesus prays to the Father. Listen to this, he says, that the love that which you loved me would be in them. What? Michael Reeve says, brush your teeth on that verse every morning. That the love that God has for the Son is in me. I don't know it. That's amazing love. So that's one stake. His kingdom is at stake. The other thing's at stake is my personal walk with the Lord. And you might say, how's that at stake? See, this passage is certainly about eternal security, but it's so much more. This passage should change us. It must change us. This passage reverberates God and his character, who he is, what he's done. And therefore, He has this inseparable love that then helps me to love, right? He has this inseparable love that helps me fight doubts and rejections and fears, and it grows my faith. See, in the power of the gospel, the Word of God hits my mind. but it's never designed to stop there. It's never designed to stop in my mind. See, the mind-only answer to this passage is nothing can separate. Yes, true, absolutely. But that has to be applied. Ferguson says this. Often, we may know Bible truths, but it needs to be worked out in different life procedures or processes. He says, this is a developed skill. He said, I did not learn this in seminary. You did not learn this because you have a degree. I learned this by using scriptures in everyday life. That's applying these truths to everyday life. So for example, when this truth that we're talking about stops at the mind, it might look like this. So one friend says to another friend, hey, I read Romans 8.31. Did you see this interesting logical argument where Paul says nothing can be against me since God is for me? That is good to know. That's a mind-stopping answer. But by comparison, when the Holy Spirit is working in me and the Holy Spirit is shaping me, and I'm meditating on these kinds of ideas, maybe this is a response. I need my heart to rest in the power of the gospel when opposition is right in front of me. My heart does not trust God today. Holy Spirit, help me, because if God is for me, then nothing can be against me. See, the Christian life, discipleship, what we're trying to do here, what we do in small groups, it's helping each other grow to the second response. It's helping each other grow. Like, okay, there's this amazing love of God. Oh, bless the Lord. Amazing love of God. But I've got trouble sometimes. That's applying scripture to truth. So these are two elements that are at stake. Number two. How do we answer the who? How do we answer the who? So you notice there, there are four who questions in this passage. And the language to me seems to be progressively increasing, progressively more severe. So in verse 31, who is against? Verse 33, who shall charge? Verse 34, who shall condemn? and then sort of the climax in 35, who shall separate? See, typically Christians talk about three enemies, three great enemies. the Christian, we know those, the world, the flesh, and the devil. And each are variously in different schemes, in different ways, trying to separate us from the presence of God, from the work of the Spirit, from me knowing Christ. They're trying to do this. And then Paul gives us two other lists in this passage. Look at verse 36. what I call seven pressures or threats, right? We read those. Swords, persecution, there's seven threats in there. And then verse 38, there are 10, what I call 10 viable contenders. We have contenders who are trying to separate us from the love of God, and you're familiar with those. So if you step back for a minute and you take all this in together, this whole passage, it is a fairly all-encompassing set of perils, pressures, tension points in our life. It's a big set. So I ask ourselves, which one of these is suitable as a foe. Which one is a suitable foe for God? But notice throughout this passage, after each who question, there's a type of response. There's a type of response that Paul gives us. And what is the fundamental, what is the foundational gospel element in each one of those responses. Did you see that? What is the element? It's the Trinity. It's the Trinity. After each response, except the second one, there's this great union that Paul gives us between the Father and the Son. They're working in cooperation together, the Father and the Son. Now the Spirit is not mentioned directly here, but we know earlier in the chapter, verse 5, those who walk according to the flesh, those who walk according to the Spirit, set their minds on the Spirit, right? So there's the active engagement with the Spirit. Verse 26 of the same chapter, the Spirit does what? Helps us in our weakness. So the Spirit is integrally involved here. So the principle is this, we answer the doubts regarding the love of God with the works of the Trinity, with the works of the Trinity. That's how Paul is instructing us to answer these who questions. Michael Reeves says, everything beautiful about the gospel is only so because of the triune God. So the fact that this passage is full of Trinity is very interesting. But again, if that's the extent that this is interesting, we are so far short. See, because without the Trinity, we have no answer. We have the Trinity, the who's questions just collapse, and we're set on our own moral course to answer these things ourselves. All these distresses, all these perils, how are you gonna answer these? So we go to the Father, we go to the Son, and we call out to the Spirit. This is where Paul tells us to go. It's very clear here. All right, number three. So when we go, What is our anchor? What is our anchor? When we go, we have these perils, distresses. So let me highlight, there are multiple places in this passage that we could pull out, but let me highlight verse 31 and 32. So there are two major questions here, right? One is a direct question, one is indirect question. Verse 31, very clear. If God is for us, who can be against us? But the indirect question is this. Is God really for us? Is he truly for us? So maybe this happens to you. Maybe you have multiples of these hardships compounding upon themselves. They're coming against you. And you start to struggle, your faith starts to weaken. Could this mean that somehow God is not in control? Could this mean that his good purposes may have ended? Or changed? So how do I really know that God is for me? Where do I go to answer the question, the huge question, is God really for me? So what does Paul do? Does Paul say, go to your emotions, go to your feelings? Does Paul say, go to a friend, go to a book, go to a blog, go to a chat room? Does Paul say, go to a conference? Does he say, the answer lies within, go to yourself, the answer's there? Does he say, look at your life? Does he say, my life is going well, therefore God is with me? Or the opposite, my life is not going well, so God is not with me. We do this, we do this. Is that where Paul says to go? Ferguson says this, what will anchor your soul when heavy opposition comes? What will anchor your soul when heavy opposition comes? Any of those things we just mentioned? I have education, I have knowledge, I have skills, I won this award, I'm a member here. What's gonna anchor your soul? Because in this verse, or in this section, the oppositions are coming. Paul's life full of oppositions, so he has a basis to speak on. You need to go outside of yourself, don't you? You need to go outside of yourself. You need to go somewhere else that you will be convinced that God is for you. So look where Paul goes. You know where this is leading. Simply put, the father did not spare his own son. You know, praise God, I know many of you well. Praise God you are living this out. I know of perils and distresses your lives. Praise God you're living them out. You're not going to these other things, you're going to Christ and the cross. Because if we go anywhere else, if we go anywhere else to be assured of God's love, that foundation swept away. You might know a parable of a house, something happens to the house. John Calvin says this is the only support that will sustain you. This is the only support that'll sustain you. So the principle is this. The greatest gift in sending Jesus is the evidence and the proof of his unfailing love. See, we see Jesus as this great gift, and praise God he is, but here Paul is using this as evidence and proof, like see what's happened. So let's look at verse 32 just a little bit deeper. There are unfathomable concepts here. Let's just try to get your mind on this. So Paul is using, you know, good logic. He uses this lesser and the greater, these literary skills. But what elements does he use in this? He could have used a lot of different elements. He could have used creation, creator, parent, child. Different elements to make his point here, but what elements does he use to make his point? He uses the most holy person that ever lived and the most evil act ever done to make his point. of what's gonna separate you from the love of God. And who is this for? Is this passage for angels? Is this passage for the heavenlies? It's for us, believer. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, rest today. The hymn states that We were guilty, we were vile, and we were helpless. We are. This passage is for the believer. So Paul uses this word spare. This is not spare like spare tire. This is spare like withholding spare, right? So the father was unsparing of his son. The father did not set the son aside, did not withhold The Son. We spare stuff all the time. We spare the good stuff. We set aside the good stuff. We're just selfish that way. We spare it. We put it aside. We're just bent that way. Commentators draw a direct link here between Abraham and Isaac, right? We know that. But the irony here is God spared Isaac with a substitute. The father did not spare his own son when he could have. So imagine this perfect relationship before time in the Trinity. You know, I like that, this image. The father and the son, perfect love, perfect glory, pure holiness. Imagine that for a minute. And now think of the word, deliver it up. He gave him up. The Father delivered up the Son. Does that phrase make you squirm? Does it make you a little uncomfortable? Is it too common on our Bible stack? Maybe it's okay if you're a little uncomfortable with that. It should. For a moment, this crushing agony, the weight of this delivering up, the wrath of a holy God, for whom? Ferguson says this, to put it reverently, God did not spare the son who asked that if it might be possible that he might be spared. That's a thought. If it might be possible. And then you combine that thought with where Jesus says, it's not my will, but thy will. This is amazing love. This is amazing love. If it were my daughter, and I had the power to spare, what do you think Eric's heart's doing? What would you do? John Stott says, clearly the cross proves God's love and his generosity. Clearly God's love is displayed here and the generosity. Do you know a grandparent who out of true genuine love wants their child to have everything, just everything? Money, the fortune, a bounding in love, anything I have is yours. This is the love of God, right? That's the love of God. No strings attached. Not withholding, not double-minded, not trickery and all these things that we do. It was the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. It's the Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Praise God. So Paul says, You need an anchor. I need an anchor. What will your anchor be? He's proclaiming the greatest gift is your anchor. The greatest gift is evidence of this unfailing love. So number four, will the charges stick? Will the charges stick? So in verse 33, we see accusations. In verse 34, we see condemnation. So here's a kind of uncomfortable thought. Someone somewhere is accusing us. Someone somewhere is condemning us. These terms in an earthly court can rattle you. I saw it. These terms in God's court should absolutely, can absolutely rattle us. Charges, accusations, condemnation. A local lawyer told me years ago, anyone can bring a lawsuit, anyone can bring a charge, but will it stick? That's what's before us. Will it stick? There's charges, accusations, So let's think about two of the who's, two of the who's in this passage. So first would be Satan. Satan, we know his accusations are gonna attempt to spotlight a long, long, long, long, long, long list of my historic failures, my sin. It's a long list. Revelation 12, he says he's accuser of the brethren, day and night. I don't know how that works. I'm glad I'm not involved. But praise God, there's a power who is much higher. So in one very real sense, Satan is exactly right. Look at that broken life. Look at that unfaithfulness. Look at Eric, he says he's a follower of Jesus. Ha ha. Now that's an accusation in the heavenlies, isn't it? That is an accusation. How am I going to stand before that? The second accuser, our conscience. Now, this one's not hard to understand at all. We're masters at deception. We're masters at blame-shifting, manipulation, critical spirits. Oh, my spirit can be so critical. Lord, help me with my critical spirit. We don't love as we should. 1 John 3, we know this, when our conscience condemns us, God has done something greater. See, these are perfectly in union. God has done something greater. And what is this greater? Well, Paul is telling us right here what is this greater is. We can't even defend ourselves against our own conscience. There's no defense. So here's a key question that we have to answer in this context. How do we answer this accuser? How do we answer this accuser? Maybe we give him the number of sermons that we've listened to. Maybe we give him my volunteer hours. Maybe we say I've given this money. Maybe church to the service. Maybe my apologetic skills. Maybe for the Hays, respectively, they've been on the mission field. Is that gonna stand to the accuser? No. Get this. There is nothing useful or valuable in me that is gonna protect me. There's nothing useful in me. There's nothing useful in Eric. So when we're accused, look at the passage. Paul goes fast to an answer, he goes, bam! Verse 34, what is it? God justifies. No building blocks, no clever metaphors, no explanations, no long drawn out things that sometimes are helpful for us. This is direct, fast to the gospel and there's application right there for us. When Satan tempts me to despair, Fast, direct, God is justified. These thoughts I have, these fears I have, these insecurities I have, direct, fast, God justifies. Right to the gospel. How do you do it? Because we struggle with this. We struggle with this. So who will actually stand condemned On that judgment day, the question says, who's to condemn? I ask, who will stand condemned? For the non-Christian, for the fake Christian, for the person who names maybe in word only, but there's no fruit, no evidence, no change of heart, no change of life, this should be a terrifying passage. These charges will stick on Judgment Day. If you're here without Christ, take heed. These charges will stick. But for other sinners, where these charges will not stick, who are they? Well, look what Paul has done. He's given us this great descriptive work of what God has done in this person. Just a few verses back, look at verse 29 and 30. The descriptive work of what God has done in this person for those that he foreknew, he predestined, he called, he justified. And did he leave out something there? He will ultimately glorify. He didn't leave that one out, praise God. Is this you? Is this talking about you? If God has ordained all of these massive works of grace in you, if He has done this truly in you, if God justifies, then there's no one left to condemn. There's no one left to condemn. There's no higher power to appeal to. One pastor says his bench is the highest of all tribunals. So, oh believer, to whom else would you go? Is there some international religious governing body that I might appeal to? Is there a committee where we say, oh yes, I'm a sinner, Maybe God is real, maybe God is not real, but I appeal to you, oh, President of the Good Works of America Society. That's ludicrous. I hope this love of God swells up in your life. I hope it fills you to the fullness If this God who can lay bare open my heart, if this God who can lay open my heart does not condemn us, even when I stumble and fall and I get back up and I repent and I said, Lord, I have broken, I have sinned against you again. If this God who knows my heart does not condemn me, praise his name, praise his name. If the supreme judge in the entire universe has declared that you are not guilty, who can possibly condemn you? So here's another perspective. So line up in your mind for a minute, line up in your mind all the people that you have sinned against. Line them up. Rank them. My spouse, my kids, my family, you all. Let's say somehow every one of those people has forgiven you. Every one of those people has forgiven you. First of all, how freeing is that? How freeing to be forgiven? I know this. I remember clearly one time that I yelled at my two daughters. I know where I was standing. I know what was happening. And I yelled at them to no end. And I said, forgive me. I have sinned against you. She says, yes dad, we do. That is forgiveness. CE Church, be the people who freely give. What if this church abounded in free forgiveness to the others? Wow, to the community, to your neighbors, to those who have hurt you. Be free, be free givers of forgiveness. But, even if all of those individuals, individually and corporately, has forgiven me, do they have the power to justify? I'm cleared. Do they have the power to justify? No, of course not. This is Paul's point. Our greatest offense is against who? Our greatest offense is against God. When a South Carolina judge or a U.S. judge pardons, there's no punishment, right? But when God justifies, two amazing things happen. Even more than that, even more than being forgiven, we are declared righteous. And then secondly, we are adopted as a son or a daughter of the Most High God. That is amazing. Oh, that we would never grow callous of that. We have this image, I think, that we're forgiven, yes, but then we're left to our own. We're left alone and we just struggle through life. We are adopted. I clearly remember the first time I ever stole anything. Penny candy at a convenience store, I remember the rack, I remember darting my head around, I remember snatching it, heading out the door, across the street, and by the way, across the street was my church. Doesn't that kind of give us a visual against our sin? little kid, and my church. Oh, the power of sin in our hearts. I don't remember if I went back and confessed. I'm pretty sure I didn't. Even if that store owner had forgiven me, even if he forgave me of my crime, the owner does not declare me as righteous. He doesn't make me a son. That's ludicrous. Here, I'm stealing from you. Come be my son. This is what God has done for you and for me. We are declared sons of the Most High God. Jesus did, Jesus does. Bless his name. So the principle there is no charges, are gonna stick to the genuine follower of Jesus. So let me close. The final all-embracing climactic question is who can separate us from Christ? Who has the power in this universe? Mark 4, Mark 4. There's some experienced fishermen on the sea. They were facing some of these kinds of things, distress, peril, maybe some life problems. If there was a severe accident, they were facing death, potentially. And you know the story, a storm is raging. Jesus is asleep on the boat, and they cry out, Master, Master. And then, those four simple words. Four very simple words. And it's one of those questions that I started with today. Do you not care? Master, do you not care? Almost as if to say, we know you did care, but do you care now? Does something separate us from your caringness? And we know Jesus with a word. Praise God with a word. He says, peace. Be still. If I was in that boat, my response to that situation, it'd be like, wow, thank you for saving us. But can we get on with the rest of the activities? Can we get on with a cookout and have everybody over and maybe watch a video or a movie or something? How did they respond? How did they respond? Scripture tells us they marveled and were exceedingly afraid. And they said this, what manner of man is this? What manner of man is this? See, these experienced fishermen, this didn't compute for them. They had no category to put Jesus in. They had not experienced this. What manner of man is this? And that is what Paul is telling us today. What manner of God is this? There is no equal. There is no equal to the presence of our infinite God. There's no equal. There's no category. But I know my heart, and I still have doubts. Maybe you do too, so I ask you, take a minute right now, in the quiet of your heart, and fill in this blank. What do I really fear? What do I really fear would separate me from the love of God? Cancer? Death of a child, a wayward child, economic collapse, anarchy, various pains and sufferings. What do I really fear? So we can pull this answer off the Bible stack. What do I really fear? See, do we think this struggle about God's inseparable love is like one of those antique scales, you know, you've seen them in the antique shops where it kind of goes like this. Or do you think it's like a child's teeter-totter at a schoolyard where all these major pressures, in verse 35, are getting on one end of the teeter-totter, and then verse 38, all these other contenders are piling on the other side of the teeter-totter, and then Jesus, tiptoes over meekly, and he puts his leg around, and he sits on the other side of the teeter-totter, and everybody's watching. How's it gonna come out? I don't know about something gonna separate me from the love of God. No! God crushes the teeter-totter, he destroys the playground, takes out the whole city, and he will reign victorious in the heavens and the earth. His kingdom is going to come. Amen? Ah, bless His name. So what do we do? Two things. What do we do? How do we fight these doubts about the love of God? So first, Pray and search for scriptures that are tailored to that answer that you just gave. Look for scriptures. I struggle in this area. I struggle in that area. Look for scriptures. Share that with someone. Get help. Get disciple. Pray on these things. And then second, At the moment that these struggles occur, go back to what Paul did, ask the Holy Spirit. You know, the Holy Spirit turns us as part of His ministry. He turns us. What a great picture. I've been thinking about that all week. Oh, Lord, turn me. Romans 5.5 says, God has poured out what? His love into our hearts. So, church, if God is for us, what possible entity of any relevance could be against us? There is none. Let's pray. We bless the name of Jesus this day. You have conquered death, you have conquered My sin, you have declared me righteous. May these truths not stay in our head. Oh, Lord, change us to know you, to love you, to be givers. Work in our hearts that we may see and live out that nothing can separate us from the power and the love of God. In Jesus we pray, amen.