Now if you would take your Bible in turn to the New Testament, to Romans 8, verses 38 and 39, would like to read to you this passage that I'll be preaching from this morning. It's a very familiar passage. Romans 8, I'm going to start in verse 37. Knowing all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other thing else, in all of creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So, do you believe God loves you? Do you really believe that God loves you? Do you believe that the king of the universe, the one who put all things in place and sustains all things by the Word of His power? And those all things, do you believe God loves you? As I mentioned before, this is one of the most difficult truths for me to grasp and to really understand because I know my own heart well enough to know that my heart oftentimes does not love God. And oftentimes I don't believe God's love is better than mine. The way I love my family, the way I love people in our church, oftentimes does not reflect the love of God. And I know myself well enough to know that if people look at me and base their opinion of God's love on my love, I'm in trouble. And so are you. And the question really is, do you really, really believe that God loves you? We need to hear this simple message. I think this morning we need to hear it all the time. We need to continually preach the gospel to ourself, the fact that God loves us as something we need to hear over and over again. Paul reminds us that we live in a world that does not promote God's love in our own heart and mind and understanding. If you would look at Romans 836, just look a couple verses back. You see what Paul says here, for just as it is written, for thy sake we are being put to death all day long, we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. Now Paul is speaking to the Romans and he says, for your sake Romans, I am being put to death all day long. But you know what, that applies to us. We live in a world that does not really love God. Does it promote that? And as we live for Christ and we give ourselves for one another, the world just cuts us down. It slaughters us. It puts us to death. Death awaits us in this world. And so according to Paul, death reigns in us all day long. And the reality of death and hardship requires a truth for you to understand that transcends death and hardship and suffering. And that truth is God loves you. It's a simple message really. God loves you. But do you really believe it? And if we're to face these troubles, hardships and sufferings in life, if we're to make it through this and if we're to live through life and death, we need to be reminded that God's love will never leave us. Well, I don't know if you need that this morning, but I do. I need to hear that constantly. Now in Romans chapter 8 verses 38 and 39, Paul gives us 10 obstacles that cannot separate us from the love of God. Now out of these 10 obstacles, eight of them come in pairs and two of them come in individual. They appear individually. Now before you think I'm going to preach for the next hour, I'm not. I promise. I do not have a 10 point sermon for you this morning, but I do want to talk about these things in pairs. Now before we do that, I want to remind you of why Paul was so perfectly persuaded that God loved him. And we're going to need to look at some verses that lead up to Romans chapter 8. So if you would, would you look at Romans chapter 8, we're going to look at verses one through about verse 37. I'm not going to read them all. I'm just going to summarize, but I want you to see why Paul is so convinced and why he can say what he says in verse 38 and 39 that I am sure or I am perfectly persuaded of the love of God. Look at verse one, Romans chapter 8. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Do you believe that? You believe there's no condemnation any longer for you because of your union with Christ. No condemnation. Think about that. No condemnation for you. The damning sentence against us that the world would condemn us with. We are free from. Galatians 5.1 says that it is for freedom that Christ has set us free in Romans 8.1. Paul says we are free from condemnation. Verse 11 says the same spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead if that spirit is living in you will also give you life in your mortal bodies. Verse 15. We have a new spiritual mentality and no longer have a slave mentality towards sin but we are free from the slavery of sin and we are now adopted children of God. Verse 19 through 23. In creation, we as God's people will someday be set from this bodied, this bondage of sin and we will be adopted as children of God and we will receive the redemption of our bodies. It's almost too good to be true, isn't it? Verse 26. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us constantly. Think about that for a moment as we are here right now. The Holy Spirit is interceding on your behalf and not only that, Jesus is at the right hand of God the Father interceding for you and for me. That's a great truth. We read before Romans 8.32 he who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all will he not also give us freely all things. Verse 33. Who will bring a charge now against God's elect? The answer is no one. No one is going to bring a charge against us anymore. God has won the victory he has justified us and declared us righteous in his sight and then in verse 37 but in all these things we are overwhelming conquerors. We have surpassing victory through him who loved us. Aren't those great proofs? If you believe God's word you have to come to grips with those things that Paul says about the love of God about him and about you and about me. What great proof reminds me the story I heard about a young American engineer who was sent over to Ireland and he was sent over to Ireland to work in a company in this new electronic field. And as he left he was engaged to this beautiful woman and he was going to be gone for two years. So he goes to Ireland with the intent of saving up money when he comes back that they would then be married and they would have some money saved up and they could make a life together. But while he was gone the woman started to doubt the man's love. A lot of pretty girls in Ireland. She said there are a lot of pretty girls over there. How are you doing with all of this and he said I'm tempted at times honestly but I'm seeking the Lord and I'm trying to remain pure and I'm keeping myself for you. Well a couple of weeks later she sent a package over with a harmonica. She said every time you're tempted or every time you see a young woman that you're attracted to would you take the harmonica out and play it just to kind of keep your mind occupied and give you something to do. So he said sure be glad to do that. Thanks for the harmonica. He wrote back I'm practicing on it every night thinking of you. Now at the end of that two years since the engineer came back to the States he got back to his headquarters. He took the first plane to meet his fiance. And they were reunited. He was a great thing. All the family was there and as they met together the woman went hold on a second hold up her hand in front of him. He said she said before this hugging and kissing starts I want to hear you play that harmonica. And he did and she was assured of his love for her. But don't we need that we need to hear the voice the sound the tenor of God's love for us. So Paul is perfectly persuaded at this point that God loves him. And he tells us the same thing. God's love is offered to you and to me freely and without cost. Now it's free for us, right? But it was not free for the father. The father gave his only son who was crucified on a cross that you and I might freely receive the benefits of his cost on our behalf. That is a great deal. I'm all about deals. I don't know about you. I love a good deal. And one of my favorite things is to get something for free. Can I hear a man? Anybody else love things for free? I do. If somebody gives me something is one of my love languages. I didn't know this until about four or five years ago that I started finding this great joy in receiving things for free. And it's interesting how God revealed it. Now I'm 49 years old. I don't mind telling you that. So at about 45 I realize one of my love languages is gifts. I love getting gifts. Please don't give me anything. All right. That's not why I'm saying this. But I love getting things for free. And I think some reason behind why I love that is it reminds me the gospel. It reminds me of God's love when somebody just gives me something out of the goodness of their heart and grace flows into my life because of that. I'm really happy about that. Plus I don't have to spend any money. So there's a little requirement there, but I do love getting things for free. And our topic this morning of God's love is freely given to you and to me. It's free for us simply for the receiving, but it costs the son of God is very life. That's why Paul is perfectly persuaded. So let's begin and look at these things. These ten obstacles that cannot separate us from the love of God. Now I don't know about you, but when I read this list, I get a little confused. And I need some words to help me put concepts around death, life, angels or demons. I'm going to give you a couple things. If you want to write these down, I know you have a place in your notes to write these down. These have tremendously helped me understand the depth of God's love in my own life. So the first pair that we see is death and life. In other words, something in our natural world, something in our natural world, something as simple as death and life, cannot separate us from the love of God. And I think death is mentioned first because it's a separation for us. When people die, it's a separation. When we die, our body and our soul are separated. And the first thing Paul mentions that cannot separate us from the love of God is death. Philippians 1.21 says, for to me, for to me to live is Christ, but to die is gain. It's my life verse. Paul also says, just a couple verses later, Philippians 1.23, I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ. For that is far better. Death means to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. So the first thing Paul mentions that cannot separate us from the love of God is death. In fact, death instead of being a separation, it's a unification. It's a greater understanding, a greater revelation of who God is because we are with Christ. We see him face to face so death cannot separate us from the love of God and neither can life. Now that sounds strange, doesn't it? Life can't separate us from the love of God. Here's what I think Paul means. He means nothing in life can separate us from the love of God because life is hard. Life pulls you away from God. It pulls you away from time alone from being in God's presence. It pulls you into your job, into your family, into your hobby, into a sport, into who knows what kind of thing. Life and death cannot separate us from God. Many of us are experiencing situations in people that do not manifest the love of God to us. In fact, if we're honest, they manifest what looks like death. So this life, people, situations cannot separate us from the love of God. When Christ died on the cross, he secured his own people both in life and in death. So Paul says in Romans 149, for to this end, Christ died and lived again that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. His lordship over a life and death is invincible. So neither death nor life can separate us from the love of God. Nothing in this natural world can separate us from the love of God. Now we move from the natural to the supernatural or the spiritual. Notice the second pair. Neither angels nor demons. No cosmic power. No supernatural power can separate us from the love of God. Notice there in verse 38 Paul mentions angels or demons and then in just a few verses he mentions the word powers. And I think Paul is talking about the supernatural spiritual world. Nothing in the supernatural or spiritual world can separate us from the love of God. Neither angels nor principalities, no power can separate us. These three are probably designated angels, demons and powers in this supernatural world. But do you know what Jesus triumph over the supernatural world? There is no power, no cosmic power, no supernatural power to separate us from the love of God. These powers are decisively defeated at the cross. In Colossians 2.15 it says that God disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them into open shame by triumphing over them at the cross. So when Christ rose from the dead Ephesians 1.21 tells us that he was exalted far above all rule, authority, power and dominion. So even though these scoundrels are loose and torment us and make our lives difficult they cannot ultimately harm us and they cannot separate us from the love of God. You know, it must just go all Satan to hear God say, you and your mighty hordes are helpless to take my loved ones. Reminds me of the old hymn. The prince of darkness grim we tremble not for him his rage we can endure for low his doom is sure. So the third pair, we have first of all the first pair neither death nor life and then the second pair neither angels nor demons and powers the third pair. Neither things present nor things to come so we're on a horizontal time frame here now. So we move from the natural world to the supernatural world now to what Paul I think is saying is a it's like a timeline. There's nothing in the present and there's nothing to come to see the horizontal timeline. I think Paul here is talking about this timeline and I think he wants us to know that by this pair. That nothing we are presently experiencing in the present and nothing in the future can separate us from the love of God. Now that may sound elementary to you, but think for a moment about the struggles you have presently. Do you doubt the love of God in the midst of those? I know I do. Mark your present challenges you face maybe financially maybe with family maybe with children maybe extended family maybe church family. That challenge you presently to really believe that God loves you. I know those are evident in my life and I believe they're evident in yours. So we might fear presently what's happening but we also might fear the future. The most tangible thing that came to my mind is this I have a family history of cancer. My grandmother, both my grandparents and my father died of cancer. So what's that mean for me? Guess how I'm going to die and I'm okay with it. I'm going to die of cancer someday probably. But the present doesn't scare me because I just had a physical last week and I don't have cancer. So I'm okay but the future is another thing. Now I'm not afraid of death. I'm a little afraid of dying but the future of the prospect of dying of cancer. I watch my dad die of stomach cancer. My grandmother had pancreatic cancer. Those are painful deaths to die. And so as you look into the future of your life, maybe you have a family history of cancer. Or maybe you have a family history of some kind of alcohol or drug abuse. Or maybe you have a family history of just difficult marriage and difficult life. And you think as you look into the future can I really do this and I'm not going to make it. God are you really going to sustain me? Are you really going to love me even to the end? And I believe Paul says, yes, I will sustain you. Nothing can separate you from my love. Nothing at all. Hebrews chapter two. I want to read to you this passage. It's one of my favorites. Chapter two verse 14. It says, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise, took the same thing in our flesh and blood, that through death he might destroy the one who has power over death that is the devil, and deliver all those who through the fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. Hebrews 2.15. As I look into the future and as I live in the present, I do not want to be a slave. I want to be free and I want to be free in the love of God. Fourthly, the fourth prayer, our fourth prayer, neither height nor death. So we've moved now from the natural to the spiritual, the supernatural to a horizontal plane present to the future. And now we move to a vertical, neither height nor death. I think King David, our warrior king, understood what Paul was talking about here when he's talked in Psalm 139 verses 7 and 8. Listen to what David says. Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed and shield behold, you are there. Nothing in all the heights, nothing in all the deepest hell can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Neither height nor death. You remember the movie Lord of the Rings? Does anybody watch that besides me? It's one of my favorite trilogies. You remember in the first movie when they get deterred and they have to go to the minds of Moria? And they get in there and this big demon comes out of the depths. I see you smiling as your favorite movie. And this demon, this bowerock comes out of the depths and does battle. And that's what it feels like to me. That's one of my favorite parts in all those movies because there's this spiritual component. But it's in reality that this demon comes up from the death to try to destroy this band of men. And you know what, we live in a world like that. We live in a world where the spiritual and the natural intersect. But Paul says here, nothing in all of the heights, nothing from heaven and nothing from hell can come and separate you from the love of God. I remember watching my grandfather die. He had emphysema. And when he was dying, his eyes were wide open and he did not want to relinquish his body. Because he was afraid of what was going to happen. He was afraid something might come from heaven, something might come from hell and steal his soul. It was so afraid to watch him die like that. And if I would have been more educated and if I had been a little wiser, I would have said, Grandpa, nothing in all of heaven and nothing in all of hell can separate you from the love of God. That's the confidence we need to face life, is it not? Now, I also think there's a component to this height and depth that has to do with being in a high position. Like you might be here today and you might be doing really well financially. You might be high on the hog. Grass might be really green at your house right now. You might be in high cotton as they say in the South. I'm from Kansas. That's not a saying we haven't Kansas but it is in the South. You might be living in high cotton. You might be high right now. You might be at the height of your success as a businessman. And you might sense it pulling you away from God a little bit because of the time required to be successful. Well, God wants you to know even at the height you cannot be separated from the love of God. And then you may be here this morning. You may be at the most difficult point in your life. And you may feel down. You may feel humiliated. You may feel degraded. You may feel devastated but God says nothing in all the depth. No matter how deep you go, no matter how low you sink, nothing can separate you from the love of God. Now knowing that nothing present or nothing to come, nothing in the heights or nothing in the greatest moments of our life, nothing in the future that's still to come, nothing right now. And even the lowest point in your life, nothing can separate you from the love of God. And that is the most significant truth I can give you this morning that nothing can separate you from the love of God. Now the last obstacle that Paul puts out here, just in case he missed anything. Now remember we went from the natural to the supernatural. We went horizontal. We went vertical. And just to make sure Paul doesn't miss anything, he says at the end of verse 39, no created thing can separate you from the love of God. This is an all-inclusive encouragement. It's given to us to give us hope and it's given so we would be assured and perfectly persuaded that nothing in all of the heights can separate us from the love of God. Now let me ask you a question. Do you love this way? Do you love others this way? That nothing in the natural world can separate you from others in the way that you love them, nothing in the supernatural world, nothing in the present, nothing in the future, no height, no depth, nothing can separate you from loving others? That's the goal. We know that God loves us. What do we do with that now? We've extended to others. Nothing should separate us from loving one another, even if it's really difficult to love. There are still expressions of love that are safe and good and right. And we should love. If you do not love this way, let me ask you to confess and to repent. Those are not dirty words, by the way. Confession is good for the soul. Repentance is good for the soul. If there's somebody that you're not loving this morning, the way that you know you should demonstrate this kind of love, I want to ask you to plead the blood of Christ to cover you, to cover your sin, and then to move you towards that person in love. I read this last week, an old story that I'd forgotten about back in the 17th century, Oliver Cromwell, who was the Lord Proctor of England, sentenced the soldier to be shot to death for crimes. The execution was to take place at the ringing of the evening curfew bell. However the bell did not ring that night, the soldier's fiance had climbed up into the bell tower and hung to the big clapper, and as they rang the bell, there was no sound. And when Oliver Cromwell found out what happened, he summoned the woman to come and as she held out her hands and feet, bruised, bloodied, her body bruised, bloodied, he said, your lover shall live because of your sacrifice. The curfew shall not ring tonight. John Scott talks about our insecurity in knowing this love of God. He says insecurity is written across all human experience. Christian people are not guaranteed immunity to temptation, tribulation, or tragedy, but we are promised victory over them. God's pledge is not that suffering will never affect us, but that it will never separate us from the love of God. Our confidence is not in our love for him, which is frail and fickle and faltering, but it is in the love God has for us, which is steadfast, faithful, and persevering. So when death, life, powers, or angels, or demons, or present, or future, when all of heaven or hell, or anything else in time or space, or any other thing created, threatens to separate you from the love of God. Jesus, that Jesus, our Savior, and our Redeemer, proved his love for you and me by allowing his hands and his feet and his body to be bloodied for you. His head wore the crown. His sphere took the side, his body wore the punishment and wrath so that you and I could be perfectly persuaded that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Which is found in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. Let me pray. Father, we are thankful this morning that you have demonstrated your love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died. You died, Lord, for us. Lord, would you give us a more faith? It is a gift. Faith is a gift. And so we ask us, we ask you God to freely give us greater faith. Please, Lord, help us to believe even despite our sin that you love us and nothing can separate us from your love. And then Lord, move us, compel us to love others in this way. That nothing can separate us from the love that we have for others. Lord, give us courage. We're afraid. We're afraid to love in this way. And I pray that you would embolden us to love our family, our wives, our husbands, our children, our neighbors, our fellow church members in this world. Help us God to love with the love of Christ that He's demonstrated for us. And we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.