Nothing Can Separate Us
First B Jackson
2026-02-01

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Is the gospel's prescript. It's at the very beginning, Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. The good news. There's good news. It is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes.

He goes on to say, first for the Jew then also for the Greek, the Gentile, right? It's chronologically, that's absolutely the way it went. It is the good news. Now, there's bad news and the God's general indictment of humanity up there in the first chapter that starts and right after this. I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

It's the power of God. The truth of the matter is though we all fall short and so the general indictment of humanity, Gentiles, starts in chapter one eighteen and it goes all the way to three twenty or so. It's his specific indictment. Both of the Jews in the second chapter, also the Gentiles. Chapter three, the verdict is this, the entire world is guilty before God.

There's no one righteous, no, not one. There's no one who seeks after him. We have all fallen short of the glory of God. Wages of sin is death. All of that is in there but so is justification.

Justification is spelled out. Justification by faith is spelled out in three and four and it's illustrated with a couple of old testament examples. Paul uses Abraham and he says, Abraham believed God. He trusted him And in trusting him, God counted that to him as righteousness. So though Abraham was not righteous, God called him righteous because he trusted him.

And so that he gives an example from David. I'm trying to do seven and a half chapters of Romans in a minute and a half. The results of justification and condemnation, the short way to put this is will it be that you identify with Adam who failed in his probation, right? He failed. And our federal head, Adam, is the default setting.

We fail in Adam. But are we going to identify with that or will we identify with Christ? It's possible to be saved in Christ and in Christ alone. So is it going to be Adam or is it going be Christ? Chapter six says, know this, know that you died with Christ.

Now in another place, it'd say mortify the flesh. Because it is true, act like it. Be what you already are in Christ. Know that you died with Christ. Reckon that as true even though it may not feel true and even though the devil may be whispering in your ear all kinds of things that feel condemning to you.

Yield to righteousness. It's possible through the spirit of God, by the blood of Jesus to yield to righteousness. The problem with that is our experience tells us what Paul's experience told him. In chapter seven, he says, this is our relationship to the law of God. We keep on bumping up against it.

Conflict with indwelling sin. What we want to do, we don't do, what we don't want to do, we end up doing. Miserable guy that I am. What in the world is gonna save me? Well, there is no condemnation in Christ.

The great chapter eight of Romans. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There will be struggles. Yes, but those struggles are temporal and they are in time and we have an eternal and infinite God and that's where we hit up against well, there's gospel all over it, by the way. It says gospel in the first part, that pre script, but there's a dark spot when we're talking about humanity and he gives us the bad news before he really starts getting into the good news is the way I see it.

And then we get up to this Romans eight twenty eight. I'm going to share three paragraphs, 11 verses. It's all things first. Now we know that's emphatic. In Greece, it's emphatic.

There's no doubt about it. It's saying, moreover, we're certain of this. We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and those who called according to his purpose. Now, I could ask you, I'm not going to do the head bowed, not his clothes thing, but do you love God? Yeah.

I mean, you came here, you know, it wasn't for the food. Actually, food was really good though. It was really, really good. But you came here because you love God. I'm I'm assuming that but do you feel like God has a purpose for you?

Whether you're doing it or actually doing it or not. Do you feel like God has a purpose for you? Yeah. Okay. So we know that God is working all things together for good, for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.

That's diverse. The reason it's the most Google is because we share it a lot, I'm sure but it's also because we want to hold on to it and a lot of us know this and share it with our friends who are going through desperate times. If I were to say this, and we know that God causes all things. There are some of y'all in the room that just go, yep, absolutely, that's absolutely true and then there are others say, hold on. He's not the author of sin.

He's not the author of rebellion. God does not tempt us to sin, walk away. We have a responsibility that is ours to make. So I know that this verse, it's actually used by both sides of the Calvinist Armenian debate that's been going on for so long. So both of them claim this ground because both of them are true.

Okay? God is sovereign and we're responsible. Just get over it. You can't say God caused your rebellion. He didn't.

You chose that. Does that mean that he doesn't know though? No. So, it there's a danger there of going like there's a a theological bent that is called open theism that God does not know. He says he knows.

It's thoroughly biblical that he knows but we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and those who are called according to purpose. Don't stop is what I'm saying. Don't stop. God caused this to happen. My sin is his fault.

No, that's not true. There's a wooden translation. This is from the Greek and Greek word order. It's just straight up wooden when you're doing a translation. To make it pretty in English, we kind of rearrange word order a lot.

I think this is helpful. That's why I put it up there. We know moreover, it's a certainty that to those loving God, he is working all things together for good. To those who are called according to his purpose or actually to those who are called according to purpose. To those who according to purpose are being called.

Excuse me. Let me start over. We know more over that. To those loving God. Do y'all love God?

Thank you. He's working all things together for good. To those who according to his purpose are being called and that's progressive action. He's constantly calling, right? Okay.

So we know that God works all things together. I'm going to introduce you to a theologian, Rudolf Otto. Have you ever heard of him? Yeah. Good, Connor.

Would you tell us more about him? He actually has written a book called The Idea of the Holy. The Idea of the Holy, he came up with words a lot. He would throw new words out there and the word that he used to describe that which is holy, which is God, is numinous, numinous. And he defined it.

He's a German who defined it in Latin and I'm reading it in English with a southern accent. Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinans, a mystery that is at once terrifying and attractive. So, God is good and he is almighty and he is able to work together all things no matter what. Even though everybody has free will and is able to make their decisions. God is able with his restraining influence of the spirit and by his work.

He is able to turn all that towards our good. That is very attractive but if you're not a believer, it's also terrifying. God causes all things to work together for good to those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew. Okay, he foreknew.

Oh boy. In the church that I grew up in, just say it for new or predestined. Those were the ones that will start a fight immediately, right? He foreknew. Do you believe, Christians sitting here, do you believe that God knows the end from the beginning?

He does. It's thoroughly biblical to believe that God knows. So, God knows. Okay. Dispense with that one.

Don't let it hang you up. Don't get stuck in that ditch. It's really hard to get out of. It'll mess with your mind. God is outside of time.

He invented the whole concept. Smartest people we have when they talk about the time and space, they're just confused by it, right? He also predestined. Okay, it gets worse. He foreknew and he predestined.

He predestined. Oh, predestination. I remember the arguments when I was little. Thought, can we just move on? It stands to reason for me, a finite being, that if I'm trying to understand the infinite God, there will be some stuff I don't get.

Right? If he says that this is true and it seems like this is also true and I don't know how those two things work together but he says that it is, I trust him. I just have to leave it at that. I trust him. Now, if if we were talking about salvation in this word, I can understand your heart level problem with it.

But if you go on and don't stop, keep reading, right? Keep on in the context, you got all of Romans building up to this point and then it says, he also predestined him to be conformed into the image of his son. That is the predestination. What he has decided is that by Jesus people would be saved and by Jesus they would be sanctified. By his spirit they'd be sanctified.

So he has a purpose with each of us and the purpose that he has is to conform us into the image of his son. If you're reading in the New American Standard and you run across italics like to become right there, those words are provided by the translator because it makes it flow better in English. But I like it a little better to read it straight up as it is. He also predestined conform to the image of son. Who?

The ones who love him and are called according to his purpose and his purpose is to conform them into the image of his son. Christian, does God want for you to be more Christ like every day? Is he working on you chipping away the things that are not Christ like? He is. We've been in the minor prophets for a long time and all of the hard stuff and exile that they've been going through was designed to bring them to be more like him.

That's what he was chipping away the things that were worldly. He was chipping away things that were temporal and he was bringing them into his eternal purpose. So this speaks of God's sanctifying influence on his adopted sons and daughters. The ones that love him and are called according to his purpose. His purpose is to make them more and more into Christ likeness.

Why? So that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. Now, the preeminence of Christ is important to God. It should be important to us. He wants for us to be more and more and more Christ like and show the power of God to a lost and dying world by putting Jesus, by holding Jesus up so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren.

We should act like our older brother, Jesus. And those that he predestined to be conformed into the image of his son, he also called and those that he called, he also justified. When we see Abraham's call which Paul has already used earlier in Romans, we see that he called Abram to leave the land which he knew and go to the place that would show him. He would show him and Abram did. He showed that he believed God.

He trusted him and he acted on that belief. So those he called, he also justified. The ones he justified, he also glorified. So for you as a believer in Jesus, your eventual glorification is assured. We know this.

Paul starts off the paragraph. It is an effective call. You do have to accept it. You do. It is a free gift that's being offered.

If you accept it, you are the elect. Okay? Just deal with it. That's the way that it's presented in the Bible. Those he predestined, he also called.

Those he called, also justified. The ones he justified, he's also glorified. So your eventual glorification and eternity in Christ is secured. Now, who are these? I've already said it 10 times.

But it's these who love him and are caught according to his purpose. Hold on to this when you're going through hard times. At a lunch on Friday, we are sitting with a bunch of pastors. We were talking and it kind of snuck up on me. The first guy talked about neurotheology for and bunch of stuff I didn't understand.

Band didn't understand. We talked for a little while. I love him and then they said, Ray, what what's God teaching you lately? And I said, I'm grieving and I just started crying because I'm grieving. And I help, I think, a lot of people when they're going through grief.

And I've had some of my own. But man, this one snuck up on me and it's hit me hard. And so I'm holding on to this. This is another reason, not just because it's the most Googled. This is what I'm living right now.

As I know that God's going to use all of these things for my good, for his glory, for the continued advancement of the gospel. So next, we're going into these things. These things, what then shall we say to these things? Okay, Paul's brought up seven and a half chapters. We're getting towards the end of the eighth chapter.

He said, okay, now that we've discussed all of that, big stuff, really big stuff, what should we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Okay. Examine the question a little bit. God Almighty is on our side.

Does it matter who we're fighting? No. Does it matter who's fighting against us? No. God resists the proud.

He gives grace to the humble. If you've humbly accepted the offer that he's made, he's for you. And there's nothing that can stand against you. He who did not spare his own son sorry, it's in gray, not white. He who did not spare his own son, but he delivered him over for us all freely, How will he not also with Christ?

He's already given us Christ. How will he not freely give us all things? He will give us all things in Christ. Like I said, and his purpose is to make us more Christ like and to bring us closer and closer to him. Now who will bring a charge against God's elect?

That same elect is the same people, the one who love God, called according to his purpose, the purpose is sanctification, conforming to the image. Who will bring a charge against those people? What does it matter? He's almighty God. It's not a yin yang.

Sometimes, we have this kind of thought in Eastern religion that has this thought that there's the white little squiggly paisley thing and then there's a white little, the black little squiggly and they're equal and they're ever flowing and there's like, oh man, this is about the energy you're putting out there. No. God is almighty. He wins. He's called you to be a part of the winning side.

It does not matter who would bring a charge against you, whether that charge is religious or criminal or whatever. God will be with you in the midst of your circumstances. God is the one who justifies. He's the one that though Abraham was not righteous, he called him and imputed to him righteousness. Though Ray was not righteous, he called me and when I trusted him, he imputed to me the righteousness of Christ.

When he look at me from above, what he sees is the cross of Christ. The last line of lamb of God is not so he's the lamb of God. Says, till I'm just a lamb of God. Small l. I'm the small l.

I'm not the capital l lamb of God. But it's in Christ. God is the one who justifies. He chooses how to do it. His rules are the only ones that apply.

I talked to a fellow yesterday who was born and the they had intended it to be a godless state. It was USSR when he was born. And he was born in what was supposed to they denied the fact that God exists and they didn't want to have anything to do with him. They're persecuting like crazy but this guy still comes to Jesus, right? Who will bring a charge against God's elect?

God is the one who justifies. Who is the one who condemns? So, this chapter started off. Chapter eight says, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ. If you're a believer in Jesus and you're reading scripture and it's condemning you, back up.

Examine the situation. Who is the one who is condemning you? The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin which you can readily lay before Christ and he will forgive it. Agree with him about your sin, it's already gone. But if the devil is telling you can't be saved, you can't be saved, you can't have this forgiven, That's the one who condemns.

That's the voice of the enemy, the accuser of the brethren, the father of lies, Satan, our opposer, our accuser, our enemy. Christ Jesus is the one who died. Yes, rather, he was the one who was raised, not just dead, resurrected. He is at the right hand of God who also intercedes for us. If you were to think about that and get this concept, God almighty, Jesus is God's son, but Jesus is Almighty.

He knows every situation every one of us is going through. He's seated at God's right hand. And how He can do this, have no idea because I'm a finite being. Blows my mind to think that what he is doing is interceding for me in every little thing that I'm going through and that you're going through. He's interceding for us.

Christ Jesus is the one who's pleading. It's his blood that saves us. So yes, that's there. But he also is right there with God and interceding for us. That's a great thing to know.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation? No. In fact, that's guaranteed. It's already been guaranteed a couple times in Romans.

Paul's writing this from Corinth. When he writes the letter to the Corinthians, he gives them a list of all the ways that he's been beaten with rods and beaten with whips and he's been lowered down over a wall and he's been shipwrecked and he's been snake bit. He's got all these things. Has he seen tribulation? Yeah.

Has he seen distress? I think all of those things are pretty distressing. Has he seen persecution? They literally persecution means to follow after like we think of it as it's it means following after. Like constantly on following after someone, persecuting them.

Yeah, he was running out of town multiple times. Famine. Last week we said, I've learned how to be content no matter what my circumstances. I've been hungry. Famine.

Can't separate us from the love of God. Nakedness. He was stripped naked a time or two. I'm glad that doesn't happen today very often. Not for preaching.

That would be terrible. Ugh. Just terrible. Peril. Yeah.

There's always the threat of peril or sword considering that he wrote this. Do you think that anything separated Paul from the love of Christ? He was killed by the sword for presenting this message in the town he sent this letter to, but that didn't separate him from the love of Christ. As it is written, for your sake, we're killed all day long. We're counted as sheep for the slaughter.

This is Romans eight thirty six. To me, reading this, just reading it straight through, I go, that's like a non sequitur. I don't know why that's in there. It seems like from that, who will separate us from love Christ, tribulation, distress, persecute, famine. Okay, Paul.

Nakedness, peril, sword. As it is written, for your sake we're killed all day long. We're counted as sheep for the slaughter. Well, is a line from a song. And if I said, my Bonnie lies over the ocean.

You all know? Yeah. You got it. You know the rest of the song. And that one, thank God that's the one that came to me.

Couldn't think of anything good in the first service. It was all Led Zeppelin for some reason. For your sake, we are killed all day long and we're counted as sheep for the slaughter. That's from Psalm 44. Imma read Psalm 44, the whole thing and it's just a line from it but that line was to call them into remembering this song, okay?

And so, here we go. We have heard with our ears, oh God. Our fathers have told us the deeds that you did in their days. Oh, the good old days. The days of old.

You drove out the nations with your hand, Lord, but them you planted. You put them in the promised land. You afflicted the peoples and you cast them out. For they did not gain possession of the land by their own sword nor did their own arms save them, but it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your countenance because you favored them. Oh, to be like it was back then.

You're my king, oh God. Command victories for us, Jacob. Through you, we will push down our enemies. Through your name, we will trample those who rise up against us. For I will not trust in my own bow nor shall my sword save me, but you, lord, you have saved us from our enemies and you have put them to shame those who hated us.

And God, we boast all day long and we praise your name forever. Selah. In the first service, sang some of those in one of the first songs we sang. Lord to God forever. Selah, let that ring out.

But you, Lord, you have cast us off and you have put us to shame. This sounds like they're going through a hard time. And you don't go out with our armies anymore. You make us turn back from the enemy and those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves. Think about this from a Roman Christian's perspective.

Does this resonate with you a little more? Those who hate us have taken spoil for themselves. You have given us up like sheep intended for food. You scattered us among the nations and you sell your people for next to nothing. From our point of view, we don't understand why you're doing this, lord.

You're not even enriched by selling your people. You make us a reproach in front of our neighbors and a scorn and a derision to those around us. You make us a byword among the nations and a shaking of the head among the peoples. My dishonor is continually before me and the shame of my face has covered me because of the voice of him who reproaches and reviles because of the enemy and of the avenger. And all this has come upon us, Lord, but we haven't forgotten you.

That sounds really, really earnest to me. I think that that was a sincere prayer. Psalm 44. All this has come upon us, but we haven't forgotten you. Perhaps the psalmist had not, but it sounds like a lot of people around them might have.

Nor have we dealt falsely with your covenant. Our heart has not turned back, nor have your steps departed from your way. But you've severely broken us in the place of jackals, and you've covered us with the shadow of death. In the minor prophets, when God calls people into exile or when it looks like he is not showing up on their behalf, he tells them why he's doing it. He's reproving them and he's calling them back to really trust him and it sounds like this Psalmist does do that.

If we had forgotten the name of our God or stretched out our hands to a foreign god, wouldn't God search this out? I know he would but for he knows the secrets of the heart yet for your sake lord, we are killed all day long and we're counted as sheep for the slaughter. That's what Paul picks up that line. And then there's this plea. Awake, God.

Why do you sleep, Lord? Now God's told us who he is. He never slumbers or sleeps. But it feels like it because they're going through hard times. Perhaps they're grieving.

Perhaps they feel incredibly oppressed by the nations round about them. Arise and don't cast us off forever. Why do you hide your face? Why you forget our affliction and our oppression for our soul is bowed down to the dust and our body clings to the ground. Arise for our help and redeem us for your mercy's sake.

I love that last line. It's not because we are good and righteous and we've done everything right. That last line gives me hope for the rest of the Psalm, right? It's like redeem us lord because you're merciful. We don't deserve it but we're asking for is you would shield us from the punishment that we deserve.

And in Paul sharing that one line, I think he's saying, remember this song, think about this. Don't just look back for the good old days but in the difficulty, in the midst of the difficulty, know that God Almighty has a plan and humility before God. God resists the proud, He gives grace. The humble, if we'll humble ourselves before Him and looking for His mercy, He will give it. Now all these things, last paragraph.

This immediately proceeds, I mean, it immediately follows, yet for your sake, we're killed all day long. We're counted as sheep for the slaughter. Now, in all of these things, in all of these things, no matter how you feel about the situation you're currently in, the circumstances you're going through right now, In all of these things, we overwhelmingly conquer. How? Through him who loved us.

Because God's called us into his kingdom of light and he's done it through his glorious love and he wants for us to share that love with other people. In all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer how? By battle plans? No. Through him who loved us.

And then Paul goes into he starts off with I know, we know like for certain but Paul who's a little further down the road, he's never met these Christians he's writing to in Rome but he knows their savior and he knows the spirit of God and he says, I've been through this a little longer than y'all have and I am absolutely convinced of this that that there's nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ and he's going to give a a list here. Can death? I am convinced that neither death. I have to say that I take a lot of weddings to do ceremonies. I do a lot of weddings.

And those I can say yes or I can say no, but I love to say yes to them. There's so much joy in a wedding. I just love it. I also say yes to almost every funeral been that asked to do. And there is so much grief surrounding that.

I love to do celebrations of life, but a lot of times it really is just a memorial funeral. It's hard. But that doesn't separate us from the love of Christ. I'm convinced that death cannot separate us nor life. There's nothing in life that can separate us from that nor angels.

Oftentimes, when we hit the word angel in the New Testament, I always remind y'all that angel means messenger. Angel means messenger. I think that in this case, he's saying celestial beings who are angels. They carry the message of God. Paul and the writer of Hebrews and Peter all agree that angels were the ones who brought the message to Moses on the mountain.

Angels. So, heavenly beings cannot separate us from the love of God. Principalities. Principalities, the word there is archae which means ruler, rulers, the principalities. There are two ways of looking at this.

The worldly way of looking at this is the governing authorities, the rulers. The spiritual way of looking at it is that there are principalities. If it's right next to angels, it can very well be demons ruling a certain place or a certain aspect. In the case of when this was written fifty seven AD to Rome from Corinth, this is the guy that was in charge, Nero. Now, I'm, you know, I'm not a political guy.

He's a pretty bad dude. He is the one who is said to have fiddled while Rome burned. It conveniently burned right where he was planning on building the rest of his palace. He probably set the fire. He blamed Christians for the fire and then when he had dinner parties, he would light his garden parties with impaled Christians set on fire.

That's a bad dude. The last time I presented this, Obama was in the White House. Trump's in it now. I don't think either one was as bad as Nero. Okay?

I'm going out on limb. Principalities, powers, nor things present. There's nothing that you're going through right now nor things to come nor anything that you will go through in your future nor powers. If if angels and principalities wasn't enough, maybe it's not the ruling governing authorities but just powers over you. Whoever is in authority over you, powers nor height.

This one reminds me of my uncle Jeff because I'm grieving. I'm thinking about him all the time right now. He was six eleven. The biggest one of all of us and so when I see height, I immediately kind of think of him but also he hated heights. He just really really hated heights and he would say about he would he would do painting and carpentry whatnot and he wouldn't go about above this high on a ladder ever.

I never saw him any higher than that on a ladder and he said, Jesus said, low, I'm with you always. I ain't getting on that ladder. You get somebody else. He said, if I can't reach it like this, I ain't gonna paint it. So, nor height.

That's sorry. That's that's that's not what that means but it's close. There's no height that we can get to that can separate us. There's no depth. Even though I go into shield, David says, you're there.

No depth nor any other created thing and I want to say again, it's not a yin yang equal good and evil in this eternal battle. It'll just keep on going. No, God is almighty and God wins. The devil is a created being. The the demons are angels that rebelled with one who was an angel of light who chose to rebel nor any other created thing.

There's not anything which will be able to separate us from the love of God. Amen. Which is in Christ Jesus our lord. Amen. So, the struggles that we're going through today, struggles that we will go in the future, none of those things can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our lord.

That's the Mysterium Tremendum at Fasenans. A mystery that is at once terrifying if you're not on God's side, right? And I don't want for you to think that what if I'm not one of the elect? If you hear this gospel, it's calling out to you. Accept it.

Accept the free gift that he's given and then it will be gracious and you'll recognize how attractively fascinating it is. I don't have time to tell that story. I told the first service I'd tell the story at some time in the near future. I had a nightmare. I will tell you the nightmare.

The nightmare was the first time I did this was in 2016 or first time I went through this to present. I've been through it a lot in my life. But the first time, it was heating up into the political season in 2016, and I had a nightmare one night, and the nightmare was that I was one of the candidates. And I woke up terrified. Absolutely terrified because there's that's a that's a bad choice.

Yeah. Anyway, I will get to that in a minute. We are going to go to now into a time of communion.