Romans 8, beginning of verse 1, this is God's infallible word. There is therefore, nine, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do, by sending his own in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. For those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die. But if by the Spirit you will put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him. in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it. in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption, and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been grown in together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons. of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. A hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for as we The Spirit Himself intercedes with us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. What then 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? Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed 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. We are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. In 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 anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. On Thursday evening I introduce you to the theme of our communion season. It's really the verse in Jeremiah 31 verse 3. I have loved you with an everlasting love and therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. It's this everlasting love. God has towards his people. If we go with that, on Thursday evening we thought particularly about eternity past, of God setting his love upon his people, that is electing them, or in the words here, predestining, and then later calling them. It is out of love that he did this. This infinite love that is essential to God, for God is love. love because he first loved us. This infinite love of God which we do not comprehend, we do not understand it fully because it is infinite, and yet it has been directed towards his people. And so we've thought about everlasting love in eternity, in the past, before we even were, before the foundations of this world were laid, the Lord set his love upon his people. This morning we were considering the great display of that love, the proof of that love, the grand gesture of that love in that Christ has come. As we thought in Galatians 2.20, we live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And we consider that, that he gave himself. He gave himself as he was the God man. He gave his body and soul all because of love. If there was any other way, to redeem us, that would have been taken, but there was no other way to satisfy justice, and so God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. And so we've seen this everlasting love, but that love which elected some to everlasting life has been proven, has been demonstrated, and while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. But as we move on this evening, we want to ask, what about now? And what about forever? And of course the answer is obvious in what the text says, I have loved you with an everlasting love. God's love for his people is from everlasting to everlasting, and therefore as it had no beginning, therefore it shall have no end. And we'll see this evening that that love And indeed the words of Jeremiah 31 verse 3, I've loved you with an everlasting love, therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. So there's this continuing of faithfulness towards God's people. It's grinded in his love for his people, he therefore continues his faithfulness. You see because of God's great love, this faithfulness or this translated, the steadfast covenant love, the loving kindness of God is drawn out towards us in the here and now and forevermore. And there's a certainty in this that I want us to see this evening. This is not a place where we should doubt. This is not a place that God wants us to doubt because the words of comfort are throughout the whole scripture. I haven't totaled up the number of books of the Bible I'll be quoting from, but there are a number of places where God makes it clear that this love towards us shall never end. It's a great love, for he continues his faithfulness to us. We read from John 13, and in verse 1 there, Jesus, on the night in which he would be betrayed, when he was instituting the Lord's Supper, it tells us that having loved his own, who were in the world, He loved them to the end. You see? The Lord Jesus Christ loved his own, but he loved them to the end. There's a continuation of this love to the very end. Think of Psalm 136. Remember that that's the psalm that has a chorus every verse, doesn't it? For the steadfast love, for his steadfast love endures forever. You see, you could really take away that refrain and it would make more sense, in a sense, if you see what I mean. Try it for yourself later on. Read through Psalm 136 and just skip out the refrain and the sentences will flow together in a better way, in a sense. It talks about the various kings that were conquered for his steadfast love in Jerusalem and then back to another king. All inside one. And it seems almost strange, it's been separated. Why inject this phrase, this punctuation that removes us from the story of what God has done for his people? So in one sense, humanly speaking, remove that refrain and it will all flow much more smoothly. But remove that refrain and you lose the heart of the whole thing. It's God's steadfast love. Human love, friends, is fickle, isn't it? You may have the blessing of having had a husband or a wife for a long time and they're being loved still. And that's a good thing if that's the case. Even still, human love is fickle. It waxes and it wanes. And we can be in love and then fall out of love. And how many people proclaim their love for one another no sooner than it's gone. How many celebrities speak of their love, and then it's divorce? Human love is fickle. And sometimes we bring what we know about human love into our interpretation of the Bible, and we do a disservice to the love of God. I don't know, Ben, if you ever did that with a flower, with the petals, maybe a daisy, and you're pulling off the little petals. He loves me. He loves me not. He loves me, he loves me, he loves me not. And the idea is that when you get to the very last, then you'll know whether he loves you or he loves you not. But that's the way people can be with God's love, is it not? God does something for us, or we perceive God has done something for us. He gives us some gift. Something good happens in our life and we say, ah-ha, God loves me. And then someone we know goes through a hard time, or life gets hard for us, it's a trial, a financial issue, a bereavement, whatever it may be, and we say, he loves me not. He loves me, he loves me not, and we allow ourselves to be blown around on the waves of the wind. It depends on my circumstances whether I perceive God loves me or he loves me not. And yet, friends, what does the Bible teach us? in this way. See we misinterpret these circumstances and we should remember as Romans 8 tells us that all things are working together for good to God's people. Or you see another thing that we can do is we can fall back into what we can call a legal terror of God. You know if someone offends you, someone that you've loved, someone who's been your friend You withdraw from them. You may even say, well, that's it, we're not going to be friends anymore. Isn't that what children do? We're best friends, and then something happens. We're not friends anymore. But we can do the same thing. And maybe we perceive that that's what happens between God and us, that if we sin against him, if we offend him, and we know our sins, our sins are many and grievous, and then we think, surely because of this sin, God no longer loves me. You see, that's a legal state of mind, isn't it? And by that I mean your relationship with God there is depending upon law and not upon grace. God's relationship with us is not depending upon our law keeping. It's of grace. His love towards us is steadfast. Our love towards God is not what we're focusing on here this evening. But if we were to think of it, our love can grow lukewarm. Our love can grow cold. We can backslide. Our love towards God can be pitiful and weak and small. And perhaps the world looks at us and wonders, do you even love God at all? And then there are other times our love grows and our hearts swell. God enlarges our hearts. But that's the way our love is towards God. Friends, just because our love towards God is like that, we should not portray that and push that onto God. I have loved you with an everlasting love, he says. Song of Solomon 8, verse 7 says, many waters cannot quench love. Isn't that true? It's like a burning fire cannot be put out. God's love towards his people cannot be quenched even with the many circumstances and waters that come over. God's love is everlasting love. And so I want you to think in these two directions this evening. Thursday particularly, we look to the past. I have set this everlasting love on in your election. I have predestined you in love for adoption as sons. We're looking in the other direction now. This love that continues from everlasting two everlasting, steadfast covenant love. Isaiah 54 verse 10 says this, for the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you. Isn't that encouraging to us? Think of the mountains, that the mountains could be removed, but not God's love, it shall not depart. And gloriously, we have the same theme in what we've read from Romans chapter 8. I'm not planning to explain this chapter. I'm almost, in a sense, intimidated by it. It's so glorious, I feel I'm not capable of even preaching on it in so many ways. I would love sometime to take Romans 8 for a whole communion season. But every time I think of doing it, I think, I shy away from doing it. But I thought I would look a little bit and make some observations, even if I'm not preaching entirely just on this passage. Particularly from verse 31 to the end, Paul is asking some questions that maybe you've asked yourself. Maybe these are questions that haunt you. Maybe these are fears that sometimes bubble up in your life and come to the surface. Verse 31, for instance, there might be the fear that there's someone who's against you, or some force that is against you. Verse 33, a fear that someone can bring charges against you, that is legal charges in a court of law, to accuse you of sin. Satan, of course, is described in the Bible as the accuser of the brethren, and so he could easily come and bring charges against us. Verse 34 there's the fear of condemnation and that fear is understandable because we know our sin and we know what we deserve. In verse 35 there's the fear of being separated from the love of Christ. A fear that can arise from various difficulties in life because that verse, verse 35 lists verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword. And the sword there being taken really for death itself, the final outcome. These seven things could lead us to doubt that God loves us. We might think that there are God's love. Or even if you look at verse 38 and 39, we may think some of these things could separate us from God's love. Death, life, angels, rulers, things present, things to come, powers, height, depth, or any other thing in all creation. There may be times that we feel, and we fear, God's love could be removed from us. And yet the glory of this passage, I don't think you can do better than almost just quoting what it says. The glory of this passage is what's implied in the questions, because they're in a sense rhetorical questions, but also in some of the answers that Paul gives. Who can be against us if God's love is for us? spare his own son. That's what we thought of this morning, the atonement. That's what we think of every time we come to the Lord's table. God did not spare his son. See, the pain of crucifixion, where we get the word excruciating from, that would be an awful pain. That would be an intense agony that none of us have ever experienced anything like it in this world. And yet that is not the reason why Christ died. It wasn't the physical pain by itself on the cross. That wasn't even the worst of Christ's agonies. It was the fact that God did not spare his own son. He did not spare him the wrath and curse of God being laid upon him. No, God put him to grief. And that is a demonstration of God's love towards us. The fact that he did not spare that which is dearest to him. He did not spare the one that he loved, his own beloved son, but he put him to grief. Or think about the question, who could bring any charge against God's elect? The answer is, it's God who justifies. You see, there's an encouragement for us, isn't there? That our justification is not in question, because God is the one with authority. And he does so only on the basis of Christ. On Christ's finished work, on Christ's righteousness. Our justification is not built upon our good works. Our justification is not based upon whom we are, but it's based upon Christ. Who can condemn, he asks. Well, nobody. Because Christ has been risen from the dead and he is at God's right hand. What's he doing there? Yes, he's king, ruling and reigning over all things. Yes, he's conquering, he's subduing men to himself, he's subduing his enemies. He's doing this as king. But that's not the only thing that Christ is doing at the right hand side of God. Look what it says there in verse 34. He's at the right hand of God who indeed is interceding for us. He is praying for his people. He is petitioning on their behalf. He is representing us towards God. He is continuing the work of the priesthood for his people. And his intercession is that which saves us to the uttermost. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Nothing, because we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. No extremity. can separate us from God's love. No matter what end we look at, life or death, angels or brothers, present or future, no matter what it is, nothing can separate us. Indeed, there is nothing in all creation that is able to take away God's love from his people. The steadfast love of God endures forever. You see, we don't, We fall into the trap of asking, he loves me, he loves me not. That's the way we treat God's love. But yet the scripture is so clear that that is not even a possibility for God's people. It's not a possibility. God does not treat us at all in that way. And instead of basing our thoughts on our feelings, We need to base it upon the word of God, this more sure word that confirms the love of God in Christ to his people. And two things to see. First of all, the now, and then the future, the eternity. First of all, now. For those of you who are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, when God says in Jeremiah 31 verse three, I have loved you with an everlasting love, Although we could just skim past that word, oh that's nice. But everlasting includes the past, the present and the future. And if it includes the present, that means that right now, Christian brother or sister, God loves you with an everlasting love. Right now, his love is upon you. So when you think about your circumstances in life, And when you think particularly about the difficulties in life, I want you to think of them not as he loves me not, but I think of them as he loves me. You see, if we were to go through life with a clear view as scripture teaches us, instead of taking the pedals off, he loves me, he loves me not, we would say he loves me, he loves me, he loves me. Good things come into our life. He loves me. Difficulties come into our life, He loves me. Now we have to train ourselves to think that, but it's true. Every single circumstance is God molding us into the people He wants us to be. Even the most trying and most testing and most painful circumstances, it is still God showing His love for His people. For verse 28 tells us that all things All things work together for good. For those who love God and are called according to his purpose. All things work together for good. He loves me, he loves me, he loves me. And we really have to work at that. We really have to work at training ourselves to think in that way. Because it goes against nature. It goes against our nature Anything that's hard for us to bear, we tend to think, God does not love me. Now when you think of this, if you had a cancer in your body, and the surgeon needed to remove it, what would he do? Would he just look at you and think, OK, I want to be kind to you. I want to be generous, gracious towards you. I want to love you. and therefore there's not really much I can do because to remove this tumor or whatever it is, I would need to hurt you, so I can't do anything. Is that what you want a surgeon to do? Or do you want the surgeon to take the scalpel and dig it into your body, even though that is an act of harm, yet it's for your good to cut out that tumor? See, isn't that the way God works? He's like a skilled surgeon. And like any surgeon, he knows how deep to go, what the incision should be like, not too deep that it would hurt the person beyond what is needed, not too deep that it would hurt an organ in the body, but deep enough that the work of the surgeon can be done. That's what God does. Christ, our great physician, knows exactly what we need. And so circumstances that are happening to you in your life right now, Maybe circumstances that you're finding difficult to bear that are weighing you down. Maybe even circumstances that you've cried out to God and pleaded with Him to remove these circumstances from you, and He's not answered your prayers. This may be evidence that He loves you rather than He loves you not, because He's doing it for your good, to mould you into the person that He wants you to be. How do we get from point A to point B? We think we know the best way, but actually God knows the best way. And friends, what about your sins? As we're thinking of God's love now, this everlasting love that he has towards us now, what about when we sin against him? What about when we fall into temptation? Oh yes, our sins displease him. And yes, our sins dishonor him. Friends, not even our sins, as God's people, not even our sins can remove His love from us. See, you're not omnipotent. Your sin is evil. Your sin needs to be put to death. Your sin is wicked. someone sins against us, we're frustrated with them, and we treat them with contempt. That's not how God deals with us. God loves us, and he will never condemn his people. He does not deal with us according as our sins deserved. That's his principle. He's gracious. And so perhaps because of your sin, you don't sense God's love in your life, as you once did. There are times that you've walked close with God, and you've felt his presence. And you were convinced, as Paul said this morning, we considered it, the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Maybe there was a time in your life where you could say that quite clearly, God loves me and Jesus has given himself for me. But now, because of sin in your life, you don't sense that, you don't feel that love from God anymore. You're maybe concerned, maybe you're doubting, steadfast love of God endures forever. And what you're experiencing is not a lack of love at all. You're experiencing God's fatherly displeasure towards you for your sin. And that is why the Bible uses the language of a loving heavenly father. Whether you've had a good father or not, we have to think in terms of the ideal father. Will a good father turn a blind eye to sin? Will a good father smile at sin? Would a good father indulge his son as he continues in sin? Or will he be displeased at sin and seek to chastise his son in order to win back his heart? For Hebrews 12 tells us, for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. And so you may be experiencing God's discipline in your life just now, you may not sense his presence as you once did, you may be going through the motions, you may not feel your growing in grace, you may be undergoing something in your life that's hard, that is a chastisement from God, and you may be tempted to say, ping, pedal off the floor, he loves me not. But the Lord disciplines the one he loves. And so scripture would tell you that instead of saying he loves me not, you say he loves me. Now the Lord loves because his love is everlasting love. And so the lesson for us under discipline is to humble ourselves and confess our sin and be restored to God. And then we will experience that love. Right now it's like a cloud has gone in front of the sun. You used to feel the heat of the sun, you used to sense the light of the sun, but there's a cloud there blocking it. The sun is still there, it's just behind a cloud. And the cloud is our sin, and the sun is God's love. The love is still there, but we don't sense it because we've put something in the way, a cloud. Humble yourself, confess your sin, and the Lord will remember your sin. Psalm 89 tells us, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. That makes sense, doesn't it? If they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgressions with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. That's discipline. but I will not remove from him my steadfast love. I will not remove my love from him. Yes, I'm striking him with the rod. Yes, I'm punishing his iniquity with stripes, God says, but even by so doing, I'm not removing love from him, because it's steadfast love. And so we need to retrain our minds to see God's chastity a loving heavenly father. Zephaniah chapter 3, when God's people, Zephaniah is a dark book for the most part, but as many of the minor prophets, the very last bit comes in with something light. In Zephaniah 3, in the context of God's people mourning their sin, what does it say? It says that God will rejoice over you with gladness. He will quiet you with his love. and he will exalt over you with loud singing. I think it's almost an astounding piece of scripture where I don't know any parallel to that. You think about fathers and mothers, how you sang over your child trying to get them to sleep. And that's the picture here of Zephaniah 3. God's singing to quieten us with his love. That's God to people who are mourning their sin. His love quietens them. We've been saying that this love God has for us is everlasting, and that includes now. The present is marked by God's love. He who did not spare his own son, surely if he gave up his son for us all, will he not also with him graciously give us all things in the here and now? All that we need. And so we need to train our minds to see that God loves us. It's not he loves me, he loves me not. It's all love. But then secondly let's consider the future, thinking beyond death, beyond the grave and into eternity. Jeremiah 31 verse 3 again says, I have loved you with an everlasting love. An everlasting love. The past element in election, what were the future element of it? Love that is everlasting. Not even death can separate us. from the love of God, which is in Christ. Those of you who are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ can have the assurance of eternal life because of the everlasting love of God for you. I've loved you with an everlasting love, therefore I've loved you in the past, the present, and the future, and I will be your guide even into death itself. Or as Psalm 23 tells us, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. Now, this is one of these interesting places that I think it's because, I don't know, I'd have to ask the translators of the verse why they translated it that way. I think it's because of the legacy of the King James Bible, translating that Hebrew word, mercy, it's actually the word steadfast covenant love. Actually that word that we met in Psalm 136 is steadfast love endures forever. It's more than just mercy, it's steadfast covenant love. And so if we put that into Psalm 23 we see, surely goodness and love shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord. The word follow is the word pursue, or even persecute. The idea that, Christian, you're walking through life, you're going in the direction you're meant to be going, and following behind you, hot on your tail, pursuing you, is the goodness and love of God. In this life, all the days of your life, but into eternity, I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forevermore. Hasn't the Lord Jesus loved us enough where he has gone to prepare a place for us. His love has moved him to go to heaven for us, and to prepare a place for us to go, that where he is, there we may be also, and heaven will be the place where we will sense fully that love of God. If there's any hope of us knowing the length and breadth and the height and depth of the love of Christ, surely heaven is the place to explore more deeply that love. And it's all because he has loved us with an everlasting love. Eternity past, the cross, the here and now, goodness and love following us all our days, and then dwelling forevermore with the Lord. Everlasting love. And so friends, we should be humbled and thankful. And going back to what I've said at each service, why me? Why me? Why me? Why has the Lord seen fit to set such love upon us.