Went and visited Eric yesterday. Please be in prayer for him. Be in prayer for Angela, if you will. God knows and is capable of healing, and we leave all of that into the hands of God, which is I think we see in sickness our weakness, our utter, complete lack of strength to do anything ourselves, for ourselves or those that we love. We have no power. No, no power. Did I get this on, Terrence? Okay. Please pray for them and the strength of faith and I did see that greatly in our brother, his strength of trusting Christ. In a few words, he was able to communicate. He was very clear that he's not anxious about anything. And whatever God gives, whatever God gives, He's at peace with that. He's at peace. And so pray for his healing, pray for God's grace on him, and pray for his dear wife as she is sick herself. She is not able to be there with him. I conveyed to him that, I asked if he didn't mind if anyone visited him, and he said no. He's at the Pam Rehabilitation Hospital there in, yeah, just down off Veterans, I think it is. Clarksville, it's in Clarksville. Yes, yeah, that's the one. I'll go back Monday and see him again, so. Appreciate your prayers for them. Pray for Kathy. I know she's still sick. And others, pray for Trinda. She's doing better. But Jean and Glenn are still with her and probably going to be there for another week. Miranda, OK? She's not well. Not feeling well. Many are going through it. And I'm glad to see you all back. And Lord bless you all to heal. Pray for them. concerning his employment and things that he needs. God knows. Any other requests need to be mentioned before we begin? Yes? Sherry's upcoming surgery. Her upcoming surgery. Well, Sherry wouldn't mention that, but I know that they're all going to tell on you, so. Is it like on the 14th? Friday morning. Friday morning. OK. Pray that God be gracious in that. The frailty of this body cannot be overstated. It's just fragile. I remember just the other day, I was thinking about my youth and how I just got up and did things, just without thinking about it, without even giving it a second thought of need for strength or anything. I just got up and did it. I tried to do things the other day, and I was reminded, You're not doing that anymore. You're just not. And so pray that God be gracious to us in our weakness. I'm having one of those days where I don't feel like I'm firing on all cylinders. So ask the Lord's help. I need his help. If the message is going to make sense, if it's going to be effectual, you need Him to do it. You cannot depend on me. I can't do it. I can't do it for myself, and I can't do it for you. I do beg the Holy Spirit to make this effectual for the glory of God in the hearts of His people. Let's go to Him in prayer. Our gracious Father in heaven, we bow again, submitting ourselves into thy hand this morning as we desire to worship through the preaching of the gospel. Again, Father, I find myself without strength. There's no strength in myself to deliver the message this morning in nobility in this frail clay vessel. I do ask for strength. I plead for clarity and understanding that you would fill my heart with your words and give me strength to speak the word with plainness of speech. But even in that, Father, without thy spirit, it cannot do anything. I beg you for the spirit this morning. These that we have mentioned who are sick or suffering in the body, we plead for strength and healing. And Father, truly, only healing is in thy hand. We cannot heal ourselves. Doctors have only knowledge of what you've given them. And medications only do exactly what you determine them to do. And we pray for it. We pray that you would Use these means if you please. And father, we are. We understand that you do not need means. You do not need anything but there, but your word. And we pray that you would give it. Pray for strength and faith. And father, these that have come to worship. I beg you that you would remove the things and cares of this life. that you would set our minds and hearts upon what is truly vital, and that is the salvation that you have purposed, the salvation Jesus accomplished, and the salvation the Spirit applies and keeps. Set our minds and hearts upon your power, your name, your person, your grace. Plead that you forgive us our sins. Oh, Father, our sins are so many. But the blood of Christ is truly more sufficient to cover our sins. It is more abounding and more rich. You state in your word that you have plenteous redemption. And I know that there are some outside of Christ. even here. Some who stand, Father, on the brink of eternity and have no concept of thy holy justice, I beg you that you would show them mercy and draw them in by your gospel. And Father, I do ask these things in the name of our Lord and Savior and for his sake. Amen. All right, take your Bibles and turn with me to Romans 8. Romans chapter 8. The text this morning will be found in verse 35 through verse 37. You may touch on verse 38. I'm going to save that for its own message. The apostle says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed, all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." I've entitled this, The Immutable Love of Christ. The immutable love Now the Apostle had just before this, and we had just went over this in our last message, given us great comfort by these questions after he had already established our election, after he already said this, that God is for us, and he proved that by saying this, he sent his son, there's the measure of proof. He then begins a series of questions. He says, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Then he said, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather is risen again, is seated at the right hand of God, whoever lives to make intercession for us. Now, we went over this. What is the grounds of our justification? That's what he's talking about, who can charge us and who can condemn us. If you can't charge somebody and you can't condemn somebody, why? Because they're innocent. How is it that God has made sinful men, such as we are, to be justified? Well, we saw this, that the foundation of our justification is our election. That's the source of it. God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be justified, that we should be holy without blame before Him. And out of that foundation, remember there are four pillars of our justification. Christ died. Here's why they can't condemn you. Because my sin has already been condemned. It can't be twice condemned. God condemned my sin, and it justly so. My sin needed to be condemned. And so Christ died. Secondly, He rose again. Well, here's proof that the first thing is good. God raised Him from the dead. If there were any sin left, God could not raise Him from the dead. But God did. God raised Him from the dead. And here's another proof. He's seated. What does that mean? It's done. It's finished. My justification is accomplished. It's not something I need to add to or help God in. It's done. He sat down. And where did He sit? He sat on the right hand of the Majesty on high, which means this, He has power over all flesh to make sure that we receive it. You that believe. Why do you believe? Because He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty and He made sure that you received it. How do we know we're going to keep Surely God predestinated me to be justified. Christ died for me to be justified. He rose again for me to be justified. He's seated at the right hand of God to make sure I'm justified. But now that I'm justified, how do I no more keep being justified? Well, because He ever lives to make intercession for us. There are the pillars of our justification. But now He goes further. Because you are justified. I received a good email from Jeff Thomas out in England, and he was listening to a message about that, and he was just so excited about that, having been justified. He told me the Greek word, and how did he, that's great. I'm glad you see it very deeply. Having been passively, without any assistance, justified. you have peace with God. And so that is true. Then notice what he says in our text, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Now that's a question that every believer struggles with. Because of indwelling sin, because we still have the old man of sin to contend with, I don't know, maybe it's just me and Paul. I know when he said in Romans 7 that he's a wicked, he's a wretched man, I identify with that. When he says, how to perform that which is good, I find not. I want to do good, but I don't know how to do it without sin being mixed with everything in me. And so we often struggle concerning his love. Does he still love me? How? How can that be? And so Paul here, he not only defies all men concerning our justification, but he is defying anyone concerning this question. Who shall separate me from the love of Christ? Who shall separate me from the love of Christ? Well, what separates men from God? Sin. Well, he just dealt with that. He says, who in the world can condemn you of sin? God justified you. Well, if God justified me, then who really can charge me? You would have to say God's a liar. If Christ God rose again, seated at the right hand of God to make sure I'm justified, and now constantly, daily, He is interceding moment by moment for every sin this old nature still spews out, He is still interceding for me, then you can't condemn me. And if God won't charge me, if God won't condemn me, Then who's going to separate me from his love? Who can separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus? And so then we often struggle with this. So how do we find rest from fear, from anxiety, from trouble? Because I'll tell you, I noticed this. When this body gets sick, fear just It just comes in. You don't have to think about it. To fear or to doubt, you don't have to really try very hard. You don't try. It just comes in. And so fear and doubt creep in. So what do we need to constantly look to? to counteract the fear and the doubt. What is our constant stay? It is to look always to Christ. That is it. I mean, if you say Christ and something else, you are totally off. You're not going to last. The fear and the doubt will overwhelm you and you can't stop. It's like a big tsunami. You could not stop it if you try to add anything to Christ. But see, fixing your eyes on Christ is the only way to settle doubts and fears. Let me ask you this. Does our justification, does it ever exempt us from troubles? Now, the flesh, this is just the fleshly mind. It always is and it's always going to be like this. When a man believes in Christ, even believers, this is our initial thought, is that everything's going to be better now. When we believe in Christ, we assume that because He loved me and gave Himself for me, that surely our path will be clear. Everything will move out of our way, all trouble and affliction, and God will shine down on us, and we won't have any difficulties. That's just the natural thought of it. And when it doesn't happen, we start to doubt. The flesh supposes that wealth and prosperity and good things, that proves God's love to me. That's just our natural inclination. And if something bad happens, we just automatically assume that God's left me. that we don't have the love of God. Try telling that to Lazarus who sat at that rich man's gate every single day and begged for food covered in sores. Is that how his life was? His life full of prosperity and joy and peace? The only comfort that man had in his short life was that dogs would come and lick his sores. That's the only Do you imagine having to wait for a dog to come and lick your sores to feel any peace, any comfort? Try telling that to Isaiah who was hated so much they cut him in half. Try telling that to Elijah as he stood out there with that widow for three years eating one piece of bread a day. You ate one piece of bread a day yet? Anybody? Anybody suffered like that? had to trust God every single day for that cruise of oil and that little bit of flour they had left. Every day God filled it, and all they had was one cake. They had to split among three. Was that a life of tranquility and success and prosperity? No. God's people. We suffer troubles in this life, and Paul names several of them in our text. He said, shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. In other words, He's already assuming that we're going to have these. We face these every day. Yet will they, here's the question, will they be able to separate us from the love of Christ? And this is the whole point of comfort. I want you to get this, and man, if you get this, you got the whole thing. What can separate me from the love of Christ? Let me answer that. Nothing. It's just a simple answer. Nothing. Nothing is going to separate us from all the evils of this life. No matter their cause, no matter who brings them on us, no matter the pain of them, the sorrow of them, the duration of them, none of these things will be able to separate us from the love of Christ. Now I want us to focus first of all on this phrase, love of Christ. I want to tell you what it doesn't say, because if it said this, we would not have any hope at all. What if he said something like this? Who shall separate our love from Christ? I tell you, the slightest breeze of trouble would separate my love from Christ. The slightest affliction and my love wavers. So the answer to that would be, there'd be much that separates my love from Christ. Now I want you to get this, that every believer does have a love for Christ. Isn't that what he says? All things work together for good to them that what? To them that love God. These are the elect, they all love God. Every one of us who believe, we have a true love for God. That wasn't natural, was it? By nature, we were children of wrath, even as others. We were haters of God. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, he saved us by grace. And then what? That in the ages to come, he might show unto them the immutability of his love. And so if we were to say that, we do love Christ. When I think of my love for Christ, I have to think of Peter. Imagine in your mind's eye that night when the Lord was betrayed, and those soldiers, that band of soldiers, professional warriors, came with their staves and their swords. And that night, Peter, in his love, in his zeal, He said this with every ounce of sincerity in his heart. I'll die with you. Don't you think that was proven when that poor fisherman who probably never drew a sword in his life, he swung that sword probably for the first time he'd ever swung that sword. I know this. He was not aiming for the ear of that little, that servant. He was not aiming for the ear. That's all he could hit. But at that moment, you don't mistake his love and zeal. He was ready to die. And yet, less than a couple hours later, where do we find Peter? He was not able to stand the accusations of a little girl. A little girl came and said, I didn't know! He was with him! And he denied the Lord Jesus Christ. Where did all that love go? Where did all that zeal go? You see, I understand that, don't you? So if you're asking if there's anything to separate my love from Christ, yes! It doesn't take much. So if our love is intended, there could be no comfort, if that's what it means. But see, it is not our love for Christ, but it is stated very clearly, who shall separate me from the love of Christ? Who shall separate me from His love? See, it is the love of Christ that we cannot be separated from. His love is the foundation of our rest. It was the love of God who predestinated us to be sons. It was the love of Christ who died for our sins. It was the love of God that sent His Spirit into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. It is the love of God, the love of Christ, that continually sustains me in faith. It is the love of Christ that I cannot be separated from. I like that in Ephesians 2, but God. We were haters of God, but God, who is rich in mercy, listen to this, for his great love, wherewith he loved us. He sent his son, even when we were dead in sins, and saved us by his grace. John says this, herein is love. Now if you want to know what love is, don't look at your love And your relationship love, and this is what people, it's all we really know, isn't it? Kind of our love and how we love and how others love us. John said, don't look at that. That's really not love. I know this, that my love for my wife fluctuates. It does. It fluctuates. She's the one I love above everybody else, but you know what? My love for her fluctuates. My love for you would fluctuate. Your love for those dearest to you fluctuates. But know this, herein is love. Not that we love God, so don't look at that, but that He loved us. Now how much did God love us? That depends on how much you understand this. He sent his son to be the offering for sin. That's how much God loved his people. So our love is mutable, fluctuating, but behold the love of Christ. It is the love that constrains us. It is the love that keeps us And it is a love that we will never be separated from. Secondly, notice the reason that this love never can be separated. Why is it that we are never separated from this love? I'm going to give you two things about the love of Christ as to why we can't be separated from it. First of all, it's nature. I want you to understand, it's duration. You that are loved of God, how long has God loved you? What is the length of His love? The second thing I want you to see is the durability of His love. How durable is that love? First of all, in Jeremiah 33, 31, in verse 3, Jeremiah 31 and verse 3. It says, the Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying yes. You ever begin a sentence with yes? That's what God begins this with. He's answering a question they're not even really asking. But it's really the only question that matters, do you love me? Do you love me? The answer is yes. Yes. What kind of love do you have for me? I have loved thee with an everlasting love. You see the nature of his love? If God loves you, it is because of this. He's always loved you. God never begins to love you. The way religion looks at it, isn't it? God didn't like you up until this certain point. You did something and all of a sudden God loves you. No. God's love is an everlasting love. Why do I know God loves me? Because He doesn't love everyone. Get that. Understand that. God does not love everyone. How do I know that God loves me? Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee. Are you drawn of God? Are you drawn to Christ? No man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me. Draw him. How were you drawn? With warnings and threatenings and hail. Is that how you were drawn? You weren't drawn with that. You were drawn with His lovingkindness. You were drawn by His cords and affections of God, by His grace, by His death, His resurrection. If you have been drawn, then know this, God's love is an everlasting love. And this is the nature of His love. Secondly, what is the durableness of His love? I want you to see this, that God's love never fluctuates. Now God, we've seen the length of it. God's loved you from everlasting, listen to me, and God will love you too everlasting. Again, He cannot change His love. But I also want you to see the height of this love. How high is His love? I can't tell you. I don't begin to understand how high, as high as the heavens is above the earth. That's how high. I don't understand how He's loved. But I know this, however high it is, it's never fluctuated. I don't know a love like that. I've never experienced a love like that. That's just, God tells us about this, but really, our minds to grasp it is very difficult because how many times do you think that God don't love you anymore? Or His love somehow is diminished for you? Or because he's chastening you, you think he loves you less. No. Why? Because God's love is like every other characteristic of God. It is, what we use as a word, immutable. It is unchangeable. So with whatever love God loved you in eternity past, God will love you in eternity future. I just have to use words like that because I can't express it. And everywhere in between, God's love does not change, it does not vary, it does not fluctuate. God help us to throw away how we feel about subjects, how we feel about things. and simply embrace what God says about himself. He said, I am the Lord, I change not. Isn't that true? Is that true? That's true. And God loved me. His love doesn't change. So Paul's saying, who's going to separate me from an immutable love? And the third thing I want you to see is how great is this love? How great? Now we see how long, we see how high, but really how great is His love. For His great love wherewith He loved us. Listen to this, even when we were dead in sins. I know this, you might have compassion on people that desire your compassion. You may have pity on people who desire your pity. You may show them kindness if they are meek. You see somebody begging for food, right? And they're pleading. You have a desire to give them a hamburger or something. You may have some compassion in your heart. What about the man that's beating on your window trying to pull your children out and kill them? You know any love like that? Let someone pull up beside your car and take out your baby and try to kill him and tell me you'll be compassionate. You don't know any love like that. So great was the love of God that he took in rebels. Instead of us killing His Son like we wanted to, God killed His own Son for us. How great is His love that He would send His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. God chose us that by Christ we should be made like Him. And Christ, in love for us, laid down His life. Isn't that what He told us? I am the good shepherd. And the good shepherd, listen to these words, giveth his life. He said no man takes my life, I lay it down freely. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. Now why would he lay down his life? One word love. Not for the people who think they deserve it, but the people who know they don't. We do not deserve such love, but His love is so great, it's immutable, it's unchangeable, and I want you to know this, His love has power. This arbitrary love religion puts out, God loves everybody, God wants to save everybody, but He can't. That's not the God of this book. Everybody God loves, He saves. You see, His love has power. His love is what we call this word, I use this often, effectual. It means it gets the job done. That's what it is. His love actually saves. If you are loved, you will be saved. Without doubt. without doubt. So our confidence then that we shall prevail over all these things is this, nothing can separate me from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus. Nothing. Nothing. Why? His love is eternal. His love is immutable. His love is great and His love is powerful. It's powerful to say And because no charge can be laid on us, no condemnation can be laid on us, nothing can separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus. Now I told you this, that the apostle presumes these afflictions. So he asks a number of questions. He starts throwing out things that we believe might separate us. Tribulation. Tribulation, He has seven trials, seven things here, seven troubles. Now, we always know that seven is a perfect number for completeness. So He's saying a perfect amount of trials. Can any of these things separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus? Now, tribulation are common troubles. You that have troubles. Brother, I know this, you weren't the only one let go, were you? There were a lot of other unbelievers let go just like you were. These are common troubles. We all experience common troubles. I'm sure that Kathy has the flu, but she's not the only one. I'm sure there are lost people that have the flu. We all have common tribulations among man. But I'll tell you this, it appears to be greater in the believers. Why? Because we are loved of God. We are sons of God. This makes it a greater affliction. If I'm a son of God, then why am I suffering with the lost? Yet we do. But are any of these things going to separate me from His love? Do any of these tribulations prove God's love is now moved from me. Is that what it proves? No. Paul said these things, these common troubles will never move you. Distress. What is this? This means to be in a narrow place. A narrow place. Remember I told you this many times because that little video just keeps popping in my head about that sheep. He's in this ditch. I mean just wedged in there, big fat thing. I don't even know how he got himself wedged, but the more he's wallowing and kicking, he just goes deeper and deeper in this little, this little ditch. And a shepherd comes along, and he sees him in the ditch, and he gets down there in that ditch, and he lifts that old fat thing out. And lo and behold, that fat sheep, that dumb animal just jumps right back into the ditch. I can identify with that. I know that! But this means a narrow place where you are constrained, where you cannot move. Have you ever been in a place where you can't move? God heads you in on this side, and this side, and that side, and that side. You like Israel? Pharaoh's in the back, the sea's in the front, the mountains to the left, the desert to the right. You can't move! Let me ask you this, when you're in distress, will that separate you from the love of God that's in Christ? Well, who puts you in distress? You're not there by accident. Persecution. Lord, help us to get a hold of this, because I long for a lot of people to come to Christ. I do. I long for many people to come to Christ. But I want you to understand this. This world hates this gospel. Now if you think anything else, if you think that somehow you find a compromise where they're going to like this gospel, you ain't going to find a compromise. Only if you compromise the gospel. Does that mean we're to despise them or hate them for it? No. No, pray for them. Ask God's mercy on them. Don't pretend that you're better than them, because you're not. It's only by grace you understand this, that you love this, but this world hates this gospel. And don't be mistaken, they'll hate you. Now you'll keep your friends as long as you keep quiet. But the minute you tell them this, you ain't gonna have many friends. And so when you're hated and you're all by yourself, is that gonna separate you from the love of God that's in Christ? No. Famine! Famine! Now, if I just look out at this crowd, none of us are suffering famine. I bet Joanne's the smallest one of them. And I don't think she's suffering famine back there. I think she eats well. There's a lot of times that God's people have suffered famine. But I'll tell you what, we got a greater famine in this generation than there's ever been of bread. We have a famine of the Word of God. There is a famine. There's a famine for the preaching of the gospel of God. I couldn't believe my ears. I just had to click on it. I don't know why. I usually don't do it. Some preacher was actually trying to remove the word Savior because it was too offensive. there is a famine for the word of God in this generation. I met some people, they were attending a reformed church somewhere, and it is though they were telling me, it's though you had to, you had a moldy piece of bread, right? And in that moldy piece of bread, there were a few pieces that were good. They'd have to reach down deep and pick out that one little good crumb and eat it. And the rest was just mold. It's all about you, it's all about work, it's all about trying to sanctify yourself. And they'd hear the gospel, and they're so blessed by it. You know what baffles me? They won't move. It baffles the mind. They're in the midst of a famine. And they'd rather stay in Moab than go anywhere where the Gospel is preached. It's astounding, isn't it? I'm talking about God's people. I'm not talking about the lost. I'm talking about those who really believe and love the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Like old Limelech in Ruth. Remember him? His name means, God is King. And he lived in a place called Bethlehem, Judah. That means house of bread and praise. That's where he lived. That's where the gospel was preached. He was rejoicing in the gospel. He loved the gospel. And then what? A little famine came. A little physical famine. You know what he did? He used his mind. He used his reason. He said, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to pack up my stuff and go where there's actual physical bread. And so he left everything and went to Moab. Why? Moab had physical food. They had no spiritual food. Now you listen to me, he died in Moab. Now did that separate him from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus, his foolishness? No. No. But he brought that misery on himself. And I know there's a lot of people listening online. I'm telling you, there's more people. Listen to this. You will be astounded at this. There are more people listening on that camera than there are sitting in this room. You know why? They won't move. There's a famine, but they won't go where there's bread. That's as sad as state affairs, and if God takes his hand off of us, do the same thing. Do the same thing. We'd do the same thing. Can this famine, though, And I want to encourage you, can this famine separate them from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus? No. No. Shall nakedness. Oh, how often does God strip us of everything? Has God ever stripped you? You've had those crutches you've been leaning on all this time. Thinking, how strong am I? How strong am I? And then God takes that crutch and kicks it out from underneath you. It's very painful, isn't it? When you're stripped and you feel the guilt of your sins and the sorrow of your afflictions. But listen to me, even in that, does that separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus? No. peril or sword. Peril means danger. Listen, you're surrounded by it. Our Lord sets you there. Listen to the Psalm. Psalm 23. Everybody loves to quote this. But this portion, I'll tell you what, it describes our present situation. He leadeth me... Green pastures. And He says, He prepares a table before me. Now where's this table at? In the presence of my enemies. Don't you feel like you're in the presence of your enemies? You know one enemy follows me around everywhere I go? Self. That's the enemy that follows me around and he is relentless. God said, I put your table right in the middle of your enemies. Why? I'm going to prove my love is immutable. They're going to try to separate you. These things that he mentions here, it's not as though they're not trying to separate you. They are. The hope is this. They can't. They can't separate you. Notice this last section here. I know we'll move on. Look at this last section. He says, as it is written, now he's going to answer, can these things separate me? Look, and he answers it with the word of God, as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. In this, Paul tells us something about our suffering. He tells us this, it's all the day long. How long is this suffering you, these sufferings you're going to endure? All your life. It's written. For thy sake we are killed. How long? All the day long. When you get out of this trouble you're in, guess what's waiting for you? Another one. And it'll be worse than the one you had before. The one you're in right now is preparing you for the one to come. But you're going to suffer like a lamb prepared for the slaughter. That's what you are. You know, I'm thinking about John and Peter. When the Lord said how Peter was going to die, he said, this is how you're going to die. They're going to take you to a place you don't want to go. He said, you're going to die in fear. They're going to take you to a place you don't want to go. They're going to kill you. You know what he said? What about John? Isn't that us? What about Him? Don't worry about Him, Christ said. If I want Him to live until I come back, what's that to you? Your trouble is designed for you. You follow Me. And don't worry about John. He'll follow Me. So your troubles, listen, they're designed for you. And what are we to do? We're to follow Him, knowing this, that these trials are never intended to separate us. This is how He took purpose. You are like sheep counted for the slaughter. And listen, this is how it appears, isn't it? We are killed all the day long. I struggle with it this very morning. I struggle with it, the wicked prospering, and I'm suffering. perplexes my mind. I look at them and they are, man, they are having the life, as far as I can tell. And I look at my situation and I envy them. You envy them. And so it appears to be one way. Look at this. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter. And I like that. He uses sheep because we are like sheep. defenseless, stupid animals. You know, a sheep will starve to death if a shepherd won't lead him out. He'll eat that same patch of ground until it gets down to the root and ain't nothing there, and he won't go over there to find more grass. He's that stupid. Until the shepherd comes and leads him over there. Does that describe you? Without Christ, you'd just die. You'd just die. We, like sheep, are counted for slaughter. And look, this is how it appears to be to the world. To be a Christian in the eyes of the world is not reasonable. Why? Because Christians suffer. Somebody looks at a Christian's life and he looks at his own and says, man, I don't want anything to do with that. You guys are like sheep counted for the slaughter. One of the Roman intellects during Caesar's time, he would look at Christians and he said this, you know, only the poor, the weak, and the dumb follow Christ. Why? Look at them. They suffer. Who would want to follow those people? Who would want to be with those people? That's how it appears. Look to Paul's answer. He said no. Verse 37. That's how it appears. But that's not how it really is. No. In all these things, tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword. In all these things we are more than conquerors. How can that be? Listen, through Him that loved us. Through Him that loved us. This is an encouragement. Listen to me. All of your trouble, You will overcome. My brother who is suffering in the hospital and he is really, really ill. God could raise him up and he can overcome that way. God could reach down in his hand and immediately that man could be healed in an instant and according to the word of my God, he could be raised up and be of sound mind in a moment. or God could take him. Either way, he'll overcome this. He will be more than a conqueror. Hell, through Christ, his representative, his savior, and the lover of his soul, he'll be more than conquerors. When this body dies and we ascend to the heavens, what will you find? Will you find to be found as a sheep led to slaughter or more than a conqueror? It appears we're sheep led to the slaughter, but what it really is, we're more than conquerors. Who's better today, those poor stupid people or that Roman philosopher? Who's better today? Who is really a conqueror? And who is really stupid? The philosophers in hell. Those stupid people are in heaven. Now, who's really stupid? We are more than conquerors through him that loved us. So what is the grounds that we are going to endure? It is the love of Christ. And then Paul concludes this. He says, I am persuaded that neither life anything in life or death, the worst thing that could possibly happen in life is what? Death. Or angels, something above this life. Principalities or powers, Satan or his host. Things in heaven or things in earth. And listen, he says this, or any other creature, in case I miss something, I'm persuaded that there is nothing in this world, in this world or the next, that can separate me from the love of Christ. Are you persuaded of that? Because there's peace in that. If God would give us grace to be persuaded, totally, absolutely sold out to this truth, we'll find peace. We'll find contentment in the tribulation, persecution, distress, famine, peril, nakedness and so on. We'll find peace in those times. Only through this, through Him who loved me. That's the only way I'm going to be a conqueror, is because He conquered. What did He conquer? He conquered my sin, didn't He? He conquered the grave, didn't He? He conquered heaven in that He sat down on the right hand of the majesty on earth. He conquered it. I like that when He took the book from the hand of God. Nobody could look on the book. Christ didn't just look on it, He took it. With authority He took it. God gave it to Him with authority. It's His. He rightfully deserves this book. What's that book? That book is our salvation. I pray God give us grace to take our eyes off our love for Christ. You should love Christ. But man, don't trust in it. You should trust in his work, in his love. Why? His love is immutable. His love is eternal. His love is powerful. And his love, you cannot ever be separated from it. No matter how you feel, or the circumstantial reason. I can never separate myself from his love. Isn't that something? I can't do it. Neither can you who believe. May God comfort you with this. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer. Gracious Father, be merciful to show us again the love that you have for us in Christ. Help us in our afflictions. Help us in our trials. Sustain us in faith, looking always to Christ, trusting His love for us and not our love for Him. Pray for grace upon those that are sick, those who are suffering, those who have not believed. Oh, that you would give them faith even at this very moment to believe. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.