God's Love Matters - Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. The only way to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. That's why I've said over the years, the last day of my life will not be the worst day of my life. The last day of my life will be the best day of my life. Now hopefully it will be hard on some of you, but it won't be on me.

You see, that's the whole idea. Death isn't going to separate me from the love of God. I'm convinced of that, and that's what Paul says. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt.

Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church, located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now, as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. See, somehow when we are suffering enough, we feel as though God's not loving us. That's what Paul's writing about in Romans 8. He goes, that's never going to be the case.

Not ever. Now let's go back to Romans 8, because after he does this, he then says in verse 37, But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. Wow.

That's a great verse, but for some of us it doesn't help. You see, I read the end of the book. I say this all the time. I did. I read the end. We win. See, that's the great thing about being a Christian.

Read the end of the book. We win. Ultimately we win. Each and every one of us win.

You see, that's a tremendous, isn't that a wonderful thing? We're more than conquerors. We win.

Yes, I know, I know. But I don't want to win then. I want to win now.

Right now. This is what I want to win. I want to win today. I want to win tomorrow.

That's what I want to win. You see, he says, look, you have to have this perspective. I think you understand this. If this offends you, I'm sorry the truth does. But barring the coming back of the Lord and the rapture of the church, we're all going to die. Every single one of us, we're dying. Something out there is going to kill all of us. Our bodies are going to die.

And you know what? That's okay. You see, that's okay. Because I tell you what won't die, God's love for you and his love for me.

That's never going to happen. You see, that's a completely different kind of thing. Paul is going to go into this right now. Verse 38, I am convinced.

Don't miss those words. I am convinced. Here's the question for you.

Are you? See, Paul says I'm convinced. My experience with you over all these years, many of you are not. You're just not convinced. Paul says I am convinced.

What? God's love matters. You see, he's always loved me. He always will. I get that. I'm convinced of it. Then Paul breaks down into five different comparisons.

If you go back to, some of you had English grammar, most of you won't remember. These are called merisms. A merism is when you take extreme things and you go from this to this and it implies everything in between. That's what he's going to do. He's going to do five merisms. You know what he wants to cover in these? Everything. When he's done, there's not a hypothetical situation you can insert and say, wait, wait, I have a question.

What about this? God loves you. He always has and he always will. We know merisms. If I'm going to say someone's an expert on a subject, I say he knows this subject from A to what? To Z.

And you know that I know that he knows the subject. There are merisms in scripture. Take the psalmist said God will forgive our sins and place them as far as the east is from. Yeah. How far is that?

You see, how far is the east from the west? You see, that's a merism. It means there's the conditions.

There are no conditions. It covers everything. So he's going to do five merisms here.

Here's the first one. He said, God is going to love you. He said, no matter what, nothing can change that. Not the crisis of death, nor the calamities of life. The first thing he said, I am convinced that neither death nor life.

Now, stop and think about that for a moment. I am convinced, he said, that death and life. Now, tell me all the other things that can occur outside of death and life.

That's all you have, right? You have death, you have life. He said, yeah, I'm convinced that nothing in death and nothing in life can change this.

I'm convinced this to be true. It's an amazing statement. He understands death. He starts with death.

Is there anything worse for us? I think the hardest thing about being a pastor is watching what death does to people. A heartbreak.

It's rough. And especially if somebody dies from our point of view out of time. They die young.

They die in a tragic way. It's heartbreaking to watch people. Death is an amazing thing when you think about it from that point of view. It's absolute. It's uncompromising.

It's the great and final separator. When someone dies, they're dead. It's a terrible thing, isn't it? It's hard for us to deal with that. But God says that doesn't separate my love at all.

Not in any way. That's why the scriptures, by the way, it says in a certain thing, you never die. He said, you just sleep. The psalmist said, even though I go through the valley of the shadow of death. God says, no, death will never separate you and me.

Not ever. In fact, James Montgomery Boyce writes this. He said, far from tearing us away from God, death, he says, ushers us into the full glory of his presence.

What we think is the separator actually becomes our uniter. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. That's why I've said over the years, the last day of my life will not be the worst day of my life. The last day of my life will be the best day of my life.

Now, hopefully it'll be hard on some of you, but it won't be on me. You see, that's the whole idea. Death isn't going to separate me from the love of God. See, I'm convinced of that, and that's what Paul says. He also says, and not life.

See, he knows there's so many things in life, we want to interpret it and say, I don't know if God really loves me. Paul says nothing in life can change that. God's going to love you no matter what. It doesn't matter what the diagnosis is. It doesn't matter the abuse you've suffered. It doesn't matter the crime that was committed against you.

It doesn't matter if there was a desertion, or you find yourself in despair, or you become depressed. That won't matter. God will continue to love you. That's what he says.

He will just continue to love you. Just think if you had that as your mindset. Just think if that's how you saw life. Just imagine the peace that you would have. There are no circumstances that can change this at all.

There aren't any. Nothing in death and nothing in life. There was a man in the fourth century, his name was John, and he was the archbishop of Constantinople. He was considered for that whole fourth century the greatest preacher in the world. In fact, he was such a great preacher that when history looked back on him, the Greek word used to describe him was Christosomos. Christosomos.

It means golden mouth. He spoke so well. Now, history records him that his name is John Christomos.

Now, that's not his last name. That was just a description of him. He was a phenomenal guy.

Preached the word of God. He also, by the way, didn't mind taking on the powers to be at all. He would say anything that he believed to be true about anyone, including the emperor of Rome. And so he was brought into the emperor of Rome. This should have scared the bejeebers out of him.

It didn't scare him at all. Here's what the emperor said to him. He said to him, I will banish you if you do not give up your faith. John Christosomos said, you can't banish me.

The whole world is my father's house. The emperor said, well, I will put you to death. He said, no, you can't. He said, my life is hid with Christ in God.

You really can't kill me. He said, well, then I will take away all your material possessions. He said, no, you can't.

My treasure is in heaven along with my heart. He said, I'll drive you away from man and you'll have no friends left. He said, you can't make me friendless. I have a friend in heaven from whom you can never separate me. He said, I defy all your attempts to silence me. You see, there's nothing you can do to hurt me.

God loves me. Now, be honest. Wouldn't you like that to be your view?

Wouldn't you like that? That's how I see life. You see, there's nothing that can be done to me out there. God loves me.

I'm more than a conqueror and I win. This is bedrock truth to us. How much God loves us. So he says, it can't be the crisis of death. He said, or the calamities of life. He then says, nor angels, nor principalities. Nor angels, nor principalities, not in the intervention of angels, nor the intrusion of demons. That word principalities is a word Paul uses in other letters describing the demonic world.

Principalities, powers, dominions. He uses the word. What his point is here, nothing in the physical world, not life and death can change God's love for me. By the way, nothing in the spiritual world can either. There's nothing an angel can do to change God's love for me. There's nothing a demon can do to change God's love for me.

Not at all. He said, they have no effect on that kind of thing at all. That invisible world has no effect. Maybe that's why James said for us as believers, resist the devil and he'll flee from you. But the whole idea is, there's nothing in the spiritual world. You don't have a thing to worry about spiritually.

Then he moves on. He says, nor things present, nor things to come. Anything in the present or anything in the future. Now, how many things does that cover?

It covers everything again. Nothing is going on now and nothing that will ever go on will ever be able to separate you from the love of Christ. That's his point.

I'm convinced of this, he said. This is true. Nothing in the present, nothing in the future will ever be able to change it. Not the cares of the day or the concerns of tomorrow. And we know how hard this is. You know how fast your life can change. You know how the diagnosis can change everything you're thinking, immediately. You can also know that your money can come and your money can go. You know that relationships come and relationships go.

And when you experience one of those, you're going to be tempted to say, I just don't know if God really loves me. Not only in your world, but the whole world. Twenty-four hours a day now in America, the news bombards you with the whole world.

It's astounding. I think we were better off without it. The whole point of it is all they're trying to tell you is, oh, man, there's terrorists out there. The world economy is all. Look, let me say this part about it. There's nothing new under the sun.

It's no different. Last night I was up in my study and I was studying and there was a documentary on it. It was about Eisenhower. So I ended up watching it.

I thought it was pretty good. About the 1950s and why Ike ran and all that. And then they showed when he was president how totally terrified the people in the United States were because of the atomic bomb in the Soviet Union. And Eisenhower himself said, we are in a precarious spot. He even let the Russians know.

He said, we have the capacity to kill all life in the northern hemisphere just between our two countries. Now, when you think of something like terrorism today, the damage they do is small. But think of what the Soviet Union could have done in the 1950s. But they didn't.

But my point is this. It's always been like this. The world has never been a good place. It's not like, oh, boy, I wish it. That's the whole problem with the idea of the good old days.

They are old days, but they're probably not as good as you think. To say the least. Now, so he says nothing in the present or nothing to come. He then says, I'll skip powers.

I'll come back to it. Nor height, nor depth. Now, what's he talking about there? I don't know.

Is he physically talking or spiritually talking? I put it this way. Not the pinnacle of heaven or the pit of hell.

Nothing about that is going to change anything. You think of the high points of your life, though. When were the high points of your life?

When someone said, I will marry you? That's got to be a high point in your life. You see, that'd be a high point. You could have, I will marry you. Or you got the job. Oh, that's a great high point.

Maybe for some of you, you just inherited. When you heard those words, you thought, hey, this is going to be great. What are the low points in life?

Sorry to tell you this, but it looks malignant. I don't want to be in this marriage anymore. I'm leaving. One of the bosses says to you, I'm sorry to tell you this, but we're downsizing. High points, low points. He says, look, it won't matter.

Those kind of things will have no effect on your life. You see, he just keeps beating this over and over and over again. Nothing you can imagine goes outside of this category. And then he says, power in verse 37. And he said, or any other created thing. Not anything mighty or anything made. No power. No one has the power to take God's love away from you.

No one. Nothing has the power. Not in the physical universe, not in the spiritual reality.

Nothing has that power. No created thing. Ironically, I actually preached this many, many years ago, and a fellow said to me afterwards, but it doesn't say you. And I just remember saying, are you a created thing? Oh, yeah, I guess so. It also says life. Are you alive or dead? I guess I'm alive. Well, I guess it counts on you then, right?

This includes you. What's Paul's point? Do you have any idea how much God loves you? You see, because God loves you, for God so loved the world, he sent the Son. You see, for Christ loved you so much, he endured the cross. You see, he loves you so much now, he intercedes on your behalf. As our high priest, this is the love of God in our lives. This is the message that's often missing. We talk so much about serving God, but not so much about just receiving God's love. It's unconditional. It's overwhelming.

It's infinite. And Paul says, I am convinced, absolutely convinced. God's love is not only constant and unfailing, it is triumphant. We are more than conquerors. By the way, that word is hypernakao. And the reason I say that is simply because there's no English equivalent. That's why it says more than conquerors in some translations overwhelmingly conquer in other translations.

Literally what it says and what he is saying right there is simply this. He is saying to us that this is beyond conquering. The whole idea there hyper means beyond. It is beyond conquering. That's the absolute truth. It's beyond conquering. We're beyond that. He said in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through him.

See, this could lift our spirits. God's love prevails in our lives no matter what it looks like, no matter what's going on. Sometimes, by the way, his love prevails in our lives and we can see it.

Sometimes we can't. In World War II, Benito Mussolini became dictator of Italy as a fascist. And he was a guy kind of full of himself and he needed somebody to be able to fight. And so he thought the best people to attack would, of course, be the Ethiopians. And so he attacks Ethiopia. Now, Ethiopians had spears and he had tanks. So Benito won a wonderful victory for Italy over the Ethiopians. And when he first got in, as soon as he got there and occupied the country, he made all the missionaries leave Ethiopia immediately. And then he began to oppress the people just terribly. Their life went from bad to much, much, much worse. And on the surface, this looks terrible, but as the war went on and eventually ended, the people in Italy, by the way, remember, killed Mussolini.

And the Axis powers lost the war to the Allied powers. And so as soon as the war ended, the missionaries went right back into the land as quickly as they could get there, hoping to find someone there that would believe. Well, when they got there, they found out that the church was flourishing in a way that it had never flourished before. In fact, the United Presbyterian Mission, when they left, under their jurisdiction, they had 60 believers in Ethiopia.

When they got back after the war, there were 30 churches and 1,600 believers. More than conquerors. You see, sometimes we see God prevail against the circumstances that we think, even in this life, but we are more than conquerors. God's love matters.

The question is simple. Are you convinced of it? Does it frame your life? Does it change you? Or do you think maybe you did something so bad, like David or Peter, that God couldn't love you? Or that your life is so bad that God couldn't possibly love you and allow these things to be still in your life?

It's not the case. I want to close with the words of David Jeremiah. He said, Nothing is meaningless in the world of the believer. Everything has a purpose. And in a world ruled by a loving God, the purpose is always to use every encounter to shape us into the perfect image of our Lord. Every difficulty will be turned in our favor and help us to become perfect and complete and lack nothing. Or in Paul's words, to become more than conquerors. In other words, God's love matters. Are you convinced?

Let's pray. Father, I think it's tragic to know that there are believers on this earth that aren't convinced of how much you love them. That they look at the circumstances of their life and say you couldn't love me and have me go through these difficult circumstances.

Or they look at the sins of their past and say you couldn't love me because of what I've done. But Father, Paul makes it abundantly clear that you love us. An unquenchable love. A love that will persist through any and all circumstances. A love that carries us from this life to the next.

A love immune to the circumstances or to the spiritual realities of life. Father, when we possess this kind of love and we have confidence in it, it gives us a peace and an assurance that no matter what goes on in our lives, we are confident of your love. I pray especially for anyone here today that doesn't realize how much God loves them. I pray that these words challenge their thinking and prick their conscience and are absorbed into their heart so that they can experience what Paul calls the peace beyond all understanding.

Thank you for loving us in spite of us. In Jesus' name, Amen. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

At that point, you'll find a link to our website where you can find our website at oneplace.com. And you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for. Or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online. Or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. ...