300 - NO SEPARATION
JULY 11, 1965
PASTOR HENRY F KULP
Romans 8: 33 - 39 “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 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 accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Last week we told you as we were considering who is it that can condemn us, and we said it is no one—and the devil, of course, is the great accuser and what a hopeless job he has. How can he accuse us? For every accusation he brings against us, he has to bring it against the Lord Jesus Christ. He has a hopeless job, according to the Scripture for two reasons—
First, it is Christ who died and bore our penalty. Notice a very wonderful verse, Acts 13: 39 “And by Him, that is by Christ, all that believe, not the folks who do the best they can, or the folks who join the church, but all who believe, and we have to hold it down to that, are justified, from (how many things?) all things.”
1/ Then the second reason why no one can condemn us is because Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God the Father, and He just keeps saying that He has died for what we are accused of.
2/ The devil is called an accuser in the Bible, but let us notice something when he accused Job before God. Job 1: 8 - 11 “And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.”
Notice, he didn’t accuse Job to God until God mentioned Job, the devil wouldn’t dare do that. But God said, Have you seen Job? The devil replied, yes, but You have put a hedge about him and I can’t touch him, but if you let me touch him and take away all that belongs to him and he will curse Thee to Thy face, and notice, Job 1: 11. “But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.” God said, go ahead and do it, but don’t touch his body. He took everything he had in the world, and what did Job say? Did he curse God to His face?
Job 1: 21 “And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” Don’t you see, the devil was proved to be a liar—he said, he will curse Thee to Thy face. But Job didn’t do it. One of the main things we learn about Satan in the Book of Job is that he is a liar, and when he accuses people, he lies, and you are going to find that people who bring accusations are liars, for they are following the devil’s program, whether they be Christians, or whether they be unsaved, when you bring accusations against people, you are lying, especially against a child of God, because Jesus Christ cleared that person from all charges.
3/ Then again God asked him if he had seen Job, and he said, yes.
But if you will touch Job’s body, he will curse Thee—then he says, Skin for skin. Just let me touch his body. He said, a man will give anything he has for his skin. God said, Yes, but don’t take his life. He left Job scraping himself for a little comfort on an ash heap with boils all over his body. I suppose Job at this time thought the boil was the worse thing in the world, and there was Job a wreck—a physical wreck. Yet in all that, Job did not condemn or blaspheme the Lord. Again Satan was found to be a liar. When he accuses the child of God of certain things before the Father, he is a liar.
4/ Colossians 2: 10 “And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:” It is so clear, and ye are complete, and that word, complete, is the word, perfect.
Revelations 3: 1 - 3 “And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.” —Where he talks and uses the word, perfect—it is exactly the same word in the Greek.
5/ Now, let us look at Romans 8: 33 “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.” —now the way it should be in the original. I want to show you a good translation, WHO DARES ACCUSE US NOW, THE JUDGE HIMSELF HAS DECLARED US FREE FROM SIN. If anyone wants to point at your sin, they have to point at Him and who would dare to do that?
I Peter 2:24 “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” He bare our sins in His own body on the tree—who dared to accused Him? Yet He is the One to accuse, He took our sin, He suffered for it.
6/ Hebrews 10: 11, 12 “And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;”
Notice the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, contrast it with the work of the priests in the Old Testament. They had to stand daily, doing the same sacrifices over and over again—they couldn’t take away sin, but this Man, the Man Jesus Christ, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins, sat down on the right hand of God. Notice, He sat down because the work was done. As an Intercessor He is seated. That should thrill your heart. He doesn’t have to work up a lather. Did you ever go into a court room and notice the defense attorney, as he gets all steamed up, and works up a lather as he tries to defend his client? Jesus Christ doesn’t do this. He is seated. Why? Because all the accusations are taken care of by Him.
7/ Now notice, Romans 8: 35 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Now the question of our security comes up. No one can condemn us, but is there any possible way to separate us from God? Here Paul constantly talks of us being in Christ, and we are told we are in Christ and that Christ is hid in God. We are hid with Christ in God. The question is—is there any separation? Then notice, the list of things that Paul brings out. He starts out with tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, and so on. What a list! When Paul wrote this list, he had been through it all—everything had been tried on him—that is, everything. This is the devil’s plan in our age. Everything that is listed here the devil has tried, and he has never been successful—he has never separated a single soul from the Lord Jesus Christ, and do you know something He knows it—I am sure the devil knows it better than we do—the devil has a thankless job—the devil has a hopeless job. We titled our sermon last week—“The Devil’s Hopeless Task,” and here it is once again. He has tried everything here, and he has never separated one precious soul from God.
8/ Tribulation is the first thing that he tries. A better word for tribulation is simply trouble, and that brings it home, doesn’t it? It is a true translation of the word tribulation, and the devil brings trouble into your life. In the world, he uses religion, to the Christian he uses trouble, But let us notice what a helpless task he has.
Notice, Romans 5: 3 where he says, trouble, or tribulation, worketh patience or endurance, so what he is actually doing is making you a patient, enduring Christian, so really the devil is working against himself. In the matter of Satan and what he is doing has been sort of a problem to me. Do you realize that he has been at work against the church for 2,000 years and the church is bigger than ever? More people love the Word of God than ever before. He is defeating his own purpose—he is working against himself.
9/ Notice the word, persecution. Think of the martyrs. I have read in history books that it is supposed that two million saints of God were killed in the Middle Ages when the church ruled the world. Two million of the Lord’s people were put to death. Let me ask you a question—did the devil crush the church out of existence? Certainly not. It grew by leaps and bounds—it is still here, the Gospel is still being preached. It is said wherever one is killed two more Christians spring up in his place. And I am sure this is what has happened down in Ecuador with those five boys who were killed by the Auca Indians. Now there is a church established among the Auca Indians, and there are those among those wild men who are now children of God. The killing, the persecution of those five boys boomeranged against the devil.
10/ Then notice the word, distress. And I believe the word, distress, is pain. How the devil, through religion—we have told you so often that the devil’s program is religion—has used pain. I have read of the Spanish inquisition, when they killed the Christians. They invented every manner of painful death. They weren’t satisfied with throwing a man into the flames, they weren’t satisfied with beheading him—they had to invent all manner of means of death that were painful. Sometimes a man was stretched on a form. His hands were tied above his head, and his feet were tied. Then they began to pull from each direction—his feet were stretched in one direction, and his hands were stretched in another direction, until the man’s whole body was stretched apart. Can you ever think of the pain, the suffering that man would go through? They invented every manner of pain. The devil did that through religious men, but the church is still here. He did not stop people from believing, he didn’t do away with the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ—not at all.
11/ But there is one thing I would like you to see here, when we talk about pain, persecution, distress, we must not forget that while we have been alive, more people have suffered for the name of Jesus Christ than at any time in the entire history of Christianity—in Russia, Korea, China, Spain and parts of Latin America, people have been giving up their lives for their faith in Jesus Christ. The devil may not have ever separated one soul from the Lord Jesus Christ by these tactics, but he has never given up, he is still at it.
12/ THIS SHOULD BE AT THE BEGINNING OF THE MESSAGE—SEPARATED FROM THE LOVE OF CHRIST, WHAT A THEME. THERE IS NOTHING IN HISTORY THAT CAN APPROACH THE LOVE OF GOD. IT IS ETERNAL LOVE. NOT BEING ABLE TO BE SEPARATED FROM THE LOVE OF CHRIST, TELLS US THAT CHRIST IS NOT FICKLE. RELIGION MAKES CHRIST FICKLE. BUT TRUE CHRISTIANITY AS IT IS PORTRAYED IN THE BIBLE SAYS THAT CHRIST IS NOT FICKLE.
13/ Notice the word, famine. Whenever this subject comes up I think of Alan Gardner, a missionary to the lower tip of South America, a well-known infidel who made a journey through South America said that the natives at the bottom of the South American continent were of the lowest form of human life—hardly better than animals. That stirred some of the Lord’s people, among them Alan Gardner. He made three trips from England. Two were unsuccessful. The third was worst of all. Finally they gave him a little boat, and a few helpers with him, and he tried to land, but the natives drove him back. They had to live on the water. The natives refused them anything to eat, and they died of hunger. As Alan Gardner died, he inscribed on the little cabin of the boat, “Praise to the Lord for His faithfulness.” What is the devil going to do with folks like that? When he starves them to death, they die praising the Lord for His faithfulness. God has answered his prayer for those natives, and today there are scores of believers on the lower tip of South America. The devil hasn’t been successful in anything that he has tried.
14/ Then we have the word, nakedness. That means poorly clad. Being cold.
II Corinthians 11: 27 “In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.” Then the word, peril is the word, danger. Then the word, sword—that is something like the secret police that they had in Russia, or had in Germany. You wouldn’t want to meet them, would you? But in spite of the secret police that were in Germany there are still believers in Germany. In spite of the secret police in Russia there are still believers in Russia.
15/ Now let’s notice, II Corinthians 11: 23 - 26 “Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fasting often, in cold and nakedness.
Did you ever notice the word, perils, that Paul uses? He uses it eight times in this chapter. Paul knew that peril never drives a soul away from Christ. In perils of water, robbers, mine own countrymen, the heathen, in the city, in the wilderness, in the sea. Then he says, in watchings often, in cold and nakedness. This is what the devil threw at Paul, but did he get anywhere with Paul, was he able to separate Paul from Christ? Certainly not. The devil has thrown this at the church, has he been able to do anything with the church? Has he separated the church from the love of God? Certainly not.
No separation, what a wonderful truth.
AMEN
Ref: 07/11/1965 / 300 - NO SEPARATION / 2020
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