302 - IS YOUR GOD FICKLE?JULY 18, 1965
PASTOR HENRY F KULP
Romans 8: 35 - 39 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.
Notice as we start out this message—who shall separate us from the love of Christ? The first thought that is important is that God is not fickle. Religion has a god who is fickle—he only loves us under certain circumstances—only when we go through the rites and rituals. And the law-keeper, his god is fickle. He only loves us when we live according to the law. But that is not the Scripture here.
1/ I am so thankful that it does not say pity. God’s pity. Who shall separate us from the pity of Christ? Immediately the warmth, the color, goes out of this verse. How much poorer it sounds. How stiff and unmelting it becomes. If we change one word, love, to pity.
2/ Our God is not fickle because we cannot be separated from this love, once we are in it. But I would like you to see something about this wonderful matter of love, and not being able to be separated from it. Let us just for a moment go back to the great verse in the Bible John 3:16. Here we are told that God so loved—and the important thing I want you to see this morning is how are we the recipients of the love of Christ. How do we get into the love of Christ so that we cannot be separated from it? For just a few moments, let me show you a very beautiful outline.
John 3: 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Notice the beginning—For God so loved the world. First of all, we have the GREATEST BEING. Of course, all who are sensible are satisfied there is no greater being than our God. But we who worship God, do not know how great God is. But we know that God is the Supreme Being. One of the things that I believe will be glorious for the child of God, will be to learn of the greatness of our God. Then notice the 2nd, it is love, the GREATEST ATTRIBUTE. Have you anything in life that is greater than love? Love is the greatest attribute for any being—there is no greater—for we have faith, hope—God tells us that love is greater than all of these.
I Corinthians 13: 13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.
And notice, that God’s greatest attribute is love. It is a remarkable thing—the Bible does not say that God is power. The Bible says God has power. The Bible does not say that God is mercy—God has mercy. But the Bible does say God is love. That is the very nature of His being, and that is the greatest attribute that God has.
3/ In the third place, WORLD—THE GREATEST NUMBER. When God loved the world, He didn’t leave anyone out, did He? God so loved the world—that includes every race, every color, every one who has ever lived, every one that ever shall live, and every one who is living now. You can’t replace that word world with any other word. You can’t replace God with any other word, you can’t replace love with any other word, and you can’t replace world with any other word.
4/ GAVE—NO GEATER ACT. There is no greater act than to give. If you love someone you want to give them something—it might even get to the place where you want to give your life. God, the greatest Being, loved the world so much, that He gave. You can measure your love by giving. I am sure our love for God is revealed in proportion as to how we give to God. The greatest way to express love is by giving, there is no better way.
5/ HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON—THE GREATEST GIFT. There couldn’t be any greater. What did God have left when He gave His Son? Nothing.
6/ WHOSOEVER—THE GREATEST INVITATION. That means you and me or anyone at all. You can go to anyone on the face of the earth, black, white, red, or any other color, in any condition, and you can even go to the slums of the city, you can go to the high up and outs, and you can say that God will save you because He said that whosoever—that doesn’t leave anyone out.
7/ Notice the word, WHOSOEVER BELIEVETH—THE GREATEST SIMPLICITY. I do not know whether you see what I mean, that believing for salvation is the greatest simplicity. Do you know of any simpler way for a man to be saved than just by believing? However, if you meet a person who has a reputation for not telling the truth, and they tell you something and immediately you rebel, you don’t believe it—you are conscious of your unbelief. But you can meet a man on the street, and he can tell you something, and you can go on your way believing, and you are not even conscious of believing. Believing is the greatest simplicity. God chose believing to save men because it is so simple.
8/ PERISH—THE GREAT CALAMITY. Do you know any greater calamity? We read about an airplane crashing in some part of the world and all that were onboard were dead—we say, my what a calamity—perhaps about 100 people have died. That’s not a calamity—the calamity is how many of them were eternally lost? If everyone was saved that was on that plane, it was no calamity, because they go directly into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. The calamity is that they are not saved, and they go to hell.
9/ You see, this verse contains things that are the greatest—we cannot express anything greater.
10/ EVERLASTING LIFE—GREATEST DURATION. It actually should be eternal. You cannot express any time longer than that, because eternal means without beginning and it means without end—that is the greatest duration.
11/ ETERNAL LIFE—THE GREATEST POSSESSION. The greatest thing you can have is life, and everlasting or eternal life is the greatest of all. There is nothing greater than that. You hear the sirens, and you see an ambulance tearing down the street, and you get out of the way because the siren means we want you out of the way for someone’s life is at stake, and what is more important than life?
12/ The wonderful point is you believe, and you become a recipient of God’s love, and no matter what happens to you, you can’t be separated from it.
13/ 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?
Shall tribulation, or trouble separate us from the love of Christ? Absolutely not. Then the next word is distress. And this is the word, pain. Then the word persecution. This is something the devil has always thrown at the church. Just think, during the Middle Ages, over two million saints of God were killed, put to death. But was the church stamped out? Absolutely not. It is still here and the Gospel is still being preached.
14/ Then the word, famine. The lack of food. 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 the lowest form of human life, hardly better than animals. This stirred some of the Lord’s people, and among them was Alan Gardner. He made three trips from England, two were unsuccessful, the third was worse than all. Finally, they put him in a little life-boat and a few helpers with him and he tried to land, but the natives wouldn’t let him— they drove him back, so Alan Gardner and his fellow-helpers had to live on the water. The natives refused them anything to eat, and so they died of hunger. But as he died, he scribbled on the little cabin of the boat—“Praise to the Lord for His faithfulness.” God answered his prayer, for those natives today have scores of believers on the lower tip of South America.
15/ Then the word, nakedness. That means, poorly clad, being cold. Then the word, peril, is the word, danger. Then the word, sword, is something like secret police that they have in Russia and also in Germany. You don’t care to live in a land where they have them, do you? But in spite of all this, there has never been one believer that has been separated from the love of God.
16/ Everything that Paul mentions here, he had suffered.
II Corinthians 11: 23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.
Notice how often he uses the word, perils, here—in other words, danger. Eight times in this chapter. Paul knew what it was to be in danger, but he didn’t find himself lost, he wasn’t separated from the love of Christ.
17/ Romans 8: 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
To the world, the flesh, and the devil we are but sheep for the slaughter. You remember, in the early days of the church, they just slaughtered the Christians by hundreds of thousands. They were just as sheep for the slaughter.
18/ Romans 8: 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
What is it to be more than a conqueror? I wonder, I’m not too sure. I have read many, many commentaries, many books on Romans, but I am not too sure what it really means to be more than a conqueror. As we study history, we know what it is to be a conqueror. Napoleon was a great conqueror. He swept over Europe and no armies could stand before him, until nearly all of Europe was lying at his feet, all except England. He had a map made, and he had England painted red, because that was dangerous. He used to look at all Europe and he would point to that little red spot that was England, and he wanted to take it, he was a conqueror but he wasn’t more than a conqueror, for he finally met defeat. I am sure that no one on the face of the earth by his military ability, or by his army, navy and air force has ever been more than a conqueror. I am going to tell you what I believe it means to be more than a conqueror. It means to have the victory and always have the victory, and forever have the victory. It means not to be defeated, and it also means to be victorious without fighting. That is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. We don’t do the fighting. Did you ever stop to think the little bit of fighting you do doesn’t mean a thing to Satan? He is not afraid of you, but he is afraid of One, and that is the Lord Jesus Christ.
19/ I’d like you to turn to the Old Testament.
II Kings 19: 35 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
And this is where the Syrians had come against Israel, and the Syrians were the mighty nation of that day. We are told in one place that they came with 1,000,000. That is a million soldiers. That was a pretty big army for those days. It isn’t by our standards today with the population explosion, but in those days that was a very large army. There was nothing in the world like it. What were God’s people to do? This Syrian king came with his chariots of iron, and his mounted soldiers all decked out with banners and colors. Hezekiah went to the Lord about it—Hezekiah said, “Lord, what are we going to do?” Isaiah was living at that time, and the Lord sent Isaiah to Hezekiah, and the Lord said to Isaiah, tell Hezekiah the king of the Assyrians will not come into Jerusalem—they will not come any closer than they are.
Notice, this 35th verse And it came to pass that night, the angel of the Lord went out and smote all in the camp of the Assyrians, one hundred and four score and five thousand, and when they arose early in the morning, behold they were all dead corpses.
When the morning came, they were all dead. I think Israel was more than a conqueror in this portion of Scripture, at this time because they got the victory without fighting. I don’t know anything else that can be more than a conqueror.
The church, those who are members of His Body which is the Church of Jesus Christ are just like that. The church cannot fail, the church cannot be defeated—it cannot be separated from God, and we are sure of the victory—one day we shall be absolutely like the Lord Jesus Christ.
20/ People think it is strange when I preach and say don’t be afraid. Don’t you have that in the Bible? We are to fear not. Since Calvary, the Cross, we need not be afraid—all these are defeated foes that come against us. Christ is the Victory, and in Him we will have the victory.
AMEN
Ref: 07/18/1965 / 302 IS YOUR GOD FICKLE? 09/10/2020
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