455 – 2 LOVE THAT LASTSDecember 11, 1978
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.
We hear the phrase all the world loves a lover, and we are constantly told that we are to love. But very few people have any knowledge of love, they do not understand love. Love is a person – God is love. He loves us, only a believer can love.
1/ Verse 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? The answer is absolutely nothing. In this world, people love someone who loves them, but if the other person doesn’t return their love, they forget the love that they have for them. Or you can see constantly—love can be turned off by things that happen in this world, but not so with the love of Christ.
2/ God has been talking about suffering in this chapter, and He said all the suffering the believer goes through, mixed with the plan of God, equals absolute good, And then we are told in verse 35 all these sufferings will not separates us from the love of Christ, so therefore that which results has to be absolute good.
3/ Verse 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Now, Paul quotes from the Old Testament.
Psalms 44: 22 Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.
God’s people always considered to be sheep, accounted for slaughter. It is not an act of faith to shut one’s eye to trouble and suffering. The Apostle Paul has written a list of his perils and sufferings, but you know, he was never in danger of being separated from the love of Christ, and that has been true of the believer down through the ages. You talk about minorities—the true Bible-believing individual is the one minority that is hated, despised and rejected. The world never takes up the cause of the Bible-believing Christian, who considers us to be sheep for the slaughter, sacrificial animals? None other than the world and the devil. Just go to your public schools and you will see that the highest in our land, the Supreme Court ruled the Bible out of public school. Creation is considered a joke, but evolution to be the truth. Go back to the early days of the church, and Rome slaughtered Christians.
4/ I wonder if you know in the Spanish inquisition, when they killed the Bible-believing individuals they invented every means of painful death. They weren’t satisfied with throwing a man into the flames, they weren’t satisfied with beheading him, they invented all manners and means of death that are painful. Sometimes a man was stretched on a form, his hands were tied above his head, and his feet tied, and then they began to pull from each direction. His feet were stretched in one direction, his hands were stretched in another direction until the whole body was stretched apart. Just think of the suffering—they invented every manner of pain. The devil did that because this was religion, and it is still here. But the devil and the world has never defeated the church. It still goes on.
5/ During the middle ages it is estimated that two million believers were put to death with great suffering before they died.
6/ In Russia and China today, Bible-believing folks are paying a tremendous price, many of them in prison, many of them face a cruel death.
7/ Verse 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Here when you read it for the first time you have a puzzling portion of Scripture—Nay, in all things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. What is it to be than a conqueror? I’ve thought about that many times, in my early days in the ministry. We know what a conqueror is from history. Napoleon was a great conqueror. He swept over Europe, and no army could stand before him until nearly all of Europe was lying at his feet—that is all except England. He had a map made, and had England painted red because that was dangerous. He was a conqueror, but not more than a conqueror. No man on the face of the earth has been more than a conqueror.
8/ Actually in the Greek it is a Super-Conquerors. So what is super-conqueror. Notice the phrase, NAY, IN ALL THESE THINGS. What things? The suffering, of course.
9/ I think I have come up with a few reasons after much thought and prayer as to why we are Super-Conquerors. More than Conquerors. First of all we are more than conquerors because our foe is much more than our equal. Paul tells us in the book of Ephesians that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of darkness in this world, and so forth, Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
If our foes were natural, the victory would be natural, but since our foes are super-natural, then our victory is super-natural. Thus, we are not only conqueror, we are more than conquerors.
10/ Now in the second place we are more than conquerors or super-conquerors because of the length of the warfare we have to wage. In earthly battles, soldiers are sometimes called upon to fight day and night, but there comes a moment when flesh and blood cannot take any more and so the exhausted soldier is taken out of battle, but in the spiritual warfare there is no armistice, no truce, nor interval. Notice, FOR THY SAKE WE ARE KILLED ALL THE DAY LONG. We are targets of the world, the flesh and the devil and there is never a moment of reprieve. It follows that our conquest is more than a conquest and we are super-conquerors.
11/ In the third place, the result of our battle is eternal, and our victory is eternal. Therefore, we are more than conquerors. We are going to live for all eternity, and we are going to live with the Lord Jesus Christ and be like him.
12/ In the fourth place, we are more than conquerors because we receive rewards that surpass anything given to an earthly conqueror. No earthly soldier will ever be given any reward equal to what we have. We know that in warfare soldiers partake of the booty, and we know that many times they are vicious as they conquer a land.
13/ Then fifthly, and I picked five because that is the number of grace, we are more than conquerors because we have victory without fighting. It is what the Lord has done for us. We don’t do the fighting. Your little bit of fighting doesn’t mean anything to Satan, but the one he is afraid of is the one who is God Almighty.
14/ 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.
Here is a Scripture most of you know, but we can look at it again. 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 a thousand thousand, that was a million soldiers and that was a mighty big army for that day. And there was nothing in the world like it. The Syrian king came with his chariots of iron and his mounted soldiers, all decked out with banners and colors. He came up against Israel. Hezekiah went to the Lord about it. Hezekiah said, what are we going to do? Isaiah was living at that time and the Lord sent Isaiah to Hezekiah, tell Hezekiah, the king of the Syrians will not come into Jerusalem – they will not get any farther than they are. Notice that when morning came, they were all dead. I think Israel was more than a conqueror there, because they got the victory without fighting. This is true of the church, the body of Christ. We do not fight, God has done the fighting for us. The victory is guaranteed because he has a program, He has a plan.
15/ Some folks may think it is strange when I preach and say don’t be afraid. Don’t you have that in the Bible? There are 365 days in the year, and you will find FEAR NOT 365 times in the Bible. Because every day the Lord wants you to live in that text—fear not—your foes are already defeated.
16/ The principle can again be seen in Exodus 14: 13 And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.
Moses brought the children of Israel to the Red Sea, and he was able to give them the battle cry—stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show you even to this day. Then the sea was parted, the people of God went through dry land, while the enemies were confounded and engulfed in the returning waters of the sea.
Ruth 3: 18 Then said she, Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall: for the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day.
Ruth was in distress concerning her personal life, and the aged Naomi told her, Sit still my daughter, until thou shalt see how the matter will fall. In other words, just trust God. He is going to work it out.
17/ II Corinthians 12: 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
And we can cry with Paul, therefore we take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ sake, for when we are weak then we are strong.
We can say all these things because God takes all the distasteful, horrible, hard things in our lives, works them together with His plan and guarantees us it will equal absolute good, and when we understand this we know this, then we can have peace of heart, mind and soul
18/ I believe the greatest enemy of the believer is ignorance, ignorance of doctrine. How few people know really much about their Bible. That is why they are constantly defeated in their lives and do not know that the victory is theirs in Christ Jesus.
19/ Romans 8: 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
For I am persuaded—that means confidence, that means assurance, that neither life or death. Death is both ordinary and extraordinary. We scarcely look up when we see a funeral procession move down the street. We read of an earthquake where thousands are killed, we read of floods where hundreds die, we read of famine, and we are touched, but just for a moment, because death is ordinary—it is about us all the time. You pick up the newspaper and every night you read the obituaries.
20/ When Adam and Eve learned that their son Abel had been killed, I am sure questions must have thronged their minds at once. They knew that cold clay that was so rapidly disintagating was not their beloved Abel. The fire, the life, warmth and breath of their son was no longer there. This was merely a house from which the tenant had moved. But where had he gone? Where was Abel? Ask the average man on the street and he is really not too sure.
21/ All through the ages man has wondered, what is death, what is on the other side of death?
Philippians 1: 21 - 24 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.
Paul is writing to the Philippian church and telling them about his own affairs. They knew he had been arrested and that he was in Rome to await trial before Caesar. He knew that he might either be freed or have his head cut off, but he was calm before either possibility, and this is literally what he said, LIVING TO ME SIMPLY MEANS CHRIST, AND IF I SHOULD DIE, I AM JUST GOING TO BE WITH HIM. I SHOULD FIND IT VERY HARD TO MAKE A CHOICE. I AM TORN IN TWO DIRECTIONS. ON THE ONE HAND, I LONG TO LEAVE THIS WORLD AND LIVE WITH CHRIST, AND THIS IS OBVIOUSLY THE BEST THING FOR ME. YET, ON THE OTHER HAND, IT IS POSSIBLY MORE NECESSARY FOR YOU THAT I SHOULD STAY HERE ON EARTH.
Paul had the proper attitude when it came to death.
22/ II Corinthians 5: 7, 8 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
Here, Paul tells us that death is merely the absence of the inward man from the outward man. And the inward man is in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ in a place called Heaven. Here he says, he is willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. Notice, willing rather—that goes alone with Philippians that first chapter, for the believer to die is better, but perhaps he has some ties on earth where he feels his loved ones need him, so therefore he wants to stay to help them. That is the only reason for a believer wanting to live on earth.
23/ There are lists of ten things mentioned in these two verses. And we have utmost confidence in them, for the words, I am persuaded in the Greek are I HAVE PERFECT, I HAVE UTMOST CONFIDENCE. Death does not separate, but it takes us into the presence of the Lord of Heaven. It is the very opposite of separating.
24/ The second thing is life. Notice a very important passage.
Galatians 2: 20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the Son of God. For this reason life could not possibly separate us from the love of God, and life here means no sin, no person, no situation, not even yourself can separate you from the love of God.
AMEN
Ref: 11/27/1978/ 455-2 LOVE THAT LASTS / 10/15/2021
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