Safe in the arms of Christ – Romans 8

[0:00] Good morning. What a wonderful day it is to come together and to worship our risen Lord and Savior.

[0:15] It is winter now. We have been blessed with such beautiful weather throughout the fall. Now finally winter is setting in and we have a nice warm building that we can come to and it is just absolutely wonderful.

[0:28] And I thought I would share a little bit on, we had had a ministerial meeting here yesterday and we've decided we're going to start up Bible studies in different areas and we're going to try to have one in the Webster area, one in LaGlass, and then in the Heif area, Wembley, Grand Prairie, Grovedale, and Cricket Creek.

[0:53] And we're going to be shoulder tapping individuals to maybe lead those Bible study groups. And they would kind of take place of the Wednesday night Bible study group that we have now.

[1:08] So over the next number of weeks, just I would ask that you guys would prayerfully consider whether or not you would be willing to lead one of those. We would like to see maybe a little bit smaller groups, two, three families, four maybe.

[1:23] And so not very large groups, but that is something that we're going to try to get off the ground. And clearly we won't be able to lead all those groups because there's more groups than what we are.

[1:34] So I would encourage to prayerfully consider leading them. And then we're going to go around and try to find leaders for each one of them. So that is encouraging to me.

[1:45] I hope that we have many groups. We've seen what happened with the ladies Bible study. I think it is very successful. And so we have, there's many ladies groups, just smaller ones.

[1:59] And that's kind of what we would like to, Wednesday one as well. And it doesn't necessarily even have to be on Wednesday. It could be any day of the week, really. So that's something to look forward to.

[2:10] Thank you. And so this morning I thought I would start off again with a question. I like starting off with questions. One is because I like to ask questions.

[2:23] And the other one is it makes all of you guys think a little bit. And it's good when we have to think a little bit. The question is, what makes you feel safe?

[2:35] So what is it that makes you feel safe? And I think it changes as we go through life, what makes us feel safe.

[2:46] So I thought I would share a little bit on different stages of life and what I think makes people feel safe. If you have a little infant child and the mom bathes this child, generally the bathing part might go quite well.

[3:04] But if she takes that child and she lays it out on a blanket or on a towel and just kind of leaves it there for even 30 seconds, what happens? It generally starts to cry and kind of flail about and it feels very insecure.

[3:22] Most of the time that's what these little infants are going to do. Why do they do that? Because they feel they're used to being wrapped up very tightly in their mom's womb.

[3:33] And now all of a sudden they're out in the open, naked and just flailing about. So they're not feeling secure. So when mom drives the baby off, dresses it, warms it in a tight blanket, then it calms right down and it feels safe.

[3:49] So an infant feels safe, wrapped up tight and close to mom. Moving on to the next stage, what about a preteen? What makes a preteen feel safe?

[4:05] Generally, mom and dad will make a preteen feel safe. I remember as a child, if I'd have a bad dream, I would go off to mom and dad's room.

[4:16] If it was a terrifying dream, so I would go to mom and dad's room and then I would feel safe. So mom and dad made me feel safe. So now we get on to the teenagers.

[4:28] And as we get older, things get a little bit more complicated to feeling safe. So now we get to teenagers. What makes a teenager feel safe? Had an incident at our place once.

[4:41] Joey Reimer and Aaron had gone off into the bush. I think I've shared this story with some of you guys already. They had gone off into the bush. They grabbed a pellet gun and they were going, gopher, not gopher shooting, that's southern Alberta, a squirrel shooting or whatever.

[4:57] They were shooting at stuff. And so they're riding their dirt bike out into the woods and they're on their way back. I hope you're okay with me sharing the story, Joey. And I asked Joey if I could share the story, or Aaron, but I didn't ask Joey.

[5:11] So hopefully we're okay with that. And so they're riding on their way back from the bush. And it just so happens while they were gone that another family was missing two boys.

[5:25] And they had called the police because they were distraught because they couldn't find their boys. So the cops had been brought in and they were looking for two young boys. And so it just so happens that Joey and Aaron are riding the dirt bike home in the ditch.

[5:40] And they're toting this BB gun and a cop sees them and instantly turns around and follows them. And so all of a sudden we hear this dirt bike coming onto the yard straight up to the house.

[5:54] They shut it off. Two young boys come running into the house. Aaron into his room under his bed. And Joey into the rec room, I believe, onto the couch. And it was just quiet.

[6:06] Mom is like, what's going on now? This is not like these two. And just as that happened, a cop shows up at the door and turns what was going on. And so they had asked, well, are these two boys yours?

[6:19] And where do they belong to? And well, yeah, they're our boys. And it was all good. But they thought, I don't know what they did out there. But maybe they had done something they shouldn't. And they've never shared.

[6:29] But maybe they did. But what made them feel safe? All of a sudden, you know, you have a teenager. They did not come running to mom and dad. His safe area was in his room.

[6:43] Aaron's safe area. So now all of a sudden, there's a distance. It's no longer mom and dad. Now we go into adults. What does adults, what adults, what does make, what makes us feel safe? It gets complicated.

[6:57] All of a sudden, you can have all sorts of things. Often in a healthy marriage, if you ask the wife, what makes you feel safe? And she'll say, when I'm close to my husband, I feel safe.

[7:11] That is a healthy marriage. So what makes the husband then feel safe? If the husband makes the wife feel safe, what is out there that makes the husband feel safe?

[7:22] You know, it can be complicated. It doesn't always, sometimes we find our safety in finances. Sometimes people find their safety in alcohol.

[7:37] You know, if you drink enough alcohol, it makes you feel 10 feet tall and bulletproof for the time that you are intoxicated. And that, and your safety is in that.

[7:49] So as adults, our safety and when we feel safe gets complicated. It isn't the same for everyone. So the message that I have prepared here this morning, I've named it Safe in the Arms of Christ.

[8:02] And I want to close with a question as well, if I remember. Sometimes I want to do certain things and then I forget. So starting off with the question, what makes you feel safe?

[8:13] I've named the message Safe in the Arms of Christ. Let's just open again in a word of prayer and we'll dig in. Father, we come before you this morning.

[8:24] I just want to thank you for each one that is here. Father, Lord, we trust that you have brought each one that is here today for the purpose of worshiping you. And Lord, it is just so much of blood together and choose to worship you.

[8:40] You have done so much for us. And Father, if we can take just one hour a day out of our week to set aside to worship, Lord, that is very little compares to what you have given us.

[8:53] We just want to thank you and praise you. And we trust that you will lead and guide. In Jesus' name, amen. All right. So this portion of Scripture starts off in verse 33 and will end up in 39.

[9:07] But it starts off also with questions. We have a number of questions that he starts off with here. First one that he starts off with is he says, Who shall bring a charge against God's elect?

[9:19] It is God who justifies. So the question that he asks is, Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? So I think then the question that we need to answer is, Who are God's elect?

[9:31] And the last time when I did the message out of Romans 8, 26 to 32, we covered who are God's elect.

[9:42] And God's elect are all born-again believers. Those are God's elect. And now he's asking a question is, Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? And it is interesting.

[9:56] Sometimes fellow man will attempt to bring a charge against God's elect. We had an incident, or not necessarily an incident, but Tina and I were down in Mexico a number of years ago, and an individual that had been involved in the drug cartel went to evening services at a church, and he accepted the Lord there.

[10:22] Later on, Tina and I were at some friends' house there, and they were talking about it. And there was a fellow believer. He said, I don't think that he's actually born again.

[10:34] I think he's just putting on a show. He's just simply wanting to now get out of the drug cartel so that he can now live a free life with all his money.

[10:45] And so he didn't believe that he was actually born again. He was just simply putting on a show. And so there was a fellow Christian who had an individual who had just committed his life to the Lord, and he was saying, yeah, no, he didn't.

[10:58] And he was simply looking at his past and saying, no, not that guy. He can't do it. You know, who shall bring a charge against God's elect? Sometimes God's elect attempt to do so, and we need to be aware of that.

[11:13] Sometimes in our circles, individuals might accept the Lord as well. Different scenarios such as that, but maybe an individual comes to know the Lord that has been divorced multiple times, maybe has children from multiple different wives, has lived an absolute terrible life, and now this individual comes to know the Lord, and sometimes we want to say, yeah, no, not that guy.

[11:37] You know, he's lived too much. He's too far gone. He can't actually know the Lord. He has lived an absolute life of sin. You see, Christianity sometimes we think is nice and neat.

[11:53] You know, you want to be, you know, born into a Christian family, and then maybe accept the Lord sometime in early teens, somewhere in there, get baptized, get married, and have children, and so on and so forth, and we like it to be nice and neat.

[12:06] And it seems like the more time I spend in ministry, the more I believe that Christian life isn't nice and neat. It is actually rather messy, and it's getting messier and messier as I'm going, and it's just, it's not that neat.

[12:23] So let's turn to Philippians chapter 3, verses 3 to 7. And Paul talks about his past a little bit too, and how he wanted, or how he thought his life was just quite nice and neat.

[12:39] So that's Philippians chapter 3, verses 3 to 7. He says, So he is saying, as Christians, we worship God in the spirit.

[13:09] We do not have confidence in the flesh. When we look back on these things, we're actually looking at the flesh. So he continues on, and he says, so he's talking about the flesh.

[13:23] He has more confidence in the flesh, and then he continues on, and he says in verse 5 there, Circumcised on the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, concerning the law, a Pharisee, concerning zeal, persecuting the church, concerning the righteousness, which is in the law, blameless, but what things were gained to me, these, I have counted as loss for Christ.

[13:51] So that all the physical things that he was hanging on to were absolute rubbish. Absolute rubbish. So when we're looking at those, and looking at their lives, we need to look at the fact that we are worshipping spiritual, we are not looking at the physical.

[14:09] The past is now history, and it is now the future. And it is, so who is, if we go back to Romans 8, who brings a charge against God's elect?

[14:27] Sometimes mankind tries, whether it is a Christian, or a non-Christian, man tries, who else tries to bring a charge against God's elect? Satan, absolutely.

[14:40] Let's turn to Revelations, chapter 12, verse 10. Revelations, chapter 12, verse 10.

[14:53] It says, Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come.

[15:03] For the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast. So Satan continually accuses fellow Christians.

[15:19] So he is constantly before God, accusing, accusing, and accusing. Like he is constantly doing it. Mankind may be only be doing it once in a while, but Satan is continually doing that.

[15:33] So when you read verse 33 in Romans 8, Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is a question. Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? We could add three words to that verse.

[15:44] If we could add three words, we would say, No one, because it is God who justifies. No one can bring a charge against God's elect, because God is the one who justifies.

[15:59] Fellow man is not justifying fellow man. It is God who does it. Satan also does not justify man. It is God who is doing that. So God justifies, not man nor Satan.

[16:14] Continuing on in verse 34, he starts off with a question again. He says, Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who has died. It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen.

[16:29] Who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us? So, now he goes on a step further, and he says, Now, who condemns?

[16:41] Well, we could go right back to what we just covered, and we could look at mankind. Sometimes mankind tries to condemn as well. So you see, when we are saying another individual is not born again, we are actually condemning.

[16:55] And Satan would definitely try to condemn. If he could, he would condemn the entire human race. But do we have the power to condemn ourselves?

[17:09] So who is he who condemns? Do we have the power to condemn ourselves? So a fellow man can't do it. If Satan can't do it, do we have it?

[17:21] Do we have that power? Absolutely not. We do not have that power. However, if a Christian, and the thing is, Christians are generally, and maybe not just Christians, but people as a whole, are generally rather hard on themselves.

[17:41] Not all people. Some people are incredibly prideful and could never do anything wrong. But, I'm not thinking of you, Julius. We are generally harder on ourselves than we should be.

[17:55] You know, I think we maybe, we maybe focus on the things that we are not gifted at too much. And, in turn, if we end up doing that, it starts to work into our spiritual life as well.

[18:10] And we start to think less of ourselves than we actually are. Joey was in a volleyball game a number of years ago, or part of a volleyball team. And their team was quite, but they were facing a volleyball team out of Grand Prairie, and that team had not been beat once.

[18:31] Like, they were, they were undefeated. And, they hadn't played that team at all yet until the finals. Or close to, or anyways, in the final tournaments anyways.

[18:41] But that team had not been, been beat yet once. So, they continually heard how, how good that team was, and how hard they were to beat, and, and so on and so forth.

[18:52] So, when it came time that, that our team, versus that team, they lost the, lost, you know, not even, there wasn't even a chance. The coach took the team aside, had a really good talk with them, because our team played terrible.

[19:07] They had it in their mind, that they were just going to get beat. So, the next game came around, and they beat them, twice in a row, and they ended up knocking that team out of the competition.

[19:20] You know, when you are constantly, focused on the negative, you start to believe it. And we cannot, and, and, we cannot condemn ourselves that way, but we can definitely become, spiritually sick, if we are constantly focusing, on the negative things, in our life, positive things.

[19:37] So, we need to, we do not have the ability, to condemn ourselves, but we definitely, if we focus on negative things, continually, it, it will put roadblocks, in your spiritual growth.

[19:49] Let's look at John, chapter 3, verse 18. Gospel of John. It says, he who believes in him, is not condemned, but he who does not believe, is condemned already, because he has not believed, in the name, of the only begotten son, of God.

[20:17] So, how can we be, when we go back to Romans 8, and he asks that question, who is he who condemns? You see, when we don't believe, we are already condemned.

[20:30] There is no need, for anybody to condemn us. But if we believe, we are not condemned. Absolutely not. We go right back, into verse 34, he said, which says, it is Christ who has died, and furthermore, he is risen, and now he is at the right hand, of God.

[20:49] Do we believe, that this Christ, who came to earth, lived a sinless life, went to the cross, for each one of our sins, mine and yours, went to the cross, died, rose, and is now, at the right hand of God, do we believe, that he would do all that, and then in the end, condemn you?

[21:11] Absolutely not. He absolutely, absolutely loves you. He is now, making intercession, for us. He not only did all that, but he is also, at the right hand of God, making intercession.

[21:23] When Stephen, was stoned, he was not sitting, at the right hand of God, he stood, and he looked, and he received, because Stephen says, look, Jesus is standing, at the right hand of God.

[21:36] It was a time, where Jesus stood up, and he's looking. So absolutely, he will not, condemn us. verses 35 and 36, it says, who shall separate us, from the love of Christ?

[22:03] Shall tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, or nakedness, or sword, as it is written, for your sake, we are killed, all day long.

[22:16] We are accounted as sheep, for the slaughter. He's quoting, Psalms 44 there. So he's saying, who shall separate us, from the love of Christ?

[22:28] We need, in order for us, to properly understand, all these struggles, all these trials, we actually have to understand, the question. And I think often, we read this question wrong, and we don't actually, fully understand it.

[22:42] Let's read it again, and actually see what it says. Who shall separate us, from the love of God? What is it saying? So what is it saying?

[23:01] Who shall separate us, from the love of God? It is God loving us, not us loving him. Who shall separate us, from the love of Christ?

[23:13] It doesn't say God, it says Christ. So, it is not dependent, on whether you love him, him loving us, and who shall separate, his love from us.

[23:25] Then he goes on, into the trials. And I thought, we would take a little bit of time, and look at, some of these a little bit. Distress. Or, it starts off with, shall tribulation, or distress.

[23:39] So what is a tribulation? Tribulation, is more than just, your regular, pressures of life. If you have, pressures in your life, those things are, not necessarily, tribulations.

[23:54] Those are just simply, the pressures of life. Tribulation, is an extra pressure, that is added, because of your faith, in Christ. That is a tribulation. Tribulation, just your regular stresses, that is not what it is talking about.

[24:08] This is an extra. What about distress? Distress means, when, you're not left, with many choices. And you don't have, all kinds of different areas, or roads you could take, you're in one area.

[24:23] Not that many years ago, Abigail decided, to leave a cat, with not many choices. She left a cat, in distress. She was, under the impression, that all cats, were friendly.

[24:35] And we had, we had, I think this was the same trip, when we were down in Mexico, and we were at my nephew, Johnny's place. And they had a cat, but that cat, did not connect, with people.

[24:46] They just had a cat, and it was on their yard, but it was not a cat, that you would pet. And Abby thought, that all cats were friendly. So she, managed to chase this cat, into a shelter, of some sort.

[24:57] And that cat, ended up in a tube, where it had no, there was one way in, and one way out. And Abigail, stuck her hand in there, grabbed the hind leg, of that cat.

[25:07] And she now has a wound, on her hand, to prove that, not all cats are friendly. That cat, was in distress. It had no place, else to turn, except one place.

[25:18] And it fought. So, that is distress. Persecution. It is a direct attack, on you, because of your faith.

[25:29] Persecution, is not, when you make bad choices, and you have a rough life. That's not persecution. Persecution, is a direct attack, on you, because of your faith.

[25:42] Famine. It is a season, of need. We don't really understand, famine very well here, when it relates, to food. food. But we do, come into, seasons of need.

[25:57] And often, when we are, in seasons of need, we are too prideful, to ask for help. Even though, it might not be, a famine. Nakedness, is generally, the direct result, of a famine.

[26:11] So, right after a famine, that is when, nakedness comes. Not having enough, clothes to wear. That is something, that I think, we don't really understand, here very well, because we get this, colder weather, and all of a sudden, we have two, and three jackets, that we get to put on, before we go outside.

[26:27] And for the most part, most people, they have a command start, and their vehicle, is already warm, by the time. We don't really understand, nakedness. We haven't really, in low German, we would say, die Handtung noch nicht, are foreign.

[26:40] We haven't, we haven't experienced, that yet. Peril, peril. That is imminent danger. Danger, that is unavoidable. So, to put it, into a life, life context, for the log truck drivers, that are here, if you're going up a hill, and you spin out, and you start, back and down backwards, you are now in peril.

[27:04] Something bad, is about to happen. You know, that is imminent danger. Sword, to be killed. So, those are the ones, that he lists here, but he lists it, right after he says, who shall separate us, from the love of Christ.

[27:20] So, as we go through, these different trials, now, a lot of us, do not experience, all of these trials, but some of us, will experience, at least some of them. Whether it is, a season of need.

[27:32] As you're going through, this season of need, does Christ, love you less? Absolutely not. He loves you more. If you were sitting, in a meeting room, and the home, was against you, and they were all, nailing you, and then one individual, out of, in that room, had your back, and started to defend you, what would you think, of that individual?

[27:56] Would your respect, for that individual, go up or down? It would probably, go up, right? So, as we're going, through these trials, in Christ, his love for us, goes up, not down.

[28:10] He loves us more, as we are going through, whether it is, seasons of need, distress, whether we are persecuted, all those things, as we're going through it, and if we're glorifying, Christ through that, it makes him love us more.

[28:32] I don't think, that in verse 36, as it is written, for your sake, we are killed, all day long. That is not something, that we're experiencing, in this country, but it is happening, on the world, in the world, it is happening.

[28:44] If you go to China, you know, it is very real. If you become, a Christian, and you start to, practice your faith, the chances of you, being killed, because of your faith, all of a sudden, becomes very real.

[28:58] And there's other countries, in this world, that are the same way. In Canada, we have been very sheltered, that way, and I think we should be, very thankful, that we haven't, had to face those things.

[29:17] And he continues on, in verse 37, it is kind of, it is kind of, the main, verse that he has been, was, yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors, through him, who loved us.

[29:30] So as, we go through, these trials, we are more than conquerors, through him, who loved us. So what is it, to be more than conquerors? When, the children of Israel, crossed, the Jordan, and they started, to conquer the land, and they went from one city, to the next, they would, in some cities, they would absolutely destroy, every living thing.

[29:54] There would be absolutely, nothing left. In the next city, they would just keep the livestock, and all the, all the gold, and things like that. But they would go, and they conquered, they conquered those cities. So that is conquering.

[30:06] So what is, more than conquering? Victory. Absolutely. Yeah. So to, to, to more than conquer, is to, when we are, when you, when you, as we go through, these trials, if we are beating, these trials, in Christ, that brings glory to God.

[30:30] That is, more than conquering. We are not only conquering, but we're also bringing, glory to God. So absolute victory. Absolutely. So to, so in all, yet in all these things, he doesn't say, that we're not going to go, through these trials.

[30:45] He says, yet in all these things, you are more than conquerors, through him, who loved, who loved us. Then he continues on, in verse 38 through 39. And he says, 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 created thing, shall be able, to separate us, from the love of God, which is, in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

[31:15] So he starts to list through, different things, that, that, that in our human thinking, might be able to separate, in our mind, might be able to separate us, from the love of God.

[31:28] He says, yet I am persuaded. So when he says, yet I am persuaded, that means that, he did not always believe this, but he was persuaded. And he is wanting his audience, to be persuaded as well.

[31:41] He wants his audience, to believe this. I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life. So whether we live, or whether we die, God still loves us.

[31:54] Whether an individual, in our life, dies, or lives, God still loves us. God does not, our lives, because he does not love us.

[32:06] We think of the Martins family, that just buried their son. It's a very difficult time, for them to go, to go through. God loves them, absolutely, very much.

[32:17] He did not take, that 16 year old son, out of their life, because he does not love them. So whether, we live, or die, God still loves us.

[32:28] So that does not, separate God's love, from us. He says, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers. So basically, the whole spiritual realm, he says, that spiritual realm, does not have the power, to separate, God's love, from you.

[32:44] That does not have that, it has not, it doesn't, it has not been given, that power. Then he goes on, and he says, nor things present, nor things to come. And I found it interesting, that he does, that he leaves out, the past.

[32:58] He just talks about, the present and the future, he doesn't talk about, the past. So why does he not, talk about the past? It's history. It no longer matters. It is, it is behind him.

[33:10] Did a little bit of digging, on this a little bit. And, the past, if you dwell, on negative things, in the past, in depression.

[33:24] If you have anxiety, of the future, or if you continually, dwell on the future, that equals anxiety. So the future, brings anxiety, when there's uncertainties, and if you dwell, on the past, it brings depression.

[33:40] So in this case, he simply, talks about the present, and the future. So if the past, is bringing us, depression, it doesn't matter. It's not even, a part of the equation.

[33:53] It is simply, the present, and then the future. And the future, if it is in Christ, it is guaranteed love. So there is no need, for anxiety.

[34:04] Then he goes on, and he says, in verse 39, he says, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able, to separate us, from the love of God, which is in Christ.

[34:21] So, how high, or how far away, from earth, can they get, today, with the satellites? When they start, to talk about, some of that stuff, they start talking, about light years, and so and so star, light years away, from earth.

[34:37] That is a long, long ways away. So it is, that far, so when, if we want to, kind of try to imagine, nor height, nor depth, nor the absolute center, of the earth, those things, cannot separate us, from the love of God.

[34:59] So if, there is absolutely, no created thing, that can separate us, from the love of God, why do we still have, anxiety at times, about the future?

[35:12] So whenever we have, anxiety about the future, it is when we are, in the flesh, not in the spirit. So I would encourage us, to continue, to trust God, know, that he loves you, and he loves you dearly.

[35:30] He loves you enough, that he sent his son, to die on the cross, for your sins. So in closing, I said I was going to close, with another question.

[35:43] So I'm going to ask the question, does the love of God, make you feel safe? So we started off with, what makes you feel safe? The question, and I'm not going to answer it for you, and I don't want you to answer it, but out loud, or if you want to, you can, but in your mind, I want you to think about, the love of God, make you feel safe.

[36:05] Let's close in prayer. Father, I just want to come before you, this morning again, I just want to thank you, for your word. Father, it is so full, of life giving, advice, and just, it continues, to dwell in us, and it just, it just continues, to bubble out, and I just want to thank you, and praise you for it, and just pray that you would just, continue to shower us, with your love, that we would be able to, in turn, shower people around us, with it as well.

[36:37] I just want to praise you, and thank you again, in Jesus name, Amen.