Text: Romans 8:35-39

Super glue experience---don't ever bite the end off a tube of super glue!  Contact cement---it better be where you want it before you put it there.

The love of God is like that.  It simply won't let go---it has keeping power.  2 Timothy 1:12---For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

Proverbs 18:24---A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

And so, we have the question posed to us today, "Who shall be able to separate us from the love of Christ?"  It is one of the rhetorical questions that really demands and answer and the answer in this case is "no one or no thing".  Then, some of those circumstances are listed to remind us of how strong the love of Christ is:

I.   THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF LIFE

    A.  Tribulation---"pressure, to crowd".  Can the pressures of life push on you so hard that they push you away
          from the love of Christ.  Indeed, Jesus assured us that we would have tribulation in life (John 16:33) but then
          promised victory.  It is His way of saying, "I am never going to let you go, I have overcome the world and all
          it's tribulation and so shall you!"

    B.  Distress---compound word---narrow + empty space.  It is the feeling of being hemmed in with no way out.  In
         in those situations we have the assurance that God is there.  He is the Lord of dead ends.  Song---"God will make
         a way when there seems to be no way, He works in ways we cannot see, He will make a way for me."
         1 Corinthians10:13.

    C.  Persecution---even if the whole world comes against us Jesus is still there.  Matthew 5:11---Blessed are ye, when
          men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

    D.  Famine---don't try to spiritualize this.  It is talking about a scarcity of food.  We may face this sometime in the near
          future.  We don't know what this computer glitch (Y2K) is going to do or what the weather disturbances may do.
          But if we find ourselves without food we don't have to worry that God has abandoned us.

    E.  Nakedness---being so poor that clothes are hard to come by.  I saw the truth of the last two situations brought
         home to me in Honduras and Zimbabwe.  Folks, you don't have to have wealth to know that Jesus loves you.

    F.   Peril---danger.  Psalm 23

    G.  Sword--this was fleshed out in the lives of Gene and Jean Phillips.  Did you see the cover story on the front
         of the Baptist Record this week?  They have not only survived war but now also robbers.  Jesus was with them and
         holding them close.

"Nay" means "contrarywise".  In all these things we are "more than conquerors through Him that loved us".  Isn't that great!  Say "Amen!"  We are super conquerors.  Leave it to Jesus to not do anything halfway.  His love propels us forward to not just victory but super victory.

II.  IN SPIRITUAL REALMS

    A. Death.  The most wonderful truth of the gospel is that even death, especially death will not be able to separate us
         from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.  "To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord."
         "Death is swallowed up in victory" (1 Cor. 15:54).

    B. Life.  Paul sums up these two point simply by saying "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21).

    C. Angels, principalities, powers (Ephesians 6:12ff),

    D. Things present---"thou art with me"

    E.  Things to come---When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall
          not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle
          upon thee (Isaiah 43:2).

    F.  Heights, depth---Psalm 139:7ff

    G.  Any creature---pretty well sums is all up wouldn't you say.

The key to all of the above can be found in the last statement of this passage "love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
The only way we can experience the love of God and the relationship that He wants to have with us is through Christ Jesus our Lord.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no man comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6)

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