Participants: Ronny Shelton
Series Code: FC
Program Code: FC000224
00:31 Hello, and welcome to Faith Chapel.
00:33 I am Ronny Shelton and I hope that you've got your 00:36 Bibles today because we fight not against flesh and blood 00:39 but against powers of darkness. 00:41 To fight a battle like that we need a spiritual weapon. 00:45 That today is the Holy Bible. 00:47 If you will, get your Bibles and turn to Romans 8. 00:53 Romans 8. 00:55 Today we're going to talk about what can separate us 00:58 from the love of God. 00:59 What can separate us from the love of God? 01:03 If you'll turn to chapter 8 we'll start at verse 35 and read 01:08 through 37. 01:38 You see, brothers and sisters, there are so many outside forces 01:41 that have tried to separate God's people from His love 01:45 throughout the centuries. 01:47 We can read of many instances in the scriptures of men who 01:52 tried to separate from God's love, and they were not 01:56 able to do it. 01:57 So here Paul lists a great list of circumstances that we might 02:03 think can separate us from Christ. 02:06 Shall tribulation, he says? 02:08 Shall distress? 02:10 Shall persecution? 02:12 And then he says, No, for we are more than conquerors through Him 02:18 that loved us. 02:19 Are you afraid of being separated from God's love today? 02:22 Are you afraid that you might be separated from Him? 02:26 We're told in Ephesians 6:12. 02:32 There it says: 02:49 You see, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. 02:52 Often we may think that we are. 02:54 We may say, well, you know, Joe is doing so and so to me, 02:56 and the world is mad at me, and this has gone wrong, and that's 02:59 going wrong, and that everybody's' down on me, 03:02 and nobody loves me. 03:03 But Peter says we wrestle not against flesh and blood. 03:08 It's not those people. 03:10 It's what's behind the actions of those people. 03:14 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers, 03:17 and principalities. 03:19 The rulers of darkness in this world are our adversary. 03:23 Christ is fighting that adversary for us; on our behalf, 03:28 for we wrestle not against flesh and blood. 03:31 It just appears that those people are out to get us. 03:35 They are motivated by the adversary. 03:39 Through the ages there have been powers at work that have tried 03:44 separate God from His people. 03:46 These powers have used human agents to sow the seeds 03:50 of discouragement, to try to separate God's faithful from 03:55 his great love. 03:56 We could find many, many examples in the scriptures 04:02 where people tried to separate them from God's love, 04:04 and they could not. 04:05 For instance, Daniel was thrown into a den of lions all because 04:10 he wouldn't stop praying to God. 04:12 He refused to compromise. 04:15 The word says that he went to his favorite window, and he cast 04:18 open the shutters, and prayed where everyone could see him. 04:22 You know, it seems like, now why would he go to 04:24 all of that bother? 04:25 Wouldn't it be okay, at least during this decree time? 04:28 The decree went forth that no one could pray to anyone 04:32 but the king. 04:33 Wouldn't it be okay just to leave the window shut today? 04:35 Just to leave the bars, and the doors, and the shutters 04:39 closed, and maybe go to a little secret hiding place? 04:42 To compromise? 04:45 You'd think, why surely God wouldn't put that on him, 04:49 that he should have to do that. 04:50 I mean, after all, what if it cost him his life? 04:55 But he would not compromise his belief in God. 04:58 He was ready to give his life if necessary, and God rewarded 05:03 his faithfulness. 05:04 You see, no one could separate Daniel from the love of God. 05:09 They just couldn't do it! 05:11 They just couldn't do it. 05:12 We read in Daniel 3 a story of King Nebuchadnezzar, 05:18 who had an image of gold set up on the plain of Dura. 05:21 When the trumpets blew everyone was to bow down and worship 05:26 the image. 05:27 Everyone did except the three Hebrew children, as we always 05:34 called them: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. 05:36 When the king found out that they would not bend, 05:40 they would not bow, he had them brought in before him. 05:45 He thought, I'll give these guys another chance. 05:47 They're a pretty good group of guys. 05:48 I'll give them another chance. 05:50 Do they understand the command? 05:52 I have commanded that everyone must bow to the image. 05:56 Maybe they don't understand this. 05:58 So they brought them into the court and he said, I want to 06:02 give you guys another chance. 06:03 You are supposed to bow, bend and bow, and worship this image 06:08 when the trumpet blows. 06:09 Now do you need more time to think about it? 06:12 One of them spoke up and said, King we don't need 06:15 any more time. 06:16 We will not bow. 06:18 We will not bend to your image. 06:21 And we will give our lives if necessary. 06:25 Our God is capable of keeping us safe, but if He chooses not 06:33 to, we will give our lives, they said. 06:36 We still stand for what is right regardless; 06:40 furnace or no furnace. 06:41 So the King learned a lot that day. 06:45 He learned that these three Hebrew children would not bow, 06:49 they would not bend, and they would not burn. 06:51 As he had them thrown in, the very men who threw them in the 06:56 fire fell as dead men because the furnace had been heated 07:01 so hot; seven times hotter than normal. 07:03 The guards who threw them in fell as dead men. 07:06 As they were in the process, the King stood back 07:12 and he looked inside, and he said, Didn't we throw three 07:14 men in? 07:15 I see four in there walking around, and the fourth 07:19 is like the Son of God. 07:21 So they were extracted from the furnace, and they not only did 07:25 not burn, but they didn't even smell of smoke. 07:28 Their clothes were not singed. 07:30 There was no smell on them. 07:32 So the King had to admit the God of these men was the true God, 07:39 the only God. 07:40 All because they did not bend, they would not bow, 07:44 they would not compromise, and they would not burn. 07:46 Who could separate us from the love of God? 07:50 You see the King had tried everything he had; 07:53 every pressure or tactic that there was: 07:55 facing the fiery furnace; facing a den of lions, 07:59 and he could not separate these men from the love of God. 08:04 Who can separate you from the love of God today? 08:08 Can you be separated? 08:10 That's the question. 08:11 Shall famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? 08:15 Let's look at Romans 8 again; verse 32. 08:31 You see, God who spared not His own Son, but delivered him up. 08:36 God delivered up His own Son for us all. 08:39 How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 08:44 You see, God will give us what we need, brothers and sisters. 08:49 Now not necessarily what we want, because we often want 08:52 way more than what we need. 08:54 Amen? 08:55 We think we have to have a late model car, or a new car. 08:58 We have to have a new home. 09:00 You see, God doesn't promise riches. 09:03 He promises to be with us, to live with us, 09:08 to manifest Himself to us, to make His abode with us, 09:12 if we keep His commandments. 09:13 So these three Hebrew children could not be separated 09:18 from the love of God. 09:20 The God who spared not his own Son, but freely gave Christ 09:24 for us. 09:25 He will not spare anything else that we need, 09:28 brothers and sisters. 09:29 Who can separate us from the love of God? 09:33 Shall famine, nakedness, peril, the sword? 09:37 You see, if God be for us, who can be against us? 09:42 We've all heard that saying: If God be for us, who can be 09:45 against us? 09:46 Again, in Romans 8, verses 38 and 39. 10:17 You see, Paul was persuaded. 10:21 Paul was persuaded that nothing could separate us from that 10:25 love of God. 10:26 He said, I don't care what it is, I am persuaded, that 10:31 neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, 10:35 nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 10:38 nothing, he said, could separate us from the love of God. 10:41 Wow, that sounds conclusive! 10:46 We cannot be separated from His love. 10:49 It sounds impossible to be separated from the love of God. 10:55 But I want to make a statement here today. 10:58 I think it is possible. 11:01 I think it is possible to be separated from the love of God. 11:05 I do. 11:06 I believe we can be separated from His love, and I want to 11:12 explain to you how. 11:14 It's very simple. 11:16 It's very simple how we can be separated from the love of God. 11:20 It's my choice. 11:23 It's your choice. 11:24 It is my choice if I want to feel His love, or if I want to 11:28 shut it off. 11:29 It's my choice. 11:30 At any time I can just simply turn my back and walk away. 11:35 I can walk out of His charge, and out of His control, 11:37 at any time because God forces no one to be in His service. 11:43 God will save no one who doesn't want to be saved. 11:47 And although God will love us forever, we can separate 11:52 ourselves from Him. 11:54 Hundreds, and thousands, and millions have done just that. 12:00 That's why Jesus tells us in Matthew 24: 13 12:20 You see, it's not he who quits. 12:23 It's not he who gives up. 12:25 It's not he who walks away. 12:27 Not he who turns his back on God. 12:31 But it's he that endures to the end shall be saved. 12:35 Praise God! 12:36 Paul puts it another way in II Timothy 4:7-8. 13:06 You see, Paul says, I have kept the faith. 13:09 When he says, I have kept the faith, it tells me that it's 13:12 possible to not keep the faith. 13:14 It is possible to stop the race. 13:18 You know, stop this train. 13:20 Let me get off. 13:21 Paul says, I have kept the faith and henceforth there's a crown 13:26 of righteousness laid up for me. 13:28 Laid up for me, and not just me alone, he says, 13:31 all of those that have kept up the faith. 13:33 So it is possible not to keep up the faith: 13:37 To give up and to turn away; to be lost. 13:41 So you may ask then, what does the scripture mean when it 13:45 says, Who can be separated from the love of Christ? 13:48 Yes, and it gives a long list of things that can not separate us. 13:55 However, all of these things on Paul's list are outside forces. 14:01 They're all outside pressures that come in to you 14:05 that cannot separate you from God. 14:07 You see, these outside forces cannot make you bow or bend. 14:12 They cannot change your conviction. 14:14 How does that saying go, that a man changed against his will 14:19 is of the same conviction still, or something like that. 14:22 You see, we cannot be forced to deny our God. 14:26 It was tried, and it was tried again, and again. 14:30 History is full of them. 14:33 All of the martyrs from the days of the Dark Ages, 14:37 when we had people fleeing into the Alps mountains because 14:41 of persecution. 14:42 When they were thrown into the dens with the lions, 14:45 and into the arenas with lions and tigers, and soldiers 14:50 who took their lives; who just took their lives as if 14:54 there were nothing to it. 14:55 They could have gotten out of there at any time had they just 14:59 denounced God; denounced the God of their faith. 15:02 History is full of these martyrs. 15:05 The Bible is full of people who were put to the test. 15:09 Men like Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, 15:13 like Joseph, and Moses. 15:15 Many gave their lives, and many were spared. 15:22 The ones that were spared are called martyrs. 15:25 They were in martyrdom. 15:28 They gave their lives for the kingdom, and for God. 15:31 So you see, I say that we can pull away from God; 15:38 pull away with our relationship. 15:40 Just pull away and not have any relationship with Him 15:44 whatsoever, and we can be lost for eternity. 15:48 Millions, and millions, and multi-millions have done 15:53 just that. 15:55 Something has separated them from their love of God. 15:58 Now God is still there. 16:01 Let me say this. 16:02 God is still there and He still loves them for it says in 16:07 Jeremiah 31:3: 16:26 You see, God will never give up on us. 16:29 He has drawn us with an everlasting love. 16:33 But it is possible for us to walk away and not receive 16:37 that love. 16:38 It is possible for us to turn our backs and walk 16:43 away from Him; to not have kept that good faith 16:46 as Paul says he did. 16:48 To turn our backs and say I'm not playing this any longer. 16:53 I'm going to the world now. 16:55 It is possible to separate yourself from God's love. 17:00 Now again, no outside force can do that, but you can 17:03 do it yourself. 17:04 Many millions have done just that. 17:08 Yes, God says, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. 17:13 He will continue to love us, brothers and sisters. 17:16 He will continue to love us with an everlasting love 17:20 even though we may cease to exist. 17:24 We may have perished in the lake of fire. 17:28 He will still love us, because He will never stop loving you 17:32 and I. 17:33 That's the kind of God that we serve. 17:35 The God that would send His own Son, who spared not 17:39 His own Son, but gave Him up for me, gave Him up for you. 17:43 You see, God has one passion for this world. 17:48 One passion that Christ has for this world, and that is He has a 17:54 love for this planet that cannot be measured. 17:57 The same God that realizes what a pitiful, pitiful predicament 18:03 we are in, and the specimen that we are, what poor 18:07 Christians we have been. 18:08 If we would just look in the mirror when we get home, 18:12 and say, Lord, How can you love me? 18:13 How could you give Yourself for me? 18:16 You know what I've done, where I've been, 18:19 where I go now, maybe. 18:21 The kind of life I'm living. 18:23 You know all of that, and yet you love me anyway. 18:26 I don't understand it. 18:27 For us to comprehend John 3:16 For God so loved the world... 18:33 You see, that's not the planet. 18:35 That's not the dirt, the rocks; that's people. 18:38 For God to love the people, for God to love me, 18:41 for God to love you. 18:43 For us to comprehend that, brothers and sisters, 18:46 would take a miracle because we are the planet that's out 18:51 there that has turned away from God. 18:53 We're told in Revelation 12:12 the Devil has come down 18:57 amongst us. 18:58 He has great wrath. 19:00 He knows he has but a short time. 19:02 He's come down here to live with us, and to keep us from Jesus, 19:07 and make us to turn our backs on Him and walk away. 19:10 You can do that at any time. 19:12 God does not force Himself on any one of us. 19:16 But that passion of Christ is for the people of this planet. 19:21 He is inescapably, undeniably, immovably in love 19:26 with the people of this planet when we are so despicable 19:30 and so undeserving of that kind of love. 19:33 We don't deserve it. 19:35 For us to believe that we do, that God does love us, 19:41 would take a miracle for us to understand. 19:43 We are the planet here, brothers and sisters, where we kill our 19:48 children, we abuse our elderly, and we cheat, 19:52 and swindle, and lie, where we have one war after the next. 19:58 Yet God will not turn His back on us. 20:01 He will not give up on us. 20:03 He will never walk away from us, but we may walk away from Him 20:09 at any time. 20:10 What can separate us from the love of God? 20:14 Paul said, I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, 20:17 nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, 20:20 nor things to come... 20:22 Nothing from the outside. 20:23 Neither height, nor depth, nor any other creature; no one else 20:29 can separate us. 20:30 They can never separate us from the love of God because He is 20:35 inescapably in love with the people of this planet. 20:38 His great passion, the passion of Christ, if you will, 20:43 is our need. 20:44 Our need is Christ's passion. 20:48 That need, that passion for us, and for our need, 20:52 is what brought Him to the cross of Calvary, 20:55 that caused Him to walk up that road, that Via del Larosa 21:00 in Jerusalem that day and carry that cross. 21:03 What a God we serve! 21:04 What a God that would come down and give His life for a planet. 21:10 We are the refuse of the universe, and yet He thinks that 21:15 we are worth saving. 21:17 What a God! 21:19 And He will not give up on us. 21:22 He will not walk away from us. 21:24 He will never turn His back on us. 21:27 He will never stop loving us. 21:30 But understand, when He does He will not force Himself on you. 21:36 He will allow you to walk away at any time. 21:39 Paul says, What can separate us from the love of Christ? 21:45 What can separate us from God? 21:50 There is nothing that can separate you and I; 21:54 nothing on the outside, nothing external. 21:57 But many people have cut Him loose and just walked away, 22:02 and will forever be lost. 22:05 We cannot be forced to turn loose of His hand. 22:11 No one can snatch us out of His grip. 22:14 Satan cannot pull us away. 22:17 We can only pull ourselves away. 22:20 How we do that is failure to get to know Him, 22:24 failure to study this word, and the message that He has 22:28 for each of us. 22:30 Study this word so that we will not be deceived. 22:34 We will not be distracted, and we will not become discouraged, 22:39 as we study this word. 22:41 So many times we turn our back and we walk away. 22:47 So many times we compromise and we say that's just not 22:51 a very big thing. 22:52 That's no big issue. 22:53 When we started our Christian growth and our walk with Him, 22:56 it seemed like we knew what was black and what was white. 23:00 Then as we keep one foot in the world, and one foot on heaven, 23:07 the blacks and the whites begin to get mixed up. 23:11 All of a sudden they're kind of rolled into one and we can't 23:14 separate the two. 23:18 And all of a sudden we are compromising what we know 23:21 to be right. 23:24 You see we don't just out and out one day say, You know 23:26 I think I'm quitting. 23:27 I'm getting off of this. 23:28 It was good yesterday, but today it's bad. 23:31 That's not the way it happens. 23:32 You see, today we build a relationship with Him, 23:36 and we walk in His will and in His way. 23:41 Then as we begin to compromise on some little bitty issue, 23:44 maybe it's not much. 23:45 With Adventists maybe it's, Well, I'm going to go eat 23:49 Sabbath dinner today in the restaurant. 23:51 I don't feel like cooking today. 23:53 We compromise on one little issue. 23:55 Then the next thing you know, well, it's okay, and we'll begin 23:58 to plan our dinners on Sabbath in the restaurant. 24:00 Do you know what I'm saying? 24:02 So we begin to compromise the truths and the values 24:06 that we have, one by one, by one, by one. 24:12 We begin to fall away. 24:14 We begin to say, Well, you know, I don't think I'll go 24:17 to church this week. 24:18 I don't think I'll go this week. 24:20 I tell yah, I've not been feeling well. 24:22 You know, this or that comes up and I just don't think 24:25 I'll go today. 24:26 We begin to compromise. 24:29 We begin to rationalize in our minds, and we begin 24:33 to compromise. 24:34 All of a sudden what used to be black is no longer black. 24:37 What used to be white is no longer white. 24:40 They just kind of joined together and made grey. 24:43 We begin to make all kinds of excuses for what we do; 24:48 for the way we live. 24:50 And all of the time we're turning our back to God. 24:55 We're saying, God I choose no longer to follow You. 24:58 We turn our backs and we begin to walk away. 25:01 All of a sudden we begin to lose that feeling of, God loves me. 25:08 We can no longer feel it again. 25:10 It's gone. 25:11 You see, God is still there, and He still reaches out, 25:15 No matter what we've done or where we've been, what kind of 25:19 lives we've lived, He still reaches out and He calls 25:22 us to Him. 25:23 I hope you're feeling that call today. 25:27 I hope you feel that call of God in your life and you are 25:30 surrendering to Him. 25:32 God, I want You to remember me when You come back. 25:35 I want to go to heaven with You. 25:37 I want to be there on that resurrection morning. 25:42 If He has laid me to rest I want to come up out of that ground 25:45 and meet you in the clouds. 25:47 Lord may we be faithful. 25:50 May we not turn our backs on You, Father, 25:52 because I know we can and millions have done it. 25:56 You see, we do not have the security of salvation 26:00 within ourselves. 26:01 It's only as we base it upon Christ and His merits, 26:06 and as we turn our lives over to Him that we will ever make it 26:12 to heaven. 26:13 Jesus gives a simple illustration, a little story 26:17 of the kingdom of heaven, in Matthew 13:44. 26:22 We're not going to look at it. 26:23 I'm just going to tell you about it. 26:24 There He says that a man finds a treasure buried in a field. 26:27 He goes out and finds it, and he digs it up, and he sees 26:30 what it is. 26:31 He covers it back over and he goes into town. 26:35 This is my illustration. 26:38 He buys that piece of property because he knows there's 26:41 a hidden treasure there. 26:42 Jesus says the Kingdom of God is a hidden treasure in a field. 26:47 When a man finds this hidden treasure he goes and he sells 26:52 all that he has, and he comes back and he lays it down, 26:57 and he buys this piece of property because it contains 27:01 a treasure. 27:02 Ellen White says that Jesus Christ is that treasure. 27:05 He's that pearl of great price. 27:07 We must surrender our hearts to Him and give Him all that we 27:12 are and all that we ever hope to be. 27:14 Praise God, He will accept us as we are, but He loves us 27:20 too much to leave us there. 27:22 Heavenly Father, again I ask Your Holy Spirit to go with us. 27:26 Again Father for Your Holy Spirit to work in our lives that 27:29 we might be brought closer to the throne of grace every day. 27:33 In Jesus' name, Amen. 27:35 I pray the Father will keep you strong, and will keep you 27:39 in the word. 27:40 Stay in the word that you be not deceived. 27:44 Compare everything with scripture. 27:46 Jesus will hold us up before the Father. 27:50 He will pray for us. 27:52 May God bless each one of you out there today, in Jesus' name. |
Revised 2014-12-17