Divine Covering, Part 4

Of music. I think I always read
it whenever we sing it. Could we with ink the ocean fill
and where the skies of parchment made were every stock on earth
a quill and every man a scribe by trade to write the love of
God above would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain
the whole those straps from sky to sky. What what great thoughts
if you would take your Bible. And we have hardly time even
for a review. We are in chapter eight. Chapter
eight is Paul’s capstone to the subject of sanctification, which
he has been addressing from chapter six verse one in chapter eight. What Paul does is remind God’s
people that God has given them everything pertaining to life
and salvation. He has given them a foundation
in Jesus Christ. They are sustained by the Holy
Spirit and God has ordained their very life. God has done it all.
And in light of that, what Paul wants to do essentially is take
a spiritual inventory here at the end of Romans 8. He has told
them that everything will work for good to those who love God
to those who are called according to his purpose. But so many times the children
of God in the midst of their circumstances give pause and
they’re stopped in their tracks and they begin to doubt and wonder
and they begin to ask questions like where you know How do I
deal with these so many enemies? Where is this abundant supply
of grace that I was told about? Why all the accusers? And where
is God? Those are the precise questions
that Paul deals with in this chapter. Just by way of review. Let’s go back. We’ll read verse
31 and following. We’ll take take it in its entirety. And just a brief comment before
we dive into the passage we’ll consider this morning. Read along
with me at verse 31. What then shall we say to these
things? If God is for us, who is against
us? He who did not spare his own
son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also
with him freely give us all things. Who will bring a charge against
God’s elect? God is the one who justifies.
Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died,
yes rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God,
who also intercedes for us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress
or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword just as it
is written for thy sake we are being put to death all day long.
We were considered a sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these
things we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us for
I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities
nor things present nor things to come Nor powers, 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. We have a divine covering, Paul
says. Paul echoes the great truth of
the Old Testament, that it’s God that has us covered. God
is the one that’s taking care of us. God is the one that has
ordained our life, is sustaining us. God is the one in whom we
are to place our trust. As I suggested, Paul here is
leading the saints along on a spiritual inventory. And the first question
he asks is, where is the Christian’s enemy? That’s what he deals with
in verse 31. If God is for us, who is against
us? It’s not that we don’t have enemies.
It’s not that there aren’t people who are against us, and especially
a devil who is against us. Paul’s not saying. that there
is a complete absence of enemies, Paul says, what are they compared
to God? And then God has put his wings,
as it were, over us. Who is against us? Paul continues
the inventory when he says, where is the Christians grace? We tend
to think that we tend to think that the well runs dry or could
run dry or God could forget about us or maybe neglect to give us
the grace that we need or Choose not to because of our own disobedience. Paul says in verse 32, he who
did not spare his own son, if God has done the greater, if
God has given us his own son. He sent him to death on our behalf,
but a purpose death. It was a death of propitiation.
It was a death of atonement to pay for our sins. And if God
has done that, How will he not also freely give us all things?
There’s a third question for this inventory that Paul asks. He says, where is the Christians
accuser? He uses the language of the courtroom. And just like
the enemies, we have many accusers. And it’s not as if the information
that they bear is inaccurate. We’re not perfect. We fall far
short. It’s not as if our accusers bear
a false witness. The devil knows the truth about
us. We know the truth about us. Others know the truth about us. But Paul says in verse 33 who
will bring a charge against God’s elect if God in eternity past
has set his love upon you and God has pronounced you not only
not guilty but justified before him. Who is the one who condemns
who could bring a charge that is so severe that would condemn
you essentially undo your justification, undo the righteousness that you
have gained by placing your faith in Christ and your sin on him
as well. But there’s a fourth question
in this inventory, and that’s where we come today. Not only
where is the Christian’s enemy, where is the Christian’s grace,
where is the Christian’s accuser? But fourth this morning, where
is the Christian’s God? And you know well that there
are many seasons in the life of God’s people where we come
face to face with the circumstances, the difficulties of life. And
not only are we longing for the grace that God promised, we begin
questioning the very existence of Him. We begin doubting the
fact that He is watching over We begin doubting that he cares
for us. We begin doubting that he will
step in, that he will vindicate us, that he will care for us.
We begin doubting. God’s presence and Paul wants
to deal with that in the fourth. Evaluation of. The Christian
spiritual condition. Where is the Christians God and
Paul takes it up here in verse 35. In a sense, this is the last
question, the last question that Paul will wrestle with, the last
step, as it were, in this fourfold climax that Paul has been building
towards at the end of chapter eight. In a sense, this is the
mountaintop, this is the peak. My brother often climbs mountains,
I don’t mind the view from the bottom of the hill, but he climbs
to the top and he speaks of an incredible view. earned at the
top of that mountain. Well, in a sense, that’s what
Paul is doing. He’s walking us, escorting us,
hiking us to the top of a great mountain. And once there, he
says, look about, look at your God, look at all that he has
for you. If you would. Consider the fourth part of this
divine covering, which begins in verse 35. As we’re taking
our spiritual inventory, Paul says in verse 35, who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? Now, there was much banter, much
discussion over the fact that this translation says who, as
opposed to what, when everything that comes afterwards in verse
35 is not a person, but a thing, as it were. Everything that follows
essentially could be used to separate us and they are things
not people. Some described it in. In these
terms they said that what Paul is doing here is personifying
things like famine and difficulty and heartache. One said it eloquently
when he said there rise before him. As he asks like so many
angry personalities. The outward woes of the pilgrimage.
So, in essence, what you have is a gauntlet through which the
Christian has to walk. And they are figured or presented
here as personalities, people, if you will. Tribulation, distress,
all battering us about, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword.
And that’s possible that they’re figured as personalities, but
the Greek term can simply mean what? That Paul is just referring
to these things. They are impersonal. They are
difficulties. And they come. Paul says that
these things, these great troubles and trials that befall the saints
of God, they are the adversities that we face along this pilgrimage
towards heaven. And they are real. In fact, they
are so real that Paul says they can even make us think that God
is no longer available. That maybe there is no God. That
maybe God doesn’t really love and care for us. Paul uses these things to point
to the great truth that God is not absent. God has not forgotten
us. God has not gone to sleep. He
says who shall separate us. You know what that is that is
the biblical language of marriage. In Matthew 19 verse 6 it says
and you’ve all heard it. What therefore God has joined
together let no man separate. What Paul is suggesting here
in the use of this word is it even possible Is it even remotely
possible that the Christian could be divorced from God, separated
from any kind of union or relationship? These things that he will mention
and we’ll detail here in a moment, they’re presented not just as
difficulties, not just as little troubles, road bumps along the
way, but they are looked at as those that would totally take
us away from a relationship with God. Adulterous relationships
even. Things that are so tempting to
the believer that are so overwhelming to him that they take him, separate
him from his God. Is it even possible? These circumstances into which
the saints of God are cast are made difficult with these various circumstances.
And what Paul looked about and talked about these things that
Satan and all of his henchmen use to try and drive a wedge
between the Christian and the Christian’s God. Paul wasn’t just talking about
things in theory. Paul was speaking from experience. Paul knew firsthand that tribulation
had this tendency to try to drive a wedge between the Christian
and God. God, where are you? The distress would do likewise.
That certainly persecution would cause the Christian to look up
and wonder where he is. Before we take each one of those
in turn, what is it that Paul says we could be separated from? Paul says, who shall separate
us or what shall separate us from the love of Christ? Now,
I’m just going to cut away all difficulty and say it isn’t our
love for Christ in that passage. That’s not what he’s talking
about. He’s not talking about our love for Christ. It’s the
other way around. It’s Christ’s love for us that’s
in view. Paul isn’t saying what could
possibly keep you. From falling short of your love
for Christ, what could ever come between you and your love for
the Savior? That’s not what he’s saying.
Rather, he’s talking about the truly impossible, because you
can conceive of falling short of your love for God prone to
wander, Lord, I feel it. Right. You can conceive of falling
short when all you do is take inventory of your week. You know
that you haven’t loved God perfectly, even for a single day. No, instead, he’s talking about
the truly impossible. What could ever possibly come
between Christ’s love for us if Christ’s love has already
sent him to the cross on our behalf, if Christ’s love Took
him to the cross and that great suffering. Death. What could separate. What could
cause Christ. To abandon his love for us. Paul
will build a case that it’s impossible. It’s not even conceivable to
think this the other way. A person can’t be separated from
their own feelings so it isn’t our feelings that are in view
here. As one Puritan said it contributes
more to our consolation to have our minds fixed upon God’s love
than to have us then upon our love to God. Our love is subject
to many failings and infirmities, and because we are liable to
change, we seek to derive comfort from the firmness, pardon me,
to seek to derive comfort from the firmness of our love would
be empty compared to holding forth the love of God. In whom
there is no variableness, neither shadow of change. God’s love
is real and lasting. Ours is flighty and fleeting. whole purpose of Paul in this
chapter has been to remind us and to undergird our confidence
in God, that God is the one who is building into us. God is the
one who has laid the foundation in Christ. God is the one who
has undergirded us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
God is the one who has ordained our very life from eternity past. How, then, would he switch all
of a sudden here to encouraging us to really maintain and build
our love for Christ. It’s Christ’s love. And yet,
even so, I paused and I remember the time where I looked back
over my shoulder and I heard the little song, Jesus loves
me, this I know for the Bible tells me so. And I said, where
does it say that? I don’t recall offhand where
it said that, and I went and I looked and it does say that.
Not only do we know, Implicitly from all that Christ has done
that he does love us, but it does say it explicitly in the
pages of Scripture. Second Corinthians 514 and you
have the same conundrum there. Just listen. The love of Christ
controls us and you could say our love for Christ controls
and compels us to go and to preach the gospel. If you take it in
its context, what Paul is saying there is Christ has so loved
us. And so compelled us. That we
conclude this that one died for all, therefore all died, he died
for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves,
but for him who rose or who died and rose again on their behalf.
It’s not that we don’t love God, we do. But just as first John
tells us, we love God because he first loved us. We are compelled
to serve Christ because of his great love for us. That’s what
Paul says in second Corinthians. Paul says it again in first Timothy,
chapter one. Turn, if you would, to first
Timothy, keep your finger here in Romans. This is Paul’s testimony, as
it were, a shorter version than sometimes you get in the book
of Acts, but Paul gives his testimony And really a testimony, not so
much about him. The best testimonies, I would
say, are always not about what we have done or what we have
done for God, but what God has done for us, right? That’s what
Paul does here. First Timothy, chapter one, verse
12. I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has strengthened me
because he considered me faithful, putting me into service, even
though I was formerly a blasphemer and persecutor and a violent
aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because
I acted it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was
more than abundant with the faith and love which are found in Christ
Jesus. Jesus loves me. This I know. Turn, if you would, to the book
of Ephesians. In the book of Ephesians, Paul
echoes that great sentiment. As he prays for the Ephesian
believers, look at verse 14 of chapter three, for this reason,
I bow my knees before the father. from whom every family in heaven
and on earth derives its name that he would grant you according
to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through
his spirit in the inner man so that Christ may dwell in your
hearts through faith and that you being rooted and grounded
in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the
breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love
of Christ. which surpasses knowledge that
you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Jesus loves
me. This I know, for the Bible tells
me so. It’s the love of Christ for us,
not our love for him that’s in view in this passage. Back, if
you would, to Romans. Essentially, what Paul is pointing
to there when he says, what shall separate us from the love of
Christ? The love of Christ there is pointing to our status before
God, our salvation, if you will, that God loved us enough to send
his son and in placing our faith in him, we place all of our sin
onto Christ and all of Christ’s righteousness is placed onto
us. What Paul is pointing to is that
it’s absolutely impossible. to be severed from the embrace
of that love. It’s impossible. That once Christ
has set his love upon us, there is no earthly circumstance. There
is no response. There is no difficulty that can
ever provoke God to turn his back on the child of God. And
you say, what about trouble? What about tribulation? Let’s
take them one at a time. Tribulation that Paul mentions
here, and he begins to pose these essentially as a gauntlet. This
is what the Christian is going to have to walk through. This
is this is the language of Christian experience. And what Paul is
doing is pointing up the fact that many of these things have
over the centuries troubled the Christian to the point of the
Christian turning his back upon God. Tribulation just refers
to pressure, if you will, oppression, affliction from without. Trouble
that comes to the Christian’s life. The word translated here
is used to refer to all kinds of severe trouble and you can’t
limit it. As soon as you do, as soon as
you begin to try to isolate it to one particular arena, you
really overlimit the word. As one described the tribulation
as the root meaning of exert exerting extreme pressure. But
it really is best translated as just generally affliction,
anguish. Paul isn’t saying here that all
of this suffering ultimately will produce glory. But he is saying that the Christian
life is to be fraught with this kind of difficulty. We’re not
going to dodge it. We’re not going to be able to
get around it. We’re not going to be able to bypass any of these
difficulties. It is part and parcel of the
Christian life. Paul said in Second Corinthians
4a, we are afflicted in every way. That’s part of the ministry. A great section on the ministry
there in Second Corinthians for Paul says it’s part and parcel,
not only of the ministry, it’s part and parcel of the Christian
life. Paul is talking about those external
difficulties that come on is not necessarily mental anxiety,
he’ll deal with that in a moment. He’s talking about those hostile
forces from without the devil and life’s difficulties. All
of which. Trouble and vex the Christian.
And Paul basically says there’s no there’s no dodging it. They’re
there, they will come, we will face them, there’s no doubt about
it. Paul refers to it later on in
that same chapter, second Corinthians, as momentary light affliction. Paul knew this affliction. I’ve
taken you several times to 2 Corinthians 11. Just remember or listen as
I remind you what Paul went through. Paul’s not talking hypothetically
here anymore. Paul knew what difficulty was. Paul knew what tribulation was.
Labors, imprisonments, beatings, death, dangers of death. Thirty
nine lashes beaten with rods stone Paul knew tribulation.
But Paul says that. Here in view of this spiritual
inventory is tribulation one of those things that could possibly
sneak in and begin to drive a wedge between the Christian and their
God. And Paul says no way. Absolutely
impossible. As we’ll see in a moment. To the Roman Christians, Paul
wrote, and tribulation was coming their way, as we’ll see in a
moment. Tribulation was coming and tribulation would bring all
kinds of other difficulties. And there can be tribulation
from health, tribulation from money worries, tribulation from
other troubled people in the way of persecution. There is
just all manner of trouble that’s going to come our way. And it
will never, Paul says, Drive a wedge between the Christian
and his God, it must not, it cannot. What about distress? What is distress? Distress literally
means a narrow place. It came to mean confinement or
restriction, like being between a rock and a hard place. Paul uses this word many times
in his epistles, and it’s an even stronger word than tribulation. And often was used to describe
torture. Second Corinthians 4.8 Paul says
we’re not crushed. That’s the same word. It is a
crushing pressure. It is the stress, if you will,
that comes from tribulation. Tribulation is outward, but this
crushing. Is from within. It is. The image of literally being
crushed to death between two walls and Paul says we’ve been
there and we will be there and tribulation will come and so
will the distress that it produces. These, as one called them, hostile
forces pressing upon him from all sides, threatening to crush
and immobilize us. Paul says they’re going to come,
these straits, these difficulties, In 2 Corinthians 6-4, Paul identified
that he had many times faced these kinds of pressures. He
said that we went about commending ourselves as servants of God
in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses,
plural. There are many things that plague
our minds as Christians. We can’t just be buried with
one thought We are many times beset with many pressures that
face our hearts and minds, difficulties that come, all of which clamor
and compete for our attention. Robert Haldane, the commentator,
said of these distresses, he called them You refer to this
the perplexity in which we are when under pressure or trouble,
we see no way of deliverance. You see how many of those we
face. We get ourselves in such a bind, we see the tribulation
that comes and suddenly we find no way of escape. We’re stuck, we’re in a box canyon
and we’re being pursued And there is no way out. The hymn writers
knew of this sentiment. The soul that on Jesus has leaned
for repose, I will not, I will not desert to expose. That soul,
though all hell should endeavor to shake, I’ll never, no never,
no never forsake. Scripture knew. Psalm writers
knew of this Sentiment. In Psalm 23, even though I walk
through the shadow of death. The valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil for you are with me, your rod and your staff comfort
me. There is no division that can
come. From the difficulty that we face
based on our tribulation and the distresses that they produce,
it cannot divide us from God. God will not be separated from
us. What about persecution? You haven’t gotten to persecution
yet. This is the affliction that is
brought about by those who hate Christ. And Jesus said, if they
hated me, they will hate you also. This is part and parcel
also of the Christian’s life. Matthew 5, Jesus said, Blessed
are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness.
For theirs is the kingdom of heaven, it’s not whether it’s
going to come, it’s when. Blessed are you when people insult
you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against
you because of me. Rejoice and be glad for your
reward and heaven is great. For in the same way, they persecuted
the prophets who were before you. It’s part of the Christian’s
life. It cannot separate you from God. Paul knew persecution. And though
initially the perpetrator of it, persecution would dog nearly
every step of Paul’s ministry. Paul’s testimony about that persecution
was simple. When we are persecuted, we endure,
1 Corinthians 4.12. We are persecuted, but not forsaken,
2 Corinthians 4.9. I am well content with weaknesses,
with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties
for Christ’s sake, 2 Corinthians 12.10. Paul wasn’t about to be. Separated from his God, he wasn’t
about to allow some earthly persecution, some difficulty to come between
him. And the God who he knew had set
his love upon him, and that’s why his counsel to others was
simple and clear. To Timothy, he wrote, Now you
followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love,
perseverance, persecutions and sufferings. Indeed, all who desire to live
godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. The opening of Fox’s Book of
Martyrs, there’s an interesting little paragraph. What John Fox does there is essentially
lay out to the Christian the great outline, if you will, of
life on Earth. And he uses Christ’s words to
do it. He recounts Christ saying that
the gates of hell would not prevail against the church, but in so
doing, he notes three things about that passage. First of
all, that Christ will have a church in the world. Second of all,
that the same church will be greatly persecuted. And thirdly,
even though that church will be greatly persecuted, it will
prevail. In his second point, he says
this. The church will be persecuted. What force of princes, kings,
monarchs, governors and rulers of this world with their subjects
publicly and privately, with all their strength and cunning
have bent themselves against this church. But then he says,
Yet notwithstanding, it has endured and held its own. What storms
and tempests it has overpassed, wondrous to behold for the mere
evidence declaration which I have addressed in this present history.
He closes by saying we have an ongoing testimony. That Nero,
though he hated Paul and reportedly beheaded him, used Christians
as candles, confiscated their goods, Blame them for society’s
woes. All of those things. All of those things are as nothing
before God. I close just before we get to
the hinge of this passage. Glance down at your Bible just
for a moment, because the hinge is in verse 37. The whole thing pivots on that.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Verse 35. And
then Paul asks about all of those elements. But Paul, in verse 37, issues
this statement, he says, but in all these things, we overwhelmingly
conquer through him who loved us. And then he wants to support
that statement, and we’ll get to that next week. For now, we glance about us. Even as my brother without any
prompting pointed to the difficulty of our nation pointed to the
difficulty and the trouble that we find ourselves in as Christians
in this society. I go back to just some words
that I shared four years ago. Four years ago I shared them
off mic. Today I share them with you.
For all the world to hear. We are in a difficult spot. Tribulation is an understatement. When you look about the financial
situation, when you look at the moral situation of our country, four years ago they told us that
it was one of the most crucial elections in history. I suggested
then that we were at a crossroads, that there was much at stake
politically, socially, morally, spiritually. It’s only gotten
worse. Hasn’t it. I wanted to remind you though. That we do have what the Puritans
refer to as a gospel opportunity. We still have that. We shouldn’t
presume upon that because based on what Paul tells us even in
this passage it’s not a divine right. It is. greatly used by
God, those seasons of openness where we can share our faith
freely and reach our neighbors and testify to them and proclaim
Christ to them and live Christ before them. That wasn’t always
the case, it wasn’t even the case for the Roman Christians.
That within years of what Paul wrote, shall tribulation, distress,
persecution befall you? Within years. The Christians
were having to sneak around and gather in the tombs, the catacombs. And I tell you, we’re not that
far away in this country. We have a gospel opportunity.
We have the privilege to proclaim Christ. One of the notes that I shared
four years ago that I would echo today is even the best president.
The best president is nothing more than a flawed, sinful human
being. And even though our nation was
established by some Christians on biblical principles, we’re
not a Christian nation. We never were and we never will
be. Nations are not Christian or non-Christian. People are
believers. People are believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ. People are Christians or not. We’ve gotten way off track in
our thinking. And I shared this four years
ago that one of the great debacles in our thinking is that just
having a Republican in the White House makes everything good. Well. All the while, we have
neglected the great spiritual opportunities that we have. One of the things I shared with
the Saints four years ago. is what I believe the message
to this nation is even still today even more so today. It’s
the message of Habakkuk. Would you turn if you can find
it. It’s in the clean part of your Bible. In the minor prophets near the
end of the Old Testament you’ll find a little book called Habakkuk. I don’t know whether I said this
off my years ago or not but I call it the clean part of our Bible
almost in shame. I have a little cartoon that
I cut out because it was so true when I saw it. It’s a it’s a
an individual that evidently has gotten to heaven and he comes
across a long gray haired saintly looking individual. And he pauses
and stammers and scratches his head and says, why no, Mr. Habakkuk, I guess I didn’t read
your book. Sad but true. Look at verse two of chapter
one. How long, oh Lord, will I call for help and you will
not hear. I cry to you violence that you do not save. Why do
you make me see iniquity and cause me to look on wickedness?
Yes, destruction and violence are before me. Strife exists.
Contention arises. Therefore, the law is ignored
and justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous.
Therefore, justice comes out perverted. What Habakkuk is saying
is not unlike what we could say in our own day. Where are you
God? Why don’t you do something about
this ungodliness? And God answers in verse 5. And
those of you who know the book know well. He says, I am going
to do something. I’m going to send an ungodly
nation. Look among the nations, verse
five, observe the astonished wonder, because I am doing something
in your days. You would not believe it if you
were told. He essentially says judgment is coming in verses
five through eight. God was preparing to move in
Habakkuk today, and God is not asleep at the wheel. Billy Graham said years ago,
and I believe it to be true, if God didn’t judge America,
He would have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. We are no
less guilty than they are. God was preparing to move. And the whole question is, what
is the child of God’s response in the midst of this tribulation,
this distress, this persecution? Faith. It’s faith in a sovereign
God and the faith to do the right thing. Look at verse 4. Behold,
as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him, but
the righteous will live by his faith. Chapter 2, verse 4. And then Habakkuk begins to pray
in chapter 3. Lord, I’ve heard the report about
you, and I fear, O Lord, revive your work in the midst of the
years. In the midst of the years, make it known in wrath, remember
mercy. He pleads for a gospel opportunity. Look at verse 16, I heard in
my inward parts tremble that the sound my lips quivered, decay
enters my bones and in my place I tremble because I must wait
quietly for the day of distress for the people who will arise
who will invade us. And then his statement of faith. Though the fig tree should not
blossom and there be no fruit on the vines though the yield
of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food though
the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle
in the stalls yet will I exult in the Lord. I’m not going to
allow. A wedge to be driven between
me and my God. Tribulation and distress and
persecution and all the rest of it shall not separate me. From the love of God. Yet I will
exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The
Lord God is my strength and he has made my feet like Heinz feet
and makes me walk on my high places. And a question for us
in the midst of this great national tribulation. It’s not easy. We don’t have an easy choice
in November. Listen to what I said four years
ago. This is how I characterized or
rather interpreted Habakkuk’s statement for our own day. Though
a proud and godless man rules over us, considered by followers
a messiah, unfriendly terms are the most hateful rabble, contrary
to most of the principles of our nation. Though liberals rule
the nation, the homosexual agenda is embraced and advanced. The
Supreme Court is captured by the left. Our daughters are sent
to the front line of battle though my taxes are raised and others
are enriched by them. And though my 401k is reduced
to nothing though my freedoms are rescinded my guns are seized
my parenting limited though Christianity and its principles and practices
are outlawed. Yet will I praise the Lord. That’s the test. Nothing can
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. It’s not by might, not by power,
but by my spirit, says the Lord. Our only hope for this nation
is the gospel. The only one who carries that
is the church, and the only one we promote is the Lord Jesus
Christ. What a great privilege and a
great honor it is to tell the world that nothing, no trouble,
can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Let’s rejoice before Him. Our
merciful King, we humble ourselves before You. You have given us
our marching orders. And we are eager to go and proclaim
Christ to a fallen world. We thank You and praise You in
Jesus’ name. Amen.