Outside of God Himself, who knows you best? Is it your spouse or close friend sitting next to you? Is it your mother and father who raised you? Is it a friend whom you played with and went to school with since you were a child? Who knows you best and why do they know you best? (Get a couple of responses.)
I can see that. But if I may, I beg to humbly disagree with you. I know your spouse, or parents, or friends may be close to you. But the one who knows you best is you, isn't it? None of the others, no matter how close they may be to you, hear all the thoughts that go through your head. Neither do they hear all the conversations that you have within your heart. Only you do, and God because God knows what goes on in the heart of every man (Jn.2:24f).
Well, there may be another who seems to know what's going on with us. At least he can see what's outwardly happening to us and then he uses that against us. Do you know who I mean?
I'm thinking of the devil. He knows you pretty well, doesn't he, although I believe it is a mistake to think he knows your every thought? He may be a good “guesser,” but he is not all-knowing. Only God is omniscient and knows all things (Jn.21:17). Still the devil has watched you for many years, and he sees the things that are going on around you. You have been his “spectator sport,” so to speak. He prowls around ever so silently looking, watching, waiting for just the right minute to pounce (1 Pt.5:8). He knows you pretty well, and he will use that understanding about you for his benefit and your downfall. But, if God is for you the devil can use I. no accusations, II. no sorrows, III. nothing anywhere to separate you from God's love for you in Christ.
I. No accusation can separate you from God's love in Christ.
Wow! What a comfort and assurance that God gives us here, to put our minds and hearts at ease. It's the heart that He starts with. Paul writes, “Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died – more than that, who was raised to life – is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.”
The first thing God goes to in these words is your heart, because the devil often uses your heart against you to mislead and lead you to despair – spiritual despair. If he can tempt you there and get a hold of your heart, he's got you.
You see, a heart untouched by the Gospel is not necessarily the place to go to for guidance. By nature our hearts do not have a correct understanding of things. Jesus warned, “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.' For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside” (Mk.7:20f).
That's the reason I shudder when I hear people give the advice to simply follow one's heart. You know what I mean. Someone is confused or floundering in life, not knowing which way to go. So a friend meaning well suggests, “Just follow your heart and you'll do the right thing.” Well, dear friends, not always because the devil knows how to make that heart go astray. And if he can make the heart go astray, he will use that to drive a person to despair by getting the heart to accuse.
Hasn't that happened sometime to each of us? We look into the secret chambers of our hearts for evidence that we are God's children, and we fail to find it, for we are aware that in times of weakness we have given in to temptation. We search our souls for assurance of our salvation, but only find evidence of our sin. Our own heart confronts us, accuses us, and finally condemns us with the crushing judgment: “And you call yourself a Christian? Look what you've done!”
It is at moments like these that divine assurance comes to us from the Bible (1Jn.3:20): “Whenever our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and He knows everything.”
To anyone but a Christian it is a terrible thought to realize that God “knows everything.” For among those things which He knows are the unnumbered sins which lurk within the human heart, like skeletons in a closet. To know that God knows everything can be a terrible thought.
And yet to the Christian there is comfort in the fact that God “knows all things.” Why? What is it that God knows that can reverse the terrible judgment of our hearts?
Paul answers, “He did not spare His own Son, but gave him up for us all.” In Christ God justifies, forgives, declares the sinner innocent.
Furthermore, Jesus pleads for you above: “Father, forgive them. I died for their sins – all of them.” That is fact, and because of it no accusation can separate you from God's love. In Christ God is for you . You have His word on it. Never let the devil use your heart try to tell you differently (Ro.8:1).
You know, dear friends, right there is the difference between the Christian faith and all other religions which men have devised. God looks at us through Christ and faith in Him! He knows, to be sure, that we are sinners. But He also knows that in Christ our guilt has been atoned, our sins have been paid, and we are righteous in His sight.
So, let no accusation separate you from God's love in Christ. Even in your most depressing times, you are loved in Christ. And so the Savior assures, “My son, my daughter, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you” (Mt.9:2).
II. No sorrow can separate you from His love in Christ.
But the heart is only one way the devil tries to get you to despair. He's got other tools to use, too. Paul describes them as “troubles, hardships, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and sword.” To make it easier, let's just lump them all under one word. Let's call them worldly sorrows .
When sorrows come the devil often tempts us to believe that it's just another indication that we've lost God's love. He wants us to think like little children who get spanked. The spanking hurts. And because of that they are tempted to think that their parents don't love them anymore. Weren't you tempted to think that way when you were a child? But now having been parents yourselves, you know that the discipline which a parent gives to a child is good for him. In fact, the Bible says that “he who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him.” Discipline shows that the parent loves and is really for the child, not against him. He is looking out for the child's best interests.
In the same way we shouldn't think that if the Lord allows sorrows to enter our lives, that it is an indication that the Lord's love has been separated from us. Indeed, the opposite is true for the Bible says, “The Lord disciplines those whom He loves” (Hb.12:6). If such discipline comes, it only draws you closer to Him. Furthermore, hardships toughen character (Ro.5:3), show us our weakness, and turn our attention to God who alone is our Strength.
If such sorrows come, it is only right to see in them how much God loves you and how much He is for you. Far from meaning that His love has been separated from you, they are an indication that His love goes with you, like a parent's love for his child. No sorrow can separate you from God's love in Christ. Rather, it draws you closer.
III. In fact, nothing anywhere can separate you from God's love in Christ.
Paul ends our text: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Think of it. Death can't separate you from God. Indeed, it will only bring you closer to Him as He takes you to heaven. The Bible says, “If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die we are the Lord's.”
Angels can't separate you from God. In fact, the good ones are sent by God to serve you and bring you to Abraham's bosom. And the evil ones are powerless before God.
The highest honors which the world might give or the lowest depths to which your enemies might take you can't separate you from God. Even if the entire world were against you, it can't separate you from Him because Christ assures: “I am with you always.” Paul was sure. Once he was found in Christ nothing anywhere could separate him from God's love.
Wouldn't it be great to have that same type of assurance? You do, dear friend, for the same Savior that was Paul's is your Savior, too. The same Savior that gave Paul such great and precious promises to fight off temptation, is your Savior, too. His love will not diminish; His promises never fade away. If God Is for You, who can be again you? No one and no thing! God grant us that assurance in faith for Jesus' sake. Amen.