Rev (Dr) Quek Suan Yew 

                       “Nothing Can Separate Us From God’s Love” (Romans 8:35-39)
Message preached at Calvary Pandan Bible-Presbyterian Church’s 38th Anniversary (2017)

Thirty eight years ago (1979), God moved the heart of His faithful servant, our founding Pastor Dr SH Tow, to begin a new work in Pandan Gardens. A group from Calvary Bible-Presbyterian Church accompanied Dr Tow. With the seed of a few, our gracious and merciful heavenly Father enlarged the ministry to what it is today, like the parable of the mustard seed taught by Christ in Matthew 13:31. God moved the hearts of the JTC leaders to grant us the property at 201 Pandan Gardens. Today, admittedly nearly all of us in the sanctuary are recipients of this spiritual blessing from our good God. We have much to reflect upon and be grateful and thankful to God for. We ought to remember our past with thankfulness as we see the hand of God leading and guiding us even though we were not aware of His presence; He was, however, aware of ours. We reflect upon the future prophecies with hope in our eyes and hearts, knowing that our sovereign loving heavenly Father will surely keep His Word, for He can never lie. We must reflect on our present as we are bound by space and time and answerable to God on how we live for Him every day, especially in light of the past and His prophecies of the future.

But the most important thing all of us must reflect upon now is to make sure of our salvation. We are living in the last days. Deceptions abound in ways that the world has never seen before since the founding of the church in the first century A.D. as recorded in Acts 2. The internet spreads lies and evil at break neck speed, covering the face of the earth in seconds. This is unprecedented. The days of Sodom and Gomorrah are before us where fornication and homosexuality will become an acceptable way of life. The Lord Jesus prophesied these things 2,000 years ago before He went to the cross. He said that before His return Christianity will fall away, i.e. become apostate (cf. 2Thessalonians 2:1-3). This means that there will be more professing believers than real believers. Christianity will be swamped by the false gospel and many sinners will believe in the Christ of Satan’s making. They think they are going to heaven but in fact they are still heading toward hell, for they will die in their sin. The Charismatic Movement (tongues speaking, visions and dreams and claims of miracles), the neo-evangelical movement (rejecting biblical separation), ecumenical movement (one world religion of the Antichrist) and the Bible with mistakes movement are all part of the last days phenomenon. These movements arose in the beginning and middle of the twentieth century. In less than one hundred years, they managed to rob the soul of Christianity which is Jesus Christ of Holy Scriptures. The face of Christianity now is the face of the Evil One carefully and beautifully painted with the colour of compromise, mixed with the dirt of an imperfect Bible. This pandemic has infected all denominations around the world. The gospel declared around the world is the gospel of the evil one.

That is why it is of utmost importance that all of us make sure of our salvation. We do so by ensuring that we bear the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. We need to check our souls whether there is a sincere love for Christ by loving His holy and perfect Word. The love of Christ will also result in the love for a continuous communion with God in prayer. Worshipping the Lord by keeping the Lord’s Day holy is a joy on the most precious and important day of every week. It is the day we come to church on time for worship and to praise our heavenly Father from our hearts, and with all our soul and mind and strength. The peace and joy of living for Christ is indescribable. All believers must have these experiences and more as they live and serve Christ on this earth. Sufferings for Christ and adversities in life will not deter them from living holy and godly lives before God and man. As believers live on earth they know that they will face the onslaught of the evil one and his minions.

Sometimes the evil one succeeds in bringing us down by causing us to sin and perhaps we begin to doubt our salvation despite our years of living for Christ as believers. This is how potent the evil one can be in ruining our witness for Christ. For when we doubt our salvation, our service and witness will be rendered listless and helpless. God wants to assure all His beloved children that as they serve Him on earth, there is nothing that will ever separate us from His love.

God assures all believers that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. The word “separate” means “to make a space or gap between two things or persons.” There will not be a slightest gap between us and God's love.

I. Nothing on Earth (8:35-37) – “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” – The promise of no separation does not mean from Christ, but from Christ’s love. When we are in the body here on earth serving the Lord, we are not in heaven with God, physically. This is not the reality that God wants to reassure us of. The doubt that sometimes comes to mind is to doubt Christ’s love for us. This doubt hits us the most in times of suffering. The sufferings include –

• tribulation -- Literally it means to be crushed. It is a grievous suffering that is painful to the soul and not just the body. The emotional and mental pain that comes with this tribulation is very real;
• distress -- This is not as bad as “tribulation.” This refers to a person, placed inside a small room, who feels squeezed by the narrowness of the room. He feels boxed in, mentally and emotionally. The feeling is one of discomfort and not pain . . . yet;
• persecution -- Literally it means to be pursued. The enemies will hound you non-stop. They will not give you rest. Again it is mental and physical anguish that is long lasting to wear the believer down. The agenda is to get him to sin and doubt . . . “maybe Christ does not love me anymore, otherwise why is the suffering so incessant?”;
• famine -- Physical suffering that comes in the form of losing jobs and property where the provision of food on the table for oneself and the family is removed from the believer’s life;
• nakedness -- No clothes to wear. The person has no home and safety is taken from him. He suffers continuous danger from evil men and the elements.
• peril -- Constant danger of life and limb and body. He could be thrown into prison or be beaten or stoned to death at any time. This persistent tension of life and death will wear a person down mentally and emotionally;
• sword – To be killed or maimed for the faith.

The above are all experiences that we face only when we are on earth. The context is suffering for Christ. When we obey the Word of God and bear a holy and godly image of Christ in our lives, the enemy will attack us. This understanding is confirmed by the next verse which is a quotation from Psalm 44:22. The context of Psalm 44:22 is the same for Romans 8:36. For the sake of Christ we live and die and we suffer. We die all the day long for Christ. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter for Christ’s sake just as Christ was our Lamb for our sake. We live and die for Christ now because He lived and died for us on Calvary. This must be the mind set of all believers when we wake up every morning. When this is not the believer's conscious mind-set, he will be seduced by the world’s constant bombardment of seeking materialism and regarding it as the best way to live. The believer will forget who he is in Christ and the reason for him being here which is to live a holy life for Christ even in the face of persecution. He is to die all the day long for Christ and not for the world.

In this manner, believers do not merely endure sufferings with gritted teeth and murmur under their breath; they are more than conquerors through Christ who loved them. Christ loved all believers when they were sinners. Now that they are children of God and disciples of Christ, He will always love them. He will never stop loving them. Believers need to stop measuring their life based upon the material and physical yardstick. The world believes that when there is no “quality of life”, i.e. no longer mobile and has to depend on others to walk and use the bathroom, he ought not to live any longer. Do babies have quality of life? They are not able to walk and need help going to the bathroom too. Do you want to terminate their lives too? This kind of warped thinking is common in the world but it must never be found in the mind of believers. Believers must measure their lives based upon their relationship with Christ. They must not doubt Christ’s love for them when they go through sufferings for Him as they serve and witness a good confession for Him. There is not even a hair’s breadth of separation between the children of God and the love of Christ.

II. Nothing in Heaven (8:38-39) – “38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Paul was persuaded, i.e. thoroughly convinced, when he first accepted Christ, and he continued to be convinced that NOTHING has the power to separate him from the love of God, for this love is sealed by the blood of Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son who died for him and rose from the dead for him. This was Paul’s confidence. His confidence was not in himself but in what God has done through Christ.

• death -- The end of life on earth. The life after this life will not separate us from God’s love;
• life -- It is life eternal that awaits all believers. Believers have nothing to be afraid of in this life and in the life to come. Eternal life will not dim or separate God's love for believers;
• angels -- The good, including all fallen angelic beings, will not separate believers from God's love. Good angels will never want to do that. Fallen angels on the other hand will. They have angelic powers but they will not be powerful enough to separate believers from God's love;
• principalities -- These are rulers in the spiritual realm and rulers on earth; powerful beings that can take physical life but their powers are useless when it comes to the love of God for all His children;
• powers -- The authorities like governments and institutions have power to control people. They issues laws and decrees to regulate the lives of people all the time. They increase taxes. They change the books in schools. They manipulate the minds and affections of people they control. Yet when it comes to God's love for His children, this power is also useless. God will never stop loving His children no matter what these powers do to God's children;
• things present -- Nothing in the everyday life of God’s children has the power to separate God’s love;
• things to come -- No future things or people or being can put the slightest gap between the believer and God's love for him;
• height, nor depth -- No matter how high or how deep the believer goes in the whole universe, even to the highest mountain or outer space or the deepest ocean, God's love for His children will always be the same, inseparable;
• any other creature -- Nothing in all of God’s creation can separate God's love for believers.

Conclusion -- Separation is a sad feeling. It is also part of everyone’s experiences in this life. The deeper we love someone the deeper the pain when separation comes. But thank God there is no separation when it comes to God's love in Christ. God’s love for believers transformed them from sinners to saints. God's love for believers transformed them from enemies to children of the Most High God. These are relationships that God reveals to all believers to assure them that God will never stop loving them and nothing on earth or in heaven can separate them from Him. Some believers have been saved and brought home to heaven by God soon after they became His children. But many are left behind on this dangerous and sin-filled earth to be witnesses for Christ, bearing His Name and His holy image. These are the ones who need the assurance from God that He will always love them no matter what persecution they have to endure for Christ’s sake.

As we reflect back on the church’s 38 years of existence, we truly have much to thank God for. Thank God for past faithful servants who obeyed God's call to begin this work in Pandan Gardens. We are like the birds that have flown in to find shade and safety in this big tree to keep us safe from the attacks of the outside sinful world. This big tree provides the spiritual nourishment and fellowship to help us grow in grace and in the knowledge of God. We need to reflect on how we are living for Christ as we think of the future as well as the past. The Lord will return soon. These anniversaries not only remind us of God’s faithfulness in these past 38 years but must also remind us of the brevity of life; and soon man’s time on earth will be over. As we serve God in the face of great adversities, cling on to Him and do not doubt His love for us. His promises are true. One day we will all finish our work here on earth and Christ will take us all home to glory. Whatever we are going through now as we witness for Jesus Christ, let us make sure of our salvation and do not doubt His great love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.