About the Author

Thomas Ray Floyd was born in 1953 in Simpson County, Mississippi, the son of Roy Thomas Floyd and Lina Sue Shows Floyd. Thomas Ray's mother was a member of a Primitive Baptist church, and he cut his teeth on the doctrines of distinguishing grace.

When he was a small boy, his father was converted to Christ and became a member of a Missionary Baptist Church. Thomas Ray joined the church of his father when he was 13 years old, and thought of himself as a Christian. The doctrines of grace that he had heard as a child continued to be precious to him and when he became an adult, he joined a Primitive Baptist Church. When he was 27, Thomas Ray made his first effort to preach the gospel in public and was ordained to the full functions of the ministry in 1985. In 1986 he was convinced under the preaching of Rolfe Barnard (by tapes from Mt. Olive Tape Library), the written sermons of Spurgeon, and the ministry of Elder Zack Guess that he had been a false professor and cried out in agony of soul to the Lord Jesus Christ to have mercy and truly save him. And He did! Floyd then began to preach the gospel as he had been taught of the Lord.

Floyd has pastored churches in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee and until recently was pastor of a church plant known as "Particular Baptist Fellowship." He and his wife Brenda presently attend Zion Baptist Church at Polkville, Mississippi, pastored by Elder Glen Hopkins. The pulpit ministry of Zion Baptist Church can be heard at Sermonaudio.com.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

God’s Elect Inseparable from His Love

(Article for publication week of 11-16-2011 AD)

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 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” (Romans 8:38-39).

We come this week to conclude our series on the love of God, and we have a most fitting text with which to summarize and conclude. Nothing in God’s universe is able to separate us from God’s sovereign, everlasting , saving love.

First of all, we notice that it is the elect of God who cannot be separated from the love of God. My text belongs not to the reprobate, but only to the chosen of God. The “us” of Romans 8:38-39 refers to those who believe in Christ through the electing love of the Father, the justifying love of the Son, and the regenerating love of the Holy Spirit. To these, the Apostle Paul writes to comfort their often despondent hearts that nothing can separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus their Lord.

In verse 35, 38, and 39 Paul mentions some things which in and of themselves would be catastrophic. But none of these things can separate God’s people from His love for it is in the Eternal Son of God that we are loved. God will no more cease to love His children than He will cease to Love His Eternal Son! It is in fact a Divine Impossibility for the Father to quit loving the Son of His eternal love. The Son is the express image of the Father and One with Him. The Son of God was eternally in the Bosom of the Eternal Father (John 1:18). The great Triune God has eternally interacted with Himself in love. This eternal interaction moved God the Father to choose a people in God the Son. They were eternally united to the Son by eternal and unalterable election. “They on His sacred Bosom lay, loved with an everlasting love” (John Kent). Believer in Christ, God the Father loves you because He sees you in His Son! It is unthinkable that God would ever cease to love one who is in Christ.

The preceding verses in Romans 8 are proofs of God’s love for us. God causes all things to work for good to those who love Him (Romans 8:28). The believer is connected to God by His golden chain of grace (Romans 8:29-30). God is for the believer, so it is futile for any to try to oppose the believer (Romans 8:31). God loves His elect so much that he spared not His Own Son that they might have everlasting life. Not one charge may be brought against a child of God, for he is justified by God Himself. None can condemn a believer in Christ for Christ was delivered for his offences and rose again for his justification and is now at the right hand of God interceding for him. Nothing can separate us from the love of God!

Not one child of God shall be lost having been loved by God. The final perseverance of all the elect is a certainty because of God’s everlasting love. Though believers are assaulted continually by the world, the flesh and the devil, we shall persevere to the end, because of God’s unchangeable love. Though believers slip and slide and falter and fail, God’s love is unchanging. And even our own sins cannot separate us form the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Thank God our salvation does not depend on our faithfulness, but rather on His unchanging Love!

Christian, God cannot love you any more than He has in eternity. He loved you before you loved Him, for He loved you in Christ. God loves you as He loves His Own Son! God cannot love you any less than He loves you now because He loved you before the foundation of the world, and He is unchangeable. There is no variableness nor shadow of turning with Him. Nothing can ever separate us from the love of God which is in His Son, Christ Jesus our Lord! Now , you can believe that because it is written in the word of God!

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