The Lord’s Sheep – Romans 8:35-39

 I won’t keep you long this afternoon. First, it wouldn’t do me much good to try, after that meal we just ate. Then second, I’m just doing a little house-keeping, thinking about a verse that we’ve basically skipped over. “As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

These words have always seemed just a little out of place to me. They seem to come in the middle of the thought. In verse 35 Paul begins to give us a list of pirates who are out to either rob us of the love of God, or else they are attempting to kidnap us in order to keep us from that love. And then in the following verses it seems that the list gets even more specific. Nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” But actually verse 36 isn’t out of place at all. The Apostle simply reminds us that we aren’t the first saints of God to feel the enemy’s wrath.

We’ll divide our thoughts into three headings this afternoon. They are: We have heard; We are killed, and We are Sheep. May God bless His Word to our hearts.

We have heard – “As it is written.“Let’s not forget that the people to whom Paul was writing were living in a very dangerous day to be a Christian. It’s not that ours are not dangerous days, but by God’s grace we live in a sheltered corner of the world. There are professing Christians, and true saints of God, being slaughtered every day – “all the day long.” I have included a short article in our bulletin this morning, which pointed out one rather important country in the history of the work of God. Burma today is far from a Christian nation, and anyone in that country who professes to love Christ Jesus is signing his own death warrant. Over the next few weeks I’m going to reprinting several articles similar to the one today. Paul was trying to encourage the saints in Rome by saying, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” And “who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?” Then he reaches back to Psalm 44 and reminds us that the saints of the Lord in earlier days suffered too.

I know that it is a somewhat lengthy Psalm, but I’d like us to read it together – please turn to Psalm 44. Notice that the Psalmist was concerned that perhaps God had forsaken His people. He might have wondered whether or not the Lord still loved them. Had their distress, persecution, famine and nakedness caused Jehovah to turn His back upon them? Paul quotes one verse and then replies – “Never; the Lord will never forsake His elect.”

Now, here is the thing that I’d like you to see – once again. Despite being lead of the Holy Spirit himself – despite penning divine scriptures – Paul leans upon earlier scriptures for his authority. I have now preached far more sermons than I have heard preached, but I have heard a great many. Nearly everyone of those messages began with a text of scripture. There have been occasions when I got excited about the upcoming message because of the text. But there have been many occasions when my excitement was misspent, because that preacher left his scripture never to return to it again. That isn’t to say that what he said wasn’t Biblical, but it wasn’t related to that specific scripture. On the other hand, there have been a few occasions when the message was not at all Biblical. Here is the point: when the speaker isn’t expounding the scripture, he lacks authority and should shut up. There is no preacher in the world today, who has the same kind of divine direction as the Apostle Paul. There are no new scriptures being given by inspiration of the Holy Spirit today – no new revelation. And when we have Paul taking authority from the scripture that says a lot to the rest of us. I have no authoritative message for you except what I glean from the Word of God – so pray for me.

Secondly, do you suppose that Paul considered Psalm 44 a part of the inspired Holy Scriptures? He doesn’t call this a quote from scripture, but I guarantee that if we could ask him he would say that this was the Word of God. But it needs to be understood that, Paul did not have the original writings of Moses, David or Daniel. As the theologian or Bible student might say, he didn’t have “the original autographs.” Furthermore, Paul was probably not referring to Hebrew COPIES of the autographs. Most of the time, and for most of the saints of God in that day, Greek translations of the Hebrew were used. But just because those people didn’t have originals, that didn’t mean that they didn’t have the Word of God. I can’t tell you if it is pride or stupidity for someone to say that the God who went to the trouble to inspire His divine message, but then He wouldn’t take steps to preserve His word. Paul could say it in his day, holding a Greek Bible in his hand as he preached to Romans – “This is the Word of the Lord.” And today we can say as we hold the King James Bible in our hands, “This is the inspired Word of God.”

It is a very interesting thing to me: Those who believe that the King James is the inspired Word of God use the Bible itself to give authority to their assertions. But those who attack the King James use philosophy, human logic, history and rhetoric for their basis of their arguments. The only time that those people refer to the King James Bible itself is to point out imaginary contradictions. They cannot find a single verse which suggests that we should some day no longer have God’s Word. Paul had no doubts about the Word of the Lord. And I have not doubts about it either, because, in part, God promises that He would never leave humanity without a witness of His revelation. The first thing that we have in this verse is an “as it is written.”

And what we have heard is that we are killed.Romans 15 says, “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” The Old Testament shows us again and again that God’s people will never be loved for being God’s people. Take Joseph as an example: Why did his brothers hate him? Since there were ten who did, I’m sure that we might have ten explanations for their hatred. But one of the major reasons would have to be that he gave to them the Word of the Lord. Weren’t his dreams given by God under divine inspiration? Sinners in any society and every society hate to be told what the Word of God says. Was Noah the most popular person in antidiluvia? Not hardly. And why was that? Because he told people that God hated their sins and was about to send judgment. Why was Abel murdered? I’m sure that the answer wasn’t this simple, but partly because he worshiped God correctly, while his brother was a sinful rebel, who chose to do his things his own way. David was hated by Saul for the same reasons. Mordecai was hated by Haman for the same reasons. All those who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution to some degree. And brethren if David, Joseph, and Abel suffered, you might expect yourselves to suffer as well. That was Paul’s message here.

Perhaps my favorite commentary on the Book of Romans is that of Robert Haldane. I cannot tell you how many times I have consulted it over the last 120 messages. As I did so on Friday, a piece of paper fell out of it – which I haven’t seen in years, perhaps in 25 years. I can’t specifically remember ever seeing it before, but I must have because I wrote a note on it. In the upper right corner it has a rubber stamp image which was probably the man’s return address. It was a Nanaimo, British Columbia address. It is dated May 17, 1983, and it was addressed to me in Calgary. It reads: “Dear Brother. The very reason you would have people go to Sunday school, the propriety of it, that it is fashionable, no doubt appeals to the world. However, one glance at the picture on “Missionary messenger” gives me all the reason I need NOT to be there.” Then the man printed his name – something which a great many critics deliberately forget to do. I can’t remember ever meeting any man with that particular name. What a coincident that I should find this note, just when I was thinking about this message. The only picture that I ever recall on the front of our “Missionary Messenger” magazine was that of a lighthouse designed by Garry Zeweniuk. And I think that my note was directed to him. It reads: “A friend of yours?”

My point is this: Most people don’t like anyone to believe that they have the only light – the truth. We live in a pluralistic society where we are told that there are all kinds of truth, and many ways to glory. Throughout the years, people who have insisted that they have the truth have been hated and even killed. It wasn’t just in Paul’s day, but in the Psalmist’s day as well. And even in our day, those who stand for the truth and preach the truth will be hated for that truth.

“For THY sake we are killed.” In other words, it is for the Lord and His Lord’s truth that we are killed, not because of our own ideas or our own righteousness. And yet, says Paul, not even the most severe form of persecution can separate us from the love of God.

We are as sheep for the slaughter.It seems to me that this reference to sheep can be examined from two different angles. On the one hand, at times the wicked have slaughtered God’s saints with no more mercy than they show for sheep or cattle. In fact our forefathers have been slaughtered with less emotion than a man might squash a bug. Look, and listen to them cry out against the Saviour – “crucify him, crucify him.” The histories of the Waldenses, for example, talk about the cruelest tortures of even women and children. Our Baptist forefathers have often been slaughter like sheep.

The other angle of approach to this statement is that quite often those saints have been as meek and resistant as their Saviour – the Lamb of God. Which brings more glory to God – the violent defense of our earthly lives and liberties? Or permitting the Lord either to miraculously defend us or to carry out vengeance for us as He sees fit?

Even though the saints of God have been slaughtered as sheep, still their sufferings and their deaths are in no way a reflection on God’s love for them. “Nothing shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.”