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And we read now from Romans chapter
8, the section which will be preached upon this morning. Romans
chapter 8 beginning to read at verse 31. What then shall we say to these
things? If God is for us, who can be
against us? He who did not spare his own
son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him
graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against
God's elect? It is God who justifies. who
is to condemn. Christ Jesus is the one who died,
more than that who was raised, who is at the right hand of God,
who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword
As it is written, sake we are being killed all the day long,
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these
things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For
I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers,
nor things present nor things to come, nor powers nor height
nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able
to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. God bless his word. This is the end of a series of
sermons which began last year and then was interrupted for
an unexpected few months. A plan of twenty sermons on the
first eight chapters of Romans. This is sermon number twenty
today and I want to speak particularly on one verse in this passage,
verse thirty-seven. Romans chapter eight and verse
thirty-seven. No, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him who loved us. The problem of suffering, one
of the greatest problems of human beings. How much has been said
about suffering in the thousands of years of the world's existence? How much has been written Great minds have wrestled about
suffering. Why does it come? What is it
for? How can we explain it? And several possible answers
have been stated, especially by Christians and in the Bible. But I think we're looking not
in the most important direction. The most important thing about
suffering is not what? Scottish writer J.S. Stewart
wrote, man's chief concern with suffering is not to find explanation
It is to find a victory. It is not to elaborate theory. It is to lay hold upon a power. In other words, it's interesting
enough to ask, why does it come? But it's much more important
to ask, how will I cope with it? What effect will it have? on me. It's good to have our
minds satisfied, but we also have to live through the crises
of life. Whether we can explain them or
not, we've got to live through them. How is that to be done? This is Paul's concern also,
the practical value of the truth. He has just ended a great doctrinal
section at verse thirty of the chapter. And those whom he predestined,
he also called. And those whom he called, he
also justified. And those whom he justified,
he also glorified. He has been dealing since chapter
one, verse nineteen, Verse 18, verse 18, he's been dealing with
human need, with God's provision for that need, and with all the
various implications that follow from it, like justification and
sanctification and so on. But he's about in chapter 9 to
move on to Israel's refusal of the gospel. But in between, he
pauses. It says in verse 31, what then
shall we say to these things? Now that we have grasped the
truth, how are we going to use this truth in the struggles of
earthly life? What effect is it to have upon
us? Our text this morning, verse
37, in English, has 15 words in it, and 14 of them are words
of one syllable. But there's nothing simple about
the text. It's pulsating with power. And God gives us these
words that we can experience for ourselves. the reality of
what they speak. The subject is the believer's
victory. And I want to look at it in a
three-part outline. First of all, then, we have the
sphere of victory. Look at what he says. these think. That's the sphere
in which we evict. What things? Well, he's been talking about
them in verses 35 and 36. Most of the earthly troubles
that we can imagine, pain and sickness, sadness and loss, disappointments
and setbacks. These are the things, as one English writer put it, heartaches
and a thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to. He brings
everything together in those verses. Life at its blackest,
at its most difficult, at its most hurtful, circumstances at
their most difficult, what he called in verse eighteen, the
sufferings of this present time, is the sphere of victory. This is the context in which
victory takes place in all these things. Comprehensive expression. all these things, all of them,
there is nothing painful or hurtful outside the category of being
available for victory. Put the preposition he uses,
in, in all these things. He doesn't say, apart from all
these things. He's not saying a lot of life
is bad and difficult, but then there's another part of life
that isn't bad and isn't difficult. And when we get into that part
of life, well then you see everything is well for us. That's not what
he's saying. He doesn't say after. After these
things. When life on earth is over, we
enter an eternity of perfect happiness, and it's there and
then that we have this glory. Look, it's true. No, he says,
in all these things, in the middle
of them, while we're experiencing them, because of them, by means
of them, we are more than conquerors. We are more than conquerors in
all these terrible things. These things are the arena in
which the victory is won. It's strange, isn't it? It puzzles
you at first. You find yourself wrestling with a lot of horrible things like
this. I say this is where the victory is born. When we look at victory, it comes
home to our hearts. Where does victory take us? Where does victory take us? Is it when you're sitting on
a holiday beach, in deck chairs, eating large ice cream? Is that
where victory takes place? Is it when you've just bought
a beautiful new house? Is it just when you've passed
your exam? Is that where victory takes place? That's not what
the Bible is saying. God is saying that it's not happening
supremely immaculate on troubled beings. Victory takes place on
a battlefield. on a blood-covered battlefield
in carnage, stench, and the screaming of war. That's where victory
is. Victory is for filthy, aching
soldiers, bleeding with wounds, staggering with exhaustion. That's where victory takes place. This fear of victory is an intense
struggle. Fear, pain, tears. It is not antiseptic, or relaxed,
or risk-free. If you're a conqueror, you're
almost certainly bleeding. with a broken arm and exhausted
and hurt. That's what conquerors are like. No war is won just by smart bombs
dropped from high aeroplanes. And that's being reminded to
people today by the land of Libya. We'll send over planes and bombs
and that will sort out the war. It doesn't sort out the war. The war has to be dealt on the
ground. This, you see, is the realism
of Christian faith. It's not pious escapism. Here, the apostle looks steadily
at life as it is. He confronts all the tragedies. What he is saying relates to
them. He is telling us here that the
believer's victory is not dependent on ideal, perfect, totally happy
circumstances. Because if that was the case,
most of us would be excluded, wouldn't we? We don't live in
totally happy, perfect, successful circumstances. No. It's far more valuable. The victory happens where we
are. Where you are now. where you may find yourselves
in the future, where the situation is difficult and painful and
discouraging. There is no situation where it
won't apply in all these things. The promise is earthed, you see,
in day-to-day existence. Alexander McLaren says, it is
not that we shall be conquerors in some far-off heaven when the
noise of battle has ceased. It is here and now, he says,
in the hand-to-hand death grapple that we do overcome. That's for
the victory. Where is the sphere of victory?
In the Divine. This is the sphere of victory
in all these things. Let's think secondly of superlative
of victory. The superlative of victory in
all these things, we are more than conquerors. We are more
than conquerors. the superlativeness of victory. So far this has been a daunting
prospect. We're faced by formidable enemies. We think of the devil and all
his power and all his influence. We look at the world and we see
what he has done. And we ask ourselves, what can
I hope for? in a battle against the devil. You think maybe I'll just about
survive. Maybe that'll be great. Maybe
I'll somehow cope or win through by the skin of my teeth. But
Paul uses a Greek word here, and it's the only time it's used
in the New Testament. It's a verb. It's not just we
conquer, but we are more, more than conquerors. Just think about
that for a moment. We're more than conquerors. It includes total victory. Overwhelming victory. The troubles
which assault us By God's help and strength, we overcome them. They're not able to damage us. They're not able to defeat us
permanently or spiritually. We conquer them. We destroy them. But it's more than that. What does it mean to be more
than a conqueror? I think of the way God had dealt
with Paul. Paul had been Saul, and he had
been a wicked man. He had been someone who hated
the Christians, persecuted them and killed them. Saul was one
of the greatest enemies against the memory of Christ. his people,
and God could have conquered him. Killed him. Lying on the ground
there, dead. He's conquered. Or he could have
made him paralyzed. Paralyzed. Paralyzed. But he couldn't have moved. Conquered. He could have taken away his
brain, so that he couldn't think. He'd be conquered, completely
conquered. But Paul more than conquered
Saul, he made him Paul. He made him an apostle. He filled
him with the gospel which he had never believed. He sent him
all over the country, all over the world as it were, to preach.
Churches were built and books were written and thousands of
people were blessed and dozens and perhaps hundreds of men were
trained by Paul and sent in. Paul was more than comfortable. More than comfortable. What God does here is a superlative
of victory which is more than we tend to think it would be. God not only harms sin, but he
makes sin help us. He not only defeats sinners,
He strengthens them as Christians. It's more than a curse. It's overruled for a blessing. It's hard to accept, I know,
in the depths of pain. It can sound glib, can't it?
Imagine going up to someone who's in the throes of trouble and
saying, you know, really, All this for you is blessing in disguise. And they probably just don't
want to hear that at that moment. Now let me make a fairly fine
point. Paul does not here say that these
things in themselves are blessings. He does not say that these things
in themselves are a blessing. That is not true. They aren't.
They are unnatural. They are the wages of sin. God hates them. Death is the
last enemy. Jesus wept deeply moved at the
grave of his friend. Paul himself knew too much about
trouble to take it lightly. In verses 35 and 36, he gives
us seven sins or troubles. Tribulation, distress, persecution,
famine, nakedness, danger, and so on. And he has already experienced
the first six of these. And we know that the time will
come when he will experience the seventh, as the sword kills
him. But these things, they're not
good in themselves, but they're overruled for good. They're overruled for good. God
takes all these things and uses them. And He brings good through them
and He changes us for the better because of things which are evil. Romans 5.3 We rejoice in our
sufferings. We rejoice in our sufferings. Knowing that suffering produces
endurance. Endurance, character. Character, hope. In the long
term, in the understanding, you know why God has done these things
to us, and you understand them, and you thank Him. And I would
say, dear friends, that this has happened to many of us here
in this church this morning. You have had trouble in your
lives, and it's been hard, heart-breaking, painful, desperate trouble. Very hard. But as you look back, your faith
has been strengthened. Your prior priorities have been corrected
and your character has been refined. You believe God in a new way. You believe his truth. You believe
his glory. He believes all that he does.
That will happen to every one of us people. What have we prayed for? Psalm 119 verse 75 says,
I know, O Lord, that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. have allied terribly hurtful,
tragic, sorrowful things in my life. When I look back, I see
faithfulness. I see faithfulness in all these things. We are more
than copper. all these ugly, terrible things,
all these things that have been subverted, in all of them, by
God's grace, we are more than conquered. The sphere of victory, the superlative
of victory, more than conquered. Then we come, lastly, to the
source of victory, through Him who loved us. Through Him who
loved us. Here is the source of victory. If we had ended the text at the
previous point, it would have been utterly arrogant. In all
these things, we are more than conquerors. That's the end of
it. That's all people need to know. I am a conqueror in everything. Some of you aren't really, are
you? But it all ends, the thought,
with what one commentator says, a transcendent factor which turns the sorrow
into joy, and the defeat into victory. Which turns the sorrow
into joy, and the defeat into victory. Through Him, through love. If these words hadn't been there,
this would have been a piece of empty boasting or pathetic
whistling in the dark. His presence is noted here. Christ himself says, I am with
you always. And he's with all his people.
He's with all his people. But let me say this. He is unusually
with his son. He's unusually with his son. He's with them more. He's with them more caring. He's
with them more loving. Remember the Old Testament. Three
young men are pushed into a flame where they're going to be burnt
to death. The people who have pushed them suddenly look in.
They say, we put three people in. There's four of them. There's four people. It's God
He was with. Look at the context here. 35,
who shall separate us from the love of Christ? We want to start
thinking about pain and sin and difficulty and hardship. Who
shall separate us? What shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Or verse 39, nothing will be
able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. He's an unusually near-suffering
people. Parents, let's say, have four
children. They love them all. They love
them all equally. They're all just as dear to them
as the others. And then one of the children
becomes very seriously ill. And suddenly the parents are
giving far more time and far more effort and far more thought
to that ill child than to the other children. It doesn't mean
she loves them any less. It doesn't mean he's not interested
in them. But at this moment, at this time, there is this child
who needs very special love and care. And that's how God behaves
with us. We're all His children when we're
in Christ. He loves them all. He loves us
all. He loves us all forever. There
are times in all of our lives when He'd be special. And the psalmist says in Psalm
23, verse 4, Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil. For you are with me. You are with me. We know that Christ has all authority. We know that he has twelve legions
of angels, as the New Testament says. We know that he could take
away all our trouble with us in a second. But the Word, everything
in your life that's upsetting, Jesus could remove it, just like
that. Yet, he allows the grief to come. He allows the grief to come. That doesn't mean that he doesn't
care for you. His heart is moved towards you
extra, more intensely, more than ever. I am with you
always." There's more here than Christ's
presence. The source of victory, I believe, is Christ's passion. Christ's passion through Him
who loved us. He always has loved us. If you're
a Christian, He has loved you since the universe was created,
since before the universe was created. He knew you, and He
loved you. He's loved you ever since, and
He'll love you forever and forever, throughout all eternity. But the verb here in this text
points to one supreme moment in the past. when Christ's love
was extended in a unique, most significant way. At this time,
He loved them. Then, then He loved them. That
was when He loved them. Of course, Paul is thinking of
Calvary. Jesus said, greater love has
no man than this. Here is the source of victory,
who loved us. This is because on the cross,
evil was broken forever. He broke it. He paid the full penalty for
all the sins of every one. He paid it all. He robbed death of its sting,
and the grave was filled. On the cross, Jesus secured everlasting
life for every one of his own people. And what's more is that
in this act of love, Christ faced the full force of evil, all that
the devil could do, and he not only overcame it, he turned it
into good. The darkest despair in history
is the Son of God hanging. cursed from death, no peace of mind. Whatever you wanted to
say in history, hell has won. It was as Jesus died on the cross. Hell has won. Yet, in fact, every cruelty Every
blow of Satan was saving sin. It's not a tragedy, it's a triumph. It's not a defeat, it's a victory. We're more than conquerors through
Him who loved us. We've all got souvenirs given
to us to remember things. Our house is getting extremely
filled with souvenirs from many, many different countries. When Christ was arranging for
a memorial, he decided that it
would be red and white, because they were symbols of a bleeding
dying, suffering. That's the Supreme. That's the
happiest. That's the most glorious. He
says to His people, until I come back again, when you remember
Me, remember Me like this. Remember Me like this. Isn't
that amazing? That wonderful thing that the
devil thought was his triumph. Jesus' victory for God. How many sort of half insincere
Christians would have said, look, we never want to talk about the
cross. Don't ever mention the cross.
The cross is horrible. We'll talk about his birth and
we'll talk about his miracles and we'll talk about his resurrection. But don't ever
talk about the cross. Jesus says if you want to remember
one thing, one thing, the cross. You see friends, that's the pattern
ever since. We as Christians, as followers
of Jesus, can look at sufferings without fear. We can confront the worst that
Satan can do to us without being shaken in faith, for Christ is
here before us. We are called to take up our
cross and follow Him. Our victories are not going to
be marked by swagger and cheerfulness. Victories will mean victories
for Jesus, that we're tired and troubled, that we struggle and
sometimes we're sad, but Jesus Christ is with us and He is seen
in us. He is seen in us. When is Christ
seen in you? He bears witness through us.
This is how His work is done in the world. Us suffering. He is the source of our victory.
All the praise is to Him. We are to trust Him. Just one more thing I want to
say. We've been thinking this morning of our tragedy becoming
triumph. through the love of Christ shown
at the cross. But there's another kind of tragedy.
Perhaps it's not so immediately visible, and it is no victory,
and it is no happy end. That's the tragedy of a Christless tragedy of Christ. Someone who comes to church every
week, knows lots of the Bible perhaps, is liked by many people,
but they have never trusted Jesus Christ for themselves, in their
heart. And if there's anyone here today
in that position, all these things that we've been thinking about,
they threaten you, and terrify you, and hate you. And you have no defence, no hope,
no companion. I say to you, friend, how will
you face them? What will you do? There's only
one answer. Come to the cross. Look to the
Savior. Claim His death for you as for
your sin. And if you will do that, the
victory will be yours. all that life may bring, over
death and judgment and hell, you'll be more than conquered.
You'll never be afraid again. May it be true for all of us
in this room, in this building, through Him who loves us. We pray that your Holy Spirit
will write your word upon our hearts, and cause us to think
of these things, to reflect on them. And, O Father, we thank
you for the wisdom and the glory of this teaching, how we're not
trying to have a perfect, simple completely
physically happy life here on earth. But Lord, we, as followers
of Christ, will suffer at times. We'll be caused to fight evil. We'll be caused, O God, to do
much that is demanding and testing. We thank you for our Saviour
who went ahead of us, who set us an example, who conquered
all our sin, and who by His power and strength will enable us to
live for Him. Help us to do so, we pray, O
God. We thank You, Heavenly Father,
for this day, this special day. Be with us throughout the afternoon,
we pray. May it be good for us, time to
rest, time to think, time to talk to one another. We pray
for our service this evening. We pray for David as he comes
to minister the word to us. We thank you, O God, we are filled
with joy that he is here. We pray for him and his family,
and we pray that you will use him to speak to us this evening.
Grant us your blessing now, we ask, O God, in Jesus' name and
for his sake. Amen.
In All These Things We are More Than Conquerors
Series Romans
| Sermon ID | 523111333312 |
| Duration | 45:55 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | Romans 8:31-39 |
| Language | English |
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