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.