Video Transcript: More Than Conquerors

The bible reading today is the end of Romans chapter eight verses 31 through 39. What then,  shall we say in response to this? 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 along with him graciously give us  all things? Who should bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who  

justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died more than that, who was raised to  life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the  love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger or  sword? As it is written for your sake, we face death all 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'm convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the  present, nor the future, nor any powers, neither 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, this ends  the reading of God's Word. And God always blesses His Word, to those who listen. When we  hear the Gospel, the power of God for salvation, and when we hear what it involves, we need  to respond when we hear of our terrible plight, as Romans describes it, and how desperately  lost we are, and under God's wrath, because of our sin, and then hear that God has made a  righteousness from himself, available to us through Jesus death and his resurrection, and that  God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit and given us peace with God,  that he's united us with Christ, that he's adopted us as children of God, that he is working all  things for the good of those who love him, because he always predestined it for our good  when we hear all of that, then we need to respond. What shall we say, in response to this,  there is sometimes a danger of hearing the great truths of the gospel, or hearing them  develop and one danger is simply that we're hearing these doctrines and these ideas and this  worldview, and we need to get them lined up and filed away. And we hope we could  remember the outline a little better than we do. And sometimes we have a little different  problem, we hear it all, and that preacher up front sounds pretty excited, or maybe a couple  of other people seem kind of excited about it, and our hearts are pretty cold, or we've just, for whatever reason, feel pretty blah and we leave pretty much the same as when we came in.  But we sometimes need to stop and reflect and ponder and meditate and respond. The  Apostle has been revealing the Word of God that the greatest explanation of the gospel that  there is in the whole Bible in these first eight chapters of Romans, and then you get to this  point, and he says, Okay, now, what shall we say? In response to this, I spent all of last week's message talking about what this means. The first eight chapters of Romans, the overview of  all that has been revealed there. What do we say in response to this? We, we who hear this  message in a lot of different mindsets, we who find ourselves in a lot of different situations?  What do we say? We need to think about not just the gospel, but who we are, and what's  going on in our lives, and then see what all of that looks like in light of the gospel. What is it?  What is my response? What am I gonna say? What am I going to do? What am I going to feel  how am I going to respond to these things? If I've been going through grief in my life Whether  that grief is the loss of a loved one, whether it's the loss of something precious to me,  whether it is the difficulties that I'm facing in my job, or in my finance, whether it's struggles,  in relationships that are tearing me apart, whether it's mental illness and behaviors that are  wrecking me, what, what am I going to say, in response to this, we sometimes have things  going on that seem to loom very large. And we enter the church, and we enter the building,  and we enter the Bible with those things. And sometimes we leave just carrying those things  with us, and not having much room for what God has revealed to us. So what are we going to  say, in response to this? And the apostle asked what we're going to say, and then he goes  through some questions to ask ourselves, and he wants us to be very realistic and honest, in  asking these questions. One question is simply this, if God is for us, who is against us? I know  this translation says who can be against us. But the question in the original is just if God be  for us, who is against us, let us compare. Because in the apostles case, there were definitely  things against him, and powers arrayed against him. And so he's not being unrealistic saying,  oh there. No problem. Now, all is easy. He's saying, Now, if God is for us, let's put that on one  side, who is against us? And if you look throughout the Bible, that is a very important question to ask. At the time of Moses, when Moses said, Let my people go, who was against him? Only 

the most powerful dictator in the world, and all of his forces, and the might of Egypt was  arrayed against Moses, and Pharaoh knew it. And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should  obey Him and let Israel go? Oh, nice question. Glad you asked. And by the end of it, you have  Pharaoh and all the might of Egypt over here, you have Moses, and God over here, and guess  who wins? You have the mighty Goliath. And he is mocking God, and he is mocking God's  people. And you have a young shepherd, who says, Who is this Philistine that he should mock  the living God? If God is for us, who is against us, and when David's own brothers looked at  him, they thought he had no chance. When King Saul looked at David, King Saul thought he  had no chance when Goliath looked at David, Goliath thought he had no chance and was  insulted that they would send such a punk out to fight him. But if God before us, who is  against us, and Goliath was down for the count the armies of Sennacherib the greatest  dictator in the world of that time, the armies of Assyria were surrounding Jerusalem. And he  was saying and insulting the people of Jerusalem, say don't think your God is going to rescue  you and don't believe anything King Hezekiah says when he says the Lord is going to rescue  us, what nation has ever resisted the armies of Assyria what God has ever rescued anybody  from the king of Assyria. And God said, not one arrow will fly into the city. And that night,  185,000 Assyrian troops lay dead, if God be for us who can be against us, the apostle is  saying this and he knows the might of God. He knows who's against him. He knows that the  Jewish authorities have been against him. He was one of them once upon a time trying to  hunt down the Christians and kill them. He knew that the Roman authorities were already  pretty hostile to Christianity and would become more hostile. Within a few years of Paul  writing this letter to Rome the streets of Rome were running with Christian blood. The  theatres of Rome had the lions and the other beasts devouring Christians. Nero's gardens  were being lit by burning Christians, who is against us just about everybody and all the might  of Rome. And the Rome of the Caesars is a ruin, and God reigns. And the man who wrote this  we still know the Apostle Paul. We don't know very much about those various Caesars  anymore because they're they're gone. If God is for us who can be against us, we really do  need to ask that question because when you look at your own life, something seemed very  large, you must keep in mind who is for you, you must keep in mind that the maker of the  entire universe, the one who formed all the galaxies, the one who knows the most distant  galaxy, and the tiniest molecule of your body He is the one who is for you. And it matters, not  what is lined up against you if he is for you. And he is. That is what the apostle is saying here,  you can count on his covenant commitment to you, he is for you. And all of his might is  enlisted on your behalf. And you need to ask yourself, What am I going to say in response to  this? If he's for me, okay, what's against me? Well, this is against me. I've got this problem in  my life. I've got these people who may be against me, these issues, I see things that are  going on in society in the world that I find very disturbing. And sometimes you can get all in a  dither and all in a fuss. And then it is time to talk to yourself. It is time to talk to yourself and  say, What in the world is going on? Do I believe that God is God? Or don't I? Is he omnipotent  and almighty or isn't he? Is he the one who made the worlds? Is he the one that brought down Goliath? Is he the one before whom all the nations are like a drop in the bucket, like dust on  the scales like a grasshopper. This is what the Bible says, of God. So if God is for you, that  shrinks everything else down to size, if all the forces of the entire world are arrayed against  you, and they just about were against the early Christians, but God is for you, you will win he  who did not spare His own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him, graciously give us all things, maybe you believe in the might and the majesty of God, and that he sometimes displays it, but you have questions about his disposition or his attitude towards  you? Or about how generous he might or might not be? And then it is time to ask that  question, is there any good thing that God won't give us. And here's the logic. He gave His  own Son, He gave His Son for you, he gives his own son to you. And every other gift he gives  is as nothing compared to that, you must remember that the God before God made all the  worlds and the galaxies, and all the people and the living things and the angels and the  archangels, before he made any of that, God, the Son forever existed in union with God, the  Father and God, the Holy Spirit, and in him was all the splendor and the majesty and the  wisdom that ever was or will be. And if you add up all the wisdom of every angel and genius 

of the human race, it will not compare to the wisdom of the Christ, if you add up all the  splendor of the galaxies, and the waterfalls, and all the things that move you to awe, and if  you add it all up together, it's not a tiny spark compared to the beauty of Christ. And if you  add up all the power, and all of the goodness and all of the love that you've ever experienced, all of that is just a tiny droplet compared to what the eternal Son is to the Father. If, when he  gave his son, it was harder to do than to make the entire world and all of the universes,  because he could do that, through Christ by speaking a word but to save us, he sacrificed his  son, it would have been easier for God to throw it all away. Because you must remember that  if you add up all the value of all that has ever existed. It all derived from the Son and doesn't  add up combined to a fraction of the value of the Son. And yet, God gave His Son and gave  him in the most terrible way to be a man of sorrows and familiar with grief, to be born in a  feed box and then to be nailed to a tree. He gave him completely for us. There is a passage  that is almost directly quoted here. You have not withheld from me, your son, your only son.  God said that to Abraham, when Abraham offered up Isaac, but at the last moment, he didn't  have to. And God said now I know. Now I know. You haven't withheld for me even your own  precious son. So what do we know when he did not withhold his own precious son? We know  his absolute commitment to love and to save those who are His. He did not withhold his son in giving him for us so that we could live. And he not only gave Jesus for us, but he gives his son  to us. He unites us to him, he makes us part of Christ, in union with Christ, and He loves us  with the very same love with which He loves the Christ. Because God loves to love. He loves  to love his own son and to love all who are in his son. And the logic here is this. If he did that,  if he gave him for you, if it gave the precious, beloved one, from all eternity, to die in such an  awful way to make you right with him, and if he gives him to you. Now what is he not going to give that's good for you? Do you think he's stingy? Do you think that that one thing you  thought would really make you happy? If only the that were given an IF GOD weren't so  stingy, your life would be good now? We sometimes have the added we are well, God you  gave Jesus but what have you done for me lately? You know, what a moronic way to think but  that is kind of how we operate sometimes. And so we must, again, talk to ourselves and say,  These days I've been grouchy with God. And I've been thinking that if only this or that were  not withheld from me, then then God and I would be getting along famously, and all would be  well in my life. And there is a time to say, Well, if he's withholding something good from me,  even temporarily, he must have a reason for it. But I know that he is generous. And I know  that he has my well being at heart. And so he is going to give me everything that is good for  me in the long run. And this, of course, is also the logical of glory, the logic of heaven. If he  gave his Son for us and gives his Son to us, and he gives the Spirit to live within us, then  we're His children. And we are His heirs, as the apostle's already said in Romans eight. And so we're headed for the glorious freedom of the children of God, we're headed for the renewal of  the entire creation, He gives the entire creation to us. He gives us to sit with Him on His  throne with him forever, because if he gave his son, he gives all things if you've been reading  the Bible reading plans in I Corinthians, you see, All things are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's. We must understand that when the Bible speaks of this, it is not exaggerating, because the biggest gift has already been given. All the other things are fringe benefits. The  Apostle himself says, I want to know Christ in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship  of His sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so to attain to the resurrection from the  dead, and He says, I consider everything else rubbish, that I may gain, Christ. Well, if, if the  Lord gives you Christ, and you learn to count all these other things as rubbish, then you see  again, the generosity of God, and you can rejoice in it. And it also makes you freer to commit  yourself to God. Abraham did not withhold his own son, he gave what was most precious to  him, and God gave him back. And God has given himself completely to us. And he calls us to  give ourselves completely to Him. And there may be something daring that God wants you to  do, and you know what it is. But you think the risk is too big, or the loss might be too great.  Consider it rubbish. Because he who didn't spare his own Son is going to be very generous.  Jesus Himself said, If you give up houses, and lands, and friends and family and all this for the sake of the kingdom, you'll get it all back with persecutions and eternal life. So he's saying  God is very, very, very, very generous, and he is going to give you far more than you can poss

you cannot outgive God, you cannot outgive God, he has already given a greater gift than can possibly be given, and he has a lot more in store. And we need to live by faith in that reality,  otherwise, we're going to muddle through this life, thinking that God is not very generous,  that we've got it pretty rough. And we're going to have our unending little pity party, instead  of a glorious life, a life that's filled with trouble with difficulty and with glory, because it's full  of Christ. Is there any good thing that God won't give us? Is there anyone who can accuse and condemn us who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who  justifies who is it that condemns Christ Jesus, who died more than that? Who was raised to life is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. So the apostle asks now, Who's  going to bring any charge against those whom God has chosen. He has just been talking  about God's choice, God foreknew in the sense of choosing, electing, setting his love far in  advance on people God has chosen. And if God has chosen, who is going to bring a charge  against the very people that God chose. And he says, God justifies, remember the golden  chain, you've got God's choice and predestination, you also got his call, he justifies. He  glorifies God does all these things. Now, who is going to undo what God does? If God chose  you, who gets to bring charges against you, if God justifies you and says, That person is right  with me, then who gets to condemn you? Who has the right to do that? There is a vision in the prophecy of Zechariah chapter three. And in this vision, the high priest, the representative of  Israel, is standing there and he is wearing dirty, tattered clothes. And Israel is in very bad  shape, the high priest himself looks bad, and Satan is there. And the name Satan means  accuser or adversary. And Satan is busy accusing Joshua, the high priest of Israel. And the  angel of the Lord, who usually represents Christ before he came to earth as a man. But that  title is often given as the angel or the messenger of the Lord. At any rate in the vision, the  angel of the Lord is there at the same time, as Satan, the accuser, and the high priest is there in the tattered dirty robes, and Satan is accusing. And what does the angel say? Or rather the  angel of the Lord who may well be the Christ. He says, The Lord rebuke you, Satan. The Lord  rebuke you. He who chose Jerusalem, he rebuked you, because God made a choice. And  Satan is wasting his breath when God has made his choice. And so God says, take off the dirty robes, from Joshua, the high priest and put on clean clothes. And that's what God does. When  the accuser comes and accuses and charges you. The Lord says, The Lord rebuke you. I chose him. You are rebuked Satan, you're out of here. Think of it as a courtroom. And God the Judge  is on the throne. The prosecuting attorney has his long list of charges, and he gets kicked out  of the courtroom. He just gets booted well then who's left? Well, the judge who has already  chosen you and declared you to be innocent, and your defense attorney who is constantly  arguing on your behalf Christ who died more than that, who was raised to life and is at the  right hand of God always interceding and speaking for us. And this is so very important for us  to know. We need to know first of all, that those who would bring false accusations against us  do not get the last word. There are false accusations. The apostle and those who read this  letter were intimately familiar with that. Within a few years, Christians were being accused of  being cannibals, who wrapped babies in bread dough and cooked them and then ate them.  They were accused of being atheists because they did not believe in the Roman gods and  goddesses. They were accused of burning the city of Rome, which is probably the action of  Nero and his henchmen. They were accused of all kinds of things. And when they stood before the courts, there were people who could accuse and condemn them and did accuse and  condemn them. But God had a different verdict. Think of Jesus Christ Himself, He was  condemned. He was accused and condemned by the Jewish court. He was condemned by  Pontius Pilate and the authority of the Roman Empire. But God had something different to say. They accused and executed Him. And God said, I approve and accept Him. And God raised  him to life so Christ Jesus who died and was raised to life. He faced. accusations and he took  all the accusations and the false verdicts. And he depended on God's verdict as the final  verdict. So when you have the accusations, of others false accusations, don't let it fluster you. Don't let it intimidate you. If God rules in your favor, it does not matter who rules against you. If Satan is constantly accusing you, who are you going to believe? The chronic liar or the one  who cannot tell a lie. And if your own conscience and your own heart is accusing you, do you  really have a right? To put your own opinion above God's? Do you? If there are inner voices 

saying, I'm a loser. I am worthless. I have blown it. God has no use for me. I am unworthy.  There is no reason why God would send anything good my way. And you, you listen to that  voice. And you think it's the voice of reality? Because it sounds like your own thoughts. And  you can't help thinking what you think? Well, sometimes it may be the accuser, or demonic  action doing that. But even if it's not, even if it's just your own brain and mind and heart at  work, do you really have the right to listen to yourself? You know, there are there are times  when you've got to read the riot act to yourself and say self stop being so stupid. You know,  I'm not very smart on these things. God has given a verdict on me, I don't have the right to  contradict his verdict. If he says I'm right with Him, then I don't get to unsay what he has said. And again, this is so, so important. Because if you simply knew in your heart of hearts, and  believe with all your heart, what God says to you, and what God says about you, instead of  believing the scripts that you've internalized, maybe that others said to you, or even that  you've started saying to yourself, and the accusations you launched against yourself, what a  difference. What a different person, you'd be, knowing that you're living in the freedom of  God's Yes. In the freedom of God's, I accept you, in the freedom of God saying, You are  precious to me, you are right with me, you are my son and daughter, you are an heir with  Christ of all of my riches, I have ruled for you. And so do not listen to anybody who accuses or speaks against you, because they have no voice. In my court, I have the final say. And then  these questions Who shall separate us from the love of Christ. Shall trouble or hardship or  persecution, or famine or nakedness, or danger or sword, as it is written for your sake, we  face death all day long. We are considered a sheep to be slaughtered, the early Christians  faced terrible persecution. And these are just some of them, trouble and hardship. But we're  all going to face various kinds of trouble and hardship, whether it's those illnesses, whether  it's Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, whether it's cancer and heart disease. There's troubles and  hardships like that. There are the persecutions. There's not having enough famine and  nakedness. Not enough to eat can't afford good clothes. There. There are going to be things  like that there's going to be danger, there's going to be sword. The question is this. When  those things come into your life, are they going to separate you from God? Are they going to  keep the love of Christ from getting through to you? Is there anything that can break the  embrace of God's love? Even when it seems like you're just sheep to be slaughtered? Well,  you recognize that phrase that comes. It's a direct quote from Psalm 44 how God's people are  being treated. But don't forget another quote Isaiah 53 says He was led as a lamb to the  slaughter. You're in good company. If you're being treated as a lamb to be slaughtered, you  are in the company of Christ. And when you are in the company of Christ, nothing can  separate you from the embrace of God's love. It's not the apostle has been building. He's  been talking about God's greatness and God's generosity, and God's verdict. But what it all  comes down to ultimately, is God's love. And God's love is the greatest and most eternal and  invincible power in the universe. And so he says, No, in all these things, we are more than  conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life neither  angels nor demons, neither the present or the future, nor any powers, neither height nor  depth nor anything else in all creation can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. For some of us, death is the scary thing. We don't feel like we're ready to die. And the  thought of dying scares us big time. But death cannot separate you from the love of Christ.  For some of us, life is the hard thing. We don't be ready to die. We just don't know whether  we're ready to head for Monday. That, you know, it's hard for some people yeah, they they  almost wish they could take the shortcut some elderly people who are losing their health and  going through a lot of hard things just long to be with Christ. And they're not sure they can  last another year on this earth, and put up with what being old is like. I know somebody. When she was paralyzed in an accident, she preferred to die. She didn't know if she could live. She  did for quite a number of years. But she didn't know if life was something she could handle.  But neither death nor life can separate us from the love of Christ. neither angels nor demons,  the original is more like principalities and powers, probably the powers of evil. But whatever  supernatural powers are out there, they cannot separate you from the love of Christ. And  remember that some of these powers are expert liars. So you have to tune them out. Because they will tell you that you are no longer loved. They will make you feel unloved. And here 

there again, you have got to not listen to your feelings and not listen to those liars because  the principalities and powers cannot separate you from the love of Christ, the present, and  the future, whatever's happening in your life right now can't separate you from Christ's love,  anything new that comes down the pike in the future is not going to be able to do it. Powers  and height and depth. These are probably technical terms, really speaking of the powers of  fate, in the ancient world that many people believed in but but just think about any power  that you can think of whether it's the powers in the deepest oceans, or the powers of the  quasars, and the things that move the galaxies, the forces of nature, themselves, there is  nothing that has been made, that can separate you from the love of Christ, because their  Maker is the one who loves you. If the creator's Love embraces you, nothing created can  separate you from him, because he's bigger and stronger and wiser than all of it put together. And so the Apostle says there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God that's in  Christ Jesus, our Lord. One small homework assignment is memorize this passage if you  haven't. Okay, there are going to be times in your life when you need it. I will guarantee you  that when you need it. This is a passage I could probably preach on every couple of months,  and about everybody would need it if I preached on it. Okay, you need to know the greatness  of God, the generosity of God, the verdict of God and the love of God. And if you knew these  things, and really knew them down to the bottom of your toes in the depths of your heart, you wouldn't need to know hardly anything else, if you knew that he is greater than all, and I am  loved by Him. And He has said that I am right with him. What else would you need? So, take  these things to heart we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Jesus himself is at the right hand of God interceding for us. And he's saying much the same as he said, just  before he died. On the Thursday night before he died, he prayed that great prayer recorded in John 17. And near the end of the prayer, he says, I have given them the glory that you gave  me that they may be one as we are one I in them, and you and me, may they be brought to  complete unity to let the world know that You sent Me. And I've loved them, even as You have  loved me. I have made you known to them and will continue to make you known in order that  the love you have for me, may be in them, and that I myself may be in them. Why can  nothing separate us from God's love in Christ, because we are in Christ. And we are loved with the very love that the Father has always had for his son. We are in Christ, he is in us. And this  love that formed the universe, this love that sent Christ into the world, this love that poured  out the Holy Spirit. This is the love which has always and will always rule and nothing can  break his grip on us. Jesus said in the Gospel of John, my father, who has given them to me is  greater than all and no one can snatch them from my father's hand. And so friends, the  revelation of God is that you are glorious in Christ with the very glory of Christ himself. You are loved in Christ, with the very love that God has for Christ himself. So reflect on this, and then  respond, don't walk out of here and think you can forget this message. Is any opponent  stronger than the God who was for us? Is there any good thing that God won't give you? Is  there anyone who can accuse and condemn you? Is there anything that can break God's  embrace on you? What shall we say? What shall we say in response to this? Well, if you  believe it, then say it with me. What then shall we say in response to this? 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 along with him graciously give us all things, who will bring any charge against those  whom God has chosen, it is God who justifies who is he that condemns Christ Jesus who died  more than that, who was raised to life is at the right hand of God, and is also interceding for  us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution, or  famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written for your sake, we face death all day  long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things were more than  conquerors through him who loved us, trying to convince the neither death nor life, neither  angels nor demons, neither the present or the future, nor any powers, neither height, your  depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God, that  is in Christ, Jesus our Lord. We praise you Eternal God, for your love, we praise you that you  are love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit forever united in love. We praise you for the love which  planned out the worlds and brought them into being for the love which planned out our  salvation and brought it about in Christ and by Your Holy Spirit. And we pray, Lord, that we 

may ever and always be rooted and grounded in love, and that we may know how wide and  long and high and deep is the love of Christ and know this love that surpasses knowledge,  that we may live in this love, always rooted and nourished by it, knowing that nothing can  separate us from your love. And when the accuser comes. May we turn a deaf ear to him and  hear again the voice of Christ. When the attacks come, may we know again that God is  greater than all. Lord, we pray that you will make these things not just words, or ideas, but  reality in our hearts and in our minds that by faith, we will know with certainty that you are a  great and loving God and that we are forever yours glorious sons and daughters destined to  reign with Christ. We pray in His name, amen.