Romans chapter eight and verse
33. This is the word of the Lord.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is
God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. Yea, rather, that is risen again.
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake
we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for
the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. 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. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading also from his word. As we have returned to this portion
in Romans and read together a few of these verses over the past
few weeks, you will have noted with me how that the apostle
has asked his readers a number of questions. And I think this
is very interesting. I like the approach, the way
that the apostle interrogates his readers in this way, to engage
them and connect them with the things that he is saying. Having set forth the glorious
doctrines of sovereign grace Paul presses the implications
of these truths onto his readers by his questions. And he asks
them personally to apply the significance of these doctrines, the power of these doctrines
to themselves. And he shows, I think, that the
apostle in writing as he does, in approaching the matter as
he does, he isn't looking at these doctrines as some kind
of systematic theology, as many people do. But he is interested
in their practical support for ordinary believers. That's beautiful. The practical support of the
Word of God for ordinary believers. And I dare say, if such a comparison
is useful at all, I dare say that Romans 8 ranks amongst the
highest, most sublime portions of exalted theology in the whole
Bible. And yet Paul's approach is to
invite individual reflection and personal application upon
it. He wants this little congregation
in Rome, to whom he is writing, he wants this little congregation
to, at least in their own minds, consider these doctrines as they
relate to me. How do these truths, what the
apostle is writing, how does this relate to me? And I like this. I like the apostle's
approach. I don't imagine that Paul thought
these folk were great theologians. I don't even know if he would
have thought that they were highly educated people. Like any church
today, there would be a mix of ages, and characters and educational
abilities. Some could read, some probably
couldn't. There would probably be Jews
and Gentiles in this congregation. But your guess is as good as
mine as far as the identity of the people and the jobs that
they did and their nationalities, their languages, their history,
their status. Your thoughts are as good as
mine as far as what this gathering might comprise. Nevertheless,
Paul asks the question, what shall we then say to these things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Who is he that condemneth? Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? If our faith isn't something
that speaks to our innermost need and conveys peace to our
souls, then I'm not sure how much use it is to us. And if Christ's love is something
that we read about in a book and struggle to enjoy or just
treat casually as a matter of fact, as a matter of that which
is shown to us on the pages of the Bible. I'm not sure how helpful
that will be either. But if the love of Christ is
a living experience, to hold us up in times of need, to embrace
us in our loneliness, to strengthen us in our weakness, to comfort
us in sadness, then it is something useful for people like us. And I'm sure the Lord's Church
has always found it so. I am not here to tell you to
try harder, to live better, to give more. I'm here to say, quite
simply, with the Apostle Paul, before God, you are clean. By grace, you are free. To Christ you are precious and
nothing can separate you from his love. This is the testimony
of the Word of God to the people of God. the love of the Lord
Jesus Christ, as the love of the Father and the love of the
Holy Spirit, for where one divine person's love is felt, all are
present. But the love of the Lord Jesus
Christ, which is here, what we are talking about in these particular
verses today, is a wonderful gift and a blessing to his people. Now sadly, and I'm just going
to take a little detour here and then come back in again.
Sadly, the false teaching of God's universal love has robbed
Christ's love of all its beauty, power, and glory, at least in
the minds of many people. Most who speak of Christ's love
today in churches up and down the land construe it as a nice
idea with little consequence. Everyone gets a little bit, but
it doesn't actually do very much. It doesn't save anyone. It doesn't
change anything. It doesn't even remain constant. Well, allow me the privilege
of contradicting that understanding. The love of God is not universal. Christ's love is not universal. It isn't given to everyone without
exception. It is particular, it is distinguishing,
it is powerful, and it is effectual. And as we have seen, it is everlasting. It doesn't change. He loved us
before we were born and will continue to love us into glory. He loves God's elect because
these are they who have been chosen in him in the eternal
councils of the Godhead. These are they who have been
set apart in him. They have been given justification,
reconciliation, conversion, and they will be given glory in heaven. These are they who were given
to Christ as his bride, placed into his hands for safekeeping
and care. They are set apart to be redeemed
with His blood and bestowed with His faith. Christ's love accompanies
us constantly. It provides, it protects, and
it guards us before we are saved and after we are saved. It preserves us in life. It comforts us through death. His love actually saves. It keeps, it delivers, it provides
for all our needs. It constantly surrounds from
before conception to beyond the grave. It's this practical aspect
that the apostle wishes to show the Roman believers. These truths
of the true nature of Christ's love and the application of it
in the hearts and lives of the Lord's little flock have blessed
and comforted the Lord's people for thousands and thousands of
years and still does. Let me say this, there's little
value beyond some kind of moral support for ignorantly telling someone
everything will be all right in the end. There's no value
in saying that when we don't know whether everything is going
to, it's a mockery, it's a vain reassurance, it's to try and
make them feel better when the reality is that they and we know
that things will turn out however they will turn out. Men speak
like that, but our all-knowing, all-powerful God does not. except when everything will be
all right and then he tells us and he also tells us how and
why everything will be all right. God will not have his people
live in ignorance in this world. He will not have us live in doubt. One of the main things that the
Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples was that he was going to send
his Holy Spirit to teach them all things ever he had said. That the Holy Spirit would lead
them into all truth. and this is the will of God for
the church. The Holy Spirit revealed to Paul
and Paul explains to us the fullness of the gospel. Paul set before
the church the everlasting love of God and all that God has done
for us. He spoke of foreknowledge. He
spoke of predestination and election. He spoke of justification and
conversion and the glory that awaits God's elects in heaven. He spoke about these things to
reassure us that everything was going to be all right. And yes, these are deep truths,
or high doctrine if you want to call it such. But it is eminently
practical as well. No believer will think on these
things without coming a way richer, happier for the experience, and
more eager to rest in Christ's love. Now I mentioned yesterday in
my little note that the gospel isn't difficult. A child, or
a wayfaring man as he's called in the scriptures, though a fool,
suitably enlightened, may grasp its power, the power of the gospel. Nevertheless, God's plan of salvation
rewards study. And Christ is revealed to us
as our sovereign Lord in order to equip our journey and ease
our pathway home to heaven. And not only does Paul tell us
what the Lord Jesus Christ did on the cross, he tells us why
he did it. He puts our experience and relationship
with Christ in its eternal context so that we can understand all
that Christ has entered into for us, all that he has fulfilled
on our behalf, all that he guarantees for our future, and most certainly
that he deserves our trust and our following. Paul tells us
about the eternal decrees. so that we can trust the Lord
Jesus Christ. He tells us about Christ's covenant
offices so that we might know more about the Lord Jesus Christ
and trust him better. He tells us about his entrance
into the world, about his death, about his resurrection, about
his ascension, about his personal intercession for us at the right
hand of God so that we can love him more. all of these flow from
the great love wherewith Christ loved us so that when we know
and believe Christ's love for his bride that it has always
been his longing, his desire, it has always been his incentive
and motivation, then we will understand the significance of
what Christ has done for us all the more. Let me repeat something
that I've said so that there's no mistake. I'm not here to tell
you to love Christ or even to love Christ more. If we love
Him at all, it is because He first loved us. I'm here to tell
you about Christ and about his love. And I am convinced the
more we know of Christ and the more we know of his love, the
more we shall love him. That is Paul's premise as well. Here, the apostle is explaining
Christ's love to these Roman believers. If they had not been persecuted
yet, then they soon will be. But he wants to reassure them
that the great heavenly transactions of election and atonement have
practical everyday advantages for the Lord's people. To be justified in God's sight,
is to be cleansed now. To be saved in eternity means
that we are safe now in time. To be loved everlastingly means
that we are loved forever and we are loved today. And if we
understand that, and if we know that, and if we have entered
in some small way into the immensity of the Saviour's love for us,
and all that it has encompassed from eternity to eternity, in
the small way that we can grasp these things through the revelation
of Scripture, then we will begin to understand better what Jesus
Christ means to us and what he has done for us. Paul knows the
believers in Rome will face persecution at the hands of their enemies.
And he wants them to understand the constancy of the Saviour's
care and kindness despite the trials that they will encounter.
And this is true for us as well. Don't ever doubt Christ's love
because of the experiences that you're called to go through.
Don't ever doubt Christ's love because of trials or hardships
that you face. Paul's message is this, despite
our tribulations, nothing and no one can separate us from Christ's
love. It is full, it is free, it is
constant, it is unconditional. And Paul wants us to know it. The Apostle lists seven examples
of troubles endured by the Church of God throughout many ages. He lists them as tribulation,
distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, and sword. These definitions are not limited,
and their boundaries are surely blurred and overlapping. Famine is distressing. The sword
is perilous. Nevertheless, the principle remains. Let our enemies employ whatever
opposition they will. Let nature inflict whatever toil
it demands. Let trouble come. And I don't
mean that daringly or gleefully, either for us or for anyone else. Yet it will come, trouble will
come by one means or another in this world of sin. As and
when these troubles come, let none of them negate our appreciation
or understanding of the Lord's love for us. For none of them
will be able to hinder or resist or separate us from the love
of the Lord Jesus Christ. His love through all these trials,
all these problems and hardships is still full, is still free
and is still unconditional. In fact, Our trials will prove to be occasions
in which the love of Christ is demonstrated more clearly and
felt more personally and intimately. Throughout history, and it's
exemplified here in Paul's writings at different times here and in
other places by references to the prophets, But it has been
throughout history, in the experience of the church, in the Old Testament
and in the New, that God's people are persecuted for their testimony
and for their faithfulness. Paul drew on cases from the Old
Testament. And here he is quoting from Psalm
44 in listing these particular afflictions. Nevertheless, God's love endures
and he will do his people good. Christ's church, you and I, We
shall be supplied with what we need, we will be defended, and
we will ultimately be vindicated in this life. Our victory is
already assured. Even suffering unto death, as
many did in apostolic times, is a victory for believers. For believers, To be absent from
the body is to be present with the Lord, which is far better.
That's a victory. There is an inseparable union
forged between Christ and his people, his flock, his bride. And no one can separate us from
the love of Christ, nor any form of suffering, not death, for
Christ is stronger than death itself. And just for your interest, Psalm
44, from which the Apostle Paul here quotes in this application,
in these questions that he is asking, in Psalm 44, it's not
known who wrote it. It's probably a Psalm of David,
but it's not actually specified as such. Psalm 44 ends with this
prayer to God. Arise for our help. and redeem
us for thy mercy's sake. Arise for our help and redeem
us for thy mercy's sake. See what that's saying? These
Old Testament believers knew to plead the covenant grace of
God's sovereign mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ. I think that's
beautiful. These were gospel texts in the
Old Testament prophecies. Now I would like to finish today
with reference to verse 37, which says this. Nay, or no, it's a
negative. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. So Paul has
asked about these tribulations, these troubles. As he has done before, he is
answering the question that he set to the Roman church, the
Roman believers. He said, shall tribulation or
distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword
separate us from the love of Christ? No, says the Apostle. Emphatically, no, none of them
shall. In all these things, he says,
in tribulation, in distress, in persecution, in famine, in
nakedness, in peril, and the sword, we shall overcome. In all these things, we are more
than conquerors. It's comprehensive. We might
individually suffer one particular hardship and someone might suffer
another. Or we may be confronted with
a whole battery of troubles at one time or another. wherever
it may be and however subtle they may come to us. In all these
things, because I'm sure that this is a catch-all, we are more
than conquerors. In all these things, we have
the victory. Now I'm sure that we all know
what a conqueror is. It is one who defeats and subjugates
an enemy. A conqueror is someone who defeats
and puts down, subjugates an enemy. Here in England, which
is where I'm speaking to you from, here in England, we have
a famous conqueror. I can hear lots of people now,
me thinks. William the Conqueror. William
the Conqueror was a Norman knight. He was the king of Normandy. He was a Frenchman, although
I just learned that he was descended from a Viking. So there we are,
the Vikings get into the story once again. And he won the Battle
of Hastings in 1066. Now, why am I telling you this? William the Conqueror wasn't
always called William the Conqueror. There was a time when he was
just called William. He had to fight his battle before
he could claim the title conqueror. He had to fight his battle and
win before he was called the conqueror. Conquerors are so at the end. Until then, they are just contenders. And it's the same with us. The
love of Christ does not avert or stop our battles. They have to be fought with the
world and the flesh and the devil. And I know for a fact that many
of you who are listening to me today are engaged at the moment
in fighting battles of one kind or another. But these battles
aren't stopped because the Lord Jesus Christ loves us. They're
not averted because the Lord Jesus Christ cares for us. They have to be fought and they
will be fought while we remain in this world. It's after the
battle that we shall be seen to be conquerors. It's when we
have overcome, it's when we have come through that war, that fight,
that battle. And each of us has a war to wage,
battles to fight in this life. But here's the promise. We do
not go forth alone against the foe. The love of Christ goes
before us, with us, behind us, and all around us. A love that
is powerful, effectual, a love that has already done great things
for us. And yet note this, Paul does
not say Christ is the conqueror. He says, we are conquerors. We shall have the victory. And we shall be seen to have
it. Just as the Roman generals entered
Rome to the applause of the crowds, We shall enter Christ's courts
to the trumpets of victory as overcomers and to the praises
of our Lord himself. Well done, good and faithful
servant. And then we shall reply in the
words of Psalm 115 verse 1. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. For we are conquerors, yes, but
it is through him that loved us. Let me say one last thing, and
then I'm done today. I was wondering, as I was preparing
these few thoughts today, I was wondering why Paul felt it necessary
to say we are more than conquerors? Why did he need to expand on
conqueror? Why wasn't it sufficient for
him to say that we will conquer, we will be conquerors? Why did
he have to say more than conquerors? Is it not enough to be a conqueror
in Christ's kingdom? Well, here's what I thought.
Unlike William the Conqueror, We don't have to wait until the
smoke clears and the battle stops in order to know the outcome
of the fight. We already know we're on the
victory side. We face the challenges of our
day with faith and hope commensurate to our trustworthy and strong
Saviour. You see, I want to suggest to
you that here is where the apostle is bringing his argument in a
beautiful circular manner. He has told us about God's electing
grace. He has told us about predestination. He has told us about our justification
and our conversion and about the wisdom of God in bringing
all these great foundational truths to bear upon the case
of his people. But he has done that in order
to give us that increased confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ during
our daily battles. We trust in such a saviour. We trust in his sovereign love. We trust in his finished work
upon the cross. And we have no doubts that the
victory is already won. We more than conquer tribulation
when we endure it with faith. We more than conquer distress
when we face it in the joy of the Lord. We more than conquer
persecution when we suffer for Christ's sake. We more than conquer
famine when we feed on the bread of life. We more than conquer
nakedness when we are clothed in the whole armour of God. We more than conquer peril when
we stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us
free. And we more than conquer the sword when we go forth in
the name of the Lord God of hosts. Whatever we have to face today,
whatever we have to face in the days that lie ahead, nothing
shall separate us from the love of Christ. Amen.