I invite you to turn this morning,
if you have a copy of the Word of God with you, to the book
of Genesis chapter 42. I want to read one verse here
in Genesis 42, and then I'll invite you to turn over to the
eighth chapter of the book of Romans, and then we'll read one
verse there to begin our message this morning. Genesis chapter
42, and I want to read verse 36. Verse 36, And Jacob their
father said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children, Joseph
is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away. All
these things are against me. Remember that statement, all
these things are against me. In Romans chapter 8 and in verse
37, The Apostle Paul here says, Nay, no, Jacob, no, Jacob, in
all these things we are more than conquerors through him that
loved us. In all these things we're more
than conquerors through him that loved us. Now this morning what
I want to try to do if I can is try to explain the mindset
of both of these men. Both of them were loved of God.
Both of these men were worshipers of God. Both of these men were
God's elect. We're told there in the book
of Romans that Jacob, it says, Jacob have I loved. Jacob was
a man loved of God. He was, according to the purpose
of God in election, he had been called and brought to faith in
the living God. And of course, we remember the
words of Ananias to Paul after Paul was struck down on the road
to Damascus and was converted. He said, the God of our fathers
hath chosen thee. And so both of these men were
chosen of God. Now, to me, the mindset of these
two men represent the mindset of many of the professing people
of God today, I mean Jacob's mindset does, and the mindset
of the Apostle Paul represents the mindset that every one of
us ought to have here this morning as the children of God, as those
that are called according to God's purpose. Now as I think
about old Jacob, I have some idea as to how he arrived at
his mindset. Now Jacob, after surveying all
that had taken place, after having reviewed what was going on, what
was coming to pass, the circumstances of his life, seeing the various
things that have occurred, he makes this statement, And he
said, all these things are against me. They're all against me. Everything
that's happened and what's happening here, it's against me in my life. It's contrary to my mind and
it's contrary to what I believe that ought to have happened in
my life. This thing is out of control and these things are
all against me. Now I wonder this morning if
we were to get under the veneer that all of us wore here this
morning as we come into this hall and as we sit here under
the sound of the word of God, I wonder if probably the majority
of those here today would probably have the mindset of Jacob. Concerning your life, concerning
the events of your life, concerning those things that God has made
crooked in your life and you've not been able to make them straight. The various situations that have
come that God Almighty has ordained, brought into your life. You see,
we know that Jacob was wrong. He was wrong because if you know
the story, if you are familiar with the story, you recognize
that it wasn't long after this before Jacob found out that he's
wrong about this thing, that he's wrong about it. And beloved
this morning, if you're here and you've got Jacob's mindset,
then you're wrong too. You're wrong. Now, I recognize
that if we were this morning just giving over to it, and brethren,
I'm interested in having the right mind about things. God
demands truth in the inward parts, and I want to have the right
mind. I want to think right. I want
to believe right. I want to believe what the Word
of God teaches. It's in my heart to believe what the Word of God
teaches. I recognize that there are many,
many difficulties, many baffling circumstances, many crooks in
our lot. many, many things about our experience
as believers that we're not able to explain. There have been so
many, many things in all the years of my life, and I've lived
here in this world now for 60 years, and there's been many,
many unpleasant things that have happened to me in my life. And
frankly, there have been many times in my life when I felt
that I'd come up on the short end of the stick. There have
been many times in my life when I felt that all things were against
me. I just believed that. I mean,
it just seemed to be, as I looked at things, that that's exactly
the way it was, that everything was against me. But as I have studied to look
into the word of God, I found that this is not the case. And
that the people of God are to believe God, they're to trust
God, they're to depend upon God. Now brethren, if Jacob's mindset
is right, then why don't we just have a big meeting here and all
of us tell everything we can tell about all of our problems
and all of our disappointments and all of our discouragements
and bring them all out here and we'll just weep and we'll wail
and we'll lament. and we just go on and whine until
the day that God takes us out of this world. If all things
are against us, if everything that's happening, if it's going
to wind up eventually, that we're going to be losers by it all,
and this business of trusting God, believing God, and depending
upon God, and walking with God, it's all vain, and there's nothing
to it. It's just going to wind up, and
we're all going to wind up as losers. Well, if that's going
to be the case, then brethren, I say that we just better throw
in the towel and throw in the sponge. But now, let's think
just a little bit about Jacob's situation. I believe I know how he got where
he was on this occasion. We know that Joseph, a boy that
he loved dearly, that Joseph, Jacob thought, had been killed
by the wild animals. His sons had deceived Jacob. They had deceived him. And there
were many things that Jacob was in the dark about. He was in
the dark about Joseph. He didn't know where he was.
He felt he was dead. He really believed that Joseph was dead. Now, brethren, there are many,
many things that you and I are in the dark about. And there
are many things that we are deceived about. And there are times when
a man deceives his wife. There are times when a wife will
deceive her husband. There are times when children
will deceive their parents. And sometimes you don't find
out about it until a long time. And when you do discover it,
that you've been deceived, and that something has happened back
in your life, and you felt all along you didn't know anything
about it, God had concealed it from you, as seems to me to be
the case in Jacob's life. God had concealed it from him.
And I suppose if the boys had revealed what they had done,
you remember that Joseph went out wearing this coat of many
colors, and the boys, he'd had dreams that he tried to explain
these dreams to his brethren, and they hated him. And they
saw him coming one day as he was coming out where they were,
and they sought to slay him. And you remember the story, they
threw him in the pit. Eventually he was sold into slavery, went
down to Egypt, and there in Potiphar's house there was a strange situation
that took place. He stood for righteousness, and
then he ended up in prison for a crime he did not commit. And
then later, of course, he was exalted to the right hand of
Pharaoh, second in authority to Pharaoh, and was in position
when the time of the famine came to provide. And he said, God
sent me before you. He said, you boys meant this
for evil, and God meant it for good. And here I am down here
in this place. But all of this Jacob knows nothing
about. He doesn't know that boy's down
there. And he's been lamenting, and he's been mourning the loss
of this boy. And here he is. He says, well,
now you're getting ready to take Benjamin away. Simmon, he's down
there now in Egypt. I can't go through all the details
of the story, but he said, every bit of this, it's all against
me. It's against me. Now, I'm quite
certain this morning that there's somebody here, or there may be
many of us, that would say, well preacher, that's exactly how
I feel this morning. I think there's probably more
people here closer to despair this morning than there is people
that's got the victory and that really believe God and really
believe that God's in the events of their life. And you take note
here that Jacob, and here's something that's very interesting to me.
He said, me, have you bereaved of my children? Now, he says,
me have ye bereaved. Now, Jacob here is looking to
second causes. Jacob here is saying, well now,
you fellas, you sons of mine, you've done this. You've done
that. Well, you know, we've got a lot
of people we blame for the various problems we've got. I don't know
who you blame for the problems you've got, but I'm sure that
all of us look in your second causes, which we ought never
to do. The God of the Bible is the first cause of everything
in the lives of those who are called according to his purpose. And so here's Jacob, and he says,
well, he said, you fellows have caused this. You've caused it. Now, I hope this morning that
we can begin to look to God, and we can begin to see and trust
the Lord, and we can begin to see that all of those things
which God has allowed to come into our lives, that God has
sent them in there on purpose, and that He intends to manage
them, and everything's going to come out right. We're going
to come out as more than conquerors. Turn over there to the 8th chapter
of the Book of Romans. So we understand somewhat how
it was that Jacob got this mindset. All these things are against
me. But beloved, the thing I'm interested in is finding out
how Paul got his mindset. How it was that he came to the
conclusion that he came to. This is what really interests
me. Because I, as I said, I want to think, I personally, I believe
that Paul is right. I'm convinced of it. He said,
I'm persuaded of it. And I'm persuaded that he's right
in this matter. Now, as I look at this text of
Scripture, Paul says, in all these things, not over them,
not under them, not around them, but right down through all of
these things, he says we are more than conquerors through
him that loved us. Now in order to establish here
how Paul could believe this, I think we have to look back
up here a little bit in this chapter and discuss just a few
things that we find Paul dealing with here. And so look back up
to verse 28. And it says, And we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them that are called according to his purpose. Now we take note
here of the fact that God has a purpose, and those that he
has called are called according to his purpose. It's not their
purpose, it's his purpose. God has a design. God has an
eternal will for his people. And those things that happen
to the people of God, they fall out to them and happen to them
because, and they're made to work together for their good
and for the glory of God. God has a purpose in their lives. And he goes on to say, for whom
he did foreknow. It says, it tells us here that
God knew his people. There came a day when God foreknew
his people. I believe that God did all of
his knowing at one time. I really do, I believe that.
I don't think God's a-knowing anybody anymore. And the brother
mentioned the verse over in Matthew 7 last night, where the scripture
says that, depart from me, I never knew you. And that just simply
means that when I was doing my knowing, I never knew you. The
Lord knows His people. He has foreknown them. In this
verse here, what He's saying is not only that I foreknew them,
but He said, I forelove them. I love them in old time. Now
He also, the scripture says in 2 Timothy 2 and verse 19, it
says, The foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord
knoweth them, that are His. Well, how does the Lord know
them? Well, He knows them in that He has foreknown them, and
He said, not only do I know them, but He said, I predestinated
them to be conformed to the image of My Son. My Son, He said, is
the firstborn among many brethren. He's the firstborn among many
brethren. And He said, moreover, in verse 30, whom He did predestinate,
Them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified,
and whom he justified, them he also glorified." Now, beloved,
I believe that God has called his people on purpose. They were
his people. Samuel said, He said the Lord
will not forsake His people because it pleased the Lord. He said
He won't do it for His great name's sake because it pleased
the Lord to make you His people. And so God has called His people,
and it is because He has purposed their salvation. God's people
are effectually called by the Holy Spirit, and it says whom
He called, them He also justified. It is God, we're told a little
later here, that justifies and who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect. This is the foundation that Paul
is building upon and this is how he draws his conclusion finally
that in all these things we are more than conquerors through
him that loved us. So when we look at the next verse
in verse 31 first, let me say this the brother said last night
He said that we're not glorified yet. And and this is true. This is very true that we're
not glorified yet But brethren, we're going to catch up one of
these days. It's not going to be long before we're going to
catch up with this, and we're going to be glorified also. And this is certain. All of this
is spoken of, I think, in the past tense. All of it's been
established. It's all going to come to pass
just like God said. And then Paul asked these questions. He said, what shall we then say
to these things? What are we going to say to this,
that God has foreknown his people, that God has so determined that
those that he's called according to his purpose, that everything
that transpires and comes to pass in their lives is going
to be for their good and for his glory. Now what are we going
to say to these things? Well, there are many that says,
well you know preacher, I wasn't brought up that way, to believe
that way. And then there are others that
might say, well, preacher, that doesn't agree with my theology.
Or preacher, my preacher don't preach that. And they can say
all of that in truthfulness. but a lot of what i believe that
we must say is i believe it and what you believe it if you can
you believe it that god that this whole thing this whole thing
what i understand here is that this whole thing is of god and
god has has done this he did it on purpose and he did this
to establish the fact that all of this is going to work out
and his people are going to be more than conquerors through
him Now, as I thought about that verse of scripture over there
in 2 Timothy a while ago, I thought about how he said that the foundation
of God stand as sure. This is the foundation of God.
I'm looking for something, beloved, that is going to stay the same.
Something that's going to remain the same. Something that's going
to be the same next year, ten years from now, ten million years
from now. I want something to stand on
that's going to be the same. And this is going to remain the
same. And when Paul said the foundation
of God standing sure, Thomas Manton said that's not the foundation
of a carpenter, it's the foundation of a lawyer. And it has to do
with what God is saying, that this obligation I've taken upon
myself. This is my work. Salvation is
not a human project. It's a divine project from the
beginning to the end. And I'll take this charge, he
says, I've laid on myself. And this is my work from the
beginning to the end. So if God be for us, if God be
so for us, that, he said, then who can be against us? Who can
possibly be against us? Now, there are many that oppose
us. It doesn't mean that there won't be some that will oppose
us. It doesn't mean that we won't have those that will wittingly
or unwittingly try to destroy our lives, or to put a stumbling
block in front of us, or in somewhere or another to offend us, or to
make us want to give up in the way. But beloved, they cannot
affectually prevail against us. That's what it is that Paul is
saying. Let them be against us if they will. If God be for us,
what good will it do them to be against us? We're talking
about the sovereign God of the universe. And this God is for
us. This God is purposed. that our
lives be lived to his honor and to his glory and that everything
will eventually work out. It'll work out for his good,
our good and his glory. Now then, he went on to say here,
he that spared not his own son. That verse has been quoted two
or three times here in our meetings, but this is what this means to
me. is that God is so for us that
he's given the very best that he has in order to secure our
salvation, our deliverance. You see these people that are
mentioned here in verse 36 as sheep, these people that are
more than conquerors in verse 37, you see they had a problem.
And Brother Donnie talked about that problem last night that
these people have. Beloved, this problem the Lord
has undertaken to solve, and He spared not His own Son. He
delivered Him up for us in order that we might be delivered. And
we have been so delivered. He said, all of this, He said,
I delivered Him up. And He said, how shall He not with Him also
freely give us all things, if there's anything else? He said,
I will give it. I will give it. I agree with
what Donnie said last night when he talked about how every blessing
has been bought by the Lord Jesus Christ and that it has been freely
given to us. And we have no ability to buy
or purchase anything that's going to help us in the way. It all
must be given. And I remember the story of John,
the old road worker, the Scottish road worker. And he was out of
a job and things were very difficult in his life. And they had gotten
down to the place where all the potatoes were used up but just
had a bunch of nubby potatoes in the sack. And one day he said
to his wife, he said, you just fix up those nubby potatoes. You know how you do. You just
keep getting the bigger ones out until all you've got left
is those little nubbins. So he said, you go ahead and
fix all of them up. And he said, I'm going to go over and get
the neighbor and have him to come over, and he'll help us
eat them. And so he went over and got the
neighbor and came over, and his wife set them on the table. And
he told the neighbor that all they were going to have was these
nubby potatoes. And so the neighbor sat down and he said, John, he
said, indeed these are nebby potatoes. But John said, well,
yes, he said, but you know, he says there's not a one of them
potatoes but what I see the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on.
Every one of them have been bought by the blood of the Lord Jesus
as far as old John is concerned and that's the way I feel about
Everything that we need is necessary for us to walk in the way and
to accomplish that which the Lord put us here to accomplish
is it'll be freely given because God spared not his son he gave
his son a that we might be delivered from our sin and that we might
be able to be acceptable in his sight. And then he goes on to
say that God is so for us that who shall lay anything to the
charge of God? It's God that justifies. It's
God that justifies. Now you know I can see how we
could forgive one another of some things and I can see how
that we I love this business of justifying.
It's got to be of God. Only God can justify. Give a
man right standing before Him. Give a man a standing before
Him just as if he'd never committed a sin. Only God can do that. Well, this is the foundation
upon which Paul is building here. And then he goes on, and we must
get down here quickly to verse 35, because then he begins to
talk to us some about some of these things that possibly we
will feel when they impact upon our life. We may feel like that
these things, they may be so difficult, they may be so trying,
that we may feel that we either have been separated from the
love of God, or that we're about to be, or that something serious
has happened. You know, we hear today, and
it's a terrible error, that if we just believe God enough, if
we just trust God enough, If we could just get to a place
where we believe the promises of God enough, then we wouldn't
have any more trouble. We wouldn't have any more disappointment.
We wouldn't have any more difficulty if we could just come to that
place. Well, beloved, we know this is a misconception. And
so people that come to believe in that kind of theology, they
become very frustrated because they wonder why their life is
not smoother than it is. Well, they wonder why they continue
to have all the trouble they've got in their life. And beloved,
the people of God, they're afflicted and troubled and tried people.
And Paul talks about here in this 35th verse, he talked about
tribulation. And this word is trouble, it's
trouble. Jacob said, why? He said, my
days have been few and they've been full of trouble. The scripture
says Jesus himself in John 16 and verse 33, he said, in the
world, he said, you'll have tribulation. You will have tribulation in
the world and through much tribulation will enter the kingdom of God.
Trouble. And I think the meaning of the word really is pressure.
You'll have a great deal of pressure in the world. I hear people saying,
well, I've got, I have pressure on my job. I have financial pressure. I've got family pressure. Well,
beloved, listen, Paul said these, these, we're going to be more
than conquerors in these things. And then he goes on to mention
distress. distress, and this has, I think, the meaning is
a narrowness of place, a narrowness of place. Have you ever felt
him then? Have you ever really felt him
then and said, well, I just, you know, I know of sometimes
I've talked with young parents, women especially, that They have
children, young children, and they say, well, you know, my
life is just a block because all I get to do is change diapers
and wash dishes, and I'm just hemmed in, preacher. And I know
a lot of people who say, well, I'm just hemmed in. I'm about
ready just to crack under this pressure and under this distress. I just can't function anymore.
And I know people that have just run off from the responsibilities
of their life because they couldn't stand the pressure. And so expect
it, my friend. And we take note of the fact
here, as he goes on, he talks about persecution. We know very
little about persecution in our day and time. And I suppose there
will be very few martyrs that this generation of Baptists will
produce because we don't know much about that. I think we're
too much in love with the world. I think that we are married to
this world, many of us are, and one of the things about the martyrs,
and I don't know a whole lot about them, but one of the things
about them is the fact that they weren't married to the world,
and there isn't anybody going to the stake and die that don't
have Paul's mindset as to us being more than conquerors through
him that loved us. And I think that we are, you
know, it's my home, it's my children, it's my belongings, we just,
well, this vain and empty world, how we're married to it, and
our mindset is terrible, but there may come a time when persecution
will come. Great persecution, and we may
be like some of those spoken of in the book of Hebrews, that
they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods, and they suffered
great persecution. Well, Jesus said, you rejoice
when men will persecute you, and so on. Well, then we see
famine and its parents. and where he said the sword.
Now you remember that Paul had his head separated from his body
by the sword. The sword's an instrument of
death and Paul said now the sword can separate my head from my
body but it can't separate me from the love of God and it can't
separate me from the purpose of God and all of these things
they they just gonna I'm gonna be more than conqueror through
him that love me. In verse 38, he said, I'm persuaded
that neither death nor life, death. Now you see, death itself,
we have all thought some about our death, and we're concerned
about it. God's people, we're all growing
older, and there's been discussion made of that, and Stanley and
I were talking about this the other night, but the hymn writer
said it's a pleasant thing to die. The people of God are going
to die. It's our way, the Lord's way
of taking us out of this world and receiving us unto eternal
glory. Last night how that that the
grave has been perfumed by our Lord, and I believe that I believe
that and this is not against us death is not against us and
You know there's so many people we sometimes go into a room where
somebody is on their deathbed And it always has kind of amazed
me, you get started talking to them, and the doctor knows they're
going to die, they know they're going to die, the relatives know
they're going to die, you know they're going to die, but what
do they want to talk about? They want to talk about everything
else but death. Well, let me tell you that death
won't separate us from the love of God. Death is not against
us. We must begin to view everything from the heavenly viewpoint and
look at it from God's viewpoint. Death is not against us. And
then it mentions life here, and life is a bigger hurdle than
death. Yes it is. All this business of life. We,
none of us here know anything. Life is not a pleasant drift
down the river, brother. This business of living. There's
most people in their life that we don't know anything about
what we're going to experience before we get out of here. We
don't know anything about where we're going to end up. My old
mother, my ancient mother's over there in Indiana in a nursing
home. And she didn't want to go in there. She went in there
when she was 85. And she didn't want to go in there. Her life
is, there's very little quality left to her life. And I have
visited her two or three times a year for the last four or five
years. And she would tell me how unhappy she was. and said,
well now John, this is supposed to be a rest home, but you can't
get no rest around this place. And she always wanted to get
out of there. I said, Mom, what's your option?
And she said, well, all I want is get out of this place. I want
to get out of here. And I told her, I said, well,
you've got to look at it like this. This is not going to be
your permanent address. Even if you're here three or
four years, this is not going to be your permanent address.
You're going to die, and you're going to leave this place. And,
oh, that's a terrible thing, you know. And I told her, I said,
Mom, give it up. Trust God and give it up. Oh, I can't give
it up. If I give it up, she said, that'll
be the day I die. I said, well, it may sound hard,
but that's what you're going to have to do. You're going to
have to trust the Lord and believe that this is right for you. And
you're going to have to get to viewing this from a different
standpoint. Well, beloved, these things, life itself cannot It
cannot separate you from the love of God, neither can life
in any way, shape, or form. All that it holds, whatever it
holds, all of the disappointments, the discouragements, the loneliness,
whatever we could mention here this morning, none of this is
going to cause you to be defeated. God is going to enable you to
overcome through his love and through his grace. You're more
than conqueror through him that loved you. And Paul goes on to
say principalities and powers and angels. He mentions angels
here. And there's a lot of people,
you know, they're disturbed about demons. and they wonder about
angels, but there's not an angel, either good or bad, whatever
you want to say about it, that can defeat God's people, or can
in any way, shape, or form, hinder the people of God from becoming
more than conquerors, and there's not an angel that can separate
you from the eternal purpose of God, which God purposed in
his son the Lord Jesus Christ these angels cannot do that and
these principalities and powers we don't wrestle against flesh
and blood we don't wrestle against flesh and blood but against as
we're told over in Ephesians it's the principalities and powers
these these rulers of evil certainly that's all true but these cannot
Defeat the purpose of God in our life. We will overcome. We will be more than conquered
through Him. And then he mentions, Hear things
present, nor things to come. What is there in your life this
morning? You say, Preacher, that's against me. You say, Preacher,
this thing that's in my life right now. This present thing.
this is something that i i don't know what i'm ever going to get
over preacher i don't know what i'll be able to get around this
or not i don't know how i'm going to ever deal with what i've got
to deal with this marriage of mine it pains me every day i
don't know how i'm going to deal with the preacher well listen
to me listen to me whatever is presently taking place it's not
going to it's not going to defeat you you're going to be more than
conquering this thing and then he said things to come You know,
people, if they don't have any problem right now, they're greatly
concerned about things to come. And you say, well, preacher,
you know my age. You know, I got a good job now, but I could lose
my job. Then what am I going to do? What
am I going to do, preacher? If this happens or if that happens,
what am I going to do? Well, the thing I'll tell you
is this. God said, I'll not forsake you. I'll not forsake you. He said,
you may boldly say I'm your helper. You can believe that I'm for
you, whatever the situation is. You know, we often, we have people
that come up and put their arm around us and say, well, I'm
for you. I'm for you. And that's good. That's good.
Then we have people that say, sometimes, if you need anything,
let me know. I'll give it to you, but beloved,
there's times as the people of God when what people can do for
us is not enough. It takes this God who is for
us. It takes Him and all of His provision of grace which will
never be exhausted. God is going to provide and He
will continue to provide for His people whatever their situation
is. He mentions height or depth. I don't like either one of them.
Myself, but they'll not separate you from the love of God, and
they certainly won't cause us to be defeated No, he goes on
to say these things cannot separate us from the love of God Which
is in Christ Jesus our Lord if I can quickly let me give you
a couple of illustrations I mentioned old Joseph and how that things
ended up there and how the Jacob came to see eventually that that
uh... he was a more than a conqueror
and i'm certain that his mindset was changed before he died and
uh... i was thinking about Elijah and
uh... over there in first kings how
that Elijah remember he he was uh... in a contest with the prophets
of Baal and how that uh... he said uh... the God that answers
the fire he's he's he's God And so he set up some stones there,
and of course the prophets of Baal, they put their bullock
out and began to cry to their God, and their God never answered. And so Elijah, he cried to God,
and the fire came down, and consumed, you remember the stones and the
water that they poured on, not one time, not two times, but
three times. And the Lord came and mightily gave them a great
victory. And the people said, the Lord, he is God. The Lord,
he is God. And then the prophets of Baal
were taken down, and they were all slain. And Ahab was there. And in a little while, he told
his wife Jezebel, that wicked woman. said now this is what
this is what Elijah has done to the 450 prophets and so Jezebel
she sent him a word by a messenger and said this is what she said
so let the gods do to me and more also if they if I make not
thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time other words i'm going to kill
you. I'm going to kill you just like you slew those prophets.
Well here's this man Elijah and he's been on the mountaintop,
had a great experience. and had a great victory. But
when he saw that, as scripture says here in verse 3, chapter
19, he arose and went for his life. And he came to Beersheba,
which belonged to Judah. And he's left his servant there.
But he himself, he went a day's journey into the wilderness and
came and sat down under a juniper tree. And he requested for himself
that he might die and said, it's enough now, O Lord. Take away
my life, for I'm not better than my father's. And as he lay and
slept under that juniper tree, there was an angel that came
and touched him. But here's this man that has been on the mountaintop,
and here he is now, he's under that juniper tree, and he's asking
God, just take my life. Just take my life. Well, we know
at the end of the story that Jezebel, who was seeking his
life, he was greatly concerned about this. And we know that
the dogs ended up eating her at the wall of Jezreel. And we
know that Elijah, what happened? He never did die. He was caught
up in the chariot of fire, taken out of this world and taken home
to be with the Lord without even seeing physical death. And so
we see how he was more than conqueror through the Lord that loved him.
All right, and then there's another example or an illustration I'd
like to give you, and that's found over in the seventh chapter
of the book of Acts. And here we have Stephen, who
was the first martyr of the church, and we see that he was preaching
to these Jews, and he accused them of being the betrayers and
the murderers of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says to them,
or as he accuses them of this, we see that they become very
upset with him. And when they heard these things,
they were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their
teeth. But he being full of the Holy Ghost, he looked up steadfastly
into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on
the right hand of God. It looks to me like that that
he was more than a conqueror. Now, you see, Stephen saw some
things that his enemy didn't. His enemy, they said, well, this
is a lamb we've led to the slaughter. This is no conqueror. This man
is no conqueror. We gonna kill this fella. And
but yet here he is, he sees the glory of God. He looks up into
heaven, right into heaven. He sees the glory of God and
he sees Jesus there standing at the right hand of God and
said, behold, I see the heavens open, the Son of Man standing
there at the right hand of God. And even though he died, he had
a wonderful and glorious home going. On this occasion he went
to be with the Lord and I believe he was more than conqueror through
him that loved him. I heard an amazing story the
other day, and I'll tell you this story, and then I'll be
finished. I heard this story about this
Chinese preacher back during the days of severe persecution
in China. And the Bible had been banned
from the land. And this preacher, he along with
some fellow believers, had made arrangements for a shipment of
Bibles to come into China. And the shipment came in, but
part of the shipment got lost somewhere or another, and it
ended up into the hands of the authorities. But they were blessed
of God to get 10,000 Bibles and take them and bury them under
the floor of a barn. And in a few days, the authorities
showed up at this preacher's house. And they began to question
him, and they took him into custody. And they said, we want to know
where those Bibles are. Well, this preacher said to himself,
he said, now, I know these fellas. He said, they persecuted me before,
and I'm just going to pray, and by the grace of God, I'll just
keep my mouth shut. I'm just not going to say anything.
So they tried every way they could to extract from him the
information they wanted. And he wouldn't tell them anything.
So they finally said to him, they said, well now, we're not
going to kill you, but you're going to kill yourself. We're
going to fix it so you're going to kill yourself. Because you won't cooperate with
us. So they stood him up on his courtyard here, and there's a
prison all the way around. And there's a stone standing
in this courtyard that's just big enough for him to set his
feet on. Just set his feet on, and then they had a rope around
his neck tied to a beam above him. And they said, if you step
off of that rock, you're going to hang yourself. Or whenever
your legs wear out, you can't any longer hold your weight up,
you're going to hang yourself. And so he stood there. He stood
there. 24 hours came, gone. He stood
there and stood there. After a while, seven days came. and was gone. And by that time,
all of the prisons, the cells that opened up into the courtyard,
the prisoners were standing looking out, looking to see. They knew
something supernatural was going on, standing on that rock there.
And so they The time went on, and first thing you know, 13
days passed. The man's legs were swollen where
they didn't even resemble the legs of a man. And there were
two guards that was down at the foot of this rock that stood
there. And on the 13th day, there was a tremendous storm that came
up. And this storm was, the water was falling out of the heavens
in sheets, and lightning was flashing. And as that terrible
storm roared, this man he gave out. And just as he was giving
out, the lightning burnt that rope in two, and he fell. And
he thought he was falling into the hands of the Lord. But he
fell into the hands of these guards at the foot of this stone. And they said to him, they said,
don't leave us now. Don't leave us now. They said,
we know that your God is God, and we want you to tell us about
this God. And he went on and he told them,
those men became believers through the testimony of this man. Marvelous
story. That was a story which I think
helps us to see that even now that God, in spite of all of
the suffering and the persecution that a man might endure, that
he's more than conqueror through him that loved us. And so I'm
thankful this morning to be able to stand here and tell you that
whatever be your situation, whatever your circumstances, However testing
and trying, your life may be. However you've been disappointed,
however you've been deceived, however things have happened
in your life, believe that you're gonna be more than conquered
through him that loved you. Believe it, because we've been
called according to his purpose, and God has designed and worked
all of these things, these things, he's worked them out, put them
into our lives according to his will. I hope we can believe him
and trust him. God bless you.