doubles competition. And those two little boys practised morning, noon and night. Every day when I got up and looked out the window the two of them were practising away. They got to the quarter final, they got to the semi final, they got to the final and then they won the competition. And that was tremendous shouting and joy to that. I'd known his family before. His father, Paul, was a close friend of mine in the year that I spent in the seminary and some years before that his mother Esther had been in Ireland and she had been staying with Lorna in her home and those two girls fell in love with each other and really, really liked each other and were delighted to get to know them. It's very thankful to be here today. I've been here with Lorna, and I've been asked by your minister to preach to you. I look forward to it. Let us read from Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, and we shall read from verse 31 to the end of the chapter. Romans 8, 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, for your 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. As I said a moment ago, it is a joy to be with you. That year in America was a real blessing to me, and ever since, Lorna and I have made many friends. We see a number of friends here this morning, and at the end of the service, and when we go to heaven, we will be friends together forever. Let us now look at the words of our Lord. The problem of suffering is something we have to wrestle with. How much has been said about it? How much in history has been written about it? Great minds have wrestled. It has been expressed in art and music. Suffering, suffering. How can we explain it? Possible answers have been offered, but they're all looking in the wrong direction. Scottish writer J.S. Stewart says, man's main concern with suffering is not to find explanation, it is to find a victory. It is not to an elaborate theory. It is to lay hold upon a power. It's good to have our minds satisfied. But we also need to live through the crises of life. And we look at this verse this morning. How is God speaking to us here in these words? Verse 37. Know in all these things We are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Paul's concern is the practical value of truth. He has just ended in Romans a great doctrinal section at verse 30, summing it up, he who predestined who called, who justified, who glorified. That's what he's been explaining. He's got us to look at human need. He's shown us God's provision and the implications which come from it. And now, Just before he moves on in chapters 9 to 11 to Israel's refusal, he pauses for a moment. Verse 31, what then shall we say to these things? Now that we have grasped the truth, how are we going to use it in the struggles of daily life? What effect will the truth have upon us? It's clear in the text. There are 15 English words in our translation of the text. 14 of them are words of one syllable. Brief, very, very simple words. But it's pulsating us with power. This is what God is saying to his people, what he's saying to us here this morning, so that we too can experience for ourselves a reality of which he's speaking, the victory of the believer. And I'd like to look at it with you this morning under three simple headings. as we make an outline through the verse. Number one, the sphere of victory in all these things. The sphere of victory. Where does the victory happen? Where is it seen? In all these things. What things does Paul mean? In verses 35 and 36, he gathers together most of the earthly troubles that we can imagine. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword. He's putting them all together. Pain and sickness, sadness and loss, disappointments and setbacks, Hamlet in Shakespeare's play talks about the heartaches and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to. He brings everything together, life at its blackest. Circumstances at their most difficult. But he calls in verse 18, the sufferings of this present time. Comprehensive. All these things. Every single one of them. There's nothing painful outside the category that we're going to look at. All these things. This is the sphere of victory. And all these things. Look, friends, at the preposition, in. Paul doesn't say, apart from these things. Yes, we have bad things, we have suffering things, but then, apart from these things, we are more than conquerors. He doesn't say, after these things. We're going to have a rough time, but then we will be in heaven, and after these things. He doesn't say, in spite of these things, well, they come, they're hard, but we grip our teeth, we try, we make the best we can of it. All these words are true. But Paul says, in, in all these things, in the middle of them, while we experience them, Because of them, by means of them, we are more than conquerors. In all these things. It's striking. It's fascinating. In all these things, we are more than conquerors. These things are the arena in which victory wins. It's strange. It's striking. We've heard people talk about victorious Christian living. Well, when we look at victory in the Bible, when we look at victory in God's will for the world, where would it be? Who will be experiencing victory? Paul is not talking about a holiday beach or an elegant drawing room. He's not talking about immaculate, untroubled, very, very happy human beings. Paul is talking about a blood-covered battlefield. He's showing us things in carnage, the stench, the screaming of war, filthy, aching soldiers, bleeding with wounds, staggering with exhaustion in all these things. In all these things. That's what he's saying. The sphere of victory is an intense struggle. The sphere of victory is fear and pain and tears and what the world calls, in what the world calls ordinary people. We're not talking about something antiseptic or relaxed or risk-free. Conquerors implies an enemy, doesn't it? It implies words, wounds. It implies fierce fighting. We are more than conquerors in all these things, in all these things. Look at the realism of the Christian faith. It's not pious escapism. Escapism. Sometimes I get words wrong. That's one of my illnesses. Just forgive me and ignore it, please. Escapism. That's right. Escapism. The apostle looks steadily at life as it really is. He confronts tragedies. What he is saying relates to these. It's about these. The believer's victory isn't dependent on ideal circumstances. If that were the case, most of us would be excluded. It's far more valuable than that. It's where we are, some of us, where we are now, which is really hard. It's where we may find ourselves in the future. It's difficult. It's as painful as can be imagined. There's no situation where this that Paul is telling us won't apply in, in all, in all these things, in all these things. Whatever comes into your life, whatever you have to face, that's one of the things. You may never have had it before, but it's all things, in all things. The Scots writer Alexander McLaren writes, 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 in a hand-to-hand death grapple that we do overcome. That's where the sphere of victory is. And we're to look around But in all of our lives, there will be times when it's very hard. When it's very hard. When we're weak, when we're painful, when we're struggling, the victory's there. The victory's there. The victory's always there in all these things. But then secondly, there's the superlative of victory. The superlative of victory. We are more than conquerors. We are more than conquerors. Paul has set before us a daunting prospect, formidable enemies, pain, trouble. What can we hope for? Will we survive? How will we cope? Will we just win through by the skin of our teeth? We are more than conquerors. This Greek verb that he uses here isn't used anywhere else in the Bible, and may not have been used anywhere else in Greek. It's an unusual term, a way of doing it. He tides conquer with behalf of. A total overwhelming victory, that's what he said. A victory where troubles assault. And that victory is going to be overcome. It's going to be unable to damage the people it's hurting. It's being unable to defeat them in any way. We more than conquer them. That's what we're told about all these things. Whatever they are, we will conquer them. And more than that, we'll more than conquer them. What's he mean? Well, perhaps he's thinking of his own life. God could have conquered him. God could have conquered Saul. God could have stopped him attacking the Christians. God could have made him a Christian himself so that he just lived a very quiet, ordinary life somewhere in a village. He conquered it. He conquered it. That's wonderful. He'd been a bad man. He'd been persecuting Christians. And through Christ, he was conquered. He didn't do it anymore. But God did to Saul more than that. He turned him into a servant. He used every second of his life. He sent him everywhere, serving him and bringing glory to him. It was a total overwhelming victory. His troubles were assaulted. They were utterly overcome. He was defeated. The word is the superlative of victory over suffering. It means it not only fails to harm us, it helps us. It not only doesn't defeat us, it strengthens us. It not only is not a curse, God overrules it for a blessing, these terrible things that have come upon us and that He brings us through. It's very hard to accept, isn't it? In the depths of pain. It can sound glib. We can imagine telling someone in the throes of suffering, this is a blessing in disguise. What are they going to say? How are they going to react? Look at what he's saying. Paul is not saying, that these things in themselves are blessings. They aren't. They're unnatural. They're the wages of sin. God hates them. Death is the last enemy. Jesus wept and was deeply moved, we're told, when his friend dies. And Jesus is still the same today. The same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus cares for his people. He feels our pains. He suffers them. Paul himself knew too much about trouble to take it lightly. Look at what he says in verses 35 and 36. Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, sword. Seven things. And Paul already has experienced the first six. Already in his life, he's gone through the first six. Only the sword remains. And he'll experience that at the end when the Romans kill him. This is what we're facing. This is what we're struggling through. And he's saying, we are more than conquerors. God overrules them for good. God takes all these things and he uses them. God brings good out of them. He changes us for the better because of these things. He makes us different men and different women, closer to his Son, more like his Son. We rejoice in our sufferings, as he says in Romans 5, verse 3, knowing, remember it, that suffering produces endurance. endurance, character, and character, hope. We rejoice in our suffering. It's a triumph. It's a glorious triumph. It's more than an ordinary victory. Friends, it has happened to many of us, perhaps most of us. Trouble has come. It's been hard. We struggled. but our faith has been strengthened. The priorities have been corrected. Our character has been refined. What have we prayed for? Remember the psalmist in Psalm 119, verse 75, I know, O Lord, that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. It's a lovely verse. I know, O Lord, that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. In all these things we are more than conquerors. And that brings us, lastly, thirdly, to the source of victory. To the source of victory. We've looked at the sphere of victory in all these things. We've looked at the source of victory. We are more than conquerors. And now, lastly, we look at the source of victory, through him who loved us. If the text had ended at the previous word, it would have been a horrible, arrogant, ugly text. that in all these things we are more than conquerors." End of verse. Is that a good verse? Do we read that? Do we believe it? No, no. But it ends with a transcendent factor which turns sorrow into joy, which turns defeat into victory. Through Him who loved us. Through Him who loved us. Apart from Christ, this is empty boasting. Apart from Christ, it's pathetic whistling in the dark. His presence is here. I am with you always, He says. But I believe I'm not absolutely sure that I could prove it, but I believe it, that in many ways, the Lord is unusually near suffering people. Paul's context here, verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Verse 39, nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God. in Christ Jesus our Lord. Parents will have a number of children, three or four children. They love them all. They love them equally. And then one of their children gets terribly, terribly hurt, and they're broken, and they're in pain. They still love all their children equally. but there's a special close loving for that little one. Then they care them specially. We'll be singing Psalm 23. Though I walk through death's dark veil, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. This man is speaking has all authority. He has 12 legions of angels. He could take away every trouble with a word, no matter how impossible it might seem. But friends, it is Him, it is He who allows the pain to come upon us, who has loved us from all eternity. He allows the pain to come upon us. Why does He do that? Is His heart not moved towards us more intensely than ours could ever be? Is He not bending His mighty power to help? More than ever, I am with you always. Christ's presence. But friends, there's more here in these words than Christ's presence. Because the source of victory is Christ's passion. Through him who loved us. Who loved us. He always has loved us. Since before the world was created. In eternity. Always. But this Greek past tense points to one specific supreme moment in the past when Christ loved us. Because at that moment and in that place, His love for us was extended in a unique, most significant way. And you know what it is. It's Calvary. It's the cross. where greater love has no man than this, but a man lay down his life for his friends. Here is the source of victory, who loved us. Why can we say that? Because on the cross, he broke evil forever. On the cross, he paid the full penalty for every sin that every one of his people has ever committed. On the cross, he robbed death of sting. He robbed the grave of its victory. God was not punishing you. On the cross, he secured everlasting life for all who are his own. There's the victory. And more than that, In this act of love, Christ faced the full force of evil, and he not only overcame it, he turned it into good. Here's the darkest despair possible. The Son of God is hanging on a cross, accursed and dead. Hell had won. And in fact, every cruelty, every blow of Satan on Christ was saving sinners. Everything he did to the Lord Jesus was saving sinners and bringing the victory. Isn't it wonderful? He took the full force of evil and he turned it into good. The cross is not a tragedy, it's a triumph. It's not defeat, it's victory. More than conquerors. Through Him who loved us. We probably get souvenirs when we're traveling away from home. I know with us, if you're in France, you get the statue in Paris. which I forget. If you're in Greece, you get something about the building in the center. Lauren and I lived there, learning modern Greek, but I forget it. Always getting something to remind you of the place, to remind you of the place. Every state, that's where we were. And Christ arranged for a memorial so that we'd remember him. Whenever we saw him, we'd say, And his memorial was bread and wine. Broken bread and the wine. And that's when we remember Jesus most. That's what speaks to us of him. When you remember me, remember me like this. And friends, that has been the pattern ever since We can look at suffering without fear. We can confront the worst that Satan can do without being shaken in our faith. For Christ has been there before us. Christ has suffered it. Jesus has loved us with blood-stained love. And we are privileged to take up our cross and follow Him. Friends, victories are not marked by a swagger. We're tired. We're troubled. We struggle. We often cry. But Christ is with us. He's seen in us. We bear witness through Him. And this is how His work is done in the world. He is the source of our victory. All our praise is to Him. Could I say just a few words in conclusion? We've been looking today from this verse at tragedy into triumph. We've been thinking about the love of Christ shown at the cross. But friends, there's another kind of tragedy. Perhaps it's not so visible immediately, and it can have no victory, no happy ending. I'm speaking of a Christless life. Is there any such life here in this building today? You've not yet come to Christ. You've heard about Him many times. You've not yet sought Him as your Savior. And if that's the case, all these things are horrible. They're threatening. They're terrible. They'll terrify you. They'll haunt you, and you have no defense, no hope, no companion. How will you face them? What will you do? There's only one answer. You must come to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look to the Savior. and claim His death as for you. When you do that, then the victory will be yours. Victory over all that life may bring. Victory over death, over judgment, over hell. You'll be no more than conquerors. You'll never be afraid again. Dear friends, the Lord has constantly set before us new reasons for everlasting joy. Heaven is warmer than all that earth can imagine through him who loved us. I pray that all of us in this room may be able to say that forever and to mean it. Amen.