More than Conquerors: The Greatest Chapter in the Bible

Today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer.

Because God paid the highest price to initiate it, the blood of his son, and then supplied the greatest power to accomplish it, which was the power of the resurrection, and because God swore by his sovereign purpose to finish it, you can be sure that he is now working all things together for good and fulfillment of that purpose. Welcome back to Summit Life with J.D. Greer.

As always, I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. So you've probably heard the verse that says, in all these things, we are more than conquerors. In fact, if you're a sports fan, you've probably heard more than you care to remember. But do you really know what it means to be more than a conqueror?

How is that even possible? Well, today Pastor J.D. shows us how God not only delivers us from our suffering, but how he makes our pain and suffering serve his purposes, which are always for our good.

That's what a conqueror looks like. And if you've missed any part of our teaching series in the book of Romans, remember that you can always listen for free at jdgreer.com. Now grab your Bible and a pen, and let's join Pastor J.D.

in Romans chapter 8. I'm not sure if you've ever heard the name Peter De Neca, but he was a Russian immigrant who fled to the United States around 1910, 1911, in order to escape the looming communist revolution. When he moved to Chicago, he became a Christian. Just a few years later, 1914, he became a Christian. Then he went to the Moody Bible Institute and was then powerfully used by God in both the United States and the Soviet Union in bringing a lot of people to Jesus.

Well, he tells this great little story about his escape from Russia. He said, my family was very poor. He said, we actually were moderate means, but in the revolution, we started to lose everything. And so we had no money and my parents sacrificed literally everything they had in order to get me a ticket on a boat to America. He said, I got on that boat with no money, just a knapsack and a few articles of clothing. He said, my mom had stuffed a few pieces of stale hard bread into the bag for me to eat on the journey. He said, throughout the week long or so journey, I would often find myself looking in at the dining hall and just longing to have just a bite of what looked like these lavish meals that these passengers were eating.

He said, eventually I befriended a few of the sailors there on the ship. And they told me that if I would do the work that they would do alongside them, they would slip me in and allow me to eat what they ate. He said, which was still very meager portions, gruel and hard tack and that kind of stuff. But at least it was better than that moldy bread that he had in his knapsack. He said, it was not until the last day of the trip that I realized, somebody explained to me that three full meals a day had come with the purchase of my ticket.

He said, because I could not read what was written on the ticket, I didn't know what I was entitled to. I share that because what the apostle Paul does in Romans chapter eight is he explains to you that many Christians live out their spiritual journey in the same way. You see, we know that receiving Christ gets us a ticket into heaven, but we don't fully understand all the benefits that are included in the price of that ticket. And that's what Romans eight is all about.

I want to pick up again, right in verse 29, where we left off, because that's where Paul lays out and really concise form the purpose that God is pursuing in our lives. All right, here it is verse 29, those that God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son and those he predestined, he also called, those he called, he also justified, those he justified, he also glorified. My, my, we got some big theological words in there, so let's just take them one at a time here. Foreknew, foreknew doesn't simply mean that God knew facts about the future as if he could simply see into the future. You see, when scripture says that God knows somebody, it means he has a relationship with them. For example, for example, in Matthew chapter seven, when Jesus says to a group of people, depart from me, I never knew you. He doesn't mean he's never heard about them.

It doesn't mean he doesn't know any facts about them. What he means is that he had no relationship with them. So when God says he foreknew us, it means that he set his love on us before we even existed. Those that God foreknew, Paul says, those are the ones he predestined.

To predestine means to determine the destination beforehand. God has predestined those that he foreknew to end up looking like Jesus. Now I realize that just bringing up the P word brings up all kinds of questions for some of you. For now, I just want you to understand why Paul is bringing this up. You see, Paul is not bringing it up to try to start a theological argument with you.

He's not even trying to launch you out on a theological excursus for you to start musing about the sovereignty of God. Paul is bringing this up in order to give you assurance. He's trying to say before time began, before you were even born, before you had ever done anything even good or bad, God foreknew you. And God determined that he was going to make you more like Jesus. That was his purpose.

And nothing now can deter him from that purpose. Those that God foreknew and predestined, those are the ones he called. The first time that God's foreknowledge and predestination really broke into your life was when you experienced that call. That was the first time it manifested in you, which basically means that you were drawn to want to know God. Sometimes people will say to me, well, pastor, how do I know that God foreknew me? How do I know that he predestined me? How do I know that I'm called? Maybe I'm not really called.

That's a very easy question. If you had any desire to know God at all, that's evidence that you were foreknown, predestined, and called. John 6 44, look at this. No man can come to me, Jesus said, unless the father who sent me draws them. Which means if you are coming to Jesus at all, if you have any desire to know Jesus, that's evidence the father is drawing you. Philippians 2 13 is where Paul explains it another place. It's God, he said, who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure, which means that God is not just the power in the doing of God's will. God is the power in the desiring of God's will.

You see that? Sometimes we understand, of course, that God gives us the power to obey, but God also gives you the desire, the will to obey, which means if you had a desire to know God, to be close to him, that was evidence of a call. First Thessalonians chapter one, Paul says, for we know brothers and sisters loved by God, we know that he has chosen you.

How do we know that? Well, because our gospel came to you, not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction. Paul says, we know that you're chosen because when we preach, you didn't treat it like idle words. And it came with conviction of sin. You felt conviction of sin.

You were persuaded about the truth of Jesus and your need to come to believe the gospel. That was evidence that you were chosen. Now, of course, I realize there is some mysterious interplay between our choosing of our own volition and God's sovereignty. Some of you, when you talk about your spiritual journey, you feel like you got drafted into God's army. Others of you feel like you voluntarily enlisted.

At the end of the day, both elements are there. If you belong to Jesus, it's because you voluntarily chose him. But if you chose him, it's because God was drawing you. Those he foreknew and predestined, those he called, those are the ones he justified. Accepting God's call means accepting his offer to save you. When you believe that Jesus died as the substitute for your sin, when you believe he took your place and you claim that sacrifice as your own, Paul explains in Romans three and four, that faith is counted as righteousness. You are justified, which I told you some people explained by saying, it's just as if I'd never sin. Justified. Paul said, when you're called, then you're justified. Those he foreknew and predestined and called and justified, those are the ones he glorified.

This is the final destination that the train is taking you to. To be glorified means to have all your sin eradicated, to be made perfect in body and soul, and to become just like Jesus, which is for Paul, the ultimate treasure. Now, talk about this last week. My wife gave me some feedback after the sermon. She said, I'm going to be honest with you. She said, it may be some people that are just not sure why that's such an exciting destination, become just like Jesus. And maybe as I talk about that, you're like, I don't know, it just doesn't sound that awesome. Maybe just like Jesus. And maybe that's because you grew up with the same image of Jesus I did in Sunday school. They were based on the pictures that we had of Jesus that all look the same thing. Olin Mills Jesus, remember? With his perfect Ric Flair hair and his perfectly trimmed beard and his oily face, always looking off in the distance with this pensive, too spiritual for this world look.

You know what I'm talking about? Literally every picture I saw of Jesus until I was 16 years old, he had the same expression on his face. And I remember as a middle school thinking, like, I'm not sure that's somebody I want to grow up and be like.

I'm not even sure I'd want to hang out with that guy. All right, so why is becoming like Jesus, why is that Paul's ultimate treasure? Well, that's just because you and I aren't thinking of it the right way. Jesus said, John 10, 10, I came that they might have life and have it to the fullest. Psalm 16, 11, in my presence is the fullness of joy at my right hand are pleasures forevermore. Fullness of joy means joy that could not get any stronger. Pleasures forevermore means pleasures that could not last any longer. To be like Jesus is to be fully alive, free of sin and corruption. Everything physically, emotionally, and spiritually works like it is supposed to. It is a fullness of life.

You don't even have the capacity to comprehend yet. That's what Paul says the ultimate destination is for us. D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, the 20th century British pastor, says maybe the most astounding thing about this passage is that Paul speaks of this future glorification in the past tense. Those he foreknew and called and predestined and justified, those are the ones he glorified past tense.

The glorification is as past tense as the foreknowing is. In other words, y'all, if you're a believer, it's as good as if it's already done. It is as finished in God's mind as foreknowing you is. That is God's unalterable purpose. That is the place that he is working. That's what he's doing in your life.

Get this. Here's Paul's logic. Because God paid the highest price to initiate it, the blood of his son, and then supplied the greatest power to accomplish it, which was the power of the resurrection through his indwelling Holy Spirit, and because God swore by his sovereign purpose to finish it, you can be sure that he is now working all things together for good and fulfillment of that purpose.

You could put a big old fat period right there and in the chapter and in the sermon, but Paul didn't do that because Paul just can't help himself. He's going to take just eight verses and just start exploding in praise because he can't help himself. He just overflows in worship.

There's no new content in here. This is all just him overflowing in praise. It takes the form of five rhetorical questions. These are five questions on which you should build your life.

Verse 31. Here's the first question. What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Question number one, if you're taking notes. If an all-powerful God has purposed our good, why would we fear opposition? Now be very clear here. He's not saying that nothing dangerous will ever oppose you. I know that some of you coming into this place would say, nothing can oppose me.

Are you kidding? I mean, try a bad boss. Try an antagonistic spouse. Maybe a chronic health problem. Maybe a difficult kid. Maybe it's somebody that just seems bound and determined to make your life miserable. Paul is not saying that the Christian will not experience opposition.

Quite the contrary. He is living with the expectation of struggle. Jesus had promised in this world, you're going to have tribulation. What he is saying is that no opposition ever overcomes the believer because while the struggles the believer faces are big, the God behind the believer is even bigger. Growing up, I always felt so safe around my dad because I just assumed as a young kid that my dad was omnipotent. In my mind, he was the strongest, smartest man alive. It's like I've told you, the man can fix anything with a pocket knife.

No matter what was wrong, out come the pocket knife and a few minutes later it'd be working again. He didn't seem to be scared of anything, bees, snakes, robbers. None of it seemed to deter him at all. And the man I thought was just unbelievably strong. I was positive he could have whipped any of your dads, right? That might've been wrong, but that's just the confidence that I live with.

In fact, I think he still can. The bottom line was that anytime I was around him, I felt safe. Not because there were no dangers. In fact, it was often dangers that drove me close to him. It was just in his presence, I assumed he was bigger than the dangers that would scare or threaten me. The way to remove fear from your life is not to isolate yourself from all dangers.

The only way to overcome fear is to believe the promises of a God who is bigger and better than all the dangers combined. Thanks for joining us today on Summit Life. We'll get back to today's teaching in just a moment, but first I wanted to tell you about our resource this month. It's a Bible study through the first half of the book of Romans called The Gift of God written by the late Pastor Tim Keller. It's a great way to get an even better perspective and understanding of one of the Bible's richest books, and it would make an incredible study to do with a friend or even a whole group. Each of the book's seven studies walks you through passages of Romans along with application questions and prayer prompts. You'll see Paul teaching about the gift of being right with God and what being righteous means for your future.

To get a hold of your copy, just give us a call at 866-335-5220 or visit jdgreer.com. Now let's get back to today's teaching from Pastor JD right here on Summit Life. I was reading a women's Bible study the other day. This study had a line in it from that famous description of the godly woman in Proverbs 31. Proverbs 31, the godly woman has no fear of the future. And it just struck me.

I'm like is that even possible in the 21st century? Has no fear of the future? Why would the godly woman have no fear of the future? Is it because she's in great shape and has discovered that miracle anti-aging cream that always keeps her looking fantastic and she's in perfect health? She's in a perfect marriage with a doting husband who is also in great health.

She's got perfect kids who have no issues at all. Does she have no fear of the future because all the right politicians are in office and because everything seems to be trending in the right direction? If that is your idea of the fearless life, well good luck with that.

Right? But that's how all of us think, isn't it? The reason I am afraid is because one of these things didn't work and I got to get it in the right place and then I can live without fear. No, the godly woman has no fear of the future because she knows a God bigger than anything that threatens her whose presence and power are always with her and who promises, listen to this, to transform any of the things that she's afraid of into an agent of his purpose. That's where you release from fear. Any of the things that she fears in the future God has promised not just to be with her through them but to transform those things that she is afraid of into agents of his purpose. That's what David was going after in Psalm 23. Yea though I walk to the valley of shadow and death I will fear no evil. Why? For thou art with me. Because you're with me. It's not that I like the valley of the shadow of death. I actually don't want to be here but I can live here and I can even dwell here a little by because I know that you're bigger than the death that threatens to surround me and you're going to transform the valley of death into a valley where you're going to do something amazing in my life and so I can go through it if you go with me. At some point you're going to go through that valley either literally the valley of the shadow of death or metaphorically some relationship is going to fall apart some unexpected diagnosis is going to come some tragedy that's going to face you at some point you just can't isolate yourself enough and when it comes when it comes the only way for you to overcome fear is to know that you got a God that is bigger than the valley of the shadow of death and while you may not want to be there he's going to turn that valley into a valley where he does some amazing things into your life which ties into question number two he who did not even spare his own son but offered him up for us all how will he not also with him grant us everything question two if God gave up his most precious possession to save us why would we worry about any of the rest of our needs if he accomplished the larger surely he'll accomplish the smaller you know they say the value something has is shown only by what somebody's willing to pay for it right have you ever gone to a um a yard sale with one of your neighbors and you're almost embarrassed to tell them that everything there at the yard sale was ridiculously overpriced and you're like i know it just really precious to you but it's just a lamp to us and so i don't think everybody's gonna pay that for it or the opposite experience you know to me the only thing interesting on those shows like antique road show or american pickers or pollen stars or whatever the only thing interesting is when somebody has some object that they think is like i bought this for three dollars in a yard sale and then somebody comes along and tells them i'll give you thirty thousand dollars for that i think that's like the only interesting moments in those shows it actually happened to my family weren't on the show but my granny when my my grandmother on my dad's side passed away you know going through her house and trying to figure out what to do with stuff and there's this lamp this kind of antique looking lamp that was in the the family room you know we're taking the stuff too and they take it to the the thing and uh they said we'll run this by just an antique see if there's you know any value in any of these things i mean we're thinking like five ten dollars the guy at the antique store said uh this one right here i'll give you twenty five thousand dollars for it on the spot it was some depression era uh kind of deal and i suddenly remembered that my granny had promised that lamp to me um and i i felt like i needed to tell the family that just right then and there but but the point is we played soccer in that room and one little kick the wrong direction and twenty five thousand dollars is thrown away had we known the price somebody was willing to pay for that lamp we would have treated it differently paul's point god sacrificed jesus to redeem you and that should change how you perceive yourself and how you perceive what god is doing with you why would god paul would say why would he put that kind of investment into you and then not supply what you needed to accomplish his will why would he put that kind of effort into saving you and then not help you why would he rescue you from sin but not help you in your marriage why supply for you the holy spirit but withhold wisdom from you in parenting sometimes when i'm counseling people who are worried about some decision oh i'm going to go to the wrong college i'm going to take the wrong job i'm going to marry the wrong person i'm going to live in the wrong place and i always tell them i look i'm like you need to understand as you pray listen god has more invested in your life now than you do if you're a believer he's put the blood of his son over you which means he's got more invested in your life than you do he's not going to let that investment go to waste and he's not going to make it hard so you should start praying what i pray and i've told you this over the years i call the sheep prayer the sheep prayer is where i look at god in a big decision and i do this literally every time god this is a huge decision i feel like it's got big ramifications but god in your word you called me a sheep and i've told you somebody that's good news and bad news bad news sheep are idiots and they really are i mean sheep are one of the most helpless animals out there they cannot get to where they need to go if sheep get to where sheep go it's not because of their wisdom as sheep it is because of the compassion of their shepherd and that's the good news i can go to god and say god i'm a sheep but i'm a sheep you died for and i know that where i don't have the capacity to understand your will i'm going to trust that with your rod and your staff you're just going to make me get to where i need to go so i'm going to make this decision as best i can without worry and about fear realizing that you're not going to let your investment go to waste and as long as i'm trusting in you with all my heart and not leaning on my own understanding and in all my ways acknowledging you then you are going to direct my paths that is the confidence you can have in the midst of in the midst of some of these difficult decisions psalm 23 4 david said you will lead me in paths of righteousness for your name's sake luke 12 32 fear not little flock it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom there's a ton of metaphors all packed together right there but they're all specifically chosen fear not here's the first one little flock right in other words you're sheep you're idiots right you can't take care of yourself and sometimes you're gonna go to god you're gonna be like god i'm cast i'm on my back i don't even know how i got here but i don't know how to get back on my feet again and god's like i know that's why i called you a sheep but he's going to help you fear not little by the way not just regular size flock little fly he just threw in a gratuitous insult hey not just flock little flock little flock it is your father's good pleasure not your employer's obligation it is your father's it's just in his nature he's like a dad with his kids who just loves to pour out goodness on his kids and loves to delight his kids that's your heavenly father to give you the kingdom kingdom means he's sovereign means he's controlling all of it and nothing is outside of his control normally they tell you not to mix metaphors at least what my professor told me but a this is jesus so back off b this is a really good one god is like a compassionate shepherd he's like a tender father and he's like an all-powerful king all wrapped up into one and if he's all those things to you at every minute what are you afraid of so let's do question three and four together here's the third and fourth question verse 33 who can bring an accusation against god's elect god's the one who justifies verse 34 he continues the thought there verse 34 who is the one who condemns well christ jesus is the one who died but even more he's been raised and he's also at the right hand of god and he now intercedes for us here's questions three and four if god accepts me whose disapproval need i fear any longer number four verse 34 if jesus the judge was judged in my place well how can i still feel guilt from anywhere more than conquerors is the title of our teaching today here with pastor jd greer on summit life now jd we've been in the book of romans for a good amount of time here on the program and in fact i remember it took you more than a year to preach it to our church family so can you give us a little more info about the whole series yes we walk through the book of romans we are finding what martin luther called the purest gospel and the most important piece in the new testament right you know whether you're struggling with with knowing where you stand with god or why you have such trouble keeping the commands of god or why you can't seem to find that spiritual power that you've heard so much about i can tell you from personal experience the book of romans is for you to go along with this series we want to put in your hands a two-part bible study that was actually written by one of my one of the greatest influences in my life that we lost just a few weeks ago the the late pastor tim keller he loved the book of romans and he influenced how i approached the book of romans and so what an honor for us at summit life to be able to attach his bible study with this we want to get you the first volume later this year we'll offer the second one if you go right now right now to jdgrier.com j-d-g-r-e-e-a-r.com you can see what i mean in addition to listening to us walk through this book here on summit life you can be studying it on your own or with some friends or family and getting getting that much more out of it we are excited to be offering this study through the first half of the book of romans which is so appropriately called the gift of god take your small group through it or take a friend through it one on one it really is a valuable discipleship tool we'd love to send you this romans bible study today with your gift of 35 or more to this ministry to donate simply call us at 866-335-5220 that's 866-335-5220 or visit jdgrier.com to give your gift online i'm molly vidovich inviting you to join us again thursday as we wrap up romans chapter 8 on summit life with jd greer jdgrier today's program is produced and sponsored by jd greer ministries