MORE THAN CONQUERORS
"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through him that loved us" (Romans viii. 37).
It is a tremendous thing to be a conqueror in all the
conflicts of the holy war, but it is vastly greater to be "more than
conqueror in all these things."
There are a great many of God's own people who are terribly
chagrined again and again by at least temporary defeat. If God has provided for
a life of victory, a life of perfect triumph, we ought to know it; and if the
Atonement made on the Cross provided a salvation that is as big as all our
need, we ought to possess it; and if there is such a thing as being a
"conqueror," yea, "more than conqueror," we can not afford
to come short of it. We ought to know tonight what it means. After a careful
study of the Word of God we are thoroughly convinced that to be "more than
conqueror" means, first, a decisive victory at home, in our own heart, and
our own life, and the narrow limits of our own domestic or social circle. There
are a great many people who continue to leave the question as to their final
victory so open as to invite the enemy to make another attack. There is such
uncertainty in many minds as to their ultimate success that the enemy has great
encouragement to recollect his forces and come again.
To be more than conqueror means to get a victory that
settles something permanently; a Gettysburg, a Waterloo, a Sebastopol, a
certain, indubitable victory that fixes something so it will stay fixed. When
we get this victory, we say "No" to Satan so loud that it rings
through every corridor of hell and lets all the devils know that they are
defeated and that we are triumphant. When this occurs Satan is not
everlastingly renewing his attack at the same point. Do you know that a real
Christian's trials and testings ought to be new ones, and that he ought not to
be fighting the same battle again and again? Today we ought to get a victory
that will settle things, so that when Satan comes again he will have to attack
us from another quarter and with some new scheme.
There is something radically wrong when a Christian's
temptations are the same again and again. It is possible for us to have a
victory, and have it so the devil will know it, and have it so the angels will
know it, and have it so that the folks in this country will know it, and we
will know it, and it will be no longer an open question, no longer an
inducement to Satan to come again with rallied forces. Great God, give us
something that is fixed! He wants to do it. It is His will tonight.
A decisive victory would settle it in our thought as to
whether we are going to get through or not. A great question with thousands of
people today is as to the final outcome of this whole thing. I admit it is
important. It is one thing for a vessel to throw off her lines, spread her
spotless canvas to the wind with all her flags flying, and sail proudly out of
the harbor, but it is another thing for her to meet the raging tempests and set
her prow across the rolling billows and successfully ride the high sea and come
safely into port. It is one thing for a man to be converted, to be gloriously
converted, to throw off the lines and restraint of sin, to spread his canvas to
the wind and with hopes and flags flying high, sail out in the time of a series
of meetings, and it is another thing for him to meet the storms of next week
and the raging billows of next month, and the blackness and darkness of the
awful nights that may come in January and February or in the stormy month of
March. It is another thing for him to meet these trials and testings and come
finally in, not like an old battered ship with her sails all torn away, drawn
by a tug, but with flags and pennants flying come sweeping into the Kingdom of
Jesus Christ with "an abundant entrance."
If God has provided a gospel that will settle us well, He
has provided grace that will keep us settled. If He has provided a salvation
that will give us a victory today, He has grace enough to run us up across next
week and over the trials and difficulties of next month, and on and up forever;
and He has grace enough to carry us over the Alleghenies, and over the Rockies,
and over the Alps, and over the Milky Way, and run us into heaven. God help us
to believe it, and expect it, instead of fixing a place to fall.
Again, beloved, to be more than conqueror means to get a
victory from which we derive benefit and help to qualify us and fit us for
future encouragement. It is one thing to chase the enemy, and it is another to
capture him and bring him back and make him fight in our ranks. To be conqueror
is to fight the devil and defeat him, but to be more than conqueror is to
capture him and make him act as slave for us.
Most Christians feel satisfied if they succeed in chasing
the enemy, but God clearly teaches us that we are not only to chase our
enemies, but we are to overtake them, and we are to capture men from the ranks
of the devil and bring them back to the Cross and have the devils cast out and angels
put in, and make saints out of sinners and warriors for God out of men that
have been possessed of the devil. We are never more than conquerors until we
have power enough to do that very thing.
There are some victories that come to us that are
overwhelming, then there are victories that cost almost as much as defeat.
There are victories in military life that cost almost as much as defeats. A few
more such would ruin the victorious party. There are other victories that are so
sweeping and so tremendous and so overwhelming that every one is filled with
hope and gratitude. So it is with Christian experience. You may gain a victory
over Satan, and yet feel so reduced and weak and "tuckered out" when
you get through that you will not be fit for another fight for a
longtime.
The text talks about something that is not only victory, but
is more than mere victory. It is victory with some left; so that we overcome
with resources in store; so that we defeat the devil with grace enough to
defeat another devil. This gospel is big enough, and this grace is extensive enough
not only to defeat the devils existing, but if there were a million times as
many devils as there are, it would defeat them all.
God has grace enough for His people, if they will only
accept it, to accomplish the impossible things as well as the improbable
things. To be more than conquerors means to do just that. It is a wonderful
thing to be a conqueror, but it is a much more wonderful thing to be ''more than
conqueror."
David was more than conqueror when he went against the giant
with five rounds of ammunition, and slew the giant with one round and came back
with four rounds of ammunition left, ready for four more giants. You would
probably have fired every round of ammunition you had, and felt good if you
downed the giant the last shot, but David felled him the first time. That was "more
than conqueror." That was conquering with something left, but the most of
folks when they conquer have nothing left; when they conquer the are so weak
that they would not like to enter into another engagement at once. God means
for us to conquer with enough left for another fight right away.
I remember that when Paul and Silas were in jail they not
only got out themselves but they took the other fellows out. That was
"more than conqueror." Most of people when they get in jail are glad
to get out themselves and do not think about the other folks; but Paul and
Silas sang and prayed until the old prison shook and the doors opened and the
prisoners were out.
When you and I get the blessing I am talking about tonight,
we can afford to go into jail to get some one out. I never go into jail unless
I bring some one out with me. God lets me get into some very close quarters at
times, but when He takes me out He takes some one else out with me. It is time
we had a salvation that would make us sing at midnight in jail, not so much
because we are in there, as because the other fellows are going to get out, and
God has honored us with the privilege of being turnkey that we may liberate the
prisoners. That is more than conqueror.
Daniel was a conqueror when he slept with the lions. It
takes great victory of spirit to sleep with lions. Most Christians would sit up
and watch the lions. They would say we were told to "watch." Daniel
was much "more than conqueror" when he came out. The Hebrew children
were conquerors when they could walk in the fire and not be burned, but they
were much "more than conquerors " when the Son of God walked with
them in the flames and they came out to conquer unbelief and make devils gnash
their teeth in powerless rage and go back to hell where they came from.
God in heaven save us from this little two-by-four religion
that we have. Give us something that has a swing to it and that will make other
folks swing. Something that has life in it and will give other folks life. It
is coming. God is opening our eyes to see that we have not seen much and have
not had much nor known much, and when we were sanctified wholly we only topped
the reservoir, not exhausted it. God wants to raise up a race of people who
will dare to go forward in the face of a regiment of devils.
Again, to be more than conqueror is to have an experience
that gets spoils. When the children of Ammon, the people of Mount Sier, came up
against Jehoshaphat he cried to God and God sent a victory so overwhelming that
it took Jehoshaphat three days to gather up the spoils. God means that we
should have victories all the way along that will give us spoils.
When the besieged people went out of the city and found that
the camp was deserted, Samaria's famine was turned into a great feast in a
single day. God means to give us an experience that will send us right out into
the famine districts, into the barren wilderness and make it blossom as the
rose and convert the famine stricken country into a feast and have all we need.
Glory to God!
Again, to be more than conqueror means to take new territory.
Do you know, one of the things that is the matter with the Holiness movement is
that it has been trotting around in a peck measure? Do you know that there are
thousands of people who have evidently been filled with the Spirit, who are
powerless today as folks that never were? Why is this? It is because they have been
willing to be confined to the narrow limits of present attainments and have
been afraid to launch out and take new territory. To be "more than
conqueror" means to take new territory. It means not only the knocking
down of the walls of Jericho, but it means the conquering of thirty-one kings
in succession.
There are a great many people who without doubt have been
saved, but they are so afraid of being fanatics, or of being extremists, that
they have just settled down to testify to being saved at a certain time and
sanctified at another certain time, and that is all there is to it.
But people who know what we are talking about tonight have
something added to the first and second experience. I do not mean a third
blessing. I do not mean mighty epochs compared with these two, for they are the
two mighty epochs in a man's life, Calvary and the furnace of the upper room.
But I do mean that if we keep on we will take victory in our bodies. We will
take victory in our circumstances. We will take victory over all sorts of
things, and we will be daily coming into new places and new experiences and new
joys with new views of God and His grace, with extended appreciation of the
magnificence of our inheritance in Jesus Christ. They will never find the ashes
of our campfires two nights in the same place. If they want to find where we
stayed last night they will have to go higher up the hill than where we stayed
night before last. If God had an army of real progressive Christians it would
not take long to "give this world fits" and carry out the great
commission of Jesus Christ, spreading the gospel to all the world.
The text says "in all these things." What things?
Well, the first thing mentioned is under tribulation, and that means
"under the harrow." If you have ever been on the farm you know what the
harrow is. It is a tool with sharp teeth under which the clods and stones are
tumbled and rolled and knocked to pieces. Have you ever been under the harrow?
Did you have victory there? Were you more than conqueror in tribulation?
Harrowing is a great deal worse than being killed. It is a real luxury to be
killed outright, but to be nagged and punched and rolled and tumbled and turned
over and over again -- that is tribulation. But "they came up out of great
tribulation," and they never came up until they had been "more than
conquerors" in it. Unless we have an experience that will keep us sweet
when people are poking at us and when they are kicking us and when they are turning
us over, we have not got all that God has 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?
Beloved, God means to make us more than conquerors, not only
in tribulation, but in distress; in great distress, in awful distress, and if I
should stop to refer to instances in the history of the Church, I would call to
mind that again and again the saints of God have been more than conquerors in
the most trying times.
Persecution! How do you take persecution, anyway? How do you
feel when people persecute you? How do you feel when you hear that some one
said a mean thing about you? How do you feel when you know that there are
people who desire to injure you and are malicious and underhanded and would do
anything in their power to injure you? Are you "more than
conqueror"?
There are very few nowadays who can stand persecution. I
have been pained even in the holiness ranks to see that when a man is turned
down, there is so much made of it. What if folks do turn me down; I would like
to know what better than that I have a right to expect. Why is it we expect to
be treated so much better than our Master? God help us to stop all this noise
and racket about persecution, and wait until we have something to make a fuss
about. God in heaven save us from whimpering and simpering and whining and
fretting, and give us grace that will make us triumphant over every power that
is brought to bear against us.
I know there are some that have this blessing. I know some
here who have it. I know a man that has just been reading in different papers
the awful things that people say about him that ought to try his patience, but
it seems to put a jump in him, and I know if God can put a man up on wires so
that he will turn into a jumping jack when people say all manner of evil
against him, I know that God can make us "more than conquerors" in
persecution. It always gives me great courage to see a sample of what God can
turn out. O God, multiply these kind of people, for Jesus' sake.
"And famine." There are a lot of holiness people
that freeze up at their mouth and sit down in silence every time they get into
a place where there is a "famine," and there are plenty of such places
nowadays. One can find a famine in most every city church -- a famine of the
gospel, of real soul food, but is that any reason why one should tone down or
go into silence and retirement? It is an opportunity to prove that one may be
"more than conqueror" in famine. I believe in my soul that a few
people loaded down with good, steady Holy Ghost gospel, can turn almost any
kind of a famine into a feast. I go into some awfully dry churches sometimes.
In New York City sometime ago, when I was on the retired list for a time
waiting upon my precious wife, I slipped into a church in that great
metropolis. My heart was hungry. I had a great deal to make me hungry, and I wanted
some bread. I looked up in the pulpit and there was no bread there. I looked in
the pews, and there was no bread there. Then I said, "Well, Lord, you will
not fail me, we will eat a little together," and He set the table, put on
the linen, arranged the silverware and cut glass and we ate supper together. He
brought the supper with Him. When you and I have this experience we can have
supper anytime. If the preacher will not feed us we will just let Christ set
our own little table and eat and if we can find anyone who can take a piece we
will feed them. God make us more than conquerors in famine. There are lots of
famines in these days. God give us an experience that will make us like a well
of water in a dry place. How dry and hungry people are around us! We do not know
how many souls we might water if we had "plenty and to spare."
"Nakedness, peril or the sword." You may be astonished at it, but I
believe there are more people backsliding today over the question of eating and
clothing and the poor house as a final destiny than over any other thing. There
were times when Paul did not have scarcely any clothes, but he was "more
than conqueror" in nakedness. He never went to making tents until the
stingy churches would not pay him, and then he made tents long enough to get
him a suit and went on preaching again. But he was just as triumphant when he
was making tents as when he was preaching. I want to be like that. I want us to
measure up. I see these things are here, and I believe God is letting us come
to infinitely greater things than we have yet seen. Shall we possess them?
"In danger of the sword." How people are
threatened nowadays! Threatened in the churches and threatened out of the
churches. It is threatened that if you do not stop preaching holiness and
testifying to holiness they will put you out of the synagogue. Well, being put
out of the synagogue is not so bad, but what we want is victory in our souls
when we are put out. Victory in our souls when we have no friends, when there
is no one to speak a kind word to us. If we attempt to speak to any one after
the meeting, and they seem to be very busy talking to someone else and sort of
turn the cold shoulder to us, and do not hardly have time to shake hands with
us, we want a salvation that will make us feel so good that we can stop right
there and hold a ten days' camp meeting in our souls.
Beloved, there are awful things that may come to us. I do
not know what is coming, but I do know we are living in awful times, and I know
the text offers to you and me an experience that will make us something
"more than conquerors" in any place this side the flaming gates of an
endless hell, and by the grace of God I am determined to go through on that
line. One thing I know. We never get this experience until we receive the Holy
Ghost, for He alone can fight our battles; He alone can defeat our enemies; He
alone can bring in the supplies. If we have not received Him, and do not honor
Him, and do not serve Him, we can not hope for success. Have you received the
Holy Ghost since you were converted? Preached at Cincinnati, O., December 3,
1898.PRAYER
Oh, Lord God, we are so glad tonight that a great many of us
have received the Holy Ghost and are more than conquerors. He is here tonight
in great power, and He is doubtless talking to some hearts that have not yet
received Him, and is greatly encouraging and blessing those who have received
Him. Thou art getting us ready for greater things. This meeting tonight is
calculated to give us some advance in divine things. Lord, give advancement to
me. I would not have Thee come and find me short in spirit or power for
anything.
God in heaven, I know Thou hast saved me from all sin. I
know Thou hast saved me from all desire for sin. I hate sin; I despise
uncleanness, but, O Lord, I know there must be other things on the positive
side of this question which I need and ought to have. O Lord, Thou dost not
mean for me to preach truth like this and not get something out of it for my
own soul.
O mighty God! make us more than conquerors in every single
conflict into which we enter. Bring on the fight. We can not do anything, but
we trust Thee to bring it on. This meeting is Thine. Lord God, take care of
everything. Here are souls who are hungry, but we can not save them. The only
thing which we can do is to give them to Thee. Here are poor, burdened souls
who are not happy and will never be happy until they are saved, and we trust
them with Thee. If Jesus should come tonight, we are ready. If Jesus should
come while we are on our knees here, we are ready. God has saved us and filled
us, and we are ready. We wish He would come tonight. We long to see this awful
tragedy of sin come to an end.
Mighty God! Mighty God! have mercy. Men are being damned.
Women are being damned. Church members are being damned. Our own friends are
going to hell. They tell us positively that they do not care to be saved. God
help them! Turn on the power. Let tonight be an awful night for some souls. Let
it be glorious to saints and awful to sinners. Lord, we trust Thee. We wait
upon Thee. The Christ of Nazareth, we adore Him; the Son of God whom they spat
upon; whom they crucified. They mocked Him with a crown of thorns, but we
worship Him tonight. They pierced His side, and from it came forth blessing and
salvation; we worship Him, we adore Him. We want the universe to know that we
bow at His feet; that we look up into His face and see everything that is
nearest and dearest to us. Heaven would not be heaven without Him. Earth would
be hell without Him. In His name we pray. Amen, and amen!
