More Than Conquerors # 4

More Than Conquerors # 4

They he says in Romans 9:33, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth." Here is your strength. Notice in this verse again, verse 34: "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died." Can Christ's death be contested? satan knows better than that. Then says, he "is risen again...at the right hand..." Can the sovereignty of Jesus Christ be contested? And at the end of the verse it says, he "maketh intercession for us." Is there any way that the prayers of Jesus Christ can be sabotaged?

You see, if I'm a believer, this is what this verse says: I have the protection of the death of Jesus. If He is risen, I not only have protection, I have propitiation. He is the One that satisfies. Not only that, if He justifies me, I've not only protection and propitiation, I have prayer that's offered by Him. Then the old accusing devil comes and says, "Now, just look at this and look at that." You know what Tozer used to say to me? "Len, I talk back to the devil." Do you ever talk back to him? Tell him where to go and how to get there? Or do you just constantly get whipped by him?

We suffer accusations, as long as you live, till you get to the pearly gates, satan will accuse you. That's his job. He's the accuser of the brethren. Even if you've done nothing wrong, he'll try to make you feel bad. He's a liar from the beginning.

In Washington - in the Smithsonian museum, I guess, there's a bit of an apron with a dirty brown mark on it. And the Rockefellers have a bit of money and yet the Rockefellers can't can't buy that apron. It looks like a chocolate stain and the apron isn't worth much. But when they were carrying the great emancipator Lincoln out of that theater, as they passed a little girl, his blood fell on that apron and immediately somebody said, "that is sacred for America, get hold of it." There's nothing in the world can buy that thing which is stamped with blood! And I want to tell you tonight in the face of the world, the flesh, and the devil and all hell that if the blood of Jesus Christ is on you tonight you're worth more than all the wealth in Fort Knox or anywhere else in the world. You're precious to Him...Why?... Because His blood is upon you, that's why!

What are you going to do with this text? What is this text? "In all these things," verse 37, "we are more than conquerors." That's beyond the bounds of logic. How can you be MORE than a conqueror?

You can do three things with this text. You can say, "It's a statement by an ignorant, irresponsible person. The kind who overload you with confidence." You can say, "It's an unbalanced statement by a super-optimist." Or you can say, "Here's a man talking about out of experience." In all things," he says, "we are more than conquerors."

You know, there isn't a man on God's earth who knows how the next phase of revival will come. It's coming. Don't make any mistake about it. But God's going to do it His way. God has wonderful ways of working.

One pastor said, "My people come to church and pay their tithes. Routine. There's no passion. No vision. They're worldly. They enjoy bowling a lot more than groaning. They like fishing for fish much more than fishing for men. More of them are traveling than travailing." He said to his wife and another man in the church, "Can we agree together that God will send us revival?" And they did! They prayed.

Oh my! Sometimes it's very painful. In fact, I don't know when God works any blessing without painfulness. If He could have done it with pain, He'd have done it for His Son. But His Son had to go through the horrors of Gethsemane and the Cross. 

So this preacher and his wife, and the other man and his wife - she was the organist, I think - prayed. And God began to move. He moved them nearly all out of the church. From about 450 people, they went down to about 45. And they thought: "Now, Lord, Lord, put the brakes on here. It's going to stop here, isn't it?" The Lord said, "No, not yet." And they went down until they were a very select company: the preacher, his wife, the oldest deacon, and the organist. Four of them. Instead of shutting the shop, he said, "Keep on praying." Great! God was moving! They never asked Him to move that way. But after all, you ask God to move and He does it! The preacher said, "Four weeks, I preached to four people." It didn't take long to take the offering. For once the church was united. Then, he said, "God began to turn the tide and they started coming back. People got saved." Now he had hundreds of people.

You see, the Holy Spirit is so wonderful. As I said last night, He's a Spirit of truth and He convicts us of error. He's a Spirit of life and He convicts of death. He's a Spirit of power and He convicts of weakness. He's a Spirit of joy and He convicts of sorrow. And He's a Spirit of LOVE! I'm going to tell you this, I believe tonight, if the Church of Jesus Christ, every true believer, in America had the baptism of love, the Church would be "back in business."

Love works many, many miracles that theory, philosophy, and theology don't work. The Word of God says that the first thing the Holy Spirit does in you life when He comes in is hang His shingle out. That's what He does. You know what it says on this shingle? "The fruit of the Spirit is power..." No, No. What is it? Oh, you know what it is. The first thing...LOVE.

~Leonard Ravenhill~

(continued with # 5)

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