The All-Conquering God — E.A. Johnston

The All-Conquering God Conquers Saul of Tarsus

My message tonight, friends, is on the all-conquering God. Look at Saul of Tarsus as he travels down the road on his way to persecute some more Christians and beat them and imprison them. And along the way, he is conquered by God.

God knocks him off his horse and conquers him. In Acts chapter 9 and verse 3, we read, It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?

And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. God conquered Paul, friends, on the road to Damascus, saved him, and put him to work to save others.

Christ’s Authority to Break Sin’s Chains

You see, friends, there is a king who sits on a throne at the right hand of God and he earned that right by way of a bloody cross, and he has the power to work repentance on men's hearts and break the chains that bind them and set them free.

The power of canceled sin sets the sinner free. God is an all-conquering God. Jesus declared, I came to seek and save that which was lost. Listen, friends, God can save the worst sinner in this town tonight.

Total Surrender to the Sovereign Christ

He's an all-conquering God. I don't put much belief in a Christianity where you can take Jesus or leave him. You can walk an aisle when you are good and ready and accept him on your terms and repeat a prayer and still go to heaven.

That's not a Christianity I want to bank on. That just won't cut the mustard in eternity. Listen, friends, we are all eternity-bound men and women, and we must examine ourselves to see whether we sit upon a false foundation of carnal security or if we are truly born-again individuals who've been conquered by a king.

I believe the devil will get you if he can, friend. You better submit to all the rights and claims that the gospel has on a person and surrender to all that conquering sovereign. Throw down your shotgun of rebellion and bow to him now.

Jesus Christ is Lord. Repent and bow to him now, friend, before it's too late. He's an all-conquering God, and he demands total subjection to him. He must be a complete master. He's not some little old Jesus standing helplessly, knocking on the door of the sinner's heart with his hat in his hand, hoping you let him in like an insurance salesman.

No, sir, he is a sovereign, and when he saves a person, he comes in with all power and majesty and authority as you hear his voice speaking to your soul. He's an all-conquering God. There is no sinner too big that can't be saved.

The Story of a Rebellious Sinner’s Conversion

Like I said, if we only got out and knocked on doors more and told folks about the one who came down here so we could go up there, I believe that God can save the worst sinner in this town tonight. I want to relate a story to us this evening before we go to our time of prayer, and it's about how God saved a big sinner.

When I was conducting my research on the life of the evangelist, Ralph Barnard, I came across a story in his life that bears repeating here for us this evening. God used Ralph Barnard in a remarkable way.

It was said of Barnard that he was the human means of bringing over 100 ,000 souls to Christ during his 40-year itinerant preaching ministry. I want to read you this extract from his life as it pertains to our subject tonight, the all-conquering God.

In this story, Ralph Barnard relates how an old sinner got conquered by God and how God saved him. Let me read us this story right now, friends, and hear now are the words of Ralph Barnard. Every once in a while, I go back to one of the earliest trophies of my poor little ministry.

It did me so much good then, and very seldom does a week go by that I do not recall this experience. It helps me. In my first pastorate in an old town, Mrs. Karnes became a member of our little church.

Her husband was a big shot. He was making a lot of money, but not in the right way. He was highly educated and traveled lots. He finally got to come and hear me preach and would sit and listen. His wife got greatly concerned about him.

One day she said, Sunday, we want you to come and have dinner with us after the meal. I have an errand I've got to run, and I want you to really talk to my husband. She said, for the first time in our life together, I actually believe he might listen.

We had a lovely dinner. Then she made some excuses and left me, just a 23-year-old preacher boy, to tackle that man. I did the best I could, and he cut me to pieces. He had a head knowledge of the Bible from cover to cover.

He used it to argue about. He was smart. I never will forget how he butchered this poor little preacher boy. He butchered me so that I burst out in a sob, got up out of my chair, and ran out of his house.

I was in awful shape. Instead of trying to witness to him, I had to listen to him, answer with his criticisms and his mind. My testimony has to come from heart to heart, not mind to mind. I remember I had worked hard all week to prepare a high-powered sermon for that night.

That afternoon out in West Texas, it started raining real hard, and when it was time for the evening service, it was just pouring down. The people decided to stay at home, so there were just a few who came.

I felt like I couldn't afford to waste that big sermon on so few people, so I was desperate. I was also suffering because that intellectual giant had cut me to pieces, so I was wounded, discouraged, and blue.

I got up that night and preached a little half-hearted sermon. I don't know whether I believed any of it or not. I decided when it was over, it wouldn't do any harm. So I said, stand and sing. Somebody may want to publicly confess Jesus Christ.

Before the song leader got started good, here came that man, running down the aisle, sobbing like his heart would break. He put his big arms around me and liked to have crushed me to death. I'll never forget what he said.

Surrender and the Forgiveness of Sins

He said, I can't rebel against him any longer. I surrender. I surrender. I surrender. Oh, praise the Lord. There is somebody sitting on a throne with the authority and a delegated task of giving repentance to men and giving them the forgiveness of sins.

I can understand how an old rebellious sinner could be brought in a way that I certainly could not get no glory to a place where he will publicly say, I can't rebel against him no longer. I surrender.

And I remember the next Lord's day, I baptized him and the next Lord's day, I called on him to lead in public prayer. This was his prayer. He said, Oh Lord, this is the first time I ever did anything like this.

If you will help us today, I'll be much obliged, amen. That was his prayer, but it came from the heart. Later, we set him apart for the work of a deacon. Two weeks after I baptized him, he called me by phone and said, brother pastor, could you come down to the office?

I must see you. I went down and he had gotten out all of his writing and the crooked law business and he was cleaning up everything, paying things off, straightening things out. And he sat me down and faced me with a desk between us and he paid me the greatest compliment I ever got.

I needed it then. It don't hurt to compliment a young fellow once in a while who's in the battle. He said, pastor, I have heard all the big preachers in my day. I used to travel 150 or 200 miles just to listen to a big preacher to criticize him.

He said, I had to come way out here to this Texas old town and listen to a boy who was hardly old enough to shave before the claims of Christ were pressed upon man to where I had to surrender. Then he got up and came around.

I stood up and he put his arms around me and kissed me full on the lips. Then he said, I'll always love you, brother pastor. You wouldn't rest until Christ was my Lord. Well, I went away to school and Mr. Corns died.

A Testimony to God’s Power to Save

They sent a telegram to me. It went astray and I didn't get it until after the funeral. After the funeral, his wife sent me a stick pin, a black pearl or Ruby. I forget which it was. I never wear it. She sent a message.

She said he waited. He wanted me to be by his bedside, but I didn't know about it. When the strength was gone and he saw he wasn't going to see me, he instructed his wife to get that pin. And after he was gone to send it to me and write this note, dear pastor, when you get the blues, well, I've had plenty of that.

When you want to quit, if it was left up to me, I would have quit a thousand times. When it looks like you're not getting anywhere, I've been there too. He said, I want you to take this pin out and look at it and remember a God who can conquer a man like me and save anybody he pleases.

Brother, many a time when I've been in a meeting and everything I said went wrong, I came back and bounced and hit me between the eyes, especially in these last days where the spirit of Antichrist seems to be breathing hot upon our very necks.

When I wanted to quit and it looked like I couldn't go on and I was weak. Then I take out that pin and I look at it and I remember how God conquered the rebellious will and broke the chains that bound CJ Corns.

And then I could resist the devil and he'd flee from me. I know somebody that's in the saving business. There is somebody that can break the rebellion in man's heart. There is somebody that can set him free.

That somebody is the one who hung on a tree and dealt with God's holy law in my stead. And now he sits on a throne to save sinners. Glory to his name. I like that story about the all-conquering God, don't you, friends?

Christ’s Purpose to Save the Lost

You see, Christ didn't just hang on that cross to make salvation possible. He hung there with a purpose and that purpose is to save that which was lost. He's in the business of saving poor lost sinners.

Let us now go to our time of prayer and as we pray, let's pray for the lost that they will be found by that somebody with the power to save and set free, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray.