I noticed a couple of our young
ladies, young girls, singing those songs with us. I love seeing
that. Hope and pray that someday they'll
sing it with great joy and rejoicing from their heart. Romans 5, go
back there with me. Romans 5, as said, we started
this Sunday, we didn't get very far, but that's okay. I believe
it was a blessing. Read verses 1 and 2 again with me.
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. By Him, by Christ, also we have
access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and We rejoice
in hope of the glory of God. And we just sang that song that
says, oh, what a foretaste of glory divine. If you enjoy this,
when you hear it from a very poor vessel, just wait. You just wait. You'll really
enjoy it when you hear Him speak. No man speak like Him. But I want you to notice, we
read this and hope you noticed how many times it says we. We
have access. We have peace with God. We glory
in tribulation. When we were without strength,
Christ died for us and God commended his love toward us. Who's he
speaking to? We and us. Go back to chapter
one. You know, very few people know
this. Oh, folks, preachers apply all
of the Word of God to everyone without exception. This wasn't
written to the world. Like every epistle, every epistle
is a letter. When you write a letter, you
address it to someone, don't you? At the very beginning, Dear
John, and then you say to him what you want to say. I love
you. You're my friend. Everything I have is yours. If
somebody intercepted that and said, look, Paul, look what Paul
said to me. He loves me. I didn't say that
to you. I said it to John. Look at chapter 1 of Romans. This is verse 7. To all that
be in Rome, beloved of God. Four loves. He's beloved. You know, that's the name that
Christ gives for his bride. He's beloved. Right? Now all
of you in Rome, and of course that's every church, every believer,
beloved of God, called to be saints. Grace to you and peace
from God, our Father. He's not the Father of all mankind,
but He is the Father of His people through Christ and through being
born of God and adopted. So that's to His people. So all
the way through here, He says, we and us. And then quite often
speaks of them and they. Like John wrote in his epistle,
they are of the world. Therefore speak they of the world
and the world heareth them. We are of God and he that is
of God heareth us. So a simple grammar lesson, isn't
it? But necessary. This is to the
beloved saints of God. Saint means to be set apart.
You don't set yourself apart. God does that. Sanctified by
our Lord. Set apart in Christ. How many
times in the epistles does it say in Christ? How many epistles
begin with to the Church of God in Christ or in God? Most of you know what that means.
To be in Christ means to be found in Him. Be found in Him like
all those animals were in that ark. Noah's ark. Why were they there? Did they
of their free will come and get in that ark? Oh, no. Noah went
and gathered them. Noah chose the ones to be in
that ark. They were in that ark because
Noah brought them there. He knew it, didn't he? And so
do God's people. Chosen of God and put in Christ. And of God is made all things
unto us. Alright, verse 1, he says we're
justified by faith. Believers have been given this
precious gift, miraculous gift, of faith. True faith. Scripture
calls it the faith of God's elect. You know that? That's what it
costs you. How many people believe that? Elect. It says the faith
delivered to the saints, doesn't it? The faith that was delivered
to the saints. Ephesians 1, 19 says, we believe according to the working
of His mighty power. And all believers know that they
didn't decide to believe. God gave them this faith. They
weren't just convinced in their head, but one day it came driving
home to their heart. The arrow of His Word, the seed
of His Word was planted in their heart. Their eyes were open,
their ears were open. Life had begun. They believed. Now they can't help but believe.
The gift of God's working of His mighty power. And I keep
saying this because I've got no better way to express my amazement,
but I can't believe it, but I believe. I just can't believe that I'm
standing here. Whether I'm standing here or
not, but I believe it with all my heart. No matter what anybody
says or no matter what does, nobody's going to convince me
otherwise. If God does it, it shall be forever. By faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. God is angry with the wicked
every day. You don't hear that verse very much, do you? God
hated all workers of iniquity. You never hear that verse today,
except where the truth is proclaimed. God is going to destroy this
unbelieving, God-hating, ungrateful, rebellious world. The Lord called
it this present evil world. God's going to destroy it. He's
going to melt it with a fervent heat. They didn't believe that
before the flood, did they? They didn't believe that in Noah's
day, and they don't believe it in our day. We do. God's people
know. And we fear God. But God is not
angry with His people. He's not angry with His people.
Why? Because you did something to
appease God? Because you turned over a new
leaf? Have you ever thought about where
that saying came from? Turned over a new leaf. Adam
and Eve tried to cover their sin against God with fig leaves. They don't cover it. You can
turn it over, but it still won't cover it. You've got to be clothed
in the skin of the Lamb. The righteousness of Christ.
There's one plant our Lord cursed when He was on this earth. What
was it? That's by design. God's not angry with His people
because Christ died. Because Christ died. We have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, it says, doesn't
it? Through our Lord Jesus Christ. He is our peace. Colossians says,
He made peace by the blood of His cross. All the saints know that. And over and over again it says
in the epistles that we were rebels, we were enemies. We read
it in Romans 8, didn't we, verse 7? Our carnal minds enmity against
God. We were by nature children of
wrath, Ephesians 2, as others, but God. Christ made, He came to make
peace by the blood of His cross, not for everybody, but for His
people. And He makes them peaceable.
But this peace is for rebels who want enemies. And they appreciate
it. They are thankful for it. They give God all the glory for
it. No saint ever says that they made their peace with God. No
saint would ever say such a thing. But Christ made peace. Peace
I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. He
made peace by the blood of His cross. Isaiah 53, 5 says the
chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes
we are healed. Doesn't it? Most of you have heard this.
Some may not have. But back years ago in Appalachia,
there was a one-room school building. A new teacher came in the building. The students were kind of rough. And this new teacher came in
to try to fill the gap. And this one-room school was
full of big scrapping farm boys and little small toddlers. Well, the teacher was going to
try to get some sense of order and discipline started. So he
said, at the very beginning, he said, now we've got to make
some rules. Got to make some rules. He said,
I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to let you all
make the rules. So what are some rules? And somebody
said, no cussing. OK, no cussing. No spitting on
the floor. OK, no spitting on the floor.
No stealing. No stealing. OK, no fighting. OK. Then the teacher wisely said,
now, if you're going to have rules, you've got to have some
punishment. If you break the rules, you've got to be punished
for them. So what's the punishment for
cussing? Stay out of school. Stealing.
Five stripes across the back with a rod, somebody said. The teacher says, kind of severe,
isn't it? No, that's what we'll do. So
they made these rules. Well, one day, there's a big
boy named Billy, a big scrapping farm boy, Big Billy, found his
lunch was missing. Somebody had stolen his lunch.
And he came up and told the teacher. And the teacher said, now, Big
Billy's lunch has been stolen. Somebody's got to confess. Nobody
said a thing, but after a little while, finally, this little bitty
fella named Jimmy, little Jimmy, always wore this big old ragged
coat all the time. Little Jimmy came forward and
said, I sold his lunch ticket. I was just so hungry. Well, he
said, Jimmy, you know the rule. No stealing. And the punishment
for that is five stripes across the back with a rod. Take off
your coat, Jimmy. And he said, oh, don't make me
take my coat off, teacher, please. I was just hungry. He said, take
your coat off, Jimmy. You know the rule. So he did. And he was nothing but skin and
bones. So the teacher took that great
big old rod in his hand. He said, now you made the rule. No stealing. Five stripes across
the back with a rod. So he ran back to hit little
Jimmy with that big rod, and Big Billy came and grabbed hold
of that teacher's hand and said, don't hit Jimmy, teacher. He
stole my lunch, and you hit me. I'll take his weapon. I'll take
his weapon. He did that to me, and I'm going
to take his weapon. So the teacher did. Big Bill
took his coat off, his shirt off, and he was Strong enough
to bear. And the teacher hit him four
times and five times. On the fifth time, the rod broke.
Punishment served. The wrath was gone. That's what
Jesus Christ did for His people by the chastisement that He took
by His stripes. You don't make peace with God.
You don't go up to the judge and say, I've decided to let
you forgive me. You know what a judge would do
if you said that to him? And his whole world. No fear of God
before they're out. But for those who fear God, you
know, the Scripture says, he taketh pleasure in them that
fear him, and he delights to show mercy. Delights to show mercy to the
penitent one. One is asking you to show mercy. And keep getting it. We have peace with God through the
Our Lord Jesus Christ. By whom? Verse 2. By whom also
we have access. By whom? Paul always said this.
By Him, I say. Paul would say that often, didn't
he? By whom? By Him, I say. In case you didn't hear me the
first time. This is by Him. This is by Christ. Look at that with me. Colossians
1. Go over there. Colossians chapter 1 speaks of
Christ. He's making peace for us, reconciling
us. Reconcile means to make friendly. He has to make us friendly because
we're the enemy. God's not our enemy. He's the
enemy of... If God be for us, who can be
against us? But if God's against you, it doesn't matter who's
for you. He's going to be the enemy. He
is the enemy of those that reject His Son, but not His people. But they were enemies. Colossians
1 verse 19 says, It pleased the Father that in Christ should
all foolish dwell, and have He made peace through the blood
of His cross by Him, Christ God, by Him, to reconcile all things
unto Himself. By Him, I say, not you and Him,
Him, whether things in the earth or things in heaven, and you
that were sometime alienated and enemies. in your mind by
wicked work, yet now hath he reconciled, in the body of his
flesh, through death, to present you holy and unblamable and unapprovable
in his sight." You don't present yourself like that, he presents
you. All right, go back to our text. So it's by him, by whom
we also have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand. on the rock Christ Jesus, don't
we? All the other ground is sinking sand. We better stand on ground. There's one foundation. One foundation
in Christ the Lord. We stand in Him. We stand before God someday. We will stand dressed in His
righteousness alone. Faultless to stand before the
throne. That's what we sing all the time.
Dressed in His righteousness. By Him we have access into this
grace. By Christ. Christ is called the
elect. This is sovereign electing grace. Sovereign redeeming grace. Sovereign revealing, restraining,
constraining, redeeming, keeping, saving grace. Salvation by grace
from the beginning to the end. Sovereign means it's all His,
it all belongs to Him. It's not an offer, it's an act,
and it's a sovereign one on whom He will. He told Moses, I will
be gracious to whom I will be gracious. It's amazing that God
shows those that know they were enemies,
they know grace is amazing. It's not just grace, not an offer. It's amazing that God would spare. A rebel like that. Amazing that
he would be so long suffering with me, that he would put up
with me all these years. That's what all of God's people said.
But this sovereign grace, and we're going to look at that at
the end of this chapter soon, hopefully, where we got the term
sovereign grace in verse 21. That we have access by faith
in Him. That's grace. It's really not our faith that
gives us access, but it's His sovereign grace that gives us
faith that gives us access. You understand? Sure you do.
You do. Well, faith's not of yourself, it's a gift of God.
But it's for those that believe. And we must believe. We must believe. We must repent.
But it's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance.
It is God that worketh in us both to will and do of His good
pleasure. Faith is not of ourselves, it's a gift of God. And yet we
must believe. And He doesn't commend us for
believing, but just faith. Faith honors God. Faith takes
God at His word. Faith is more honoring than sight. It's easy to believe what you
see in me. It's easy to act upon what you see, but just to take
God at His Word honors Him. He said, didn't I say if you
believe you would see the glory of God? Faith gives us sight. Faith is
sight and belief. By faith, by faith we have access
into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. He keeps hammering faith, faith, faith, faith, because
it's such a precious gift. It's really a miracle. It's a
rare, precious gift. Peter called it precious faith,
more precious than gold. It won't be tried with fire. And we have access by faith,
not works. He keeps saying by faith because
it's not works. You know, God's not pleased with
you because of works. God's not going to let us into
heaven because of works. He's going to let us in by Christ's
Word, but we get there by faith, just looking to Him, believing
Him. Works produced from faith are
good to glorify God and good for other people, but don't merit
us salvation. They don't give us brownie points
with God. It's our reasonable service.
You see? No reason to serve, it's not
merit. Salvation is not merit, it's mercy. Salvation is not
works, it's praise. To the praise of the glory of
His grace. Wherein He hath made us accepted
in the Beloved, Ephesians 1 says. That's much like this verse,
we have access in the Beloved, you see. We get the glory by
Christ. Now, most of you have heard this
illustration. I can't think of a better one,
though, but back during the Civil War, there was a Union soldier that
wanted to see Abraham Lincoln. This is told for a true story.
The Union soldier's mother, I think, was dying, and he wanted to go
home and see his mother before she died, and he was sitting
on the steps of the White House. And he knew he just couldn't
get an audience with the President, the only one who could give him
leave to leave his platoon and go home. And he's sitting there
on the steps of the White House, weeping, no hope to get in to
see the President. And this little boy walked up
and sat down beside him and said, What's wrong, sir? And he said,
he told him his story. My mother's dying. He said, I
got to see the president. He's the only one that can let
me go home. And the little boy said, come with me. They got
up. They walked up the gate. And
there was two guards there. And they opened the gate. And they walked in that gate.
Two guards standing at the front door of the White House. That
boy walked up. wipe the door, walk down the
hallway, and there was an oval office back then, I don't know.
Walk down the hallway, another couple of guards at the door,
and they saw that boy, and they just opened the door, and they
walked in, and that little boy said, Dad, there's a man here
who wants to see you. Tad Lincoln. He had access through
the sun. And so did we. No other way. But I'm a good
fellow. He didn't die for good fellows.
And we'll see that in a minute. Christ didn't die for good fellows.
Good fellows can't get into God's heaven. He came to save sinners. He came to save those that need
mercy. Access. We have access by Him,
I say. And not only so. We said, verse
2, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Rejoice in
hope of the glory of God. Look at 1 Peter 1. Oh, how I
love this. We went through 1 Peter maybe
last year. 1 Peter 1. I love this. Rejoice. Paul wrote a lot about rejoicing,
didn't he? Philippians especially. Rejoice
in the Lord. And again, I say rejoice. Do
you? Do you love to hear about your
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Is there anything else you want
to hear about? Really? You want me to do a series on
this and that and the other subject? Or do you want to hear about
Christ? See, the bride wants to hear about her husband. What if I stood up and said,
I'm going to do a six-part series of studies on John Sheasley,
I know one lady that would show up. Just one. I would. John, I'm sorry. I would. But I love him. My illustration is the bride
would never get tired of hearing about her beloved. And that's
how you know his people. They want to hear about him. They love him. Heaven's all about
him. See, in His glory, 1 Peter 1,
Peter talks about this glory. What is it? It's not a watch.
It's not a place. It's a person. 1 Peter 1, verse
2, he says, elect according to the foreknowledge of God through
sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling,
that is, your a partaker of the obedience of Christ and the strengthening
of His blood, and yes, to make us obedient. But grace unto you
and peace. See, Peter says it too. Every
epistle of Paul begins with grace and peace. And Peter. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy
hath begotten us as born again, under a lively or living hope
by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance
incorruptible, undefiled, that faith, if not away, reserved
in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God, through
faith, unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
Wherein, wherein what? The salvation you greatly rejoice,
though now for a season, if need be. According to God's purpose
here in heaviness, through manifold or various temptations, that
the trial of your faith, this God-given faith, will be this
more precious than a gold that perishes, this faith that though
it be tried with fire, fiery trial, might be found unto praise
and honor and glory. Whose? His. For bringing us through
it. At the appearing of Jesus Christ.
Having not seen ye love, in whom, though now ye see him not yet
believing, ye rejoice in what, not what, whom?" This is marriage. That's what marriage is. You
rejoice in your beloved. In Him. You rejoice in Him with
joy unspeakable and full of glory. Tell me. You know, we preach
Christ. We preach Christ. We preach Christ. We do. Over and over again. All the time. And are there not times when
such a blessing is just unspeakable? You say that was just glorious. What? Him! That's what John said. We beheld
His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. Heaven came down and glory filled
my soul. What was it? A person. Christ
in you, the hope of God. Belief in Him, love for Him.
We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. John 17. We just looked
at that in our study through John. John 17, go over there.
The glory? What's the glory? You know, if you've seen Christ,
you've already been glorified. A foretaste of glory divine.
John 17 in our Lord's great prayer for His People, verse 22, he
says, the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them. Do you know what it was like
for those disciples every day to walk with God? I mean, in
the flesh. The Son of God, they walked with
Him for three and a half years. Yes, the Creator. And everything
they asked Him, every answer He gave them was glorious. Everything
he said, everything he did, every word out of his mouth, every
work he performed was glorious. They beheld his glory. And they didn't want him to leave.
In three and a half years, he said, I'm leaving. No, don't
leave. What were they taken up with
for three and a half years? Nothing. But you know, they were so enwrapped
in him, so in love with him. They were glorified, you see.
He chose them, brother. He chose them to show them who
He was, His glory. Well, the world's taken up with
politics and arts and crafts and science and all that. The
Creator was here. He is glorious. He is the glory. When by His grace I shall look
on His face, that will be glory for me. And it begins now. Who's interested
in Christ? Who wants to hear Christ? Those
who have beheld His glory. Look at verse 24. He said, Father,
I will that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where
I am, that they may behold My glory. Like John, I quoted John, they
are of the world and they speak of the world and that's what
the world wants to hear about all this stuff and what you can
be and what you can do and what you can have and all that. God's
people are not interested in those things. No, we're getting
out of this place. We're going to go be with our
beloved. We don't have any place to go
to. Romans 5. Why would we want to
get past that anyway? The glory of God. The glory of God. You remember
Exodus 33, don't you? When Moses said, show me your
glory. He'd seen the manna from the sky, water out of the rock.
He'd seen the red sea parted. He said, show me your glory.
He said, okay. There's a place by me. I'm going
to put you in the cleft of the rock, rock of age, cleft of man.
I'm going to put you in the cleft of the rock, and I'm going to
pass by it. I'm going to make my goodness
pass before you. I'm going to proclaim the name
of the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious. Who is that? Jesus
Christ. All of that. He's the rock. He's
the cleft. He's the goodness of God, the gospel. He's the
mercy of God. He's the grace of God. He's all.
Oh, Moses saw his glory. That's what Christ said to him,
Moses wrote of me. That's what Christ said. You
think Moses wrote the law? Moses wrote of me, Christ said. To the law and to the prophets,
if they speak not according to this gospel, no light in them. All right, look at our text.
Now it says, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. I mean,
hope. It's called hope because it's
not fully realized yet. We have the promises of God.
All the promises of God end crime. They're end crime. And they're
yea. Not if, but maybe, but yea. And amen to the glory of God
by that. We believe it. All the promises
of God end crime. Now, conditioned on you, they're
completely end crime. And they're yay and amen. Christ
said, you trust me, you're going to be with me in glory. There
you have it. But we're saved by hope. We hope. And Paul wrote in Romans 8, hope
that is seen is not hope. Paul said, I haven't arrived
yet, but I hope. I have a great hope. He said,
I have a good hope. John prayed it. Have a good hope
through what? Grace. Grace. If it's dependent on our works
and our faithfulness, you don't have hope. You don't have any
hope. There's no hope for you. I ask people this question all
the time. What's your hope of eternal life? You hope to go
to heaven someday? You hope to be with God someday?
What's your hope? I ask them all the time. God's
people will give one word. They'll give one answer. Christ. If I get to heaven, it will be
by Jesus Christ. My hope, like the songwriter
said, my hope, can you say that? My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus Christ's blood and righteousness. I dare not trust
the sweetest phrase, my best feelings and emotions, that's
not But wholly lean on the Lord Jesus Christ's name, because
it's on Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is
sinking. All other ground is sinking.
Is that true? Rejoice in hope. Hope. It's a
good hope through grace. It's a sure hope. We have a sure
hope. Why? Because we've got a surety. The
root word of assurance is sure. How can you have assurance but
in the surety? Christ is the surety of an everlasting
covenant. Like in Philemon, Paul wrote
to Philemon about Onesimus, that runaway slave. He said, if he
owes you anything, put it on my account. I'll pay it. And
if he owes anything else in the future, I'll pay that too. That's
a surety. Jesus Christ paid it off. Oh, the dead hat. How to make
you worship Him. If you owe a lot, like the woman
that washed his feet with the hair of her head. She said, to
whom much is forgiven, they'll love much. Hope in Him. All right, look
at this. Verse 3. And not only so, but
we glory in tribulations. We glory in tribulation. Tribulation. Paul said this in another place,
he said, talking about his infirmities, his glories, he took pleasure
in infirmities. What are you talking about, Paul?
Glory in tribulation, glory in trials and troubles and sorrows
and afflictions and persecutions and distresses. How can you glory
in suffering? Look at Philippians 1 with me,
Philippians 1. How can you do that? Because
it says here, God says here, that it's given unto us not only
to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake. Look at Philippians 1, verse
20. Oh, where in the world do you start? Verse 21, For me to
live is Christ, to die is gain. I'm in a strait, verse 23. This
is what we're talking about, Christ being the one we want
to be with. Paul said, I have a desire to
be with Christ, which is far better, but to live here, to
abide is more needful for you. Verse 26, I hope, I want you
rejoicing, to be abundant in Christ Jesus, you see. Let your
conversation, verse 27, your life be as becometh the gospel.
Verse 28, and nothing terrified by your adversary. To them it's
a token of perdition, but to you it's of salvation, you see,
this persecution, affliction, and hatred for Christ's sake. And to you it is given, verse
29, in behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also
to suffer for His sake, for His glory, for His honor, for His
truth, for His Word, having the same conflict you saw in me.
Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, verse, chapter 1,
verse Seven, he says, I'm set for the defense of the gospel. Now, go to 2 Thessalonians, quickly. 2 Thessalonians. I've got to
hurry. 2 Thessalonians, chapter 1. See, it's given to God's people. Christ said, you shall be hated.
My name is that. For the glory of God, the truth
of God, persecuted, And He gave us a great cloud of witnesses
in Hebrews 11, and every one of them, every one of them suffered
for just believing God and following Him. Look at 2 Thessalonians chapter
1. He says, verse 2, from God our Father and Lord
Jesus Christ, we're bound to give thanks to God always for
you, brethren, as meat, because your faith groweth exceedingly,
and charity of every one of you all toward each other aboundeth.
We ourselves glory in you and the churches of God, that is,
we talk about you to other churches. For all the persecution and tribulations
that you endure, which is, verse 5, a manifest an evident token
of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy
of the kingdom of God for which ye also suffer." It's a righteous thing with God
to recompense tribulations into trouble you. He goes on to say,
he's going to come in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them
that know not our Lord. But you see, God gives this faith
to his people. that the world hates. And Christ said, if they hated
me, they're going to hate you. You just tell them the truth
of who God is and what man is and how salvation comes by grace,
not work, and they're going to hate you for it. Christ said,
if they hated me, they'll hate you. But tell it to anyone. And
if they hate you, rejoice. Didn't he say that in his Sermon
on the Mount? Rejoice. persecute you and say all manner
of evil falsely against you for my sake, they did the same thing
to the people. And it's all good. And every
trial, every tribulation, everything is set by God the Father and
works for our good and His glory. Everything. It's not enjoyable.
He's not saying we rejoice in the pain and the suffering. Nobody
rejoices lying in a bed, a sick bed. Nobody rejoices in the loss
of a loved one. Nobody rejoices in those things. But in our text, he says we rejoice
in these tribulations knowing that our Father sent them for
His glory and His honor, for a purpose, and He only gives
these tribulations to His children. He only gives these things to
his children, not to the world. David in Psalm 73 said, I was
envious at the prosperity of the wicked. David said, they
don't have trouble like me. He said, I'm chastised, I'm chasing,
I'm troubled all day long. Every day I'm just full of trouble.
But they don't have trouble. They've got health and wealth
and prosperity. They don't seem to have a care
in the world. But God's people have a full cup of trouble and
suffering and sorrow wrung out on them. Why, Lord? Why, Lord?
He said, I went into the tabernacle. Then I went into the sanctuary.
And I found out, he said, I found out because this is not my portion. This is not the portion of God's
people. This is not our home. He's taking
it away from us, making us look for another place, a city whose
builder and maker is God. He puts the world in the heart
of the world, but He's taking it out of His people so that
they won't be out of the world. And He puts Christ in them so
that by that they want nothing more than to be with Him. What
do you all want me to do in glory? Beholding His glory. to the world,
they can't take it now. You advertise, we're going to
preach Christ, we're going to preach the unsearchable riches
of Christ, and you'll get a sparse little crowd. But advertise,
we're going to preach on the end times, we're going to preach
on this, we're going to preach on politics, we're going to preach
on the government, we're going to preach on the coming red tide or whatever,
and you'll fill this building up. But do you know who will
come if you preach Christ? God's people. God's children. God's elect. That's how you know. And they never tire, because
they rejoice. They worship God. Three things
Paul said they do. They worship God in the Spirit.
I mean, from the heart and truth. Truth as it is in Christ. They
rejoice in Christ Jesus. joy and rejoicing, and have no
confidence in the flesh. Don't give me this flesh. Get
rid of all this trappings of religion. Get all that out of
the way. I don't need that. I need a Bible and a preacher
and the Spirit of God to bless it. Just like they did in the
Old Testament. Just like they did in the New
Testament. Nothing more, nothing less. Worship God in spirit,
not in the flesh, not with our hands, and in truth. The truth,
the scriptures, the truth as it is in Jesus Christ, and no
confidence in the flesh. Don't play music and make me
feel good. Because I'll go away thinking about the music. Preach
Christ. Lift Him high up. And if I go
away feeling good about Him, I'll really feel good then. Rejoice in Him. And tribulation
works with patience. Read on. I guess I'm going to
get to it. Tribulation work is patient.
What's patient? Well, it's waiting on the Lord,
is what it is. The Lord has a purpose in all things. Somehow or another,
it's to conform us to the image of Christ. It's for His glory.
It's for the furtherance of His kingdom. All things work together
for good, but at the time when it's a severe trial, Lord, why
are you doing this? Well, just wait. Lord, but why? We all do that. And he doesn't
give an account of his all his magnitude. But if you just wait,
he said, you'll see. Just wait. Wait. We need patience, don't
we? But I want it now. It doesn't
work that way. James said, let patience have
her perfect work. Wait, David said this, he said,
I would have claimed that if I had not believed to see the
glory of God in the land of the living. They said, I'm going
to wait. Job said, oh, I'm going to wait until my change comes. It's all working for good. His
glory caused us to look to Him. He calls us to look to His Word.
Tell me, when you're in prosperity, do you call on the Lord from
the bottom of your heart? When you have cupboards full,
and good health, and all the money you can spend, and there's
no troubles, and the kids are all well, are you crying unto
the Lord? Do you call on the Lord? Thank
Him? Yeah, a little bit. See, that
was the children of Israel. And he warned them, he said,
I warned you now, when you go into the promised land, I warned
you, and you build these houses with seed, and you're going to
forget God. But if they belong to him, he's
going to send them trouble. He's going to have to start taking
those things away. Why? Because they forgot God. That's idolatry, you see. It's
an idolatry thing. He sends His Son weaning us from
the world and chastens us. Whom the Lord loveth, He chastens. I made this comment to a brother
the other day, that a good parent won't let a child get away with
anything, any act of rebellion. Because it just emboldens them
to do worse. You can't do that. You have to
nip it in the bud. There's got to be something severe
for every act of rebellion. They've got to know they can't
get by with this. Our God doesn't let us get by with things. Do
you hear me? He's a just God. He's a good
Father. And He doesn't let us get by
with anything. I'm telling you. I'm telling
you. On down the road, something happens
to you. Why does that happen? Stop and think about it. We do things, you know, we think
we sin against our God. You can get by with that. Christ
paid for it, number one. Christ had to suffer because
of it. Every sin we commit, Christ had
to die for it, had to suffer for it. But as a good father,
he deals with it. Some way or another, he's going
to teach you a lesson. And if we're wise, we stop and
think, and I deserve this. I remember when. That makes sense. He's a good
father. But he said here in verse 4,
patience works experience. And experience hope. Experience.
You know, you don't really learn anything until you experience
it. Until you go through it. You
don't. Somebody can tell you. Somebody can preach it to you,
but unless you go through it, you don't learn it. You might
know it here, but boy, if you go through it, you've experienced
it. And then if you get through it,
you have hope. We experience sin. Ooh, boy. This gospel is for those that
experience sin. I mean real sinners. Shame. And our God deals in mercy with
us. Very merciful. Chastens us, yes. But merciful. Pardons us. Forgives us. We had
hope. We had hope. I did that. I said that. I thought that. If it hadn't been by the grace
of God, if He had given me bent for what I was thinking, I'd
be ruined. Oh, He spared me. That's experience. And then you have hope. Hope
in what? In who? You hope in the mercy of God,
you say. Oh, if the Lord forgave me, and keep forgiving me. I must belong to Him. We experience
His mercy, His grace, His love. We live it. We feel it. We know
it. We experience trials. We go through
these trials. You can hear about them, but
you don't know the experience. And we experience His grace,
His sufficiency. Mindy and I were talking today
about a couple of our brothers and sisters going through some
terrible things, but they're witnessing a good testimony.
And I made the statement, I don't know how I would handle that.
Well, yes I do. If He gave it for me to go through
it, His grace is sufficient. And this person, it's obvious
God's grace is sufficient. They're going through it. They're
getting through it by His grace. So I would too. That's how I'd
handle it. That's great. Experience. It gives you hope. Hope and hope
make it not a shame. Hope make it not a shame. Let
me turn to one more verse and we'll quit, okay? Psalm 25. I had five or six verses
in Psalms. But Psalm 25. Hope make it not
a shame. We're ashamed of ourselves, aren't
we? Should be. And brethren, we always
will be. I hate that. I wish it weren't
so. But we will. We're sinners. He knows our frame.
But we're not ashamed of the gospel. Psalm 25, look at verses
1 through 3. It flows with some of these verses.
Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust
in thee. Let me not be ashamed. Let not
mine enemies, Satan, the world, sin, self, triumph over me. Let none that wait on thee be
ashamed." Tell me your ways. Verse 20, Oh, keep my soul and
deliver me. Let me not be ashamed. Did David say that? Did David
say that? Well, David was a great man.
David was a strong man. Was he? Always? Who? He greatly sinned against
his Lord, didn't he? Not just one, but many times. And that's what he said. Oh,
I'm ashamed of myself. I don't want to be ashamed. Let
me not be ashamed. I've put my trust in thee. Let
integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait on thee. Paul is dealing with three things,
isn't he? Faith, hope, love. The love of God should have broadened
our heart. We're going to look at that on
Sunday morning, Lord willing. Let me not be ashamed. I went too long, but I hope it's
worth it. I know it's worth it. But you
were attentive, so I appreciate it. Stand with me. Our God and our Father, in the
name of thy blessed Son, we thank you, thank you, thank you for
your word, that word which speaks of Christ our hope. Oh, how we
thank you for the gospel of our salvation in Christ Jesus our
Lord. We praise you and honor you and
give you all the glory for all things in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. You're dismissed. Good,
good, good.