Sovereign Grace Chapel, located
at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to
listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. If you wish to follow along to
true Romans chapter 8 And while you're turning to Romans 8, I'll
give you a couple things miss Emily Davis sent us a gift Today
it was in the mailbox down here, so I thank God for her and I
appreciate that and also I myself yesterday got to actually experienced
a experienced the fact that our sufficiency is not of ourselves,
our sufficiency is of God. And he is able to do abundantly
above all that we could ask or think. 20 minutes before the
service yesterday at Grace Fellowship Church, the preacher, one of
the preachers couldn't make it and I was asked to preach And
I didn't have a note one. But God was sufficient. God was
sufficient. Romans chapter eight, verse 24. For we are saved by hope. Now
that is my title, saved by hope. But I'm not going to deal with
that phrase in and of itself because, not because, but I realize
that phrase can be misconstrued by some. For we are saved by hope, but
hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth
he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see
not, then do we with patience wait for it. Likewise, or in
the same manner, the spirit also helpeth our infirmities. For
we know not what we should pray for as we ought. but the Spirit
itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot
be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession
for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that
all things work together for good. To them that love God,
to them who are the called, according to his purpose. First of all,
what is hope? Of course, in the scripture,
and specifically, and especially in our text, it certainly is
not a wish. We often are found to use that
word hope. Well, I hope this happens, or
I hope that happens, or I hope this don't happen. You know what
I'm saying. The word hope can be an equivalent to wish, but
that is not what the Apostle Paul means here, nor even stated
better, that is not what the Spirit of God is moving Paul
to write. That's not the meaning. What
is hope? The hope as seen in scripture, the hope spoken of
here and in other places in the scripture is that confident expectation
of the fulfillment of the promises of God. but it's more than that
because hope is vitally connected to faith. I might say it this
way that hope, faith rather, births hope. A lot of people
have wishes about God, things they wish God would do, things
they'd like to see God do, things they hope, put that in quotes,
God will do. But that is not what Paul's talking
about. Here it is, that confident expectation, birthed by faith
in the immutable promises of God. The song we just sang, now let
me find it. Now, I can't see it right now.
Let me just put it this way. If God Almighty's promised it,
it must come to pass. And that's not me requiring something
of God. That is God in his own immutability
and faithfulness declaring that it must be done. I want to read
to you the Amplified Bible. Now this is just the Amplified
Bible. We do not take the Amplified Bible to teach us, thus saith
the Lord. But the Amplified Bible does
help some here. Now I want to read these verses
again, but read them from the Amplified Bible. But when I get
to verse 28, in case this is being taped, someone might go
to the Amplified Bible and read it. There will be one phrase
I will leave out. because it will confound you
if I even read it to you, so then I'd have to take 10 minutes
trying to explain it away. But I will read the bulk of how
the Amplified Bible puts this. Verse 24, but in hope we are
saved. But hope which is seen is not
hope, for how can one hope for what he already sees? And I will
say, or already has in possession. But if we hope for what is still
unseen by us, we wait for it with patience and, I like this,
composure. I like that, because the word
patience doesn't have with it just gritting your teeth until
it comes to pass. It is patience. It is waiting
on God, but waiting on God with a joyful, confident expectation. So with patience and composure,
so too the Spirit, or Holy Spirit as the Amplified puts it, so
too the Holy Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our
weakness. For we do not know what prayer
to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought. I like
that. We'll look at this in a moment.
We often don't know what to pray for as we ought. But the Holy
Spirit comes and intercedes. But the Spirit himself goes to
meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable
yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance. Now, it's not
the Spirit don't know how to utter these. We don't know how
to utter it. We don't know what to say. We
don't even know the appropriate manner and attitude with which
to ask it of God. but the Spirit of God does. And
he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of
the Holy Spirit, what his intent is, because the Spirit intercedes
and pleads before God in behalf of the saints according to and
in harmony with God's will, because he is God himself. He is the Spirit of Christ where? And the believer is in us. He knows exactly what's going
on and what's supposed to occur. We are assured, this is what
he said, we are assured and know that all things work together
and are fitting into a plan for good to those that love God and
are called according to his design and purpose. When God graciously subjects
a soul to the spirit of bondage to fear, and we've read that,
we've looked at that, and adoption then breaks forth, it births
hope. When we were under the spirit
of bondage, it was as if we had no hope. And in a real sense,
in our understanding and comprehension, we had no hope. God caused us
to see and experience our lack of hope. But we still had hope,
nonetheless. Because the God who promised
to bring us into the spirit of bondage to fear, had also promised
to bring upon us the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Papa,
Father. When a gospel converted believer,
and I'm saying that way, that way, not for your sakes here,
but for others who may hear that, because there are a lot of converted
people in this world. And there may be a lot of believing
converted people in this world. But there are a few who are gospel
converted believers. When a gospel converted believer,
listen to me, When a gospel converted believer miserably fails the
master, God's promise of sins confessed, being forgiven, births
hope. If we confess our sins, John
told us, He, I like what I remember what Art Neuenswander said one
time standing right here in this place. He said the only thing
in that verse we do is the sinning and the confessing. God does
the rest. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins. That's hope. That's hope. But even more, hope
expects and waits and with patience longs for the fulfillment of
God's promise. Promise to come of future fruition. Things that have not yet come
to pass. And even more than that, hope
wrought by God-given faith is totally dependent upon God. The reason we often askew our
hope, affect our hope, whatever the better word is, or other
words, the reason it's often complicated is because we're
not depending solely upon God for the fulfillment of the thing
hoped for. We think, well, I got to do this. Well, if God promised this to
happen by you doing this, then you will, at the appropriate
time, do the this that is necessary. Because he will work in you both
to will and to do of his good pleasure. But there are other
things that God has promised totally apart from any action
on our part, good or evil. We often say, God just dropped
that in my lap. He can do that. But he don't
always do it that way. You understand what I'm saying?
There are many things I could look back in my experience as
a gospel converted believer, and I could say, well, God just
dropped that in my lap. And there are other times when
I sought for things. and salt God's way, and salt
God's will in the matter, and pieces of the puzzle begin to
go fit together. You understand what I'm saying?
And the next thing you know, you see this thing that was hoped
for. The problem is religion. We try to pigeonhole God and
put God in a box and say, well, God, you gotta do it that way.
God'll do it his way. With us or without us. He'll
do it his way. As I said, hope wrought by a
God-given faith is totally dependent upon God, for God has not revealed
everything to us. And he has not always revealed
the how, the when, the why, the where, and the who of his promises. He simply promised this or that.
But he didn't tell us all of the different pieces of the puzzle
that must come together. But yet we know And we know,
you see it? And we know that all things work
together. We don't know how all things
work together, we just know that all things work together. I am
yet to figure out, and I actually have tried, well, that's not
true, that's about to lie to you flat out from here from the
bullpen. Often try to make myself not even worry about the how,
but I still do think about it. But here's what Paul wrote, and
this helps me. I don't have to know how they
all work together. I just need to know that they
all work together. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. Now, God willing, next Sunday,
we will part on verse 28 for a while, but I'm not gonna part
on verse 28 today. We'll look at that, God willing,
as I said, later. Again, Paul says, he admits,
he confesses. Likewise, the spirit also helpeth
our infirmities for we. He didn't say for you. This is
the apostle himself. Whom Christ took into the wilderness
and taught the gospel to him. The truth of the holy scriptures
of the Old Testament. New Testament wasn't even written
as a whole yet. The Christ who took him up into
the third heaven and showed him things that he could see and
hear, but when he got back here, God wouldn't allow him to speak
about any of them. Likewise, the Spirit also helped
with our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray
for as we ought. And yet, religion, preachers
today, and churches are constantly trying to pigeonhole everything.
They write how-to books on how to pray. Right? Well, just pray,
cry out unto God. If you got a need, cry out for
God to supply it. Because you don't manipulate
God into doing it. Our God is in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. What God has purposed,
you can't put to it, you can't take from it. And God does it
that way so that everyone should fear him. We know not what we should pray
for as well. Consider this, and I'll try to
run through this briefly. Consider eternal life. Paul wrote
to Titus and said, God who cannot lie promised eternal life before
the world began. So somebody's gotta have it.
Right? I mean, just thinking without
much book here, one person at least got to be given eternal
life, right? But when you read this book, you find out there's
a myriad of people that will be given eternal life. And then
the God that God who cannot lie promised eternal life before
the world began. Some will have eternal life. But do I pray for an Esau? Here's the thought. Let's move
it over to another. Do I pray for an Ishmael? Abraham
did. He didn't? He prayed for Ishmael. He prayed that Ishmael might
be the child of the covenant. Oh, that Ishmael might live.
Now that boy was alive and bouncing around and probably sitting on
his daddy's knee. That was Abraham's son. I forget that. It's his flesh
and blood. And he probably took to help
that boy whittle out little weapons and little toys and took him
hunting, fishing, whatever they did. Oh, that Ishmael might live
before thee. But that prayer would never come
to fruition. It would never come to fruition.
Now here's the point. Abraham wasn't evil or wicked
for praying that. He was praying it out of sympathetic
compassion and love for someone he cared for. But our sympathies
and our love and our affections do not dictate the purpose of
God. We do not know who the Esau's
are. Do we? We do not know who the Esau's
are. But we do know this. Paul said, brethren, I thank
God for you knowing your election of God. What, your election?
That took place in Christ before the world began. Right? Right? Knowing your election
of God. It's almost as if he said, we
could look at the book of life, but we can't. The book of life
was penned by God, and I don't know if that's the right way
to say that or not, but it was written by God eternally before
the world began, because it's the book of life of the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. That's all one sentence. But we do know this, knowing
your election of God, because our gospel came not to you in
word only, but in power, and in much assurance, and in all
holy gifts. So we are in line with God's will when we pray,
oh God, use your gospel, but do it in more than word only.
Because God, we can't do it. I can preach this as sincerely
as I could possibly muster and with as much study and preparation
and rearranging things as they ought to be said in their proper
order, that will guarantee nothing. I could just stand up here and
quote scriptures and that itself guarantees nothing. But if God
Almighty moves through that word, Now folks, we are a group of
people here that we've been taught, and we know this. Regeneration
happens as a soul act of the Spirit of God. Conversion happens
through an act of the Spirit of God bringing the gospel to
conquer a man or woman's heart and soul. But regeneration is
not the end. When we sit around and argue
with other people who don't hold to that, maybe don't see that,
you're just banging your head against the wall. because regeneration
will only be known and recognized when the gospel's preached and
conquers the heart and soul. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. I could get doctored on saying,
you gotta be born of God first. That is completely true, but
you don't know that anybody's born of God until they believe
that Jesus is the Christ. Then you can say they were born
of God. And it doesn't matter when it
took place before. You just thank God that it did.
But the only evidence is that the gospel comes along and latches
hold of them and won't let them go. And that's what we better
concentrate on. For years I argued doctrine rather
than preaching Christ and I'm ashamed of myself. I'm ashamed
of myself. Think about this one. Let me
just move on. Drop that one and let me move on. being brought
into the one shepherd fold. Isn't that what Christ said?
Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I
must bring. That's a promise. He's taken
the very responsibility of it. Them also I must bring and there
shall be, there shall be, there's the promise cemented, if you
will. And there shall be one fold and
one shepherd. We are forced to trust Christ
in this, for this, and to patiently wait upon this. He will do it
and he alone can do it. We can't make it happen. And we may be in the midst of
nothing but goats. There may be no more sheep here.
I don't know. Somebody says, well, if we're
here, there's gotta be sheep here. There are sheep here. There
we are. And this gospel that initially
saved us is what keeps on saving us. And it's the only thing that's
kept this group of believers together as one, as a one shepherded
fold is that gospel keeps being preached to you and preached
to you and it feeds you and it draws you to the fold. and you
start to go over and look around the edges of the fold and wonder
about the fields, but then you hear that gospel, and you let
go of the side post, and you turn back to the fold. Y'all
never been there, have you? Y'all ain't never done that.
What am I saying? We don't know what to pray for
as we all. If we give you number three, being
so loved by God, that he will not let us go. To save time. You know the passage. Hebrews 12, specifically five
through eight. Whom the Lord loves, he chastens. and he scourges,
so that lets us know that chastening may be very difficult. Why is
it we're chasing? Because we need it. We're so
prone to go astray. We're so prone to go over to
the edge of the fold. I am speaking metaphorically,
but we do this spiritually and to gaze at the fields of the
world with lust and desire. No way, come on now. and he has
to discourage us. Let go, quit looking over there.
Look in here, here's where the shepherd's at. Here's where the
shepherd's at. But he does it in love. But it don't feel like love when
it's going on. Now I'm paraphrasing what the
writer of Hebrews put it. It don't feel like love when
he's doing it. But I'll tell you what, we'll
make it easier. Quit kickin' against it. Quit kickin' against
it. Because we still, we know he
won't quit. So we kick, and we kick. And all we're doing is harming
ourselves. We're not harming God. Do you
hear what I'm saying? I believe in God's sovereignty.
That's part of your problem. You're using God's sovereignty
as an excuse for your rebellion. Christ's death was the salvation
of a people. But that doesn't justify the
Roman government or the Jewish Sanhedrin for declaring him he's
to be put to death. They were guilty of murder. Murder. Somebody says, I can't put that
together in my mind. You're not supposed to. They
don't go together. They're not like this, they're
like this. I got two hands. If all I had was one hand, it'd
be a lot different, but I got two hands and they go together
in this manner of speaking, Joe, but they must be distinct as
well. And we leave God's sovereignty where it is. True, he's sovereign. and we leave man's accountability
where it is. It's true, and I am accountable
before God Almighty. I'm not gonna try to reconcile
those two things. I just preach them. I just preach
them. Think about it, Christ gives
us no timeframe of how long he will chasten us before actually
it brings forth the peaceable fruit of righteousness, does
it? He doesn't say, now, if this
don't happen within six months, you know it ain't really of God. You know why it wasn't put that
way? Because we'd push her right to the end of the six months.
Wouldn't we? We'd bask in the world for the
six months if God gave us. But let me tell you something,
God can also kill you too. But worse than that, he can leave
you here. He can leave you here to wallow in your filth and your
misery. Why? Because you kick against
God. Christ gives no timeframe. Just
the fact that those he loves, he corrects. And if he's not
correcting you, you are a what? Bastard. You are illegitimate. I'm glad he corrects. I'm glad
he corrects. Because he does it in love. When
I corrected my children years ago, I didn't always do it in
love. I did a miserable job at that. God's works are perfect,
Joe. God's works are perfect. He perfectly
chastens us. And some, one person he may chasten
for a day, another maybe a week or however long. It's his wise
business. We just know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to his purpose. Joseph's brothers putting him
into the hole and we're going to kill him. But one brother
was moved to say, no, let's don't kill him. Let's sell him. And
they sold him. That was an evil act of hatred
against their brother. But it worked together for good
for God's people. Even the very men who were doing
the dastardly deeds. And as the one preacher said
here, one time, I can't think of his name right now, but that's
okay. He said, you know the good thing
about my sin? Sounds like an oxymoron, don't it? It is if you're a finite being
like we are. But all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.