I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. And be not conformed to this
world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. For I say through the grace given
unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself
more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly,
according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in
one body, and all members have not the same office, so we, being
many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of
another. Having then gifts differing according
to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy let us prophesy
according to the proportion of faith, or ministry let us wait
on our ministering, or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that
exhorteth on exhortation, He that giveth let him do it with
simplicity, he that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy
with cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil, cleave
to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to
another, with brotherly love, in honour preferring one another. Not slothful in business, fervent
in spirit, serving the Lord. Rejoicing in hope patient in
tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, distributing to the
necessity of saints, given to hospitality. Bless them which
persecute you, bless and curse not. Rejoice with them that do
rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one
toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend
to men of lower state. Be not wise in your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for
evil. Provide things honest in the
sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as
lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved,
avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it
is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.
Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give
him drink. For in so doing thou shalt heap
coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but
overcome evil with good. Now as far as the reading of
God's Holy Word, the verse that I desire to speak to you on is
verse 12, and we have there the words, Rejoicing in hope, patient
in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. In this portion the
Apostle first exhorts to holiness and then in verse 2 to conformity
to the will of God, which he calls the acceptable and perfect
will of God. Sometimes we need to be reminded
that the will of God is just that, that it is acceptable,
it is good, it is perfect. Sometimes we might struggle with
some of the things that God has appointed for us and that we
must walk through, and especially through this time that we are
going through now with the pandemic and with you dear friends at
the home, the limitations of seeing loved ones and having
the worship services face to face. It's nice that we can do
it as we have this morning. But then he goes on to humility
and to consider one another as members of the body of Christ,
viewing each other, esteeming each other better than ourselves. And the several duties then he
exhorts too, of which our text is one of them, rejoicing in
hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. And the verse is in the middle
of, like, graces and duties of service
not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.
And then in verse 13, distributing to the necessity of saints given
to hospitality. And how to do those things, we
need verse 12. We need to rejoice in hope patient
in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, to be of any use in
those other things. If we are to rejoice with them
that do rejoice, weep with them that weep, then it is to walk
in the words of our text. So I wanted to look at each part
of the text that is set before us here. The first one is rejoicing
in hope. And it's not just hope. Hope is the most blessed thing. It is what is set forth before
us in Hebrews, hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing
of the hope far unto the end. And in Romans chapter 5 we have
it, rejoice in hope. of the glory of God. One of the
blessed graces that God gives His dear children is to hope
in Him, to give them a hope beyond the grave, a hope of the grace
and mercy of God. All their hopes are placed in
the Lord Jesus Christ, what he should do for his dear people. And those hopes, those things,
they centre in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we have that
hope that is beyond the grave. It is a hope in what Christ has
accomplished at Calvary. It is a hope that the Lord who
has gone to prepare a place for us will come again and receive
us unto himself. When we have that hope and realize
the reality of it, we are to rejoice in hope, not just to
have that hope, but actually rejoice in it. And that is implying
that there is no possibility that that hope will not succeed,
that it won't be realized, the Lord won't accomplish that in
us and bring that hope to pass. And so the very words of it convey
an assurance, the Holy Spirit saying, has the Lord given you
hope? He'll fulfill that hope, therefore
rejoice in it. Whatever your situation, whatever
your place is, that hope stands firm through every tribulation
and every trial. And so the exhortation here is
that our hope is a cause of rejoicing. Whatever might be the other sorrows
and things we're going through, The Lord has given us that. That
is a reason to rejoice. And you might this morning be
thinking, well, I've got nothing. Everything is black and dark
and dismal. And there's nothing encouraging.
There's nothing to rejoice in. There's nothing to praise God
for. Well, here is something to rejoice
in. And here is something to praise
the Lord for. and that is hope, where the Lord
has given us that hope. Now notice as well, it's not
waiting until it is realised, it's not waiting until we get
to heaven, not waiting till we receive the blessings and helps
from the Lord, is rejoicing in hope. Hope that is seen is not
hope. What a man seeth, why doth he
yet hope for? So this hope is before we actually
realise it and enter into it, God gives us that hope, founded
upon His work, His grace, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are
to rejoice in that. Be glad, rejoice and praise the
Lord in that hope. So I hope that will be a help
to us this morning. But you might say, well, what
about what we're passing through? What about the tribulation? A tribulation, it means a state
of great trouble or suffering. And the Lord has made it very
clear what we shall actually pass through. at the end of the
world we're told that there shall be great tribulation such as
has not been from the beginning of the world even this time nor
never shall be and immediately after the tribulation of those
days then shall come the end of the world and we have that
expectation right to the very end But our Lord says, These
things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. And when
the disciples went forth, how did they confirm the souls of
the disciples, the apostles. It was, as in Acts 14.22, exhorting
them to continue in the faith, and that we must, through much
tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. Paul, when he writes
to the Romans, he says that we glory in tribulations also, and
he says this knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and that is
the exhortation in our text, patient in tribulation. We are to walk through it, not
all the time fretful that we want to be out of it, we want
to be free of it. We know that if a present tribulation,
we get out of that, there is another one that is appointed
to us. Here below, the Lord has said,
in the world you shall have tribulation. So the call is patience. Now Paul, when he writes to the
Corinthians, he says of God who comforteth us, in all our tribulation,
that we may be able to comfort them that are in any trouble
by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. And that path of tribulation
that is appointed, we need much patience, endurance, to continue
to go on day by day and I know you dear friends will need it
in all your afflictions and the restrictions that you're going
through you need that patience and the opposite of that is impatience,
fretfulness, even anger or frustration and wanting to get out of the
situation and to change the situation and it doesn't leave one with
any peace or comfort, submission to the will of God and the purpose
of God. It doesn't minimize the trial,
the pain. It says it is tribulation, but
the direction to us is to be patient. Dear friends, do be
patient. Be patient. How many times in
your lives have you had trials and you think it's going to go
on and on and on, and yet the Lord brought an end to it? Many
of you can think of times the Lord's brought you out of a particular
path of tribulation, and yet now we're in another one. And
Lord help you, help me, help us each to be patient at this
time. Then there is a third part here,
and that is continuing instant in prayer. And notice in each
of these things, it's not just hope or tribulation or prayer. With each one of them, there's
joined with it. With the hope, we're to rejoice
in that hope. With the tribulation, we are
to be patient in it. And with prayer, It is to be
continuing in it and instant in prayer. How often the Lord
encourages His dear people that they should always pray and not
to faint. And I'm sure some of you, as
I have also, have had those times when we've fainted in prayer,
we've ceased to pray. We think that the Lord is not
going to answer, that there's no benefit, there's no blessing
in it. But in this situation, the Spirit
says, no, continuing instant in prayer. Don't hesitate. Be
urgent in that prayer in this time, though it's going on and
on. What an encouragement to us.
We're coming through our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, praying
unto Him, seeking mercy, seeking help, seeking grace, You know,
when we feel the old nature rising up, we feel our weaknesses. What
a weapon that we have, what a help that we have, a throne of grace. And the Lord says to His dear
people, don't look, don't look for that help in yourself. Shoot
the arrows upward, cry unto God in your trouble and in your need,
and pour out your hearts before Him, ye people. God is a refuge
for us. Have we been neglecting prayer? Have we been inconsistent in
it? Have we not been urgent in it? Have we not been continuing
in that way that may have been our pattern throughout our lives? Some of you no doubt have had
over your long lives a pattern of prayer. Dear Daniel did, three
times a day. Maybe it is that through the
things that are happening, you've left off that pattern. You're
not walking in that same habitual way and path of prayer, or whenever
there's trial, going straight to prayer. May this text be a
reminder to return again to those days when you walked in a path
of prayer, urgent prayer, and of seeking of the Lord. May this
word remain with you through this day and through this time,
rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant
in prayer. I believe it's a real word for
this time that we are walking through. So the Lord bless you
and bless you through this word.