Let's go to Romans chapter 12. For you and I that God has chosen
and redeemed and regenerated, the Apostle Paul says in verse
1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you
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 you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God. Now one of the ways we do this
is found down in verse 12. rejoicing in hope, patient in
tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. These are three states
of a believer that we're almost always in. Rejoicing in hope,
patient in tribulation, and continuing instant in prayer. And these
three are interconnected. They're interconnected. When
we face tribulation, we have hope on one side and we have
prayer on the other side. And in all of this, we're looking
to Christ in whom were more than conquerors through him that loved
us. We need hope and hope is a vital,
vital gift to the believer and we need tribulation. Tribulation
is a vital gift to the believer. And both of these work together
to keep us continuing instant in prayer, in dependence upon
God. Now I want to look at each one
of these individually for our divisions. And let's begin here
with this first phrase, rejoicing in hope. Rejoicing in hope. Hope is an earnest desire for
an expected end. You have a desire for something,
you look forward to something, and you expect it. You look forward
and expect to have this certain end. In scripture, In the Bible,
hope is the expectation of faith. It's the expectation of faith.
It's based upon the oath of God, the promises of God, the grace
of God, the goodness of God, which is all in Christ. We use
the word hope every day, but when we use it on a daily basis,
we tend to use this word as just a wish that doesn't have any
foundation or any reason to expect it to come true. For instance,
when I was in college, I might say something like, I hope I
make an A on this exam. That usually didn't have a very
good foundation. It was usually a wish. But that's
how we tend to use the word in every day. But that's not what
it is in the scripture. What is our hope in the scripture?
It's an earnest expectation. Paul called it that, my earnest
expectation and hope. And what is it? What is it that
we hope for in the end? Well, we hope for the salvation
of our Lord Jesus Christ, salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. David
said, Lord, I have hoped for thy salvation. That's what we're
hoping for. We're hoping, it's called the
hope of righteousness. One day, we're going to be made
righteous through and through without any sin. We'll be dropping
these bodies of death. And that's what we have an earnest
hope for, to see our Savior and be perfectly conformed to His
image. This is a good hope. and earnest
expectation that every believer has. We're going to see the Lord
Jesus Christ and we're going to be conformed to His image. Look at 1 John chapter 3 and listen. 1 John chapter 3, listen to this. Verse 2, Beloved, now are we
the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall
be like him. For we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure." We have,
this is our hope, isn't it? We're going to see the Lord and
we're going to be conformed to His image. We, through the Spirit,
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. And that righteousness
that we hope for is Christ our righteousness. We're waiting
for Him. Now, do we have a good foundation
for hope? What's our foundation for this
hope? This is not just a wish. This is a good hope. We have
a solid foundation is the very Word of God who cannot lie. That's our foundation, the Word
of God, God who cannot lie. God says to His people, right
here in His Word, Jeremiah 29 11, He says, I know the thoughts
that I think toward you, saith the Lord. Thoughts of peace and
not of evil to give you an expected end. We have God's Word. We have the
hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before
the world began. Titus 1-2, it's called the hope
of eternal life. We have this earnest expectation
that we will have eternal life. We have it now. But we're going
to come into the realization of it. When these bodies die,
we're going to have eternal life. That's our hope. And the reason
it's a solid foundation and a solid hope is God, that cannot lie,
promised us this before the world was made. In Psalm 119.49, the psalmist
said, Remember the word unto thy servant. Remember the word
unto thy servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope. It's upon this word that all
my hope lies. He said in verse 81, my soul
fainteth for thy salvation, but I hope in thy word. He says in
verse 114, thou art my hiding place and my shield, I hope in
thy word. You see why the devil's first
deception, when he came to Eve and he tricked Eve, do you know
what his first attack was? It was on the word of God. It
was on the word of God. Why? Because of that, the first
problem sinners have is not, the reason they can't
believe God is they don't even believe this is the word of God. When I'm talking to somebody
and they have a question for me about something that has to
do with God, the first question I ask them is, are we in agreement
that this is the word of God? Because if not, end of discussion. There's no point in sitting there
trying to tell them what God's Word says. I did this with a
man when I was younger one time, and we sat and talked for almost
an hour, and I'm sitting there quoting Scripture to him, and
at the end of it all, you know what he said? Well, I don't even
believe that's the Word of God. I could have saved myself a lot
of time. But to you, believer, who God's
made to know, you know this is God's Word. What a privilege. God's given us His Word. And
you know this, brethren, and to you that know this, whenever trouble comes, before
trouble, in trouble, and after trouble, whether you're in trouble
or out of trouble. Bury yourself in the Word of
God, because this is how our hope is strengthened. Listen,
Romans 15 verse 4 says, Whatsoever things were written aforetime
were written for our learning, that we, through patience and
comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. Everything God's written
in this Word, He's written it to give His people hope. Hope. So, we have a solid foundation
for our hope. It's founded on God's Word. God who cannot lie. And then
our hope is a confident expectation because it's given to us by the
grace of God. Hope's not something you just
muster up within yourself. Hope is the gift of God's grace. God gives us hope. Let's look
at 2 Thessalonians 2 and look at verse 16. Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself
and God even our Father which hath loved us and hath given
us given us everlasting consolation
and good hope through grace. You see that hope is the gift
of God's grace. He gives it. It's not merited
by us. It's freely given to us. Hope
is the gift of God's grace. It's like everything else we
have from God. It's the gift of God. Every fruit
of the Spirit, including hope, faith, repentance, love, it's
all the gift of God by His grace. Righteousness in Christ, sanctification
in Christ, redemption in Christ. It's the free grace gift of God. We don't earn it. We didn't do
anything to make God look upon us and say, I believe I'll give
it to Him. We didn't make God do that. He freely by His grace
chose whom He would give all to. Nothing in salvation is by
our works. Nothing in salvation is by our
works. Everything is the gift of God's
grace. We're born again, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God. Life, spiritual life is the gift
of God. We're born of God. We didn't
first choose God. God first chose us. The children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but
of him that calleth. called by God, chosen by God. That's the reason we choose God
is because God first chose us. Nothing heavenly, nothing godly
is of our will. If God leaves us to our will,
we have no will for God. None at all. Scripture says it's
not of him that willeth, not of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy. our justification from all our
sins. It's not by our works. Romans
3.24, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus. Everything's the gift of God,
and our hope is the gift of God by His grace. Our Lord Jesus
Christ Himself and God, even our Father, who hath loved us
and hath given us everlasting consolation and a good hope through
grace. Why is that good news? Why is
it good news that our hope is the gift of God's grace? Because
whatever God gives, God sustains by His power. Whatever He gives,
He's going to sustain it by His power. Listen to Romans 15, 13. You can look there if you want.
Romans 15, 13. Now, the God of hope. Don't you like that? This is
His name. He's the God of hope. The God
of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing that
you may abound in hope. How? Through the power of the
Holy Ghost. If you have hope, this good hope
right here, you have it by grace and the one way you continue
to have it is by the power of God. That's how. So that's why
it's founded on the Word. So it's a confident expectation.
Not only that, it's the gift of God's grace, sustained by
His power, and then it's a confident expectation because true hope
is in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. He is our hope. He is our hope. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. I can't have any hope of entering
heaven with holy God unless I'm made the righteousness of God.
You too. I can't have any hope of entering
heaven unless I'm made to be like God. I can't. Christ alone
is the righteousness of every true believer. I keep harping
on this. Why do you keep saying the same
thing over and over? This is the gospel. I don't know
how to say the gospel without saying this. You can't. It's
all about righteousness. That's the very gospel. Paul
said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. Why? Because therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. That's what the gospel is. And
you hear so many messages today and men aren't standing up and
they're not talking about God being just. They're not talking
about God being the justifier. They're not even mentioning the
righteousness of God. They're not preaching the gospel.
I have to be made just like God and Christ is the righteousness
of God. He's the only one in whom His
people are made righteous. The only one. It's by his obedience
alone, not mine. Not mine. See, remember Roland Hill, that
illustration he had, he was at a festival one time and there
was a man selling honey and he was trying to hawk his honey,
you know, and he's calling out, he's trying to get people to
come buy his honey. And he and Roland Hill were talking
and he said, you know the difference between me and you? Roland Hill
said, you're trying to get men up to your price. I'm trying
to get them down to mine. This is free. It's free. It's free to us because it costs
Christ everything. It's by His obedience. It's not
by our obedience. Romans 5, let's look there one
more time. This is the only way a dead sinner
is made righteous, right here, Romans 5, 17. If by one man's offense death
reigned by one, much more, they which receive abundance of grace
and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus
Christ. by him. I've been corresponding
with a man in another country and he wrote to me and he said,
Christ's work made it possible for us to be redeemed. Well,
let me tell you something, Adam's disobedience in the garden, it
didn't make it possible for his children to be made sin. That's
not, it didn't make it possible if you just do something to be
made sin. Adam's disobedience made us sinners. And Christ's obedience didn't
make it possible for his people to be made righteous. Christ's
obedience made his people righteous. That's right. Look down at Romans
5, 19. By one man's disobedience many were made sinners. So by
the obedience of one. and shall many be made righteous. You see that? Go to 1 Peter chapter
1. I want you to see something else. Peter, I mean, Christ is
not only my righteousness, it's by Christ that I believe and
have a hope in Him. Look here in 1 Peter in chapter 1 verse 18. Look at
this. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.
Look at the next word there. who by Him do believe in God. It's by Him that we believe in
God, that raised Him up from the dead and gave Him glory.
It's by Him that you believe in God, that your faith and hope
might be in God. You see that? It's by Him. It's
by a resurrected Redeemer. So true hope is a confident expectation
because true hope is in Christ Jesus alone. Did you know his
name is hope in the scripture? He's called the hope of Israel.
That's his name. So whatever our condition, whatever
we're going through, a believer rejoices in hope. We rejoice
in hope. Hope is called our helmet in
scripture. When you talk about the armor,
hope's our helmet. Hope, you know, when you're in
the middle of a trial, here comes hope. And hope enters in and
clears your mind and clears your thoughts and brings you to remember
that our Savior is the sovereign Savior. He's the one that's in
control of this storm I'm in. And He's working this for my
good. brings you to trust and have an expected end that He's
going to bring you through it. Hope is an anchor of our soul. It keeps us from being tossed
to and fro. Look over at Hebrews chapter
6. Hebrews chapter 6. Look at verse 17, wherein God,
willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the
immutability, the unchangeableness of his counsel, confirmed it
by an oath. So that by two immutable things
in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong
consolation. Two immutable things. One, God
can't lie. And two, He made an oath to us. We got two things in which it's
impossible for God to lie. Look, so that we have a strong
consolation who fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set
before us. Which hope we have as an anchor
of the soul. both sure and steadfast, which
entereth into that within the veil, where the forerunner is
for us entered, even Jesus made a high priest after the order
of Melchizedek." Now listen now, you remember the illustration
Brother Don gave us up here, such a good illustration, is
that does the anchor anchor the boat when it's in the boat? What
do you do with the anchor? You throw it out of the boat.
That's how it anchors the boat. This hope we're talking about
now is not you looking in you and looking at you and trying
to say now do I have this certain feeling and what have you. No,
hope goes out of ourselves and enters into the veil where Christ
is and sets us on Christ so we know there's my hope. There's
the anchor of my soul right there. He's the one that's got me. He's got me. So we have this
confident expectation so that we believers continually rejoicing
in hope, continually. Now secondly, that's why Paul
connects hope with this next thing where he says in Romans
12.12, patient, that word is steadfast, in tribulation. Now, you know this and I know
this, believer. Let's just be honest with one
another. We are not patient and steadfast
in trouble by nature. It's not within our power to
be. You know that. It's only by the grace and love
of God that we're steadfast in tribulation. There's a bird that
comes from time to time and flies into my screened-in porch. And
when that bird first gets into that screened-in porch, He is
frantic. He flaps around and hits the
screen and hits the wall and then Peanut gets out there and
gets to chasing him and he's just everywhere in there just
flying into stuff and he can't find the door to get out. After
a little while You look out there and He'll just be hanging on
the edge of that screen, just sitting there still. And before
long, He finds the door. That's me and you when the trial
comes. We start out flapping around
and flailing around and banging into everything and in a little
while, God settles us down and He shows us the door, Christ
the door. And we enter in. and we find
our peace. That's how it happens. Go over
to Romans 5. It's by the grace of God, it's by the power of
the Holy Spirit that He makes us patient. He makes us steadfast
in trouble and our hope and our patience in trouble are connected.
They're connected. Hope and patience in trouble
is connected. Hope and steadfastness in trouble
is connected. Look here at Romans 5 verse 1. Therefore being justified by
faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ
by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand and you could put right here by whom also we rejoice
in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, not only so,
but, and you could put right here, by whom also, we glory
in trouble also. Knowing that trouble works patience,
and patience experience. Trouble works steadfastness,
that's the word, and this steadfastness experience, maturity is the word. And this maturity, hope. It works hope. And hope maketh
not ashamed. And all of this, brethren, the
tribulation, the patience that's worked by it, the maturity that's
worked by it, the hope that's worked by it, is because the
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given to us. Explain that to me, Clay. Alright? God sends trial. He sends trouble
to work patience, to work steadfastness in His child. And by the trial,
God shows us. He shows us His unchangeable
love for us by sustaining us through it. That's what He does.
He brings you into trouble and I'm talking about trouble now.
We're not talking about just stumping your toe. We're talking
about trouble to where you realize I'm pressed down out of measure
with no strength whatsoever. And somehow you believe and you
continue in hope because God sustains you. And by that He
shows you His love never changes. His love never changes. No matter
how bad you sin, no matter how bad you fail the test, no matter
how bad you stumble and fall, His love is still there to sustain
you and keep you. And He sheds that abroad in your
heart. When you face this new trial, you're a little more steadfast
because by that last trial, he grew you a little more in maturity
and he grew you a little more in hope. And so in this trial,
you're a little more steadfast and hoping. You know this by
experience, by maturity, you know that you have a good hope
and you know your hope is he's going to sustain me through this.
Now at first, you like that bird, you're flapping around, but he
brings you to steadfastly wait on the Lord, and He sustains
you through it, and again, He grows you in steadfastness, He
grows you in maturity, He grows you in hope, because He makes
you see His unchanging, unchangeable love shed abroad in your heart. Don't you find that so? You've
been through a trial, that's the peaceable fruit of righteousness
that he exercises through the trial. And that's how we're grown. Paul said this to the Corinthians,
our hope of you, our hope for you is steadfast. We have a steadfast,
we have a patient, steadfast hope for you, knowing, we know
this by experience, we know it by maturity, that as you are
partakers of the sufferings, so shall you be also of the consolation. Don't you know that? I'll tell
you something believer, the next time you come into trouble, and
it's a bad trouble, try to remember this, just try to remember, God's
going to, this is a bad trouble, oh this is a painful trouble,
God's going to give me good consolation. I'm going to get some good consolation
through this. As you're partakers of the suffering,
you're going to be partakers of the consolation. You take
Jeremiah, for example. Jeremiah. Look over at Lamentations
3. Lamentations 3. Jeremiah was
greatly troubled. Greatly troubled. His body was
in pain. His name was slandered by the
very people that ought to have been thankful for Jeremiah. His
life was in imminent danger. The church of God was in bondage
in a heathen land. His family, his own family had
been enslaved to an idolatrous people. You just think about
all that, brethren. You think we come into some trouble. We haven't had any persecution
in our day. We were opposed sometimes, but
we hadn't been persecuted. Just think of that, what Jeremiah
endured. And yet, he knew every bit of
this was by the hand of his Heavenly Father. He knew it. And he knew
it was for his good. God was growing him. He was growing
him. And so, in the midst of all this
trouble, and he's sinking inside, I mean inside, in himself, in
his own fleshly nature. He just like you and me were
when we're in trouble. We'd sink down and we're just,
ugh, you feel like you're just gonna perish. You can't bear
up under it. But, in that new man, God causes
you to look out of yourself and brings your hope into the, the
hope comes. Hope comes like a, like a lifeguard. Hope comes like a helmet. and
turns your mind from you and from the trouble and enters in
there to that veil and causes you to behold Christ and causes
you to come to remembrance. Whatever He's done for you by
the grace of God, how He's redeemed you, how He's shed His blood
for you, how He's promised you. All these promises of God that
cannot lie and He brings you in there to where Christ your
life is hid. And then you're sustained and
you're strengthened by this good hope. And you're made steadfast
in trouble. Look what Jeremiah says. Lamentation
3.21. This I recall to my mind. See, hope's a helmet. This I
recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. Can you see hope? Personify hope. You see hope
coming in. There's his mind troubled by
all these troubles and here comes hope and enters in. and turns
him from himself, and turns him from the trouble, and turns him
to Christ. Look at this, and what was his hope? It's of the
Lord's mercies that were not consumed. Because his compassions
fail not, they're new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. Past
tribulation, God had worked that maturity in Jeremiah and that
maturity strengthened this hope right here that he's got in the
midst of this current trial. Look, the Lord is my portion,
saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good
unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him,
He had experienced, He had been matured to know that to them
that patiently, steadfastly endure the trouble, to them that wait
on God to save them, the Lord's good. That's what I'm telling
you. If you patient endurance, patient
in tribulation, you know what it is? It's steadfastly waiting
on the Lord to save you out of the trouble. That's what it is.
And God's good to them that wait on Him. So this was His resolve.
Look at verse 26. It's good. It's good that a man
should both hope and quietly wait. That he should hope and
patiently endure the trial for the salvation of the Lord. That's
what you're waiting on. That's what you're hoping for.
That's what you patiently endure in the trial for. The salvation
of the Lord. You know He's going to save you
out of it. He saved you, He is saving you, and He shall continue
to save you. And you know this. Now, let me
put an end to a common misconception. Nobody likes trouble. It doesn't
mean that you've got to put on some fake phony face and act
like you like the trouble. We'd have to be some kind of
sadistic person to say we like affliction. Nobody likes affliction.
But I'll tell you what this is. Affliction hurts, but our steadfastness,
our patience, it's illustrated by what Brother Bob Coffey wrote
to me just a few days ago. Here's brother Bob, he's had
a stroke, he can't use one of his arms, his legs are badly
damaged, he can't speak. And I wrote to him, I texted
him because I knew I couldn't call him and talk to him. And
I texted him, he's always so good to text me and encourage
me. And I texted him trying to just let him know I was thinking
about him. And this is what he wrote back. This is hard on you. but you know it's His will."
That's what he wrote. That's patient in tribulation. That's what he's talking about.
It's hard. I'm not going to act like it's
not hard, but I know it's His will. I can hope in Him. Joel said, the Lord shall roar
out of Zion. He'll utter His voice from Jerusalem.
The heavens and the earth shall shake. But the Lord will be the
hope of His people and the strength of the children of Israel. That's
what the trial is for. To make, remind us the Lord is
our hope and the Lord is our strength. Now lastly, this all
causes us to live in a continual spirit of dependence upon God. Look here, continuing instant
in prayer. It means more than that you're
just continually on your knees praying to God. It means more
than that. You can't be constantly in prayer
to God all the time. We can't do that. But we constantly
are in a state of dependence upon God. That's just life in
a believer. If He's given you His Spirit,
that's so. You're constantly living in dependence
upon Him. God sends the trowel to keep
us instant in prayer. He sends it to keep us looking
out of ourselves, and this is what it means. Continuing instant in prayer
means to adhere to one, to be constant toward one, to wait
on God constantly. And that's what the trial's for.
He keeps you constantly instant in prayer, constantly adhering
to God, constantly depending upon God because you see you
have no strength. When my children were younger,
you know this, your children, and it's so now with my children.
When things are good, they're playing with their toys and I
don't even hear from them. But as soon as trouble comes,
They're calling out for Mama and Daddy. That's why God sends
the trial. He keeps you depending and living
in a state of dependence upon Him. Somebody wrote, Affliction
is the godly man's shining moment. They serve to convince us more
deeply of our own weakness and insufficiency and to endear the
person, the grace, the promises, and the salvation of our Redeemer
more and more to our hearts. And trouble's not to punish,
it's to purify the believer. Trouble's not in wrath, it's
in mercy. They keep us constantly looking
up to our Heavenly Father with utter dependence on our Redeemer. Remember what we saw in Psalm
40? Christ said this, He said, I patiently, I waited patiently
for the Lord. He willingly came into the trial
of the cross as the servant of God representing His people and
as He bore separation from God, He patiently endured the trial,
steadfastly endured the trial because He had this good hope.
All the promises of God the Father, all those covenant promises that
when He had fully satisfied divine justice for His people, God was
going to raise Him and justify Him and declare Him to be everything
Christ said He was. And so he continued in utter
dependence upon God, the Father. And brethren, he did all that
perfectly. That's why we can't trust our hope, we can't trust
our patience, we can't trust our praying. Christ is the perfection
of our hope, He's the perfection of our patience, He's the perfection
of our intercession. He takes these feeble prayers
of ours and when He gets finished with it, there's no murmuring
in it, there's no complaining in it. It's presented to the
Father perfect. And God receives us. And this
is the whole purpose, brethren. Let us ask God for more grace
to strengthen us in hope, to give us more patience, more steadfastness
in the midst of trouble, and to keep us utterly, utterly dependent
on God all the time. Ask God for that. Amen. All right, Brother Art.