Seeking once again the help of
God, I would like you to turn with me to the chapter that we
read together, Romans chapter 5, and the text you'll find in
verses 3 to 5. And not only so, but we glory also. Sorry. And not only so, but we
glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience,
and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope make
us not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. Those of you
who were here this morning will remember that we looked at another
part of the armour of God which was the helmet of salvation. We saw that in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5 that helmet is described as the helmet of the hope of
salvation. and hope. I said that in our
language it has some doubt attached to it. It's not a very secure
or a confident word and yet in the script that is different.
The scripture, it puts over a sense of confidence and trust that
God is able to do what he says he is able to do almost and it
is linked inseparably to faith. Faith and hope and love are those
graces given to the believer by and through the Lord Jesus
Christ. and to those who are in Christ Jesus have been given
faith they've been given hope and they've been given love and
this faith and this hope enables them to persevere under trial
and opposition and temptation and persecution and not only
can they persevere in trial yet the apostle says that they glory
in tribulation. And this is something that seems
totally impossible. It's totally against our natural
nature to glory in trouble, to glory in difficulty, to glory
in trial. We naturally want to shy away
from hardship. We naturally want to shy away
from difficulty and we prefer to have an easy pathway. And isn't that what the world
is seeking after? The get-rich culture. They believe
that when they get rich, their life will become easy. They won't
have to work. They won't have any trouble.
They won't have any problems. And they desire this easy, smooth
pathway that will give them an easy life. But we know the scripture tells
us that that pathway can never really be guaranteed. We never
know what is around the corner in our life. And that pathway
is not guaranteed, especially for the Christian. As we have
been looking at, the Christian is a soldier of the Lord Jesus
Christ. They have been born again of
the Spirit of God. They are taken from the broad
road that leads to destruction and placed on the narrow way
that leads to life. and they enter into a war, a
battleground with the enemy that is round about them and they
are tried and tested not only by Satan, not only by weaknesses
within and hostilities without, but they are put to the test
by their loving Heavenly Father. He proves them and tests them
to reveal to themselves the genuineness of their faith and what the apostle
comes to realize is that the trials and the difficulties that
he is passing through are doing him good. They are of a benefit
to him spiritually and physically and therefore he can say I glory
in my trials because they are having a beneficial effect to
my life, to my spiritual walk with God. And all of us in some
way are able to overcome fear and overcome pain and difficulty
by having a knowledge of what this pain and difficulty is going
to achieve. So I was thinking of it when you go to the doctors and
the doctor says you know I've got to give you an injection.
This injection is going to do you good. It's going to help
you overcome this illness or it's going to bring you ease
from your pain. And so you look at the needle
and you think well this needle is going to hurt. you have to
look beyond that pain to what that pain is going to achieve.
You have a hope that this doctor he knows what he's on about and
he's going to give me some pain but that pain is going to be
beneficial to me in the long run. So you have to suppress
all fear, all anxiety, all the natural reaction to pain because
you know that what is going to happen and what is going to be
beneficial. And this is something somehow
how the apostle is looking at all that he's going through.
These things are painful to me. These things are difficult for
my flesh. They are troubling for my mind. And yet I'm going to look beyond
the pain and the difficulty and I'm going to look to what God
is actually doing. And so he has a knowledge of
what God is doing, what God is accomplishing in his life through
the pain, through the sorrow, through the difficulty, through
the trials and the tribulations of his life. He says God is like
a doctor. He is giving me something painful,
something difficult so that it may benefit me and that I may
grow in the graces that he has given to me. And so there is
a reason why I am going through this and God knows the reason
and I know the reason or the things that I know are going
to help me to persevere in this trial. And so the believer must
understand God's purposes in trial otherwise we will struggle. You take an adult to the doctor
and they're able to overcome their fears. But you take a child to the doctor
and that doctor brings out a needle and that child begins to panic
and scream because all they know is this is going to hurt. They're
not able to see beyond the pain. They look to the instrument of
pain and they cannot see the remedy. And so they focus on
that pain and what's going to happen and they begin to scream
and to panic. In Kenya we used to have to pin
some of the children down, hold their legs, hold their arms and
give them an injection. And they're petrified. But that
same injection given to an adult, the adult is able to reason and
to understand that this injection is going to do me some good. And God willing, I'm going to
be relieved from whatever it is that I'm passing through. So God works in the same way. And so Paul says, I glory in
tribulations also. Why? Because I know. I know that
tribulation works patience or endurance. Paul understood that God was
at work in his life. And when we forget that God is
at work and we think that everything is taking place by random chance
or luck or God has lost control, it's then that we begin to be
totally discouraged and totally downcast. We've just sang. sovereign ruler of the skies,
ever gracious, ever wise. All my times are in thy hand
and all events at thy command. How often do we get up in the
morning and we declare that statement over the whole day. Every single
thing that takes place in this day is under the sovereign watchful
care of Almighty God. If we did, We would glory in
whatever came our way as the Apostle Paul. and was able to
glory in tribulation, knowing that God was at work, the sovereign
ruler of the skies, was at work in his life, that he can never
go against his own nature, he can never go against his own
character, he is totally gracious, he is totally wise, he is totally
good all of the time, he's totally loving to all of his people all
of the time, and even in his anger, he deals with them in
mercy, in love even in his discipline he corrects them in love and
not in anger to restore them and bring them back to himself
and if we are able to have that banner over our whole life every
single day we would be able to rejoice in whatever God brought
into our life because we knew that every single thing was good
and profitable to us as his people but how often it is most of the
time. As soon as anything bad enters
into our life, we immediately lose sight of God as suffering,
and we become downcast and depressed. And as I said this morning, our
heads, our thoughts are filled with doubts and fears, and God
doesn't love me anymore, and our disposition changes, and
we mope, as it were, our way on the narrow way that leads
to life. But Paul says we glory in tribulation. Now this means
that it is actually achievable although I myself have never
achieved it. The apostle Paul has obviously
been able to achieve such a high view of God in his life that
he looks at everything that he goes through and he sees God's
hand is on it and he is working for my good. Think of the soldier
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You think of a natural soldier.
A natural soldier knows that he must be fit and he is willing
to put himself through hardship to train himself to be the best
soldier that he can. And he glories in his exercise
regime, although it's painful. He understands that I must push
through this barrier. My muscles must hurt. My heart
must hurt. My lungs must burn as I push
through this barrier because I need to get stronger. I need
to have more stamina to be the best soldier that I can. And so he keeps in focus not
the pain, not the difficulty, but the outcome of all of those
things. And that is how the believer
is to be. To keep not the pain, not the difficulty, but to look
at the outcome or what God is actually doing in their life. What is God's purpose in that
trial? He says, knowing that tribulation
works patience or endurance. The trials of life can be and
are varied. They can be for a moment, an
hour, they can be for a day, they can go on for weeks and
they can go on for years and they can go on for a lifetime. But the knowledge of what God
is doing gives us that endurance to persevere in that trial. The soldier knows that I must
keep training. I must keep training to keep
up my fitness. He has that always in his view.
And the believer always has in view that God is at work. God is doing something. God is
achieving something in my life. I must go through this because
God is sovereign. And so the trouble works endurance
and the endurance experience. Now the experience is what we
learn from the trial. What we learn in what God is
teaching us in that trial or difficulty it produces experience. when we have endured and we come
through the trial we have learned something, we have experienced
something and that experience adds to our hope, that confidence
of what God is doing. The trials strengthen our hope. because they prove to us that
God is truly who he says he is. God is truly faithful towards
his people. And so that tribulation works
patience or works endurance and that patience experience and
that experience hope. The word hope in the Bible means
A joyful and confident expectation. Now this morning and even now
as I say this word hope I struggle to to see that in it. Because
we always use it in almost a weak and a negative way. We hope that
we are going to do something. We hope that the car is going
to start. We hope that it's going to be
sunny tomorrow. There's always a measure of doubt
attached to that word. But in the scripture it has a
confidence in it. In Corinthians, which may help
us to understand it a bit better. 1 Corinthians chapter 9, it speaks
of a farmer, a farmer who ploughs in hope. Or saith he altogether
for our sakes, for our sakes no doubt it is written that he
that ploughs should plough in hope and he that threshes in
hope should be a partaker of his hope. so he uses the the
word hope to illustrate what a farmer does. A farmer we know
must keep back some of his seed from eating it or selling it
so that he may replant it the following year. Naturally speaking,
it is a foolish thing to do, to take a good seed and to bury
it into the ground and to walk away. But the farmer does so
in hope. He ploughs in hope. He plants
in hope that that seed is going to take root and germinate and
bear a greater crop. And he proves that by, first
of all, by knowledge. But then he proves it by experience. He proves it by knowledge by
one day watching his father maybe do it or his father telling him
about it. But then he sees it for himself. He knows it and
then he acts on what he knows. And so the farmer as he ploughs
and as he sows and as he reaps year by year his hope and his
confidence increases. because he's knowing by experience
this is what takes place. But he might be discouraged because
it might not rain or it might rain too much or there may be
some pestilence which comes through and destroys all of his crop. so he has a hope and a confidence
that what he has planted is going to germinate and bear fruit but
he is also aware that it might not happen because past experience
tells him there is problems, there can be problems but not
with the Christian. The Christian has no need to
doubt The Christian has no reason to expect that God is going to
abandon him after he has begun that work in him. It says, and
hope maketh not ashamed. The Christian will never be disappointed
as the farmer might be disappointed. The purposes of God in his trial
will always work for his good, for his spiritual growth, for
his endurance, for his experience and to strengthen his hope and
his faith and to do him good. And so our hope is grounded in
the word of God. As the farmer's seed is grounded
and is placed into the ground and takes root, our hope is grounded,
is rooted in the Word of God. And the Word of God, we know,
is truth. It is unchangeable. It does not have drought experiences,
it is not affected by pestilence as the farmer's field is affected.
It is unchangeable, unmovable and God's purposes are very clearly
written for us to understand and to see. And so our hope is
grounded in the Word of God. But our experience is tested
in the pathway of fire or in the trials of our life. We prove the reality of the Word
of God. We prove the reality of God's
love. We prove the reality of him working in our lives. In Philippians it tells us that Philippians chapter 1 verse 6 it says being confident
of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you
will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ. And so when
we pass through a trial and Satan as we said this morning fires
an arrow into our minds of doubt and unbelief and says well God
doesn't love you anymore, he never did love you, he's just
going to abandon you, you were never one of his, you're just
a fraud The scripture tells us being confident of this very
thing that he which has begun a good work in you will perform
it until the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the trial
that you are passing through is not to destroy you. It is
not to destroy you because God has begun a good work in you. He has put his Holy Spirit within
you, he's taught you how to pray, he's given you repentance, he's
given you faith, he's given you a love for the word, he's given
you a desire to follow him and to walk in obedience to him and
therefore he has begun a good work in you and he's not going
to abandon you even though you are passing through a fiery furnace
at this present time. That fiery furnace is to benefit
your never-dying soul and to teach you your reliance upon
him and to teach you endurance and patience as the soldier. exercises himself, puts himself
through pain and suffering to increase his strength and his
stamina. So God is doing the same to you
and to me through trial and through difficulty. He cannot abandon
his own people. And that thought comes. Jesus
says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Can be translated,
my God, my God, why hast thou abandoned me? Christ was abandoned
for his people so that God the Father would never ever abandon
his own children. He abandoned his beloved son
upon the cross but he will never ever abandon his people because
he has begun a good work in them and he will complete it, he will
perform it until the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so patience, experience and
hope, a confidence that he will never make his people ashamed
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which he has given to us. The Holy Spirit we know is the
stamp, the seal, the guarantee of the salvation of his people,
is the holy seal upon the soul with which God has given to us
to assure us of our hope in heaven. The scripture tells us, do you
not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in
you? And so the Holy Ghost as he enters into the life of a
person is the gift of God to birth them into new life, to
give them faith, to believe and to trust in the gospel, to give
them faith to see their union with Christ. We're being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no greater love than
this. God sent his only begotten son into the world. Whoever believes
in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And so
the Holy Spirit which he has given has poured out the love
of God in our hearts. And if God has done that Do you
really think that he is going to leave you to be destitute? Do you really think that he's
going to leave you to to fall away and to abandon the faith? Do you really think that he's
going to put you through so much trouble to make you run away? No. He has given you his Holy
Spirit. He has poured out his love upon
you and he is teaching you and me. He puts trials in our life
to work something, to give us endurance. and experience, to
experience his love and his help and his provision and his care,
his fatherly love in discipline and to increase our hope by the
experiences that we pass through. Then he says to us in verse 6 that he loved you before while you were still in your
sin. verse 8 sorry, but God commended his love towards us that in that
while ye were yet sinners Christ died for us much more than now
being justified by his blood we shall be saved from the wrath
through him and so that's all that Christ has done He has brought
his people out of the wrath that is to come and put them into
the kingdom of light. He has cleansed them from all
of their sin. They are justified in the sight
of a holy God. They are sanctified and made
holy. And God is at work now in their life, pruning them and
doing them good and bringing them through much tribulation
that one day they will reach their eternal home. In Revelation
it says, where there is no more tears, no more sorrow, no more
suffering, where there will be with Christ, which is far better. But the question is then, do
we have any hope? Because there is, the scripture
tells us that we were without hope. So there's that time when
we were outside of Christ, there is no hope for us, no hope of
eternal glory. And there are those who have
a false hope that will come to the day of judgment and say,
Lord, we have done this, we have done this, we have done that.
And Jesus will say, depart from me for I never knew you. And
then there are those that have a true living hope, a hope that
has been tested and proved through the trials of life. Which hope
do we have? Do we have no hope? Are we able
to say within ourselves, I have no hope? Well, that is a terrible
place to be. What is the basis of our hope?
Is it our works? Is it our going to chapel? Is
it our family heritage? Or is it that we love the Lord
Jesus Christ with all of our heart, soul and mind and we're
in a relationship with him, we are following him. And our hope
is grounded on the scriptures. Not by our experience but by
the scriptures that we have, that God is with us, that he's
walking with us, he's teaching us through all that we pass through. And as believers, when we pass through these trials
in life, do they have any effect on us? Paul says, you know, I
glory in tribulation because I know they're working something
out. In our life do we see that? Do
the trials have any effect? Do we grow in grace and in the
knowledge of the Lord Jesus? Are we more conformed to Christ
by the trial that we have been through? As the soldier it has
more stamina, has more strength, But as a believer, often we get
more weaker and more reliant upon the Lord Jesus Christ himself,
more reliant upon the Holy Spirit of God. Peter says that the trial
of our faith is much more precious than gold that perishes, though
it be tried with fire, might be found unto the praise and
honour and glory of the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so the faith that we have genuine faith must be placed into the
fire of tribulation to prove it and to purify it and to enable us
to grow in these graces that have been given, those graces
of love, of faith and of hope. And so hope, the hope that a
Christian has, they will never be disappointed. Not like the
farmer who plants and maybe doesn't reap, but the Christian who plants
his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Although he may go through much
trouble, yet his glory, heaven at last, is guaranteed. not because of any good works
that he has done, but by the righteousness and the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the offenses
of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so
by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men,
that's all men who believe, unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. May we be found amongst that
many that have been made righteous and that we might have that good
hope that we will be with Christ forever and ever. Amen. In conclusion, let us sing hymn
number 461. 461. Lord, dismiss us with thy
blessing, fill our hearts with joy and peace. Let us each, thy
love possessing, triumph in redeeming grace. O refresh us, travelling
through this wilderness. Hymn 461, tune 671. with thy blessing, fill our hearts
with joy and peace. Let us each join our protesting,
triumphant with thee. Oh, thy salvation in our hearts
and lives be found. May thy presence, may thy presence
be Dear Lord and Almighty God, we
pray that they'll help us to realise the purposes of the trials
of life that we pass through. And we ask, Lord, that they each
may have a beneficial effect upon our souls, that all that
we pass through will not just be as a problem or as a difficulty,
as a water off a duck's back, but we ask that It may conform
us into the image of thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we
may grow daily in his likeness. We pray, Lord, that thou now
dismiss us with thy blessing. Enable us, Lord, we pray, to
return here on Wednesday and upon Friday. Do meet with us
there, we pray. Do forgive us, Lord, of our many
sins and do make up where we fail. And now may the grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, with the fellowship
and the communion of the Holy Spirit, to be with us each now
and for evermore. Amen.