of hope I found from my notes.
I have spoken on the subject some years ago, but it's such
a wonderful subject. It's so worthwhile to come back
to it again. And we will be particularly looking
at, as we go through, at verse 13 of this chapter, with focusing
on these words, that ye may abound in hope, says Paul. And it struck
me in just reading this morning, again, the apostles' desire to
bring this gospel to the Gentiles the way he repeats it, especially
at the latter part of what we read. Remembering he's writing
to the Gentile Church, writing to Rome. Of course this wonderful
epistle is often set forth, isn't it, as Paul's Gospel, those earlier
chapters. All the truths, the doctrines,
the true nature of the human heart, how God has dealt with
that through the Gospel, those first six chapters. And then
7, 8, that intensity of experience of the born-again believer, what
is happening within his souls. But then the comforts of chapter
8, that nothing can separate us from God, that predetermined
love of God for his people. It did occur to me, sometimes
perhaps we're more negligent of the latter part of Romans,
doesn't mean we don't look at it. I was thinking, reading through
these chapters, thinking, well, chapter 12 says much about holy
living, presenting our bodies as living sacrifices. Chapter
13 is all about our relationships and civic duties. Paul is very
practical, isn't he? He's not just doctoring. The
epistles tell us how to conduct ourselves. Chapter 14 deals with
offences, problems that there can be because of the gospel.
and then certainly in chapter 15 we return really to what is
gospel life and then chapter 16 are all the usual acknowledgements
that he makes at the end of the epistle so these are very important
chapter though it's towards the end of the epistle sometimes
we concentrate on the more doctrinal things but it's a very important
chapter as we read through it and many practical points we
could make. But I'm going to concentrate
on this word hope this morning. And we see here that this issue,
like many others it's dealt with in a practical way. Paul dealt with issues, problems,
doctrines really directly, precisely, lovingly, demandingly. He was
always encouraging. He was always very hopeful. always
very positive. He would present the truth, and
sometimes the truth isn't very palatable, is it? We don't like
to hear the truth, sometimes we have to know truths about
ourselves, and we might not like what we hear, but sometimes that's
very good for us to hear it. Paul is always positive, he always
moves on, always leads us forward, doesn't he? Leads us, essentially
he points us to Christ, doesn't he, as our pattern, our example. And so there's much encouragement
in this chapter. In this verse 13 he says, Now
the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing
that ye may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Just such wonderful words as we go through. Christ is our
example in verse 3, even as Christ pleased not himself, but as it
is written, the reproaches of them that reproach thee fell
on me. He wasn't living to please himself.
He was serving the Father. He took the reproaches of men.
How is it we are living? That's what God would challenge
us this morning. How are you living? How am I living? What
is our focus? What is our hope? Is Christ our
example? We live in a world where people
are now so full of themselves and so full of personalities
and people's achievements. Some of those are perhaps good
achievements, some of them are not. But it's a very focused
world. But you see, the spirit of the
Gospel is we focus on God. We focus on our love for others.
We focus on how it is we live as Christians. Quite different
to the way the world lives and walks. Now this word hope is
15 times used in the Epistle to the Romans and you find it
53 times in the New Testament. So it's a strong position that
it comes through in many different places. And we love that, if
we go back in Romans to chapter 4 and verse 18. We read here of Abraham, so hope
goes right back to the early days, when Paul is setting forth
his gospel, he's establishing the truth from early days. And
what was Abraham's position? We read, who against hope, believed
in hope. that he might become the father
of many nations. He believed in that promise,
as the Lord Jesus Christ said, he looked to my day. That's what
he says, doesn't he? In John's Gospel, look to my
day, look to Christ. According to that which was spoken,
so shall thy seed be. God made many great promises.
This hope that we have is rooted right back in the original promises
of the coming of the gospel and right back to Abraham it's a
very great and powerful truth and we find it also in chapter
5 that's the first few verses of that chapter 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 rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only
so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation
worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope,
and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. So
we see it there, embedded in the things that Paul is saying,
this idea of hope, and we shall just move on briefly to that
word, The word hope used here is the Greek word Elpis and we
will consider that use of it. The use of the word hope in the
New Testament is not the way that we use it today in common
speech as you know. So often in our language today
one of the problems we have is that words have lost their meaning. They've become weak. They no
longer carry any weight. And you've heard me say this
before and I'm much reminded. of the ministry of our dear friend
many years ago, Sidney Norton, when he used to preach, he always
used to bring out a word. He was very good at this and
could get inside a word. It was a feature, a very strong,
wonderful feature of his ministry, was an understanding of particular
words and bringing them out. And we're very grateful for that
lovely ministry he used to bring to us. And it's not the world's
hope. And the world uses it in such a weak way. Well, I hope
to be going out tomorrow. I hope to catch the bus. I hope
it'll be all right. We actually use it, don't we?
It's rather a weak word. We don't use it. People don't
see it as a word of emphasis. But actually in the New Testament,
it's emphatic. This word is a strong word. It's not, well, I have
an assurance. And I was in my notes and my
thinking, I think you have to put hope and assurance together. We know for some people that
there's a problem with assurance. But these things go together. You've got a hope. for the things
of God, then you have an assurance in God, assurance in the whole
matter of salvation. So what I want to leave with
you here is, it's a strong word, it's a favourable and confident
expectation, says one of the word dictionaries, and I like
that. Favourable and confident expectation. Have you got that?
Have I got that this morning? That's what we want to have in
the Gospel. We don't want to be wishy-washy about it. This
is the word of life, isn't it? It's either life or it's death
to us. One or the other, this is how the Gospel is, there's
no middle way. You're either in Christ or you're not in Christ.
You're either in light or you're in darkness. You're either lost
or you're found. Are you in hope or out of hope? It's wonderful
to have hope. And God brings it to us. It comes,
doesn't it, through faith. It's part of the Gospel. It's
not something we work up within us. You can't work this up. Oh,
but God grants it. The Gospel comes with much assurance. And we thank God for that. So
we have to move on. I hope I've moved you from the
common usage of this. And it also has a particular
reference to the future. So the future is right, and the
future for all of us is unknown. Coming out this morning we're
wondering, do we need to bring a coat, don't we? Because we
can see black clouds, we've had heavy storms of rain and you
have to make a judgment that there are things that are unseen
and unknown and God does not reveal the future to us. We know
there are people who claim to see the future but God does not
reveal the future to us. We know in the past that certain
things were revealed to the prophets but we have everything now. We
have the complete gospel. We have the whole revelation
of God. We have the scriptures. There's nothing more. We're not
like the Church of Rome or Charismatics and people all looking for further
revelation as if God hasn't spoken up. He has spoken in Christ.
In these last days he has spoken through his Son. What more can
he say? Why are you looking for more? God has said everything. That's what John says in his
Gospel. These things are written that you might believe in Christ.
There are many other things that he could have written. Many other
things Christ did. But these were written. We have to believe
the Word of God. We don't know the future. Ah,
but there is a future in the Gospels. The wonderful part of
the Gospel is that there is a hope, an eternal hope in Christ, an
eternal reality, something that we can look forward to, a reality
of that rest yet to come, of heaven, to be without sin. Isn't
that not the desire of every Christian? Do we not feel the
sin? I feel it. Do we not want to
be free of it? Totally free? We thank God for
the way He deals with us in this life. Helps us to rid ourselves
of things. Oh, but to be with Him forever,
without sin, to know Christ. That's a great Christian hope.
So these two things go together. It's a hope in Christ. It's an
assurance of the Gospel. It's a hope for heaven. A wonderful,
wonderful truth. And Christ is our great hope.
We all must root every truth. in the scriptures, all the truths
in the gospel come back to the person and work of Christ. People
want a social gospel and all sorts of things that I'm afraid
are worthless to people, as though they can have a gospel without
Christ. They have no gospel, they have nothing. But we thank
God for our Lord Jesus Christ. Titus in chapter 2 and verse
13, we read here, a verse I'm sure you know, looking for that
blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and
our Saviour Jesus Christ. He is that blessed hope. If we
have this hope, it's a blessed thing to us. It's a thing that
God will bless in our souls. And we long, if we believe in
Him, for that appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the
fulfilment of hope, is His return, His coming again. And then, if
we just turn back to 1 Thessalonians and chapter 5 and verse 8, But let us, whoever the day be
sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an
helmet, the hope of salvation. And again, that's not a vain
thing. These are, as it were, parts of armour. You don't put
on as a part of an armour a thing you're not certain about, you
don't trust and you don't know about. You put on your helmet
to protect your head. You put on your hope. You put
on something you've got confidence in. Remember David, when he was
going to take on Goliath, Saul said, well, here's my armor,
you see. David put this on, and he said,
well, I don't know this armor. I haven't tried it. I haven't
tested it. I don't trust it. I've got no
hope in it, really. But he trusted in his weapon.
I've spoken on this before. That sling, as you know, was
lethal, like a bullet. He trusted in that, and he trusted
in God. Where's our armor? It's salvation,
our helmet. It's what you've got this morning.
You need to have it. We need to have that hope. And
we need to be enjoying Him and the communion that comes through
knowing Christ, through the great and glorious Gospel and what
it brings to us. It doesn't bring hope, but it
brings all we need in this life. He will supply our needs. We
might have a long shopping list of needs, When we come down to
what really do we need? And our Lord will never leave
us nor forsake us. He brings that grace to our hearts
that we could not bring. Grace is from God. If you go
to the Church of Rome they will tell you you've got to come to
the church because they dispense grace. You've got to come and
you don't get grace anywhere else but through the ministry
of the priest. And I've covered this before. But no, it comes
from God. We need that grace of God, from
our Lord Jesus Christ, and we need that eternal life that only
He can grant to us. And it's through faith. Oh, that
God will grant us faith. It's the gift of God. It's not
through making decisions and putting our hands up in a meeting.
There is a mystery here, isn't there, in the Gospel. As we set
forth the word of God, as we set forth these truths, as we
read these truths, so God comes and reveals himself through his
word. And he brings faith. That strange,
mysterious thing. As we read in Colossians chapter
1 and verse 3, we give thanks to God and the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. since we heard of your
faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have to all
the saints for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven
whereof ye heard before in the word of truth of the gospel which
is come to you as it is in all the world, and bring it forth
fruit, as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it,
and knew the grace of God in truth." So, how do we know the
grace of God? We know it through the Gospel,
we know it through the Word of God, which comes to you. God brings it to us. is seeking
us. One of the great things I learned
when I came to know something of the doctrines of grace, going
back nearly 50 years, was that God had a purpose in the gospel. I've been taught that it was
a hit and miss thing, that you didn't know anyone was going
to be saved, that you you had to go out and try and persuade
people that you yourself had to make a decision for Christ
that you yourself might fall away you might lapse back into
darkness and so on but I came to see that God has a people
that he desires to save the gospel has a perfect purpose and when
Christ came he came to save a people his blood was not shed in vain
His blood was shed that God would have a people to himself in all
righteousness and that they will be saved in Christ and that Christ
came as the good shepherd who loved his sheep. He knew his
sheep. He says they know me, each one. They know my voice
and I know them by name. He came to seek and to save that
which is lost. And so when we proclaim this
gospel, it comes, we do believe that God comes in it. And he
brings that grace of God in truth. It comes in the truth. And as
we read here, it is the hope which is laid up for you in heaven.
In heaven, there is a hope. There's something laid up for
us. As Jesus said to the disciples when he went to my father's house,
there are many mansions. He said, I've gone to prepare a place
for you. That is our ultimate hope. Ultimately,
our hope is heaven. But there is a quickening hope
we have now, that hope, that trust, that assurance in Christ. Our belief in God, our belief
in the Gospel. It's a wonderful thing. And we're
in the area of faith. In Hebrews, there's that lovely
chapter, chapter 11, on faith. And I love the first verse. I
always like coming back to this verse. I think it's a wonderful,
wonderful verse. He says, Now faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Now in the margin it might say
in your Bible, or it's the ground or confidence that we have. I
like the word substance. I've always liked that. And I've
often said it, that when we receive faith, we don't receive a notion.
We don't receive a good idea. We don't receive a doctrine.
We receive something spiritually from God. God plants faith in
the heart. It's a very solid, real, tangible
thing. We have something. When we have
faith, our life is turned right round from darkness to light.
We were not in Christ now, we're in Christ. God does that. It's
the evidence of things not seen. And hope is a hope for things
not seen. And faith and hope go together. And they are wonderful, wonderful
truths. Not dreams, but a substance. And the foundation is Christ.
In the end, our hopes are based on Christ. The reality of Christ
as a historical person, his life, his words, his miracles, all
of those things to me are evidence of God. I lay hold of Christ
really, in the end, that's the thing I hold on to. I believe
everything in the word of God, but ultimately it's the person
and work of Christ that we hold on to. Now let's take the world. The world thinks we've got nothing,
looks down on us, they're very The atheists and humanists in
our country have so much dominance and influence, don't they? Why
is it? And the media, and those colleges, employment, everywhere
they're thrusting all their horrible ideas upon us. They have no hope. Have you ever heard Richard Dawkins?
He's got no hope. All these professors, they hope,
they have some hope perhaps for this world or this life, but
they have no eternal hope. They are men who are actually
in despair. Men who are actually lost. They are in darkness. If
you push them very hard, they don't really know what they believe.
And it's very sad. When I see them, I actually feel
the need to pray for them. I pray for Richard Dawkins. Oh,
look, God would open that man's heart. He's in such darkness
and he's got such hatred. He's like Paul, when Paul used
to hound the church until Christ appeared to him. Oh, we pray.
I trust you pray for people you know are in darkness, that they
might know the light of the Gospel. How much we should pray. We take
no pleasure in this. Do we hope for the things of
this world? People do, around us, all the
time. They desire, they lust after the things of this world. Their eyes are focused on all
that they can achieve. We know at the moment there are
the athletes, and some of them are very good and fine people.
I've been following some of it. But some of them, this is all
they're interested in. And their whole life is all about
them winning at their sport. That's all they... For some,
that's all that they've got. There's nothing else. And if
they don't win their race, they're completely devastated. Because
that's their life. That's all that they're focused
on. and we know that that is not a good thing. I'm just trying
to turn over to Job and chapter 31 if I can get this page over
and if we look in verses 24 to 28 it says something about this
and it's good to reflect on this. If I have made gold my hope or
have said to the fine gold, thou art my confidence, if I rejoice,
because of my wealth, because my wealth was great, and because
mine hand hath gotten much, and if I beheld the sun when it shined,
or the moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath been secretly
enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand, this also were an iniquity,
to be punished by the judge, for I should have denied God
that is above. And so many in our day are like
that. That's just how they are. They're
rejoicing in their wealth, they're making gold their hope and so
on. Anything, anything but God. But
they bring themselves, alas, into judgment. If we go on to
Proverbs and chapter 10 and verse 28 We hear this, the hope of the
righteous shall be gladness. And as always, get the parallel
in the couplet. But the expectation of the wicked
shall perish. That expectation, that hope for
things in this world will perish, will come to nothing. That thing
that seemed so important when we were doing it, that thing
that seemed, the goal that was, the thing in life to achieve
is going to perish. Ah, but the hope of the righteous
shall be gladness. the things of God that expectation
of Christ will bring gladness rejoicing to our hearts and then
Jeremiah chapter 18 and verses 11 and 12 and this really sums up the attitude
of the men of the world when faced with the challenge of God
will they follow God will they serve him now therefore go to
speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
saying thus saith the Lord behold I frame evil against you and
devise a device against you return ye now everyone from his evil
way make your ways and your doings good and they said there is no
hope but we will walk after our own devices and we will walk
everyone we will everyone do the imagination of his evil heart That is the spirit of the human
heart, isn't it? God challenges us. He challenges us with the
gospel. But the majority of people, when faced with the challenge
of God, they say, there is no hope, but we will walk after
our own devices. Well, the challenge to us this
morning is God speaking to us. How is it we are walking? Walking
after our own heart, as we were As it were, spiritually, are
we walking towards Christ? Is He our goal? Is He our focus? Is that where your life is oriented?
Is God making that known to you? Revealing that to you? That you
should follow Christ, not the world. We're not to be like the
world. We're to be different in the
Church. People know we're different. I've been called, sure you have
all sorts of peculiar expressions in the past. I remember one of
my employers trying to counsel me in my annual review saying,
well of course you are a rather complex person. What he meant
was sort of religious and strange. People find us strange, don't
they? Sometimes we know people come into the chapel to sort
of see what goes on in here, what's going on. Funny, funny
people. What is it they're doing? What
are they believing? And sometimes we know with unbelieving family,
it can be very difficult to find things like that. Sunday observance,
most odd and peculiar, because we're not running. If we're running
with Christ, we're not running the way of the world, are we?
We're going a different way. I've often said the Gospel's
like a compass. A compass, naturally, you know, if you shake it about,
it'll still point north. But a Christian is one as though
the compass is being re-oriented, and we point south. And whatever
happens to us, whatever trouble I get into, whatever happens
in my life, whatever throws me... That compass point still goes
back to Christ. It doesn't go to the world. That's
because God has changed my heart. He's brought faith. He's brought
truth. He's brought hope. And these
aren't sort of vague things. And prayer, of course, is so
vital in this. We can't step aside from prayer. We're going to have the life
of faith. We need a life of prayer. And I've got some examples here,
but we could go right through Paul's epistles full of exhortations
to pray. 1 Timothy 2.8. He said, I will
therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without
wrath and doubting. And then just back in 1 Thessalonians
and chapter 5, just one or two examples here from Paul's epistles. And verses 17 and verse 25, he
says, Pray without ceasing. He says, Brethren, pray for us. And then 2 Thessalonians chapter
2 and verse to Thessalonians chapter 1 sorry
verse 11 wherefore also we pray always for you that our God would
count you worthy of this calling and fulfill all the good pleasures
of his goodness and the work of faith with power wherefore
also we pray always for you so our prayers not just to be for ourselves it's good to pray for ourselves
our wants and our needs but in the gospel surely we should
have a focus on praying for others desiring only good desiring that
work of God so now shall we more closely
look at this verse verse 13 of Romans and chapter 15. Straight
away we see the source of hope. It's given to God by Paul as
a title, the God of hope. God brings hope to us, it's his
name, it's like an attribute of God. A God who can be known,
God who will make these things known to us. a God who will supply
all our needs and again we're very thankful that Paul has penned
these great words in Philippians chapter 4 and verse 19 there's
such an encouragement to us but my God shall supply all your
need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus that's
such a lovely and powerful verse doesn't supply some of our needs
that all of our need, as I said earlier, we may not be clear
what it is we need but there's a promise that God will supply
our need, those things that are sufficient for us. And not in
a measly way. You know, sometimes we're asked,
can we lend something? We might lend something, but
we might have two or three of these things. We might just lend
the one that's in the poorest condition or, you know, we won't
risk something that's valuable. But no, God does not do that
sort of thing to us. It's according to his riches
in glory. But we can't even begin to imagine
what are God's riches in glory. completely and utterly beyond
our comprehension, that is what the Word of God sets before us.
God is going to be rich towards us, generous towards us in the
Gospel. The Gospel is a generous thing,
it's an overflowing thing as we read it. And an interesting
thing here, you see that it comes, and I noticed the words that
it came with, with all joy and peace. We know that joy and peace,
I love joy and peace, mentioned at the beginning of Galatians
5.22, are the fruit of the Spirit, comes with joy and peace. These
are, as it were, those outworkings of the Gospel. The Gospel comes
to us and there's an outworking, but you see, this is a sort of
inward thing here which we shall come to see in a moment is an
inward working of this hope within us and there's going to be an
outworking when faith comes it has to be seen that's what James's
pistol's all about you've got faith well there must be something
seen or there's nothing there it's a self-evident truth um
is there something in us is something being worked out are we enjoying
God are we enjoying that fellowship with him now is that where we
are joy and peace in believing Are we believing, and is that
bringing us joy and peace? Have we resolved that? When God
comes to us, and when He first comes to us, it brings tension.
We feel our sin, we become concerned about ourselves, but that's the
normal process. God reveals sin, He reveals His Son, and the natural
process is that we repent. We can't repent until God has
done that work. The Arminian will tell you, repent, And then
God will do the work. It's impossible, because you're
in darkness. You can't possibly do it. But when God works and
reveals sin, then you feel the need to repent. And you need
to. And it's part of that process. And God then brings assurance,
brings faith to your heart, being in Him. And He promises even
more that He will fill you. with all joy and peace, that
we will be filled, not just a taste. I've been with Christians in
the past, and they've sung hymns like showers of blessing, you
know, there will be showers of blessing as though God just,
little raindrops are falling, as though God is reluctant to
pour out his blessing upon us, you know. God is willing to fill
us with all joy and peace in believing. Are we willing and
looking to Him that He might so do in our hearts. With joy and peace they go together
in believing. It's not that worldly joy. It's
not a frothy thing. It's not a temporary thing. Again,
it's a study all on its own. But the joy of the Gospel is
quite a robust thing. It's something in our heart.
It's something that sort of wells within us. It's a soundness of
truth when we walk with the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know that
joy? Do you know that peace? I think these two things do go
together. I think you can have joy if you have peace in your
heart. And if you have peace in your heart, you can know joy,
can't you? And I think these two words are beautifully put
together for us in the Gospel that God would fill us. And more
than that, there's so much in this particular verse that ye
may abound in hope. I like that. Hope isn't just
seen as a passive thing, is it? It's not seen, oh, I've got hope
now. That's sort of something I've got. But it's abounding. How do we abound in hope? Much is here to exercise us,
isn't there, spiritually? But it's the way I looked at
it, thought about it, it's have you got a joyful optimism about
the Gospel? Not about our own black hearts,
not about the state of the world, but a joyful optimism that God
is sovereign, God is doing what He is going to do, God is going
to save the church, He's going to bring people to salvation
in His way. Do we have, as it were, a joyful
optimism of that? And I have to say, and this is
not easy to say at times, but regardless of events, sometimes
very difficult and severe trials come to us, don't they? And sometimes
they can come very suddenly. And they can sometimes seem almost
to overwhelm us, to sweep us away. Ah, but if we've got true
faith, we can stand. That's what Paul says, isn't
he? That we might stand, he says in Ephesians 6. Oh, we might
know something of that. And this is the area we're in.
You can see how these doctrines overlap. I've always said that
the truths of God are like the many facets of a diamond. You
see one little facet, and he has perhaps one word on it, but
you need the whole diamond. We need all of it. It's a complete,
wonderful, perfect system of truth is the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the doctrines of grace. And there's that abounding
in hope. Well, do we abound? It's a solidity
here. There's a reality here. I mean,
Paul writes, doesn't he? He's not just writing notional
things. He's trying to encourage them,
how they think. How they go about life, how they
live, what is it we do? It's all covered, isn't it, in
the Epistle to Romans. It's a very full representation
of the Christian life. I think a lot of people think
Christian life is you come and sit in a pew, you go home and
read your Bible, and it's a passive thing. But it's not, is it? Are
we abounding? When we go about our work, and
whatever it is we do day by day, are we abounding in hope? Are
we abounding in the Gospel? Do we live the Gospel? I find
that a great challenge to me. It may be mundane things, but
am I doing it as a Christian? Am I walking in a way that pleases
God? Am I putting myself in places
that I know God would be happy for me to be in? Or am I compromising
myself? Or it's a positive thing. Are
we abounding in hope? And this is something we share.
The Church is a corporate thing, isn't it? We come together. We're
here to, we trust to pray for each other, to love each other,
to encourage each other, and to I trust, by the grace of God,
to abound in hope. Together, it's a hopeful living
and looking forward. People around us might be looking
forward to all sorts of things, but we're looking forward to
what God is doing. It's a declaration that we have
a positive trust in God. I believe God. If we haven't
got hope, we'll say, I don't believe you. I don't trust you.
I don't know what you're doing with my life. But if I've got
hope, I'm saying, I do believe you. I will follow you. I do
trust you, even though I can't see. That's faith, isn't it? Blessed are those who believe
who have not seen. Are we there? It's a great place to be there,
by the grace of God. And it's a positive outlook to
life, that's what I want to say. We must be positive as Christians. I've met people in the past,
and that's so negative. I've got everything. Oh, I don't
like this. I don't like that. Oh, I don't like that doctrine.
I don't like that. I don't like that sort of church. I don't like
that. It's all a shopping list of things I don't like. But people
we trust will come to us and we're positive. We love the things
of God. And we love serving Him and we
want our lives to be like that. It's how people see us. Can they
come and talk to us and find, wow, he's got something. She's
got something. Christian life is real. You can
see the change it makes in them. They're not what they were. They're
very focused in their lives. Well, that can't be done by the
flesh, can it? You can't abound in hope and
all these things, but you can through the power of the Holy
Ghost. It holds it all together. When Jesus went, he said, I'm
not going to leave you or forsake you. He's in heaven now, at the
right hand of God, ever living and interceding for us. That's
a great hope. He's not left us comfortless.
We have one here now with us. He will be with you. He will
be in you, said Christ, even the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter. And he comes from Christ. If
we are in Christ, we have that. I think the last time I spoke,
I spoke partly on the earnest of our inheritance, that we have
a guarantee, sealed with the Spirit. We are in Christ. We
have that spirit with us. It's not emotion. The charismatics
and people try and portray a different kind of spirit to the one that's
actually set forth, the truths of the spirit set forth in scripture.
It's not an emotional thing. This is true. This is to do with
the sanctifying work of God, the true sanctifying work of
God. Not that so many see it. It's
a continuation of the power of the new birth. It continues.
Again, quoting my dear friend Sidney Norton. He used to say,
yes, he believed in the second blessing, because there was a
lot said in those days about the second. He said, and the
third blessing, and the fourth blessing, and the fifth blessing.
And I like that. God comes to us constantly through
the Spirit to bless, to reveal himself to us. And we know from
Romans 8 that the Spirit intercedes for us with those sighs and groans.
It cannot be uttered. It cannot be comprehended. We
have such a One with us, all that we know, might know, the
power of the Holy Ghost, that underpins, the Holy Ghost with
us, underpins that true hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
fifthly here on this verse, we have to pray for the right things. You have to be expectant to have
hope. We're praying. How is it we are
orienting our life? What is it we are actually doing
and focusing on? No point asking for the wrong
things, but if we ask for those things that are good, according
to God's Word, the things that we should be praying for, then
we can be expectant, we can be bold, and we can be trusting,
looking to God, all that God would lead us. It's something
that's vexed me a lot recently, things I've prayed for for many,
many years, and I feel I need so much light from God, so much
help in prayer. We do long to see God moving
in certain ways, in certain directions, and it's a real challenge. We
need to seek that God would help us in prayer. And all of this,
all of what I'm saying, although it's practical in many ways,
but it is primarily spiritual. We have to say that it's all
of God, it's all in the Holy Ghost. And we have to say it's
all in the face of discouragements. We all know discouragements,
don't we? We've all... things come along, they shock
us. We get struck down with difficult illnesses. They can be very hard
to cope with. People disappoint us. The world
turns against us. Events happen that we wish never,
never happened. If you've got this hope, it rides
all through that. It carries you through it. Nothing
else but the Gospel is going to carry us through life triumphantly. If you haven't got the Gospel,
you have no hope. You have despair. You have the Gospel. If you really
have the Gospel, you have everything. Everything you need in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And we should abound in hope
together, as I said earlier. Praying for each other. Praying
in the Holy Ghost, as Jude says. That's what we should do. Seeking
spiritual blessings. That's where we should be. Well,
we do thank God for His Word of Truth. We thank God for this
lovely chapter. It says, Paul, for whatsoever
things were written aforetime were written for our learning,
that we, through patience, and comfort of the scriptures might
have hope. It's a lovely verse. It just
talks about Christian experience, the reality of it, that we walk
this life, don't we, through patience, we have the comfort
of the scriptures, and by the grace of God, we have hope. Now, the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope through
the power of the Holy Ghost. Amen.