Good morning. Let's all stand
together and sing hymn number 110. 110. Alas, and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I? Was it for crimes that I have
done He groaned upon the tree Amazing pity, grace unknown And
love beyond decree Well might the sun in darkness hide, And
shut his glories in. When Christ the mighty Maker
died, For man the creature sinned. But drops of grief can ne'er
repay the debt of what I owe. Here, Lord, I give myself away. Tis all that I can do. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
352. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom. ? While the nearer waters roll
? ? While the dimmer still is high ? ? Hide me, O my Savior
? Till the storm of life is passed. Safe into the haven, God, O receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on. Leave, ah, leave me not alone
Still support and comfort me All my trust on thee this day. All my help from thee
I bring. Cover my defenseless head. With the shadow of thy wings. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. Just and holy is thy name. I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am Thou
art full of truth and grace When just grace with thee is found,
Grace to cover all thy sins. Let the healing streams abound. Make and keep me pure within. Thou of thy the fountain of freedom. Let me take a plea. Spring, Thou art within my heart. Turn with me to Romans 15. Could
I get you girls to sing this morning? I'll let you all decide
what to sing. God sure love to hear you, sure
love to hear you. Start in verse 5, read down to verse 14. Now the God of patience and consolation
grant you Be like-minded, one toward another, according to
Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify
God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore, receive
you one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God. Now I say that Jesus Christ was
a minister of the circumcision, or for the Jews, for the truth
of God, to confirm the promises unto the fathers, and that the
Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, as it is written,
For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and
saying unto thy name, And again, he saith, Rejoice, ye Gentiles,
with his people. And again, praise the Lord, all
ye Gentiles, and laud him, all ye people. And again, Isaiah
saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he shall rise to
reign over the Gentiles, and him shall the Gentiles trust. Now the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace, in believing that you may abound in hope through
the power of the Holy Ghost. And I myself am also am persuaded
of you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled
with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. Our Father, and our God, and
our Savior, who also is our God, our great God and Savior forever.
God and Father, by Lord Jesus Christ, who came into this world
to save sinners, came into this world to save the vile, the ungodly,
the corrupt, the dead in trespasses and sins, to give them life to
bring light to the darkened mind, to bring understanding to an
understanding that had none, to give life and heart, a new
heart to those who their old stony heart could not feel. Lord,
we thank you for such a great, glorious salvation, a salvation
that was accomplished before we were ever born, accomplished
O Lord, 2,000 years ago, before we ever heard the gospel, before
we ever believed Christ, before we ever trusted him, before you
ever gave us faith and gave us grace, O Lord, our salvation
was complete and accomplished. Enable us to preach that, enable
us to believe that, enable us to find comfort and assurance
in what our Lord accomplished and what is finished and what
is done. Lord, there's nothing in our
hands we could bring. We have no merit in ourselves,
no worth in ourselves, no works to complain, to commend ourselves
to you. But Lord, we do come in the name
of our Savior, come in his mercy, come in his blessed righteousness
into your holy presence. So thankful, so thankful, so
thankful. And Lord, now we pray for this
service today. God, meet with us. Oh, Lord,
meet with us. As I pray so often, come among
us. Come down and visit us. Come
and let your presence be felt. And Lord, people rejoice in the
day of your visitation. And we also pray for our dear
brothers and sisters who are not well in body. Bodies are
weak. Bodies are frail. And I know
they would be with us if they were able, but they're not able.
God bless them, God encourage them, Lord strengthen them, restore
their health if it would please you. And our blessed Savior,
have mercy, oh God, have mercy upon our loved ones, sons and
daughters, children and grandchildren. Save us, oh Lord, and we'll be
saved. Turn to us and we'll be saved.
Turn us and we'll be turned. Uphold us and we'll stand. Thank
you for your great mercies given us in Christ. In his holy name
we thank you and bless you. For Christ's sake, amen. Let's stand together as we sing
the hymn of the day in the bulletin. Father, we, thy children, bless
thee, for thy love to us bestowed. As our father, we address thee,
called to be the sons of God. Wondrous was Thy love in giving,
Jesus, for our sins to die. Wondrous was His grace in leaving,
for our sakes His home on high. Now the sprinkled blood has freed
us, On we dig toward our rest Through the desert Thou dost
lead us With Thy constant favor blessed By Thy truth and Spirit
guiding Earnest tea of joys to come, And with daily food providing,
Thou dost lead thy children home. Though our pilgrimage be dreary,
this is not our resting place. Shall we of the way be weary
when we see our Master's face? Now by faith anticipating in
this holy ? Our souls rejoice ? ? We His promise have been
waiting ? ? Soon shall hear His welcome voice ? ? Then shall
countless spirits wearing ? ? Robes made wine in Jesus' blood ? Bonds
like rested pilgrims bearing Stand around the throne of God. Peace redeemed from every nation
Shall in triumph bless thy name. Every voice shall cry salvation
to our God and to the Lamb. Be seated. There has never been a time Christ
didn't love me. There has never been a time he
didn't care. Oh, his eyes have never strayed
from watching I stand perfect, unreconciled. I stand in peace. I stared with fear in his mighty
angel. He loved me long before I knew
his name. The Father's pleased. The Son has made my pardon. I have lived, I'm not condemned. I stand in fear. I was bound by sin and shame,
but still I was blind, but now I see But still I'm scared He came
to me in tender love and great mercy He brought me life and
I will always stand in need I stand in thee. He is my mediator. He loved me whole before I knew
his name. The Father's pleased, the Son
has made my pardon. I have life, I'm not condemned. I stand in here. He's the great Shepherd, the
Rock of all ages. Almighty God is He. Bow down before Him, love and
adore Him. His name is wonderful, Jesus,
my Lord. Your mother used to sing that
song, James. She sang that. Heard her sing that several times.
All right, back in Romans 15. You know, the apostle, when he
was writing to the Roman church, he oftentimes would break out
in a prayer. Just break out in praise and
in thanksgiving and pray for the people there. And he'd done
it in two or three places, but I want to look at just one of
them today. But he did say, let us all have the same mind, the
same mouth, and just let it do one thing, glorify God through
his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And receive one another just
like Christ received us. But look what he says here in
verse 13 and 14. Now the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through
the power of the Holy Ghost. Now I myself also am persuaded
of you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled
with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another." Now,
this is a prayer that he uttered for the saints at Rome. Out of the fullness of his heart,
he gets to thinking about them, writing to them, and he just
breaks out in a prayer, breaks out just out of the joy of his heart.
And he prays for a great blessing for these people. And he often
breaks into prayer for those for whom he wrote. And as he
prays for God's people here in Rome, he said they, in Romans
chapter one, verse seven, he says this, those that are beloved
of God in Rome. Boy, ain't that something? Those
that are beloved of God. That's the first thing he said
about them, beloved of God. God loves you, you're the beloved
of God. You're God's elect, you're God's
chosen, you're God's special people, you're God's people that
he set apart for himself. And oh my, then he said, called
to be saints, called to be saints. There are people think you gotta
live a certain way and live a certain kind of a life in order to be
a saint. God calls all of his people saints. All of them are referred to as
saints. You know, they, there's several men in the commentaries,
they always, when they could comment about anybody in the
Bible, they'll say St. John or St. Paul or St. Mark or something. They'll refer
to them as a saint. Well, I tell you what, if I wrote
a book, it'd be St. Donald that wrote it. But oh my, and he was persuaded
of these saints. Look what he said, he said, I
almost self am persuaded of you. What was he persuaded of them
about? That grace made these people this way. Grace made these
people to be saints. Christ saved these folks by grace. And our Lord Jesus Christ, you
know what he called his people? The salt of the earth, the thing
that keeps it from being absolutely corrupt. You've seen that thing
in there this morning by John Newton. He wrote that in 1741. And he was concerned about how
awful the state of things was in 1741. Wonder what he'd think
about if he lived in 2025. And it was bad in those days. Imagine what he'd think today.
But Christ called us the salt of the earth. That's the only
salt that gives flavor to things and also keeps things from corrupting. And he called them the light
of the world. If there's any light in this
world, we're the light of it. If there's any understanding
in this dark world, we're the ones that understands it. And
now, you know, he said he was persuaded this God's people are
special. They've been redeemed by the
Lord Jesus Christ. He paid their debt, paid off
their sin debt. They've been called by the Holy
Spirit, separated under the gospel of God. And I tell you, beloved,
they love one another. They love one another. They love
the gospel, and they love the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no
doubt about that. 27 words is what he uses in this
short but full prayer for God's blessing upon these saints in
Rome and upon us here today. 27 words. That don't seem like much, does
it? But it's a lot when God does it. Excuse me. Look at the sourcing
this blessing. First of all, we want these,
look at these 27 words, joy and peace, joy and peace. That's
what I'm going to talk about today. Joy and peace, joy and
peace. Now here's the source of these
blessings of joy and peace. Now the God of hope. Now the
God of hope. This is the only place that the
God of hope is only used here. where he's called the God of
hope. It's only used right here, no place else. And this was Abraham's
God. I want you to keep Romans 15
and look over here in Romans chapter four. Look in Romans
chapter four, what it says about Abraham. This was Abraham's God. This God of hope was Abraham's
God. And hope deferred make the heart
sick. But look what he said here in
verse 17, first of all, Romans 4.17. As it is written, I have
made thee a father of many nations. And he says, before him, before
God Almighty, he said this to him, before whom he believed,
God, and listen to this, who gives life to the dead, who quickens
the dead, and calls those things which be not, things that don't
even exist, as though they were. Abraham hadn't had a child yet.
Abraham was 75 years old when God made this promise to him. And I'll tell you, you're talking
about a promise. Look at the stars. That's how many children
you're going to have. See if you can count the sand
of the sea. That's by the shore. That's how many children you're
going to have. Now, Abraham, 75 years old, and when you have
a child, he said, you're going to be the father of a whole bunch
of nations. He said, oh, my goodness, that's
impossible. But look what he said. But God
calls things that don't even exist yet as though they were. You reckon he's going to be the
father of many nations? You reckon he's going to have
a seed by which all nations will be blessed? Oh, look what he
said. Who against hope, oh my, this
can't happen. Who against hope believed in
hope. THAT HE MIGHT BECOME THE FATHER
OF MANY NATIONS, ACCORDING TO THAT GOD SAID, SO SHALL THY SEED
BE. YOU SEE, HE AGAINST HOPE. LISTEN
TO THAT. AND THEN HE TURNED AROUND AND
SAID, THIS IS THE ONLY HOPE I'VE GOT, IS WHAT GOD SAID. AND THE
ONLY HOPE WE HAVE IS WHAT GOD SAYS. AND GOD SAYS, GOD OF HOPE. AND WHAT IS THIS HOPE THAT WE'RE
TALKING ABOUT? YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO TURN
TO A COUPLE PLACES TODAY. LOOK FIRST OF ALL IN ACTS CHAPTER
24. What is this hope we're talking
about? What is this hope? In Acts 24, look in verse 15, excuse me, 14. What is this hope? Paul's standing before the Sanhedrin. He's standing before being accused
of all kinds of things. But this I confess unto thee,
This is my confession. This is what I've got to say,
that after the way which they call heresy, They call what I
believe, and what I preach, and what I trust in, heresy. So worship I the God of my fathers,
believing all things which are written in the law and in the
prophets, and have hope toward God, which they themselves also
allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just
and the unjust. He said, this is my hope, this
is my confession, that Christ was raised from the dead, and
that's my hope. And I'll tell you, the Scriptures
tells us that we have, there's a hope, hope laid up for us in
heaven, which we heard before in the word of the truth of the
gospel. Christ in you is called the hope of glory. Paul said
that in hope of eternal life, God who promised before the world
began. And this hope is called the anchor
of our soul. When we're in trouble, and we're
in storms, and we're having all kinds of things going on, what
is the anchor of our soul? And the anchor of our soul is
the Lord Jesus Christ, and He's already entered into glory, and
that's the anchor of our soul. And it tells us in Romans chapter
5, it says, Hope is Hope maketh not ashamed. Why? Because the
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. And where do we get this hope?
God gives it to us. God gives it to us. And it don't
make us ashamed. God gives us this hope because
he's the God of hope. God sustains this hope. God One
day, we'll crown this hope. Abraham's hope is crowned now.
He's in glory. He's already received. He's got
the end of his hope. He don't need it anymore. Faith,
hope, and charity. And you know, we don't need faith
when we get there. We'll need hope when we get there.
But love will still what we have. And you know, when Abraham's
hope is crowned, and you remember Simeon. Simeon, one day he was
in the temple, and he picked up the Lord Jesus Christ as a
baby and said, Lord, my eyes have seen your salvation. Let
thy servant depart in peace. And his hope has been crowned,
and his hope is full. And I tell you, the God of hope,
oh, I'm grateful for a God that gives hope. It'd be awful to
be without hope in this world. Paul said, without God, without
Christ, without hope, this world. Hope. And then look at the character
of this blessing. We get this blessing, joy and
peace, full of joy and peace. That's my subject. But all God,
the source of it's the God of hope. And then look at the blessing,
the character of the blessing that he gives us. All joy and
peace. Joy and peace. Now, let me tell
you something. These are two blessings that we're talking
about here. One's active and one's passive. One's very active
and one's passive side of these blessings of a believer's experience. Active and passive. Joy is active. You know, when you got joy, it's
active. It manifests itself. It's expressive. David said, Lord restore to me
the joy of thy salvation. David said, oh Lord, just restore
it to me. And I'll tell you what, this
weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
Look in Isaiah 51 verse 11. Isaiah 51 verse 11. You know, blessed are the people
that know the joyful sound. And all the gospels are joyful
sound. It's a joyful sound to hear that
your sins are gone. It's a joyful sound to know that
you were given. It's a joyful sound when you
hear that salvation is accomplished, salvation is finished. It's a
joyful sound. But look what he said here in
Isaiah 51, 11. Therefore, the redeemed of the
Lord shall return, and come with singing and desiring, and everlasting
joy upon their head. They shall obtain gladness and
joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away." Oh, my. Oh, joy and... We're going to...
What is this? Joy? You know, joy is something
that You can't fake it. I mean, either you got it or
you don't. Now, you don't have it all the time, but when you
do have it, it's active. It's an active thing. You know,
I laugh all the time. Albert Blalock used to say, Brother
Donnie, why do you laugh all the time? I said, you know, I
don't understand that. Because when I get full of joy
when I'm preaching, I laugh. I laugh when I get full of joy.
That's what happens to me. And oh my, then you know, Look
over here in Romans, back over in our text. Look at Romans 14
and verse 17. For the kingdom of God is not
in meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. Joy is active, it's expressive,
expressive. And the more you know about salvation,
Christ, salvation that Christ accomplished, the more you know
about this salvation by Christ, the freeness of it, the fullness
of it, the sureness of it, the more joy you'll experience. The
more joy you'll experience. And then look at the passive
side of it. Joy, joy, joy. Oh, joy is a wonderful thing,
a blessed thing. It's an active thing. And then
look what else it says here. And peace. Peace. That's passive. You know what
peace means? It means to be restful. It means
to be restful. That's what it means. Peace means
to be restful. Restful. And you know, we're
restful because we've been reconciled to God. There was a time we were
God's enemies. God didn't need to be reconciled
to us, we had to be reconciled to Him. He never wronged us,
we wronged Him. We were His enemies. We were
at enmity with Him. Well, how did God reconcile us
to Himself? How did He bring this reconciliation? How did He do that? Well, he
done it by the blood of his blessed son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He
shed blood and he provided a way to reconcile us to himself. And
when he reconciled us to himself, that brought peace. That brought
peace, that brought rest to our hearts. And now there's peace. That's why Paul said, you know,
Peter said he went preaching peace. How? By Jesus Christ. Christ accomplished
peace on our behalf. In fact, Christ himself is our
peace. You know, we've been reconciled
to God. Our warfare is accomplished. And we never had a weapon. We never had anything to do with
our warfare being accomplished. The captain of our salvation
defeated every enemy and reconciled us to God. And, oh, what a blessing
it is. And I know everybody here believes
this and knows this to be true because you experience this.
Peace of mind. There's nothing like having peace
of mind. Oh, my. Peace of mind. Oh, boy, people, when they get
down ready to leave this world, can have peace of mind, peace
of heart. Oh, for your heart to be restful.
Your heart to be restful, not in a turmoil, not upset, not
angry, not revengeful, not hateful, but your heart to be restful,
to be restful in Christ. And oh my goodness, oh, the most
wonderful thing of all about it all is our conscience. Our
conscience is resting. Our conscience is restful. Restful,
our conscience has been purged. Our conscience has been washed
in the blood of Christ. And what a blessed thing for
the conscience. Conscience don't accuse us anymore.
Conscience can't find anything wrong with it. Conscience can't
even find sin where Christ has put it away. Oh, my. For the conscience to rest in
Christ, to rest in his substitutionary death, Our Lord Jesus Christ,
He died, but not for Himself. He died with our sins upon Him. He died in our room instead. And then the satisfaction of
Christ. You know, justice demanded that
a man pay for his sin. Truth upheld that. God's righteousness
said a man must be punished. SATISFIED THE WRATH OF GOD, HE
HAS NO MORE WRATH FOR US, SATISFIED THE JUSTICE OF GOD, HE CANNOT
COME AND ACCUSE US ANYMORE. AND GOD IS A JUST GOD, AND IF
HE CANNOT RECEIVE PAYMENT FOR SIN TWICE, AND HE SATISFIED THE
LAW OF GOD AND UPHELD IT, EVERYTHING GOD REQUIRED OF A HUMAN BEING
ON THIS EARTH, CHRIST SATISFIED IT. Now, you can't rest in your
conscience. You can't rest in your heart.
You can't have peace of mind if you're working for salvation.
If you believe that you can be saved by anything that you do,
anything that you feel, anything that you can accomplish, there
can never be a peace of mind, never be a peace of heart, never
be a peace of God. You can never rest. But, oh,
to rest in Christ, to rest in His righteousness, oh, my. know, Paul said it like this,
That remaineth the rest of the people of God, for they cease
from their works, as God did from his. Just stop! Cease! Oh, to rest in His righteousness,
to trust in His merit, His merit. Most people think they actually
have merit, that God will have to look on them with favor because
there's something about them that makes them different, stand
out. But the only person that stands
out before God and stands righteous before God, that has any merit
before God, is his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Nobody else has
any merit. And if we have a righteousness,
He has to make us that way. And if we have anything at all,
we stand on His merits and His merits alone. And you're talking
about rest. Ooh, it's rest. Oh, in fact,
look what it says over here in 15, chapter 15, verse 33, talking
about the God of, God's peace. Now the God of peace be with
y'all. God of peace who raised again
our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead again through the
blood of the everlasting covenant. Peace, peace, wonderful peace
coming down from the Father above. Sweep over my spirit forever,
I pray, in fathomless billows of blood. Oh, my And let me tell
you, and everybody knows this, if you know what I'm talking
about, when this peace is disturbed, when this peace is disturbed,
the whole world is disturbed within you. Everything's out
of pocket. Everything's out of whack. When
this peace of heart, mind, and conscience is disturbed, whole
world disturbed with you. You know, and I'll tell you what,
you won't get no rest until you get back and you get, you say,
Lord, give me that peace. Christ is our prince of peace. We preach peace by Jesus Christ. Oh, bless his holy name. We come
with the gospel of peace, gospel of peace. And then look at the
measure of this blessing. Joy and peace, filled with joy
and peace. Look what he said there in verse
13. Now, the God of hope feel you,
feel you. Oh, God, God feel you. God of
hope feel you. He told them they were full of
goodness. When we talk about fullness, feel you. Fill you
with joy. Fill you with peace. Not a poor,
narrow, strained life. Oh, not a poor life, not a narrow
life, not a strained life, but a full life. May God fill you
with all joy and peace in believing. Our Lord Jesus said in John 10,
10, I am come. I'm come that means that he left
the father and glory and I said I come To give you life and not just
life but abundance abundance What in the world is abundance
made well? He has abundance of grace. He
has abundance of mercy and I'll tell you, you know, I Who has
a more abundant life than us? Who has more an abundance of
life than we do? Our life that He gives us in
Christ, it's the eternal life. It's a blessed life. It's a life
that Christ gives to us. And this abundance of life, you
look at how full we are in this world. Does anybody need anything
in this world right now? Huh? Oh, listen, look at the abundance
of your life. Look at the abundance of the
life that God has given us. Oh, Joe McSherry, I remember
him used to say, boy, I said, I get up every morning and I
thank God that I had a good bed to sleep in, a comfortable bed
to sleep in. Be able to stretch out in and
rest and sleep. Oh, my. Oh, what an abundant
life God's given us. And if he's given anybody a more
abundant life than he's given me, I've yet to meet him. I've
yet to meet him. I've yet to meet him. And I tell
you what, he's wealthy enough. He's powerful enough. He's willing
enough. I feel you. He's the God of all grace. Keep
Romans 15. I want you to go over here and
look with me in Ephesians 3. Look in Ephesians chapter 3.
Oh, my. You know, He's wealthy enough,
powerful enough, willing Oh my, look what he said here.
He said, Paul said in verse 19 here from Ephesians 3, 19. He
said, I want you to know the love of Christ. I want you to
know it. I want you to really know what
the love of Christ is. And yet he said, it passes knowledge.
By the time you think you understand it, it just fills you up. That you might be filled with
this knowledge of the love of Christ, with all the fullness
of God, now, now, unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly,
oh my, above all we can ask, Oh, I can ask some awful big
things. I've asked some awful big things. You talk about asking
for forgiveness and Him filling you with forgiveness? You asking
for grace and He fill you with grace? You ask for a blessing
and God gives you three or four times what you want? Oh, my. Oh, we can ask and we can all
think big. Oh, my goodness, we can think
big. Oh, and listen, above all, we
ask a thing, and listen to this, according to the power, listen
to this, that works in us. This power works in us. I'll tell you what, hold out
your empty cup, see if you'll fill it up. I was talking to
somebody the other day, I forget who it was, but they told me,
said, I was in a service and said, my cup runneth over. My
cup just run over. Oh, I tell you what, there's
been in Mexico where people sit right outside them big old cathedrals,
you know, with a, with a cup or a bowl or a can or something
for people to drop money in it, drop money in it. But I'll tell
you something, God won't put money in your bowl, but I'll
tell you what, He'll fill it full of grace, He'll fill it
full of mercy, He'll fill it full of everything. Oh, everything
you need, He'll fill it up. He got to, oh my, cup runneth
over. And then look at the purpose,
the purpose of the blessing of joy and peace. The purpose of
the blessing, look what he says in the last part of verse 13,
back over in Romans 15, that you may abound in hope, that
you may abound in hope. And that word abound means to
have abundance, to be abundantly furnished. And when he talks
about hope HOPE, WHEN IT TALKS ABOUT HOPE, IT'S ALWAYS TALKING
ABOUT THE FUTURE, ABOUT THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, ALWAYS
TALKING ABOUT THAT. WHEN YOU LOOK AT IT, PAUL ALWAYS
IS TALKING ABOUT THE RESURRECTION, OUR FUTURE, OUR FUTURE. AND OUR
HOPE IS CONNECTED WITH THE COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. OUR
HOPE IS CONNECTED WITH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, EITHER COMING TO
GET or we get to go to him. Get to go to him. You know, when
we face the future, and I'll tell you, we face the future.
Tomorrow is the future. Tomorrow's future. Day after
tomorrow's future. Next week's future. Next year's
our future. But when we talk about our future,
Our future has to do. Trouble's going to come. Yes,
absolutely. We're going to have trouble.
You're not going to live in this world very long without finding
out you've got trouble. You're going to have trouble. People have trouble. We got some
folks in our congregation now having trouble, health trouble,
mental trouble, marriage trouble, all kinds of troubles. Troubles
will come. But I tell you, not only will
troubles come, but blessings will come, too. Oh, ain't you glad that blessings
will come? And I've said this before, like
that old black lady one time, you said, and then she is the
preacher was preaching, said, and it came to pass. When the
preacher got due, she said, preacher, said, I sure thank you that it
said it came to pass, because I sure hate for it to come and
stay. That's when it came to pass and
that's what's going to happen our future You know that thief
what our Lord Jesus Christ was on the cross That thief that
was hanging beside him They said we're here indeed justly this
man has done nothing amiss and We're here because of what
we done this man here's he's not done nothing And our Lord,
he said, Lord, the first thing he said to him, Lord, you're
the Lord. There's no doubt about it, you're
the Lord. And he said, remember me. You know the first time God,
the word remember is in the scriptures? God remembered Noah. But the future, remember, future,
trouble will come, blessings will come. But oh my, but he
told that thief today, today, do you think he had any idea
what his future held when he was hanging there on that cross
dying? Today, not tomorrow. Not next year, today. You're
gonna be with me. And that's the thing right there,
be with me. That where I am, you're gonna
be with me in paradise today. Do you think he had any idea
what his future was? I don't know what the future,
I don't know exactly what the future holds for me. there's
going to be a lot of people that their future don't hold 24 more
hours to them. There's a lot of people in this
world that their future is in the next month, they're going
to be called out of this world, and they're going to go into
their eternal future, either to condemnation or eternal life,
one or the other. But our future, our future, we
face it with hope. Oh, we have a good hope through
grace. Oh my. And I'll tell you, I don't
know. We were bound. That's what he
said. Abound in hope. Not only just have just a little
bit, abound in it. Be full of it. Be furnished with
it. Have an abundance. Oh. said, We're not glorious. What
a blessed hope we have. We're not glorious. God and Savior
Jesus Christ shall appear. He said, When Christ appears,
we're going to appear with Him. Oh, my. Then what do you know? It's called our blessed hope.
Blessed hope. Why is it called blessed? Because
it comes from God. It comes from God. This hope comes from God. I remember
being without it. I remember being without it.
But now, oh, what makes it a blessing? It comes from God. What makes
it a blessing? It comes from Christ. When the
blessing appearing of our great God and Savior, and oh, we're
blessed to have a future. And it's a good hope. Oh, what
a good hope. And it's a sure hope, the apostle
said. And oh, the Lord Jesus Christ,
1 Timothy 1, 1 said, we're not, the Lord Jesus Christ himself
is our hope, our hope. And we can abound in hope because
our future is certain. God said, you know, for whom
he did foreknow, them he also called, and whom he called, he
also justified, and whom he justified, he also glorified." Now, that's
in the past tense. I ain't glorified yet, but God
said, I'm glorified. So, I'll tell you what, our future
is certain. I have an absolute certain future. It's guaranteed. It's guaranteed. Who guarantees it? God does.
The Word of God guarantees it. The blood of Christ guarantees
it. Grace guarantees it. The resurrection
of Christ guarantees it. Christ standing at God's right
hand guarantees it. Oh, what a future. What a future. What a future. It's awful if
folks don't have a good future. Oh, but I've got a future. If
you ever hear one of these days that Donnie Bell's on his deathbed,
I'm just fixing to enter into my eternal future. Most of y'all be gone by the
time that happens. Some of you will be anyway. But
look at the spirit of this blessing, how God blesses us. And then
verse 13 again over in Romans 15. that God of hope fill you with
all joy and peace, that you may abound in hope, and this is how
we do it, in the power of the Holy Ghost. In the power of the
Holy Ghost. This is where we live the life
of joy and peace, in the power of the Holy Ghost. We abound
in hope, being filled with joy and peace by the power of the
Holy Ghost. Not flesh didn't have a thing
to do with it. Self didn't have anything to
do. Fellow believers have nothing to do with this. God said, not
by power, not by might, but by my spirit, saith the Lord. He
is called a comforter. He's called the one that come
and teaches us about Christ. He's the one that guide us through
this world. Paul asked the Galatians, he
said, have you begun in the spirit? Begun by the Holy Ghost, and
now you're going to be made perfect by the flesh? No. No. And I tell you, the love
of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. He's the Spirit of life. He's
the Spirit of liberty. And the Holy Ghost, the Holy
Spirit works in us what Christ worked out for us. And God's
will for us, he works that in us. And listen to this one now. This is how the channel of blessing,
look what it says. Now the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace, believing, believing. Oh, in believing, this is it.
A life of faith. We live by faith, not by sight. Oh, my. And let me turn to Romans
16, one, chapter one, and I'll wind this thing up here. Romans
chapter one. You know, talking about faith,
you know, joy and peace in believing, in believing. We walk by faith. Faith is the substance. This
has got substance to it. Water's got substance to it.
And faith gives substance, gives something that's real to us. And it also gives us evidence,
evidence of things we've never seen. But you know what? Faith gives
evidence to things we haven't seen. Gives substance to it. Just like what you've heard today.
Faith gives substance. You never saw Christ raised from
the dead, but you believe he did. Faith gives evidence, substance
to that, substance to that, evidence of that. Faith gives evidence
of a righteousness that you didn't know anything about. But you
got it. Faith gives evidence to it, gives
substance to it. All right, now look over here
in Romans chapter 1, verse 16. It's all about faith. For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ. Why would we be? For the gospel
is the power of God. And it brings salvation. It has
such power, it gives you salvation. And here's how he does it. To
everyone that believes. It was given to the Jew first
and then also to the Greek. Now watch this, for in that gospel,
this is why it brings salvation. This is why faith brings it. For therein is the righteousness
in the gospel, God's righteousness revealed. Now watch this, from
faith to faith. The just, as it is written, shall
live well by faith. Now what does it mean from faith
to faith? Well, the Gospel's received by
faith. It produces faith. It depends
on faith. And it'll end in faith. These
all died in faith. Receiving the end of your faith. Our faith has an end to it. Where
does our faith have an end to it? When we enter into glory. We won't need it. receiving the
end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls. Huh? Oh, the gospel produces faith.
Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. And from
faith comes joy. From faith comes peace. From
faith comes hope. And let me two sides to this.
From God's side, It is the Holy Ghost who works in us both to
will and to do of His good pleasure. From us, simply trusting, believing. And this is what unites us to
Christ, faith. And for my union with Him comes
all we need, now, tomorrow, even in eternity. Jesus Christ the
same today, yesterday, and forever. Joy and peace. Joy and peace. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, you've been so gracious to us again, so kind
to us again, so long-suffering with us again. And Lord, you
fill us with abundance. You thoroughly furnish us. You
fill us with abundance. Oh, what an abundance we have
of life, of grace, of peace, of rest, of a gospel, abundance
of forgiveness, abundance of righteousness, the very righteousness
of God himself. Oh, what an abundance. And Lord,
we thank you for it. And Lord, bless the gospel today.
Bless it to the hearts, the minds, the understanding. And save your
people in this place. Save sinners. Bring sinners to
yourself for Christ's sake. In his name we pray. Amen. Let's turn to 228. Let's say
that in closing. You'll be at liberty to go. 228.
228. I think that's what it is. My faith has found a resting
place. Yeah. Let's stand together. We'll sing
this and you'll be at liberty to go. My faith has found a resting
place, not in device nor greed. I trust the Ever-Living One. His woes for me shall flee. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. Enough for me that Jesus saves. This is my fear and doubt. A sinful soul, I come to Him. He'll never cast me out. I need no other argument. It is enough that Jesus died
and that He died for me. My heart is leaning on the Word,
the written Word of God. Salvation by my Savior's blood,
salvation through His blood. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. My great physician heals the
sick, the lost he came to save. For me his precious blood he
shed, for me his life he gave. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. See you tonight, 6 o'clock, God
willing.