Romans, chapter 15. Romans, chapter 15. Romans 15, started verse 13.
I'm excused, verse 5. And read down through verse 14. Now the God of patience and consolation
grant you to 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. that
Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth
of God to confirm the promises made 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
sing 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 that shall rise
to reign over the Gentiles, in 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 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, in the blessed name
of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and our Lord Jesus, our
great God and Savior, that blessed one we look to appear, that one
that we look to for all that we have and all that we need
and all that we desire. Lord, it's to you we look. You
told, Davis said, I lift up mine eyes to the hills from which
cometh my help. Lord, our help comes from heaven
itself, comes from heaven where thou art, where you sit at the
right hand of God with all power, all authority, with all glory
and all majesty. And oh Lord, I pray that you'd
give us an abundance of grace, that you'd be pleased to tender
our minds, tender our hearts, tender our wills to the word
of God. Bless it to our understanding. And Lord, we pray for those among
us who are tried, who are sick, who are burdened, who are heavy
laden. God, strengthen them, encourage them. Bring glory to
yourself in what you do in every home and every family. Lord,
we have no one else to go to but you. There's no other living
God but you. There's no one else can hear
us call upon you but you. No one else can save us but you.
No one else can give us understanding but you. No one can give us wisdom
but you. And so, Lord, we cast ourselves
on you again. In the Lord Jesus Christ's name,
amen. 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 also am persuaded
of you, my brethren, that you are also full of goodness, filled
with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. Paul was a man who would often
break out in prayer, even when he was writing his letters, like
that verse five. That's what he does. He breaks
out in a prayer, he's writing to them. Now the God of patience
and consolation grants you. That's a prayer. He's asking
God to do something for 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 by the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he'd done that often in his epistles. He'd just be writing along and
then he'd make us few words and throw out a few words and call
on God and ask God to do something for the people he's writing to.
He was a man who did that. He was a man who practiced what
he preached. He says, you know, in everything
always give thanks and in prayer and supplication make your needs
known unto God. And I tell you what, in these
people to whom he wrote here in the Romans, he had never been
to Rome yet. He had never met any of these
people. He'd never been to Rome. When he did go to Rome, you remember
they took him as a prisoner. He went up there as a prisoner
to stand before Caesar. And that's the way, you know,
some of them came from Rome to meet him at Thapia Way and he
saw the brethren and he took courage. He hadn't even been
to Rome yet, but yet he loved these people and he prayed for
these people. Now it says, and I believe this is a special prayer,
as any prayer really is, and I say he prayed for a special
people. And here's a special prayer because look when the
people he prayed for is a special people. And he said in verse
14, and I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren. My brethren. We're brethren, never met. Never
met you, never laid eyes on you, you never laid eyes on me. I've
never been to Rome yet. He started out telling his Roman
letter, I've never been there. Maybe God will open the door
and I'll get to come there. I long to see you face to face
that I may impart some spiritual gift to you and you some gift
to me. But I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that you
also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able to admonish
one another. So it's a special prayer for
a special people. And all of God's people are special.
In fact, our Lord Jesus says they're special. He called them
the salt of the earth. Ain't that what he called them?
He said they're the salt of the earth, salt that he left on this
earth to keep the world from rottening, to keep it from entering
into absolute putrefaction, putrefying. to keep it from being just so
corrupt that it ain't worth anything. And that's why His people's here,
they're the salt of the earth. They're the only thing left here
that keeps the world from just absolutely going into utter and
absolute. He keeps this world because of His people here is
the reason the world ain't no worse than it is. And not only
did He say they're all salt of the earth, but He said they're
the light of the world. Anything, they're the light of
this world. When we get an opportunity to
say something, we're the one that's got the light, everybody
else in darkness. And we've got the light, we've
got the gospel, we've got the truth, we know the grace of God. And, oh, listen, these special
people, they're beloved of God, redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ,
called by the Holy Spirit. And these people, they love one
another. They love the Lord Jesus Christ. They love the gospel.
And they're not playing religious games. We're not playing religious
games. We're here because we want to
hear the gospel. We need to hear the gospel. We
want the word of God. We want the word of truth. We
don't want to be playing games, and we don't want to play games
with ourselves, with God, or nobody else. We're not playing
church. We're not playing games. And
there's several things in this one prayer. And this prayer has
27 words in it. That's all it has in it, 27 words.
And it's special. And it's a prayer for blessings
upon God's people. Now look what he does here. Look
what the apostle says here. I think, I hope this will be
a blessing to you. It was to me. He says that the
source of the blessing that he asked for these people here,
now the God of hope, the God of hope. That term of God's,
the only place it's ever used is right here, the God of hope.
God has three different titles in Romans 15 alone. He's called the God of patience
in verse 5, the God of hope in verse 13, and the God of peace
in verse 33. Three. Now He is the God of patience. Is He not patient with us? Is
He not the God of hope for us? Is He not the God of peace who
established peace for us? But He says this God of hope,
This was Abraham's God. This was the God of hope. This
is the one in whom Abraham hoped. This is the one in Abraham looked
to. Look over here in Romans 4.18. Look in Romans 4.18. This was Abraham's God. You know, the proverb says hope
deferred makes the heart sick. Oh, you have this great hope,
this blessed hope, and all of a sudden it gets deferred. It
don't happen. It don't come to pass, and it'll just make your
heart sick. And look what he said here in verse 18, talking
about Abraham. Who against hope, all hope seemed
like there was no hope at all that he could ever have a child.
Year after year after year after year went by after God had made
the promise that you're going to have a son. He's going to
come from your loins and he's going to come from your wife.
And he waited until they got so old that they couldn't. Who
against hope believed in hope. Everybody in the world says there
ain't no hope. He says, but he believed in hope. Hope has to
do with the future that he might become the father of many nations
according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. So the
God of hope, the only one in Jesus, this is where we get our
blessings. And what is this hope? What is this hope? Well, Paul
said in Acts 24, he said something about the hope that he has. In
Acts 24, 14, you know this hope, hope has to do with the future.
Hope has to do with what's going on in the future here. What is this hope? Now the God
of hope, the God who brings hope, the God who gives hope, the God
who gives you a hope, the God who has caused you to have a
hope. Paul said here in Acts 24, 14. But this I confess unto you,
that after the way which they called heresy, so worship I the
God of my fathers, believing all things which are written
in the law and in the prophets. Now listen to this, and have
hope toward God. which they themselves also allow. Say they have the same hope that
there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just
and the unjust. So the hope that he has has to
do with the future. And oh, what is this hope? Paul
told the Colossians, it's a hope that's laid up for you in heaven.
That's where it's at, a hope laid up for us in heaven. And
the hope is Christ in you, that's the hope of glory. Paul told
Timothy in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, gave
us in Jesus Christ. He said, Christ, who is our hope. And it's the anchor of the soul.
He says, the anchor is when it's been for us behind the veil,
which anchor we have of the soul. And our soul has a anchor, and
that anchor is the Lord Jesus Christ himself. In Romans 5,
look at this just a minute. Romans 5 about this hope. The
God of hope. Oh, the God of hope. And it makes not ashamed. Look
what he said here in Romans 5, 5. And hope maketh not ashamed. This hope that we have, it don't
make us ashamed. Have troubles, heartaches, sorrows.
Things happen to us just like it happens to people in the world.
We get sick. We have bad news. We have troubles. We have heartaches. We have sickness.
We have all the things happening to people out in the world. And
yet we have a hope that they don't know nothing else. That's
why Paul said, brethren, I would not have you be ignorant concerning
them who are without hope, concerning them which are asleep. We have
hope. And that's what he says here,
beloved. And he says, for hope maketh not ashamed. What do we
got to be ashamed of? Oh, listen, whatever happens
in this world, we have nothing to be ashamed of. Because our
hope is beyond this world. Our hope's outside of this world.
Our hope's outside of our flesh. This hope's outside of ourselves.
And look what he says. And oh listen, hope maketh not
ashamed, and this is why, because the love of God shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. This
hope is shed abroad in our hearts. And oh listen, I tell you it
won't make us ashamed because God gives this hope. God sustains
this hope. And one of these blessed days
he'll crown this hope with glory. Abraham's hope's already been
crowned. Simeon, who waited to see the
salvation of the Lord, he saw it in that infant. He says, now,
Lord, let me depart in peace. His hope's been crowned already
in glory. Oh, what a hope we have. What
a hope we have. And listen, it's the God of hope
that gives us this hope. The God of hope. And now look
what he prays for for him. He says, the God of hope, the
God who gives hope, the God who sustains hope, the God who brought
hope to your heart, the God who put it in your heart through
the Holy Ghost. He says, this is what I would like you to have,
all joy and peace. That's what I want you to have,
joy and peace, all joy and peace. These are the believer's experience,
two sides of a believer's experience. There's an active side here and
a restful side here, a passive side here. When it talks about
joy, joy is an active thing. Joy is something that's manifest.
Joy is something you can see. Joy is something that people
act on. Joy is something that cause people
to laugh and to rejoice and be happy. And so joy is an active
thing and it's an expressive I think it's in Psalm 89, it
says, blessed are they that know what? The joyful sound, that
know that sound of the gospel, that brings joy to the heart,
that brings joy to the soul, that brings joy to their experience. And joy is something that, and
when I get joyful, I laugh. Sometimes I bless the Lord. When
I get, you express joy. Nehemiah says this, the joy of
God is our strength. The joy of God is our strength,
joy is active. David said, restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation. Can you lose it? Yes. Have you lost it? Yes. But it's not fun to lose it.
You don't enjoy not being joyful. And I tell you what, joy, we
rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. We ain't even
seen Christ, but we rejoice in Christ. We joy in God, we joy
in Christ. And look in Isaiah 51. Oh, joy
is an expressive thing. Look in Isaiah 51 11, joy is
an expressive thing. This is something that when you
have it, This is more than just being happy. This is something
that's deep-seated, something that comes out. You know, that's
what he says, you know, God's anger endureth but for a moment,
and weeping may endure for a night, but joy, joy comes in the morning. Joy, joy, just hold on, here
you may weep for a night, But when the daylight comes, the
sun comes back out, what will you do? Joy comes in the morning. And look what he said here in
Isaiah 51, 11. Therefore, the redeemed of the
Lord shall return and come with singing under Zion. And listen
to this, everlasting joy shall be upon their head. They shall
obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. And I tell you what, that's what
I want. I want that. I want to experience
that very thing right there. And that's what he says in Romans
14. Look what it says here in Romans 14, 17 while we're back
in Romans 15. Look what it says in verse 17
of Romans chapter four. For the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink, but righteousness, listen to this, peace and joy
in the Holy Ghost. That's what the kingdom of God
is. It's not in what we eat, it's not in what we drink, it's
not in anything that we do with this flesh. It's in righteousness,
and wherever you find peace and joy, that's the same thing he's
saying here. We know the kingdom of God's peace and joy. And it's
in righteousness. And over here he says, I want
you to have all joy and peace. Oh, the more you know about salvation
in Christ and the sureness of the salvation we have in Christ,
the more joy I believe we have. The more we understand what we
really, really have in Christ. And then he says, all joy and
peace. Peace is passive. It is. That's something you can't muster
up. You can't muster up joy. Peace is passive. Peace is restful. When you say, boy, I'm at peace.
I'm at peace about this. I'm passive about this. I'm restful
about this. I'm not worried about this. I've
got peace about this. And that's the way we have. We've
been reconciled to God. The enmity's been slain. And
now there's peace between man and God. And there's peace between
my soul and God. I don't have no anger at God.
God has no anger at me. God has a love towards me and
he put in my heart a love towards him. And so because of that,
because I know that we've been reconciled to God, now I've got
peace of mind. My mind's not in a turmoil about
my relationship with God. My heart and my conscience not
in a turmoil about my relationship with God. I've got peace with
God. And when you have peace with
God, it brings peace of mind. Do you remember when you used
to labor to try to get God to do something for you? You could
never have any peace. You couldn't have no rest. But
when you come to Christ and understand what you have in Him, then you
have a restful spirit, have a restful attitude. Because that's because
you have peace. And oh, how my conscience and
how I hope your conscience does rest in the righteousness of
our Lord Jesus Christ, on Christ the solid rock. I stand, everything
else is just sinking sand. And oh, listen to rest in the
righteousness of Christ, to rest in the substitutionary death
of our Lord Jesus Christ. to rest in the satisfaction that
he rendered to God. He satisfied God. He brought
honor to God. He glorified God. He magnified
the law. He made it honorable. He's the
one that brought satisfaction to the holiness of God, and the
justice of God, and the righteousness of God, and honored God like
no one in all the beings in the universe could not never satisfy
God. But our Lord Jesus Christ did.
And oh, when we find peace and rest in His blessed merit, how
much merit does Christ have? What's He worth? And oh, and then this peace of
heart. And that's what I mean. You know,
when Paul says we have a peace that passes understanding. And
I know this from experience. I know this from experience.
I know what I'm talking about here. That I don't care what
situation God puts you in. I do not care what situation
he puts you in. That I don't care how dark it
gets. I don't care how rough it gets.
I don't care how stormy it gets. I don't care how long it lasts.
That whatever happens in this world, to you, and this has been
my experience, in the last few years, that God gives me a peace,
no matter what goes on, that this thing is going to be for
my good and His glory, no matter which whatever way it goes. No
matter what anybody says, thinks, or does. No matter living or
dying. No matter coming or going. Getting
up or getting down, going in or going out. I have a peace
that never ever goes away that God is going to take care of
this situation to His good, to our good and His glory. And I
have that peace in my heart that that's going to happen. I don't
care what the situation is. It does not bother me one way
or another. I know that God's going to do what's right in that
situation. And I certainly wouldn't find
fault with Him at anything that ever happened in my life, would
you? If anything's done wrong, I was
the one that done it. God didn't. I'll just give you an illustration
to talk about peace here. This peace, and you know why
this peace passes understanding? You can't understand why you
keep in peace whatever's going on. I don't understand that.
And as old Barnard used to say, all hell's a-poppin', but listen,
I'm telling you, it happens. And the reason being because
Christ, Romans, I mean, Ephesians 2.14 says, Christ, He is our
peace. He says, peace I give unto you,
not as the world gives, as the world ain't never give me no
peace. Phil asked me the other day over to a restaurant, he
said, how's the world treating you? And I said, God's treating
me wonderful, wonderful, gracious and kind. God treats me and blesses
me and meets all my needs. I ain't got nothing to say good
about the world because the world ain't never done, it never gave
me an ounce of peace, never gave me a bit of rest, but God has. Huh? Christ, He is our peace. And He's the God of peace. What
did I show you there in verse 33 of Romans 15? Now, the God
of peace. Peace, peace, wonderful peace
coming down from the Father above. Sweep over my spirit in fathomless
pillars of love. Huh? Wonderful peace. And oh,
when this peace is disturbed, the whole world's disturbed within
you if you lose this peace. I tell you what, when this peace
gets disturbed, I mean, it just, nobody's safe to be around you,
you're not safe to be around anybody. You all have experienced
that. You know when that peace gets
destroyed, gets hurt, gets disturbed, huh? And ah, listen. Christ, he's called the Prince
of Peace, ain't he? In an opening in his letters,
the apostles always say, grace and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, in the world, you're
gonna have tribulation, but I give you my peace, give you my peace. And oh, and I tell you what else
we do, we preach peace. You want peace with God? If anybody
wants peace with God, There's a preacher used to be
down at the old building, he's dead and gone now, but he always
get up and preach about, you know, make you peace with God.
Listen, Christ made peace through the blood of his cross, and we
preach peace by Jesus Christ. If anybody ever gonna have peace
between him and God, the only way to do it is through his blessed
son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to establish peace through the blood
of his cross. And it's called the gospel of
peace. It publishes peace, brings glad tidings of good things.
And then look back over here in Romans 5, 13, 15, and verse
13. Now, oh, the God of hope, that's
where you're going to get your blessing. That's where you're
going to get this from. Oh, give you all joy and peace. And listen,
the measure of this blessing, look how he says, fill you, fill
you. Now, the God of hope, fill you
with all joy and peace. Fill you up with it. Don't just
give it to you in just little bits and pieces, you know. Fill
you up. Just fill you up. Oh, my. Ain't that what he says? That
God will fill you. And look, watch what he said
about these brethren in verse 14. He said, I myself also am
persuaded of you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness. You're full of goodness, full
of good thoughts, full of good acts, full of good deeds, full
of good prayers. You're just full of goodness
towards your brethren, full of goodness towards those that are
around you, and filled with knowledge. And that's what he says. He said,
I want you to be, feel you, and oh, not just giving you bits
and pieces, not a poor, narrow, strained life, but full. May
God fill you with all joy and peace That's what our Lord meant
said and he says, you know, I'm come that you might have life
and that you might have it more abundantly More than you ever
could imagine it should have And I'll tell you something beloved.
He's wealthy enough To feel you ain't he? Well keep Romans 15
and look in Ephesians Ephesians 3 19 He's wealthy enough to fill
you. He's got the power to fill you.
He's willing enough. He's wealthy enough. He's powerful
enough. He's the God of all grace. And I tell you, hold out your
empty cup and see if He won't cause it to run over with goodness
and joy and peace. And look what He said here in
Ephesians 3 in verse 16, that he would grant you according
to the riches of his glory to be, and here's another prayer
of Paul, strengthened with glory by his might, by his spirit in
the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith,
that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend
with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height
and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge Now listen
to this, that you might be filled with the fullness of God. I want
you to be full. God fill you with His fullness.
Now listen to this now. Now unto Him that is able to
do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according
to the power of Him that worketh in us. He said He's able to fill
you. Bring your little, break both
hands and say, fill them up! Fill them up with joy, fill them
up with peace. Hey, what's what he wants you
to be? Filled up. Be like David says, my cup runneth over. My
cup runneth over. He wants you to be, he wants
you filled with it. That's what Paul's praying here.
God, fill them. Fill them with joy. Fill them
with peace. All joy and all peace. And then
what else does he mean? down the middle part of the verse,
not only that you'll fill you with all joy and peace, but that
you may abound in hope, that you may abound in hope, to have
an abundance of hope, to be abundantly furnished with hope. Now, I'll
tell you, I've told you this, this has to do with the future.
Every place you find hope in the scriptures has to do with
out there. Don't have to do with here. Faith
has to do with here. Faith has to do with right now.
Hope has to do with out yonder. Hope has to do with what's coming.
Hope has to do with the future. Hope is connected with the coming
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And when it comes to facing the
future, all the troubles that will come,
there'll be lots of blessings coming. And we face the future,
whatever it may be, we face it with hope. Is that not right? What a blessed hope we have.
What a glorious hope we have. And he said, I want you to abound
in hope. And, oh, Titus says, you know,
that according to the blessed hope and glorious appearing of
our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. What makes it a blessed
hope? Well, because it comes from God. That's why it makes
it a blessed hope. It's the God of hope that gives
it. And it comes from Christ, our Lord, and it has to do with
our Lord Jesus Christ coming again. And this hope that God
gives us and this hope that apostles praying for us to have and praying
for them to have, it's a sure hope. There's no doubt about
it that the hope that we have is not sure. It's built upon
the promises of God. God made promise in Abraham to
Abraham, and Abraham says, after 25 years, he says, we're without
hope here, so he went in unto Hagar and had a son. He said,
listen, this ain't gonna happen. So he had a son after the flesh.
God said, that's not your heir. He waited till Sarah got so old
she couldn't have so everything, God would get all the glory. with the future. And oh, beloved, it's a living
hope and it's our Lord Jesus Himself in His glorious appearing.
And all of us will one of these days be taken up together to
see the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And I tell you what, we can abound
in hope because our future is certain. I read the back of the
book. I read the end of the story. I read a lot of books. I read
a lot of books. I don't ever start at the back.
I always start at the front. But with this one, God told us what the end was
going to be in Genesis 3.15. He said, I'll put him between
thy seed and the seed of the woman. And he's gonna crush your
head, you're gonna bruise his heel. But that's right there
is when our blessed hope was made sure and steadfast when
God made that promise. Right there that the seed of
the woman would come and bruise the head of the serpent. And
we have hope because our future's certain. It's guaranteed by the
word of God. God promised. He cannot lie. He promised us, beloved, that
this world is not our home, that this world is a place we're passing
through. And the blood of Christ and the
very character of God causes us. That's why Paul said that
you may abound in hope. Not just hope, but abound in
it. And sometimes we get to preaching and we get to thinking about
going to glory. I did Sunday morning talking about going to
the marriage supper of the Lamb. Oh my goodness, you say, let's
just be like old Thomas when they come said, they told, they sent word to the Lord Jesus,
said, he whom thou lovest is sick. And our Lord stayed there
and said, oh, said, you know, what's the matter with Lazarus?
He said, he's sleeping. He said, well, why do you want
to go over there? We don't want to wake him up. He said, our Lord said,
well, he's dead. You know what Thomas said? He
said, well, let's just all go down with him. That's the way
we are. Let's just all go down. There's
going to be something when the Lord comes and all of us go together. And whether we go one by one
by one by one, We're still, I tell you what, that's why going to
a believer's funeral, that's one of the most blessed things
you'll ever do, is because people have a hope. They don't leave
this world without a hope. Paul Mahas told me about a filly
buried the other day. A guy that came here from Connecticut,
moved down to Virginia from Connecticut. His daughter and son-in-law went
down there and he moved down there and started going and God
saved him, taught him the gospel and he rejoiced in the gospel. And he died just last week and
they didn't embalm him. They built him a pine box and
put him in a pine box and took him out by the house and buried
him. Paul said, the wind was blowing
so hard I couldn't use my notes. He said, that's the best thing
that ever happened to me. He said, that's one of the most
wonderful things that I ever experienced in my life, talking
about what this hope this man had and what we all have in Christ.
Oh my, that's what he's talking about, the hope that we have.
What about all this going on before us? I was going over in
my mind today, how many people from this congregation is going
on to be with the Lord? And everyone up and left here,
as far as I know, they had a good hope. And that's why he said, I want
you to abound in hope. Not just have this old hope,
well, I hope I'll be all right. I hope I make it. I hope it gets
better. No, no, abound in hope. Rejoice
in it. Oh, let me hurry on, I've got
to hurry on here. Look at the spirit of this blessing
here back over in verse 13. Now the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope,
and listen here, through the power of the Holy Ghost. This
is the only way this happens. In the power of the Holy Ghost.
How's God give us joy and peace? How do we abound in hope? And how does he fill us with
this joy and peace? Through the power of the Holy
Ghost. This is where we live. This is
the life we live, of joy and peace, filled with these things
and the power of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of God works these
things in. Flesh don't have nothing to do with it. Self don't have
nothing to do with it. Fellow believers don't have nothing
to do with this. You can't hurt my peace and you
can't hurt my hope. You can't hurt my joy. And I can't yours. Cause I get
it from God, I don't get it from you. And he's the one who fills us
with heat. The Holy Ghost regenerated us
and brought us and brought us to Christ and taught us of Christ. And that's why Paul said to the
Galatians, he said, having begun in the spirit, are you going
to be made perfect by the flesh? Huh? Oh, and that's why the Holy,
the love of God shed abroad in the hearts by the Holy Ghost.
You see the Holy Ghost works in us, what Christ worked out
for us, and what God wills for us in this world. And then let
me close it with this right here. Look at the channel that God
blesses with us with here. Now the God of hope be with all
joy and peace. Now here it is in believing,
in believing. This is for believers. He's talking
to believers. This is it. This is faith. It's
faith. Our life is a life of faith.
We walk by faith. And, oh, beloved, the gospel,
it produces faith. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the Word of God. We're kept by power of God through
faith. And, oh, I believe, don't you?
I believe that the God of hope, through the power of the Holy
Ghost, will cause us to abound in hope. fill us with all joy
and peace in believing, in believing. Oh my, it's received by faith,
it depends on faith, it produces faith and it ends with faith. And there's two sides to this
and I enclose it. From God's side, the Holy Ghost
works all this in us. God which worketh in you both
to will and to do of His good pleasure. From us, Just simply
trusting, believing. That's what unites us to Christ.
Faith from our union with Him comes all we need from time and
eternity. Oh, God works in us, and He even
works the faith in us. Now, a special prayer for special
people. Our Father, thank you for your
blessed mercies tonight. Thank you for your wonderful
grace given us in Christ before the world ever began. Thank you
for your word. Oh, thou blessed God of hope,
fill us, fill us, fill us, fill us with all joy and peace in
believing. Oh, God, cause us to abound in
hope, cause us to honor and glorify your blessed name. Forgive us
of everything that's unlike you, every thought, every feeling,
everything that's so contrary to the spirit of Christ, the
spirit of grace, the word of God. Oh, God, save us from it
and forgive us of everything that's just so contrary to you. We ask these things in Christ's
name, amen. Well, God willing, I'll see you
Sunday morning.