Good to see you again. Very thankful
the Lord has brought us together again. Pray God be gracious to
open his word to our hearts and our minds. I ask you as I stand here, please
continually pray for me. For you. That God would use the
message. For his glory. and your good. And I know this, those are not
mutually exclusive things. In fact, they're the same. God's
glory is tied to our good. And I know that God will be glorified,
so I know this, everything will work out for my good. Everything
will work out for my good. So pray God be gracious. If you
take your Bibles and open with me to Romans, chapter five, Romans
chapter five. Now, we've been going through
the book of Romans for a while now, and came to chapter five,
and I've been desirous to preach this for many, I'd say several
years, looking at this text and desiring to preach it, and the
Lord not giving me ability, I just hadn't done it. And now I came
to the text and I'm asking, are you going to let me preach it
this time? I want to preach it. But what it took to get here
was a lot of trials, a lot of difficulties. And our text will
be found in verse 3 through verse 5. And he said, and 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 unto
us. Now, by way of introduction,
I want to ask a question. As believers in Jesus Christ,
what do you suppose is the greatest attainment that a believer can
have in this life? What is the greatest thing? If
God were to grant you something, to attain in this life, what
would it be? What's the greatest? As I thought of this, I said,
well, to know the gospel, to have knowledge of the gospel
would be a great benefit. To be able to fully expound the
gospel, to be able to know the things in the gospel, to be able
to clearly express them to others, that'd be a great attainment. You might say, well, His presence. That's a great attainment, isn't
it? That's a rare thing for a believer in this life, is that we experience
it, we do. What would it be if we were always
able to experience the love of God? That would be a great attainment,
wouldn't it? Others might say a great attainment
for the believer would be to be tender toward sin. to be so
averse to sin that it would be nauseous to us, that we would
turn in every way from sin and believe in God, trust Him, serve
Him. Those are great attainments.
And when I thought about this, I surely felt those things would
be best. But every believer desires to
attain these things. And what I'm going to tell you
is this, that all of those things are wonderful. Those are there's
nothing of those things that we should not desire. But as
I read J.C. Philpott and on this question. I didn't agree with him. I didn't
want to if I was being honest, I didn't want to agree with his
assessment of this. But Philpott said this, the greatest
attainment that a believer can have in this life is what the
apostle says in verse three. We glory in tribulation also. I didn't want that to be so.
I didn't want it to be so. I kicked against it. But the
more I thought about it, the more it was so. To be able to
glory in tribulation has got to be the greatest sign of spiritual
maturity. To be able to glory in tribulation. The apostle expresses all of
the benefits of the believer in being justified. He said,
therefore, being justified by faith, we have what? We have
peace with God. That's a benefit. That's good.
I can glory in that. I can rejoice in that. having
access to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. I can glory in
that. I can rejoice in that. He said, and having hope of the
glory of God. What that means is that we have
hope of our salvation. Remember, our salvation is tied
to the glory of God. Isn't that why he chose us? that
we should be to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein
he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Our our salvation is
tied to the glory of God. And this is a great, great thing.
If you've been justified, if you believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ, then listen, you. You have a good hope. Your hope
is just as sure as the glory of God. But this unexpected blessing
is mentioned in verse three. Not only so. I don't just rejoice
in those things, Paul said, I rejoice in this tribulation. Tribulation. Believer, do you glory in tribulation? Do you glory? in tribulation. It is my desire by the end of
this message that the Holy Spirit would cause you and I to glory
in tribulation because tribulation does something. It's not arbitrary. It's not
a roll of the dice whether you are in tribulation or not. It
is a direct act of God upon the believer that is justified and
it yields something. Yield something. And so I do pray that the Holy
Spirit would give us an understanding. Now, I want us to see this, that this
is a chain. This is what Philpott called
a golden chain. And I agree with that. This golden
chain, I want you to see that this chain, this golden chain
that has been fastened by God. That is given to us from heaven. And this golden chain of tribulation
is tied to our souls. We who are justified before God. And so as we look at these links
in the chain tonight, there are five of them. The first is tribulation. We glory in tribulation. Paul
said, knowing. Now, if you don't know this,
you're not going to glory in tribulation. You must know this.
Tribulation worketh patience. Now, there's a second link. And patience, what happens next?
Experience. There's the third. The fourth
is what? Hope. Hope. And the last one is this, the
love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And
so, tribulation. This is the first link in the
chain, and my dear believer, it is a heavy link. It is a heavy load. I know this we vainly wish to
skip this one. I would prefer to go right to
the love of God shed abroad in my heart. I was talking to Kevin
Thacker and he says, kind of like downloading. I said, right.
We were downloading generation. We desire to God plug us in and
download his love into us so that we can experience that and
just bypass all these others. Listen, God never does that.
You are vainly imagining things if you think that's how it's
going to happen. If we ever desire to have these other things we
have mentioned, you know, if you ever desire to know more
of the gospel of Jesus Christ, if you ever desire to have the
presence of God revealed to you, if you ever desire to be averse
to sin, listen, it only comes one way. Tribulation. That's
it. It's the first link in this chain.
You all know that hymn that Newton wrote. He said, I asked the Lord
that I might grow in grace and faith and every other grace.
And listen to what he said. He said, I hoped in some favored
hour, at once He'd answer my request. By love's constraining
power, subdue my sins and give me rest. Who hasn't? Who hasn't
asked to grow in grace and faith? In love? In compassion to others? Every believer asks these things.
But he said, he answered me in such a way that almost drove
me to despair. And listen, he's going to answer
you the same way. He's going to answer you by tribulation. Now, this surely was all the
promise of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord was not amiss in telling
us this, right? He said, in this world, You shall
have what? Tribulation. Does it surprise
us? And yet every time it does. Every
time we suffer something, it surprises us. And yet our Lord
was plain. If you're going to serve me in
this world, you shall have tribulation. The apostle Paul in Acts chapter
14, he was there confirming the saints. He was confirming them.
He was exhorting them in their trouble to continue. Isn't this
what we do? We that preach the gospel, by
the gospel, we exhort you to continue. I see many people that
have continued. And I am so thankful to see you.
What am I going to do now? I'm exhorting you to continue
in faith, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what
the apostle said? He said this, that we through
much tribulation should enter the kingdom of God. We through much tribulation,
we who believe, we must endure much tribulation. Tribulations are vast and there
are many for the children of God. You who believe this world, the
more we grow, we know it is a valley of tears. This world is a valley of tears. And God doesn't leave us without
many examples in scripture, does he? You could look at Abraham, you
could look at David, you could look at Job, and you find that
all of God's saints suffered tribulation. It's not unique
with us. Everyone in this room that are
justified before God will suffer tribulation. Why? It is only by tribulation that
we grow in these graces. It is only by that. It is necessary. Isn't that what Peter said? He
said, you who are kept by the power of God unto salvation,
ready to be revealed at the last time, he said, and you suffer
manifold temptations if need be. Now, why are you suffering? If need be. only if it's necessary. You won't suffer if it's not
necessary. And what is the apostle saying in our text? It's necessary.
Everything you suffer is necessary. Because it is the trial of our
faith, Peter said. The trying of your faith is the
reason why we suffer tribulation. So if you are in tribulation,
there are two things about this chain link you should know. First
of all, all tribulation is measured and timed by God. Everything you suffer, every
ounce of it, every measure of it. Too little, it does nothing. Too much, it drives us to despair. It is measured and timed by God
himself. was that him every joy or trial
falleth from above, traced upon our dial by the sun of love. Our tribulation comes from God. And second thing you should know
is this is his motive. This is the only comforting thing
in tribulation is to know that, yes, it's of God. Now that may
be, at times, uncomforting. If you are convicted of your
sin, it feels uncomfortable. You know it's of God, and you
know you deserve much worse. But know this, know His motive
for it is not to destroy you. It is for your good. All things work together for
good to them who are the call. according to his purpose, to
them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose.
And so in tribulation, we often feel things. God has abandoned
me. We feel as though God has abandoned
me. We feel as though God hates me. We may feel that it is his intent
to destroy me. That's what Newton said. He said,
will thou pursue thy worm to death? Is that that's how we
feel? Tribulation does this. The guilt
of conscience says there's no no recovery for me. It's tribulation
that we suffer. We feel as though God all the
it opposes all the promises of God, that's how it feels. If
God God promised us joy, God promised us peace. God promised
us love. And yet what do we feel is different
than what God promised? And yet God swears. By his own name. It's for your
good. It's for your good. So we may
surely then glory in tribulation. And this is the only way you're
going to do it by faith. You will never glory in tribulation
by experience. It will always be by faith. By
faith. And if we, by faith, see this
tribulation as the root of all God's goodness, we'll glory in
it. If we by faith can see this,
and listen, without tribulation there is no patience. Now this is the second link in
the chain is patience. Tribulation worketh patience. This word is often misunderstood.
It doesn't mean a quiet. Meek, waiting on God. That's not the word. There is
a word for that in the scriptures. There are several places where
we should be meek and quietly, patiently waiting. But this is
not it. The word here means endurance, endurance, tribulation works,
endurance. James uses this same word in
James chapter 5 and verse 11. He said, you have heard of the
patience of Job. Same word. Endurance of Job. Listen, when Job lost everything,
he was anything but quiet. He was anything but meek. I see and I understand his emotions
A lot of times we're like a wild dog trapped in a corner. We'll
snap at anything in the midst of our troubles. And Job was. He lost his family. He lost his
wealth. He lost it all in one day. Everything was going well that
morning. That night, he had lost everything. Even the wife of his youth, the
woman that was supposed to love him, told him, you need to just
curse God and die. And yet, what is the end of Job?
The end of this was what? He endured. He believed God before
all of this. What happened at the end? He
believed God more at the end than he did at the beginning.
Tribulation did something to Job. It broke him. Job looked to his own righteousness. Read what Job said about himself.
He said, I don't deserve this. Really? Is that what we think? Oftentimes
when we're in tribulation, it's exactly what we think. We don't
deserve this. I don't know how, I'm not a horse
person, I don't know, but I know this. Someone once said this.
Obviously, someone knew about horses. He said this, an unbroken
horse will not bear the slightest weight. It'll kick, it'll bug. Until when? Until it's broken.
Then, when it's broken, it can endure a lot of weight. This
is the word for tribulation is endurance. I thought of the mariner
in Psalm 107. There's the great mariner. He
sets out on his course. It says to do business in great
waters. That's every believer, isn't
it? We start out in this business as great waters of God's salvation,
and it seems to start well. In that story, his boat, he gets
in the boat, he's taken off, and he's a champion sailor, he's
an experienced sailor, and he gets out there and everything's
well. The wind's blowing in the right direction, so this obviously
must be of God. Everything's going well. All
of a sudden, it starts to rain a little bit. And he says, Oh,
well, that's easy. I got this. Been through some rain before.
I'm an experienced sailor. So he trims the sail a little
bit, ties a couple of knots, and everything's all right. Then
the wind begins to pick up a little more. He said, Oh, well, I need
to do a little bit more adjusting. A little bit more here, a little
bit more there. Until when? He ran smack dab
into a hurricane. And the scripture says his vessel
was lifted up to the heavens and drop down to the depths. How often do you feel like that
in tribulation? And then what do you do? You begin to try to
fix it. He's running over here, he ties
this knot, and he runs over there and he tries this, and he tries
that until what? The sail is blown off. He takes
a rope and he ties himself to the mast and the mast falls off
and he staggers to and fro, rising to the heavens and plums down
to the depths and rises to the heavens and plums to the depths.
Until when? Until he had no more knots to
tie. No more sails to trim. It's as
though he fell down in the middle of the ship and resigned to die.
Listen to me, that's patience. God must bring us to the end
of ourselves. The scripture says, and he at
his wits end. You want to know what tribulation
does? It does that. It brings you to the end of yourself. And the scripture says, when
he had no more nausetai, no more sails to trim, he cried unto
the Lord. He cried unto the Lord. When I read about David and how
he had suffered, he lost his child because of his sin. His
favorite son betrayed him, took his throne, and slept with all
of his concubines. What a shame. What a shame his
house was a wreck. He was being chased out and cursed
by Simi. And when everything was done,
and they were about to go back into Jerusalem, the high priest
said to David, come back. And David said, you go and take
the ark into Jerusalem. And he said, if I shall find
favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again and I
shall see both it and his habitation. But if he says this, I have no
delight in you. David said, behold here, Let him do to me as seems good
in his sight. That's patience. And notice what patience brings
experience. Experience. The word here means
proof. Isn't that exactly what Peter
said trials are for? For the trying of your faith. The trial of your faith being
much more precious than gold, though it be tried with fire,
might be found as the praise and glory of who? Jesus Christ. Isn't this the experience when
we come to the end of ourselves? We know this. If I'm going to
continue to believe, he has to do it. And what does this yield? It
yields proof. Proof of what? That my faith
is not of myself. You ever doubt that your faith
is real? You ever looked at your faith? Not much there, is it? If my faith is of me, I have
no hope. If my faith is a manufactured
faith of my own volition, of my own... There's no hope for
me, because I won't be able to keep it. But when I'm brought to the end
of myself, this is always the experience. God comes and proves
to me that my faith, the faith by which is the means of my justification. The means by which I receive
this justification. It's real. It's real. When we
are brought to the end of ourselves, it is then the grace and power
of the Holy Spirit comes, and God displays to us His goodness. Isn't that what we wanted at
the beginning? Isn't that what we asked for? That He would display
His goodness, His kindness, His grace, And so as we look upon
the trial, the trouble, the affliction, we are made to see our weakness,
our helplessness. We are made to bow before God
seeking His power and His grace. And what do we always find? We
always find His power and His grace. That's what always. How do I know that? Shelby, you're
still here. You still believe. How in the
world have you made it this far? Have you not experienced it?
There's a shining example of someone who's experienced the
grace of God. Someone who's still here. Someone
who still believes, regardless of what they've experienced.
What have you experienced? You've experienced the power
and grace of God. You've experienced what He promised
you He would do. He said, I will keep you, and
look, you've been kept. Isn't that experience enough?
Isn't that proof? You definitely don't want to
look at our works for proof. There's no hope in that. What's the evidence of my justification?
It's faith. Faith in Christ alone. Faith
in Christ alone. And you know what? God promised
He would be with me. Isn't that so? He said in Isaiah
41, He said, Fear not. Now here's a reason you shouldn't
be afraid at all. I'm with you. What about when I don't feel
He's with me? Who cares? Who cares how I feel? Who cares
what I think? Who cares how difficult the trial
is? That has no bearing on this promise. I am with you. And it's only at the point of
submission that you realize that. You're never going to get here
without tribulation. You're never going to be able
to experience that He is with you. It's always been my experience
in the affliction We cry to the Lord and at the end of ourselves,
he always delivers us. And so the only reason that I
did not leave was because of him. He said, don't be dismayed. And here's a reason you shouldn't
be dismayed. I am thy God. How long ago to say that? Wasn't that before you believed?
Wasn't that before you even existed? He said, I am thy God. I will
strengthen thee. Yea, I will uphold thee by the
right hand of my righteousness. I will uphold you because of
Christ. That's why you continue. Because
of Christ. You continue because of Him. Is this not the proof? that God
is our God, that we still believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, there are many who profess
to believe in there. What happens to them when trouble
comes? Our Lord said that when the parable
of the sower went forth to sow, some fell upon the stony ground
there, and they had no depth of earth. And when the heat came
up, what happened to them? They withered away. Because there
was no real depth, there was no real root. Others, they're
among thorns and the world chokes out the fruit. There is no real
evidence. They say they believe, but how
easy is that? Anybody say that? But everyone who is born again
of God, everyone who's sown on good ground, listen, they all
bear fruit, every one of them. What is the fruit? They believe. They believe. And fourth, this
next one, hope. Tribulation work of patience.
Patience, meaning endurance and endurance, worketh experience,
proof. And what is proof work? Hope.
Hope. The word here means confidence. Please don't liken it to our
modern language. Hope in our day is nothing more
than a wish. That's not what is meant. When
he teaches us to hope in God, he is talking about confidence. Paul said, I am persuaded. What does he have? He has hope.
He has hope. So it means confidence. Now,
again, I'm sure that we'd like to start here. You'd like to
start at hope. You don't start at hope. Where
do you start? Tribulation. Until when? Until you submit. When you find
submission, you find experience, and it is that experience of
His grace in your heart that works confidence, not in yourself. Remember, all that other stuff
is breaking yourself down. It's showing you how unstrong,
how you don't have any strength. is showing how helpless you are.
And when you find out how helpless you are, you find how strong
He is. And when you find out how strong
He is, you have confidence in Him. You have hope. The confidence
and hope in the heart of the believer always comes through
the experience of God's grace and power. It is then we trust
our God Completely. Solomon said, trust
in the Lord with all thine heart. I remember a message your pastor
preached many years ago. Is it safe to trust the Lord?
Is it? It doesn't feel safe. It doesn't. But is it? Oh, my
friends, it is. How much you trust the Lord?
with all your heart. Now, you know how to get there?
Tribulation. Work with patience. Patience,
experience, and experience hope. Trusting in God. You want to
trust in Him? Well, guess what you're asking
for? Tribulation. That's where it begins. And so
that we have the experience of God by grace. What do we hope
in? We hope in the blood and righteousness
of Jesus Christ alone. That's our hope. That's the anchor
of our hope. It is the blood and righteousness
of Christ. The apostle is going to say it
in the next few verses. He said, even when we were without
strength. Is that what tribulation shows
us? that were without strength? Showed me that at the very beginning
of my conversion, that I didn't have any strength. Yet even when
I was without strength, what? Christ died for the ungodly. He said, but God commendeth His
love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died.
He didn't wait for you to get better. See, I'm only hoping
myself. I don't have any confidence in
myself. My confidence is in Jesus Christ, who loved me and gave
himself for me. I am confident that his blood
satisfied the justice of God for my sins, listen, forever. I'm confident of that. I am confident
that his righteousness now covers me before God. I am confident that I am now
at peace with God because he made it. I have access to God
constantly, without interruption. You got that? Without interruption.
Now listen, I love my children, but they can come to me too much. It can be a burden. You can't
be a burden to him. Matter of fact, I'm telling you
this, you don't come enough. You have access. Are you confident in that? If
you have hope, you'll go to him. I have hope in this. That he shall not fail to bring
me to himself. He will not fail. He will not
fail. This is the hope that tribulation
and patience and experience brings. And this hope, notice he says
this, it maketh not ashamed. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Jesus Christ, for I'm confident it is the power
of God and the salvation to everyone that believe it. I am not ashamed
of this gospel. Well, where'd that come from?
Tribulation. Work with patience. Patience,
experience. Experience, hope. And hope maketh
not ashamed. I am not ashamed of the Lord
Jesus. I'm not ashamed to preach the gospel of God's saving, electing
grace. You should be ashamed not to
preach it. I'm not ashamed to preach man's utter and complete
and total depravity and helpless and ruined nature. I'm not ashamed
to preach that. I'm not ashamed to preach that
Christ victoriously, absolutely accomplished redemption for every
one of His people, and that the Spirit will call them at their
appointed time. They will come to Him. I'm not
ashamed of that, and I'm not ashamed of this, that everyone
who believes shall suffer tribulation in this life, and by tribulation
they'll... Submission. By submission, they'll
experience His love, and by His love and mercy, they will experience
hope. And then comes what? The love
of God shed abroad in your hearts. When you come to the place that
everything else is meaningless, and Christ is everything, it's
then the love of God is shed abroad And that's the last thing. But
what's the means by which that this is shared abroad? It is
always the same. The preaching of the gospel.
It is the use of the gospel of Jesus Christ that moves us to
love him. The only thing that moves me
to love him is his love for me. Not my love for him. My love
for him does not move me to love him more. I'm ashamed of my love. I'm not ashamed of his. You know, the apostle experienced
something like this, didn't he himself? He had that thorn in
the flesh. In that thorn in the flesh, he
was lifted up so high to heaven and the thorn of pride or whatever
it was, the Lord gave him and he he asked the Lord to dismiss
it, asked the Lord to heal him of it, whatever it was. And our Lord said this, my grace
is sufficient for thee. Now why? Why is my grace sufficient? Because in your weakness is my
strength made manifest. You see, the only way you're
gonna see the strength of God is when you ain't got any. When
you got nowhere else to go. My favorite time of the apostles
when they didn't quite understand what he said in John 6. They
were just, they didn't understand. And Christ said, you believe
that? And he said, look, I don't know. Will you go away also?
Lord, to whom shall we go? I don't know. I don't know half
what you just said, but I know this. You're the only one who
saved me. They were submitted to him. And the only way the grace and
love of God is shown is when we have nothing else to cling
to. And so tribulation, we find,
has a purpose. Submission. Submission, then,
leads to the experience of God's grace in our hearts. And then that brings us confidence,
not in self, but in God. And then, by a view of Christ,
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. Listen. By the Holy Ghost. Not by me. I'm not going to stir this up.
The Holy Spirit has to do this. Isn't that something that this
is all of God? Every part of it? Every ounce
of it. And all of it's intended for
your salvation, for your good. Every bounce of it, every ounce
of tribulation is used of God. And I'm going to say this in
closing because I think it's necessary. A lot of times we
get stuck between tribulation and patience. Believers get stuck. A lot of
times, tribulation is working patience, and there just seems
to be no submission. I'll give you a reference. You
can look it up. King Asa. A man did that which was right
in God's sight. And then one time he did something,
didn't ask God for it, and God rebuked him for it, and he pouted
like a child. He would not seek forgiveness. And God gave him gout in his
feet. And listen, the scripture said
he sought the physicians, but not the Lord. This man was stuck. He was stuck
between tribulation and submission. And you know what? He died there. But I tell you this, After he
died, what came next? Experience, hope, love of God
was shed abroad in his heart as soon as he died. So we will
have this. May God help us to submit in
tribulation, because we need that. We need his power. We can't
submit to God except he give us that grace. And this is a
continual process, believers, not a one-time thing. You notice
that? Anybody notice that? Tribulation, where your patience,
patience, experience, experience, hope, hope, make another shape,
love of God, shed and broaden your heart. Back to one. Tribulation, where your patience,
patience, experience, experience, hope. And then you go back to
the other one. What is this doing? It is causing
our faith to grow, our love to grow. Isn't that what you ask?
That's how he does it. Help us then to glory in tribulation
also. Why? We know what it does. We
know what God's using it for. May God bless this to your hearts.
I pray you will.