Let's take our Bibles now and
turn to Romans chapter 15. My text this morning is Paul's
apostolic prayer for the believing saints which were at Rome. My subject in this prayer is
joy and peace in believing. Romans chapter 15, verse 13. Now the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope. through
the power of the Holy Ghost. As I said, this prayer was directed
to the saints who were at Rome. But I believe it's a fitting
prayer for saints everywhere and at all times. Now at Rome,
this was the place of the captors of the Jews. The Jews lay in
captivity under Roman rule. What an act of God, what an act
of His grace to establish one of His first churches at Rome,
at Rome. God evidences His power in this
world. This world raises up great governments
like we have in this country or in Russia and these different
places that has raised up world-renowned governments and control And God
goes right into those things which are totally opposite and
against Him, and that's where He'll establish His work and
do His work right in their midst, just as though they didn't even
exist. And this is an amazing characteristic
of the Scriptures. The Scriptures are timeless.
They're timeless. Have you ever thought about that?
They're timeless. and the directions, and his reproofs,
and all the things in the Scriptures, they are timeless. They are timeless. You take this prayer that Paul
prayed, and it was directed to certain individuals, and yet
it speaks to all men. It was directed at a certain
time. on those who were under certain persecutions, and it
was directed by one man to them. Very personal note, very personal
prayer for these people. And yet it's so timeless that
it applies to us no matter what culture we're in, no matter what
time we live in. All saints everywhere and at
all times, this prayer is fitting. It applies to us just exactly
the same as it applied to them. And so you go through the scriptures,
and we've been studying that That ancient tabernacle back
in Israel, how timeless those things are. They have a direct
application to us today thousands of years after that thing disappeared
from the earth. It still has an application to
us. These scriptures are just absolutely
timeless. Now this is one of those verses
which I believe furnishes its own outline. And I love these
verses. We preachers say this, they preach
themselves. And that's what this prayer,
it preaches itself. You read through here and you
can see the declarations that Paul gives in this prayer. And that's what I want to do
this morning. And there are six things here
in this prayer that ought to cheer up even the most depressed
soul and cause us to rejoice. in the God of all hope. Now here's
the first thing that I want you to see, the first thing I want
to talk to you about is the hope itself. The hope itself. Do you know what faith is? Hope. Hope. That's what it is. It's
the substance of things hoped for. That's what he tells us
over in Hebrews chapter 11 when he defines faith. It's the substance
of things hoped for and it's the evidence of things not seen. It's not so much, let me see
if I can zero in on this thing a little bit. It's not so much
to hope that he prays for here as it is the object of that hope. Hope without an object, without
a basis, is just an emotional desire. And that's what religion
sets forth hope as. It's a desire. Well, I can sit
here today, and I put some tomatoes in the ground. I know I'm jumping
the gun, but I put some tomatoes in the ground. And I saw on there
it was going to be 34 next week. And I can sit here today and
say, boy, I hope it don't frost. But that's just a desire. I've
got no basis for it. I've got no foundation for it.
It's just a desire. I hope it don't prompt. That's
not the same as a Christian hope. A Christian hope has an object.
It has a basis. And hope without an object or
a basis is just an emotional desire. It's just a wish, something
you want, but have no way to get it. And then it's not talking
here about a hope. I want you to understand that. This is based on everything that
Paul has written on justification by faith as he went through this
epistle to the Rome. Now, a hope based on some emotional
experience is a hope. A hope based on the commitment
and decisions of men, or a hope based on the acceptance or approval
of men, or a hope based on man's free will. Or a hope based on
some universal work that makes salvation possible when it's
completed with your faith. Or a hope based upon somebody's
works, or their power, or their will, or their devotion. Or a
hope based upon some old tradition, form, and ceremony. He doesn't
talk here about a hope, he talks here about the hope. The hope. I don't know if you're aware
of it, but there's only one hope for fallen sinners. Just one. Just one hope. Read your Bible. There's just one hope. Christ
in you, he said, the hope of glory. Just one. It's Christ
alone as our federal head appointed of God on our behalf. All spiritual
blessings appropriated in Him, chosen in Him, predestinated
to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, accepted
into beloved, redeemed through His blood, made righteous in
Him, made wise unto salvation through Him, gathered to Himself
by virtue of His station and work, called by His Spirit He
sent into this world and preached to. God sent a preacher. How should you hear without a
preacher? How can he preach except he'd be sent? Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ alone, complete in him,
satisfied in him, resting in him, rejoicing in him. And according
to Ephesians 4.4, God's saints are called, are you listening,
with one hope of their calling. Ain't that what that says? One
hope of their calling. And that hope is Christ. Christ. So here's the first thing is
the hope. The hope. I'm not talking about
a hope. I'm not just talking about having
a hope. And it's not I hope, I hope, I hope. It's the hope. The hope. And then here's the
second thing he mentions in this prayer. The God of hope. I'm telling you this concerning
Jesus Christ, the believer's hope, God is everything. He's
everything. He is everything. He's the beginning,
He's the middle, He's the end, He's the center, He's the circumference,
He's the root and the stem, the branches and the leaves, He's
the seed, the tree, the bud, the flower, and the fruit. He's
everything. Everything comes from God. Salvation
The Scripture said it is of the Lord. It's of Him. It's got nothing to do with you. He is the One who first trusted
in Christ. And when we heard what we hear,
when we heard that, when we heard of the Eternal Christ, that One
appropriated, appointed in all things for us by the God of hope,
by the Father, the everlasting Father, who sent Him and made
us accepted in Him and predestinated us, working all things after
the counsel of His own will, that we should be to the praise
of the glory of Him who first trusted in Christ. He's God's
mediator. He's the appointed surety of
God's everlasting covenant. He's the first begotten of God
from the dead. God sent him into the world,
and God sent the comforter at his request. And there's nothing
in this hope that's not of God. There's nothing about it left
to chance or circumstance. Nothing about it left for men
to complete. Listen to this. I don't know
if you've ever read this, but over in the book of Job, chapter
15 and verse 15, it says, he putteth no trust in his saints. He didn't say he didn't. trust
in just anybody. He said he put his no trust in
his saints. That's an amazing statement.
He put his no trust. I'm told today that he does that. He does trust his saints. He
does do that. He does. Joe said he didn't. Man at his best state, he said,
is altogether vanity. Will God then turn over His most
glorious work to man, who is altogether vanity? God forbid. Everything about this work is
of God. And I Corinthians 1.31 tells
us why, that according as it is written, he that glorieth,
let him glory in God. Let him glory in the Lord. Man
seems hell-bent to glory in something. Glory in this. Glory in God.
Because all things are of Him. All things are of Him. And Paul
said to this young understudy Timothy, he said, God has saved
us. Who saved you? I hear men and
women, it just turns my stomach when they start talking about,
I got saved. I got saved. I made my decision. That's not what Paul preached.
Paul wrote Timothy, he said, God hath saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His own purpose and grace, given us in Christ Jesus before the
world began. Jude addresses his letter specifically
to those that are sanctified, set apart by God the Father,
preserved in Jesus Christ, and called by the Holy Spirit. He
is the God of hope. And to know Him is life eternal. And to know Him is to find hope
in Him. He is the God of hope. If you're
going to have hope, you're going to have to find it in Him. Because
there's no hope out here. And there's no hope in this world.
And there's no hope in religion. He's going to have to open our
eyes and hearts and bring us to see the God of hope. The God
of hope. And the only way you can see
God is in Christ. I told you in my Sunday school
lesson there in John 8, he said, if God were your Father, you'd
love me. So the hope is Christ in you.
And this hope proceeds forth and comes from the God of hope. He said it's the gift of God.
Ain't that what he said? It's the gift of God. It's not
of works lest any man should boast. And it's not given to
all men. I beg your pardon. It's not given
to all men. It wasn't given to those Pharisees.
He talked to them like they were a bunch of little children. And
they had those big broad phylacteries on in full dress out there looking
down his nose at the Lord Jesus Christ. And he talked to them
like they were a bunch of little children. And the disciples said,
do you know that you offended them? Why do you speak like them
in parables? Why do you speak like that to
these doctors and well-renowned men? Because it's not given to
them to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. It's given
to you. Given to you. And it must be given to be had.
Salvation is not something on the shelf. You can just go get
it if you want it. I've been told that all my life.
It's here. It's appropriate. It's on the
shelf. All you have to do is get it. Reach up and get it. Reach up and embrace it. Have
it. There it is, sitting there on the shelf. Or like an insurance
policy. You get this thing, you sign
it, and you put it in the old file cabinet, and there it sits.
And you leave it there. If you don't ever need it, it'll
just lay there and rot. But if you do, you can run and
get it out real quick. I got this. I got this. That's
not salvation. Salvation's of the Lord. And
if it don't come from Him, it's not salvation. Not salvation. Listen to what
our Lord said about His disciples' comments when the rich young
ruler, he had everything in the world in his favor when he came
to Christ. And Christ sent him away with
his head down. And they said, who then can be
saved? Here's what our Lord told them. He said, with man it's
impossible. Now, I know sometimes we take
it on ourselves to be the guardians of false religion, but I'm telling
you something. You apply that verse, and how
much religion still stands? With man, it's impossible. It's impossible. I'd say 99.9%
of the religion of this world could not operate on that basis. With man, it's impossible. It's impossible. But with God, and that's what
we're talking about, the God of hope, all things are possible. When I think on the utter impossibility
of man to produce anything of himself that God requires, I
want to throw in the towel. I want to set my Bible on the
shelf, just throw in the towel, just quit. What's the use? What's
the use? look again and think again at
the purpose and power of God to save, I find hope to carry
on, don't you? Huh? God has purposed to save
a people for His glory through His Son, Jesus Christ. And Jesus
Christ has accomplished that salvation. He's accomplished
everything that God demands. and rose him up, seated him at
his own right hand, and now he sends forth his Spirit and blesses
the means that he's designed to use. Salvation is not an accident.
God saves men on purpose. On purpose. He brought you here
on purpose. He sent me here on purpose. He
laid this message on my heart on purpose. And I tell you to ignore it as
to heap hot coals on your head. What a privilege he's bestowed
upon this little group here this morning. And then thirdly, the
result of this hope is that those who truly have it, those who
truly have it, to whom it's been given, to whom he made meat to
be partakers of this inheritance, Gave them a heart. Gave them
a mind. Gave them an understanding. Gave
them a favorable providence. Brought them here to hear His
Word. Those who truly have it, oh my
soul, they're filled. Ain't that what that says there?
Filled with joy and peace. It's talking about a spiritual
peace. Talking about a spiritual joy. There's a lot of things
in this life not very peaceful. Not very peaceful. And there's
a lot of things that happen in this life that bring no joy.
But I tell you, we have spiritual joy and spiritual peace through
our Lord Jesus Christ. And He fills us with that peace.
No peace of conscience, no peace of walk, no peace of worship
or peace in death without the hope of Christ who is Himself
our justification. God spoke to His prophet Isaiah
and He said, Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God.
Speak comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished. that her iniquity is pardoned,
for she hath received at the Lord's hand double for all her
sins." Now you can have peace. Now you can have peace. There
is nothing that floods the heart of a guilty sinner like seeing
his perfect righteousness in Christ and full, free justification
in his death and resurrection. One of the fellows that meets
with us over in Wichita Falls, contacted one of the ladies who
left that group years ago and was talking to her. And she said,
no, she said, I ain't going back down there. I ain't going back
down there. He said, they believe that you can be justified, that
you are justified. And they don't believe that a
man is justified by faith when he believes. Now, I'm going to
tell you something. Faith is not the justifier. And
if that's how you got it arranged in your doctrine, you got a false
doctrine. We're justified. He was delivered for our offenses. Ain't that what the Scripture
said? And raised again for our justification. We're justified
in Christ. Justified in Christ. And there
is nothing that floods the heart of a guilty sinner like seeing
His perfect righteousness and that full, free, just, and justified
freely by His grace. Ain't that what it says there
in Romans 3? Being then freely justified by His grace through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We don't preach to this world
a gospel that requires fallen rebels to reconcile themselves,
but that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. How'd
He do that? Not imputing their trespasses
unto them. Old Gentiles, old rebels, old
Canaanites and Hittites, harlots, publicans, went into the highways
and the hedges, found His people. called them to Himself. It is
not our works and wills or one's determination that gives us peace,
but being justified by faith, we have peace with God. He was delivered and then raised
for our justification. So now in the light of these
things, Romans 5, verse 2 says, we stand in this grace, now listen,
and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Filled with joy. Filled with joy. And I want to say this as clear
as I know how. You can't have this hope and
not be filled with joy and peace. Hebrews 3, 6 says, But Christ
as a Son over His own house, whose house are we, if we hold
fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end. You might believe in another
Jesus, that poor, defeated reformer that religion preaches, or that
feminist Jesus that the Catholics put out who can only be touched
through his mother. I never heard such foolishness.
Or the compromising Jesus that just wants men and women to follow
him no matter what. You can believe in him and not
have any peace, but you can't believe in the Christ of God
and not have peace. That's how faith identifies itself. Faith is applied to that guilty
conscience. Now let me ask you something.
You're standing there before the judge, and you know you're
guilty. In your heart, you know you're guilty. And that judge
says, not guilty. Not guilty. I find no fault in
him. You going to tell me you're going
to walk away from there and not rejoice? That's the dumbest thing
I ever heard of. You can't know this and not be
filled with joy. You can't do it. Now, you can have all kinds of
doubts and things about it, and you can not be filled with joy.
And that's nothing in the world but unbelief. But you can't have
this. You can't have this hope and
embrace this hope and embrace him and not be filled with joy
and peace. That's how faith identifies itself. They who know Him say, if God
be for us, who can be against us? Huh? I'll never forget those
old church members, the old heads there in the church telling me,
yeah, I know no man can pluck you out of his hand, but you
can pluck yourself out. That's not what he said. He said,
no man can pluck you out of my hand. And he said, that ain't
the end of it. He said, you're also in my Father's hand. And
no man can pluck you out of his hand. They say, those who truly believe
this thing, who rejoice in it and find peace and joy, they
say, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's
God that justifies. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. Those who believe this thing,
who embrace this hope, they say, who shall separate us from the
love of God? Tribulation, things present,
things to come, life or death or any other creature. He said,
I'm persuaded none of these things can separate us from the love
of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I'm telling you there's
joy and peace in this thing when you embrace it, when it becomes
your hope. And that man who finds peace
and joy in Christ finds little room in his heart for this world.
It's being filled with joy and peace. The more it's filled with
joy and peace, the less this world has a part in it. The result of hope is joy and
peace. And then, fourthly, he points
out the conduit. He said, in believing. You can't
have this joy and peace in working. You're not going to find it.
The more you work, the more work you're going to see required
to be done. And so you take on some more things, and you do
them, and you find that they're not sufficient either, and you
never find any peace in it. You die in unrest. Only one thing
that prevents this peace and joy from flooding your heart,
unbelief. That's all. That's all. I need
to point out something here. Joy and peace are not the rewards
of faith. Faith don't purchase the blessings.
Faith didn't die for you. Faith didn't obey the law for
you or rise from the dead for you, nor does it intercede for
you at the right hand of God, nor will it come at the last
day and raise those vile bodies from the tombs. Faith is not
going to do any of that. Faith is just the conduit through
which all the blessings of God are received. One old preacher
said this, all faith does is come to the heart. It comes to
the soul and gives its report. That's what it does. That's what
it does. It declares to the heart these
sweet promises of Christ, these precious promises. Faith not
the justifier, it's the herald of the report that we've been
freely justified in Christ by His grace. And so it marks us out as those
He did foreknow, whom He did predestinate, called, justified,
the called according to His purpose. And actually, the only way to
know if you have the faith of God's elect is by the peace and
joy you find in Christ. You find it in believing. In
believing. Let me ask you something. Do
you believe that Jesus Christ was appointed of God from the
very beginning? Do you believe that testimony
of the Scripture? God appointed Him for a people,
for His elect, from the very beginning to save a people for
His glory. That we were chosen in Him and
He was made of God unto us wisdom righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Do you believe as a sovereignly
appointed representative that He took our place under the law
and by His perfect obedience wrought out an acceptable righteousness,
clothed us in a garment that He could present us to God, unblameable,
unreprovable in His sight? Do you believe that He bore the
sins of His elect in His own body on the tree? made an end
of transgressions, put away our sins, put them behind His back,
put them out of His memory. Do you believe that when He died
on the cross, He finished that work? When He cried, it's finished,
you think He really meant it? Do you believe that God raised
Him from the dead and justified us when He did and took Him into
glory and took us with Him? And that He now reigns at the
right hand of God and intercedes for us and ministers to us from
His sovereign throne and orders all things for our good and His
glory. Let me tell you something. Those who truly believe these
things and believe on Him have peace and joy in believing. That's where they found it. They
couldn't find it in religion. They couldn't find it in decision.
They couldn't find it in these emotional experiences. They found
it in the promises of God in Christ. That's where they found
it. And now they've got peace. They've got joy, real joy. Old
Bonar said this, he said, the incessant efforts of some to
get up a faith worthy of believing in and capable of making them
acceptable to God, manifest a self-righteousness that exceeds even the Pharisees
in the day of Christ." Now, you think about that. Faith is not
a work that justifies us to God, but a gift of God to those who
had been justified in Christ, bringing to them the good news
of His saving grace. When the God of hope fills us
with joy and peace, it's through the object of that faith, the
person and work of Christ, not by the strength and purity of
your faith. And then fifthly, this hope is
an abounding hope. What in the world does that mean?
Paul said that they'd be filled with joy and peace in believing. And talk about this hope, and
now he calls it abounding hope, that this hope would abound.
Well, that means it's ever-growing, ever-expanding within. We grow
in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and when you
do, you grow in hope. You grow in hope. The more you
know about Him, the more you hope in Him. There's nothing in Him
not to hope, not to give hope. He's the God of hope. You see
that? The more you know about Him.
See, we want to leave Christ. We want to leave the person and
work of Christ. And we want to run over here
to our works and run over here to our emotions and run over
here to statues and pictures and all these things. Brethren,
peace and joy continues and it abounds by learning about Him. Him. Him. Him. That's where the
peace is. The more you know about Him,
the more hope you have. Because in Him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. You already know everything there
is to know about God? You know a lot if you know that.
It's abounding hope. He says we're seeing abounded.
Grace did much more abound. Listen to this, 2 Corinthians
9.8. He said, And God is able to make all grace abound toward
you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may
abound to every good work. Hope fixes itself on the ascended
Christ, and it finds in Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,
all the fullness of the Godhead. It finds itself complete in Him. You know why saints persevere
in the faith, persevere in Christ? You know why they do that? Because
they're satisfied with Him. They know there's nowhere else
to go. They found in Him everything they want. Like that old musician
I was telling you about, that famous singer came up on his
house. He'd run out of gas and came
in there, an old fellow up in the mountains of Tennessee. wanted
to use his phone, and this man recognized him. He said, you're
that famous singer, ain't you? Country and Western singer. He
said, I know you. And he said, well, I just need
to use your phone. I run out of gas. And he said,
well, come on in. He said, you know, he said, I
sing and play the guitar, don't you? He said, no. He said, would
you like to hear me? Well, yeah, I guess so. So he
brought out that old banjo, and he sat there, and he just plunk,
plunk, plunk, plunk, plunk, plunk, After a while, he told him, he
said, now you know, Joe, he said, if you see those little bars
going across, he said, if you move your fingers up and down,
you can get different notes. He said, that's for people who
are looking. I found mine. That's what happens when a man
finds Christ. He found his. You can move and jump up and
down all you want to. I found mine. I just got one
note. I just got one note. And then lastly, he tells us
that all this is done in the power of the Holy Ghost. When
the Holy Ghost comes, He comes in the spirit of power and love
and of a sound mind. He comes in as the spirit of
truth, the spirit of revelation, the spirit of joy and peace.
He's the spirit of Christ, taking the things of Christ and showing
them unto us. And He's the very seal of God
whereby we're sealed unto the day of our redemption. And He's
the difference between hearing and hearing. We say that same
thing. Oh, no, it ain't. There's a difference
between hearing. He that hath ears to hear, our
Lord said, let him hear. He's the difference. He's the
difference. Paul said, I know your election
of God because our gospel came not unto you in word only, but
in power and in the Holy Ghost. And when it does, it always comes
with much assurance. Not assurance in your assurance
or faith in your faith, but a confident assurance in the Christ of God
to save to the uttermost those who come unto God by Him. This was Paul's prayer for them
and for us, so this is my prayer to God for you. May He be pleased
to bring it to pass today. One hope. One hope. That hope
comes from the God of hope. And it's in the Son, in the Son,
in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.