The Blessings of Salvation, Part 3

Yet in Romans chapter five in
the great section that we have been really meditating and savoring
for several weeks. It is the section that follows
the opening section that we would title simply sin or the sinfulness
of man. That section that encompasses
almost the first three chapters and extolled the fact that not
only are the Gentiles sinful, but the Jews are sinful. No wonder
the summary statement in Romans three that all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God. But in Romans three, Paul turns
the page to the good news salvation. But the righteousness of God
has been given. That which is most desperately
needed by man has now been given and given in full, and that now
we can be saved. We can stand before a holy God
because we possess, by faith, salvation that is given to us
because of the righteousness that is in Christ. Well, Paul
has been talking about this ever since chapter 3, verse 21. And
we open up into a new element of that discussion about salvation
in chapter five. Paul had talked about salvation,
how we can be saved, how we can come to enjoy this salvation. But he hadn’t talked about the
nature, the blessings that come from salvation. And that’s what
he’s begun to do in chapter five. That’s where we’ve been. And
for the last several weeks, we’ve been considering those blessings. First, we looked at the blessing
of a life of peace with God. And there’s a there’s a tendency
in this day and age to overlook that word peace or to to minimize
it and to downplay the real significance of that, that we who were once
at war with God have now been brought in under a peace treaty
that God enacted. And now there is no more war
between us and God. There is no more enmity. There
is no more hatred towards God like there once was. What a blessing
indeed. Last week, last Lord’s Day, we
looked at the second blessing of four. There are four in these
opening 11 verses. The second blessing was that
we now, by God’s grace, live a life of confident worship. We praise God confidently, not
hoping with our fingers crossed, hoping with a settled assurance
in our soul that one day we will worship God in heaven for eternity. That was given in just the first
two verses of chapter five. And yet the blessings continue
to flow. Paul will continue to unfold
and extol the blessings that are given to us by salvation
in Christ. We come this morning. As if it
could get any better, I’ll never forget sitting in a Bible study
with my friend Patrick. And we were talking about the
blessing of this life, the ability to pray, the ability to go to
God, the ability to read his word and all of those things. And he just on a spur of the
moment exclaimed, all this and heaven to. All this and heaven
to. A lot of times we set our sights
on heaven and we forget about this life and the blessings that
are in it. God doesn’t want us to do that. God wants us to know
and meditate and fully enjoy the blessings of this life so
that we can enjoy heaven more fully. Imagine for a moment. Imagine for a moment that God
says, be perfect as I am, be holy as I am holy. Imagine God
says that to you. And you don’t have the example
of the life of Jesus Christ before you. You don’t have God’s Word
with both its admonitions and promises and encouragements and
instruction. You don’t have the Holy Spirit
resident within you, convicting and teaching and guiding and
encouraging. Imagine that God says to you,
be perfect, be holy. as I am perfect and holy and
gives you none of the means.” It’s an impossible thought. We
wouldn’t even know where to begin. But God doesn’t leave us there. And that’s exactly what Paul
wants to tell us in verses 3 through 8. It’s that God’s blessing towards
us thirdly is a life of divine assistance. God Himself is going
to help us. If you would, I want to go all
the way back to verse 1 of chapter 5. We’ll take it and we’ll get a running start there in
verse 1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we
have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which
we stand. And we exult in the hope of the
glory of God. And not only this, but we also
exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about
perseverance and perseverance, proven character and proven character,
hope and hope does not disappoint. Because the love of God has been
poured out within our hearts. through the Holy Spirit who was
given to us. For while we were still helpless
at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will
hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for the good man
someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates his own
love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Now, I will purpose to tackle,
Lord willing, those verses in six through eight next Lord’s
Day. But enough on our plate already are these first three
verses, verses three through five, where Paul tells us that
the Christian life, this salvation that God has provided brings
blessings. And these blessings are manifold
in nature. It isn’t just one. It isn’t just
salvation. And somehow we’ve got to tough
it out on our own until we get to heaven. No, it’s blessings,
abundant blessings, a life of peace with God, where we enjoy
peace with him and a peaceful feeling and peace with others
because of it. And a life of confident worship, as we saw
last week, the hope of the glory of God. It’s real. The glory
of God is real. And our hope is not just wishful
thinking. It is a confident expectation. But Paul, just as you can sense,
he has welled up and no wonder I called it a heartened declaration. Paul is infused at the thoughts
that are Coming into his mind by virtue of the Holy Spirit,
Paul is overwhelmed with joy at the thought of these blessings,
a heartened declaration of the results of this justification
by faith. The third, as I said, is a life
of divine assistance. Let’s ponder for a moment this
life of divine assistance. When I began to consider these
verses, there were four elements that clearly come out as we begin
to look at divine assistance. First of all, the need of divine
assistance, the need. There are a lot of Christians
and sadly, a lot of so-called Christians who missed the boat
thinking that they don’t need God. Remember, this was the sin
of the Pharisees. That’s all right, God, I’m good
enough. I can do it on my own. I’ll just be good and I’ll achieve
somehow your standard. No, you won’t. No, you won’t. We are desperately in need of
God’s assistance in this Christian life. We need one another. We need the very word of God
to guide us. We need the fellowship of the
saints. We need the word in order to
instruct and guide and challenge and convict. We need desperately
the Holy Spirit. We are desperate for a life of
divine assistance. If we are going to be and do
what God wants us to be and do, we desperately need him. Paul
begins the discussion and it’s going to take him a minute. You’re
going to think, where is this? How do you even call this divine
assistance? First of all, look at the need
of divine assistance where Paul says in verse three, not only
this, but we exult in our tribulations. That’s even tough to say, isn’t
it? We exult in our tribulations. We exult in our health problems,
we exult in our financial difficulties, we exult In the loss of the breach
of relationships, we exalt in these challenges that face us
in this difficult day. Paul uses a brief little and
favorite transition, this little phrase, not only this, Paul had
just taken us, as it were, to the height of heights. Right
at the end of verse two, he said, we exult in the hope of the glory
of God. And you would think that there
is the crescendo and we all march out. But Paul says that we also
exult in this. And he wants to pause. And he
wants us to consider the transition. It’s very clear he had just explained
that we exult in the hope of the glory of God at the end of
verse two. And here he says, but not only this, we exult in
our tribulations. And to any to any Christian,
certainly to a non-Christian, that that statement gives pause. That statement is a difficult
pause or a difficult phrase to even digest. We exult in our
tribulations. We’re happy when things go wrong.
We’re happy when difficulties come. No, not necessarily. It
is a difficult thing. We spend no little time last
week. Discovering what was the meaning
of the word exalt, we don’t use it often. I mean, when you come
home from work, hey, honey, exalt with me that I got a raise. We
don’t use it. We just don’t. Exult with me that I got a parking
place. Exult with me that, you know, we don’t use that word.
We saw that one of the translations had it as rejoice. And we saw
that that wasn’t quite enough. It does have that element to
it, the element of rejoicing. But it’s it was a decent attempt
at translating this word, but it’s not enough. We saw that
it also should include the idea of of an expression of triumph,
you know, like a Yeehaw! It should have that idea of triumph.
It has the idea behind it of boasting, we saw, or glorying. And as we saw, boasting is often
done and spoken against in scripture. It’s a bad thing in many faces.
And there are many things about which we are not to boast, and
we saw that. But there are many cases in Scripture,
many things for which we are to boast or exalt or glory. Just as in verse two, boasting
was used in a good sense, so it is again here in verse three
used in a good sense. It is just as we characterized
it as exalting, rejoicing, jubilation, it is exalting with a confident
anticipation. In a very real sense, it is practical
worship. It is glorying in who God is
and all that he is able to do. And in that sense, Paul, as we
saw, tells us to exalt or boast in God. We are to exalt or boast
in Christ. Philippians 3, 3. We are to exalt
in the cross of Christ. Galatians 6, 14. We are to exalt
or boast in our weaknesses. And Paul says here. We are to exalt in our tribulations,
and so the difficulty here with the meaning of boasting or glorying
or exalting is how can the child of God, how can Paul get away
with exhorting and admonishing the child of God to boast or
glory in his weakness? It almost sounds cruel, doesn’t
it? I mean, don’t you just hate the
people? You know, you just you don’t hate them literally, but
you hate what happens when you know you’re having a tough day,
you’re having a tough month, week, year, whatever. You’re
just in the midst of the valley of difficulty and somebody comes
along and just flippantly says, cheer up. Don’t you just hate
that? Is that what Paul’s doing? Does
this? Familiar word, maybe mean something
different. This tribulation, maybe it means
something different entirely and that we could explain it
away that way. Not at all. Tribulations, as
one said, has the underlying meaning of being under pressure,
used of squeezing ultimately olives. That was one of the common
uses of this word. Used of squeezing olives to extract
the oil. In other words, it means we are
under absolute maximum pressure. Stress, we call it in this day
and age. But what Paul refers to as pressure
from the devil, pressure from the world, pressure from sin. The tribulations that he’s talking
about are all of those physical and social and emotional hardships,
not only that Paul suffered, but even beyond that, Paul suffered
just a portion of these things. Paul, he talks about tribulations,
not as being an occasional or, you know, maybe a worst case
scenario for the Christian. Let me prepare you just in case
you ever go through tribulations. Let me encourage you just in
case things go bad. That’s not what he talks about. He talks about it as if. Prepare
yourself. They’re coming. Romans 835, which verse will
get to in a couple of years. Who will separate us from the
love of Christ? Will tribulation or distress
or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? He doesn’t
say that it’s a possibility. No Christian is going to undergo
all of those things. Not very likely, but Paul says
that they’re coming. First Corinthians, let me finish
Romans, verse 36 of that same chapter, just as it is written
for your sake, we are being put to death all the day long. Did
you know that you signed up for that? When you place your faith
in Christ, that’s essentially what you signed up for. To die
with Christ. First Corinthians four, verse
11. To this present hour, we are both hungry and thirsty and
poorly clothed and are roughly treated. We are homeless. We
toil, working with our own hands. When we are reviled, we bless.
When we are persecuted, we endure. When we are slandered, we try
to conciliate. We have become as the scum of
the world and the dregs of all things, even until now. Now,
I ask you, how many of you would sign up for the ministry if you
knew that was your lot? First Corinthians 15, you say,
well, it’s just for pastors, not necessarily not at all. Why are we also in danger every
hour? I affirm, brethren, by the boasting
in you, which I have in Christ Jesus, our Lord, I die daily. If from human motives, I fought
with wild beasts in Ephesus, what does it profit me if the
dead are not raised? Second Corinthians one. This
is where it shows up all of us. into this neat little package
in the expectation of trouble and difficulty and trial in this
world. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the father of all mercies and comfort. Oh. As soon as Paul says that you
shudder, don’t you? The fact that we need mercy and we’ll
need comfort Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the father of all mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts
us in all of our afflictions. So that we will be able to comfort
those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we
ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of
Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant
through Christ. Second Corinthians 1123, another
lengthy passage just talking about all of the difficulties
that Paul faced and that essentially he told us we, too, could expect. This tribulation, make no. Make
no mistake. It isn’t just pressure, it’s
it’s pressure that both comes from within its pressure that
comes from without. It includes, as one said, everything
which presses on the heart or tries the power of endurance
or resistance. It is relationships. It is finances. It is the world. It is the world
system. It is the all of those things
rolled in together and at once pressing in on us and within
us. One referred to it as spiritual,
physical or emotional suffering that pretty much summarizes it,
doesn’t it? pressure, oppression, affliction,
tribulation, trouble. That’s just the way this word
is translated throughout the scriptures. So what then is Paul urging?
Let’s exalt in our tribulations. What Paul is pointing to is the
process. Of these tribulations, which
God has given for the purposes, his own purposes in the conditions
and situations of our current life. To work out literally our
salvation of our salvation by working in and through us our
sanctification. God doesn’t just tell us, go
and be perfect. God calls us to the standard.
But one sure fact is that we’re not going to keep after it for
very long. And so God brings tribulation and trials and difficulties
into our life to force us back to a life of grace, to force
us back to a life of mortifying sin, to force us back into putting
these things into practice. And when he does, he gives us
the grace. He gives us the grace to overcome. One Puritan said it this way.
This rejoicing is not in tribulations. In themselves, but in their effects,
it is not only the knowledge of the effects of affliction
and of their being appointed by his heavenly father that enables
the Christian to rejoice in them. In themselves, they are evil
and grievous. But viewed as proceeding from
his heavenly father’s love, they are so far from depriving him
of his joy that they tend to increase it. In other words,
when we come across these difficulties, not if. We can trace them directly
to our heavenly father’s hand who has sifted them through his
loving fingers to us as being perfect for us. This is a perfect
trial for this son of mine. This is a perfect trial for this
child of God. We knew they were coming, right? Jesus told us they were coming.
These things I have spoken to you, John 16, 33, so that in
me you will have peace in this world. You will have tribulation. To take courage, I have overcome
the world. We saw it in a lengthy study
we did in Second Corinthians four. We studied beyond that,
but in 2 Corinthians 4, Paul said this, and it echoes exactly
what we’re considering here in this passage. We are afflicted
in every way, but not crushed, perplexed, but not despairing,
persecuted, but not forsaken, struck down, but not destroyed.
God allows all of those. always carrying about in the
body the dying of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be
manifested in our body. What a great and glorious truth
that we will suffer with Christ, but we will also be glorified
with Him. We enjoyed that last week. We
enjoyed the thought of being glorified one day together with
Christ before the glory of God Himself It’s the suffering that
we need to get our arms wrapped around. Because it’s both. Paul finishes that little passage
with this statement, for we who live are constantly being delivered
over to death for Jesus sake, so that the life of Jesus may
also be manifested in our mortal flesh. And so we don’t exult
in the tribulations as if the tribulations themselves are something
that we’re supposed to be happy about or that are somehow meritorious. Oh, look what God allowed me
to undergo. But we exult in them. Because we
know God, a loving God, has a purpose in them and that God, a loving
God, is going to use them for his purpose in sanctifying us,
in making us more and more every day like Christ. One commentator said this is
not irrational or fanatical. I mean, if we did start doing
that, you would have to really you know, people would be raising
their eyebrows. Other Christians would be looking at us. What
is wrong with these people? Thank you, Lord, for the ticket
that I got. Thank you, Lord, for losing my job. That’s not
at all what he’s talking about. That would be fanatical. Christians
do not glory in suffering as such or for its own sake, but
because they consider it an honor to suffer with Christ, because
they rejoice in being the occasion of manifesting his power in their
support and deliverance. Have you ever realized that?
that the world is watching you. And when you go through these
difficulties and when God is upholding you, when God is sustaining
you, you are bearing a witness. How many times have you had a
Christian? How are you? How are you making it? How? Why are you so happy? And then thirdly, because suffering
is the means of their own sanctification and preparation for usefulness,
not only here, but hereafter. God’s using it, God’s using it
for his glory and his promise is replete throughout scriptures.
Matthew five, four, blessed are those who mourn, why? For they
shall be comforted. God’s going to bring you through
it. God’s going to sustain you in the midst of it. He’s got
a purpose for it. It’s a limited period of time.
And when he gets there, you will be comforted. Matthew 510, blessed are those
who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult
you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against
you because of me. Rejoice and be glad for your
reward is in heaven is great. Acts 541, you remember the scene,
right? We just went through the book of Acts or partway through. In the chapter five, remember,
the apostles were being persecuted. And it says this astounding statement
in verse forty one. So they went on their way from
the presence of the council after having, by the way, just been
abused and beaten. They went away from the presence
of the council rejoicing that they had been considered worthy
to suffer for his name. They were comforted. Peter echoes
the same thought. To the degree that you share
the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing so that the revelation
of his glory, you may rejoice with exaltation. These afflictions,
these trials, these tribulations. Which we used to consider, especially
outside of Christ, as being God having a bad day, right? God
was mean to us. God is angry with us. We’ve somehow
got to learn to appease God so that we can get out from underneath
this trial. You see now, as a Christian, we know that they come from a
loving hand. We know that they they serve
God’s purposes in preparing us for heaven itself. So when Paul
says. We exult in our tribulations,
we begin to get an understand an understanding of what it means. We know what Paul is saying here,
we’re not happy about the tribulations, but we’re happy about the results
that God will bring by his grace in our lives in due time. In
due time. There’s a second element of this
life of divine assistance that we need to consider this morning.
Not only the need of divine assistance, but the process of divine assistance. Look at the end of verse three.
We’ll take it in full. We not only this, we exult in
our tribulations, knowing and here begins the process, knowing
the tribulation brings about perseverance and perseverance
brings about, I would insert proven character and proven character,
hope and hope does not disappoint. That’s the process. Now, before
we even consider the nature of perseverance, what is perseverance? Let’s pause to consider something
that we might carelessly overlook. And partly due to the feebleness
of the translations before us, Paul says that tribulation brings
about Perseverance. Now, how many of us would rush
home and do a word study on that little translation? It brings
it about. But it’s rich, a translation
here that it brings it about is weak, really weak. Because
it thoroughly brings it about, it makes it happen. The word
talks about something that is done with utter completeness
and thoroughness. And when you say that it brings
it about, unless you put that in all caps, boldface, underline
whatever device you need to use, it absolutely brings it about. We’ve seen the word already in
this epistle. To speak of men, Romans 127, who are thoroughly
committed to sinning, they are given over to sinning. And as such, the word is used
later to speak about the law, which thoroughly brings about
wrath. It holds all people under guilt. This word is used in rich contexts,
and it shouldn’t be so easily overlooked because God is going
to do something. He’s going to do it. It’s not
wishful thinking. Second Corinthians, Paul used
it in that great passage that we’ve already considered momentary
light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory.
It’s already at work in you and I. We remember we are being transformed
from glory to glory. The process is already underway.
If you are in Christ. James 1.3 uses it in almost the
identical context. We’ll look at this verse in a
moment. James 1.3, knowing that the testing of your faith produces,
not maybe, it produces endurance. So when Paul says that it brings
it about. It’s going to happen. It’s already
underway. The process has already began
and it will happen because it’s God who’s doing it. What is he
going to do? Look at the passage briefly,
knowing that tribulation does bring about perseverance, this
word perseverance literally means remaining or abiding under, bearing
up under. It is, as one person said, the
position of one who does not fretfully strive to throw off
a burden. Don’t we seek? I mean, have you
ever been to a prayer meeting where you spend more time talking
about the prayer request than you do praying? I know, me too. We always try to fix everybody’s
trials, don’t we? And that’s because we’re always
trying to get out from underneath them by whatever means we can. Yet Paul says here trials have
a purpose and part of that purpose is is to create a perseverance
and endurance, an ability to sustain and undergo this challenge. It’s patience, but it’s beyond
patience. It is, as one called it, a steadfast
endurance under these trials. One pastor said it this way,
it does not describe a passive, fatalistic resignation, but a
victorious, triumphant, unswerving loyalty to the Lord in the midst
of trials. It is the perseverance of the
martyr who will lay down his life if necessary for the cause
of Christ. James talked about it, as I already
said, consider it all joy, my brethren, an echo of the passage
before us, consider it all joy exalts. Consider it all joy, my brethren,
when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your
faith produces in endurance. That’s what it’s designed to
do. And this perseverance just isn’t it isn’t an obstinate spirit
that just kind of toss it out. Grumbling all the way. It is
this one called one puritan called it a brave patience. God has
a purpose for this, and by his grace, I will endure. Tribulation, said one, provokes
a great part of mankind to murmur against God. That’s where it
takes so many of us. If we can’t get out from underneath
it, we murmur against God. We’re angry at him. The pole
here is pointing to what it accomplishes in our lives, and that’s a good
thing. Patience. Is the developing of
a habit of endurance and Christian patience, the most glorious version
of it implies ultimately a submission, a yieldedness to God’s sovereign
will. You yield and submit because
you love the God who has allowed this thing in his good providence
to come into your life. There’s a patient endurance of
suffering. A mark of faithfulness, a mark
of submission to God himself. Paul glides right in to the second
phase of this process when he says, knowing that tribulation
brings about perseverance and perseverance, and I would add
here or insert here because it’s implied perseverance brings about
proven character. There’s a process that’s not
going to happen overnight that you don’t begin with proven character.
You don’t begin with a life of hope and hopefulness. You begin
with tribulation and tribulation once once it has its. Once, rather, it has run its
finished course, produces in us endurance. And once that endurance
has been manifest, once that perseverance has been shown,
that exhibits itself in proven character. We’ve been tested
and we’ve been found to be true. The word is an interesting word
and it’s used in a variety of ways. It can be used of testing
or it can be used as the results of the testing. Second Corinthians
eight, it’s used the first way in a great ordeal of trial of
affliction out of the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty
overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. They were put to
the test. But it’s also used as the end
product, as I said. Second Corinthians two nine to
this end, we wrote that I might put you to the test, whether
you are obedient in all things. Paul wanted to test them and
he found them to be true in the end. Second Corinthians 13, if
you’re seeking for the proof. Of the Christ who speaks in me
and who is not weak towards you, but mighty in you, Paul says,
you know what? Look, here’s the process. It’s the it’s the process that
they used to test metal. They would put the gold into
a pan and put the pan into the fire and they would cook the
gold and cook out all of the impurities in it. And when it
came out, the gold was pure. That’s the process. It’s exactly
what the word was used to describe. Peter used it. Peter, of all
people who certainly went through this process himself, being purified. Peter said it this way in first
Peter, one verse six. In this, you greatly rejoice,
even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have
been distressed. By various trials, why? So that the proof of your faith
being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though
tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory
and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have
not seen him, you love him, though you do not see him now, but believe
in him, you rejoice greatly. With joy, inexpressible and full
of glory, obtaining as the outcome the salvation of your souls.
It’s an echo of the passage before us. Paul said, look, you’re going
to be tested. Job 2310. He called out for this
very thing. When he said he knows the way
I take when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. Paul spoke these words using
the same words of his son in the faith, Timothy, didn’t he?
Writing to the Philippians, he said, you know of Timothy. You
know of his proven worth, he’s been tested and he’s been found
to be true. This testing, this proving is
is a tried and tested integrity. It is a state of mind, said one,
which has stood the test. It proves to be a strong and
tested faith. This patient endurance that we’ve
spoken about, just as faith leads us to to live under this constant
tribulation that we face in this world, ultimately is the source,
is the proven ground which brings about proven character. This proven character. Doesn’t
reach its terminus there either. The process is underway. The
tribulation brings about perseverance, the perseverance brings about
proven character and proven character brings about hope. I would insert
it there as well. Proven character brings about
hope because that’s implied. To have our faith ultimately
proved or improved by God in the fires and difficulties of
tribulation and and the stresses of life and to find ourselves
to be sustained by him to stand up under the tests and trials
ultimately is to have our hope in him made sure. The more we
go through, the more we endure, the more that we walk with God
and to see him to to be and to say who he is. The more confident we become,
the more hopeful we become. As one said, when we have endured
trouble and the endurance has resulted favorably, it is inevitable
that this proving of ourselves should strengthen and brighten
our hope. The hope that is born of faith
takes on a new and more robust character when it has been confirmed
by the experience of a trial well endured. And yet the process
isn’t finished yet. Tribulation brings about perseverance,
perseverance brings about proven character, proven character brings
about hope, but the process isn’t finished yet. And Paul tells
us finally. What the end of that process
is, what it looks like and hope does not disappoint. And I would
insert essentially the same. Thing here, hope does not disappoint
because it brings about it will bring about experiencing the
glory of God, remember, that’s what hope. was in. That’s what he’s already on record
in verse two as telling us what the hope was. The hope is the
glory of God. And he says here that hope does
not disappoint. It’s an interesting facet. Interesting
thought. It will not bring about the shame
of disappointment, said one. And when I looked at this, I
thought, man, To translate this word as to disappoint is far,
far too mild when you consider what Paul is saying here. He’s
referring to the great hope of glory, we talked about it last
week for an hour, we spent on the glory of God and what that
represented. He’s referring to the great hope
of the glory of God, fully considered last Lord’s Day, the great end
and hope of the Christian. That one day we will see God
face to face. We will see Christ glorified
and we too will be glorified with Christ. That’s the goal
of every Christmas. That’s our what our heart is
tuned to, right? And what Paul imagines here.
Is that that somehow not coming to pass? And the resultant attitude
produced in the one hoping for that glory is disappointment. I mean, are you kidding me? Oh, having a bad day. I was really
looking forward to glory in heaven forever and just didn’t happen. How about utter devastation? How about that we are absolutely
undone? Elsewhere, the word is translated,
at least with a little more zest and accuracy because it’s translated
cursed. Elsewhere, it’s translated utterly
humiliated, shamed, disgraced, that’s more like it. Paul says,
look. Once you have been. Once you
have endured. by the trials that God brings
into your life. And once that endurance produces
proven, tested character, and once that proven, tested character
undergirds the hope in the glory of God, that hope will not be
disappointed. It will not be disappointed.
This is an echo of Isaiah 28, 16. He who believes in this costly
cornerstone will not be disturbed. He will not be shaken. He will
not be put to shame. There’s a third. Thing to ponder. In the. Consideration of divine assistance
not only is about the need of divine assistance and the process
of this divine assistance that God is going to take us and grace
us through the trials and produce in us a hope of glory that will
not be shaken or disturbed. What about the assurance of divine
assistance, the assurance of divine assistance, Paul says
it plainly. Why are we so confident? Why
are we so guaranteed? Why do we rest assured? Paul
says, because the love of God has been poured out within our
hearts and that we don’t take by faith. We know it. We know
it because we’ve experienced it, we’ve sensed it, we can feel
it. We know it all around us. And Paul is going to give us
the grandest example of all in the death of Christ on our behalf. How about that for proof of the
love of God? But the love of God has been
poured out within our hearts and we know it. There are two more points and
we’ll break off here to consider next Lord’s Day, not only this
assurance of divine assistance, the love of God, but the agent
of divine assistance, which is none other than the Holy Spirit. You see, all of the members of
the Trinity participate in our salvation. God certainly participated
in eternity past in. Setting his love upon his people,
Christ died for our sins and the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus
promised to help her, the Holy Spirit comes in and renders divine
assistance internally by indwelling us and granting us that which
we so desperately need. God’s help. We need help. And God gives it by way of the
Holy Spirit. We’ll take up those final two
next Lord’s Day. Let’s go before him in prayer. Our merciful God, we humble ourselves
before you and we thank you and praise you that even this church,
which is so beset by so many kinds of difficulties, which other writers referred
to as multicolored. Lord. We are not despondent over
these, the world would be. We cannot be. We know for a fact
that you have loved us too greatly. That these things have not happened
in your absence or as if you were off duty, but Lord, they
have all come into our lives. because of your good providence
to have a purpose. And father, we submit ourselves
to you and we pray for the grace to endure, not just to tough
it out, certainly not to wag our fist at you in the process,
but to learn by your grace to submit. To your wonderful and
loving hand in the midst of the tribulations and trials that
come our way for your purpose, We pray that you would be glorified
through us in the midst of these. And we pray all of this in Jesus’
name. Amen. In Christ alone, my hope is found,
He is my life, my strength, my song. Through the cold and storm
and solid ground, Far through the fields and strife and storm,
My voice of love, my hymn of peace, And through our fields
of striving sing, I’m not there, but I am here in the blood of
Christ the Saviour. To take back the world, losing
our flesh. Oh, look how they help us be. Give them love and righteousness. Stored by the one who came to
stay. We’ll all die cruel, but we will
die. The wrath of God was satisfied,
For every sin a death of faith, Here in the temple of Christ
I live. He came to us with solemn faith,
Light of the world by darkness slain, In flesh, in gold, in
glorious gain. Up from the grave he rose again,
And at his death in victory Since time has long discribled me,
For I am his, and his mine, But with the future fallen thine. No guilt in life, no fear in
death, This is the power of Christ in me. From my first life to
the final breath, Jesus is my destiny. No power of hell, no scheme of
man, And ever what we promise is to be returned. The only hope
here in the power of time is ours is. Thank you.