God's Process Brings Us Into Biblical Hope

Last week in verse 1 and 2, you talked about that as to all the guilt of our past, we were justified and we have peace with God, which was verse 1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And then 2A, as to the present, we stand in divine favor, by whom also you have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And also in 5B, as to the future, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. That's what you spent 45 minutes doing last week. Three simple blessed statements completes the past, indicates the present, and shows the future as regards to your relationship towards God.

But there's more. Let's see if this thing keeps working. How about the difficulties and tribulations which beset us on our way to glory? Don't you like my picture? It's kind of like my life, or Hal's life. So what about those things? Verse 3, and not only so, but we also rejoice in tribulation knowing that tribulation works, one translation says, steadfastness.

Now I've got to thinking about these verses and if you think hard about them, This kind of statement isn't acceptable in the church today. As a matter of fact, if Paul knocked on the door with this message, we wouldn't let him in. And we wouldn't tolerate him because these verses would be highly offensive to us, right? Would they not?

I mean, there are some here that kind of know what we're going to talk about, but what does Paul offer? He never offers sympathy. in tribulations and trials. What he does offer is truth and doctrine. So he takes the tribulations and circumstances in your life and by not offering sympathy, I mean he doesn't offer sympathy with the flesh that would be resistant to those kinds of things, but he does offer truth and he does it through doctrine. So, does this mean that we rejoice in the midst of the tribulations? What do you think? It means you're in them, and in the middle of them you rejoice. In the middle of them? How many think you do? Okay. I'll tell you why.

Romans 5.11 says, and not only so, but we also enjoy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement. Would you say that we rejoice in spite of God? And the reason I ask that question, oops, how do you go back? How do I go back?

I'm going forward too fast. I probably should have. I should have phrased it a different way. Do we rejoice in spite of the circumstances, in spite of the tribulations? Yeah, you're going to get me way ahead. My question was, do. My question, probably to make it clearer, would have been, do we rejoice in spite of the circumstances? I should have made that clearer. And the reason I used 5.11 was that that same prepositional phrase is there. And you can't say that we rejoice in spite of God.

And the point is that we begin to recognize that the tribulations are for our benefit rather than in spite of them. Does that make sense? I wish I could back up. How do I do that? Where's Peggy? Oh, here we go. Are we going forward? No. Ah, here we go. We are going back. Okay. This is what I meant. In spite of tribulations, do we rejoice in the midst of or in spite of tribulations? That was the question I should have made clear. Everybody with me?

And my answer was no. And the reason was, is that in Romans 5.11... Oh, now I'm going forward. Okay. Rejoice. Maybe I could say it this way.

Does this mean that we rejoice? because we're supposed to in the middle of tribulations. Even though we have them, we endure them. We know we're in the middle of them and we can't get out. So we're, you know, in spite of having them, we're going to rejoice. Yeah, that kind of thing. And the reason I said no, and I'll show you why here. Hopefully this thing will work this time.

Romans 5.11 says, and not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, would you say that we rejoice in spite of God? And the reason I asked that question was because this prepositional phrase is exactly the same one in verse 3 that says, some of the translations say we rejoice in the midst of or in tribulation. And it's not that we rejoice in spite of God, in spite of the circumstances or the tribulation, but not in the middle of the tribulations, but we're glad we have them. It isn't in spite of, it's because we know what they're there to do. And I think the proper way to look at this is that our rejoicing in the tribulations is that we're glad to have them. That's why Paul wouldn't be accepted in the door. Right? If you came in teaching this, we would lock the doors. You're not coming to my town. You see that? Is that clear now? Okay.

So how does Paul equip us? He equips us by teaching the Word, By not making allowances for feelings, necessarily, knowledge makes the joy of our tribulations rational. Because if you read verse 3, it's not rational if you don't know what it's there to do. Am I right about that? Somebody read this verse. Read verse 3. Anybody. 5-3, please. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulation, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance...

Yeah, is that crazy? An unbeliever would look at that and say, I don't understand what you mean. I don't understand at all what you mean. And as a matter of fact, when you think about it, when we come to prayer requests, what's happening? Here's God doing his thing, right? Bringing tribulation into believers' life for their benefit. And what do we pray? God, you better stop it. You better stop doing that. You better take the sickness or the stress or whatever it is out of their lives because it's not good for them. This verse teaches that it is. As a matter of fact, that we should be glad that we have them. You see the insanity if you don't know the Lord. OK. Now, we'll talk about, if I can get it to work, let's look at some words.

The word tribulation in that verse means pressure from the outside. It's affliction, it's anguish, it's a burden. It can be persecution, and I'll show you some verses where it's specific things. The next word is the word works or produces, which means to accomplish. by implication to finish or to fashion. And the last word is steadfastness, which means endurance, consistency, patient continuing. Those three words, everybody in the verse see the three words I'm talking about?

You with me? Okay. Let's just for grins look and see what, in 2 Corinthians 4, 8, 9, Paul describes tribulation. Are you rejoicing about having these in your life? Or, if you don't like those, there's another passage that has more. So, what's going on here? There's a principle that Paul is trying to convey about believers rejoicing, and here's why. God brings us into tribulation in all kinds. Do you agree with this statement? Or is it Satan's fault? Or circumstance of the world's fault? Do you agree with this statement? Is it God's the one that brings you into these things?

How many think he does? How many think, nah, probably not? I see some people that are chickens and won't raise their hands. Yeah, he does. He brings us into tribulation, every kind imaginable, whether it's physical, whether it's emotional, spiritual.

God gives us the knowledge, though, that these tribulations will result in something, steadfastness on our part, in faith and patient endurance. of having been brought by grace through the trials. Let's talk about that for a minute. That's a great question, by the way. Let's talk about that for a minute.

You find yourself in a circumstance that you brought yourself into. Maybe by sinning. I know you don't sin very much, but pick on your world. But maybe by sinning. So here you are in the circumstance, and you're getting a lot of heat because of what you've done. Does God look at you and say, you know, it's your fault. I'm not doing anything. What does he do? What does he do? That's exactly right. In James, Two maybe? I don't know where it is.

It talks about temptation that comes towards us. I'm sorry, not towards us, but from our own lust and our own sin nature. And that is designed specifically to cause us to fail and to be condemned. Right? Your sin nature is very, very aggressively active so that it can manifest its character, its life through you.

And so let's say that happens. Same description. So what does God do about it? Well, what he does is that he intercepts it and he uses it for your approval, even though you may have been the instigator. You see that? If you weren't a believer, it wouldn't serve to condemn you. But even the worst thing that you find yourself into, God will use it. You know, there's literally millions of stories of Christians going back in the world and you'd think that condemnation would be... I mean, God would be finished with them because they should know better. And through those circumstances where they are, they have a change of mind. And they come back and they're matured because of it.

It doesn't give you a license to do it. It doesn't mean sinning is okay. The point is that there are circumstances that come into your life. As a matter of fact, the one you just described, do you think God didn't know that you were going to go that direction? Didn't know that you were going to sin and put yourself in a strait? No. And because He knew, He allowed it to happen. being all-knowing, what does he do? He uses that circumstance to do this, because you're one of his sons.

The process gives us a sense of divine approval that we didn't have before, and which is only found in those who have been brought through the trials by God's all-sufficient grace. If we understand the purpose and the principle, then it's almost like a guy said to me one time, gee, you know, if my life's going too easy, I'm thinking, gee, Lord, have you forgotten about me? The understanding of what tribulations really were designed to do, this person understood that his spiritual growth, a lot of his spiritual growth, was dependent on this.

Not good news to the old man, sorry. Okay, so what do we discover? What do you discover in the middle of these things? I think, not to be repetitious, but I think that there is a divine process that's going on all the time. There's a divine process and pressure is really good growing soil. And that we know what is designed to work out. If we understand Romans 5, 3, and 4, we know what God's up to. And trust me, God doesn't work in the dark. He wants His sons to know things. To not only know Him and know the principles and the doctrine, but He wants you to know how He does things.

You understand what I mean? Leland? I'm a little confused. So would you say that if No, I don't think I don't think I don't think that You know, time is a consistent element, although it's part of it. If you're like me, I'm very stubborn, it takes the Lord a lot longer with me.

Some people who are very sensitive, they move out of walking in the Spirit and it just has a tremendous effect on them right away. because they've lost fellowship and they're very sensitive to that. You know, other people like me are sort of stupid. It takes a while to kind of get it, you know. The thing is, is that intimacy with Christ is the thing. And when you lose that, and you're paying consequences because of the pressure that maybe you've caused, I've caused, then you begin to realize the difference between resting and not. struggle and fighting and the works of the flesh and resting in Christ. A believer who's more mature sees these coming and he continues to rest because he knows what God's up to. But I think you've got to go through maybe two of them to figure that out. It seems to me the people that I talk to There's still, we all know there's tons of bad teaching out there, but people that I know that are even really strong believers still have the same reaction as Job's friends.

What did I do wrong? That's right. Or why, you know, I must have done something. And they look at these kinds of things as a punishment. Yeah. And that's why it's so unacceptable as you say that you wouldn't let somebody in the doors of the church because still the great bulk of people out there seem to view these kinds of things as a punishment and not They're paying a consequence. They're right. And they know that they're not saying that God didn't do it, but they see it as punitive instead of as... So if you wake up on a Monday morning and the doc says, you got leukemia. Yeah.

Is that punitive? I know people who... Oh, so do I. You know, it's just like, oh, I had a flat tire, and they're going, God, I must not have said my prayers long enough this morning. I mean, it's really... So what's the Apostle Paul trying to tell believers?

That the circumstances that come into your life, and he uses this word, tribulation, which means pressure from without, and they come in any form, that they're there specifically to carry out his purpose that he has designed, which we'll get to. If a believer is under any sort of a legal framework in this theology, then he thinks like you think. Plus, the old man always thinks that way. The old nature always thinks punitive. Punitive or arbitrary. That's right. Or, if things are going good, I must be really cooking with the Lord. He's really pleased with me today.

Because I went to church on Sunday and I wrote a big check. Oops, what did I do? Ah, good, I went back. Now I'm going back again. Here we go, verse 4. And patience works experience, and experience hope. I'm sorry. Oh, I'm really in trouble now. There I go. I got it going. I'm going back. I'm supposed to have two more words, or a couple of words. Let's see if I can get it to do it right. A few more words. Documé, experience, this word here, means properly, properly acceptable, approval, approved, tried, proven out. This word means, I think the best translation is tried character.

So here you have a situation. where tribulation is producing patience, endurance. Then the next item in the sequence is this thing called experience. Well, if I translate a tried character, what am I talking about? If I find myself in a circumstance whether I cause it or not, no matter what it is, and it's a trial, it's a tribulation. And in it, I'm learning patience. I'm learning to sit and wait for God to finish what He's doing. And as this process is moving on, I'm experiencing a tried character or a sense of approvedness. What's really happening there? Maybe ask it this way. Whose character is it? Yeah. So, maybe say it this way. Here we are as young believers, right?

We don't know anything about anything other than we're saved. You know, God saved me. He paid the penalty. Jesus paid the penalty for my sins. It's all about me. Right? Here comes this circumstance. Somebody informs us that, you know what? Your old man was crucified on the cross, and there really are two natures within you. There's the old nature and the new nature, and you're thinking, that's really cool, but how do I know the difference? How would I know the difference? How would I know what's the characteristics of the old man and the characteristics of this resurrected life of Christ that's in me? Here's how you find out.

God brings you into circumstances, or you do, and who can handle the circumstances that you're in? Your old man can't. Have you ever been in that situation? Where you are really in a place where you have to look at the Lord and say, you know, I'm done. I'm out of gas. I cannot deal with this circumstance. Ever been there? The young guys aren't smiling. The old guys are. So what happens?

This circumstance you're in, you're learning patience, but you're learning that there's a man or a nature within you, the resurrected life of Christ, and his character is proving out to you that he's reliable through this circumstance. You're not going to learn that any other way, I don't think. I don't think you learn it any other way. You have a sense of, well, God has sustained me.

I love that painting where it shows the footprints in the sand, or whatever it is, and there's two, and then one, and the thing is, how come there's only one, and the tagline is, that's when he carried me. I always laugh at that, because in my life, there's always only been one set of prints. I've been carried the whole way. It's foolish for me to think I'm walking with the Lord both feet in the sand.

How do I find out that I'm sustained and carried the whole way? This is how. This is how I find out. You okay with that? Am I scaring you? Especially you guys that are fairly new at this. So this tried character that's been proven out by trial, you find yourself coming through this circumstance that the life of the Lord Jesus, His character, is up to the task every time. How do you know He's up to the task unless you've been put to the test? Now, the next thing it does, that tried character, that experience, leads to a sense of hope. Who wants to tell me what hope is? So, we'll go to hope in a minute, but let's review the principles.

In these things we rejoice too. The secret of our ability to rejoice in that which naturally is so distasteful to us is that we know what it is designed to work out. Now, you can read these verses, you can memorize these verses, but until you've kind of been down the road in these verses, I don't think that you rejoice because you know, just because you were told. Would you agree with that or not? No. No. We live by faith, but we find ourselves in a circumstance where we really don't know what's going on. Look at number three. Tribulations in themselves are not pleasant, but they're grievous. We don't like them. Yet they set in motion a whole sequence of things which are most excellent and blessed, patience, tried character, and hope. Maybe to clarify, everybody understand the difference between position and condition in here? You know what that means?

We all have a position in Christ. Whoops, I did it again. I'm close. We all have a position in Christ. What do I mean by that? When I say you have a position in Christ, what do I mean? If I said to you in Ephesians that it says that you are blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus and that's a done deal, what have I just described? A position that you have, right? That you've been crucified, buried, resurrected and you're now seated in the heavenlies, what am I talking about? I'm talking about a position that you have, right?

Now that may or may not line up with your everyday walking around condition. You may never, at least up to this point, see yourself as blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. You may not see yourself seated in the heavenlies, but you have a position that God has implemented for you and every believer that can't be touched because he did it. Salvation is not necessarily fire insurance. Salvation is by resurrected life that you're in. That's your position. Nothing can ever touch that position.

Your condition can be all over the lot. What are we talking about in these verses? Position or condition? Yeah, we're talking about condition. We're talking about the principles that God uses for you to do what? To begin to enter into conditionally and live from your position.

I'm not talking about whether you believe it or not. I'm talking about whether maybe another way to phrase it is whether you own it and that's what your perspective is and that's where you see things. That you view circumstances as good for you. Troubling circumstances and you rejoice in them. So instead of being against us, they turn into a source of our profit that you see them this way. How many of you see your circumstances that way?

Don't have to answer. There's lots of principles that you're going to learn in the rest of 5 and 6 and 7 and 8. But at the end of it, it says that God works all things together for good to those who are called according to His purpose, to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, and those He foreknew, He foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son. God's purpose for every believer is to conform him to the image of His Son, to be just like Christ. These are some of the circumstances that contribute to that.

So a sign of maturity would be, how does pressure affect me? When the pressure comes, how do I respond to it? That'll tell you all you need to know about your own maturity. If you're like me, you panic right away. No. But you understand, if the principles are in place, am I saying that you're just going to be smiling all the time?

Absolutely not. Am I saying that you're going to be able to endure perfectly? No. It's telling me my phone's on. It went off in church a couple of weeks ago. Did you guys hear it? So, how do you react and how does pressure affect you is a real sign of maturity. Okay, moving on here. Yes. No, please, go ahead. Muddy all you want. Go ahead. Okay. Say that again. I'm sorry. He wouldn't do such a thing, would he? Do you think your sin nature... Along with Satan, you're in trouble. I mean, you have a nature within you that's looking for every opening it can.

We have a buddy that comes to the Tuesday men's study, and he came in one day, and I asked for prayer like I usually do. And he said, well, pray for me. He says, Satan is really after me. He's been dogging me all week. I said to him, Satan doesn't know your name. He said, what do you mean? I said, well, you're the most important Christian on the planet that he would come to Denver and bother you? He said, well, hold on man, let me finish. He said, I said, Satan isn't omnipresent, only God is, so you must be really important because he's in Denver and he's picking on you.

He said, well, he sent one of his minions. I said, oh, okay. I said, so why did he do it? Why did he do it? Why did he send them to pick on you? Let's assume that you really are that important. Why did he do it? Based on the principle of your position in Christ, what's it designed to do?

Number one, Satan is a defeated foe, is he not? So that means he's under the control of the one who defeated him. So he doesn't have free reign. to come into your life and cause havoc to you just because he wants to. He couldn't even do that to Job. God's the one that said to Satan, see my son Job? Set him up and gave him the rules. He said, you can do this, but you can't do this. And what did it prove out in the end for Job? So Satan, I think, has to be viewed as an instrument in God's hand to accomplish the same thing that circumstances accomplish.

So I don't think that he's a threat to your position in Christ, but he will be used for you to stop walking in the flesh, there's no question about that. Did that answer, or did I dance all around it and not answer? No, that answers it. But I do feel that we have to recognize that Ephesians 6 is there for a reason. So when Ephesians 6 comes, do you focus in on Satan, or what do you do?

I say, okay, I'm weak. You can take advantage of me. If you don't know what I need to do, get right in here. And the focus is on the Lord Jesus, your position in Him. I remember Miles Stanford one time described Satan's coming towards you, or that he's like an attack dog on a choke collar, and that God lets him out just a little bit. If you're standing at the perimeter of being in Christ, He lets him out a little bit to drive you farther into Christ. I like that viewpoint. Now let's see if I can get this thing going right here. That's going the wrong way again. I'm technically challenged.

What does hope mean? What I have is is trying to define and I hope it's here. What does hope mean? Anybody want to tell me? Human hope? Human hope has certain characteristics to it. It's a wish. It has to do with the unseen and the future and is doubtful in its anticipation. I lost it. It's not based on God's word and it doesn't have God in the middle of it. I'm sorry. It's like you push it up. It'll go for it. OK. Now I go. I'm going to move on because I think what I've done difficult. Maybe it's just going to feed in slow. I don't know.

What would you say Biblical hope is? Whoops, it's gone. What would you say Biblical hope is? What's it based on? What's already true. And how do you know it's true? Where'd you find out? It's in the Word of God. What's the guarantee that it's true? It's because the author is God. And is it certainty or is it hope, hope, hope? Is it absolute certainty? It's absolute certainty.

So here we have a set of circumstances that put us in... Tribulation comes in our life and... Here we go. Tribulations come in our life and what happens? We have a circumstance where we learn this hope is being fostered in us by these circumstances because we learn from the circumstances that God is up, what God is up to and what he's doing. And so I, in spite of, you talk about a trying circumstance, this is it. I've got to move ahead because we're running out of time.

Come on. There's no thought of mere wishing or doubtful anticipation in the hope. Why is it doing that? Hope is sure and steadfast. Hebrews 6.19 says it's sure and steadfast.

In 2 Corinthians 3.12, seeing that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech. So it's nothing to be ashamed of. There's no reason to be ashamed or afraid when we know the glory that is to be revealed in us. The hope feeds your courage, maybe, is a way to look at it. Here we go. 17, verse 5. The hope makes us not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given to us. What would you be ashamed about? What do you think?

Oops, I've done it again. It wasn't true, or that the principle wasn't true, or that the character of God wasn't... Come on, Mikey. I'm not going to do this again. I'm going to go back to my... Oh boy. I wanted to point out something in this verse because it makes... We're given two gifts by the Holy Spirit. Boy, look at that. Can you see the signs down here? I'm almost tempted just to not mess with this anymore.

Why wouldn't hope make us ashamed? What would we be ashamed of? Or what would we be fearful about? What would it be? If you're put through these circumstances, what would you be ashamed? He says that hope makes us not ashamed. Hope's a certainty because it's based on God's word. There's no doubt about it. It's a future issue. It's not right now. It's future.

What would you be ashamed of? If it weren't true, yeah, it weren't fulfilled. What's the verse that says that Christ didn't rise from the dead that we should be ashamed of all our lives? What's that verse again? It talks about how, like if Christ didn't rise from the dead that we should be ashamed of all our lives. Oh, if Christ isn't risen, we above all men are most... I forget. Yeah. Yeah. The point is that we have nothing to base our confidence on.

This verse 5 gives us two gifts. And hopefully, because of the two gifts, hope makes us not ashamed. And here are the gifts. Hopefully they'll come up. One is that God loves us and two is that the Holy Spirit lives in us. So you're not ashamed because of two things that God gives you according to this verse. He gives you His love and the Holy Spirit lives in us. Hope is objective.

Understand what I mean by that? The information about hope is objective, it's based on fact, and it's proven out in the circumstances God puts you in, but there's also a subjective power that occupies your hearts with such hope. Understand what I'm saying here? In other words, not only is there a position involved, but there's a condition involved here. And if this thing works right, So what is the subjective power?

It's the Holy Spirit himself. Because what's the Holy Spirit been sent to do? Without the power of the Spirit of God, we should be as weak as water. Don't you like that? So what is the Spirit doing here? Because He is the one that implements in you the Christian life, right? And he's the one, like back to your question about Satan, he's the one that in Galatians 5, it talks about the spirit less against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit. They're contrary one to another. The flesh is your old nature. The spirit is the Holy Spirit. Where are you in that equation? Which one are you? Neither. Neither.

So the Spirit of God is a subjective power in you that allows you to rest by hope in spite of the circumstances. How does he do it? He does it by Shedding abroad in your heart the love of God. Now this love is the agape word, which means that the love of God is without cause. You had nothing to do with why he loves you. The cause is solely within him. And he finds you extremely valuable. You're the object of his love. You are extremely valuable. How do you know that? You wouldn't know it if the Holy Spirit didn't shed that love abroad in your heart, would you? subjectivity.

And it has been poured out, which means to gusher, to pour out. In a little grammar lesson, this is indicative perfect passive. It means it's reality. Perfect tense means that what? Perfect tense means it's happened and it has abiding effects from now on. And it's in the passive voice, which means it's being done to you.

Okay? You okay with that? Hopefully I'm getting to the end of this. So what is this power that he gives? What is it? How would you describe it? Put a label on it. Now you better answer because I'm allowed to mess up the slide and we won't know. What is the power? Oops, it went by you so fast you didn't see it. What is the power? It tells you in the verse. What is it? Oops. I've done it again. The power is the love of God. Understand what I mean by that? It's love. I got it.

The love of God. And the reason it's powerful is that love doesn't occupy us with self or selfish feelings. This kind of love operates in us, and so we're not anxious to think about how people think of us or our own welfare. There's no thought of shame or disappointment if your focus isn't on you. Understand what I mean?

The love of God shed abroad in your heart is, you are responsive to it. How do you respond to the love of God? Someone in your life loves you, how do you respond to them? By loving them back. See that? We love Christ because, we love God because He first loved us. You didn't wake up one day and decide, this is Tuesday, I'm going to love God today. You do it. You did it because of this. This is a very powerful thing, the love of God. And the reason it's powerful is because it takes you off of you and your circumstances and puts them on the Lord where they belong. You know what?

We're probably out of time, aren't we? Sorry about the presentation. I hope you learned something. Let's close. Dear Father, how we thank you for your word and not only the doctrine that you teach us but also the principles under which you implement the doctrine into our life. We thank you for the fact that your spirit has shed abroad in our hearts a love for you and that we can rest in that love and rest in you. We pray in your son's name. Amen.