Lesson 60c & begin 15:14-21 Lesson 61a
Romans 15:8-13 · Mike Doyle · Nov 15, 2020
Romans (2018-21), No. 138
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926192102853

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All righty, we are on the last question, question 8 of lesson 60, and these are the verses in 15. 8 to 13. And we're in the last verse, which again, just is, as I was studying it and putting it together, just incredible to unpack how much is in this summary verse. And again, as we're getting down, Mike's going to come up as soon as we finish this one and finish these verses in 15.

But remember, this is the end of a long letter. We break it up into chapters and we've been going two years in Romans. And this is the culmination of Paul's letter. And so these are kind of the summary verses that after all he's told us about our sinful nature, being justified, crucified, there's no condemnation, all these things. Now it's coming down to these summary verses, I think. It's kind of when you get to the bottom of the letter, you have the summary.

And this is Paul's, I think, kind of after all He's told you, this is what He's coming and giving us hope. So in verse 13, well in question 8, how do we and what does it mean to abound in hope? So it says in verse 13, Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. So what does the verse say about how we abound What does the verse say about how we abound?

How do we do that? By believing. By believing. Yeah. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you will abound in hope. So again, as we've discussed in question six earlier, it all comes down to faith, our believing what God says is true about us and what He wants for us. And I was in my readings this week, in my morning reading, when I was reading, I came across this, which I think is pertinent to this, germane to what we're going through in all the country and all the different things. It was in 1 John 5, 4 and 5.

And whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world. What is it? Our faith. So again, it all comes down to faith. Just what he says here, in believing we have all the hope, joy, peace, all that, and we overcome the world by our faith. So again, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world? But he who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

I really thought that was, you know, again, it all comes down to this one thing called faith. Do we believe this? Do we believe all of what Paul has said in Romans, where he comes down to it now, and he says the God of all hope will fill you with joy in believing so that you'll abound in hope. So, what is the result of our believing?

Joy and peace. What's that? Who is that? Abounding in hope. There it is. The God will fill you up with all the joy and peace in believing so that, so that's the so that, what's the result of that? You will abound in hope. So our believing results in abounding in hope.

So I looked at, you know, the abounding, see which one, this one in the Greek word and it's periso. which means to superabound in quantity or quality, to be in excess. Zodiates has it this way in the New Testament, to be or have more than enough. So, to superabound in hope, to have more than enough of hope. So, this isn't just a little hope or certainty in God, it's superabounding in it, it's more than enough. To what, as I looked in that first John, to overcome the world? That's your faith in believing. You can superabound in hope. So, again, the last question I have is, again, what are we superabounding in? Hope.

And that's the certainty of God. That is the certainty of everything that He said about us is true. And all the things that are coming before us are true. And that's the God, the certainty we have when we talk about the hope. It's not, well, I hope it happens. Remember, this is a certainty. And this is all the things He told us about it. And all we have to do to overcome and get all this is to believe. Simple faith. So, yeah. Something that God just really brought to my attention of many things this week was this word, hope.

And there was a fellow in the conference who knew his Greek real well, and he said that that word has this connotation that goes with it, like a guarantee. Isn't that amazing? It's like, if you follow Christ, walk in his ways, and trust, walk in his ways, it's a guarantee that all of God's promises will come true for you. It's a guarantee that things will always get better, and we'll always struggle, There's a guarantee? Interesting about those wording. I use the word certainty. It's a certain thing. No doubt, no question about it.

I do say it, not that we're going to have a life without trials. But, as we talked about, consider it all joy, my brother, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. So it's a testing of your faith, but how do you have joy? I don't know if we were discussing this in class or with some other people about what that joy... No, we were at the end of the class, I think, about the joy. And if it's like, yeah, yeah, I think it's the peace, the rest, that's where the joy is. You still go through a lot of trials and different things, but there's peace, joy, or there's peace and rest and strength in believing. And that gives us a joy.

The trial may be tough, the trial may be challenging but the underlying feeling is certainty and the joy knowing that God is in control of this and he's using it not in malice, he's drawing us to him, he's using it for his purposes and that we can even in a trial have that inner peace which is a joy through that trial.

So, again, I think that hope is a big word, David, I agree with you. But it's really that certainty, that guarantee of everything he said. But it's all based on the veracity of him who said it, which is God. And the second part of that equation is believing it. Yeah, Mike? Yeah, that's kind of the question I had.

The verse says, now the God of hope will fill you. He's the one who does it. With all joy and peace. in believing which results in abounding in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. So what's my role? Believe. It's the God-feeling through the power of the Holy Spirit. What is the Holy Spirit doing? What do I say? Convincing and convicting you. You have to believe it. All hope, all joy and peace in believing. So there's an attachment to believing Can you hear me now?

Not very good. How about that? No, the light's right there. Is this Zoom doing weird sounds? Yeah. Sorry, the sound is doing weirdo. Do you want to do that back one? Do you want to do this? Try that one? Well, it's all going to do it. Because you're loud, and Zoom's trying to compensate. Is this better? Can you hear me now?

Yeah. OK. Yeah. It'll do it again once you start talking. My question is that the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace. Okay, does the filling happen first or does my believing happen first? Yes. That's a great answer. Or does it all come together?

I say it happens first because when you receive Christ, you receive at that moment everything you'll ever need for life in God's name. You receive Christ through His hope. and he's in you, and you can say that in your position, but then as you learn to trust and appropriate truth, walk by faith, then you experience, you start to experience it, and then you feel it. Yeah, I would agree with you David, I think that what we call positional truth, you know, I learn of these things that are true of me in my position in Christ, But what's interesting is, fulfill me with joy and peace in believing. There's a consequence, or a result of believing, which God says, or Paul prays that the God of hope would fill us with joy, and then that we would abound in this hope.

Which is not just, oh, OK, I've got hope. No, it's an abounding thing. And it's done by the power of the Holy Spirit. It's His power, not mine. And I think that's a critical point. But it's us believing that. I think it's God the Father providing it, the Holy Spirit convincing us. But we have to believe it in order to have that joy and peace and that super abounding in hope.

I guess what I'm arguing against here is the believers who tell you, well, I just have to believe harder. That doesn't make any sense to me. If I read and understand what God's grace is towards me, the harder I believe, the more joy I have. a uniform. It's not harder or less. You either believe or you don't. It's kind of like a one or zero. You believe or you don't. And so I don't think there's a magnitude of that. It's you either believe or you don't. So it's not like I'm harder. I just believe.

And then I have settled peace and rest in that belief. Any other questions before, you know, I guess the other last kind of thing that I didn't put on here, but I was thinking about it is, how are you doing with that? You know, as the world is in torment, we have COVID, we have elections, we have that. Are you super abounding in hope? Super abounding.

You know, Courtney, I'll speak to that because I can answer yes, but it's only by the grace of God. And it's only because I've been walking with him for 30 plus years, and most of that, not most of it, but there's been a lot of suffering. And I know that God's faithful. He's got me through it. Everything, time, and he will continue to provide for all my needs. I have nothing to worry about. And you can take it to the bank that after you've suffered a little while, God himself will restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast.

That's just one of so many promises that we just, that we can just know for sure that's true and count on it. It's like you just know it. I think it's been very pertinent from 13 on about governments and all that and everything that's going on in the world. God is the one who puts them in, whether the politics, whether you're who D or R or red or blue or whatever, God's the one who actually puts all that stuff in place.

Then how do we deal with people as we've been going through 14? How do you deal with a weaker brother? How do you deal with just other brothers? How do you be at peace, if at all possible, with all men? All these things are very pertinent right now, and I think it's been great to go through these chapters, especially as we're going through the things in the world right now. And I can tell you, it is great, I think I've said that before, how would you like to be in this world without Christ right now? I think it would just be like being in a garbage disposal, you know, torn up and turned around.

If you don't have, and again, there's a certainty of hope. That's what I think, David, I think the same thing, is the certainty of hope. That's what we have. That's what gives us that peace and rest in all of this turmoil. And I think, you know, for all of us, hopefully we have that rest in believing that God is the one who's doing all this and allowing it.

You know, Courtney? Yeah. In the Hungry Heart this week, he was talking about how we're in enemy territory. Yeah. So that kind of hit home. You know, Juan, you bring it up one second. I thought this This just hit me this week when I was reading The Hungry Heart, actually. And it was one that I think, it kind of is pertinent. Yeah, this is kind of an interesting one. It was on 11-3.

I find when I sit down with people quietly to have a talk that they begin at once to speak of the trials of the way. And after that, if I say, suppose we change the subject and talk of things of God, then I find that they can talk of nothing but His mercies to themselves, but it is all His temporal benefits they talk of. And they go no higher than this.

How few can say the Father has shown me wonderful things lately about the Lord Jesus Christ. What is our focus? You know, we talk about deliverance, blessings, this and all that. How about the beauty of the Lord and our relationship with the Lord? That's key. I just thought that was great. How few can say, the Father has shown me wonderful things lately about the Lord Jesus Christ. We're back. Sorry. It was. But again, I just thought that was really cool, that you know, we talk about trials, we talk about blessings, we talk about, we talk about, we talk about, but what about just the beauty of the Lord?

I thought that was, what has God shown us about just Jesus and looking at Him? You know, that I thought was, you know, we get so locked up in everything here and how He delivered us from trials and the blessings He gave to us, this, that, and the other, but how about just looking at the Lord? I thought that was a really good one. I also think about that issue is that we get twisted in theological schools, viewpoints, attitudes, and all of that serves to get in the way of just beholding the glory of the Lord. That's the most important part. That's what God is all about. He wants us to know Him. of, you know, if we behold Him, we're conformed to Him, we're transformed, we're all the things, but it's focusing on Him, not the blessings and the trials.

And that's why I thought that was such a good one this week, is that it's the focus on Him, to behold Him, your 2 Corinthians 3.18, beholding in a mirror, you know, seeing and being transformed, and to conforming us to the image of Christ.

In Courtney? Yeah. Do you think it might be a tactic of the enemy to keep our eyes on the things of the world and the problems here so that we're not involving the Lord and keeping our focus on Him? I think so, and I think, you know, that's why I bring this up. I think we have to keep our focus on the Lord, you know, throughout all of this. And again, there have been a couple of them, I think, this week where, you know, we're focusing on the gifts more than the giver. And I think we tend to do that a lot of times.

And, you know, it's really to know Him. You know, it's to know Him, to have the intimacy, have that relationship. And that's really where our focus should be. And then as we're conformed to His image, we follow all that Paul has told us, who we are in Christ. But you need to know, that's the facts and the tracts. You need to know first about this and know Him.

But it's really just spending time. I think, again, I give Mike praise, which his head swells, but the big head, was basically just telling him to read the Scripture without studying it, really studying it, just read it. And so I've done that for years now, where I just, I start in John and I read, I just got done with Jude, now I'm starting back on John. I just read a chapter a day, just read it. And every time I find a little bit more, you know, just more about knowing Him. And it's great. So I think, you know, not a big study as we get into this, but just read it.

And it's reading about who you are, reading about who Christ is, all this is just, you know, It's getting to know him, you know, on a, I hate to say it, almost a casual basis. But we have that intimacy with him that we can say daddy. But it's a relationship so casual that we can come before him with anything. And a rest, and that's joy, peace, all these things he's said are, you know, as you know him, it comes about.

So... Well, and that's, I mean, you're spending time with him in that You know, you're not in expectation, you're not saying, I want this and I want this, and you're just being with Him. Yeah. And allowing Him to, the Spirit, to point things out to you.

Exactly, it's not, you know, we can come before Him anytime, anyplace, anywhere, you know, and He says, come with, you know, the, whatever it is, the, with all prayer and supplication, and again, what it does is to guard your heart, you know, it's not going to answer, but He says, come with everything, which we're to do.

But it's those quiet times of just focusing, reading, and seeing who Christ is. That's where we're conformed. We're looking at Christ, not about what He's done, doing, or whatever. It's knowing who He is, because if we know Him, we know who we are in Christ. Have you heard of the book by Brother Lawrence, Practicing the Presence of Jesus? Yeah. That's good.

Because he says, and it's so true, that the more you get to know Him, the more you're going to love Him. You just can't help it enough. And the more you love Him, the more you want to know Him. And it's just this beautiful cycle, you know, of love and grace and growing and receiving and believing and getting even more confident. Absolutely. Absolutely. There's a guarantee that will happen.

I'll tell you where you see it in the scriptures that ties to this verse really well was that the stranger on the road to Emmaus and on the way back Jesus disappears and they're talking amongst each other and one disciple says to the other didn't our hearts just leap when he was teaching this? hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. None of this happens without the intimacy within. Their doctrine is just their doctrine. Well, again, this all joy and peace, that's what I say in the process, is in believing.

God's willing to fill you up. See, that's the cool part. God is willing to fill you, and is there 24-7, 365, willing to fill you up. The Spirit is working on that. We just have to believe. Believing, yeah, that the objective doctrine is really important, but to believe that God is willing to fill us with all joy and peace with the Lord Jesus is hard sometimes because, gee, we want to be theologians, we don't want to be charismatics. But He does. Yeah.

Like I said, this verse 13 is just a lot to unpack. have the Holy Spirit working on you about this one, just what it means and how, you know, the process, God of all hope, filling us with joy and peace. All we do is believe and the Holy Spirit convinces us and we super abound in hope. Awesome process.

Hey, Courtney, I just heard your Hungry Heart quote. Did you read the quote? Yeah, it's 1113. Oh, you mean you didn't hear the actual When I was reading it? Right here. No, it stopped. Oh, it stopped. Yeah, what did I do with it? Did I put it back? Oh, yeah. Oh, sorry about that. We didn't know when we lost it. I'll read it. We thought you guys were all having conversations about this after we lost it. It's 1113.

And it says, I find when I sit down with people quietly to have a talk that they begin at once to speak of the trials of the way. And after that, if I say, suppose we change the subject and talk of the things of God, then I find that they can talk of nothing but his mercies to themselves, but it is all his temporal benefits they talk of. And they go no higher than this.

And the one is, how few can say, the Father has shown me wonderful things lately about the Lord Jesus Christ. So again, the thought of focusing on what God is showing us about who is Christ, how lovely He is, and focusing on Him. So we focus on the temporal benefits and the trials and this and that, but how few times we think of how God is showing us how lovely the Lord is.

So I thought that was really good. We focus on all these trials and everything and the benefits and how we get prayer requests, which is good. He wants us to do that. He wants us to come before Him. But how few times we think of just the beauty of the Lord. And what we know, that intimacy with Him. So I just thought that was a really good quote.

So thank you, Russ. I thought you guys had had that. We had a brief interlude there where we're, I guess, locked up. Anyway, Mike, if you want to come up unless there's further discussion, I'll let Mike get started on... We should expect every day that the Lord Jesus, the Father, Holy Spirit has in mind. to reveal more of Christ to us, personally. We should expect that, because that's what he talks about all over scripture, I think. So, okay. Lesson 61, I hope everybody got it. So the first question, we're working on verses 14 through 21. Verse 14.

Paul says, And concerning you, my brother, and I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able also to admonish one another. So the question was, what goodness is Paul persuaded about? And I would look at persuaded first. Persuaded is in the perfect tense, which means that it's something that's already true with abiding results going forward, say it this way, I have been completely persuaded with the result that I have arrived at a subtle conclusion. So Paul is not speculative here. This is a subtle conclusion that he has about a certain thing.

And what he's settled about is that you yourselves are full of goodness. So the thought being that the Roman saints, as well as Paul, are full of goodness. And what's interesting is that this church, the Roman church, Paul didn't start. So he doesn't know anybody there, and he can't take responsibility for them being full of goodness. But he knows that they are. So the question is, what is this fullness of goodness? Is it in a general sense, they're just a bunch of good people?

Is it that they're believers and that they demonstrate the love of Christ? And like these verses we've been going through, that they show that by ministering to the weaker believers. Filled is in the perfect tense too, which means something that's already happened with abiding results. They have been filled completely with present results that they are abiding in this state of fullness all the time. So, what do you think? Completely persuaded. I'm convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness. What is this goodness he's talking about?

Could it be all knowledge and able to admonish one another? Okay, all knowledge. How do you take that in the sense of Albert Einstein? No, I think it's the knowledge that the Spirit is imparting to us. It's not a complete knowledge, but it's knowledge of God. Yeah. I think Newell called it Christian knowledge in its entirety. I didn't know you guys were all this well informed. I didn't know I was either. But it's not in an absolute sense.

It's one, it's available. Two, it's something that I think a lot of it here has to do with what we just were discussing. There is no King James New American Standard Bible at this time. It's being put together, right? So what's happening in the society, the Christian society at this point in time? There are letters being written by Paul and Peter and James and John. and they're being distributed. And so the knowledge of what Christianity is, is growing, but they can't go down to their local Bible store and pick up a Bible.

So how come they have all this knowledge or this persuasion that Paul says that you are full of goodness? I think goodness has to be tied to the person of Christ. They're full of Christ. He's told them, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. So if you have him, you have everything. And they're not in degrees.

They're not in that this goodness and this knowledge is not piecemeal. If you know Christ, you know the one who is all knowledge. And I forgot who told me this years ago. that God has all knowledge in play right now. It's so hard for us to comprehend what that means because we think sequentially. God doesn't.

He has all knowledge in play right now. So if you have the Lord Jesus Christ, He in you, in the Spirit, has all knowledge in play right now. So He's a resource. Okay? So, I just noticed the time. I've got four minutes, thanks to Courtney. Hey, Mike. Yes, sir.

I was thinking the same thing, that we're full of Jesus, and He's God's good. We always say that all the time. So, we're full of goodness. We're full of Him. Yeah, that's right. And then the thought, when I read this earlier, it just It's clear to me, because God's been teaching me a lot about church, how I don't think we do church right, we're supposed to be getting together, sort of like this, and everybody gets a chance to contribute, you know? And I think as a body, together, we're complete in knowledge, not one person.

Oh, that's a great point, David. And we're competent in a sense that, you know, we don't need The Holy Spirit's our teacher, and we have that capacity, at least, if we will walk in truth and appropriate truth. That's a great point, David. I like that point a lot, because in the years that I've spent at Holly Hills, we have a lot of good quote-unquote teachers here, but not any of us know it all.

And it's really cool to be dependent on each other, because We can not only can we share, but we can receive all the time. It's a dynamic that's going on constantly. And, you know, just real quick, that's one thing I'm so tired of traditional church, you know. Sure. I like the church I have attended. I don't really I don't know anymore, but he's a good speaker and he teaches the word of God.

But I want to hear what John has to say about this talk or Susie. And I never will. Yeah. No, you won't. Because they don't pay Susie. So pray for me, you guys, because I've been waiting 15 years for a home church to be developed, and I'm so hungry for it. All right, we've got to close. I'm going to close in prayer, and then we'll pick up with question two next week.

Dear Father, how we thank you for your word. How we thank you for your dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and your spirit that enables us to behold his glory, to know him, and to grow in the knowledge and grace of him. And we pray in his precious name, amen.