Hope is found not in avoiding suffering, but in glorying in tribulations through a confident trust in God's ultimate purpose. The sermon draws from Romans 5:3-5, illustrating how Paul, despite facing severe beatings and stoning, could praise God because his focus was on the eternal glory of God, not his immediate circumstances. This perspective, rooted in the knowledge of God's character and love poured into our hearts by the Spirit, produces patience, character, and an unshakeable hope. The message emphasizes that this hope is sure because God's love is actively at work within believers, enabling them to face life's adversities with joy and steadfastness.
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The books, I'm not a young man any longer, and books are heavy, I only brought up twenty-two, but today I think they're about sixty out there, and if they all go, and if they all go, there's more down in the car, so there's no difficulty about somebody putting up their hand, if they want five back there, well, there's lots of books, and if you run out today, there'll be more tomorrow. I hope I did not upset you yesterday when I said that Paul sometimes aggravates me. What a shocking thing it would be if we read the Bible that never shook us up now and then, that you always felt just comfortable reaching the Bible. Think of Psalm thirteen, just a little psalm, and in the first two verses the psalmist shouts right into the face of God, how long, how long, how long, how long.
You tremble, we might not want to talk that way to God, but there are things in the Bible that shake you up now and then. And Paul has this knack of taking you right up into the presence of God and you just glow as you think of these eternal realities. Colossians one is a great example. He says, I would like you to be filled with the knowledge of God's will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. He's telling you, I want you to understand God's point of view. And He's taken you right up into heaven, right into the mind and the heart of God. I want you to be filled with all the knowledge of God's will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
And in those lofty heights thinking about that, Then in the next word he brings you right back down into the world and he says that you may walk worthy of the Lord, where, not there, but right here, where you live. And that's the difficult thing. How you understand the great things of God and work them out in your life, wherever you live in this world. When it came to Paul, I think Paul is one of those great, beautiful examples of a man to use the language we use today who may have belonged in the religious ivory tower, but he was not locked into that tower.
He moved in the academic world, but he was a man who knew the real world, and he had that beautiful way of linking the sublime things of God through the everyday actions in our lives. Well, he does that in Romans five, where we're reading, and we're going to begin our reading with verse three this morning, Romans five and verse three. Last night we finished with the phrase, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. That lifts you right up into heaven. And now we read in verse three, and not only that. Now let's imagine I'm in his Bible class.
I'm a young man. I haven't been paying too much attention to what he's been saying. Maybe my mind has been on Mary or someone, and I, but all of a sudden I hear the phrase, and not only that, but I don't know what he's talking about. So I put up my hand and I say, Sir, excuse me, not only what, and I can see him look at me with a smile that says that young man's not paying attention. But he would graciously repeat the thought, Not only do we rejoice in hope of the glory of God, not only that, but verse three reads, We also glory in tribulations. And I might even blurt out, you must be kidding me.
When was the last time that you were in a tribulation, a real tribulation? I think it's important to notice that the verb is not modified in any way. It's not referring necessarily to martyrs. We believe that Paul wrote this book to the Romans in three quiet months that he spent in the city of Corinth. Why he chose Corinth for a quiet time, I'm not sure, but it's from Corinth he wrote this letter to Rome. He'd never been in Rome. is three months in which he's thinking and planning. He's about my age. My children keep asking me, Dad, when are you going to retire?
Paul's my age, and he's dreaming of the greatest project in his life. And that is to take the gospel to Spain, that new and dynamic, growing province of the Roman Empire. And he knows that Antioch is too far away to be the home base. But Rome would be the ideal base from which to move into Spain. And he wants the church in Rome to understand what the gospel really is. And then he wants them to help him as he goes into Spain. As far as we know, there was no open persecution of the church right at that time.
The real persecution in the Roman Empire began when the city of Rome almost burned down. Whether Nero was responsible or not, we're not really sure. Many historians believe he was, and when the finger of accusation was pointed towards him, he needed a scapegoat, and he looked at the Christians, and then the persecution began, but not when Paul was in Corinth. writing to Rome. So, tribulation does not necessarily mean something confined to persecution because you're a Christian. It can involve any experience in life. Illness, loss of employment, marital problems, family difficulties, anything.
Tribulation. And Paul says, we also glory in tribulation. You could think of Paul as a theologian, and some theologians, they write beautiful things, but they're detached from the real world, but that's not true. As we've already mentioned, Paul knew what the world was like when he was in Philippi with Silas and others. They were caught one day on the street, not because they did something bad, they did something good. They freed a young woman from an evil spirit. and that caused such an uproar that they were taken to the authorities and they were so frustrated they sent them to the magistrates and they were furious they tore their garments and they said beat them so the soldiers beat them and Luke says they laid many stripes on them they apparently beat them with a vengeance and then they said and throw them in the inner dungeon no ventilation and no light and their backs are open soars Their feet are put in the stalks, a very awkward position to be in.
And at midnight, these men are singing hymns of worship to God, and all the prisoners heard them. Now, I don't think that Paul gloried in the beating. I don't think that when they were laying these stripes on them, he turned his head around and said, Do it harder. But when they finally stopped, he said, Go on and do it. He wasn't glorying in the suffering. I'm sure he cringed every time. That whip came down on his back. There was a time in the history of the church when men and women provoked the authorities. They looked for martyrdom. There was another period in the history of the church when men and women would walk from town to town and they had these hand whips and they learned to whip themselves on the back.
and their backs would be open, a bleeding soaring. They seem to glory in their tribulations. I don't think Paul's talking about that. You go back to Jeremiah and God speaks to his people through the proverb and he says, Don't let the wise man should not glory in his wisdom. The strong man should not glory in his strength. The rich man should not glory in his riches. If you're going to glory, let it be in this that you understand and know God. You glory in God. Paul picks that up right into the Corinthians. If we're going to glory, let's glory in the Lord.
So I suggest to you that this thought of glory in your tribulations means that there is something that raises you up above the tribulations. And in your heart, in your soul, you can worship and praise God even in the moments of difficulty. So you not only rejoice in hope of the glory of God on a coming day, but down here in the adversities of life, you learn to glory also in the Lord. How can you do that? As you know, Grace and I have had the very high privilege of serving God in missionary work overseas for almost fifty years.
We wouldn't change it for anything in the world. But a long time ago when I was young, things were difficult. And one day I said to Grace, Grace, I think we should go back to Vancouver, Canada and look to the Lord for direction in our lives. I was discouraged. It was a moment of tribulation of difficulty. I don't know what the ladies here would have done on that occasion, but my wife took me. She sat me down and she said, Jim, you never make a major decision in a moment of crisis. And because of that word, make sure I'm going to fulfill fifty happy years of service for God in the Dominican Republic.
But I look back at that time. And I do confess that there was not very much rejoicing or glory in my life in those moments of darkness. Maybe you have gone through similar experiences and felt the same way. So I raised the question, how can you glory in tribulations? Go through them with your head high and your confidence in God sure. And the only possible answer is there is hope. If there's no hope, there's not a chance in the world that you would go through something like that with confidence and joy in God.
But we've already noticed when Paul defines this road from here to the presence of God in the theological and doctrinal language, he takes us eventually right into the glory of God. That is the hope. And it's because of that, that you go through the tribulations of this life, and your head is high, confident in God, and your heart is filled with joy. And that produces patience. Sometimes we wish God would do something else. You may remember that in Colossians one, I referred to it this morning already, after having talked about walking worthy of the Lord down here in the world, I can imagine someone in the church in Colossi saying, well, Paul, if you lived in Colossi, you would know it's not that easy.
Well, Paul of course knew that. So then he says immediately, strengthened with all might according to the glorious power of God. spectacular language. And I can imagine sitting in the church and Colossians saying out loud, Amen. That's what we mean. A bulldozer type of power that comes down from God and clears away all the problems of our life and leaves us with a beautiful straight path. Well, God can do that. He did that with two million slaves in Egypt.
under the most powerful monarch in the whole world. And God came and stretched out his arm with a mighty hand. He brought two million slaves out from under that monarch, and he brought them to a land of prosperity and blessing. But on the way they came to a sea right at the very beginning, and there was no way for two million people to get across the sea. And by that time Pharaoh had changed his mind and he was after the people of God to bring them back. And so God through Moses opened the sea and the Bible says they crossed over on dry ground. And when they were over on the other side and the Egyptian army came rushing in behind them, God closed the waters.
And that was the end of that particular problem. God can do that. but he only does it rarely, rarely. In Colossians, listen to the phrase again, strengthen with all might according to the glorious power of God with patience. If you're going to go through those tribulations with your confidence in that coming hope and do it with patience, you need to be strengthened in the inward man. You'll find it in Paul many times in Listera. There was a problem there after they preached the gospel and they saw blessings.
And the people, they thought they were gods. And they wanted to worship them. Paul and his companion Barnabas, they began to tell them, top of their voices, we are not gods. They didn't want to pay any attention. And finally, when the message got through, then the whole attitude of the city changed. and they wanted to take them out and kill them and that's what happened they took Paul and they stoned him and they stoned him and they were sure he was dead I've often thought about stoning I was in Edinburgh Scotland last year with grace and we had a free day and we went down to Princess Street some of you walk Princess Street usually my wife takes me on the side where all the stores are but this time we got on the other side where the park is and there's a beautiful museum there we went into the museum and there's a german painting of the stoning of stephen and i saw in that painting what i believe for a long time when you're going to stone someone to death you never throw the stones at the feet or at the legs or even at the body you aim them straight at the head by this time stephen is in a kneeling position but his head is erect and there's a
young man standing on his toes with a boulder in his hand and it aims straight for the head of Stephen. Well, they stoned Paul and they were sure they were dead. I wondered many times what his head looked like afterwards. He does tell us he bore in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus. He suffered a great deal. Then they dragged him out and threw him on the garbage heap outside of the city. And his friends stood around them. but he wasn't dead he revived and he stood up and he went right on in his ministry patience patience that takes you right to the end in spite of all the difficulties and when that happens it builds up godly character in the people who belong to him for you read in verse three knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and then verse four in perseverance character.
We have a Dominican mother now with the Lord. We've really had many Dominican mothers who have cared for us down through the years. They're all with the Lord now. But the closest woman who was a Dominican mother to her, I met her the first night I went to Porta Plata in nineteen forty seven. She was a widow by that time with six children. This is a woman who was converted about two years before with her husband and they were filled with joy. They come out of darkness into light. They suffered a great deal because all of their friends belonged to the popular church but they knew they'd met the Lord Jesus. And six months later her husband died of a heart attack.
She was left with six children and the owners of the home related to her deceased husband who were furious when he converted, they put that woman and her six children on the street. And that was the beginning of a long life in which she suffered more than any other Dominican friend I have ever known. Suffered in many different ways, and I never heard a complaint come out of the lips of that woman. Not even that day between the assassination of the dictator And the moment when the family fled the country, when her youngest son got up one morning to go to work, got on his motorcycle, drove down the road past the military post, and as he passed, the sergeant called out to him.
He knew the sergeant not that well. They usually were asking for money for cigarettes. And so he turned around his motorbike to go back, and as he moved up towards The military post, the sergeant ranged his machine gun and shot him dead. The second last murder in those thirty-three years of dictatorship in our country. There was a seething, a wrath that you could almost feel in the community. There wasn't a military man or a policeman visible anywhere. And the young men took the body of that young man, Peter, and they put him on a mattress and on their shoulders.
They carried him into the city where his mother lived. And around that house there were hundreds of Dominican men and women. And you knew anything could provoke a real riot in the city. And when the mother saw that her son had been killed, she was the one who came out on the porch which was high. and talked to that whole multitude and said to them we've seen enough violence for one day I want no more violence I want you to go home and to leave the matter in the hands of God when she was on her deathbed I was with her and she was still leading people to the Lord Jesus I never saw the development of character so beautiful as someone who through tribulation which led to patience develop character, and then you come to hope.
Now, this is not an ambiguous hope at the end of verse four. This is the same hope at the end of verse two. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. This meditation this morning has brought us through Paul's down-to-earth look at this road that leads from here right into the presence of God. And as we conclude today, the question is, is it real? Is it sure? Or are we in a world of religious fantasy? I want you to read the first phrase of verse five. Now, hope does not disappoint.
We're going to look at that as we go on in our meditation, because in the Psalms, you have a phrase in Psalm twenty-two. The psalmist, I know it's a messianic psalm, and as you think of this messianic psalm, I would like to remind you this morning that first of all, it's a poem written by a man who went through some very difficult circumstances. I know that the Spirit of God has used it as a messianic psalm, and that our Lord took on his lips those words, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But before that happened, there was a man in Israel, and he went through a very deep moment, and this man in his agony, he cried out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
And then he remembered the things that he had heard in the Sabbath schools. probably going up to the temple and sitting there with other boys and listening to the rabbi teach the things of God. He knew all the stories of the Old Testament and they always seemed to have a happy ending. Men were delivered by God. Jerusalem was delivered by God. The nation was held by God. And he says, they trusted in you. They trusted in you and were delivered to you. He had no doubt about that. Then it goes on again.
They cried to you. That verb to cry is the same thought of trust, but it's almost in a panic situation. They cried to God. And God stepped in and delivered them. And then he adds that beautiful phrase, and they were not disappointed. They were not disillusioned. He knew those stories. So far he had not seen... that in his own life, and that brings him in the state of agony into the presence of God. I know this is what you have done in the past. And now he's looking at himself and would like to see the intervention of God. This is a real life situation.
But he does remember that the patriarchs and the matriarchs, they were not disappointed. They put their trust in God, and God came through. And they enjoyed his blessing. Even in that psalm, I referred to this morning when the psalmist cries out, How long, how long, how long? And he really shouts up to God, You've forgotten me. You're looking in some other direction. Then from complaint, he moves into a couple of verses of prayer and meditation and fellowship with God. And the result.
It's always the same result. He bursts out in worship and he says right at the end of verse six, the Lord has dealt bountifully with me. That's the same thing. He was not disappointed. There were difficult moments, but we made an accurate evaluation. The Lord had dealt bountifully with him. Now Paul's talking about hope in a world in which there was no hope. And he tells us at the beginning of verse five, In these beautiful words, now hope does not disappoint. And then comes the little important word, because. And that's the word that will take us into understanding why our hope is sure and steadfast it is anchored in God.
And notice what he says, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts. by the Spirit of God. The love of God, the character of God. It's His character that stands behind His word. If you come down to see us someday in the Dominican Republic, I should warn you this morning that you should check and make sure we're there. And then I would like to also advise you that when you come down to see us, you cannot go to the light switch and just turn it and expect there will be light sometimes there will be light sometimes there won't be light when there is so light it might not come back for a month and you can't go and open the faucet and just take for granted there will be water there may be water but there may not be water you adjust to life like that so we have downstairs we live in a second story apartment a large container of water And when there's no water, I take a bucket, and I go downstairs and fill the bucket, and I come up, and Grace has in the kitchen a larger container.
Now, you've done this many times. I usually hold it with my left hand, with the right hand, a twist of the wrist, and there's a flood of water out of the pail into the larger container. It was never God's intention that you should understand His character drop by drop by drop. The love of God, the character of God is being poured into our hearts by the Spirit of God. For the whole message of the Bible is to tell us what kind of God we have believed in. And the more we know this character, the more we will understand that our hope is sure and steadfast.
And we'll look at that more tomorrow in the will of God. Our Father, we thank you today. that as we face adversities in life, at many different forms, for many of us it may just be old age. For others it may be illness. We've heard of some without employment. There may be difficulties in families because one is a Christian and the others are not. But whatever these tribulations may be, we pray that as we see through your word this hope of the glory of God, we will also be able to glory in the tribulations of our lives and that in us there will be patience we will go the full length in service to you that our characters will be built up godly characters and that we will have before us constantly this beautiful thought we rejoice in hope of the glory of God bless us as we separate Give us a good day in activities and Christian fellowship, and we give thanks in his name.
Amen. Remember that this morning, Mary's book is available at the back.