Hope is grounded in God's immutable character and His sure promises, not in our circumstances. The sermon explains that God's love, demonstrated through Christ's sacrifice, assures believers of their justification and future salvation from wrath. By swearing by Himself, God provided an unbreakable confirmation of His counsel, giving believers strong consolation and an anchor for their souls. Ultimately, the greatest reality is not just hope, but rejoicing in God Himself, who has planned for believers to glorify and enjoy Him forever.
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to your country on this your special day, Independence Day. Perhaps it is an opportune moment to share with you how much this country means to us. In nineteen sixty-five, the Dominican Republic exploded in a savage civil war. Our house was right in the center of the fighting. President Johnson sent in the eighty-second airborne division to bring out the Americans and then very kindly opened their arms and brought out other nationalities. My wife Grace and our three little children were the last to leave the Dominican Republic through the kindness of your armed forces.
They came to Puerto Rico, were warmly welcomed by American believers. The phone rang almost as soon as Grace was in the house. and Dorothy Conlon from Hollywood, Florida said, come to Hollywood and we'll care for you. And the Conlon took in great and our children for three months. They went to the school system. There were no papers. We weren't really legal. My wife and children were not really legal. The residents in the United States and the director of the school, knowing the circumstances that doesn't make any difference, and he welcomed our children in. And that way they were spared the loss of a year in their education.
We've experienced many times your kindness, and it's good to be with you on this your special day. I regret to share with you that we leave this afternoon after the Bible reading. We have a long trip up to Guelph, Ontario with a stopover in Wall Township in New Jersey. And we would like to do it not in a rush. And so I've asked permission of the conveners and of my colleague Tom Taylor, and we'll leave you a few hours early. I would like to thank the conveners for the invitation to be with you. I would like to thank the staff for all you've done to make us feel at home. I would like to thank my good colleague Tom Taylor.
The substance of his ministry is excellent. His style is unique. And the combination is a powerful witness to the truth. And some doesn't know it, but we're in a crisis right now. One of those crises that come along in life when you have to make some major decisions. And at our stage of life, we're much before the Lord about the remaining active years of our service. And we've been helped by His ministry during this week. As we travel tomorrow, we'll pray for you as you travel. and pray that God will take us all back to our places of residence right now and make us a blessing amongst those who could not be with us at this wonderful conference.
Let's go this morning to Romans chapter five, Romans chapter five. And we're going to read down in verse five. Romans five and verse five now hold. does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. However we understand the term the love of God, we are looking right into the character of God. And in that phrase with the use of the word because we understand that we will never be disillusioned Because the character of God stands behind our hope.
And the Spirit's primary mission is to lead us into an understanding of what our God is really like. There is a story from the Old Testament that helps us. And in a sense it is interpreted for us in Hebrews chapter six. And I would like to turn there for a moment this morning. Hebrews chapter six. We'll begin our reading in verse ten. Hebrews chapter six and verse ten. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love, which you have shown toward his name, in that you have ministered to the same, and do minister.
It's been interesting, even moving, to hear how some of you have ministered to us this week under very difficult circumstances. Dick with his wife who's not been well, others that we've heard that could not come, like Woody Murphy and others who are not well, and yet you have labored, you have shown your love, you have ministered to the saints. And sometimes you wonder what makes us do things like that. Well, you come to the next verse, and we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end, a difficult phrase to understand.
But it seems to give us the sense that the Christian has, deep within him, this full assurance of hope, and it impels you, it moves you right to the end of your life. so that as the following verse says, you do not become sluggish. You do not turn to one way or the other way, but you go right on because you know what lies ahead. And in the difficult moments of life, you continue. So you read in verse twelve that you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
And then he picks up the great patriarch Abraham. And verse thirteen, for when God made a promise to Abraham, and I pause there, and I ask you this morning, how did God make a promise to Abraham? I think the only answer we have is that he spoke to him. I do not know if it was an audible voice, or if it was, as Tom was telling us the other day, something deep within his heart. But God spoke to Abraham with words he could understand, and he made a promise to Abraham.
Part of the promise is mentioned in verse fourteen, saying, Surely blessing I will bless you. and multiplying, I will multiply you. But then if you go back to Genesis chapter twelve, you'll find it goes on, and God says, and in you and in your descendants, I'm going to bless all the peoples of the world. It's a mind-boggling promise. A man who came out of Ur of the Chaldees traveled the fertile crescent came as a pilgrim into what we call Canaan. And God takes this man really without a home now and without any land, and he says to him, I'm going to bless you, and I'm going to bless your descendants, and I'm going to bless the whole world in you and your descendants.
You might excuse Abraham if he wondered if this was really true. And then you find that God did something... He came down and he talked and asked it to Abraham within circumstances that he could understand, things he saw every day in his life. So you read back in verse thirteen at the end, when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself. If you wonder what that means, So we come down to verse sixteen, for men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute.
Now you're a young man, about twenty-two years of age, your uncle died some years ago, and left you a little piece of property somewhere over there in the Middle East a long time ago, in the times of Abraham. You've met in your community You haven't been able to go up and talk to her, but you've met this young woman and she has attracted you, and your parents know it, and her parents know it, and the two families are really quite happy about it. You've got the piece of property, and you would like to marry her, but you do not have the means to build the house. You need to have a little house, so you look for a loan.
And in those days you know who has the money in the community. And when you get your strength up, one day you go and you sit down with this man and you tell him, sir, I'm thinking of getting married and I have this little piece of property, but I need a loan so that I can build a house for our wedding day. The man knows you and your family. He certainly has the resources. And finally, after some conversations, He says, well, we can make that arrangement and you leave and you're happy about that, but you know it's not finished. You know that the day when you receive that money and you make the pledge to pay it back, let's say in five years, you have to call someone as the witness who is going to affirm that you are speaking the truth.
That's probably even more difficult than getting the source of the money. and you look around your community and there's one man well on in years highly respected and he knows your father and your family and one day you go and you speak to him and he says yes I will stand with you and when you receive that money you give your word that you will retain that and you call on the greater man respected and well known And when you do that, the man lets you have the money. He hasn't got a doubt in the world that you are going to fulfill that promise. That was how the world worked a long time ago, and it's not really that differing today.
Now God made a promise to Abraham. There is no one greater than God. but he comes down and he relates to Abraham in ways that the man can understand. This is a great promise. Can it possibly be true? And so God swears by himself. Thus you read in verse seventeen, thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise The immutability of his counsel confirmed it by a note.
He gave his word, he backed it up with his character, that by two immutable things, God's word and his character, we read, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation. who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope, we have an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. Why? Because it rests on God's Word and on His character, and this hope enters, takes us right into the presence behind the veil.
That is a synonymous phrase with the words of Paul. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And this hope will not disillusion us because the love of God, the character of God, has been brought into focus in our heart by the Holy Spirit. Now we go back to Romans five and see how Paul helps us understand this. He says, for instance, in verse six, For when we were still without strength, you couldn't do a thing for yourself. We've all heard those stories of a young man who goes out on a motorcycle, has an accident, something is broken at the back of his neck, and he is paralyzed for the rest of his life.
There are cases that when that happens, he has a relationship with a young woman, and they're thinking about marriage. It does not often come to fulfillment. It would take a strong, strong love to bring that relationship to a fulfillment. You were an absolute invalid. You couldn't take a step towards God. But His character as such didn't make a difference in the world. He loved you just the way you are. And then you read at the end of that verse Christ died for the ungodly. God is godly.
We are ungodly. Just the opposite to what God is because of sin. Some people ask me sometimes, how did you ever meet grace? And how did you, when you were young, meet and married? Well, it's a long time ago. But I remember one or two things. I remember that Our parents on both sides came from Scotland. We had that in common. I remember that we were both born in Western Canada. We had that in common. I remember that both families were on the same economic, social level. We had that in common. We both loved the Lord Jesus. We had that in common. We found out that we both went to the same type of church as Christian brethren assemblies.
We have so many things in common, it seemed quite natural we should meet and marry and spend our lives in the service of God. But God loved us when we were not like him. And then you go down and find out that we were enemies of God and we were sinners. These are hard terms. Sinners, you were practicing all that makes you different from God. and you were enemies, not a passive enemy. You may have someone in the block where you live and you don't like that person. I hope it's not true, but let's imagine that it is. And if you see that person coming out of his house when you come out of your house and you happen to be walking towards each other, you'll probably turn around and go back in your house until he passes and then you'll come back out because you don't like him.
But you're a passive enemy. You would never do anything. against that person. But Paul says we were active enemies of God in wicked works. All of that represents what we are. God loved us. You read in verse eight, God demonstrated his own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So we thought about the hope We think about God's character. It has been demonstrated in time, in history, right here in the world, two thousand years ago, when the Lord Jesus died for us.
Now Paul, in two verses, is going to relate our hope to the character of God. He's given us his word. He's factored up with his character. And as he makes the link, We know we do not live in a world of religious fantasies that our hope has substance coming from God's word and backed up by its character. So you read verse nine, much more than. Now you really cannot begin the exposition of this verse with those three words. They just hang in the air. So you jump over them and you come to the second phrase.
having now been justified by his blood. Notice the terms past tense justified. It already happened. That is emphasized by the word now. It's not something you are waiting for. You have already been justified and the cross, the blood of the Lord Jesus, his death at the cross. that if you turn around and you look backwards, two thousand years, and you remember that at Calvary God opened his heart and he demonstrated that he loved us when he spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all.
And when you heard that message and you responded in faith to God, and in commitment to the Lord Jesus, in that immediate moment you were justified, ready to enter into the presence of God in eternity at any moment. You are justified already. Now you turn as you come to the latter part of the verse and you look forward. And the last part says, We shall be, future tense. we shall be saved from wrath through him. That is the hope that we have linked to the person of the Lord Jesus is a hope in which there cannot ever be any form of wrath.
So you stand between these two great truths. You look backward. and you think what God has already done, then you look forward and realize what He is still going to do. And of those two great truths, I would ask you this morning, which is the greatest? I sometimes think that maybe there's some of those I speak very kindly this morning, brought up in a Roman Catholic background, as my friends in the Dominican Republic have, where they have been taught something of the torments of purgatory and the awful things related to hell.
This whole concept of escape from wrath forever seems to be the great and wonderful truth. Wrong. The great truth. is what God has already done. When He gave His Son, who died for our sins, this is the greatest thing the world has ever seen. That's when the first three words of verse nine come into play, where you read much more than. Now take the phrase. Put it between the first, the second, and the third, and read it like this. having now been justified by his blood, much more then, much more logically, much more easily, much more securely.
We shall be saved from wrath to come. Then you come to verse ten. The argument is still similar. Notice the past tense of the verbs in the early phrases. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more having been reconciled. And all of those terms make you turn around. Please notice that reconciliation in this portion follows justification. You never really are reconciled to God until you are reconciled. justified in your sins of being dealt with, but then there's reconciliation.
You're brought right into his family. And Paul uses verbs that remind us it has already happened. You are in his family. You prayed last night before you went to sleep. You may have used the term Abba Father, tender, close relationship. You belong in the family. In view of that, Then Paul looks to the future, and he says at the end of that verse, we shall be, future tense, saved by his life. Verse nine, no wrath. Verse ten, you enter into the fullness of eternal life, that part of our hope in the Lord Jesus.
And notice again that in this verse, right in the middle, much more. emphasizing again the greatness of what God has already done, that work in which he reveals his character, and on that basis there isn't a doubt in the world about what lies ahead. Hope is a beautiful thing. It's something we all need in ordinary relationships of life. We desperately need it when we think of issues of life and death. And Paul says, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. But as we conclude our meditation this morning, let's remember there is something more important than hope.
There's something greater than hope. So you come to verse eleven. And Paul says, and not only that, and there I am in this Bible class, and I've been thinking about Mary not spending too much time listening to his developments. of these thoughts, but he catches me there, and not only that, I put up my hand and I say, excuse me, sir, not only what? And with patience he's going to tell me, not only do we rejoice in hope of the glory of God, not only shall we be saved from wrath, not only shall we be saved by his life, not only that, But verse eleven, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Because after all, hope only has meaning when you know who stands behind it. That's why this morning we've emphasized it is God. God made the promise. God swore by himself, putting his character behind his word. That's why we have a sure and steadfast hope. The friends from Atlanta will bear with me, but my father told me the story many years ago of a Scottish minister. He was teaching the boys and girls in the class of Catechism, and it had been a hot day, and he knew the children were restless.
They kept looking out the window. hoping it would soon be over and they get back to their games. That time came to finish and he thought, I'll just ask them a question. So he said to them, can anyone tell me what is man's chief end? Now that's a great theological question. And the children were so right, they didn't even look the man in the eye. And so he thought, so lost cause today. So he raised his hand for the benediction, but before he closed his eyes, There's a little boy put up his hand. And he said, Yes. He said, Sir, I think I know the answer. Little boy stood up and said, Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.
And there was a smile on the minister's face. That's the right. That's the correct theological answer. So up went his hand the second time for the benediction. But before he closed his eyes, there was a little boy. He had his hand up again. And so the minister said, yes, what is it, son? He said, sir, I have a question. Well, he said, what is the question? He said, sir, what is God's chief end? Well, the minister had never heard a question like that before, and like many of us, he knew how to get out of it. He said, well, I'll think about it during the week, and next week we'll make a comment on that, and we're all together again. The boy sat down, so up went the arm for the third time, but before he closed his eyes, there was the boy again.
The minister was just a little bit indignant by this time. He said, What is it now? And the little boy said, Sir, I think I know the answer. So the boy stood up, and the minister said to him, What is the answer, son? He said, Sir, God's chief end is to glorify man. in oneness with Christ and enjoy him forever. And the minister had never heard it put so beautifully before. It was before the foundation of the world that God conceived the idea, that around his special son, there would be a great family of sons and daughters who would bear his likeness.
And to make it possible, he sent his son to the cross, and he awakes that day when we will stand there. And that's how the Bible ends. Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and he will be their God, and they will be his people, and he will have glorified us in oneness with his sons. and he will enjoy us forever and ever. So Paul said, we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Bless us, Father, as we separate, be with the young people, give them a good day.
Help us to remain here in our fellowship, to enjoy your presence, and be with us, we pray, as we commend ourselves to you, in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.