I've read before that if you want people to be interested and listen to your sermons, preach to those who are hurting. Well, that's all of us, really, and that's all the time. And thankfully, the Lord knows that we are hurting often and go through hardships, tribulations. And so we'll be looking at that theme today as we look into the Bible, Romans 5. verses three through five. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope. Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. This is the word of the Lord. May he speak to us and may we listen and take it to heart. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you, Lord, for the blessings that we have from you being justified by faith, having peace with God, access into grace and the hope of the glory of God. Help us, Lord, to understand also what you have in mind for our lives in this area of tribulation. We pray for your wisdom and for the help of the spirit of God in Jesus name. Amen. A few years ago, Kelly Clarkson recorded a song titled Stronger. You may remember it was doesn't kill you makes you stronger. What doesn't kill you makes you a fighter. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stronger. And then the lyrics go, just me, myself, and I. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Well, besides the fact that she leaves God out of the picture altogether, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Is that true? Well, sometimes it is, sometimes not. Sometimes it makes us weaker, it leaves us bitter. But what does scripture say about tribulation? And how are we to understand the trials that come into our lives? How are we to respond to them? Well, today as we look at this passage, we see that Paul the Apostle charts a course for us in our trials to navigate these things. Two points from the sermon today, and the first one is the purpose of our tribulations, the purpose of them. Back in verse 2, Paul had said, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We rejoice in the hope of heaven. Well, in a sense, that's relatively easy to do. But then he goes on in verse 3, he says, not only that, we also glory, we also rejoice, the word can mean, in our tribulations. There's a teaching that's been around for a while. It appears in certain places, churches, and just wherever, but that if you become a Christian, when you become a Christian, all your troubles are just going to fade away. God's going to solve all your problems, and everything's just going to be rosy from now on. Well, we know that's not true. In fact, when you become a Christian, your trials are going to actually increase. The difficulties will not disappear. They often multiply. So it's the cult, it's the false teachers who say, join us and all your problems will go away. But Jesus taught us that we have to count the cost, that there is a cost to following Jesus. So not only the common trials of life, but the cost and the trials of following Jesus are added to it for the Christian. Well, sometimes Christians have been criticized for being too heavenly-minded that they're no earthly good. Well, you can't accuse Paul of that here. First of all, he talks about heaven, the hope of glory, but he right off the bat follows it up with this issue of trials and how to deal with them. So he's very practical as well. So rejoicing in heaven and things above and facing the realities of life are not mutually exclusive. In fact, rejoicing in future glory is a real help in enduring trials here below. Because one day we know our troubles will be over. That's in heaven, not here. And so that helps us to keep going. One day the Lord will make all of these things go away. All pain will disappear. It'll all be made up for one day in his presence. 2 Corinthians 4, 17, Paul reminds us that our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. So we need an eternal perspective to deal with these trials. But in this verse, in verse 3, the reason Paul gives for glory and tribulation is for the good that it does in our lives here and now, not just in the by-and-by, if you will. I know in my own life, typically, when I'm undergoing some kind of trial, some tribulation in my life, I'll respond in one of two ways, or both, really. First is to complain. Yeah, I have to admit that I have a tendency to complain. I do catch myself sometimes and realize what I'm doing. But most often when I'm undergoing a trial, I'm simply asking God, take it away from me as quickly as possible. Lord, I just want it removed, and I want it removed now. I'm not very patient either. So none of us really enjoy suffering, and really, if you do, something might be a little wrong with you. because Hebrews 12, 11 reminds us, no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful. So in and of itself, pain is not something that makes us happy or that we should be happy, that we can really be happy about, but we do rejoice because we can look beyond the suffering to what it produces. So there is a type of rejoicing, not in the pain itself, but for what God does through it. In order to build physical muscle, there has to be resistance in the form of weight lifting or work or some other method. In order to build spiritual strength, God brings trials and troubles into our lives. Dr. Sproul said, tribulation puts muscles on our souls. Today we have a lot of young people seemingly interested in fitness They have muscles on their body, but not many on their souls. And this is where it matters most, is in the inner person. And tribulation is an interesting word. It comes from a Greek word that means pressure or being pressed together. You ever feel that way in your life? The pressure is just too great. You're either going to break or bend or something. And so this pressure in life comes upon us and we feel the weight of it. We feel the weight of our burdens push upon us. And yet when we seek God and we seek to stand firm by his grace, by his strength in those times, then our spiritual muscles grow stronger. Specifically, verse three says, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance. Perseverance. And the first thing you notice about that phrase is that he lays stress on knowledge, knowing our tribulation produces perseverance. God wants us to know, to have an understanding about this matter. We know. The tribulation is producing something good. And we gain this knowledge in one of two ways. Well, first of all, from scripture itself, just like we're doing today. But we also do that through personal experience. We can read the scriptures and we can read scriptures like in Psalm 119. It's good that I've been afflicted, that I might not go astray. There's a benefit. And then we say, yes, and I've seen God do that. He's humbled me through tribulation, and it's helped me to stay close to him and to live for him. So the first thing we need to learn is that in trials, we are to persevere. So the first lesson in undergoing tribulation is just keep going. Just stay with it. Don't give up put your trust in the hands of Almighty God and his son Jesus Christ Jesus has already rescued you from the great tribulation of hell itself He's going to bring you through the rest if you keep your eyes on him and remember that the Christian life is not a Sprint it's a marathon. It's not how fast you run it's but how steady you go, and about finishing the race, about running well. Remember, too, that whatever it is that you are going through, Jesus Christ not only knows all about it, but he's gone through it himself. It's Hebrews 2.18, for since he himself was tested and suffered, he is able to help those who are tested. Jesus knows, Jesus understands, Jesus has experienced suffering. He can help you in your suffering. He not only died to save you from your sins, He lived and suffered in order to help you with your suffering. When you're tested, when you're tried, He ran the race before you and He's able to lead us all the way home. So keep running and pace yourself. Understand that the way is not going to be easy. And as Jesus said, the way is difficult. Narrow is the way. Difficult is the way that leads to life. And so to follow Jesus, it is a difficult way. It's so difficult that it's humanly impossible. And there are those moments, and they happen when we face trials, when we realize, I can't do this, Lord. I can't do this. And that's when Jesus says, well, you don't have to do it. Let me do it. I will give you the strength to do it. Keep your eyes on Jesus. Receive his divine help moment by moment. And that way, tribulations will not defeat you, not discourage you. Instead, they will develop perseverance. Now, the next thing Paul brings up, there's a string, obviously, of things that one come after the other, and they're all connected. And that perseverance in trials develops character. And that word means proven or tested character. So character that's been tested is character that's gone through the fire and become stronger or purer. It's not the natural effect or the automatic effect of tribulation to produce patience and proven character. Our natural response, like I said, is to murmur, is to complain, but Christ-like character is built when we persevere and we look to the Lord as we go through these things. Think of metals that have to go through the fire, they have to be hardened by heat process. My oldest son, Luke, works as an engineer in heat treatment, and I went and observed the heat treatment area of where he works, and they make bearings, and these bearings have to go through these very, very hot ovens. The whole room is just full of flames and heat, and yet, without that, the metals wouldn't stand up to what they would undergo in their applications. Is there any fire in your life right now, any heat, something painful, difficult? Has the heat been turned up for you in your job, in your family, in your marriage, in other areas of life? Whatever it is, know that God is, first of all, burning away the impurities in your life. And also he's strengthening you. He's developing strong character in your life like hardened metal. Your character will be the kind that in the end is tested and proven. Well, here's what Job said. He said, of God, he said, he knows the way that I take. And when he has tried me, I will come forth as gold. This proven character also leads to something else. It leads to hope. He said in verse 2, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, and now we have hope at the beginning, but now it comes right back to it. We have hope when we receive Christ and are justified, but we also have hope when we go through trials and we see God work in our lives, that Christ-like character that He develops It's his work, and that confirms the fact that God is working on us, and he will continue that work until he comes. So Christian character confirms that our faith is real. We see it. We feel it. Jesus said in Matthew 721, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. but he who does the will of my Father in heaven." You see, there is such a thing as a false hope. The person who has a false hope thinks that they're going to heaven, but their life has no demonstration, no reality, no proof that they really have put their faith in Jesus. But true faith will prove itself. And that experience, undergoing trials, and the proof that comes with it of proven character, that increases our hope. I like what the old Baptist preacher John Gill of London, he said this, he said, hope is a gift of God's grace. It's implanted in regeneration. But it abounds, it increases and becomes more strong and lively by the experience of love, grace, mercy, power, and faithfulness of God in our trials. So we have hope at the very beginning, but it grows and it increases. And the second thing, second point from the passage today is to look now at the work of the Holy Spirit in our tribulation. Romans 5.5, now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. This is the third time now in these five verses that hope has been mentioned. So we rejoice in hope. We see that character produces hope, and now we're informed that hope does not disappoint. Literally, it does not make us ashamed. And the only reason we would ever be ashamed of hope is if we had a false hope, and that in the end, we thought we would go to heaven, but we didn't know Jesus. And when we got there to the gates, and we didn't get in, that's when our hope is disappointed. The only reason our hope would make us ashamed is if we didn't have true faith or true hope at all. But he says hope does not make us ashamed. True hope for the sincere believer, you see, cannot fail. We have a guarantee of this hope, and that's the indwelling Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. He was given to us. He's a gift to us, and he has come into our hearts to dwell permanently. Jesus said, I will never leave you or forsake you. Well, he's gone back to heaven, but what he meant, I will send the spirit of God and through him, through the Holy Spirit, I will never leave you. But why was the Holy Spirit given to us? First of all, at least according to this passage, there are many things we could say, but we're limiting ourselves to these verses. Notice is by the Holy Spirit that the love of God has been poured out into our hearts. This is one of the great works that God does. He pours out his love into our hearts. And when you're going through suffering, a difficult time, you might wonder, I thought God loved me. Why am I having to go through this? Why me, Lord? We cry out in our affliction. But we need to remember what Scripture teaches us. The Bible says that the Lord disciplines those he loves and that he chastises every son or daughter whom he receives. So when we're going through these trials, we need to remind ourselves God reminds us and teaches us that we are loved by God. We know that earthly parents discipline their children. Again, painful at the time. We've done that as parents, and we know that children need that, and we know that we did it because we love them. A child left to himself, that's not a loving thing, is it? So if earthly parents do that, know that our Heavenly Father also disciplines us through these hardships in our lives. The love of God in verse 5 is pretty certain that it's talking about God's love to us and not ours to Him. Now that's the response, and we'll look at that in a second, but God's love is permanent, faithful, and abundant. Our love is up and down, even for Him, but God's is unchanging. Now this love is not a mere trickle. Is it? It's been poured out in abundance. And I want to ask you this morning, do you have any experience in your own life of the abundance of this love, the experience of the love of God being poured out into your heart? One writer put it this way, that the love of God does not descend upon us as dew in drops, but as a stream which spreads itself abroad through the whole soul, filling it with the consciousness of His presence and favor. Later in chapter 8, verse 16 of Romans, Paul says, the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. So do you know Jesus Christ? Are you growing in Christ? Then the Spirit of God, who is the second person of the Trinity, God Himself, He will bear witness in your heart that you are His. And if you're His child, you are loved by your Heavenly Father. And there is no greater security. A child in a family where there is love and discipline, and you can't separate the two, that child is going to be secure. And so we should be secure in knowing that this is what God is up to in His work in our lives. When we realize His love for us and experience it, again, by the Holy Spirit, then we do respond. First of all, we respond by loving God, by realizing that that's what we ought to do. We love Him, the Bible says, because He first loved us. And Jesus gave us the great commandment. He says, love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That's the greatest commandment that there is. And yet, you know, I don't think any of us really loved God until we understood what Jesus Christ did for us. None of us really loved God until we understood the love of God in Jesus for our souls. And when the Holy Spirit entered our hearts by faith, that's when we began to love God. And I think to the degree that you understand and believe in his love for you on a daily basis, to that degree you will be able to respond and love God as you should and love people as you're called to do. Jesus said in John 7 38, he who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. So God's love is poured out in our hearts, but it's so much that it, that it overflows and becomes a stream of blessing and love to other people that he puts our lives. You know the Bible talks about Ephesians says be filled with the Spirit. And how do you know when you're filled with the Spirit? Some people say it's when you speak in tongues. The Bible's emphasis, and if you read 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14, the emphasis is on the fact that when you're filled with the Spirit, that He produces love, the fruit of the Spirit, love in your hearts. That's the main way. Jesus said, they'll know you're my disciples if you love one another. This is the key virtue in our lives. And so we show the fact that we're filled with the Spirit the fruit of the Spirit, love. And Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13 that even if we could speak in tongues but didn't have love, we would just be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Remember what he says at the end of chapter 13 in 1 Corinthians, he says, now abide these three, faith, hope, and love. The greatest of these is love. So faith is a wonderful thing. That's the way we are connected to Jesus Christ and his saving grace. Hope is a wonderful thing. It keeps us going. in life, especially in our tribulations. But love is the pinnacle. This is what God is aiming at and producing in our lives. To have God's love in the heart and to express that love to God and other people, that is when we are most like our Lord Jesus. Scripture tells us that God is love. And then Ephesians tells us this in 5, 1 and 2, therefore be imitators of God, beloved children. and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. Do you know that God loves you this morning? Are you sure of that? You say, why would he love me? Well, we all ask the same question. It's because he's love. And in spite of who we are, he loves us. But let me ask you another question. Are you walking in love toward others? If not, if you're finding it difficult to love the people in your life as you should, then go back to the source of that love, the indwelling spirit of God. Draw from the deep, deep love of Jesus Christ. And you'll have more than enough for your spouse, for your children, for your neighbors, even for your enemies. We were all His enemies. He loved us. He calls us to do the same, only by His grace. So the Lord came into this world to die for our sins and to save our souls. Do you know Him? Have you trusted in His death and resurrection? I hope so, I pray so, and I would urge you to do so, to put your faith in Him today. You know, a lot of people think that all God wants and all we need from God is just to get our ticket punched for heaven. Heaven, again, it's a wonderful thing. But there's more to being a Christian than just having your ticket punched for heaven. Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse was the pastor of 10th Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia from 1927 until his death in 1960. And he said this as he preached a sermon on this passage. He said, let us understand then that God reached down and redeemed us from the dung heap of this earth for the purpose of forming Christ within us. And he's left us in the midst of this world, midst of this dung heap, to reveal the power and life of Christ. We're still here. He hasn't taken us to heaven yet. And there's a purpose. Do people see the power and the life of Christ in you? Do they sense the love of God coming forth from you? Jesus spoke to the disciples in Matthew 24 about a great tribulation that was coming on Jerusalem, on the city of Jerusalem. He said that on account of that tribulation, the love of many would grow cold. Well, what about you and me? Has your love for the Lord grown cold? Love for others cooled off? What do we do about that? Well, the only thing we can do is to keep turning back to the Lord and to point ourselves over and over in the ocean, as it were, of His love. Otherwise, we do grow cold. and callous. Trials do not automatically make you stronger, and they certainly don't automatically make you more loving and gracious and kind. Sometimes they make us bitter and hard, and nobody wants to be around us because of that. Unless we seek to be filled with the Spirit of God and His love, we will become parched, dry, and bitter. But again, all we have to do is turn and look at Him. Look full in His wonderful face. and immerse yourself in his love once more. I don't know where you are with the Lord today in this whole area of your trials and also of the love of God. But I want us to bow together for just a moment of prayer as I lead us and may the Lord deal with each one of us. Let's pray. Oh Lord, we bow before you in this moment. I pray, Lord, that you would break down barriers. Barriers in our hearts, barriers in our lives that have kept us from rejoicing in your love, kept us from showing love to other people. We close ourselves off to you and to the people that are most important to us at times. So, Lord, my prayer is that you would cleanse me from every sin, remove every barrier in my life and in our lives to the flooding of your love. May the Holy Spirit who dwells within each believer here today rule in our hearts. And we pray that you will come as you have in the past, come as a mighty rushing wind, come as a fire, come as a flood of love into our hearts today. We come to you, to whom shall we turn? So our prayer, Lord, my prayer is that you would break me, you would melt me, you would fill me, and that you would use me. In Jesus' name, amen. Let us take now our hymnals for the hymn of consecration. Turn to number 94 and we'll sing the first Four stanzas of how firm a foundation, and the scripture at the top of the page is Isaiah 41, verse 10. Do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Let's praise his name.