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Romans 5:1-5
5:1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we1 have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith2 into this grace in which we stand, and we3 rejoice4 in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
[1] 5:1
[2] 5:2
[3] 5:2
[4] 5:2
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Good morning, church. Before we get started this morning, I do have just a few announcements that I'd like to go over. First is about our COVID 19 plan. I just wanted to know that, the pastors of leadership, we've been, we are carefully listening to all the health officials following, their suggested guidelines for this, and really we're making a week by week call on this. So we we're not making a plan to go ahead and call services for the next month or anything like that.
Joel Brooks:We're just making a week by week decision. And so you do need to be reading the church wide email that is going out. If for some reason you have not been getting that email, check your junk mail. About half of you, I think, did not, read the last email or get the last email, so it might be in your junk folder. If you would like to be on our email list, just email us at info@rccbirmingham.org and we will put you on the email list so you can receive our weekly newsletter about that.
Joel Brooks:The second announcement I want to make is really I just want to take time to thank the many leaders, the, the staff at the church, our elders, our deacons, for the phenomenal job that they've been doing during this time. I've talked to a lot of other pastors, churches here in Birmingham who've been scrambling trying to adjust adjust the ways that they take care of the people at their church and we largely haven't had to do that because of the care structure we have in place And I've been so impressed with the way that the elders have been calling up, our members, checking in on all our home group leaders, all of our home group leaders, the way they've been caring for everybody in their home group, the way our deacons have been serving. It's been really amazing to watch the church in action during this time, and, we really haven't had to change many things because of the way, that these men and women have been caring for the church. And so I just wanted to thank all of you for doing the job that you have been doing. You have been doing a fantastic job with that.
Joel Brooks:Also, I love the emails that have been coming in, all of the pastors and staff, we enjoy those just hearing different stories about ways you're serving, things that are happening in your communities, on the ways you see the Lord is working, or perhaps even questions that you have. Keep those going. We also been getting a number of suggestions as to what you would like to see, during this time, for our live streaming services. My two favorites were this, that each of you take a selfie and we would print it off and we would put it all in the pews here so that when, you know, we preach we could look out and we could see all of you. That's not gonna happen.
Joel Brooks:My other favorite suggestion was the drive in church in which we all meet in a parking lot and you would flash your lights for an amen, you would do the wipers as, for raising your hands. We're also not going to do that. But I do appreciate your suggestions. And once again, we love hearing from all of you, so thank you for sending that in. So when we begin our service, Matt is gonna come in just a moment and he's gonna open up God's word to us from Romans chapter 5.
Joel Brooks:And, Matt Francisco, we look forward to hearing from you this morning.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Joel. As Joel said, my name is Matt Francisco, and I'm one of the pastors here at Redeemer. This past Monday, Joel tried to warn me about how awkward it was going to be to preach to an empty room and pretend like all of you guys were here. But I don't think anything that he told me could have prepared me for just how surreal this actually feels. So if it's okay with you guys, I'm just going to pretend like you guys are actually here.
Speaker 2:And, happy spring break, to so many of you guys. This week, we are taking a break from our study in Genesis because months ago, when we planned this, we imagined that many of you with your families might be elsewhere. And so, as it happens, we're gonna take a look at Romans chapter 5 this morning. I'm actually going to begin at the end of Romans chapter 4 to give you the proper context for what Paul is saying here in chapter 5. And listen closely, for these are God's own words.
Speaker 2:So Romans chapter 4, the end of verse 24. It will be counted to us who believe in him, who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope with the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.
Speaker 2:And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. This is the word of the lord. Thanks be to god. Let's pray. Heavenly father, this morning, we declare your goodness, and we declare our dependence upon you.
Speaker 2:You clothe the lilies of the field, and you feed the ravens. You say to us, which of us who, by being anxious, can add a single hour to our lives? You know what we need, and we trust you. These past few weeks have reminded us over and over again of our frailty, of our desperate need for you, and our desperate need for one another. So, lord, we repent of so much self sufficiency, of so much selfish independence, and we come asking you for mercy.
Speaker 2:Lord, and we also come, and we pray and thank you for those heroic doctors and nurses and all those working in the medical field who are putting their lives on the line every single day. We thank you for what they're doing, and we pray for their strength and for their endurance. And we turn to you, the great physician, and we ask for healing. We ask that you, who are the creator and sustainer and ruler of all things, that you would put an end to this disease now. Lord, we remember Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus, weeping and raging at sickness and death.
Speaker 2:And we weep and we rage at sickness and death too. And we ask that you would finally and forever put it to an end. And until that day comes, holy spirit, we ask that you would comfort us. Our prince of peace, our world feels like it is in so much turmoil, and we ask that you would bring peace to this world and peace to so many hearts through surrendering to Jesus Christ. Now, lord, as we come together before your word, we remember that the grass withers and the flowers fade, but your word abides forever.
Speaker 2:And so we come to you like Simon Peter, and we say, where else would we go, Lord? Because you have the words of eternal life. So we're thirsty. And we pray that you would give us drink of the water without price. Spirit, speak to us, we pray, and give us hearts to love you above all things, and minds to obey you no matter the cost.
Speaker 2:We pray these things in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. What absolutely strange times we find ourselves in. Last week, Joel mentioned that his daughters were having dance parties to Nickelback, which, for the record, I still attribute to bad parenting. But that's another story.
Speaker 2:Over the course of the last 10 years of our marriage, my wife has said again and again, that she will never homeschool our kids. And yet here we are. Here's to you, if you've been homeschooling all along because you look like an absolute genius right now. A few weeks ago, I had to pick up my son, Ezra, from school and break the news to him that his baseball season was canceled. And I had to watch his heart break in the back seat of the car, because baseball's awesome.
Speaker 2:I've become my kids' PE teacher, creating obstacle courses in our backyard just to make sure that our kids keep getting outside. We've all done so many things that we never thought that we would do, but, compared to many, our family's burdens have been fairly light. Just on Friday, the number of known cases of COVID 19 eclipsed a 100,000 in the United States, even though we all know that the number is probably much higher than that. And over 1500 people have died. And, this rate is growing exponentially by the day.
Speaker 2:As the reach of the coronavirus epidemic has expanded, so too have so many of our anxieties and fears. Many of us have fearfully wondered, what happens if our hospitals start to get overrun? What happens if we run out of ventilators? What's gonna happen in the end to me and the ones that I love? And so many of you, we know, work in health care, and we thank and praise God for your work.
Speaker 2:And you guys have had to worry day in and day out as you go to work, whether or not you're going to get sick and maybe get your family members sick. Others of you, maybe freelancers, or you work in restaurants, or you're photographers, or craftsman, or you own your own business. So many businesses have had to suspend operations that you've been left anxiously wondering about the future of your finances. Certainly, no small number of you are a part of the 3,300,000 people who filed for unemployment last week, and many of whom were suddenly left without health care coverage. So what does it look like for us to cope in the face of these overwhelming and uncertain circumstances?
Speaker 2:How can we, as Christians, hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, trusting that he who promised will, in fact, be faithful? This morning, we're gonna look at very hopeful words in Romans chapter 5. As Paul shows us how we can have a sure and certain hope, even in the midst of uncertain and anxious times. We're gonna try to unpack 4 phrases very briefly. First, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2:2nd, through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. 3rd, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 4th and last, not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings. So, first, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. One of my, favorite TV shows of all time is The Sopranos, and I'm not necessarily recommending that any of you go out and watch it, while you're on lockdown at home, but the show follows Tony Soprano.
Speaker 2:He's a a mob boss in New Jersey. But the real entry of the show comes in when Tony starts having these nervous breakdowns and he starts secretly visiting a psychiatrist. There's this amazing moment where it looks like Tony's nephew, Christopher, is about to die, and doctor Melfi, his psychiatrist looks at him and he says and she says, do you think Christopher's gonna go to hell? And, Tony looks back her and he says, no. He's not the kind of person that deserves hell.
Speaker 2:And then she says, well, who does? He says, the worst people. I mean, the the the people who prey on on women and children, the twisted and demented people who kill for pleasure, the the cannibals, the the Hitlers. Not my nephew. And then, doctor Melfi looks him straight in the eye, and she asks, well, what about you?
Speaker 2:And, Tony gets absolutely furious. He gets up in a rage, and he starts yelling, hell. What are you talking about? Have you listened to anything that I've said? And if you watch over the course of the 7 seasons of the show, you see Tony do some pretty terrible things.
Speaker 2:And you can start to think, yeah, Tony, I don't know how you don't see this. You're not that different from so many of the people that you think are so much worse than you. But Tony never sees it that way. When he looks at his own life, sure, there are some things that he regrets, but he always had really good reasons for doing them. He was either taking care of business or taking care of his family.
Speaker 2:And so he doesn't think that his sins are all that deserving of punishment, especially when he compares them to others. And I think, a lot of the time, neither do we. But the implication of what Paul says here in Romans chapter 5 verse 1 is that all of us were once those who did not have peace with God. Colossians 1 explains it this way, saying that we were enemies of God because of our evil behavior. Now that might be a shock to many of you guys thinking I'm not an enemy.
Speaker 2:I don't hate God. I would never set myself up against him. But what is sin? You see, if God is the king of absolutely everything, if everything belongs to him and exists for his good pleasure, and if we owe him all glory and honor and praise, then when we reject God's commands and instead go our own way, we are in effect looking at him and saying, God, you might be king, but I wish you weren't. I don't think you're all that good or maybe all that wise.
Speaker 2:If anything, you are withholding God, and I'd be better off ruling my own life. This is why the Bible can describe the essence of all sin as rebellion. It's always treason. And treasonous rebels don't expect mercy, but just and swift punishment. But is that what you and I have received?
Speaker 2:Look back at what Paul says at the end of chapter 4, because this is absolutely amazing. He says, Jesus, our Lord, our King, was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. This means that we, who once were rebels, can now be reconciled and have peace with God through verse 1, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is himself our peace. Now, pretty, embarrassingly for me, I came into marriage with a little bit of credit card debt and a mountain of student loans and a degree of more than questionable merit, merit, but something magnificent and wonderful happened to me. I got married to a much more wise and responsible woman.
Speaker 2:And on my wedding day, as Aaron and I were married, her monetary righteousness as it were, covered over all of my debts. Those debts that I came into marriage with could never be held against me again. And not by anything that I had done. Right? But what Aaron had done already wholly apart from me.
Speaker 2:And if we have repented of our sins and believe in the gospel, our debts are forever covered. Because Jesus, wholly apart from us, he canceled the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, setting aside and nailing it to the cross. If we have been justified by faith, trusting in what Jesus has already done and not in our own works, receiving this as a gift of God, then our acceptance before God is no longer something that we have to work for or try to maintain. This means it is guaranteed forever in Jesus. This means there is literally nothing you can do to make God love you anymore, and there's literally nothing you can do to make God love you any less.
Speaker 2:Isn't that good news? This means that because you are in Christ, when God looks at you, he looks at you with the same love and affection with which he looks at his own son because he sees you in him. And he sees you as if you had perfectly obeyed just as Jesus did. This means for us that we can have sure and certain hope and peace even now. Even as stock markets fall, even as oceans rise and pandemics spread.
Speaker 2:Because if God has already provided for us, our greatest need, which is peace with Himself, then we can trust Him with all our other needs as well. Number 2. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. Since we are now united to Christ, everything that belongs to Jesus also now fully belongs to us. Everything belongs to us, just as everything that belongs to a husband now legally belongs to his wife when they get married.
Speaker 2:And for us in Christ, this is amazing. This includes access to the very throne room of God in prayer. In Psalm 65:2, David addresses God calling him, oh you who answered prayer. What great hope that provides for us. During the midst of an epidemic in Boston in the late 1700, Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon on that verse, offering comfort to so many anxious people within his church, reminding them that, quote, God sits on a throne of grace.
Speaker 2:There's no veil to hide this throne and keep us from it. The veil is rent from the top to the bottom. The way is open at all times, and we may go to God as often as we please. Although God be infinitely above us, yet we may also come with boldness. God allows the most vile and unworthy.
Speaker 2:The greatest sinners are allowed to come through Christ, and He delights in being sought by prayer, end quote. Did you hear what Edwards said? Not only has Jesus given us access so that we can come to God in prayer, But we can trust that we will always be heard, because God delights in us coming to him in prayer. A number of years ago when we lived in Crestwood, Sarah, our, our oldest, her bedroom was across the hall from ours. For a lot of parents, I know there's 10,000 different ways to parent your kid, but for a lot of parents, there's this stressful time around about right about the time when your child turns 6 months old, where you try to help them learn how to sleep through the night on their own.
Speaker 2:You have to just kind of let them cry and put themselves back to sleep. And when Aaron and I were trying to sleep train Sarah, when Sarah would cry out in the middle of the night, Aaron's heart would just break. She would immediately grab hold of the baby monitor and she would start anxiously looking, trying to figure out what we were supposed to do in the midst of this. Do we run-in and immediately give her a pacifier just so that she knows that we're there? Does she need to go in and feed her?
Speaker 2:Does she need to go in and rub her back after, like, 5 minutes? Or do we stick to the plan and just let it ride? I, on the other hand, was much more cold hearted. Most of the time, I just angrily gruffed, I think she'll be fine, and rolled over and went back to sleep. Now, if we didn't come, right, Sarah might have felt abandoned.
Speaker 2:But what was true? She had never been abandoned even for a second. Even if she had cried and cried and never gotten an answer that she understood from us, it was only because we were actually always working for her absolute and best good. Well, at least, Erin was. Although sometimes, admittedly, we didn't know what the best course of action was.
Speaker 2:There are times where we, as Christians, might think that prayers are bouncing off the walls, and we might wonder if God hears us or if he's ever going to answer, because he's not answering in the times or the ways that we would want him to or expect. But hear me say this. God has never once wondered about what was best for his children, because he's never lacked the wisdom to know what was best. And he's never lacked the resources to provide for them what's best. He has always and will ever only work for the absolute good of his children because he always acts in perfect love to the degree that if we knew what God knows, if we had the resources that God has, and if we loved as deeply as God loves, we would do the same things.
Speaker 2:We can rejoice that we have permanent access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And and remember, because our standing with God isn't founded upon our own strength or ability to obey, but on what Christ has already done, this means that God's commitment to your good and to mine is absolutely as unchangeable as God himself. If that's true, then the primary business of prayer isn't us trying to wrest control from God, to get him to do what we think is best. But it's for us to be brought to rest in the certain hope that he will always do what is actually best. So prayer isn't overcoming God's reluctance in any way.
Speaker 2:It's coming to the end of ourselves, and then coming instead helpless to a good father. Listen to these words from Luke chapter 11. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish, give him a serpent? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly father give the holy spirit to those who ask him?
Speaker 2:It's okay to be confused by what's happening, or scared, or even angry. But when fears or unanswered prayers would leave us prone to doubt God's goodness or power or love or even make us want to run away from God. May our worries first instead give birth to profoundly honest, dependent, helpless prayers. With a sure and certain hope that our father delights in us coming boldly to the throne of grace, and that he always and only gives good gifts even if sometimes the egg that he gives us looks and feels to us at first like a scorpion. It is our father's good pleasure, Luke 12 tells us, to give us the kingdom.
Speaker 2:And that's exactly what he's gonna do. Number 3. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Now Paul's not talking here about some vague wish that probably isn't gonna happen. This isn't some 25 year old checking his phone every 5 minutes, hoping that that girl is gonna message him back.
Speaker 2:Listen, man. She's on quarantine, and you know that she's seen every one of your stories. It's time to give it up. This isn't Alabama fans thinking that even though Dabo Swinney is a legend at Clemson, has won 2 national titles, and is making $9,000,000 a year, that suddenly when mama calls, he's gonna come home to Tuscaloosa. While we're often tempted to judge the goodness of God by our current circumstances.
Speaker 2:This hope that Paul is talking about here is absolutely untouchable by circumstances because it's rooted in the promises and unstoppable plans of God. The Lord of hosts has sworn, as I have planned, so shall it be. So, in the midst of uncertain and anxious times for the Romans, Paul pointed them to their sure and certain hope. The hope of the glory of God. Paul wanted these believers to see that, though for now they may see through a glass darkly, One day, the veil will be rent and the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
Speaker 2:One day, every valley will be exalted, and every mountain and hill will be made plain. 1 glorious day, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is lord to the glory of god the father. One day, those of us who have peace with god through Jesus Christ will see what no eye has seen. We will hear what no ear has heard, What no heart of man has imagined. What god has promised and prepared for those who love him.
Speaker 2:We're gonna enter a world where there will be no more coronavirus, where there will be no more failures or lies or deceit, No more poverty or miscarriages or miscarriages of justice. No more greed or cancer. No more infertility or racism or sexism or envy or lust. There will be no more pandemics and no more funerals because death itself will be put to death once and for all. And on that day, the eyes of the blind will be open.
Speaker 2:The ears of the deaf will be unstopped. The lame will leap like a deer, and the mute will shout for joy. Though, for now, our only interactions with those we love may come through a screen or through social distancing. One day, each and every one of us will be gathered together forever enjoying one another's love and riches and comfort, in peace, in harmony, in honor, in dignity, as priests and kings unto our God forever, inheriting all things, free from all sin and guilt and shame forevermore. And in that moment, every last one of our doubts and fears and anxieties will forever be put to rest.
Speaker 2:Because we will see him. And we will know him even as we are known. We will hunger no more, and we will thirst no more. Because all of our deepest desires and longings will forever and fully be satisfied in him. And God has promised on that day to wipe away every single tear from your eye, that he will dwell with us forevermore.
Speaker 2:This is our sure and certain hope even in the midst of these uncertain and anxious times, Because Jesus himself has made the down payment in his own blood. There is absolutely nothing in the universe that can stop the unstoppable plans of our perfect God from coming to pass. Not tribulation, nor distress, or persecution, or famine, or danger, or nakedness, or sword, or pandemic. Even as we travel through this world of woe, we can rejoice as Paul says in verse 5, because hope does not put us to shame. Even if things out there get worse, even if the world starts to seem to crumble, even if medical help does not arrive in time, we have certain hope because into that bright world to which we go, there will be no more sickness or toil or danger.
Speaker 2:If we die, we're only going over Jordan. We're only going home. So even if everyone and everything fails us, you can set your sure and certain hope that your God never will. God will never let you down because his love will not and cannot ever let you go. I'll admit.
Speaker 2:Very tempted to just stop right here. But Paul doesn't, so let's keep going. Number 4. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings. Now, it's one thing to endure sufferings.
Speaker 2:Right? With the hope that through our union with Christ, we can always come boldly before God, our father. It's one thing for us to endure sufferings, knowing that there is a hope extended for us in heaven. But what on earth is Paul saying here? What could he possibly mean by saying that we rejoice in our sufferings?
Speaker 2:Alright. As a culture over the last several years, we've become increasingly obsessed with health and fitness. Sure that you guys have noticed this. Sales of organic food are rising 6% year over year, and almost 2 gyms have opened per day in the US over the last 8 years. And while there are certainly some positives to this, we have to ask ourselves, why is this happening now?
Speaker 2:There seems to be an underlying belief. If I can just control this area of my life, if I can control my health and my fitness, maybe I can control this part of my destiny. I can stave off sickness and suffering and death. So when suffering or sickness comes, it's it's often really traumatic for us. Since in our culture, unlike so many cultures that have come before us throughout history, if you want to find peace or fulfillment or your identity, you have to find it solely in this life.
Speaker 2:Since we've been taught that we have the freedom to make our lives as meaningful and as wonderful as they can be if we'll work hard enough, then setbacks and sufferings, they're absolutely devastating to us because they're only a hindrance and sometimes, right, a permanent hindrance that keeps us from living the lives that we want to live. But what hope can you have when your dreams don't turn out, when your bank account evaporates, or those that you love grow hopelessly sick, or even die? What about death? If one day our solar system is going to simply wind down and every trace of those that we love will vanish if as if they never existed. If there's no God or anything beyond and anything that you and I have ever done, Whether you are currently giving your life to serve the sick, or to love your neighbor in the midst of a pandemic, or whether you've stolen masks from a hospital, whether you've been a saint or a monster, if there's nothing beyond this, it makes no ultimate difference at all.
Speaker 2:If our cultural narrative is right, then suffering and death are absolutely devastating because they're the end of all meaning and hope. But, on the other hand, one of the great themes of the Bible is how God's perfect, unstoppable plans come to pass, not just despite, but so often through suffering. As we'll see in a couple weeks, Joseph is sold into slavery, and he's stuck in a dungeon for decades, but God was working and using that all the while to save his family and so many more. In acts chapter 8, which we looked out just a short while ago, persecution came upon the church. And and what happened?
Speaker 2:The persecuted church scattered so that so many more could see and fear and put their trust in Jesus. And then think of think of the place where our peace comes from, that Jesus, our lord, was delivered up for our trespasses by suffering on the cross in our place. And if God used Jesus's sufferings to bring about unimaginable good, then we can rest assured that God is using our sufferings as well. Even more than that, we can, as Paul says, rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering is meant to produce in us endurance. And as he says, endurance produces character, and character produces hope.
Speaker 2:Our sufferings have meaning. This doesn't mean in any way that we want to suffer, but we can rejoice in suffering because we can trust that this light and momentary affliction is only preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. Let me give you two reasons why. First, suffering helps us see through the illusion that we were ever actually in control of our lives. It reminds us that though the earth gives way and the mountains be moved into the sea, we need not fear because our wise, sovereign, loving God will always be with us and always be working for our good.
Speaker 2:2nd, when suffering slows our worlds down, it's almost as if God is putting his finger on those other things that we've really been looking to for our security, our hope, and our identity. Those things that are guaranteed to fail us. The truth is that none of us really understand our own hearts when things are going well. But suffering comes and exposes these things, and it's almost like God is asking our hearts, do you love me more than the gifts that I give, and don't you know that I'm so much better? And while we're free in the midst of our sorrow and our suffering and our hardship, to weep and to work and to boldly pray, when we're brought to a secure and certain hope of the goodness and love of God, even in the midst of it all, we can trust that not only is our father our father is is only accomplishing in us that which he could not accomplish in any other way.
Speaker 2:Listen to these amazing words from John Newton, the great 18th century pastor and author of Amazing Grace. He wrote these words in a letter, to a woman of his church who was very concerned because her sister was dying. He writes, your sister is much upon my mind. Her illness grieves me. Were it in my power, I would quickly remove it.
Speaker 2:The lord can, and I hope he will, when it has answered the end for which He sent it. All shall work together for good. Everything is needful that He sends, and nothing can be needful that he withholds. Look upon him as a physician who has graciously undertaken to heal your soul of the worst sickness, sin. Yield to his prescriptions.
Speaker 2:When you cannot see your way, be satisfied that he is your leader. When your spirit is overwhelmed within you, he knows your path. He will not leave you to sink. He has appointed seasons of refreshment, and you shall find he does not forget you. Above all, keep close to the throne of grace.
Speaker 2:If we seem to get no good by attempting to draw near him, we may be sure we shall get none by keeping away from him. So when suffering comes your way and you cannot see, rest assured that God, your leader, is going before you. And even if you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, he will be lit with you. When your spirit is overwhelmed within you, rest assured that he knows your path. He is going to lead you beside still waters and into green pastures.
Speaker 2:That all things shall work together for good, that everything is needful that he sends, and nothing can be needful that he withholds. So even still, we will rejoice even in our sufferings. Because as Tim Keller has written, if faced rightly, suffering can drive us like a nail deep into the love of God into more stability in spiritual power than we could ever imagine. Our suffering is meant to produce hope. And verse 5 tells us that hope does not put us to shame.
Speaker 2:God will wipe away every tear from your eye because nothing in the universe can stop the unstoppable perfect plans of your perfect heavenly father. Because God's love verses 5 and continuing. Because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the holy spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would dare even to die.
Speaker 2:But god shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Our confidence, our hope that we will not be put to shame comes from this. When we were least deserving, when we were enemies of God, Jesus took all of our debts and our sin and our shame upon himself, And he suffered in our place on the cross. Paul's argument to the Romans in suffering and to you and me is this. If Jesus was willing to suffer so that we could have peace with God, what cause have we to doubt that there's anything he wouldn't do to take care of us?
Speaker 2:Yes. We can have sure and certain hope even in the midst of these uncertain and anxious times because the cross assures us that our God is absolutely at work in suffering, and he is absolutely for us. Even as we boldly pray for things to change, even as we work for the good of the world in our church, we can trust that even though the clouds that we so much dread, they're actually, in fact, big with mercy, and they're going to break with blessings on our head. We have a sure and certain hope that we will always be able to trace the rainbow eventually through the rain, even if it's only on the other side of Jordan. Because the resurrection assures us there's nothing in the universe that can stop God's plans from coming to pass.
Speaker 2:That your God will wipe away every tear from your eye and every wrong will be made right. Let's pray. Father, in the midst of these uncertain and anxious times, I pray that you would give us a sure and certain hope. One that doesn't change or shift by our circumstances. Give us hope knowing that we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Speaker 2:Give us certain hope knowing that we can come before you, knowing that you're going to hear us and that you're always and only gonna work for our absolute good. Now we trust you. We ask that you would heal all suffering and sin and disease, and that death would be no more. God, and do it soon. Come quickly, Lord Jesus, we pray.
Speaker 2:And in the meantime, we trust You. Amen. As much as I would love for us to close out responding in song, here's where we are. Receive now the benediction. This comes from Romans chapter 15 verse 13.
Speaker 2:May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, So that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. Amen.