Title: Rejoicing in Tribulations
Text: Romans 4: 25—5: 1-11
Date: January 25, 2015
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Romans
4: 25: [Christ] was delivered for our offences,…
Christ Jesus delivered
himself bearing the sins of his people. By paying the wages of sin, which is
death, Christ made full satisfaction for our sins.
Romans 4: 25: and [Christ] was raised again for our justification.
When Christ rose again, as
the head and representative of his people, he was legally discharged,
acquitted, and justified. So were all his people in him. Christ’s resurrection testifies that the sin
of his people has been fully atoned for and Christ is our everlasting
righteousness.
Brethren, you who have been
given faith to believe on our Lord Jesus Christ have been freely justified
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
What does that mean? It means God
himself has justified us, “[God ] just, and the justifier of him which
believeth in Jesus.” (Rom 3: 26) It means no charge can ever be laid against
you! “Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God
that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that
died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God,
who also maketh intercession for us.” (Rom 8: 33-34)
Romans 5: 5: Therefore [having been] justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ:
Believer, God in Christ has
reconciled you to himself. Abraham was
called “the friend of God”—so are you who God has reconciled to himself. Our
great Peacemaker has made us one with God, “For he is our peace, who hath made
both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us.” (Eph
2: 14)
Romans 5: 2: By whom also we have access by faith into this grace
wherein we stand,
Christ has given us free
access into God’s presence at all times, “In whom we have boldness and access
with confidence by the faith of him.” (Eph 3: 12) When God gives us access
through faith Christ, he makes us know that we stand where we have always stood
before him—in a perpetual, eternal, never-changing state of grace. “Grace”
means God chose his people and shed his free favor upon us with no regard to our
person or our works. Therefore nothing we do can change the state we are in—it
is
“grace wherein we stand.”
Romans 5: 2…and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Our hope—our confident expectation—is God himself, “Blessed is
the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be
as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the
river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and
shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding
fruit.” (Jer 17:7-8) Our confident hope is that by God’s grace, we shall behold
the glory of God. We have this hope
because Christ intercedes for us, praying, “Father, I will that they also, whom
thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which
thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.”
(Joh 17:24) We have hope this hope within us because Christ dwells in
us—“Christ in you, the hope of glory:” (Col 1:27) Then immediately Paul says
this:
Romans 5: 3: And not only so, but
we glory [we rejoice] in
tribulations also:…
Last Sunday, we saw that God
shall bring all his children “through the fire.” We saw that by the fiery
trial, God promises “they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will
say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.” Verses 3-5,
teach us in detail how God brings us to cry, “The LORD is my God!” And when we
are brought to that point, it makes us to know, tribulations are one of the
greatest blessings God gives us. Paul ranks it among the blessings of free
justification, peace with God, access to God, grace wherein we stand and hope
of the glory of God. It is because
Tribulations are used of God
to give us a more confident expectation—a more sure hope—of the glory of God so that we rejoice in God himself.
TRIBULATIONS WORK PATIENCE
First,
we glory in tribulations, knowing—this is what we know—“knowing that
tribulation worketh patience.” (Rom 5: 3)
“Tribulation”
means “pressure, to be pressed down.” It signifies the “threshing of corn.” We
are talking about heavy trials. You’ve seen a combine in a corn field. They
separate the corn from the stalk. You’ve seen a threshing machine. It separates
the corn from the husk. The purpose of tribulation is to thresh us, to press
us, to separate us. Our flesh, old nature, the cares of this world is the husk.
But the new man within, where Christ abides in us and where we abide in Christ,
that is the Seed, the child of God, the fruit. In tribulation the Lord threshes
us to separate the corn from the husk, the seed from the chaff, the new man
from the old, faith from flesh, spiritual understanding from fleshly wisdom.
“Patience” means
“endurance.” Particularly, endurance by submission and reliance upon God—we
glory in tribulations knowing that tribulation—being under pressure—works
patience, endurance—reliance upon God. Here is tribulation. Paul said, For we
would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia,
that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired
even of life.” (2 Cor 1: 8) Tribulation works patience, endurance, “But we had
the sentence of death in ourselves, [tribulation] that we should not trust in
ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.” (2 Cor 1: 9)
So the heavy trial comes. It
presses us down, out of measure, above strength. But God works tribulation until he makes us
cease trusting in ourselves and makes us patiently endure by submitting to God,
relying upon God, waiting upon God.
PATIENCE WORKS EXPERIENCE
Then “patience [worketh]
experience.” (Rom 5: 4) Experience means
“proof.”
First, patience, endurance, in
tribulation makes us experience proof about ourselves. It is proven to us what
we are. In the furnace of affliction, as we try to endure, the dross and scum
of old nature comes boiling up. We experience proof of our baseness and our
vileness and our weakness Paul said, we
were pressed “above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life:” (2 Cor
1: 8) In another place, Paul said of the new man, “We are troubled on every
side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair.” (2 Cor 4: 8) But
his trouble was so great in Asia, he experienced proof of the utter weakness of
his flesh, “we despaired even of life.”
But then as trouble brings
us to patiently endure, we experience proof of God’s abilty, Paul said, “Who
delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver.” (2 Cor 1: 10) He learned
that by experiencing it.
Also, we experience proof of
God’s wisdom in sending us just the right tribulation we need. For example, the
apostle Peter was arguing with the others that he was greatest, he would not
forsake the Lord. The Lord, used a little maid.
Peter experienced what he was; Peter experienced the Lord’s wisdom,
power and grace. Later in life he wrote what he learned, “ye younger, submit
yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be
clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the
humble…Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.” (1 Pet 5: , 7)
Another thing, we experience
our unbelief and we experience his faithfulness and power. For instance, the
apostles were sailing, the sun was shining, they were away from the Savior,
together, enjoying the day. Then he sent the storm. “Master, carest thou not
that we perish!” They experienced proof they had very little faith. Then they
experienced his power--“He rebuked the wind and said unto the sea, Peace, be
still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And they feared
exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the
wind and the sea obey him?” (Mr 4: 39-40)
Furthermore, we experience his
grace is sufficient in the face of our weakness Paul desired the thorn be
removed, “And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength
is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my
infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” (2 Cor 12: 9)
Ultimately,
we experience who our Savior really is. After his trial Job said, “I have heard
of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.” (Job 42: 5)
Brethren, you have
experienced this: after God brings you through a trial, you look back on your
sinfulness or your weakness or unbelief or all of the above. But you see God’s
mercy, longsuffering, grace and goodness so magnified! It makes it so that you
wouldn’t change a thing about the trial; you rejoice that he put you through
it. That is what Paul meant when he said, “Therefore I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for
Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.” (2Co 12:9-10) That why he
says, “we rejoice in tribulations, knowing…”
EXPERIENCE WORKS HOPE
Thirdly, “experience
[worketh] hope.” (Rom 5: 4) At Paul was given more hope by what he suffered, “Who
delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he
will yet deliver us.” (2 Cor 1: 10) Paul’s experience of God’s past deliverance
and present deliverance and it worked hope for future deliverance.
Remember, in our text, Paul
began speaking of this work in tribulations right after speaking of our
rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God. Through the trial God increases our
hope.
2
Corinthians 4: 17:…though our outward man perishes, yet the inward man is
renewed day by day. [how so] 17: For our light affliction, which is but for a
moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
[tribulation works patience, patience experience, experience hope] 18: While we
look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen:
for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not
seen are eternal.
Through trials, God puts
down our old man, our worldly affections and renews our inward man, turning our
eye of faith upon that which is eternal! He gives us great confidence in our
hope of the glory of God!
HOPE MAKES US NOT ASHAMED
Here is how hope does not
leave us ashamed or confounded, “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love
of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”
(Rom 5: 5)
In this process, God pours
his love into our hearts by the Holy Ghost. He gives us a more confident hope
that we have been reconciled to God by the death of his Son and shall now be
saved by his life by making us to experience his love for us. When we are
totally weak from the trial in our outward man, he fills our inward man,
reminding us:
Romans 5: 6: For when we
were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7: For
scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some
would even dare to die. 8: But God commendeth HIS LOVE toward us, in that,
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9: Much more then, [having NOW
BEEN] justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10: For
if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son,
much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his LIFE.
With all of this proven to
us by his love and grace through tribulations, “And not only so…” (Rom 5:
11) Not only do we rejoice in free
justification, in peace with God, in access, in grace, in the hope of glory,
not only do we rejoice in the trials, “but we also JOY IN GOD through our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom we have NOW received the atonement.” We do not call on justification or the
doctrine of peace, we call on God himself and joy in the person of our Redeemer
himself. This is the purpose of the
trial. It is to bring us to rejoice in God in himself. He said, “They shall
call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they
shall say, The LORD is my God.” God
makes our salvation, our hope, to be God himself! We cry Abba Father!
Amen!