WWUTT 1223 And Hope Does Not Put Us to Shame? (Romans 5:4-5)

Hope in Present Suffering and the Glory to Come

Of course we rejoice to see heaven when we die, but you are to rejoice even in your current circumstance. For God is working, even in this circumstance, to do something great in you. When We Understand the Text.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. And greetings, everyone. We've been studying in Romans 5 this week. I'm going to start out reading these first five verses. This is the Apostle Paul who wrote to the church that was in Rome.

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 of 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. 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.

A number of years ago, I became very intrigued by this particular paragraph, and I wanted to know the meaning of each one of these words. Reading it on the surface, it was very encouraging to me. Suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope.

And as I'm thinking about why we suffer in this world, why as Christians do we have to continue to go through suffering? Why does God not just give us relief from our suffering because now we're followers of Christ?

So what's the meaning and purpose of suffering? As I was asking that question, and I don't even think I was in a time of suffering, I was just pondering that. I came to this particular paragraph, and I began to study each one of these words intently, to understand what is meant by suffering, and endurance, and character, and hope.

What are each one of these things, and why are they important for us as Christians to cling onto as we grow our understanding of how God is working through us in this world, bringing us to sanctification until the day we die or the day Christ returns, whichever one comes first.

So we start here in verse 3 with the Apostle Paul saying, not only that. So we have hope of the glory of God. We have a hope knowing that we are in the grace of God, we are not under his judgment, we have peace with God, we have the promise of eternal life, the glory of God that is going to be revealed to us when Christ our Savior returns.

We have that hope, and we rejoice in that. We rejoice in whatever our present circumstance is, knowing the glory that awaits us. So we're looking forward to something future. But not only that, God is working in the present as well.

And that's what we're reading about in these next several verses. So we rejoice in the glory of God that's going to be revealed to us in our Lord Jesus Christ, the eternity that awaits us. We're in that eternity now.

But the day has yet to come when our faith shall be sight, right? When we will actually be with God in his heavenly dwelling. So in the meantime, here we are on earth, and God, by his grace, is even working through us now.

So not only that, but we rejoice. We rejoice in the glory that is to come, and we rejoice in our sufferings. Now those things would almost seem like they don't go together. Because we're looking forward to the day we get to be with God and Christ in heaven above, which is described for us in Revelation 21 as a place where there is going to be no more tears.

He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things will have passed away. And we will be in this glorious paradise in the presence of God and all of his eternal glory.

That's what we're looking forward to. We would rejoice in that, most certainly. Why would we rejoice in suffering? That seems to be the complete opposite of that. Because the suffering is producing something in us.

That's what Paul is laying out here. He would almost be answering that question. So if that's what we're looking forward to, if that's what God has delivered us into by faith in Jesus Christ, why do we have to go through suffering now?

And here's the answer to that question. We rejoice in our suffering. We don't just rejoice in the promise of eternal life. We even rejoice in our suffering. Paul will say to the Philippians in Philippians 4, verse 4, Rejoice in the Lord always.

Again I say rejoice. That's on a piece of paper right in front of me on the bulletin board that is just over my computer. Here is I sit and I do my devotionals and I record. This past Sunday, my daughters were not able to come to church because of sickness in our home.

So they sat at home and had a little Bible lesson with mom and colored pictures of Bible verses. Like they colored in the Bible verses. And my daughter Aria colored in Philippians 4, verse 4. So I asked her if I could have that and I would hang it on my bulletin board at my desk.

So now that's over my computer and I see it every day. I will continue to see it every day. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice. The Lord is at hand. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

As Paul goes on to talk about there. We don't behave like the rest of the culture. We don't clamor and fight and quarrel and complain and argue over our circumstances. But we are to shine as lights in the world.

Paul had expounded upon this in chapter 2 of the same book of Philippians. That we do everything without grumbling and complaining. That we may be blameless and innocent. Children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation.

Among whom you shine as lights in the world holding fast to the word of life. So we are not to be complaining and bickering and arguing. Because one of the things that demonstrates when we fight and quarrel.

And even complain about our circumstances while we're here in this world. And then we start talking to people about a hope that we have in Christ. What we show by our actions is we're not really all that hopeful.

Our circumstances are not really going the way that we thought that they were going to go. So what is this hope that we have if it doesn't really help us in our present circumstance. Furthermore we proclaim that God is sovereign.

And everything that happens, happens in his sovereignty. Jesus has not been rocked off his throne. Not by anything that's going on in the world right now. He still reigns over all. And he is still working all things together for good.

For those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Romans 8 28. Which Paul is going to get to later on in this particular letter. So if we proclaim something like that. But if we don't show in our actions.

And all of our daily behaviors. A peace. A hopefulness. A trusting in the Lord that his ways are good. If we don't show that in all that we say and do. Then those people that we share the gospel with.

They're not really going to know what the big deal is about this whole thing. You seem to hate stuff. I mean you complain about your circumstance just like I complain about my circumstances. So what difference does it make whether or not I believe in a God that is sovereign.

So if we believe in a God that really is. Doing all things. Ultimately for his glory. Like Joseph saying to his brothers. In Genesis 50 20. You meant it for evil God meant it for good. Do we believe that?

That even the evil that is going on in the world right now. God means it for good. Do you believe that? Then there is going to be a sense of peace over your life. Knowing that. All of these things are going to work out.

Something great is at the end of this. And when we know that. Because it's been revealed to us through the Holy Spirit. In the scriptures of God. Then it is going to. It's going to be over our entire lives.

Now that doesn't mean we don't mourn. And we don't struggle. It doesn't mean that we won't. Feel a sadness or a sorrow about things that we see going on in the world. The stuff that I see going on in the news.

Vexes my spirit. It hurts my heart that my children have to grow up in this world. And that the world is probably going to be a worse off place. When they're out of the workforce than it was when. When I was you know 18 and just starting out.

It's probably going to be harder for them than it was for me. So yeah that that stuff does bug me. But it doesn't cause me to despair. It makes me long for heaven all the more. That we would finally be taken out of this place.

Lord Jesus come quickly. And it teaches me to teach my children that very thing. That they not trust in the world. That they not be looking forward to. Being able to you know enjoy all of the luxuries or peacefulness.

Or assurances that being an American. And living in this culture might offer to them. Don't depend on those things. Because that's not where our joy comes from. Our joy comes from the Lord. Who is the maker of heaven and earth.

The Lord who has given his son to die on the cross for our sins. That whoever believes in him. Will not perish under the judgment of God. That is coming against all the unrighteousness and ungodliness of men.

But rather by faith in him we have eternal life. We have hope. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. But not only that we rejoice in our sufferings. You can have sorrow in your heart. And still rejoice also.

Those two things are not contrary to one another. You are burdened by what you see going on in the world. You are asking of God. That his righteousness would come down upon those who deal unjustly. And at the same time that we would be delivered from this into God's perfect kingdom.

You can pray those things. And at the same time rejoice. That this circumstance has been created by God for you. That in this trial. In whatever it is that you might be going through. Even if things are really, really good.

Even good times can be a trial. Because it's even in those good circumstances. That God is testing you to see that you trust in God. And not your stuff. For your happiness. For your goodness. For your hope.

You don't hope in the things of this world. You hope in God. So even a good circumstance can be used in that way to test you. Right? Are you understanding where I'm going here? So whether the situation is good or whether it's bad.

It is a test that we depend fully upon the Lord. Even a good circumstance can be a suffering in that regard. If you look at it in that sense. It's not something painful. But something that we endure through.

So that's what Paul is laying out here. We rejoice in our sufferings. Anything. Trial. Test. Circumstance. Whatever it is that we're going through. We rejoice in that. Because it is drawing us. God is using it to draw us all the more closer to him.

And to make us more like Christ. Because we are sharing in the sufferings of Christ. That we may be made more like him. Paul is going to expound on that more when we get to Romans 8. But here we rejoice in our sufferings.

Knowing that suffering produces endurance. Or maybe you're reading a translation that says perseverance. The Greek word here is hupomone. And it's a patient enduring is what it is. So perseverance. Endurance.

Steadfastness. Waiting upon the Lord. All of those things would be synonymous with endurance. When we suffer and we endure through that, that's a good thing. It is growing us in our faith. And it's making us more dependent on God.

More dependent on Christ. And don't you want that? As someone who loves God and is seeking God, don't you want to be more dependent on Christ? And so our sufferings, our struggles, as we endure through those things, that's what it does for us.

It makes us more dependent on Christ. Makes us long for him more. We would ask more of him. God, come into my situation. Show yourself in the midst of this circumstance that I may see you. That I may see how you work in the midst of these things.

I know that you are with me. We cling all the more to God. So we endure. We suffer. That produces an endurance. It produces a steadfastness. God said to Israel in Deuteronomy that he would even send false teachers to them as a test to see whether they love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.

You're suffering through that. You're listening to what the false teacher is saying to you. You really, really like it. But you know, that's not better for me than what God is offering me. So you don't take what the false teacher offers.

You compare it with the word of God. You see that it's not according to what God has said. And you resist it. No matter how much your flesh might want it. They're liars anyway, right? They're false teachers.

So don't even believe what it is that they're saying, even though your flesh might really, really want what they say. Don't go after it. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

So through that trial, you have endured through it. And it's producing something. You're now more steadfast in your faith than you were before you went through that trial. That trial comes at you again.

It's going to be even easier to resist it the second time. It grows your love for God all the more. You're maturing in your knowledge of God. You learn more of him through his word and how he is working in his word through your circumstance to grow you to become more like Christ, right?

So it's not just the circumstance itself that matures you, but it's the word of God in the midst of that circumstance. For Jesus said in John 17, 17, sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. That was the prayer, the high priestly prayer that Jesus offered up to the father on behalf of his disciples.

Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth. So it is in the midst of this trial that you study God's word, that you see his promises, that you cling all the more to his grace, and you are sanctified.

You are made more holy, resisting the temptation, clinging to Christ. So we have suffering that produces endurance, steadfastness, looking all the more to Jesus, and endurance produces character. Now, I think this was the word that tripped me up the most when I was studying this several years ago.

Character. Producing character, how? Well, the word here for character is dokime, and it means to be approved, to show yourself as someone approved. Where have we heard that phrase before? Surely you know a verse in the Bible where we are told to be an approved worker of God.

Where do you remember that being? Well, if you've been through Awana, or you have kids in Awana, you know the answer to this, because I think they recite this verse every single Awana, right? 2 Timothy 2 .15.

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. That's the kind of character we're talking about. We're talking about a person who is becoming more godly, more Christ-like in their behavior.

They don't quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. This is in the context of 2 Timothy 2 .15. Presenting themselves to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, is not going after sin or desiring things in this world, but they rightly handle the word of truth, and they live by that word.

Paul goes on in his instructions to Timothy, 2 Timothy 2 .16, but avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness. If we're focusing on the word of Christ, that leads people to more and more godliness.

In fact, Paul said that to Timothy in the previous letter, in 1 Timothy 6, that it is the sound teaching of the word of Christ that leads to godliness. You start delving into irreverent babble. You start going after quarreling over words.

Such a person is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and producing envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth.

That was what Paul said in 1 Timothy 6. We're not to be like that man. We are to be the one who is an approved worker, who has no need to be ashamed, who rightly handles the word of truth and lives by it.

Those who lead people into more and more ungodliness, who quarrel over words, who slander and are divisive and all these other kinds of things, their talk, as Paul says in 2 Timothy 2 .17, their talk spreads like gangrene.

Like it causes parts of the body of Christ, members in the church, to become infected and fall off. That's what irreverent babble, what ungodly chatter leads to. But even our words, our thinking, needs to be governed by the word of Christ.

2 Timothy 2 .19. But God's firm foundation stands bearing this seal. The Lord knows those who are his and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. Now in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable.

Therefore, if anyone causes, or sorry, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. You know they breed quarrels, and the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome.

Those are the instructions that Paul is giving to Timothy there in 2 Timothy 2, but that is exactly the kind of character that we should be after, Christ-likeness. And when we grow in this kind of character, it produces, Romans 5, 4, it produces hope.

Hope That Does Not Put Us to Shame

Now verse 5, and hope does not put us to shame. Hope is trust. Hope is an expectation. Hope, according to the definition that we have in the book of Hebrews, is confidence. Hope is our confidence. It's not like, I hope that my, or I hope that we get a baseball season this year.

I was about to say, I hope my baseball team wins. Well, the baseball teams aren't even playing right now, but I hope that we even get a season this year. You don't know if that's going to be the case or not, but a hope that we have in Christ is a hope that is sure.

We are certain of this. We have confidence in God, and hope does not put us to shame. What does that mean? We're not believing in something blindly. We're not believing in something with no certainty that it will happen or not.

Like, I hope there's going to be a baseball season. Well, you can hope in something like that. You can make a bet on it, and you can lose, and then you would be put to shame. But the hope that we have in Christ 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.

So, as we hope, even through the suffering and the circumstance that we're going through now, it's not anything to be ashamed of. It's something that the world is going to ridicule us for, but we shouldn't let go of it because God's love has been poured into our hearts.

The evidence and the certainty of these things, as they will be revealed to us in the future, is the love of God that is in our hearts now. So, we may not see the future yet, but because we have the Holy Spirit of God, and we know that God loves us through His Spirit, and we see what God has done for us through His Son on the cross, which that's where Paul is going to go next.

We'll talk about that next week. But as we see all of these things in God's Word, we know the love of God for us because of what His Word says, and the Holy Spirit in our hearts helps us to understand this so that we may be filled with hope.

And it is a hope that the world just simply cannot fathom, cannot comprehend, but that's because there is no hope in this world. The hope is in Christ. So, whatever you're going through, hope in God, and He is, know with confidence, He is using this circumstance for your good and for His glory.

Endurance, Approved Character, and the Word of Truth

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You again for Your Son and for working in our hearts an understanding of who You are and what You are doing. And though we may not see clearly how this circumstance is working out for our good and for Your glory, nevertheless, we trust in You because we know what You have done in the past.

We see it in Your Word. We know what You have promised for us for the future, according to Your Word. Therefore, we can have confidence that You are working even in our present to bring about a completed work which was started in Christ Jesus when we came to faith in our Lord.

Work this out, our salvation, to the day of Christ when we will be with You forever in glory. We long for that day. Help us to rejoice even in this day. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an Old Testament book.

On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an Old Testament study, When We Understand the Text.