I LOVE JESUS Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. --- Romans 15:13 The apostle desired for the Romans the most delightful state of mind. See the value of prayer, for if Paul longs to see his friends attain the highest possible condition, he prays for them. Pauls making this state a subject of prayer implies that it is possible for it to be attained. There is no reason why we should hang our heads and live in perpetual doubt. We may not only be somewhat comforted, but we may be full of joy, etc. The fact that the happy condition described is sought by prayer is a plain evidence that the blessing comes from a Divine source. Notice concerning this state: — I. WHENCE. IT COMES. From the God of hope. The connection is instructive. 1. To know joy and peace through believing we must begin by knowing what is to be believed from Holy Scripture (ver. 4). Where He is revealed as the God of hope. Unless God had revealed Himself we could have guessed at hope, but the Scriptures are windows of hope to us, and reveal the God of hope to inspire us with hope. Faith deals with the Scriptures and with the God of hope as therein revealed, and out of these it draws its fulness of joy and peace. At least three of the apostles quotations call us to joy (vers. 10-12). 2. The apostle leads us through the Scriptures to God Himself, who is personally to fill us with joy and peace; i.e., He is to become the great object of our joy. Our God is a blessed God, so that to believe in Him is to find happiness and rest. When you think of God, the just One, apart from Christ, you might well tremble, but when you see Him in Jesus, His very justice becomes precious to you. The holiness of God which aforetime awed you becomes supremely attractive when you see it revealed in the person of Jesus. How charming is the glory of God in the face of Christ. His power, which was once so terrible, now becomes delightful. 3. God is, moreover, called the God of hope because He worketh hope and joy in us. Peace without God is stupefaction, joy madness, and hope presumption. This blessed name of God of hope belongs to the New Testament, and is a truly gospel title. The Romans had a god of hope, but the temple was struck by lightning, and afterwards burned to the ground. Exceedingly typical this of whatever of hope can come to nations which worship gods of their own making. The hope which God excites is a hope worthy of Him. It is a Godlike hope — a hope which helps us to purify ourselves. He who graspeth this hope hath a soul-satisfying portion. It is a hope which only God would have contrived for man, and a hope which God alone can inspire in men. II. WHAT IT IS. 1. It is a state of mind — (1) Most pleasant, for to be filled with joy is a rare delight, reminding one of heaven. (2) Safe, for the man who has a joy which God gives him may be quite easy in the enjoyment of it. (3) Abiding. We may drink our full of it without surfeit. (4) Most profitable, for the more a man has of this joy the better man he will be. The more happy we can be in our God the more thoroughly will the will of Christ be fulfilled in us, for He desired that our joy might be full. (5) Which has varieties in it. It is joy and peace; and it may be either. Peace is joy resting, and joy is peace dancing. Joy cries hosanna before the Well-beloved, but peace leans her head on His bosom. We work with joy and rest with peace. (6) Which is also a compound, for we are bidden at one and the same time to receive both wine and milk — wine exhilarating with joy, and milk satisfying with peace. Ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace. You shall lie down in the green pastures of delight, and be led by the still waters of quietness. 2. The joy and peace here spoken of are through believing. You come to know the God of hope through the Scriptures, which reveal Him; by this you are led to believe in Him, and it is through that believing that you become filled with joy and peace. It is not by working nor by feeling. 3. This joy and peace are of a superlative character, Fill you with all joy. He means with the best and highest degree of joy, with as much of it as you can hold. 4. Notice the comprehensiveness of his prayer. (1) All joy; that is joy in the Fathers love, the Sons redeeming blood, the Holy Ghosts indwelling; joy in the covenant of grace, in the promises, in the doctrines, in the precepts, in everything which cometh from God. (2) All peace — with God, of conscience, with one another, even with the outside world, as far as peace may be. 5. Observe the degree of joy and peace which he wishes for them — that ye may be filled. God alone knows our capacity and where the vacuum lies which most needs filling. As the sun fills the world with light, even so the God of hope by His presence lights up every part of our nature with the golden light of joyous peace. III. WHAT IT LEADS TO. Lead to? What more is wanted? When a man brings you into a chamber vaulted with diamonds, walled with gold, and floored with silver, we should be astonished if he said, This is a passage to something richer still. Yet the apostle directs us to this fulness of joy and peace that we may by its means reach to something else — that you may abound in hope, etc. How often do great things in the Bible, like the perpetual cycles of nature, begin where they end and end where they begin. If we begin with the God of hope, we are wound up into holy joy and peace, that we may come back to hope again, and to abounding in it by the power of the Holy Ghost. 1. The hope here mentioned, arises, not out of believing, but out of the joy created in us by our having believed. This hope drinks its life at the fountain of personal experience. 2. The text speaks of an abounding hope. Much hope must arise to a Christian out of his spiritual joy. Grace enjoyed is a pledge of glory. Acceptance with God to-day creates a blessed hope of acceptance for ever. 3. By the power of the Holy Ghost, is partially mentioned by way of caution, because we must discriminate between the fallacious hope of nature and the certain hope of grace. There are a large number of persons who profess to have believed in Christ, but who assert that they have no joy and peace in consequence. Now I shall suppose that these are not raising this difficulty by way of cavil, and that they are not labouring under any bodily sickness such as might bring on hypochondriacal feelings. We begin with two observations — 1. That joy and peace are exceedingly desirable for your own sakes and for the sake of your acquaintances, who set down your despondency to your religion. 2. Do not overestimate them; for, though eminently desirable, they are not infallible evidences of safety. Many have them who are not saved, for their joy springs from a mistake, and their peace rests upon the sand of their own imaginations. It is a good sign that the spring is come, that the weather is warm; but there are mild days in winter. A man may be in the lifeboat, but be exceedingly ill, and think himself to be still in peril. It is not his sense of safety that makes him safe. Joy and peace are the element of a Christian, but he is sometimes out of his element. The leaves on the tree prove that the tree is alive, but the absence of leaves will not prove that the tree is dead. True joy and peace may be very satisfactory evidences, but their absence, during certain seasons, can often be accounted for on some other hypothesis than that of the absence of faith. 3. Do not seek them as the first and main thing. Let your prayer be, Lord, give me comfort, but give me safety first. Be anxious to be happy, but be more anxious to be holy. I. THE TEXT MAY BE USED TO CORRECT TWO COMMON AND DANGEROUS ERRORS. 1. That there is a way of joy and peace through self. Some look for them through good works. Now if we had never sinned, joy and peace would have been the consequences of perfect holiness; but since we have broken Gods law any rational joy and peace are impossible under the covenant of works. You have broken the alabaster vase; you may preserve the fragments, but you cannot make it whole again. Many who are conscious of this say, Then I will do my best. Yes; but a man who is drowning may say that, but it is no solace to him as the billows close over him. Some try the plan of scrupulous observance of all religious ceremonies. These things may be good in themselves; but to rest in them will be your ruin. 2. That of turning the text upside down. There is such a thing as joy and peace in believing, and some therefore infer that there is such a thing as believing in joy and peace. You will get peace just as the florist gets his flower from the bulb; but you will never get the bulb from the flower. To trust Christ because you just feel happy is — (1) Irrational. Suppose a man should say during a panic, I feel sure that my bank is safe, because I feel so easy about my money; you would say to him, That is no reason. Suppose he said, I feel sure that my money is safe, because I believe the bank is safe. That is good reasoning. But here you put the effect in the place of the cause. If a man should say, I have got a large estate in India, because I feel so happy in thinking about it, that is no proof whatever. But if he says, I feel very happy, because I have got an estate in India, that may be right enough. (2) Irreverent. You say to God, Thou tellest me to trust Christ and I shall be saved. Well, I cannot trust Christ, but I can trust my own feeling, and if I felt very happy I could believe that He would save me. (3) Egotistical. Here is a person who has the Divine promise —He that believeth on Him is not condemned; and instead of confiding in this, he says, No, I shall believe nothing which I do not feel. II. THE GREAT TRUTH OF THE TEXT IS, THAT BELIEVING IN CHRIST IS THE TRUE GROUND FOR JOY AND PEACE. Believing in Christ is trusting Christ, But what sort of a Christ is this I am to confide in? Is He worthy of my trust? The reply is this, We have trusted Christ — 1. Because of the wonderful union of His natures. He is God, and whatever God undertakes He is able to accomplish. But He is man, and has the requisite tenderness to deal with sinners. 2. Because of the evident truthfulness of His character. Could we suspect the Saviour we should find it difficult to trust Him; but as we cannot imagine a cause for suspecting Him, we feel shut up to believing Him. Millions of spirits boar witness to the trustworthiness of Christ. He did not fail one of them. 3. Because He was sent of God on purpose to save. Now if this be so, and Christ comes into the world and says, Trust, and I will save you, He has God to back Him, and the honour of the Trinity is pledged to every soul that comes to Christ. 4. Because the merit of His sufferings must be great enough to save us. 5. Because He rose again from the dead, and now He ever liveth to make intercession for us. Wherefore, He is able to save to the uttermost. III. THE PRINCIPLE OF THE TEXT IS OF CONSTANT APPLICATION : JOY AND PEACE ALWAYS COME THROUGH BELIEVING. We do not always have joy and peace, but still, in the main, joy and peace are the result of believing. E.g. — 1. As soon as a person is saved, one of the earliest evidences of spiritual life is a great battle within. Some have the notion that as soon as they are saved they shall never have to fight. Why, it is then that you begin the campaign. But you shall have joy and peace while the fighting is going on. 2. Remember that even after you are secure in Christ, and accepted before God, you may sometimes get despondent. Christian men may have a bad liver, or some trial, and then they get depressed. But what then? Why then you can get joy and peace through believing. Power is the peculiar prerogative of God. Twice have I heard this, etc. If He delegates a portion of it to His creatures, yet still it is His power. This prerogative is to be found in each of the three persons of the Trinity. We shall look at the power of the Holy Ghost in — I. THE OUTWARD AND VISIBLE DISPLAYS OF IT. 1. In creation works (Job 26:13; Psalm 104:29; Genesis 1:2). But there was one instance of creation in which the Spirit was more especially concerned, viz., the formation of the body of Christ. The power of the Highest shall overshadow Thee, etc. 2. In the resurrection of Christ. Sometimes this is ascribed to Himself, sometimes to God the Father. He was raised by the Father, who said, Loose the Prisoner — let Him go. Justice is satisfied. He was raised by His own majesty and power because He had a right to come out. But He was raised by the Spirit as to the energy which His mortal frame received (Romans 8:11; 1 Peter 3:18). 3. In works of witnessing. When Jesus went into Jordan the Spirit proclaimed Him Gods beloved Son. And when afterwards Jesus raised the dead, healed the leper, etc., it was done by the power of the Spirit, who dwelt in Him without measure. And when Jesus was gone the master attestation of the Spirit was when He came like a rushing mighty wind, and cloven tongues. And all through the apostles ministry mighty signs and wonders were clone by the Holy Ghost, and many believed thereby. 4. The works of grace. Under the power of the Holy Ghost the uncivilised become civilised, the savage polite, the drunkard sober, etc. II. THE INWARD AND SPIRITUAL MANIFESTATION. The former may be seen, this must be felt. The Holy Ghost has a power over — 1. Mens hearts. Now these are very hard to affect. If you want to get at them for any worldly object you can do it. But there is not a minister breathing who can win mans heart himself. He can win his ears, his eyes, his attention; but he cannot reach the heart. The Holy Spirit can. He can Speak with that voice which wakes the dead. 2. The will. This, especially in some men, is a very stubborn thing. I can bring you all to the water, and a great many more; but I cannot make you drink; and I dont think a hundred ministers could. But the Spirit of God can make us willing in the day of His power. 3. The imagination. Those who have a fair share of imagination know what a difficult thing it is to control. It will sometimes fly up to God with such a power that eagles wings cannot match it; but it is also potent the other way, for my imagination has taken me down to the vilest kennels and sewers of earth. Can you chain your imagination? No; but the power of the Holy Ghost can. III. ITS FUTURE AND DESIRED EFFECTS. He has — 1. To perfect us in holiness. The Christian needs two kinds of perfection-of justification in the person of Jesus, of sanctification by the Holy Spirit. At present corruption still rests even in the breasts of the regenerate, but the day is coming when God shall finish the work which He has begun. 2. To bring on the latter-day glory. 3. To raise the dead. That same power which raised Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies.Practical inferences: 1. The Spirit is very powerful, Christian! (1) Then you never need distrust the power of God to carry you to heaven. (2) Why should you doubt anything? 2. Sinners, there is some hope for you. I cannot save you, but I know my Master can. AMEN HALLELUJAH
Posted on: Tue, 27 May 2014 22:15:35 +0000
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