In his sermon 'We Glory in Tribulations,' Pastor Steve Hopkins explores Romans 5:1-5, focusing on the three main benefits of justification by faith: peace with God, access to God's presence, and the hope of future glory. He emphasizes that through Jesus' sacrifice, believers are reconciled with God, ending the hostility caused by sin. This reconciliation brings peace and provides believers with direct access to God's grace. The sermon further discusses how hope, grounded in certainty, acts as an anchor for the soul, providing stability amidst life's tribulations. Despite the world's perspective of tribulations as purely negative, Christians can find joy in trials because they produce patience, experience, and hope. Hopkins shares personal experiences and historical examples to illustrate how tribulations lead to spiritual growth and deeper reliance on God. He concludes by encouraging believers to remain joyful and faithful, trusting in God's sovereign purpose for their lives, and to look forward to the eternal glory that awaits them.

Welcome back to Barnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the book of Romans. Good morning. Turn with me in your Bibles, if you would, to the epistle of Paul to the Romans once again chapter 5 And if you would stand with me for the reading of the word of the Lord We'll be reading verses 1 through 5 together Let's read therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, 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.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for being our good and faithful and compassionate Father. Truly your mercies are new every morning, great is your faithfulness. And God we thank you above all for sending your son into the world to live for us and to die for us and to rise again from the dead. And then on account of his person and on the account of his work, you look upon us as you look upon him with favor because justice has been satisfied for your people who you've brought to saving faith and our sins have been forever pardoned our great debt paid in full and reconciliation made.

We thank you Father that through Jesus Christ our Lord the enmity has been slain, that we have peace with you God, and that we have life everlasting. And we ask God now that you might be pleased once again to open up our understanding by your Spirit and renew our minds by your Word, for we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Let's be seated. In our last session, we looked at the three consequences or benefits of our justification of our being declared just in the sight of God by faith, the first of which was peace with God, the second, access to the very presence of God, and the third, the hope of the glory of God. And the first thing that we found was that having been justified by faith, peace with God is ours.

Being justified by faith, we have peace with our Creator and He with us. Because Jesus made reconciliation for our sin by the blood of His cross because our sins were imputed to Christ on the cross and He suffered the wrath that was due us for our sins. We have peace with God. Hostility is ended between the believer and God because Christ bore the wrath of God, do our sins and died in our place. Have you ever just stopped and thought on that, meditated on that for a while?

The hostility is ended. It's over. Jesus bore the wrath that was due us for our sins. He who knew no sins was made sin in the sight of God in order that we might be made the righteousness of God in him and all our sin debt forgiven. The enmity has been slain, an everlasting righteousness brought in, and that righteousness imputed to everyone who believes on the name of Jesus Christ.

Having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. Peace, again, is the first consequence or benefit of our justification, of our being declared just in God's sight by faith. The second benefit of our justification that we found is access, access to God, access to the very presence of God and He will hear you. You can go to God whenever you want through Christ and He will hear you. On account of our justification, we have access into this grace, we read, wherein we stand.

We have access to the very throne of God and His grace. Ephesians 312 we read in our last session says, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence, not with arrogance, but with boldness and with confidence by the faith of Him or through the faith of Christ. In Christ we have peace with God and access into the very presence of God, and faith in Jesus is the door by which we enter. Having been justified by faith, we have not only peace with God, but access to the immediate presence of God. The enmity is gone, resulting in peace with God.

The enemy is gone. Oh, I said it in our last session, how we should thank God, how we should praise God, how we should be so grateful to God, pour out our hearts, not only on the Lord's Day, but throughout all the week and every waking moment that we consider that Jesus Christ died for our sins and that God chose to reconcile a people unto himself and We go down the street or we walk out of this building and you knock doors and you find one person after another, after another, after another who has never known the grace of God. But you have. But I have. How grateful should we be?

How thankful should we be? The enmity has been slain. We have peace with God and God is at peace with us. And the veil, the veil on earth is also gone, providing immediate access. When Jesus died, the veil on earth that separated the people from the presence of God, the immediate presence of God, was ripped in half and taken away.

It's no longer there, you know. It's no longer there. You have, through faith in Christ, access to God. We can now enter into God's presence boldly. And that's what we do in prayer and in worship.

Jesus, our high priest, our forerunner, has entered in beyond the veil in heaven. Everything that was on the earth was a shadow or a figure of those things which were in heaven. And Jesus, our forerunner, who's gone on before us, has entered into heaven beyond the veil in heaven and intercedes for us by His own blood. At His resurrection, Christ, Hebrews 9-12 says, by His own blood entered in once to the Holy Place having obtained eternal redemption for us. And He's interceding even now for every one of us by His blood.

His once for all sacrifice, His once for all entry, His blood into the holy place in heaven obtained eternal redemption for us. Through Christ being justified by faith in His person and His work, peace is ours. Peace with God is ours. And access into the very presence of God is ours. And hope is ours.

The third consequence or benefit of our justification. Hope is ours. Hope of the glory of God. And we rejoice, our text tells us, in hope of the glory of God. It is a cause for rejoicing.

Brothers and sisters, as I said a couple of weeks ago, we can now be filled with joy, being assured with a certain hope, not hope like the world has, or I hope this happens, I wish this would take place, but with a certain hope, a hope grounded in uncertainty, that we will one day see Christ face to face in His unveiled glory. And when we see Him, we are told we will be like Him. We who trust in Christ are the children of God. In 1 John chapter 3 verse 2 says that When Jesus appears, that is when he returns to earth, the people of God, we're going to see him as he is. And we are going to be made like him.

Our bodies will be made like unto his glorious body, stripped of all the corruption of the flesh, as I quoted from Calvin in our last session. And as the old hymn says, sinless there forever, we shall laud him ever. Sinless there forever, we will worship Him and praise Him forever. The Christian's hope is a sure hope. We have God's word on it.

The Christian's hope is a sure hope. We have God's word on it. And the Christian's hope, we read in Hebrews 619, is an anchor. It is an anchor for the soul, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth in that within the veil, into heaven itself, where Christ our high priest has gone on before us, and where we will also go who are united to him by faith. Our ship would be otherwise tossed to and fro, but this Hope is the anchor for our souls.

It is the anchor of our souls. R.C. Sproul comments here, hope is the anchor that keeps us from being blown all over the place. It is the hope that God is going to do in the future every single thing He said He will do. Close quote.

We're not blown about by every wind of doctrine. We're not blown around by every circumstance of this life. We are not shaken to the core like the people of the world are shaken to the core by tribulation, affliction, adversity, persecution. We have an anchor for our soul. And we know that God is going to do everything, every single thing he told us that he would do, not the least of which is take us again unto himself one day when this life is over, when this life of trouble is over.

Jesus has told us that in John chapter 14 where he is there we also shall be And that he has gone to prepare a place for us. And that when he returns, he will take us unto himself. This is the bridegroom coming for the bride, John chapter 14. The Spirit of God, who indwells believers, gives us this hope with certainty. It is a hope that will never fail.

It is grounded on what Christ has done for us in both his life and his death, and what the Word of God assures us will happen to us when we die. When I preach on the streets, I typically go to the passage where we read, it is appointed unto every man wants to die. You know, the Puritans used to talk about death all the time. Nobody likes to talk about death in America or in the West. We don't want to talk about death because death is something that happens to someone else.

As I heard a street preacher say yesterday, death is something that happens to someone else. We don't like to think about death, but death is coming for every one of us. That X is already on the calendar for you, for you, for you, for you, for me. It's already there. God knows the day will die.

God's got the day fixed. He knows the day that you're going to die, and the way that you're going to die. It's fixed. And when we die, the Christian dies in hope. The unbeliever dies hopeless.

The hope that the Christian has is the sure hope that we will be conformed perfectly to Christ that is coming when we see him as he is, to behold his glory forever in that place where the scripture tells us, eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it even entered into the heart of man. No one's ever even thought of it, the things that God has prepared for them that love Him. We've never even, we can't even conceive of it. The greatest thing that you can possibly imagine, the greatest experience that you've ever had on earth doesn't even get close to it, doesn't even come close to it. And yet, the world lives for it.

Isn't it amazing? Lives for this. I use the term worldling. The Puritans use the term worldling. The worldlings live for this, because this is all there is for them.

That's it. But not for the Christian. No, it's not even entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for them that love him. So we rejoice now in hope of the glory of God. We're going to be in heaven with Him.

We're going to behold the face of Christ in glory forever, and eye has not seen or ear heard, neither has even entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for us. Rejoice. And then our text this morning says in verse 3, and not only so. That's not all, he's saying. It's enough, but it isn't all.

Not only is it true that being justified by faith we have peace with God, not only is it true that having been justified by faith we also have access into the very presence of God, Not only is it true that having been justified by faith, we also have access into the very presence of God. Not only is it true that we can rejoice now, that our hearts can overflow with joy now being filled with a certain hope of future glory that God will finish the work that he's begun in us, that work of redemption, and one day usher us into his presence to behold Christ in his unveiled glory forever. It's also true that we can glory in tribulations. Look at what the text says, we glory in tribulations also. Wow.

Because we have been justified, we can be joyful even in the midst of the worst experiences of life. Because we have been declared just in God's sight, we can rejoice now even in the midst of the most horrific things that this body and soul and our emotions can possibly experience. To the worldling, to the person who's outside of Christ, It sounds silly. There is a people on earth who glory in tribulations? Really?

They can't grasp it. What? Are you saying that you invite affliction and trouble into your lives? No, it's not what the Apostles say. Like everyone else, Christians seek to avoid trouble.

We don't ask for it. We pray to avoid trouble, tribulation, if at all possible. But when trouble or pain or affliction does come, as it does for everyone, we have a different perspective. The Christian has a different perspective on pain and affliction and adversity and suffering and persecution than the world has. Our perspective on tribulation and suffering is radically different from that of the world, radically different, because we have been declared just in God's sight and we know where we're headed after we take our last breath.

We have an anchor for our souls and the anchor holds. We have a different perspective. We understand What the hymn we sang earlier talks about, how firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord, and having our deepest distresses sanctified to us. We're actually set apart in them for God. We actually grow through those things that destroy the hope of the world.

717, number 717 in our Trinity hymnal says, Though the angry surges roll on my tempest-driven soul, some of you may know the hymn, I am peaceful for I know, wildly though the winds may blow, I have an anchor safe and sure that will evermore endure. My anchor holds. My anchor holds. Even if everything is taken from us in this life, everything, family, friends, wealth, health, home, Christ can never be taken from us. Christ can never be taken from us.

No man can take Christ from me. When this life is over, An eternity of bliss in the presence of God awaits the children of God. We can rejoice in tribulation. We found the pearl of greatest price. Even if our suffering goes on and on, and for some it does.

Even if our suffering or our tribulation or our situation of affliction or adversity goes on for the rest of our lives and has no end until death, We understand that the end of our pain is not more pain. We understand, the Christian understands, that the end of our suffering is not more suffering. Even if we suffer for a lifetime, it will one day come to an end and we will be with Jesus forever. The Christian's hope is not all wrapped up in this life. The world, the people of the world, that's all they got.

All they can just see with their eyes and sense with their five senses. That's it. It's all they've got. Our hope is not wrapped up in this life. It's not focused on the temporal.

This world, this world's fading with all its glitter. This isn't heaven. Nothing we suffer on earth can be compared to the eternal weight of glory that awaits us in Christ in the future life. Therefore, tribulation does not rob us of our hope or our joy. Brothers and sisters, we have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ.

As I said before, go down and knock a few doors and see the horror of it all. Witness the horror of it all. The Puritans used to warn often about longing for a cross swap. You know what that is? You've got your cross that God has determined that you are going to carry.

But you look over and you see, that person's cross, that Christian's cross, doesn't seem to be as heavy as my cross. God, let me swap crosses with that person. Don't ever pray that prayer, please. And one of the Puritan books that I was reading spoke of a man who got his wish. He said, oh God, my cross is too heavy to bear.

My pain, my suffering, it's too bad. This person over here is suffering like me. Let me have his cross. And God answered his prayer in the affirmative and he took away his affliction and gave him that man's cross. And he went the rest of his life crying out to God, oh God, forgive me, please let me have my cross back.

Please let me have my former cross back. When I was a boy, whenever things would go bad for us growing up, we would go through some situation of disappointment or trial, and even into my adult years this was so, but I Remember when I was a boy, my mother would always say, life ain't easy. And she would always say it with a smile on her face. I can see her face right now, smile, life ain't easy. It was almost like she was looking at me and saying, get over it, you know.

Life ain't easy. But always with a smile on her face. Here was a woman who had been betrayed and cruelly mistreated for most of her married life by the person who had vowed to lay his life down for her. And I won't go into the details, some of you know them. I remember after my father was gone, my mother had to work two jobs.

She would get up in the morning and drive a school bus. And then she would go and work at the print shop at the school. And then in the afternoon she'd go in, or in the evening, she'd go and drive the school bus again. And then she would give blood every other Thursday. She had that real expensive, you know, blood.

I remember when we were little, when we were younger, you had milk cards at school. You had to have a milk card to get your milk. You bring your sack lunch and then you had your milk card, you'd turn it in. Well, the milk cards were different colors for the poor kids that couldn't afford milk. Because my mother didn't want us going up and giving the free milk card that was different color than all the other kids.

She gave blood every other Thursday. Blood for milk. I used to think, you know, how could she endure so much affliction in her life and pain with a smile on her face. Worldlings can't figure out people like my mom. Some of you knew her.

She used to be sitting in this congregation. And I think also about, you know, many times about the martyrs of old, how we read that they sang hymns of joy while being eaten by lions. And then of course there's Job, after all his wealth and health are taken from him and all his children are killed in a single day. He says, the Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

The people of the world can't figure out, Christians, The people of the world can't figure out how that child of God who's dying of cancer, lying in a hospital bed in intense pain, can have an expression of joy on her face even as she closes her eyes for the last time. They can't figure it out. They think, what's going on with these people? They glory in tribulations. Doesn't make sense.

How is it the Christians throughout the history of the world glory in the midst of affliction and tribulation? The anchor holds. The anchor holds. If we lose everything, the anchor holds. Hope is not vanquished.

How many times in our lives have we said to ourselves, you know, I really don't, I really didn't think things were going to turn out like this. Over and over again, right? How many times have the plans we've drawn up been shredded by new and maybe unwelcome circumstances? How many times has the road on which we journey taken a sudden turn? I didn't see that corner coming.

All of a sudden we find ourselves in a place of trouble pressing down on us, a place we never intended. One day we were flying high, then in almost an instant we find ourselves, as they say, shot down over the target. Should we be discouraged and disappointed? I was listening to a sermon this past week by Martin Lloyd-Jones once again, and he said, rather than being surprised, this is a paraphrase, rather than being surprised by tribulation, the Christians should expect it and be prepared for it. Because Jesus said, in the world you shall have tribulation.

Now We all know what the end of that verse says. But in the world, you're going to have tribulation. That's the way it is. You're in the world, you're going to have tribulation. Don't be surprised by it, Martin Lloyd-Jones says.

He says, expect it and be prepared for it. And then he cites a passage from 1 Peter chapter 4, beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you. As though some strange thing happened to you, but rejoice inasmuch as you're partakers of Christ's sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy." Don't think it's strange. This is Christian life. This is life, and this is Christian life.

There will be fiery trials to try every one of us. It's not something strange. It's normal Christian life. This past week, the chief financial officer of a multi-billion dollar Wall Street company jumped to his death out of a Manhattan skyscraper. How many saw the story?

Unbelievers, when they abandon hope, many times abandon ship. When they abandon hope, they abandon ship. It is a sad life that has no hope beyond this life. It is a sad life that has no hope beyond this life. The unbeliever lives a life of hopelessness.

The child of God, on the other hand, has an anchor for the soul. Hope is the anchor of the soul, and our anchor holds. The world has no hope. No hope. No hope.

Have you seen the suicide rate recently? Remember, Peter goes out and weeps bitterly and Judas goes out and hangs himself. Our anchor holds. Our hope anchors our ship to the ocean floor. Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness, as the hymn says.

We dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. Apart from Jesus Christ, it's all quicksand. It's all quicksand. The worldling can't find a place, a firm place to rest his foot. He's hanging off, he's hanging off of a cliff and there's no ledge below upon which to rest his foot.

Not so with the Christian. We can glory in tribulation and affliction not because we like suffering or going through the dark tunnels of this life, but because we have Christ with us through the darkest moments of our lives. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. No ultimate evil. Why?

Because thou art with me now. He's with me now. He's with you now. He's with you now. No ultimate calamity can befall us.

God is with me. We know how this thing ends. I know how this ends. I can rejoice now. We know that God is with us.

He will never leave us or forsake us. We know where we're going. We know that to God we're going. We understand that a crown of glory awaits us when we get there. Nothing we are going through or could ever go through can compare with the joy set before us.

Amen? Nothing can compare. Meditate on it. Nothing can compare with the joy set before us. And not only that, We know what trials and tribulation yield, what they produce.

Our pain, we know that our pain has a purpose here on earth. There's a purpose in it. We may not always understand the purpose of God and our suffering. We may not always understand it. A lot of times we don't.

Most of the time we don't. But we're confident that He knows and we trust Him. We trust that God has us right where He wants us right now. And that's hard sometimes. God, I know that you've decreed this.

You have me right where you want me right now. And our text says, we know, we also see what tribulation produces. Tribulation has an end and a purpose. That word, by the way, tribulation, comes from a root that means pressure. Pressure.

Anyone ever felt pressure from the afflictions of this life? From suffering in this life? From adversity in this life? You ever felt the pressure? It's like being crushed by something, but God has a purpose in it.

God has a purpose for it. The Christian believes in the sovereignty of God and that our sovereign Lord has decreed the trouble we're going through and that for His glory and for our good, if we could just comprehend it. And so when we experience tribulation, when we're being crushed by pain or sorrow or loss or affliction or persecution, We not only know that it has an end, but we are also learning something in it. We're also learning something. We're learning patience.

That's what the word here says, we're learning patience. Some translations render this text, your Bible may say endurance, but patience is more than endurance. I think the King James translators got it right. Endurance is, according to Norant Webster, bearing or suffering pain or distress without resistance, sinking or yielding. Okay?

Good. You're enduring. But patience does all of that without murmuring or complaining or becoming discontent. Now we're talking about Christian virtue and not human fortitude produced by God. Enduring tribulation for the believer engenders patience.

Patience is a result of enduring tribulation. Patience learns to look to Jesus and to wait on God while bearing pain and trials, and it does so without abandoning hope or becoming discontent. For the children of this world, affliction and adversity and tribulation leads to despair and jumping out of buildings. For the child of God, affliction, trials, tribulation, and even chastening yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness. And so we submit ourselves to the will of God.

Patience is willingly submitting to the will of God. Certainly we pray for deliverance, right? We all do. I was in the hospital for nine days earlier this year. We pray for deliverance.

We seek remedies and rest from our adversities, but we're not to complain and murmur if God doesn't see fit to lift our affliction or deliver us speedily out of our circumstances. We should pray, God help us to say, as Jesus said, not my will, but thine be done. It's hard. It's easy to say when you're not the one that's going through it, right? But it's what Jesus did, and it's what Jesus said.

And he is our perfect example. Not my will, O God, but Thine be done. Not my will, God, please, not my will, but Thy will be done. After the death of our first daughter, I wrote a song called Amanda's song. Sandra and I were in our 20s.

We were inexperienced in this thing called sorrow. The valley was deep and it was dark and the grief that we experienced was beyond anything that we had ever known. The song goes, walked the lonely road to her grave today. Now it seems so long ago. Gave in July, taken away in February, never a winter so cold.

How your mama cried letting go of you. I wiped her tears with my own. A broken man, I was supposed to be the strong one, but I'd never felt so alone. And I cried, I want to take you home, Amanda. Your mommy has a place prepared for you, a baby room, a little crib against the corner.

I want to take you home. Why can't I take you home? The second verse says, Baghdad's a cold and lonely land. The grass grows up over the stone. I look to the skies, never quite knowing all the answers.

I hang my head and cry. We were inexperienced. We were learning. I want to take you home, Amanda." That's what he wanted, but it wasn't what God wanted. He wanted us to learn patience, And he wanted to draw us near to him through adversity and through affliction.

The last verse of the song completes the story, and this was after the birth of our first son 36 years ago. It says, years and seasons fade like the morning dew. Now I have a son and a clue. God showed me that sometimes it takes a world of trouble to draw us near Him, but He's always faithful and true. As we matured in our Christian walk, we began to see even more of the providence of God in trials and heartache.

We began to understand that everything that happens to us and all of God's people is ordained of Him, it's for our good, and it's for His glory. The tribulation is God working upon us, and tribulation produces patience in us, and tribulation turns us to God, the people of God. The worldly drives them from God, but the Christian it drives them to God to rely on Him and to rely on His grace and it proves us as our faith is tried. As we end the hymn we sang earlier, says when through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, My grace all sufficient shall be thy supply. The flames will not hurt thee, I only design thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.

If that's your purpose, O God, so be it. Thy will be done, not mine." Can we say that? As we close, we need to remember that no one has ever suffered like our Lord. No one's ever suffered like our Lord Jesus. In fact, You know, even before the cross and before all that Christ went through leading up to the cross, Jesus' life was nothing but a perpetual cross from that manger in Bethlehem all the way to Golgotha.

It was nothing but a perpetual cross, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. When you find that you have many crosses to bear in this life, think this. I'm walking in the footsteps of Jesus. I'm walking in the footsteps of Jesus. I'm walking in the footsteps of Jesus and that's okay.

I'll look to Him for grace and strength to endure And may He teach me patience in the process. Let's pray. We thank You, Father, for sending Your Son to bear the guilt of our sins and the punishment we deserved and could never have borne for one moment. We thank you for the grace of justifying faith by which we have peace with you and you with us. We thank you God that you worked reconciliation between God and man through the death of your son by the blood of the cross of Christ.

We thank you, God, that we have peace with you. We thank you, God, that we have access into your presence. And Lord, we thank you that we have hope as an anchor for our souls. Thank you, God, for working in us and upon us to conform us more to Jesus. Thank you for building our trust and faith in Christ through trials and tribulation, affliction, and adversity.

Now, God, help us to be joyful in every circumstance of our lives and to praise you God with every step as we journey on to the celestial city, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.