In his sermon titled 'Patience, Experience, Hope,' Pastor Steve Hopkins discusses the transformative journey of faith described in Romans 5:1-5. Pastor Hopkins emphasizes that Christians, justified by faith, have peace with God and access to grace. The sermon explores the idea that tribulations lead to patience, experience, and hope, a hope that does not disappoint. Pastor Hopkins contrasts the hopelessness of unbelievers with the anchored hope of Christians, who find strength and purpose in their sufferings. By examining biblical examples, particularly the Apostle Paul's experiences, Pastor Hopkins highlights that Christians can rejoice not only in the midst of tribulations but in the tribulations themselves, understanding them as God’s work to develop patience and character. He asserts that tribulations serve to humble, strengthen, and draw believers closer to God, ultimately glorifying Him. The sermon concludes by encouraging believers to follow Christ's example, who suffered without sin, and to rely on God's grace in times of trial.

Welcome back to Barnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the book of Romans. Good morning again. Barely, about two minutes of morning left. Let's stand, if you would, with me for the reading of the Word of the Lord Romans chapter 5 verses 1 through 5 once again and we'll be looking at the topic of experience in the message patience, experience, and hope.

Let's read together verses one through five. 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 tribulations work with patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope makeeth 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 once again God we come to you in our weakness Seeking God your almighty power Seeking your face God Looking to you for everything Asking you Lord Begging you Lord for a work within the heart and the soul of every one of us assembled here today. For your glory, O God.

We pray, God, and trust that you will meet every need through the riches that we have in Christ Jesus. We pray God for conviction where we need conviction. We pray for instruction God where we need instruction. We pray Lord for hope, Lord for the hopeless. We pray Lord for peace for those who are without peace.

Enjoy, Lord, for those who have lost their joy. And above all, Lord, that you would be glorified in this time, and your people conformed more to the image of Christ, for we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen. Let's be seated. In our last session, I mentioned the tragic suicide of the CFO, the chief financial officer of a multibillion-dollar Wall Street company, a man who leapt to his death a couple of weeks ago from the top of a, or out of the window maybe, of a Manhattan skyscraper. This happened a couple of weeks back.

What I did not mention was that 45, 000 Americans take their lives every year in this country. 45, 000 come to the place where they not only attempt, there are millions of attempts on suicide in this country every year, I think 1.2 million, but 45, 000 actually take their own lives, succeed at it. That's five Americans committing suicide every hour in this nation. It would be like from the beginning of our service to the end, ten people have killed themselves. And I said in our last session that unbelievers, when they abandon hope, many times abandon ship, and that it is a sad life that has no hope beyond this life.

It's a sad life that has no hope beyond this life. The unbeliever navigates life without hope, without any hope. The child of God, on the other hand, has an anchor. The hope of the Christian we read last week is an anchor for the soul. And in the fiercest storms of this life, our anchor holds.

The anchor holds. Our hope in Christ and the glory to come anchors the believer's ship to the ocean floor and to the rock, because our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Having been justified by faith, our text tells us, we have peace with God. Having been justified by faith, we have access to God. And having been justified by faith, we have access to God.

And having been justified by faith, we have hope. Every hope outside of Christ and justification, the salvation that comes through Him, is sinking sand with no firm place to rest one's foot. In our last session, we looked at Romans chapter 5, and we focused on verse 3 beginning with these words, and not only so. What we found is that not only is it true that being justified by faith, the Christian has peace with God and God with him. That's true, but that's not all.

Not only is it true that having been justified by faith, We have access into the very immediate presence of God. That's true also. But not only is it true, it's also true that we can rejoice now, we found, that the believer's heart can overflow with joy on earth right now because we know that we have Christ both now and forever. Not only do we have Christ in the darkness of the tunnel, we have Christ as the light at the end of the tunnel as well. It's true also that we can glory in tribulations.

That's the difficult one. Many people say, well, I'm with you until you get here. It's true that we can glory also in tribulations right now here on earth. In our last session we focused primarily on the Christians' ability to glory or rejoice in the midst of tribulations in this life. And my intent was to drive home the fact that no matter how difficult things may be for us as we face the trials of this life, the Christian can still rejoice.

We can rejoice in the midst of tribulations. But this week, I want to focus at least first on the fact that the Christian, please hear me out here and please get the contrast here, the difference here, focused on the fact that the Christian can also glory in the tribulations themselves. Not only in the midst of tribulation can we rejoice, but we can also rejoice in the tribulation, in the affliction, in the persecution, in the suffering itself. There is a sense in which we may rejoice in these things themselves. We can also rejoice in sufferings and trials and tribulations in the very things themselves.

Matthew Henry, back in the 1700s, comments on this passage, we glory in tribulations, not only withstanding them, or as we might put it today, in spite of them, in spite of tribulations, but even in our tribulations." Martin Lloyd-Jones agrees, we not only glory in the midst of our tribulations, certainly we do that, Lloyd-Jones says, but more than that, the apostle says, we glory in tribulations. There's the difficult one. That's the hard thing to accept. The Christian may not only glory or rejoice in the midst of trials and tribulations and suffering, but also in the afflictions themselves. In a few minutes we're going to look at an example of this from the New Testament.

But by way of explanation, glorying or rejoicing in tribulations doesn't mean that the Christian looks forward to situations or circumstances of suffering. It's not what it means. It doesn't mean, before we talk about what it does mean, we'll talk more about what it does not mean, It does not mean that we invite tribulation into our lives. If you stick your hand out and there's a candle and you get too close and you get burned, we withdraw just like everybody else. We pray that suffering will not come into our lives.

Another thing that glorying in tribulations is not, it is not to have some blunted response to suffering, like the Stoics of old. Like we're insensible to pain. No. When the Christian goes through trials and tribulations, we feel real pain. And when we do, we cry real tears.

But as we go through these things, we see the hand of God working by those things and through those sufferings and in those sufferings and that for our good. Tribulation works patience, our text says, and patience experience. We'll get to experience in a moment, and hope, which we'll look at next week. In a few minutes, we're going to be looking at a New Testament example of the Apostle Paul rejoicing in tribulations themselves, in the afflictions themselves, and what that looks like so that we also can learn. But first, You'll remember I said in our last session that these are the kinds of things the people of this world can't comprehend, which is why they go to such great, horrible lengths as even taking their own lives.

The people of the world can't comprehend the things that we're talking about. They say there's actually a people who glory in tribulations, and they just don't get it. They can't get it. It's impossible for them to get it. Again, I said last week, it doesn't make any sense to the unbeliever when he hears that there's a people on earth who have inner joy and peace in the midst of tribulation.

But think about this. How much more when they attempt to understand a people who glories and rejoices in the tribulations themselves. It's a thing completely incomprehensible to the finite mind of unregenerate man. And it's something that we learn as Christians. Again, as I said last week, the worldling, as the Puritans used to refer to those who live for this world and can't see beyond this world and are outside of Christ, They don't have the same perspective as the Christian.

Yes, we seek to avoid trouble, we pray to avoid it as possible, again as I just said, but when trouble or afflictions come, we have a different perspective than the children of this world. Because we have been declared just in God's sight, and we looked at this two weeks ago, we know where we're headed and We know what awaits us when we take our last breath But we also understand that it is God who is bringing to pass all that we are going through, and that God works all things for good to them that love Him and who are the called according to his purpose. God is the one who's doing it. The believer has hope as an anchor for his soul, sure and steadfast. First off, because we know that even if everything in this life is taken from us, our wealth, health, family members, everything that the world lives for.

We know that Christ can never be taken from us. That's two weeks ago. We understand that no matter how difficult our trials are on earth. We're going to one day be in the presence of God beholding Christ in His unveiled glory forever. But we also know that the trials of life we suffer on earth have a divine purpose here and now.

I talked last week, I will go through it again, about the death of our first daughter. Very, very difficult circumstance for a young couple in their 20s to lose their first child. Very difficult. But God taught us something and was teaching us something through that. We can look back now and we can glory in that trial.

We can rejoice in the trial itself. Hard to understand. At the time you're weeping, you're on your face, you're crying, you can't understand, and God through experience teaches us, through the experience teaches us, we learn, we learn patience, we grow in Christ-likeness, we come to understand that the trials of this life that we suffer on earth have a divine purpose. We know that everything has been ordained of God that we are going through, even our suffering, and that it's ultimately for our good, and that it's ultimately for God's glory, and so we can rejoice not only in the midst of trials but in the trials themselves. I said it again in our last session as children of God, we understand that the end of our pain is not more pain.

The end of our pain is not more pain. For the world, the end of their pain is more pain. The end of our suffering is not more suffering. The end of suffering on earth for the worldling, for the person outside of Christ, is more suffering, an eternity of suffering. We know, the Christian knows that even if we suffer for our entire lifetime, and some Christians do, some do, we know it will one day come to an end and that we'll be with Jesus forever.

For the Christian, backing up to where we were a couple of weeks ago, the sting of death is gone. The sting in death is gone. And everything leading up to it. The sting is gone. Oh death, where is thy sting?

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15. As Christians, we understand that our death is just a bridge from life to life, from the life temporal to the life eternal, From this life of much tribulation to a life of eternal rest and peace and everlasting joy in the presence of Christ. We also understand that tribulations come with the territory. You know, in the parable of the seed that is thrown upon the rocky soil It springs up with joy for a while And then when times of tribulation or affliction come or adversity or persecutions It withers away Having no root It withers away it says I didn't sign up for that which is one of the great deceits of the health, wealth, and prosperity. False prophets and false apostles and false teachers who try to tell everybody, you're going to come to Jesus and your life's going to be perfect, everything's going to go well, you're going to have lots of money flowing, you're never gonna get sick.

If you do get sick, it's your fault, you don't have enough faith. It's not that I'm a false prophet and I can't heal you. It's that you don't have enough faith to be healed. It's evil. It's satanic.

The Christian understands that tribulation come with the territory. Acts chapter 14 of verse 22 says, We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. Tell that to Benny Hinn. We must, through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. It's not that we look forward to it, but we do expect it.

Jesus said, in the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world. Tribulation comes with the territory if you are a believer. And as I said again in our last session, we shouldn't be surprised by it. We should expect it. And Paul says in the text before us, we can glory in it.

Not only in the midst of tribulations, but in the tribulations themselves. How? By understanding, by understanding that it is God's work upon us, that He is the one who has ordained all things whatsoever, comes to pass, including everything that befalls the Christian. And by understanding not only that God has ordained it, But that he has a purpose in it. A purpose that he may not and many times does not reveal to us at the time.

But that we will understand in time. We have to come to understand the purpose that God has revealed to us in tribulations. We can't understand the things that He hasn't revealed to us, but we can understand the things that He has revealed to us. And one of the things He has revealed to us is that he's working patience in us. Tribulation works.

Look at the tech. It works. It's God who's doing the work, but through tribulation. Tribulation is a work, and it's a work of God. And it works in us patience.

In the people of the world, tribulations work just the opposite. With the people of the world, They face tribulation and they're driven from God. They want to get as far away from God as they possibly can. They're not driven to God. For the believer, tribulations drive us to God, humble us before God, cause us to see our weakness and to rely upon God.

This is the work of patience, of tribulation in us, working patience. Not only can we glory in tribulations and afflictions because we have Christ and justification through Him and know what awaits us when this life is over. And not only can we rejoice in the midst of sufferings, we can also rejoice in the sufferings themselves, knowing God is by them producing something in us for our good and for His glory. He's doing something, and He knows what He's doing. We not only rejoice in tribulation knowing that God is with us in our suffering now, that He'll never leave us or forsake us, we understand that God is producing something in us in the process, in the process, in the process of the suffering itself.

We not only glory in tribulation knowing that Christ is with us though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we understand that God is working something in us in the process as we walk. He's not only walking with us as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, He's not only the light at the end of the tunnel or just over the hill, he's also working something in us in the process as we walk. The Christian not only glories and tribulations knowing what awaits him on the other side, as I said a moment ago, and that nothing that he is going through or could ever go through can compare with the joy set before him on account of that. We're going to see Christ. We can glory in the tribulations.

Not only can we glory knowing where we're going and what the end of our tribulation is, but we can also glory in the tribulations themselves. Knowing that tribulations are God's work upon us right here and right now, yielding spiritual benefits by design. Yielding spiritual benefits within us by design in the process of our sufferings as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. We who follow in the footsteps of Christ understand that our pain has a purpose here on earth, that it's God's doing, and again, that God knows what He's doing. God has a purpose in the tribulations His people endure, and one of those is the production of patience in us.

One of those is to teach us to be patient. The Christian believes in the sovereignty of a sovereign God, and that our sovereign Lord has decreed not only every happy circumstance we enjoy in this life, but also every troublesome experience that we're going through. The Christian who has searched the scriptures in the midst of trying circumstances will come to understand that every trial he faces in this life is ordained by God is for God's glory and ultimately for his good. That's what you'll conclude if you really search the scriptures. When we experience tribulation, we are enduring the intense pressure.

Remember the very word tribulation comes from the root pressure. When we endure the intense pressure of pain or sorrow or loss or affliction or persecution, We not only know that it has an end and a good end, but we know also that we're learning something as we go through it. I hope I've driven that home. Our text tells us that there are things that are being produced in us, okay? Tribulation produces patience, patience, experience, and experience hope.

I noted in our last session some versions of the Bible translate the word endurance, but that patience is more than endurance. How many got that? Patience is more than endurance. Okay? Endurance is bearing or suffering pain or distress without resistance or sinking, but patience does more than endure.

Patience endures without murmuring or complaining against God. God, why have you done this? We learn patience. Patience doesn't do that. Patience does not become discontent with God's providences, and patience is something we learn.

How do we know this? The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Philippi in Philippians chapter 4 in verse 11, I have learned. I have learned. I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. If things don't turn out The way we plan, if our plans get shredded, first thing we want to do is get discontent.

I've seen the young people, they're courting, everything's going along, and then all of a sudden, here's this train turning the road. What happened here? I've seen, you know, the man, he's got this great paying job, everything's going great, the whole world's just, you know, like revolving around him almost. Everything he touches turns to gold and the next day it all changes. What happened?

Loss of job, you know, got fired. Things didn't turn out like I thought. The Apostle Paul said, I've learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content. That's something we have to learn. That's the learning of patience.

Contentment in whatever state we may find ourselves is a good definition of patience. The Apostle Paul learned patience through the many trials he endured. He had to learn to be content. And you know what? You do and I do as well.

We have to learn to be content. And we're all learning, aren't we? We're all learning. But notice, Paul didn't learn how to endure patiently on his own. He doesn't say that he learned it through self-determination.

We just need more self-determination. He didn't look within to find my inner strength, the world, all of its ways. I just looked within and found inner strength. That'll collapse. Enough pressure, That'll collapse.

The apostle Paul didn't ascribe his learning curve to human fortitude. The apostle Paul didn't represent his experiences, though he had learned to be content by learning to rely on himself. I just learned to rely upon myself. Or if everyone, I just learned to trust myself. Ouch.

The scripture says, he that trusteth in himself is a fool. When the apostle Paul was knocked down, he didn't pull himself up by his own bootstraps. Paul says two verses later in Philippians 4 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me. That is, he could bear all the things he had to bear without despairing or succumbing to discontentedness and even rejoice in those things through the grace and strength given him through Christ. But when he says, I can do or bear all things in circumstances through Christ who strengthens me, What's he talking about?

What things? What things did the Apostle Paul ever bear? Anyone read the book of Acts? How about the book of 2 Corinthians? Look at the 12th chapter of 2 Corinthians.

And I'm just going to run through this quickly. In 2 Corinthians chapter 12, the apostle Paul recounts many of the tribulations he endured. Of the Jews, he says, five times I received 40 stripes minus one. Anyone ever done the math? 195 lashes with the whip.

He endured. Five different times 40 stripes minus one from the Jews because he preached Jesus. It wouldn't stop. Three times he says that they beat me with rods. Beating with rods.

So imagine, you know, long pole stick, baseball bat. Once I was stoned, they stoned him to death, remember? He said that he was lifted up to the third heaven and he heard things that could not be uttered on earth. He couldn't even in his return say those things that he heard there. He goes on to recount how he had been shipwrecked three times.

On one of those occasions, he spent an entire day and night in the open sea floating on pieces of the wreckage. He speaks of being in danger constantly by his own countrymen and danger from false brethren. He talks of many times going without sleep and of many times being without food or even water and hunger and thirst often. This is the Apostle Paul. And other times of being without sufficient clothing to even keep him warm in the winter from the bitter cold.

Not to mention the pressure that came upon him, he said, daily in his concern for the care of all the churches. Who is weak, Paul asks. And I am not weak. He goes on to speak of having an entire garrison of soldiers in Damascus put on alert for him by the ruling power in an attempt to have him arrested. And how he had to be let down in a basket from a window in one of the outer walls of the city in order to escape.

But that's not all. He then goes on to recount how he was given of God a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him. He received so many revelations and visions and truths from God that God ordained a thorn in the flesh for Paul in order to keep him humble. God works good things in his people through tribulations. We can glory in the tribulations themselves.

Some think that Paul's thorn in the flesh was a bodily ailment that he had to endure continually. Great debate all the way down through history for the last 2, 000 years. Others believed it was demonic harassment. Others believe it was the Jews continually following him, attacking him, something it was the false brethren's attack on him. I don't know.

I tend to think that it was more of the demonic harassment. Whatever it was, Paul pleaded with the Lord to remove it from him, but the Lord denied his request. Paul pleaded with God three times, please remove this thing from me, that I'm suffering. And three times the answer came back, my grace is sufficient for you. The answer came back, no, not going to release you from this thing.

No, you're going to continue to suffer under it. My grace is sufficient, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. My grace, the grace of Christ, is sufficient for you. Paul's conclusion was to gladly glory in his infirmities. Infirmities are weaknesses.

It can be sicknesses. Not only in the midst of them, but in the tribulations themselves. Why? That the power of Christ might rest on him, he said. That the power of Christ might rest on me.

My strength is made perfect in weakness. And then in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 10 he says, Therefore I take pleasures in infirmities and in reproaches and in necessities and in persecutions and in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong. What does this mean? First, what it doesn't mean, It doesn't mean that the Apostle Paul was happy that terrible things happened to him.

Wasn't like, bring it on, whatever, you know. Can't wait for the next distressing circumstance. I'm looking forward to it. No, that's not it. Wasn't that he couldn't wait for the next calamity to befall him.

Wow, that's really pleasurable. No, it wasn't pleasurable to him. What it does mean is that he approved of them. I approve of what God is doing. Because He saw what God was producing through them.

By comprehending the power of Christ working in him through his weaknesses. Which brings us back to our opening text, tribulations work in their God's work. Tribulations work patience in us and patience experience and experience hope. It's on account of Christ and God's grace ministered to the people of God through Christ that we endure and can endure tribulation and learn patience and contentment, leaning on the Lord as His strength is manifested or revealed or made known in our weakness. We are weak, but He is strong.

We're not talking about human fortitude. We're talking about graces produced in us by God through tribulations, through trials of this life, infirmities, illnesses, losses, needs, even persecutions, Christ's strength being manifested in our weakness. The strength of God being manifested in our weakness. How many of you know you're weak? Anybody figured it out yet?

Tribulations for the Christian produce patience, our text tells us, and patience experience. That word, by the way, experience, that's used here in the translation, is literally proof. That's what the word means. Tribulation works patience and patience, Proof. Patience is a result of enduring tribulation for the believer, and patience produces another Christ-like virtue in us through experience.

Proof. It proves our faith. It proves that we stood the test. When our faith is proved or put to the test, it builds something in us as well. It builds character in us, Christian character.

Some of the versions even translate the word character. It's literally proof, but it's what's proved in us going through those afflictions and tribulations. For the children of this world, affliction and adversity and tribulation lead only to despair and things like jumping out of buildings. For the child of God, affliction, trials, tribulation, and even chastening yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness. And these, like tests, prove our faith and build character.

A note in my Reformation Heritage Study Bible here says, quote, experience is the result of being proven and having stood the test. Have you stood the test in those times of trial and tribulation? Or maybe you say that none of those have come upon me yet. I've never faced any trials or tribulation. It's all been pretty rosy and pretty nice.

Road's been real smooth for me. As Martin Lloyd-Jones says, you need to get prepared for the Christian. You need to be prepared. In the world you shall have tribulation, Jesus said. We must do much tribulation and enter into the kingdom of God.

Tribulations, trials test our faith and when proven, having stood the test, Christian character is built. Now, quickly, five benefits of tribulation for the Christian. Number one, tribulation reveals to us our weakness. That's a good thing. It reveals to us our weakness and causes us to confess our weakness to God and to look to Christ for strength.

Matthew Henry says, when we are weak in ourselves, then we are strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, when we really see how weak we are, then we're strong in the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we see ourselves weak in ourselves, he goes on to say, then we go out of ourselves to Christ and are qualified to receive strength from him. Qualified. You're not qualified to receive strength from him until you see your weakness and go out of yourself to Christ for grace, for strength.

You haven't been there yet. You know, get ready. If you're a believer. One of the proofs that you're really a child of God is guess what? You will face tribulation in this life.

Second, tribulations show us our need for Christ and drive us to Him. They drive, as I said earlier, the unbeliever away from God, but the believer to God. That's a good thing. See these are good things. Number three, tribulations humble us when we might have otherwise lived in a prideful state.

The Lord humbled Paul in every way that in his defects the glory of God might shine forth more resplendently. It's John Calvin. The Lord humbled him in every way so that God could be glorified by shining through all of his defects. Some go on living in a prideful state for a long time until God humbles them through tribulations. It's good to be humbled by tribulations.

It's a good thing. It's good for us. 1 Peter 5 says, God resists the proud, but he gives grace out of the humble. Number four of the five, tribulations make us more fruitful for the service of God. How many have fruit trees that they have to prune each year?

Pruning a tree makes it more fruitful in the year to come. Tribulations make us more fruitful for the service of God. Number five, finally tribulations call to us, they beckon us to resign ourselves to the will of God. Resignation to the will of God should be the goal of every Christian. Whatever you want, God, not my will but thy will be done.

Resignation to the will of God is a pillow upon which the Christian may rest his head. And as we close, we can glory not only in the midst of tribulations, but also in the tribulations themselves, understanding and seeing what God is producing in us by them for our good and for His glory, patience, experience, and hope. Next week, a hope that does not disappoint. Amen. Let's pray.

Father, we want to thank you God. We want to praise you God and thank you God for your Son, for our Lord Jesus, who lived a perfect life in our place, who without sin faced tribulations daily, who bore nothing but crosses perpetually from manger to grave, yet without sin. And we thank you, God, that He is our perfect example of the steps that we should also walk in. But above all, Lord, we thank you that He manifested the greatest love ever manifested in the history of the world and the laying down of His life on that cross outside of Jerusalem 2, 000 years ago for sinners like us to reconcile us to you, God. We thank you that Jesus came into the world to save sinners like us.

We thank you, God, that he who knew no sin suffered and died for our sins and rose again the third day to bring us to God. We thank you God, and we ask for your help today, oh God. Give us grace to glory in Christ, in his person and his work alone. Grace to live for him who lived and died for us. And God, give us grace in times of tribulation, and in tribulations help us to learn patience, and patience to result in proof.

Give us grace to stand the test as we are being conformed more and more, day by day, to the blessed image of our Lord Jesus. For it's in his name We pray these things. Amen.