turn with me to the Book of Romans and chapter 15, we will be considering the 13th verse in that chapter. And as we turn then, allow me to just again mention tonight We have been making our way through the Book of Romans and for a number of months now have been looking at Romans Chapter 14 and Chapter 15. And in these two chapters, the Apostle Paul has been dealing with the subject of the Church's unity, which was being threatened primarily because of the scruples or qualms of believers coming from different backgrounds, religious backgrounds. The Jews particularly and the Gentiles were failing to just come together in a state of genuine warmth and unity with one another. And so the Apostle Paul addresses this matter. And it's interesting that he doesn't address it in terms of on the side of the Jews or on the side of the Gentiles. In fact, he rebukes both sides for insisting on having their own way. I would say that, first of all, draws their attention away from their positions and draws their attention to the grand purpose of God. in bringing about a church that is diverse, which is what we looked at last time when we were singing from verse 8 all the way down to verse 12. The Apostle Paul shows through those passages that, in fact, it was according to God, that's the way God constructed the Christian Church, that it was to be comprised of Gentiles and Jews, and I don't mean to say Gentiles, I don't mean one group of people, A gentile thing is a complete variety as wild as you can ever imagine in terms of differences. So it is according to the DNA of the Christian church that it should not comprise one group. And Jesus came to fulfill that grand plan of God. From the very beginning, I remember when the promise was made to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, he was actually told that he was going to be a blessing to all the nations. And therefore, that has now been fulfilled through Jesus Christ. As the barrier has been broken, Jews and Gentiles come together. It's not the Gentiles coming to join the Jews. No, it is breaking down both parties and commencing a brand new party altogether. So the task that we all have in the Christian church is to learn to co-exist with the baggage that other groupings come with when they come into the context of the church. Now, yes, we are Gentiles, but we do experience this same challenge, especially when you come into a city like Lusaka, because then this is a cosmopolitan city. People who come in from the Arab world, who come in from Asia, who come in from the Americas, and South America, they will come into a city like this. And if the church does not mature enough, to initially accept them as they are, you remain monolithic and you find that those who are coming begin to say that we are going to Chinese church and we are going to European church and we are going to such and such a church because The church that they have found is so just literally just tolerating them and consequently they move away. And the church should not be like that. We should be speaking to the world about the fact that though divided out there, the Christian church is one. Well, today we are concluding by looking at Romans 15 and verse 13. We are concluding this entire section of scripture, and in a sense we are concluding the book of Romans. Because when you go into verse 14 onwards, you notice that it becomes rather personal. The apostle Paul begins to talk a lot more about himself and his plans and his various greetings and individuals, which he was not doing prior to this. Prior to this, he was simply opening up the true nature of the Gospel in doctrine and the true nature of the Gospel in terms of its impact, its practical impact on our lives. But here is a benediction that in a sense wraps up this subject of Christianity, and in another sense it wraps up the subject of the gospel. I'll read it to you. Romans 15 and verse 13. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Now, I've said to you that this is not just about the immediacy. In a sense, it is, because this subject of hope arises from the previous verse, where the Apostle Paul had said to his twelve, and again Isaiah says, the root of chastity will come. That's obviously referring to the Lord Jesus Christ in his first and second coming. even he who arises to rule the Gentiles. And then it says, in him will the Gentiles hope. And it is in the light of that theme of hope that the Apostle Paul then says, may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing. However, as I have said, this, in a way, opens up, rather brings to conclusion, the whole of the subject that Thor was dealing with in the Book of Romans and beyond. It's yet to be completely closed. But as I said, the content arguments that he's been developing come to an end. I love the fact that Paul is ending on a note of hope, because ultimately that's what the gospel brings to us. The gospel doesn't bring us heaven or hell. We still suffer as believers. In fact, sometimes we suffer more than unbelievers suffer, primarily because we are seeking to be righteous in a world that is full of sin. So in that sense, we tend to carry a burden that another Christian world doesn't carry. But here's the point. We alone have hope. In a most hopeless world, the Christians are those that can look into the future and be able to say with absolute certainty that all will be well and it will be well with me because of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, how can we speak like that? How can a Christian, in the midst of all their hopelessness, be able to speak in such definite terms? First of all, it is because of the nature of God. It is because of the nature of God. The God who is there, by nature, wants to give a future and a hope to his people. And that's why the apostle Paul here calls him the God of hope. Now you will notice that just a few verses earlier, Paul has called him by another phrase in verse This tribe, this tribe, this prophet, he said, may the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony. So this is a God also who begets encouragement, begets endurance, begets patience, and thus enables us to be able to bear with one another and consequently have unity in the context of the church. He's also referred to at the end of chapter 15 in another prayer or benediction of the Apostle Paul. And this time it is this, may the God of peace be with you all. Amen. So there he's referred to as the God of peace. So this God, who by very nature is one that seems to give the various qualities of life that are in the longing of human beings, endures, encourages peace, and this time it is the God of hope. Let's think about this for a moment. What is hope? It's a word that we often use, but what exactly is it? Hope is the trust that you have in your life that Something that you look for in a positive sense, you positively anticipate something, that in fact it will happen. That's what hope is, that it will happen. So sometimes, for instance, you arrive by bus, or by plane, or by train into a particular town, and somebody has said to you, I'll come and pick you up. And you arrive with a number of other people. And the uses of those people they give to you is one after the other. And of course, taxi drivers. like broadcasts wanting to make a brief fact, so they'll keep coming passing by and saying, come on, we can take you, as if it's free, we can take you, that's all. And you keep saying that, you keep taking that down. Now, why are you taking them down? It's primarily because you still have hope. that this person who promised to give you a gift is actually coming. You still anticipate that that will happen, that this person will come and take you. And sometimes, You end up in the very last person. Everybody else has left. And they try to lock up the station. But you still hang in there. And so finally, the person arrives and they are full of apologies for not coming early enough and so on and so forth. But you feel justified. You feel that you failed. has in fact paid off, otherwise he would have left and consequently his person wasn't going to find him there. Now, the example of women is one that we need to appreciate in the sense that this is simply human expectation. It is perhaps a reasonable, positive expectation. That's all it is, which is slightly different from the true Christian hope. The 2% law is a lot more solid than what we have just talked about. And one of the reasons why it is solid is because it is genuinely based upon a promise that is there right across the street, repeated over and over and over again by different process, one after the other. 2,000 to be ahead. And so that, first of all, we give this epistle this way. Romans, chapter 1, and verse 2. Romans, chapter 1, and verse 2. I'm giving this one. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to an apostle, sent a part from the Gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures. So God, over and over, prophet after prophet, spoke about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And indeed, he finally came. And when he came, he spoke about the fact that he is coming again. Now, why would we doubt if the Prophet, who prophesied his first coming, fulfilled his first coming to the minutest detail, And then, they also spoke about His second coming. Why should we now start doubting that second coming? But secondly, it is because God did not only promise this God of all, but He also added an oath to His promise. He swore. Now, we know that often when people give us a promise, When it's really serious, eh? When a lot of the judges are here, they often swear. In those days, before we could compare the reasons, they said, I can't do nothing. And what it meant is, may lightning strike if what I promised doesn't really happen. Now, God doesn't need to swear. But he has done it as well. Let's take a look at Hebrews and chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6. Beginning with verse 17. The writer says, So when God's desire to show me is confusing, to the heirs of the promise. Okay, so he promised that those who inherit that promise, the unchangeable character of his purpose, in other words, that that which he promised, it wasn't swayed away from him, it will be accomplished as far in the future as it may be. This is what it is. He guaranteed it with an oath. So that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have pled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope of safety for Christ. Okay? So this God, who makes the greatest, and repeats it over and over again through the ages through his prophets, also swears by his own name. Because, as the Agamemnon Stegian once said, there is nobody higher than him upon whom you can swear, as we often do in On our wedding days or in the court of law, we do it on the Bible bearing in mind that we are doing it before God. Because that's how serious it is when you are in the courts of law or when you are taking on a marriage partner. But here God has put nobody higher and so he swears by himself. so that those who have trusted in him might be able to hold on to this as a sure hope. But ask me, is it because God by nature is faithful? God cannot deny himself. What he says he will do is his very nature. And so, in that sense, we can all take encouragement in the fact that what he has promised he will do is God of hope. We can look into the future and if we can take the example of being at the train station, you know he's coming. You know he will fulfill his promise. That is what has happened. And when that process is fulfilled, God had promised, for instance, we've already quoted the Genesis 12, where he said to Abraham the fact that he was going to bless him, and as a result, he was going to bless, rather, to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth, would that happen? It has to happen. In the government of Guinea, when Adam sinned and God spoke in terms of that the sin of the woman would crush the serpent's head and the serpent would bruise him, what happened? It happened. So many thousands of days later, it did happen, and so forth. That's the hope that Paul is referring to here, that this hope will definitely take place, and he is the God of hope that we can trust in. Now, this law has the effect of enabling you to buoyantly endure the worst current circumstances. The worst current circumstances. And so, that was the first case about the effect of this law in this way. This has made that the order of law fill you with all joy and peace in believing it. With all joy and peace in believing it. This is not something different from war. This is the effect of war. It enables you to voluntarily endure the current circumstances. Let's go back to our illustration of waiting at the train station, and it's cold, and the wind is blowing, and you feel it, and the taxi driver says, the advice. The thing that enables you to still be weak, to endure the cold weather out there, is this hope that any moment now, my cousin, my brother, my sister, whoever it is, will most likely show up. It is that which enables you to still be there chatting away with somebody else in the midst of that cold weather. But here, the patience does more than simply enabling us to enjoy. It fills us with not just joy and peace, it fills us with all joy and peace. all joyfulness. In other words, the Apostle Paul is talking about the highest possible joy and the highest possible peace. That's what is referred to him, what Peter calls joy unspeakable. and full of God, joy and speaking. In other words, it's incomparable to anything else, or what the Apostle Paul refers to as a peace that surpasses all understanding. It is completely beyond your ability to rationalize, but it is a peace that the children of God know. Brethren, I think that we often underestimate the place of joy in the Christian life. I think we don't speak about it enough. Really, the only people on the planet who ought to be happy And reasonably so, because they're not pretending about anything at this time. Because of the war that is in our hearts, we can therefore celebrate in the midst of the trials of life. It is amazing how many times the Apostle Paul speaks of Christianity as a joyous religion, as a joyous religion, especially as he writes to the various churches that he writes to. I've listed them out here. I don't think I'll have the time to wait for you to catch up, so I'll just be mentioning the texts and going on to read. For instance, to the church in Rome, in chapter 5, and verse 2 and 3, he says, through him, that is through Jesus Christ. We've also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And he says this, and we rejoice. He's not saying we must rejoice. He's saying we rejoice. In other words, it's unindicative. It's a fact. We rejoice in the work of the glory of God. Because when we say not only that, but we rejoice in our suffering. knowing that suffering produces endurance and on and on he goes. To the church in Corinth, he writes in 2 Corinthians 1 and verse 24, not that we no need for your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith. We are never late for your joy, he said. To the Galatians, that's an entire province in which churches were. He writes the most famous passage on the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, and so on. Number two on that list is joy! Joy! To the Ephesians, he doesn't necessarily use them with joy, but he speaks in describing the Christian Church in words that no doubt have joy in them. In Ephesians 5 and verse 19, he speaks about them addressing one another in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. What's the indefinite but joy? I'm sure you experience it in your own visit, when one of you is happy. You just notice Chilean all over the house, you know, just singing, and you don't care whether they are in proper melody or not, just singing. In the shower, singing. In the kitchen, singing. Going out, singing, you know Africa and something is happening to me. Well, that's what I'm talking about. It's joy. It's joy. To the Philippians, well that one must be obvious because over and over and over again in his letter to the Philippians he speaks about joy or rejoicing and then towards the end he says, Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I will say, Rejoice! One more church, no, two more churches of Christ. One is the Colossians. The Colossians. Chapter 1 and verse 11. This is his prayer for the empire, by the way. and patience with joy. With joy. And then finally, to the Thessalonians, in chapter 1, verse 6 says, and you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in matter fiction, the sentence, and with the joy of the Holy Spirit. That's why we receive in the world the joy of the Holy Spirit. And as if it's not enough, at the end of Ephesians chapter 5 verse 16, 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 16, it simply says, a very short verse there, Rejoice always. Rejoice always. I want to repeat it. I think we undervalue the place of God in Jerusalem. The Lord has deliberately manufactured a salvation that enables us to be Jewish. In speaking from the prophets into the future, Isaiah says, the deemed of the Lord shall return, and come with sinning to Zion, and everlasting joy will be upon their heads. everlasting joy will be upon us. Well, that's all in this aspect of this hope that we have, because the God of hope fills us with this joy in believing. When He has filled us with joy, as I've already said, He also fills us with a sense of peace. In the midst of the trials of life, there is a peace that you cannot lose. One of our former church members, she got confirmed at KFAC many years ago. When you see that there's a meeting hall, they've got married to someone who does Baptist. Just this week, lost her 15-year-old son from cancer. And I sent her a message to just let her know that we're thinking about her and so on. And when she got married, Her message was, we are at peace. Both my husband and I. We are experiencing God's peace. Now that's what we are talking about. It's not peace when you meet your God. It's not that. Here is a guy, losing one of the king's boys, and he's saying, there is a truce we cannot understand. And that fills you, no doubt, with a sense of hope in believing. And that's what Paul is speaking about here. May the God of hope fill you with hope, joy, and peace in believing. And that phrase, in believing, simply means, as you trust in Him. Because it is this faith, trusting in the living God that causes this joy, and this to be a genuine, real experience. It is this hope that made foreigners to sing when they were in prison. To sing because they knew that my God has allowed this. My God has allowed this for a purpose. My God knows what He is doing. And I know that the plans He has for me are ultimately for good and not for good. And yes, still no joy, still no peace. Let me ask you, do you know this? Do you know this? You see, the reason why we can experience this joy and peace is because this hope is infused into us by the power of the Spirit. It is not a mere intellectual exercise. It is real. And that's what Paul was going to speak about here, isn't it? May the Holy Spirit fill you with both joy and peace in your days, so that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound. I can't notice the word they have found, not simply a word, but you may have found it in God. Just as He's filling you with all joy, He's filling you with all peace, now He's filling you with all hope by the power of His Spirit. In a sense, we've already seen something of this in some of the quotations that we had earlier on. This jaw is a fruit of the script. We saw that from Galatians 5 and verse 22. earlier in Romans 14 and verse 17. This is the way the Apostle Paul had put it. Romans 14 and verse 17. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, and peace, and liberties, and joy in the Holy Spirit. And joy in the Holy Spirit. So this, the spirit of God is the one ultimately who gives us the experience of hope. It's not just in our hands. Because He is in our hearts and He causes us to be boiled in the midst of all the trials that we might be going through. Which is what Paul was out to pray for here. It was that they might in fact experience this abounding in hope. in the midst of the difficulty between Jew and Gentile, certainly within the context of the same church, to still be able to overlook the present trial, and still be joyful and at peace, abounding in hope that all will be well, it's a matter of time. That's what it's doing. It's this hope that can never be defeated. That's the Christian hope. There is a book that I hope you read, and those of you who are parents, I hope you will be pleased to read. And it is the book by John Banyan, entitled Puritans Progress. It's, I've said it before, here let me say it again, it's the second world's best seller in the world of human history, written by a Baptist pastor, John Wagner, in prison. That's when he wrote it. And it illustrates the Christian life, the Christian race. And somewhere along the way, after Christian, that's the name of the person, the main actor in it, when Christian gets sick, he is taken through the womb of Mr. Interpreter. And when you take it into the home of the interpreter, interpreter shows you seven different scenes, S-C-E-N-E-S, seven different scenes. The very middle is where there is a fire that is next to the wall, and there is somebody who is throwing a lot of water onto this fire. A lot of water. And the fire is not going off. And so, let me just read that section. It speaks for itself. He says, then I saw in my dream that an interpreter took Christian by the hand and led him to a place where there was a fire burning against the walls. In front of this fireplace was a man continually casting buckets of water on the fire in an effort to extinguish it. Nevertheless, the fire got into further, higher, Christian tells the interpreter and says, what does this mean? Interpreter says, this fire is the work of grace that has been ignited in the heart. He who casts water upon it so as to extinguish its flames is the devil. Even so, in that we see the fire burn higher and lower, let me show you the reason for this mystery. So interpreter took Christian behind the wall, behind the fire. There the pilgrim saw a man with a container in his hand from which he was casting oil upon the fire, no secret. Then Christian said, what is this mean? Interpreter replied, this man is Christ. who, continuing with the oil of His grace, maintains the work already done in the heart. By this means, notwithstanding what the devil attempts to do, the souls of these people who still proved to be gracious. And in that, you saw that the man stood behind the wall to maintain the fire. This is to teach you that it is hard for those who are tempted to understand how this work of grace is available in the soul. But one day, this is what Paul is teaching us here, it is that the power of the Spirit, behind the walls, unseen, is the one who continues not only to ignite, but more than that, to also keep ablaze This hope that is in believers, and consequently, it is undefeatable. It is undefeatable. We know not only that I'm going to die, but we know that the church will still be victorious in the end. You ask me how I know? Well, He has promised. You ask me how I know? He has given an oath for it. You ask me how I know? He is faithful. You ask me how I know? His Spirit in one house assures me. O brethren, today we conclude the issue of unity in the Church. We also, to some measure, conclude the theme of this entirety. The Apostle Paul concludes with this short prayer, with this short benediction, noting the Christian's blessing of Indeed, this is what we must be praying for. This is what we must be working towards in the context of the church. We must be working towards joy, peace, hope in believing in the hearts of God's people and together as a Christian church. There's something wrong with a church that's miserable. With a pastor who leaves his people always just feeling different. Every time when they're going home, it's heavy. There's something wrong with that man. The true gospel ministry that points to Jesus Christ as Savior, that points to all the spiritual blessings in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, when that gospel is properly understood, when that gospel is experienced, when that gospel is obeyed, There must be joy. There must be peace. There must be hope that defies all circumstances, that causes the world to just be completely out of their breath, trying to understand what is going on. The answer is quite simple. It is because our thoughts should not tell a fairy tale. It is in God, the God of whom we sing, our God of heaven and earth, our hope for years. for the Lord Jesus Christ, whom you prophesied through prophet after prophet, to bring about that which we now experience, this great celebration that not only gives to us time for sin, but also gives to us a peace that truly endures. that gives to us more blessings than we can ever seek to count, and gives to us joy, peace, and love. Thank you, Lord. Oh, how I would pray that that might be our description, that in the midst of the trials of life, As John Franklin so aptly portrayed, we might experience that oil of grace through that little hole in the wall that keeps our fire burning. O glorious God, glorify yourself through our lives as we understand the Gospel, as we experience the Gospel, and as we obey the Gospel and its instructions by faith. We ask this for Jesus' sake. Amen.