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[0:01] I would direct you to the fifth chapter of the Romans, verses 3 to 5. And not only so, but we glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worth is patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope make us not ashamed, because the love of God is sent abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.

[0:45] The fifth chapter of the Romans, verses 3 to 5. The Apostle opens this wonderful chapter with the best things first.

[1:04] The two first verses. 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 within we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

[1:27] Now, my friends, if we consider that blessed condition of soul, and that peace with God, what more could we need or desire?

[1:45] And if we're brought there, and our dear brother has been brought there this past week, we might well desire that that should be a full stop, and not go any further.

[2:06] All to be maintained in those two first verses, so that the Apostle puts the best things first. Ah, but you haven't got to heaven yet.

[2:22] Not only so. Not only so. Do you know what that is? Not only so. We're still in the wilderness. We still have a body of sin and death to drag about with us.

[2:36] I don't know what these perfectionists in religion, what they do with the body of sin and death, where they've got a place that can tuck it away, out of sight.

[2:54] But you may depend upon it, my friends, that there will be the conflict as long as we live, between the flesh and the spirit, between life and death.

[3:12] And so, that it is wonderful, if once we can feel our assurance and the witness of the spirit that we're inside of the two first verses.

[3:28] But not only so. We have to come back. And there's wisdom in it.

[3:42] This life with respect to his people is a life of the work of sanctification, a work of divine instruction.

[3:52] It is a work of preparation for heaven for his people. And that's the reason of this word, not only so.

[4:03] As we are in the present state, we are not fit to be in those two first verses constantly.

[4:18] As we said just now, his people have not got to heaven yet.

[4:30] And it is through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom. And I do like to put that expression right. The meaning of that there is, we must enter the kingdom.

[4:47] We must, if we're the Lord, because he's laid himself under responsibility in the covenant of grace to get his people there. He'll be answerable to his divine father that everyone is there.

[5:04] And he has declared, this is the will of him that saved me, that of all those whom thou hast given me, I've lost none.

[5:16] None. If one of those who were given to him in the covenant of missing, it would, it would prove that the Lord Jesus is not what he declared himself to be.

[5:37] His work is perfect. Not only in that it fulfilled the law, but it is perfect in this that all his redeemed people will be brought safely through the wilderness to heaven.

[5:53] Will be one missing. He will present them to his divine father, behold I and the children whom thou hast given me.

[6:06] The thing is, shall we be among them? It presses itself on us from time to time. When thou, my righteous judge, shall come to call thy ransomed people home, shall I among them stay?

[6:22] and not only so, but we glory in tribulations also.

[6:36] Paul is an outstanding witness of this truth.

[6:49] As you know, he had a thorn in the place. And he prayed three times that it might be expressed. Amen. Amen.

[6:59] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[7:11] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[7:21] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[7:35] Amen. Amen. Amen. He was not the missus because he asked the Lord to extract the thorn three times. But I think we have a higher example still.

[7:47] The Lord Jesus, in his sacred humanity, trembled at the cup. Three times he asked his Divine Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.

[8:03] Nevertheless, not my will, but thine leader. And not only so, but with glory and tribulations of poor soul.

[8:16] So the Lord gave of Paul what was better than removing the trouble of the thorn. My grace is sufficient for thee.

[8:28] Well then, says Paul, it comes to the text. I will glory in my infirmity, that the power of God may rest upon me.

[8:41] And as the Lord said, my strength shall be made perfect in your weakness. Now this is Divine teaching under tribulation.

[8:55] And it would be a mercy if we can trace this teaching as the Lord deals with us. Blessed is the man that endureth chastening.

[9:10] The man who now chastenedeth and teacheth him out of thy law. Oh, I'm sure those of you that have been in the way, that you will realize that there is more teaching under his chastening than in any other way.

[9:35] We must not learn God's truth as schoolboys learn their past. Such knowledge is not proof against delusion blasphemes.

[9:48] So we do need to be concerned. Not only to know the truth, but how we know it.

[9:59] How we learned it. So we glory in tribulations also.

[10:10] And then he goes on to show this secret. It's the secret of the Lord. Knowing their tribulation worketh patience.

[10:25] It doesn't bring it. It works it. And this is a part of the kingdom of grace in the heart. It's the work of the Holy Spirit.

[10:35] And just upon this point, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, it reminds us of the woman that took three measures of meal.

[10:51] And the working of that meal was the same as this working of tribulation and working patience.

[11:08] It doesn't bring it. It works it. I believe in my little way I've known. And you'll feel it working like leaven.

[11:21] Leaven put into three measures of meal. That leaven or yeast. It works and works. And to the whole is leavened. Knowing that tribulation worketh patience.

[11:39] Take another scripture. And that is in the second epistle to the Corinthians in the fourth chapter. We read there of the same working, the same grace, the same spirit.

[12:01] For all things are for your sakes. For which cause we faint not.

[12:14] For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us, a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

[12:24] And this is exactly the same working. And sanctified affliction, which makes it lighten, but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

[12:42] And the sanctified influence of affliction is that under this working, it gives for a troubled sinner to look not at things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.

[13:01] For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. It is a very gracious experience to feel this inward working of spiritual leaven, which is compared to the kingdom of God in the heart, the kingdom of grace working, the Holy Spirit's influence.

[13:27] Or, it is exactly the same as that incorruptible seed which is sown by the spirit into the soul, the working there is a germination.

[13:41] The same thing as the leaven working, so the seed germinating, and you'll feel it germinating within. And the main use is sanctified tribulation, and sanctified trials, and sanctified weaknesses, sanctified losses, and crosses, what should we be without them?

[14:10] And yet not one of us would choose them. It does show the wisdom of the Lord, and we would do well if we could recognize that wisdom that he chooses, as Job says, he knoweth the way that I take, and when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

[14:38] And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulations work is patience. and in this working patience, it works out a lot of scum, because this working is a good deal in the fire.

[14:57] I feel that good Barry pushed his right. He says, I fancied patience would be brought before my trouble grows, and by such granted help I sought to triumph all my woes.

[15:25] But Christ has cleared my misty sight, and taught by him I find that tribulations working right produce a patient mind.

[15:39] It's a very blessed preaching under tribulation. And not only that, in the dealings of the Lord with his people in the fires, it is not only working patience in, but it is working out every kind of rebellion and pride and insubmission and also that terrible indifference and lukewarmness that we often get into.

[16:16] A terrible state is. For while sanctified tribulations and afflictions and sorrows and persecutions are working in us, so it is cleansing us, refining us, trying us, and not only working things in, but working things out, burning up, pride, arrogance, rebellion, hatred, hatred, and it also gives us to be light in God's life.

[16:57] Oh, it is a different side of things when we see light in God's life. It discovers and reveals to us things that we've never seen before.

[17:09] and it works, this patience, and patience, experience, is put in the right order.

[17:24] And not only so, but with glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulations work is patience, and in this working, and working these things in, patience, patience in tribulation, patience in prayer, rejoicing in hope, patience in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, is the fruit of sanctified affliction under the teaching and inward work of the Holy Ghost.

[18:04] There's something very blessed in it. It's all internal. There's nothing showy about it.

[18:16] It is not a religion of those that sound a trumpet before them. Oh, this blessed inward work of the Spirit. As the Lord said, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation.

[18:34] No, as would show, no pomp, but a blessed, divine, eternal life working in the heart, and led by the Spirit.

[18:46] And everything that His people pass through is to this end and this blessed issue that has fixed them for Him. and for this reason, all things shall work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.

[19:10] May it all things, whatever is surrounding us, all the surges of this life, all the many fears, the opposition, the contradictions, the disappointments, the death of, to be fixed upon the rock of ages, all things without exception must work together for good, and this is the inward working, knowing that tribulations of work is patience.

[19:43] This is spiritual patience. The work of patience really is to endure to the end. James said just now, let patience have a perfect work.

[20:02] The perfect work of patience is to endure unto the end. And this patience is very beautiful.

[20:15] You see, through the 107th star, the difficulty is, my friends, in this work, while it is working, this patience, because it's got to work out rebellion, and it's got to work out to self-sufficiency.

[20:37] It's got to work out self-strength. And when it's halfway down, it's a trouble. When, instead of casting our burdens upon the Lord, we, in our foolish independence of Him, we try and carry everything ourselves, try and make our own way through our difficulties.

[21:01] about the Lord, he, he, he, obtained his end by loading our shoulders well with woe.

[21:14] Then it is, they fell down, and there was none to help. And when you get there, then this work is, in that particular, accomplished.

[21:27] but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulations are working patience.

[21:40] Some of us who are impatient naturally, under his chasing hand, when he may fill you with fears, when you wonder where the things will end, when everything looks dark, when you cannot see your signs, oh, when it is working in your heart, and it works his patience, it will find you in many ways.

[22:16] Among them is this, instead of criticizing other people, you begin to criticize yourself, it brings you inwardly, and you begin to search your own heart, and you're more suspicious of yourself than you are other people, it gives you a right perception of things, it makes you tender, this patience is a tenderness, you'll feel tender to everybody when you're under the influence, in this patience, you're able, if one should smite you on the one cheek, to turn to them the other also, this is a working of this tribulation by the spirit in your heart, patience, experience, you can't learn experience, really, there are human studies, which you must study, things,

[23:28] I always like, for a young people's sake, to show the difference between natural and spiritual wisdom, you do need wisdom for the things of this world, and thank God if you've got it, and may you be unable to use it, but you need that wisdom which is from above with respect to your soul, to salvation, to the things of God, different wisdom altogether, and a patient experience, and this is most vital, an experimental religion is the only real religion, so there is another kind of a knowledge of the truth, which is not experimental, it's an acquisition, and if we've got an acquired religion, it may be perfectly correct, you might be able, if you had the ability, to write values, and be dead, it must be experimental religion, as a teaching of experience, and that experience will be mainly in two things, an increasing knowledge by the spirit of what we are in our nature, and an increasing knowledge of who and what God is in

[25:07] Christ, in salvation, to know those experimentally, is to know the truth, in a saving knowledge of it.

[25:21] Tribulation will keep patience, and patience, experience. there is a very wonderful analogy between things natural and spiritual, although things natural can never become spiritual.

[25:40] if you want to know whether your religion is alive, you compare it with the natural life.

[25:55] I think I've mentioned it before, but it is of sufficient importance to repeat it. There is in natural life a kind of necessity.

[26:12] You must live. It's not automatic. You must breathe. You don't say, I'm going to breathe.

[26:28] You must. If you're alive, you must hunger and thirst. Isn't a question when you're going to when you're reading a book? You must if you're alive.

[26:40] It's the same thing spiritually. You must live before God. And that divine living faith in your heart, it works in with these tribulations and the manifestations of the Lord in awe that is condescended to become and the characters he has assumed so suitable to a living soul.

[27:13] There will be times when you'll say, not in word, that I must have him. I see that without him I'm dead and lost and corrupt and ruined to eternity.

[27:25] I must have him. This is life. This is a working of the things of grace in your heart. As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.

[27:43] My soul thirsteth for God, but not anybody's God. Thirsteth for God, the living God. God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulations work is patience, and patience experience.

[28:13] So that is an important point to examine ourselves upon, not only that we know the truth, but how we know it. Who taught us it?

[28:26] When the spirit of truth shall come, he will guide you into all truth. If you take the doctrines of the gospel and consider how you know them, you believe them, you might be able to talk about sovereign elect particular redemption and all the doctrines of grace that help you come to know.

[29:02] You might say, well, how am I to know whether my knowledge of the truth is in my head and just a theory or whether it is a saving knowledge.

[29:17] It's a very important question and it should be answered. Well, I would say this, that if you have an experimental knowledge of the truth, the things that you know are brought into your heart.

[29:36] heart. And also there will be this, there will be a peculiar and vital affinity between the need that the Holy Ghost has wrought in your soul and the provision in the fullness of Christ in the doctrines.

[30:00] You will be joined in the doctrines. you partake of them. And in the work of the Holy Ghost in your heart, that sense so beautifully put in the hymn, there will be an aching void and that ache is the life of God in the soul.

[30:26] And that void is what the Holy Ghost has made that nothing but Christ and his salvation can tell. And as you read the word of God or hear it preached, there will be a definite connection between the work going on within and what is revealed in the word of God.

[30:53] You'll find that the roots of your faith will go after it. experimental religion. And not only so, but with glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience.

[31:18] There's something very blessed about the experimental religion. there's no need to go to a college to learn it. How can you?

[31:32] You need to go to a college to learn that you're a sinner. If you learn it there, there'll be no use to you. There'll be no connection with Calvary and a suffering savior, if you've learned it in a college.

[31:50] But there will be, my friend, if it's like a red-eyed iron in your very conscience. The eternal manhood destruction and saith return, ye children of men.

[32:11] Experience. Beautiful experience. Take for instance, experiencing communion with the Lord. I don't know how your hearts are affected to the truth.

[32:26] I feel my poor utterances are very feeble, but the text isn't. Have you ever had an experience similar to Jake but then?

[32:42] That was experience. he had a dream and the Holy Ghost was in it. He had revealed to him the Lord Jesus, the mediator.

[32:57] And the ladder which reached heaven and the bottom of it was where he was upon the earth. Have you ever had a sacred transformation in your soul under the preaching of the gospel which has gathered you up, which for the time being has brought you to the very gate of heaven.

[33:24] And you said, how dreadful is this place. This is none other but the house of God. This is the gate of the experience. Experience. Both ways you will experience the truth.

[33:41] Some go deeper and rise higher than others. Some can say that I have an experience being into the belly of hell and inexperience of the gate of heaven.

[33:57] All to have a religion of the Holy Ghost. Yes. patience experience and experience hope.

[34:15] It's in good order. If you have this working in your heart of this spiritual leaven and the germination of this blessed secret seed, it has brought you into contact with the Lord Jesus.

[34:33] it has brought you into an eternal union with him so as that you not only know about him but you know him by the spirit working in your heart.

[34:52] And therefore what you experience is the ground of your hope. hope. And experience hope.

[35:12] But hope has to do with the future. We are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man sees, why does he yet hope for?

[35:26] But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience, at the text, with patience, wait for it. Now, this hope is an anchor, an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.

[35:45] and it's cast within the veil. When the word says we are saved by hope, it doesn't mean that we are saved by the greater hope, but we are saved by him in whom we hope.

[36:04] We're not saved by experience, but we are saved by him who is or the experience, the experience of divine pardon is in the Lord Jesus.

[36:20] Every deliverance or sanctified afflictions, it is the object of faith that is the ground of hope.

[36:39] And this hope is the grace of the Spirit. And every grace of the Spirit as in it, all the perfections of the hope.

[36:51] A Christian's hope can never fail. It can never fail because the object of hope can never fail. It's a very solemn thing to have a false hope and a false faith.

[37:10] And however correct our religion may be. If we have not vital union with the Lord Jesus and partake of him, then our correct religion may exist in our natural faculties and it will die when we die.

[37:34] And it may be correct. hope. Experience and experience hope. If our hope is a natural hope yet correct, when we come to die, we just have to hold our hope because our hope will never hold us.

[37:59] it can end actual faculties. I do think this is a very important point, my friends, and I'm getting very near eternity to feel it.

[38:14] A wonderful number of the gospel standard for my first part of it is reality, to have a real religion.

[38:29] We should want something real because the grave is real, eternity is real, death is real, and we want something real to meet it.

[38:42] A social religion will do then. And there's something so blessed in, so safe within this reality of experience and hope.

[38:56] the object of hope is the blessed trinity. It is the hope in the divine father.

[39:09] In salvation it is he who in his foreknowledge shows a people for himself. And also there is the love of the son redemption.

[39:27] And there is also the love and power of the holy ghost in quickening those that were given to Christ. There is the foundation of hope.

[39:42] And therefore hope hopes in God himself. There is no other hope but in God.

[39:54] And we shall be brought to it by experience. As for instance, God is our refuge and strength. A very present help in trouble.

[40:06] That's how we shall know it. Experience in hope. Hope in what you experience from God himself. Oh, it is wonderful to be so strengthened by the gospel.

[40:21] there is him I often repeat it because I believe that I experienced it. Yes, I to the end shall endure as sure as the earnestly given.

[40:41] More happy and not more secure than a glorified spirit in heaven. Experience hope. Must be. if your experience is a work of the holy ghost and that leaven working in your heart and that incorruptible seed germinating there and moving in your soul, bringing him by the spirit the things of Christ.

[41:08] Revealing him to you in all the perfections of his person and in all the offices that he condescended to occupy and execute for his people and giving you to realize that those characters he assumes so suit your place and comfort your heart and his grace grace like oil poured into your poor earthen vessel and the visitations of his spirit in your heart this inward walking bringing you from time to time into the secret place of the most high is a realm for hope in him who is the object of faith the object of hope the object of worship and all the sweetness of it when it influences us according to the fifth psalm as for me

[42:23] I will come into thy house and as for me I will come in the multitude of thy mercies and in the fear of God worship towards thy holy temple oh the gathering up of our poor minds and spirit and heart gathering them up to that blessed object of faith and which hope we have as an anchor of the soul so sure and steadfast which enters into that that is within the veil and what is within the veil all all says Paul to the Colossians if ye then be risen with Christ suit those things which are above where Christ sitteth in the right hand of God well there are some attainment of faith and whatever is attainable by faith my friends it will be a mercy if we are laboring to reach it as for instance in the second chapter to the

[43:46]  Ephesians who hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus sit together in heavenly places have you ever found them in secret on your bed of night in reading the scriptures under the preaching of the gospel you sat together with Christ in heavenly places here and in that experience it will give you a good hope true grace that when you come to the end then you will be raised up to sit in heavenly places to eternity