Join us as we navigate the complexities of faith, disappointment, and the enduring love of God. Discover how faith acts contrary to human logic and emotions, setting up a war zone in the mind but leading to eternal hope. We emphasize that the love of God, although not always apparent, is unconditionally poured into our hearts, transforming trials into victories and strengthening our spiritual journey.
So we are looking at this passage in Romans chapter 5, that we have peace with God, now that we have been declared innocent by Christ, who took our judgment upon himself, and we have access to the Father. through the grace, into the grace in which we stand. So we’ve entered this wonderful room, this dome of grace, this home, if you like, of our Heavenly Father. And all that happens to us now is now in the kingdom of grace, not in the kingdom of sin and death. And that’s why we can glory or give praise and thanks and congratulate ourselves, even in trouble, knowing that trouble produces life in us. And as we exercise our faith, we are drawn closer to God by faith. Now, those are the details. Let me remind you, though, of the overall picture. This is a chapter on freedom from the wrath of God. Well, how does that all fit in? Well, you see, as you recall, God’s wrath is motivated by love. God does not suspend his love in order to be wrathful. Well, what is he wrathful about? He’s wrathful about the world’s suppression of him. And so what does God do? We saw this in chapter 1. He hands people over to the powers of sin. Why? Because he’s abandoning them? No. So that we can see that when God hands us over to our alternatives of him, remember when he hands us over, he’s handing us over to what we choose instead of him, our idols in other words. He does that so that ultimately we see that our idols are come to nothing. They have no life in them. They have no supply of grace and mercy and love and support and help. We are worshipping empty vessels. That’s all we’re doing. And so God does this because he loves us. He has handed us over in this way. Now then, when we come to our emptiness and realize it, we call out for mercy. and God supplies that mercy in Jesus Christ. And thus, what this does is to bring us back to the Father. Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection are our reconciliation, our return to the Father. So do you see then that the passages here, the verses here, are talking about the very opposite of wrath— Because Christ has brought us back into the Father’s home, therefore we are no longer under his wrath, which is to send us away into the powers of sin. So now verse 5, now, so as I said, verse 3, not only that, but we also re-glory in tribulations, we congratulate ourselves in trouble, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope. Now hope does not disappoint us. That’s verse 5, at least the first part of verse 5. Remember what this hope is. It’s not a wistful hoping and wishing that something will happen, but you’re not sure it will. The hope that we have is an absolute certainty. God, Jesus has said, I, when I am lifted up from the earth, that is when I am crucified, shall draw all men to myself, all people to myself. He begins that drawing of all people to himself on this earth, and he completes it in the final judgment. When people see their true brokenness and the glory of God and the mercy of the one slain upon the throne, then they are drawn to him. All people will be drawn to him. So we have a certain hope, and this hope, this certain expectation does not disappoint us. But you say to me, Colin, I have met many disappointments in my life. And so have I. But we’re talking about the ultimate. And what about that disappointment anyway? Is it a disappointment because God has let us down? Or is it a disappointment because we had certain dreams that weren’t fulfilled, but God’s plan is continually being fulfilled? So, you see, we have to be willing to look at our disappointments and say, okay, God, I understand that my visions, my dreams, my goals may not have been the ones that were best for my life. But I do know that your goal for me, your dream for me, your destiny for me is the best thing that could possibly be. And I am therefore going to affirm by faith that I am not disappointed in my life. Now that’s a tall order, let me tell you. not to be disappointed in our lives. If you’ve lived long enough, you have oodles of disappointments. You have a number of dreams shattered. You have sickness that got in the way of your intentions and plans, or financial difficulties that prevented you from fulfilling your dreams. These are all disappointments. Can we bring these before God and say, Father, I want to give thanks to you that these things that happened to me that were keen disappointments were actually blessings in disguise, for they trained my faith, they led me on a different course, they enabled me to walk closer to you, and I’m thankful for it this day. It doesn’t mean that everything is now prosperous in your life. The most important prosperity you and I have is faith in Jesus Christ, even though we may be poor and our dreams may be shattered. The most important prosperity we have in our lives is faith, as I say, in Jesus Christ our Savior. Because then we know we have an eternity ahead of us. Then we know, then we do not fear death. Then we expect great and glorious things in the green pastures. It’s a marvelous thing. In God’s presence is fullness of joy. At his right hand are pleasures forevermore, according to Psalm 16. So then, we are training our faith. Now, I want to say something about that in relation to how contrary faith is to the mind. You’ve heard me say this many times. It needs repeating quite often. Faith is a contradiction to your mental logic. Faith is a contradiction to most of your emotions. Faith has set up an antagonism in your mind. When we have faith, we are running opposite the stream. The stream of our minds is downward, downward to depression and death. But the stream of faith is upwards. It’s upwards towards God. And therefore, there is a major contradiction. And this is crossing our emotions. We get tired of it. We don’t want to be contradicting our minds. We want to flow with the flow. We want everything to be smooth. But faith is a war zone. Faith has set up barriers. a force of resistance, an island of resistance in our dark mind. So, are you ready for it? Are you willing for it? When we have faith in Jesus Christ, when we say, thank you, Lord, for all the things that you are taking me through, Do you think we’re emotionally happy when we say that? No, we’re not. Are you willing, therefore, to contradict your mind by faith? Lord God, I feel depressed. I feel disappointed. I feel sorrowful. I feel anxious. And yet I thank you that these feelings have no power to separate me from you. And I thank you that what I’m going through is to my benefit. You know, when I was a young lad, my dad would say something sometimes. It was a bit of a joke. He would say, keep going, son. Everything in our favor is against us. And it was, as I say, a bit of a joke. We’d laugh here and there. But in fact, when I became a Christian and thought about that, I realized it was the very opposite of the truth, because the real truth is that everything against us is in our favor. Not everything in our favor is against us, but everything against us is in our favor. Now, how can that be? Because Jesus Christ has gained victory over the forces of evil. He has defeated Satan already. Satan in this world, even though he tempts us and makes us fall or tries to, is a defeated foe. He cannot lift a finger, as I said the other day, without permission from God. He cannot do anything to harm us without God allowing the protection force around us to be removed for a moment, for Satan’s activity to get in. And so when we are thanking God, we are actually… saying to God, I know Satan, Lord, is trying to attack me, but I’m not going to give him the time of day. You have given him permission to break through only to bless me by my resistance of him by faith. And I thank you for that reality, dear God. There are some Christians who talk so much about the devil. Oh, the devil attacked me today. Oh, the devil’s doing this. Oh, this is from the devil, you know, and so on. And they want to say this. I don’t know why really they want to say it. I think they think it gives them more clarity to realize this is an attack from the devil. Yes, okay, but does that help you? Or does it help you far more to say, God has gained victory over Satan, and he cannot do anything to me that God does not give him permission to do, and therefore this thing that has come upon me is from God, not from Satan. Yes, it’s from Satan, but God has allowed it and given him permission, and therefore it is from God to bless me. In this way, you see, your heart gets lifted up. You get buoyant. You are recognizing that nothing can be against us. Everything against us is in our favor. This is how faith works contrary to the mind. Now, hope. as it says in verse 5, does not disappoint us because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Now listen, you will not always experience the feeling of that love. You will not always experience the emotion of love from God. Sometimes you will. You’ll be full of joy and peace and happiness in Him. But there are many times when God’s love will not appear to you, be apparent to you in your emotions. Nevertheless, you can say, now hope does not disappoint us because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. And so we say, Father, you feel blessed. So far away from me right now, I feel so far away from you. I don’t feel that you are present. I feel like Jesus on the cross who said, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But because of what he went through, I know that what I am going through is not your abandonment. I know your love is with me. I know that you have poured out your love into my heart. and I thank you for it. You see, faith sees the invisible. That’s in Corinthians 1 or 2. We’ll go to that next time. Faith sees what is invisible, and that is why it is contrary to the mind. But don’t be troubled by that. Thank God that faith is contrary to your mind, because your mind won’t give you hope, but faith will certainly pour hope into your hearts and love from God. Thank you very much. If you would please consider a donation, it’s listener supported radio. Send your donation to Faith Quest, P.O. Box 366, Littleton, Colorado, 80160. See you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
Join us as we navigate the complexities of faith, disappointment, and the enduring love of God. Discover how faith acts contrary to human logic and emotions, setting up a war zone in the mind but leading to eternal hope. We emphasize that the love of God, although not always apparent, is unconditionally poured into our hearts, transforming trials into victories and strengthening our spiritual journey.
