Hope Through the Scripture - Part 2 of 2

The Baptist Bible Hour now comes to you under the direction of Elder Lacerre Bradley Jr., pastor of the Cincinnati Primitive Baptist Church. O for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer's praise! Thou the resolve by God and King, the triumphs of his grace! This is Lacerre Bradley Jr. inviting you to stay tuned for another message of God's sovereign grace. No matter how dark the night, or bitter the winds that blow, One touch of the Master's gentle hand, and I am ready to go. I'll go anywhere with him, through tempest or sinking sand, As long as I feel the tender touch, the touch of his gentle hand. One touch of his gentle hand means more than the world to me.

One touch of his gentle hand will make every shadow stray. I'll not be afraid to go, and bravely take my stand, With courage and zeal, as long as I feel the touch of his gentle hand. I talk to people who are struggling with the discouragements that come as a result of the COVID pandemic. I would like to be able to send you a little booklet entitled, Things Can Be Better Today.

Now we know that all the troubles of life are not going to disappear in a day's time, but the way we view them makes a big difference. And so if you'll just request this when writing us, we'll send it to you. Our address is the Baptist Bible Hour, Box 17037, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. We continue today the message, Hope Through the Scriptures. Our text, Romans chapter 15, verse 4. For whatsoever things are written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. We've already looked at what is intended by the patience of Scripture, and now are looking at the Scriptures as being a source of comfort.

And then Isaiah 49, verse 13. Sing, O heavens, and be joyful, O earth, and break forth into singing, O mountains, for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy on his afflicted. Now this acknowledges that God's people are sometimes afflicted. They are suffering. They're in trouble of various sorts. They're in a position where they desperately need mercy. The Lord has comforted his people. He has bestowed mercy upon them, upon his people and his afflicted. But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. Have you ever been there? Been to the place where it just seemed like your prayers were not being heard.

Nothing was going right. You were deeply troubled. The Lord's own people said, God has forgotten about us. He has forsaken me. He hath forgotten me. Verse 15.

Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.

Thy walls are continually before me. So in spite of the fact that there are those dark seasons, the Lord's people may feel to be forsaken. They conclude that God has forgotten about me. But the Lord asks the question, Can the mother forget her nursing child? It seems incredible that a mother could do that, yet we know that we read in the paper from time to time of a mother that does just that.

Deserts her child, even kills her own child. So he acknowledges that while it's preposterous to think of that happening, they may forget, yet will I not forget you. I've graven you on the palms of my hand. I can't forget. Your name is in front of me all the time, says the Lord.

And then Deuteronomy 33, 27. The eternal God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms. What a comfort to know I may feel like I'm sinking. I may feel like I'm going down for the count. I may feel like I can't go any farther. But underneath are the everlasting arms.

What a support. The everlasting arms of the Almighty God underneath to lift us up. And so there are many words of comfort to be found in the Old Testament. Don't you find yourself frequently going to the Psalms that are so full of words of comfort and consolation, no matter what the difficult situation might be.

But then there are examples of it as well. Numerous examples of God delivering his people from formidable enemies. The greatest example, of course, is the children of Israel being delivered from Egyptian bondage. And they say, well, it seemed like we hear about that a lot.

Well, we do, because the Bible talks about that a lot. Over and over again, the children of Israel were reminded of that great deliverance. They were still singing about it generations later. It's talked about in the New Testament. It was a marvelous thing that this whole nation of people who were now slaves and could not possibly have delivered themselves were brought out free men. And God parted the waters of the Red Sea and brought them across, and they sang victoriously on the other side, the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

And then we think of the experience of Gideon. It started out with a large army. The Lord said, there's too many. If you win the battle, you'll seek glory to yourself. You've got to reduce the number. The numbers brought down to 300, 300. But God gave them the victory.

And they didn't even have to draw a sword. The Midianites became confused in the darkness and destroyed their own men. When you read something like that, you may be disheartened. You may need comfort. You may feel to be so small, so insignificant, so weak.

How am I going to make it? And then you turn to the Old Testament and read about God delivering a whole nation from bondage, delivering a little band of 300 men against the host of the Midianites. And then the stories that are so familiar. David, a young man going out against Goliath, a giant. And because God was with him, he said, I come to you in the name of the Lord. He believed the battle was the Lord's. And that's a lesson we must never forget. The battle is the Lord's.

As soon as we think it's our own, we take it in our own hands, we complicate things, we become even more discouraged. Or we go on to read about Daniel. A very committed young man. A man who knew that if he continued to pray, his life was in danger. But he didn't hide away. He prayed with his window open so that all might know he was continuing to pray to his God. He was cast into the den of lions, but the angel came and closed their mouths. What comfort is received when we read these accounts? Or you read of the three Hebrews being thrown into the fiery furnace.

So hot that the men who cast them in were themselves destroyed. But these three young men were safe. The king said, did we not cast in three? And lo, I see four and the fourth of the son of God. And they came out without even the smell of smoke on their garment. When you need comfort, there are plenty of places to go in the Old Testament scripture to read about how God delivered the frail, the weak, the persecuted, brought them safely out.

And then, just a basic lesson. Genesis chapter 5, verse 22. And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years and begat sons and daughters. Enoch walked with God. It said later, and Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him. Enoch walked with God.

You want something comforting? Read about a man that walked with God, walked with God for three hundred years after Methuselah was born. So, if I could just walk with God.

What does it mean to walk with God? If I'm walking with him, I'm going to commune with him. I'm going to pray to him. I'm going to pour out my heart before him. I'm going to go to his word for guidance and instruction. I'm going to seek to obey him.

He's going to be constantly on my mind. Enoch walked with God. One of the hymns in our book expresses it like this. I love the quietness of the morning, the peaceful beauty of the day. I love to go there to my bower and humbly bow my head and pray. Oh, what joy and peace it gives me to talk to Jesus in a prayer. It gives me hope and consolation.

It lifts me from my every care. Oh, that his grace and mercy guide me. That when it's finished, I can say, when the evening sun is setting, I have walked with God today.

What more could we ask on this pilgrim journey than to be able to say, I have walked with God today? That means that we pray without ceasing. That we can always be in our closet of prayer. Not that we can always pray out loud, but we're in the spirit of prayer in all that we do throughout the day, walking with God.

Walk with God today. And then the third thing our text says, hope of the scriptures. Because we learn patience, endurance, perseverance, and because we find comfort. Therefore, we have hope. First of all, as we go to the Old Testament and come to this wonderful declaration of truth that there is hope to be found. There's hope that we can have by recalling his mercies. That's seen so vividly in the experience of Jeremiah, which is recorded in Lamentations 3, beginning with verse 17. Here he first describes his miserable state.

Thou hast removed my soul far off from peace. I forgot prosperity. I can't even remember better times at the moment. I forgot about those happier days, those times of prosperity. As I said, my hope is perished from the Lord, remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.

Wormwood. He's talking about being in a bitter state. The gall. Oh, what a low condition Jeremiah the prophet has reached the day I was in such a low state I forgot about times of prosperity.

He's completely down. My hope is perished from the Lord. Oh, how sad. When one comes to that dark station, they say, my hope is perished as I remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. I look at them still in remembrance and is humbled in me. Now, he's just hit bottom, but watch it.

He's going to start coming back up. This I recall to my mind. Therefore, have I hope. Just as I got down to the end, I remembered something. I recall some things to mind. Therefore, have I hope. What did he recall? It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassion's failed not.

They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore, will I hope in him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. So just as he's down saying my hope is perished, he begins to recall the mercies of the Lord.

His compassion's failed not. His mercies are new every day. Great is thy faithfulness. No matter how dark the night, no matter how low you are in the valley, surely as you recall the mercies of the Lord, you have to say the Lord is good. The Lord has been gracious. The Lord has never forsaken me.

Even though I've been at those moments that I said with the psalmist, is thy mercy clean gone forever? It was evident that his mercy was not gone. He still sustained me.

He still held me up. He still blessed me to know that God is faithful. Great is thy faithfulness.

And so he says the Lord is my portion. It's in him that I'm going to trust. My hope is in him. It's good for a man that he should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. So here is an example of hope. Hope by recalling mercies of the past. And then a second example we look at is hope by anticipating deliverance in the future.

We go to the book of Habakkuk, chapter 3, reading verse 17 of Habakkuk 3.17. Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines. The labor of the olive shall fail.

Now the olive oil was a significant part of the economy back in these days. And he says the labor of the olive shall fail. And the field shall yield no meat.

The flocks shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls. That's a pretty bleak picture, isn't it? Nothing's going right. There's no harvest.

Not able to bring in the harvest that we would have anticipated. Yet will I rejoice in the Lord in spite of the fact that I've had a great loss, a great setback. In spite of the fact things have just not gone right, not gone like they normally would at the harvest season. But I'm still going to rejoice, not in my circumstances, but I'm going to rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation.

The Lord God is my strength and he will make my feet like hinds' feet and he will make me to walk upon the high places. So just as we have an example of recalling his mercies, we have another example of anticipating his mercies, saying when the time is rough as here described, I'm still going to rejoice in the Lord because he's the same yesterday, today and forever. And then the hope that we have of the resurrection.

I go back to Job once again. Job chapter 19 verse 25. For I know that my redeemer liveth and that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth and though the skin worms destroy my body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold and not another, though my reigns be consumed within me. Now the truth of the resurrection was not as clear and vivid in the Old Testament as we find it in the New Testament after the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the lengthy description that Paul gives of it in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. But here's Job in these ancient times believing in the resurrection. I know that my redeemer lives.

Things are dark, I'm going through deep troubles. But my redeemer lives and he'll stand on the earth in the later times and though my body decays, the skin worms destroy my body, yet in the flesh shall I see God. I believe, he says, in the resurrection.

And then David speaks to that in Psalm 17, 15. As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness. I shall be satisfied when I await with thy likeness.

Oh, what a blessed hope. What wonderful anticipation we should have to look forward to that great day of the resurrection of the dead. Jesus Christ comes back with the shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then those that are alive and remains shall be caught up in the air to be with the Lord and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

These bodies here that are weak and frail, these bodies here that will ultimately go down in death, to be raised not in weakness but in power, not in dishonor but in glory, not tainted with sin or suffering the results of it, but a glorified body like the body of Jesus Christ. So when we go through our deep valleys, when we go through our trials and troubles, to look forward to that great day, see, part of our problem is that we get focused on the troubles of the present. If you spend a lot of time listening to the news these days, you can begin to feel hopeless.

You can begin to feel terribly discouraged. But if you've got your sight set on that great day when your body will be raised in the likeness of Jesus Christ and the anticipation of living with Him forever, free from sin and sorrow and all the consequences of sin, you have hope. The biblical hope is not, as people sometimes use the term, a young person says, well, I hope I'm going to pass this test. They may not have studied or prepared for it, but they're still hoping.

They've got their fingers crossed. Well, we're not talking about that kind of hope. Biblical hope is a firm conviction that the promises of God will be fulfilled.

It's not an idle wish. It's assurance about what will come to pass. So when the burdens of life are heavy, your plans are disrupted, sickness drags you down, for a time you feel hopeless, be quick to remember that God is described as the God of hope. Romans 15, 13 says, Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing. So when you have hope, you have joy, you have peace, and you have it as you believe, as you believe, that ye may, what, abound in hope.

How many times you'll hear somebody use the expression, you say, how are you? Well, I'm hanging in there, just hanging in. That's not what the Lord said. I want you to abound in hope. I want you to have a lot of it. I want you to rejoice in hope. I want you to have peace in believing. And it's going to be through the power of the Holy Ghost.

It's not something that you just work up by sheer willpower. It's by the power of the Holy Ghost. And then as you utilize the Old Testament scriptures in particular and the New Testament as well, they give you that added assurance and comfort that you need so desperately. So Paul's prayer was that you might abound in hope. And as you abound in hope, you can then minister to others. Back in the text that we read initially, it's interjected in a unique place, really. In the previous chapter, Paul had been talking about how Christians need to be patient with each other, that there were some who believed in eating meat and some who didn't.

There were some who believed in observing certain days and some who didn't. And he said you need to bear with one another. And the strong need to bear with the weak. And then he interjects right into that discussion and continues with it following what we have looked at about hope.

In other words, here was a lesson that dealt with your attitude toward other people. And he quoted that passage from the Psalms that concerned Jesus Christ saying that Jesus bore many troubles because he was connected with his Father in heaven. When he declared, I and my Father are one, this brought great opposition. But his concern when he came here, he said, was not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me. He was subject to the Father's will. He wasn't thinking just about himself. He was thinking about pleasing the Father. And the lesson that Paul is drawing is that we must not be selfish and self-centered. We must consider others. If we're following the example of Jesus, we want to be able to help and encourage others.

And that's what he's saying now in this 15th chapter. That I want you to abound in hope and he says, I myself also am persuaded of you, my brethren, that ye are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another. You're not just thinking about yourself. You're rejoicing in hope. You're finding comfort in the Word. Then you ought to be able to admonish, to encourage, to counsel one another. You're full of goodness, not that you are good in and of yourself, but with the grace of God, you've become a new creature in Christ Jesus.

You've been transformed. So the fruit of the Spirit is in you and you are kind and you are considerate and you're loving. Now being filled with that goodness and with knowledge.

There's no need to try to admonish or counsel somebody if you don't have the knowledge to do it. If a person is just pulling out trite phrases that they've heard, but they don't have a biblical foundation for it, that's not going to accomplish anything to the glory of God. But oh, that we might abound in hope and that we might pray that all of our church, every member of it would be abounding in hope and that we can therefore be able to admonish one another, encourage one another to trust in our Savior Jesus Christ. Can you today say with the Apostle Paul, in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie promised before the world began? Paul's not saying, well, I just hope I'm saved.

No, he said, I've got a sure foundation. My hope is Jesus Christ. I'm in hope of eternal life. God promised it before the world began.

Can you say that today? God, I pray that you will recognize that there is only one hope for fallen sinners and that is Jesus Christ, the way, the truth, and the life, and come believing on Him. Our hope for the present, our hope for the future, our hope for eternal life, is in the sovereign grace of God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Indeed, we can sweetly rest in those promises that He has given us that He believeth on the Son at everlasting life. I hope that you'll take time to write this week.

Let us know that you've listened to the program. Until next week, at this same time, may the Lord richly bless you all. The Baptist Bible Hour has come to you under the direction of Elder LeSaire Bradley, Jr., pastor of the Cincinnati Primitive Baptist Church. Address all mail to the Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. That's the Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio 45217. Jesus, blessed rock of ages, I will hide myself in Thee.