Patience, Comfort and Hope from The Scriptures

This is the text from which old Hugh Latimer was accustomed to preach continually in his latter days. Certainly it gave him plenty of sea room.

The apostle declares that the Old Testament Scriptures are meant to teach New Testament believers.

Things written aforetime were written for our time.

The Old Testament is not outworn; apostles learned from it.

Nor has its authority ceased; it still teaches with certainty.

Nor has its divine power departed; for it works the graces of the Spirit in those who receive it: patience, comfort, hope.

In this verse the Holy Spirit sets his seal upon the Old Testament, and forever enters his protest against all undervaluing of that sacred volume.

The Holy Scriptures produce and ripen the noblest graces.

Let us carefully consider—

I. THE PATIENCE OF THE SCRIPTURES.

1. Such as they inculcate.

   • Patience under every appointment of the divine will.
   • Patience under human persecution and satanic opposition.
   • Patience under brotherly burdens. Galatians 6:2.
   • Patience in waiting for divine promises to be fulfilled.

2. Such as they exhibit in examples.

   • Job under divers afflictions triumphantly patient.
   • Abraham, Isaac and Jacob patiently waiting as sojourners with God, embracing the covenant promise in a strange land.
   • Joseph patiently forgiving the unkindness of his brethren, and bearing the false accusation of his master.
   • David in many trials and under many reproaches, patiently waiting for the crown, and refusing to injure his persecutor.
   • Our Savior patient under all the many forms of trial.

3. Such as they produce by their influence.

   • By calling us to the holiness which involves trial.
   • By revealing the design of God in our tribulations, and so sustaining the soul in steadfast resolve.
   • By declaring to us promises as to the future which make us cheerfully endure present griefs.

II. THE COMFORT OF THE SCRIPTURES.

1. Such as they inculcate.

   • They bid us rise above fear. Psalm 46:1–3.
   • They urge us to think little of all transient things.
   • They command us to find our joy in God.
   • They stimulate us to rejoice under tribulations, because they make us like the prophets of old.

2. Such as they exhibit.

   • Enoch walking with God.
   • Abraham finding God his shield and exceeding great reward.
   • David strengthening himself in God.
   • Hezekiah spreading his letter before the Lord.
   • Many other cases are recorded, and these stimulate our courage.

3. Such as they produce.

   • The Holy Spirit as the Comforter uses them to that end.
   • Their own character adapts them to that end.
   • They comfort us by their gentleness, certainty, fullness, graciousness, adaptation, personality, etc.
   • Our joyous experience is the best testimony to the consoling power of the Holy Scriptures.

III. THE HOPE OF THE SCRIPTURES.

Scripture is intended to work in us a good hope.

A people with a hope will purify themselves, and will in many other ways rise to a high and noble character.

By the hope of the Scriptures we understand—

1. Such a hope as they hold forth.

   • The hope of salvation. 1 Thessalonians 5:8.
   • “The blessed hope, and the appearing of our Lord”: Titus 2:13.
   • The hope of the resurrection of the dead. Acts 23:6.
   • The hope of glory. Colossians 1:27.
   • This is a good hope, a lively hope, the hope set before us in the gospel.

2. Such a hope as they exhibit in the lives of saints. A whole martyrology will be found in Hebrews 11.

3. Such a hope as they produce.

   • We see what God has done for his people, and therefore hope.
   • We believe the promises through the Word, and therefore hope.
   • We enjoy present blessing, and therefore hope.

Let us hold constant fellowship with the God of patience and consolation, who is also the God of hope; and let us rise from stage to stage of joy as the order of the words suggests.

Comforts

How much important matter do we find condensed in this single verse! What a light and glory does it throw on the Word of God! It has been well noted, that we have here its authority, as it is a written word; its antiquity, as it was written aforetime; its utility, as it is written for our learning. We may also infer from what immediately follows, its Divine origin; for, if by means of the Holy Scriptures, and the accompanying lively power of the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 59:21), God imparts to our soul patience, and comfort, and hope, it is because he is himself, as the apostle here expressly teaches, the God of patience and comfort, and the God of hope (verse 13). He is the fountain of these gifts and graces, which by the channel of his inspired Word flow down into our hearts and lives, to strengthen them for his service. Nor must we fail to notice the gracious method of their communication, their regular development within us, as we find this to be the order of their course—1, patience; 2, comfort; 3, hope. From a calm sense of inward peace and comfort we are led by the same Spirit to feel a blessed, and, it may be, a joyous hope. But, in order to this, there must always be in us the ground-work of patience, in our suffering or doing the will of God.

—James Ford.

Oliver Cromwell once read aloud Philippians 4:11–13, and then remarked, “There, in the day when my poor child died, this Scripture did go near to save my life.”

When George Peabody was staying at Sir Charles Reed’s house, he saw the youngest child bringing to his father a large Bible for family prayers. Mr. Peabody said, “Ah! my boy, you carry the Bible now; but the time is coming when you will find that the Bible must carry you.”

“Speak to me now in Scripture language alone,” said a dying Christian. “I can trust the words of God; but when they are the words of man, it costs me an effort to think whether I may trust them.”—G. S. Bowes.

As an instance of the patience, comfort and hope, which come from the gospel, note the following from Dr. Payson:—Christians might avoid much trouble if they would believe that God is able to make them happy without anything else. God has been depriving me of one blessing after another; but as every one was removed, he has come in and filled up its place; and now, when I am a cripple, and not able to move, I am happier than ever I was in my life before, or ever expected to be. If I had believed this twenty years ago, I might have been spared much anxiety.