Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2
and reading for our text the last part of verse 16. Good hope through grace. The whole verse reads, Now our
Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath
loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through
grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word
and work. And the word that I desire to
bring before you this evening is the foundation of a good hope,
and good hope through grace. It is spoken of here as being
given us. Given us, along with everlasting
consolation, good hope through grace. Now most people, even if they
are not religious, have some form of hope. And even if they
do not even believe in God or believe in heaven or hell, they
have some hopes regarding beyond the grave. But those that do
believe, do believe there is a God, that there is a heaven
and hell, they also have hopes. And throughout this world there
are many that are hoping, hoping for heaven, hoping for something
beyond the grave, hoping for that which is pleasant and good,
hoping for an acceptance with God, hoping to find that access
unto God. We are told in Romans that we
are saved by hope, that is, not hope saving us, but the realization
of that good hope, gives us consolation, it gives us assurance, it gives
us comfort. And also we have said before
us that there is that blessing of a hope that is beyond the
grave, that is to be even rejoiced in here below. Rejoicing in hope
is one of the attributes of a Christian. And so May we look at the word,
I want to look at the word this evening just under two headings. Firstly, the reason, the need
of a good hope. Not just any hope, but a good
hope. And then secondly, a scriptural
foundation of a good hope. Firstly, the need. of a good
hope. We would remember that we in
Adam are under the sentence of death. We are under condemnation. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. And that after death there is
the judgment. And it is vital for us that we
have a good hope because of that, to be able to stand before the
judgment seat and be found faultless and find that acceptance with
God. We have eternity before us. This
is but time that we are in. We sung of hope as belonging
to time. The Lord's people, when Time
shall be no more that hope is turned to sight and are realizing
the blessings. But eternity is before us, and
when we think of that, time shall be no more, a never-ending eternity. That is another reason for not
just any hope, but a good hope. Another reason for it is that
we have a heart that is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked is so liable to deceive us in that which is so vital
and so important. We read in the lead up to our
text of those that do not receive the truth in the love of Him
and God in judgment, gives them over to strong delusions that
they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned to believe
not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. And when
we read of that solemn judgment, may our thought be, Lord give
me a good home, lead me not to be deceived. These things are
set before us in the word of those that are deceived and have
no really good hope at all but damnation awaiting them. And
so we have also a reason for that good hope because of the
cases that are set before us in the Word. We think of our
Lord telling of the ten virgins, five wise, five foolish, they
all slumbered and slept They were all waiting for the coming
of the Lord. When at midnight there was the
cry made, go ye out to meet the bridegroom. Bridegroom cometh. Then there were five of them
that when they went to trim their lamps, they said, our lamps have
gone out. They took no oil with their vessels,
with their lamps. And so they asked of those that
had their oil with their lambs, that they could borrow that.
And they said, no, lest there not be enough for us, but go
rather buy and sell. And when they went, then the
bridegroom came, the door was shut, and no entrance given unto
them. Depart, I never knew you. And we get a solemn picture of
those that all seemed the same, all seemed waiting, you might
say all slumbered and slept as well, but there was a difference
with them, and it wasn't found out until the Lord came. They all had the lamp of a profession,
but only five had grace with that profession, only five had
a supply from heaven, the rest was just in their own hands,
just an outward profession of religion. Then we think of those
our Lord spoke of who came before him at the last day and said,
Lord, Lord, open to us. The Lord had said, not everyone
that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven. And he had those that came and
said, open to us. Thou hast taught in our streets,
we've been called by thy name, but the Lord said, depart from
me, I never knew you, all ye that work iniquity. When we read
these accounts, we should see the need of a good hope, not
a hope like they had, that when it was too late, it was found
out as being wrong. and it wasn't owned of God. God did not know about it at
all. The need of a good hope is to
have a hope that God honours, that is a scriptural hope, a
hope that answers our need as sinners and answers our need
of before whom we must stand before whom we must give an account,
and only a hope like that will ever do us any good. You imagine
if someone said to us that they could bring us before the king
or queen, and we relied upon them, our hope was that they
would speak for us. But unknown to us, they did not
have any access, any real authority with the King or Queen at all.
And when we got there and sought to have access, then we didn't
get it at all. It would be vital for us if we
were to gain access to have someone that not only knew us, but knew
and had a standing with the King and Queen as well. It's very
easy and many times through life we can have our hopes raised
upon certain things and that hope is dashed. Sometimes it
is because we are trusting in man that cannot be trusted, or
promises that are broken. Other times it is that that hope
has just been a thought in our own mind and not had any foundation
to it at all. And so, there is a need, a vital
need. This is not something just concerning
time, it's not just concerning our bodies, but it is concerning
our eternal stay, our eternal home. Whether it is forever in
hell, or forever with the Lord. Whether it stands before God,
or whether it falls before God. We need a good hope, and we need
a hope as set before us in our text here, which is a hope through
grace. Good hope through grace. The free, unmerited favor of
God. So I want to then look at what
a good hope is. And really in one way I tremble
to bring the word in this way. I do not want to in any way set
things before you that are wrong and not right and takes away
a good hope where it is there or to set forth a standard that
is not right. And so I would say right at the
outset that A good hope is based upon the Word of God, not upon
what a minister says, not upon what anyone else says, but the
Word of God. And if we really value our souls,
we should look to the scriptures and what the scriptures set forth
is a good hope. It may be, it may be that My
remarks this evening direct in some way of how or where to look
for that good hope. Well, it comes, I want to put
it under two heads. Firstly, a foundation of hope
that is outside of ourselves, that work of our Lord Jesus Christ,
And then secondly, that work that is inside us, that which
is done by way of grace and of calling. So but first, the vital
thing is that which is our hope outside of ourselves in the scriptures
and the gospel set before us in the scriptures. Perhaps the
outset to kind of do a bit of a comparison. It's easy for us,
if we've always attended the means of grace, to maybe not
realize how, what a difference there is between those who may
have come completely from outside. They haven't, the early church,
as the apostles went forth and they were preaching the gospel,
Beforehand, those people were trusting in idols. They were
trusting in gods that were no gods at all. They're leaning
upon, that was very openly, anyone that knew the scriptures could
say, if you are trusting in that, then you will never ever stand
at the last day. So when we think of coming under
the sound of the gospel. That is, in one sense, the first
step or first pointers going in the right way. I believe that
is where the Apostle Paul, when he spoke in Acts 17 to those
at Athens who were going after the idols and altars to all manner
of gods, and he declared unto them the unknown God that they
worship, that he said that in the time past God winked at that
ignorance but now commandeth all men to repent. In other words,
pointing not just the Jews but every nation and kindred and
tongue to believe and know that there is no salvation in any
other but in the Lord Jesus Christ and in the gospel of our Lord
and Saviour Jesus Christ. So before any of the particular
doctrines are known, before anything else is explained, it's brought
into the compass of the Scriptures, the compass of the God of heaven
and of earth, and of our Lord Jesus Christ. And our expectation
of a hope is narrowed in to there. And so all of those that have
been looking at every other direction, they are now brought in that
far. You know, imagine if we were
looking for something that was hidden or that was lost. And
if we are told, well, it is somewhere in Cranbrook, that would be a
very large area to look. But then if someone narrowed
it down for us and said, well, actually, It is in this particular
close. That's where it is. That would
narrow it down tremendously to go to that area. Now you're just
looking in that area, not everywhere else where you're not going to
ever expect to find what you're looking for at all. And so when
we come to the Scriptures and we come to the Gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ already, we are excluding many, many wrong
ways, many false hopes, many things that send so many to perdition
and eternal ruin. And so we have the apostle when
he writes to the Colossians, and he speaks of the hope of
the gospel. In Colossians chapter one and
verse 23, he says, if ye continue in the faith, grounded and settled,
and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye
have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under
heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister. So there is the first
definition of a good hope, is the good hope of the gospel. The gospel of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, foretold by the Prophet Joel, who prophesied
that the Lord will be the hope of his people. And that certainly
is the case in the Gospel. Our hope is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. This was the first promise, the
seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent's head. So
we're looking there, the same as what Paul testified when he
gave his own call by grace and testimony in Acts 26. He says, and now I stand and
am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our
fathers. And that promise, of course,
was rehearsed right through the scriptures, the coming of our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And our hope then is based upon
Christ's work, His work, not our work, that which He has accomplished
upon this earth, that which He did in His perfect life and obedience,
even unto death, the death of the cross, the hope in the blood
that was shed on Calvary's tree, the hope of the scriptures being
fulfilled, that without the shedding of blood there is no remission,
but the Lord Jesus Christ, when I see the blood I'll pass over
you, the Paschal Lamb, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased, or John Baptist testimony, behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. The hope of The people of God
is outside of them, outside of their works, outside of their
frames, their feelings, but is centred upon the finished work
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The hope goes right back to eternity,
chosen in Him from the foundation of the world, right back to the
everlasting love of God. I love Thee with an everlasting
love, and therefore with loving kindness, have I drawn thee. The hope then is a hope outside
of ourselves, in Christ alone. And that is vital for us to realise
that, to, and we've sung in the hymn of those that are given
that hope, that though they have changes though they are snares
and troubles and tribulations that hope is standing firm. The apostle says which hope we
have as an anchor of the steadfast is God's that which he promised
to Abraham. Our priest is preached on the
foundation of all of the promises and being fulfilled in Christ
and fulfilled at Calvary There is a hope not on something unfinished,
but on what already is finished and already is done. And so our hope, if it is a good
hope, our hope must be built on that. Other foundation can
no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. Testimony of hope must all centre
upon Christ's work. But then there's a second aspect
to it, and that is a foundation of hope in us. And to be clear
in that, it's God's work in us. When we think of the text that
we have before us, we have from verse 14, Whereunto
he called you by our gospel, he called you to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore, brethren,
stand fast and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether
by word or by our epistle. Our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given
us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace. It is something that the Lord
has taken and given to us, imparted to us. He has given that good
hope. He has given everlasting consolation. He has made known His love to
us. And the first thing mentioned
there is calling. And so when we go back to Paul's
letter to the Ephesians, he says to them in chapter 1 verse 18,
the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may
know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches
of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And there is pointed
that hope that is belonging and joined with the calling of God. You hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. The irresistible grace of God,
that which the Lord has done. As much as we said the first
part of the foundation of the hope is in what Christ has done
upon Calvary's tree outside of us, so the second part is what
God has done in us, what he has actually wrought in us by his
irresistible grace. When Paul writes to the Philippians,
he says, He which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it unto the day of Jesus Christ. It is a work begun in the new
birth, a giving of life, giving of a hearing ear, giving of that
sign and token, my sheep, they hear my voice, they follow me,
hearing, The word of the Lord, you think in the letters to the
churches in Revelation, he that hath an ear, let him hear what
the Spirit saith unto the churches. It's not an ordinary thing, it's
not a natural thing to hear the word of the Lord. In the latter
days we are told there shall be a famine, not a bread and
water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. Sadly, in many places
of worship, that literally is so. The Word of God is hardly
read. But there's not only just a hearing
of it outwardly, it's hearing of it with power, with authority. We read that faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the Word of the Lord. And the Word did
not profit them, not be mixed with faith in them, that heard
it, the Word of God, is to profit the people of God. And when it
does start to profit, when the hearing ear is given, when it
is fulfilled that all thy children shall be taught of the Lord,
great shall be the peace of thy children, and we begin to be
taught line upon line, here a little and there a little, going away
from the house of God and say I learned one thing today, something
has been taught me and maybe it's joined together with what
has happened in the week or what will happen in the following
week. All things work together for good to them that love God. You think of the prophets, how
many times they were brought down to Jordan or to the potter's
house or to somewhere, and there they had to hear the word of
the Lord, and they were taught in that way. And we are taught
by experience as well. Those things that we pass through,
those things that we feel and know in our own souls, the Lord
teaches. We know also that the Lord draws
his people, we know what it is, if you have a magnet, and you
put a piece of metal near it, and there's a force between,
there's nothing between, no spring or anything like that, and the
metal will be drawn to the magnet, and we know what that force is.
Well, the Lord said, none can come unto me except the Father
which sent me draw him, and I'll raise him up at the last day. Do we know what it is to be drawn
to the Word of God? drawn to the people of God. Now
Ruth was drawn to Naomi, wasn't she? One of her own relatives,
mother-in-law. And it is that drawing that draws
the people of God together, gathers the people of God together. Being
let go, they went unto their own company. These Thessalonians,
it was said in the first epistle, the effect of the preaching of
the word. Our gospel came not unto you
in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in
much assurance, as ye know what manner of men we were among you
for your sake. And ye became followers of us
and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction,
with joy of the Holy Ghost. And we're reading of the effects
of the Gospel on sinners, on people. We're reading the description
of a call, something that the Lord knows about, that He is
the author about. And there'll be a counter bit
to that too for the people of God. They'll have times that
they feel so hard, so cold, so prayerless, so unmoved, So untouched
by the word, sometimes the Lord answers that. If a poor soul
is troubled and they ask of the Lord, Lord, is it a real work?
Are Thou working in my heart? Has Thou begun in my heart? And
you think you're gonna have an answer in a certain way, and
the way the Lord answers it, He withdraws what He is doing
in the heart. He takes away His grace, His
influence from you, so that you don't feel it, and you're left
to your own hard self. As if the Lord would say, you
doubted, you didn't know whether that was my work or not, so I'll
take my work away, now see how you go. And you wonder why you
can't pray, and the word is hard, and you've no appetite, and you
can't profit from the ministry, and you don't feel the love to
the people of God anymore. And you think, what's gone wrong?
How's the Lord answered my prayer like this? The Lord has shown
you what we are without His grace and without His help. And in
the Lord's time and appointed way, He comes again and softens
the heart and draws the soul after Him. We need a source above. We need that outside of ourselves
to keep alive our soul. No man is able to keep alive
his own soul. The Lord told the parable of
the vine. that the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, neither can ye, except ye abide in me, and that cleaving
to the Lord from me is thy fruit found. So a good hope is that
which is wrought within, and the Lord is pleased to give that
witness of the Spirit. In Romans 8 we have the testimony
of the Spirit of God, bearing witness with our spirit that
we are the children of God. And that is vital. The Spirit
itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God. And through the chapter 8, how
many witnesses there is there. How are we walking? After the
flesh, after the spirit, Where is our hope? Where is our security? And then that beautiful golden
chain of which the calling is in the midst of it, for whom
he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among
many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, and whom he called them he also justified. and whom he justified them he
also glorified. When you get the calling then
there can be looking back and looking forward and that good
hope is that that calling is right in the middle of that golden
chain. And the Lord has said that he
which hath begun a good work, yes in time past, but in time
in calling will perform it unto the day. of Jesus Christ. He will own the work of his own
hands. A good hope also is not just
a hope beyond the grave, it's a hope that is realised day by
day as we desire the life of God within, the consolations
of the Gospel, grace to help in time of need, leading and
teaching, Those are things that we are hoping, not just beyond
the grave, but hoping that the Lord will appear for us here
below. And every time the Lord does
appear, every time He does, let us know it is His work. This
is the Lord's doing and is marvellous in our eyes. The thing proceedeth
from the Lord. The saints of old have been able
to look upon the Lord's work and testify that this is His
work, this is what He has done. When Barnabas went to Antioch
and he saw the grace of God, he was glad because he knew it
was the Lord's work. It was not man's work, it was
God's work. And so it is vital for us that
we do have an inward work, But even then, we must be careful
because we do not want to have a hope that is just based upon
frames and feelings, that one moment we're the people of God
and the next moment we're not. We need to realise our heart
will move at His command and that where the Lord does work
by grace, there's a much, much deeper foundation than ever is
in us. It goes right down to the everlasting
love of God. We already quoted that of Jeremiah
31 verse 3. that is very, very deep, is laid
in the Lord Jesus Christ, in his eternal love, in his sufferings,
in his death, in his purposes. Father, I will that they whom
thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may see
my glory. It's a great blessing to have
those tokens, my sheep, they hear my voice, they follow me. We know that we have passed from
death unto life. because we love the brethren.
And then we can come to those precious promises, those promises
of inheritance that is incorruptible, undefiled, reserved in heaven
for us, to know that when this earthly tabernacle is destroyed,
we have a temple eternal in the heavens, to know that our Redeemer
lives, to know that there are in heaven many mansions and the
Lord has said that he will come again and receive us unto himself
that where he is there we shall be also. It is a blessed thing
to live in that exercise of faith as though long cloud of witnesses
in Hebrews 11 in the middle of that chapter There's a sweet
summary of faith, real faith, upon which hope is based. These
all died in faith, from verse 13. Not having received the promises,
but having seen them afar off, we're persuaded of them, embraced
them. How many promises have you and
I seen? In the word of God, we've embraced
them, and we've been persuaded of them, But then it goes on
and confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For
they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly if they had been mindful
of that country from whence they came out, they might have had
opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better
country that isn't heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed. to be called their God, for he
hath prepared for them a city. And we have a picture of faith
that views this world as a wilderness, that views us as pilgrims through
it, strangers to it. They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. A prepared people for a prepared
place. The Lord weaning off the world. bringing about providences that
cast a vanity upon the things of time, and making that soul
long and desire that eternal mansions the Lord has prepared. His hope that is based upon the
Lord's work in Christ, Christ's work upon Calvary, and Christ's
work in us, the Spirit's work quickening, calling, and day
by day, this is the hope that we have Christ in us, Christ
formed in us, the hope of glory. So may we, when we view the word
that is before us here, good hope through grace, that we might
know that the hope that we have is a good hope. And may we remember
as well that our text is not in isolation. The things that
are joined with it there, those things that are given us as well,
the love of God, the consolations of God, are joined with that. And the desire of the apostle,
that hearts be comforted, and established in every good word
and work. The Lord's work in a sinner is
a perfect work, a good work, and he will have regard to the
work of his own hands. And may we have a regard to the
work of his own hands, and that our hope be built upon Christ
and his work. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.