Open your Bibles, if you would, to the book of 1 John. Have you ever talked to people and they say, well, I hope this works out this way, and I hope that works out this way, and I hope, and I hope, and they hope that things will work out. There's an uncertainty to it, though, isn't there? But do you know believers have a hope that's sure?

Having this hope is the name of this message. Having this hope. Who is our hope as the born-again, blood-washed believer? The Lord Jesus Christ is, isn't he? He's our hope. He's our Savior. He's our God. He's our Redeemer. He's our wisdom, sanctification, redemption. He's our all in all. Isn't it wonderful? And it's He who came to save His people from their sins. And He accomplished that, praise the mighty name of Jesus, by His perfect, sin-atoning work on Calvary's cross.

Now, I want us to read three verses here from 1 John 3. And again, the message is called, Having This Hope. What a hope believers have. There's no uncertainty when you hope in Christ. We don't have to hope we're saved. We're saved. God's people are saved. If you're trusting in Christ, if you're born again, blood-washed believer, we are saved by the grace and mercy of God. And the hardest thing, as I was talking to Zane last night about, the hardest thing is for us just to rest in that fact. Joe Terrell used to say that to me all the time, that the hardest thing for the believer to do is just rest in Christ. I understand more and more all the time what he meant by that. And we cry out all the time, Lord, help my unbelief, don't we? If we're honest with each other, that's what we cry out.

1 John 3, listen to these amazing words. These are just incredible words. John pens this to believers. He says, behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. What manner of love. Beloved, this is everlasting love. This is love from before the foundation of the world. This is eternal love that's been bestowed upon us. And now we, by the grace and mercy of God, by the power of God the Holy Spirit, we have the love of God spread abroad in our hearts. That's why we love Christ. That's why we love our Father, God the Father. That's why we love the Holy Spirit. That's why we love the gospel. That's why we love God's people. That's why we love the scriptures. Oh my. This is love that's foreign to us in our natural state. But when we're born again by the power of God, now we have that. That's absolutely incredible.

Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. That's amazing. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Remember when the Lord said, marvel not if the world hates you? It hated me first. My. Beloved, look at this, look at this. Now are we the sons of God? That, there's no doubt there, is there? It's not, well, now I hope we're the sons of God. Our hope is in Christ, not in ourselves. Look at this, it's beautiful. Now are we the sons of God. That's a statement of fact. It's amazing. And it doth not yet appear what we shall be. We're still encased in this body of sin. But one day we're going to be set free, beloved. We're not what we're going to be. We're going to be glorified. And in the presence of God, the Son, forever, all because of his great sacrifice to save us from our sins by the shedding of his precious, precious blood. My. We shall be like him. We're being conformed to the image of Christ right now, beloved. Isn't that remarkable? One day we're gonna be like him. We're gonna be sinless. Isn't that amazing? That's amazing. We're gonna be singing praises to our great God and King. Oh my, we're his blood brought bride. We should be like him for we shall see him as he is.

Right now, beloved, we see through a glass darkly. We have limited understanding of who God is. But the little bit of understanding we got, oh my, we just rejoice over that, don't we? But when we get to heaven, we're going to see him face to face. Oh, we will see the one who's the fairest of 10,000 to my soul. I know my Redeemer liveth, Job said. And we're going to see him face to face. My, we shall see him as he is, holy, righteous.

And every man and woman that hath this hope in him. Look at that, hath this hope. The hope of salvation through Christ. If we're trusting and resting in Christ, we are to just trust and rest in him. If we look to ourselves, we say, well, am I really saved? Right? But look what it says in this text. This is marvelous. In verse 2, now we are the sons of God. That's a declaration of a fact. And then it says in verse 3, in every man, again, or woman, that hath this hope, what hope? Hope in Christ. Hope in Christ as the Savior, as my Redeemer. Trusting in Him, in His perfect work. What's it say? Purify themselves. That's why we don't want to run out and do the worst that we can do, because we love our Savior. We do not want to bring dishonor unto our Savior, do we? Oh my.

even as he is pure. God is pure. Christ is pure. So marvel, marvel that in the midst of this unhappy world, because this world is a world of woe. There's a lot of unrest in this world. There's a lot of unhappiness in this world. There really is. It's all around us. I said to someone today, they said, how are you doing? I said, well, I'm having a good day. And I said, since the Lord saved me, I don't have bad days. Now, I may have days where I get a little angry sometimes, or I get down, but I got nothing to complain about, beloved. Because I'm a born-again, blood-washed child of God. I'm now a son of God by adoption through Christ. What do we really have to complain about, beloved?

my this world's just our home we're just passing through and i know it's a world of woe and i know it's a world of sorrow and oh my we can grieve can't we we can have said tears but it's only temporary beloved We're going to a better place. A place where we'll see our Savior face-to-face. And it's all because of His perfect sin-atoning work on Calvary's cross and His perfect life that He lived in our room and place and then died as our substitute. Bearing all the eternal wrath of God that was due us, He bore it all. not just for you and I, but for all the elect of all the ages.

And he cried, it is finished. Oh, what a cry. That's a cry of a victor. That's a cry of a king, beloved. 2,000 years ago, he accomplished that. And when we're born again, we find out that, don't we, through the preaching of the word of God. And we say, we spend the rest of our lives going, me? Me? Why? Because it pleased God to do so. Oh my, what a hope we have. The knowledge of this wonderful relationship that we are now the sons of God by adoption. Oh, it brings joy to our souls. And the believer can sing as Moses, happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people, saved by the Lord. My! It's amazing.

And those who are the sons of God are a blessed people. But the believer's joy is not so much in what we are, but in who has saved us. We are saved by God. We are saved by the Son of God. We are saved by the Messiah, the sent one of God, the Word of God, who became incarnate. God incarnate in the flesh, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ has saved us all. And we say, hallelujah. We say with Moses, We say with Moses, oh people saved by the Lord, how happy we are. Oh my.

Now to the unbeliever, all that is to come is darkness. Oh my. But to the believer, only the present is darkness. You ever think of that? Only this world is darkness for us. who are redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. And the future is light, glory, joy in the presence of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So beloved of God, when we are down, may we let these truths, may we let these truths refresh our souls with the thoughts of the future of being with the Lord Jesus Christ forever. not even thinking about what heaven's gonna be like, but to see the Savior face to face. Oh my!

What comfort comes to the believer in Christ when we see how God has dealt with us, how he's bought us out of the pit of sin that we were in. He took us out of it and clothed us in the precious garment of the Lord Jesus Christ's righteousness. Taken off our filthy rags and clothed us in the righteousness of Christ. What comfort. God has not dealt with us according to our sins. He's had mercy on us. Just like blind Barnabas cried out, have mercy on me, Lord Jesus. Have mercy upon me, Jesus, thou son of David. And God has had mercy on his people. He's brought us out of the pit of sin that we were in. that we could not get ourselves out of. And he put our feet on the rock, and that rock is the Lord Jesus Christ, beloved. Our comfort, our hope is Christ, and who we will one day, by the grace and mercy of God, we shall see him face to face. Oh, that comforts us the most, isn't it, beloved? From seeing what shall be revealed by seeing that one day we're going to see him face to face. Paul said we see through a glass darkly now, but then face to face. We just saw John say a similar statement. We shall see him as he is, sinless in all his glory, beloved.

Think of our brothers and sisters in Christ who have preceded us. They are right now beholding the risen Savior of sinners the Lord Jesus Christ and they will behold beholden him for all of eternity all because of the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ my

Now look at verse 3 and every man that hath this hope first John 3 3 and every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. Now we see this is a hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is hope of the one in Christ. This hope that's spoken of in this verse is the hope of one that's redeemed. The hope of one that's been born again by the Holy Spirit of God. The hope of one who's trusting and resting in the Lord Jesus Christ. And this hope we see is comforting because we will be conformed to the image of Christ. One day when we get the glory, beloved, we will be sinless. That's a marvel in itself, isn't it? Because all we know is sin here on this earth. My.

Now the thoughts of many concerning heaven or glory are very strange. You ask different people what they think of heaven, and I always laugh when these guys try to write books about what heaven's going to be. They have no clue at all. They have no clue at all. Heaven's heaven because we get to behold Christ. That's what heaven is. Oh, my. Some people think it's going to be a big party in heaven. But something that's seldom mentioned in natural man's belief of heaven is Christ. But something that's mentioned by the born-again believer about heaven is it's only heaven because of Christ.

My, we hear some foolish things, don't we, about what people are doing in heaven. We're worshiping Christ. My, we're gonna see our Redeemer face to face. Oh, I look forward to beholding my King and being in perfect holiness to you and worshiping Him in a perfect way, not with the sin that we have while we worship Him on this earth, but worshiping Him in pure holiness.

Oh, my. Praise in his name. Oh my! It's gonna be amazing. My. Behold what manner. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. It's been bestowed upon us. The love of God has been, been from eternity. Been from eternity. And think of that, God has loved us with an everlasting love and there's others he has not loved with an everlasting love.

Oh my. My oh my. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. It's because of the everlasting love of God that we have been called the sons of God, that we're called the sons of God. That all originated in the everlasting love of God towards his people in Christ, which is amazing, absolutely amazing.

And think of this, we're being conformed to our elder brother. We're being conformed to the image of Christ. And this hope is to be like Christ, The world does not know him. If he came now, the world would still not know him. Still not know him. You know what? He's hidden from the world, but he's revealed to God's people by the Holy Spirit.

My God. And this hope that we have lies completely, 100% in Christ. The hope for the eternal welfare of our souls lies 100% in the Lord Jesus Christ in His perfect, sin-atoning work. It lies in nothing else, beloved. Nothing else. It's completely in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And if this hope is in us, if this hope is in us, this hope will grow as we grow in the grace and knowledge and truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. If one's hope is not in the Lord Jesus Christ and it's in your religion or it's in something you do, it's a hope of delusion. It's a damning hope. Hoping Christ is saving hope. Hoping yourself or what you do is a damning hope.

My, my, oh, my. If our hope stands with one foot on the work of Christ and the other foot on our own merits, it will fail us. It's a refuge of lies. My, the only hope God's people have, and the only hope that is acceptable to God, is his own Son. And believers, we hope in God's Son. the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, who came from heaven to redeem us from our sins, and died and was buried three days in the earth, in the tomb, and he rose again for our justification, beloved.

We are accepted by God in Christ. Jesus, our Lord, he purchased us. He purchased us with his precious, precious blood. He purchased his people with his blood, and the only hope of heaven will be through him alone. The only hope that a sinner can have of heaven is 100% in the Lord Jesus Christ by his work and his righteousness. In Christ alone, our hope begins. In Christ alone, our hope ends. And we reach glory by the grace of God, beloved. And through Christ Jesus alone, our hope will become sight one day when we behold our Savior face to face.

Now, this hope does not puff up the believer. No, as we see in our text, it purifies him. It purifies him. Oh, this hope won't allow you to pat yourself on the back. This hope stops all boasting in ourselves. And when the Lord makes a person his child, when we're born again, he shows great love to him or her, and he humbles us. He humbles us.

This hope in Christ, this expectation of heaven, this absolute perfection that we will obtain by the grace and mercy of God when we see Christ face to face, never exalts the believer and always exalts the Lord Jesus Christ. always exalts the Lord Jesus Christ. If your religion gives you something to brag about, it's not of God. Again, if your religion gives you something to brag about, it's not of God.

my look at this again and every man that had this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure we give god all the glory and honor praise because salvations of the lord amen and amen