Turn back in your Bibles to where
we read there in Titus chapter 1. I call this message today, For
Hope. For Hope. You see, we're very thankful for every mother. I mean that
from my heart. I'm thankful for my mother. I'm thankful for every godly
mother. But if I'm thankful, I have to
be thankful to the one who gives them. As a matter of fact, to
the one who gives every good and perfect gift, which comes
down from above, from the Father of Lights, in whom there is no
variableness, neither shadow of turning. As I said, we are wanting to
look this morning at the subject of hope. You see, the gospel is for hope. Do you have hope? And not just any hope, but as the Apostle says here,
the hope of eternal life. Do you have hope of eternal life? Look back at this first verse
that begins this epistle, where he says Paul, a servant
of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith
of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness. But that sentence doesn't end
with that first verse. but rather it continues into
verse 2. And if you notice, that first
word in verse 2 is the word in. But most Bibles have a margin
reference to that word which is actually the word In other words, Paul describes
himself as a servant of God, an apostle of Jesus Christ, according
to the faith, or the gospel, of God's elect, and the acknowledging
of the truth which is after godliness for hope of eternal life. Paul says that the gospel, which
he calls the faith of God's elect, in other words, this is the message
that God's elect will believe, he says, when it is received
and believed by God-given faith, it results in hope. Hope. It is for hope for eternal
life. And I don't know if you understand
this or not, but hope is a very essential and important Bible
word. It is not simply a mere wishing. There are a lot of people who
claim to have hope, but it is only a mere unfounded Hope, in the Bible's sense, is
a confidence that is based upon a reliable foundation. And that foundation here is the
promise of God That is, the promise of God, as he says in verse 2,
that cannot lie, or the non-lying God. Evidently, there are some
who are set forth out there by men as gods that do lie. They promise what they cannot
deliver. But this is a hope based on the
promise and word of the non-lying God. And it is the hope that
is based on the promise of God which, as he says here, he made
to his elect or chosen people before the world began. This promise he made before you
and I ever were and even before the world was. And that means
that it cannot be in any way dependent on us or something
done by us in time. This promise he made before the
world began. And the only way God can promise
eternal life before the world began is if he can purpose and
therefore powerfully perform it in time. He alone is responsible for keeping
this promise. And if he does, if he does, It
must be all of His grace. And if it is all of His grace,
it has to be through faith. You see, God-given faith is the
only way of true hope. God never gives His people faith
to believe anything that He has not promised. Now, you can claim
to believe something that God has not said, or have hope in
something God has not promised, but you have no ground for it,
and your faith is not the faith of God's elect. Listen to what
he says, this same apostle in Romans 4. He says, therefore
it is of faith, this promise, that it might be by grace to
the end the promise might be sure to all the seed." The only
way that what God has promised to all His seed, as they're called
in Romans 4, the only way that it can be sure is if it is by
His grace and His grace alone, and the only way it can be for
us to receive it is through the faith that He gives. Now, as the Scripture says, all
men have not faith. But those who have faith, that
faith that God gives, It is because of God's grace. Paul says that
often quoted statement in Ephesians 2, for by grace, he says to those
believers at Ephesus, for by grace are you being saved through
faith and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." And this
faith, according to what the Apostle says in Hebrews 11, is
this. He says, now faith is the substance
of things hoped for. You say you're hoping for something
you have no basis or substance for hoping for. Not the case
with God's believing people. They have as the very basis or
substance of that which they hope for, this faith that God
has given them, not blind faith, but that which has as the substance
of it all that God has promised. So much so that it is described
in this way, the evidence of things not seen. In other words, there is not
a greater evidence to anything or for anything in this world
than this faith that God has given them. Therefore, they have
this evidence of that which they cannot see with their natural
eyes. Turn over to Titus chapter 3
and listen to verse 7. He says that being justified,
that means being declared and accounted righteous by God, that
being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. The hope of eternal life. And then this same Apostle Paul,
by the Spirit of God, gives us these words in II Thessalonians
chapter 2 and verse 16. He says, Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
and God even our Father, who hath loved us, and hath given
us everlasting consolation." You know what it is to be consoled. It means to be comforted. It
means to be encouraged. And this with regard to our souls
and eternity and the hereafter and all these things. He says
this God in Jesus Christ has given His people an everlasting
consolation and good hope. good hope through
grace. Now, that's why I spend my time
preaching the gospel. That's why we have no time for
such of the foolishness of religion, things which may cause you for
a moment to feel good about something, but that quickly fades away to
utter despair. The reason is because the gospel
of God, because the grace of God, the gospel of the grace
of God in Christ is for hope. real, lasting, sure hope. And because the gospel is God's
message, it is His good news to His people. Look in verse
3 of Titus 1. He says all of this. He says
God has promised before the world began, but have in due times
manifested His Word," or His promises, through preaching. Through preaching. Not singing. Not through plays. or cantatas
or whatever it is that goes on in the name of God in this world,
but through the faithful preaching of the gospel, God has this message,
this declaration of hope for His people, and it is hope of
eternal life. You see, our emphasis has to
be on the Word of God, on the written Word of God, because
this is what the Apostle says also. He says, for whatsoever
things were written aforetime were written for our learning,
that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures." All that we have in the Old Testament,
all that we have in the New Testament, all of these things were written,
Paul says, for believers for our learning that we, through
patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. Hope. And that being the case, it boils
down to this. If we have no interest in the
true gospel, if we have no interest in the Christ that is declared
and written of in this book, then we have no hope. We have no basis for being hopeful
because he describes Christ in this way. He says, Christ in
you. Christ in you? He says that Christ
might dwell in you by the Word, the Word of faith, and he says
that Christ believed on in you is the hope of glory. If I don't believe on the right
Christ, I don't have any hope of that glory. You see, it is
the hope that he describes in this way in another place. It is the hope that maketh not
ashamed. What does that mean? It means
the hope that will never be disappointed. Have you ever had some hopes
that have been disappointed? Well, they were just wishes.
This is the hope that maketh not ashamed. It is the gift of
God in Christ. It is the gift of His love. It's described as this everlasting
consolation, and through grace, Paul says, it is a good hope. That's what I want, a good hope. And it never could be based in
any way on us or anything done by us or any works of ours. If we base it on that, it could
never be a good hope. I can promise you I'll meet you
at 8 o'clock in the morning. I can be as sincere. I can make
my plans and that. But that doesn't mean I'm going
to meet you there. You might wish I would, but you
really have no basis to hope that I will. You see, the nature
of hope is such and so necessary that no one, since we fell in
Adam, can be satisfied with the present. No way. Because there is always either
some evil pressing on us, or some capacity of enjoyment unfulfilled,
or some desire for the continuance of what we possess which passes
beyond the present into the future. If, as men say, that it is. This is all there is. Why are
those who seem to get all that there is still unsatisfied? And they die in despair, oftentimes
taking their own lives because they have no hope. They
have no reason to hope. You see, since we are made, as
the Scripture says, living souls, we have in us this natural desire
beyond the present, beyond that which we can see or touch or
eat or drink or feel, because those things do not satisfy our
eternal souls. But this expectation and desire
of future, future good, is hope. The object is unseen. And this desire and expectation
of future good is really the only source of real encouragement. Paul said, if in this life only
I have hope, I'm of all men most miserable. And I believe that
I can say in all honesty, as I myself get older, experience
more of what this world has to offer I can say honestly, if this is
all there is, I'm most miserable. I see more pain, more disappointment,
more weakness, more frailty, more sin, more wickedness. And with regard to sinners who
are under the sentence of God's justice because of sin, in the
prospect of eternity, hope is essential if we are to have any
reasonable peace whatsoever. How can you have any peace if
you are looking to sure judgment? How can you have any peace, have
any hope, if you are looking, knowing in your heart of hearts
that you go out to face God as a sinner? Can't be any peace there. But he said God's given to some
folks. this everlasting consolation
and good hope. What is a good hope? Well, a good hope is a well-founded
hope. And it is a hope directed toward
that which is truly good. You see, all we have by nature
as sinners is a kind of an evil wish. Spend your time wishing
for to live all, never die, live till you get better of whatever
problem you've got. Live and wish to get more money
or a bigger house or more land, a better job, whatever it is. That's not a good hope. That's
simply the wish of this fallen flesh. You see, the problem is, so many
people are insensible and indifferent with regard to their future destiny. And the truth is, this state
of mind is very irrational. You say, I don't care what's
going to happen. That's a fool talking. It's not only irrational, it's
very unsatisfying, very precarious, if you will, and very destructive. People who live without hope,
they're subject to do anything. Not just to themselves, but to
you. And I fear that there is a generation
of young people who have grown up and been brought under a situation
where on every hand, all they face is utter despair. The water is going to be where
you can't drink it. We'll run out of it. The global climate will be such
that people will frown the earth, the air will be where you can't
breathe it. They're fed a steady diet of
that. Is there any wonder there is
such hopelessness? And then others have a hope,
but it can never be called in scriptural terms a good hope
because it's founded on a false view of God, some kind of a view
of the general mercy and love of God. Notions like this, well,
I'll tell you this, my God is too good to send me to hell. My God is too good to let me
perish, to let anything bad happen to me. or notions like this,
their hope is founded on the relationship to a religious organization. They've been baptized by some
religious figure, or they're a member of some church, or they
have participated in some religious activity, or whatever it might
be, a ritual or a ceremony, or some have this hope based on
the assumption that really everybody will be saved. You didn't get this from God. Or on assumed revelations of
things that they think that they know. You know, it's a shocking
thing when the Lord saves a person and brings them to see that so
much they thought they knew about God is absolutely false. That's right. That's why the
Scriptures speak of repentance toward God and faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We repent of all our false notions
and ideas and thoughts that we thought we knew about God, and
we vow to believe what He says about Himself. And then there are those who
have hope based on some counterfeit religious experience, some emotional
upheaval, or some moral reformation that took place in their life, or on the assumption of their
own natural goodness. Well, I haven't done this, or
I haven't done that. Or maybe it's like this, sometime
in the future I'm going to do this. That's just a false hope. Because the general basis of
a false hope is error. Error. And I'll tell you it's
a great day when God begins to bring you to the end of yourself
and it enters into your mind this thought, I might be wrong. I might be wrong. You see, It
is either error as to the purpose of God in reference to how or
if He'll punish sin, or error as to the conditions on which
He will pardon sin, or as to our having fulfilled or experienced
those conditions. I can tell you this, if it has
anything to do with me, I'm wrong. I'm wrong. All hope based on error is a
false hope and will meet with the most severe disappointment. Can you imagine over the course
of time how many prospectors have gone out into the streams
and the caverns and such as that and chipped away and all of a
sudden there came to light a very shiny reflective surface. And they said gold. Gold. Only to find out later that it
was simply fool's gold. And my friends, there is no doubt
that their emotion was genuine, their sincerity was genuine,
the problem was the goal wasn't genuine. In Job it says, so are the pasts
of all that forget God and the hypocrite's hope. What's a hypocrite? play actor. That's what that
word means. And the hypocrite's hope shall
perish, whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be
a spider's web. Just a spider's web. Where does
the spider's web come from? From the spider. You see, in
order to save us, God must destroy the hope of man. And good hope has to come from
God, and that hope is called a sure hope. So, good hope is
therefore a hope which is founded on the truth." Somebody said, well, they preach
the truth. Not if they don't preach what
this book says. This is called the word of the
truth. And it is not merely a verse
that you run over here and pick out or a verse that you run over
there and pick out like you would going to a buffet to eat lunch. It is the whole course from front
to back. No scripture, Peter says, is
of a private interpretation. That means that you cannot isolate
one verse out of this book and stand it alone and say this is
what it is and forget about everything else this book says. Every verse
is interpreted in the light of every other verse. But a good hope is founded on
the promise of God, which is based on the work of Christ. What He did, not what you do. And when you come to Psalm 119,
you come to a psalm that has many verses in it. And in every
one of those verses, there is a reference to the Word of God,
the promise of God, the law of God, every verse. Let me give
you a couple. Psalm 119, he says, Remember
the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to
hope. Don't hope on anything, I tell
you. unless it is based on what God tells you. Most preachers, like for somebody
who hears them to swallow what they say hook, line, and sinker,
I'm not one of them. I want you to look at every verse
everything I say, weigh everything in the light of what God says,
and let God be true and everybody else a lie." I want you to be
like the apostle describes the noble Bereans. They were people who heard Paul
preach. And it says that they searched
the Scriptures to see if the things that Paul preached were
true. God hasn't set you out in this
world in some subjective notion about things. He's given an objective
standard to look outside of yourselves and outside of what I say at
what he says. Psalm 119 again. My soul fainted
for thy salvation, I hope in thy word. Uphold me according
unto thy word, that I may live, and let me not be ashamed of
my hope. When Paul spoke to those Ephesian
believers, he says there was a time, you Gentile believers,
as far as anything of yourself, you were without hope in this
world. Why? Because you were without
Christ. You see, this good hope is one
which we have a right to entertain. which is the genuine fruit of
the Spirit, and not an unwarranted anticipation on our part, but
one which is based on faith, which comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. You don't have any warrant to
believe what I say of myself. But I'll tell you this, you have
a warrant to believe what God says. You and I are what He says
we are. He is how He says He is. He saves how He says He saves
and who He saves, and He is the one who has set forth how He
does it in His Son. And a good hope is one which
has for its objects the infinite blessings of redemption. Sometimes it's described as the
hope of Christ's coming. Sometimes it's described as the
hope of the resurrection. Sometimes it's described as the
hope of the glory of God. But it has to do with spiritual,
eternal things and much future things. And it's through grace. Do you
really know what grace is? Grace is God doing something
for you or blessing you or promising to you things based on somebody
outside of yourself. Based on you doing nothing. based on you deserving just the
opposite. This is the good hope through
grace. He graciously gives it. He gives
us this hope. in that he promises to bless
us with all spiritual blessings which are the object of our hope. As a matter of fact, he says
that he has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ
before the world began. How can God bless a sinner like
you or me with everything before we're ever born, knowing we'll
never be able to merit the least of them? How can He do it? Because
He blessed us when He loved us and chose us in Christ before
the world began. Somebody says, well, I don't
really care much for that doctrine of election. Forget hope. I don't
really care for what is said about predestination. Let me
tell you this, forget hope then. Because he said, in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of sons. Paul says in Romans 5, having
been therefore justified, how? By His grace through the blood
of Christ, through His Son, having therefore been justified, we
by faith have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Hope. Because He produces by His grace,
by His Holy Spirit, and through His Word, real hope. And the very evidence and proof
of a hope that is good is that it has this scriptural foundation,
that is, it rests on the promise of God clearly revealed in His
Word. That it has spiritual blessings
for its objects, not some kind of earthly and fleshly prosperity,
but conformity to Christ and the enjoyment of Him forever. That it's based on what Christ
did. As a matter of fact, you could
say it like this. Do you have hope? I have hope. What's the
basis of your hope? Grace? Christ crucified. I don't have to look back and
say, well, I've been trying to do the best I can. Not good enough. That's no basis of hope. Well,
I'm a member of the Baptist church. I'm even a member of a church
where they preach the gospel. No. Christ crucified. That is that Christ as our Savior
has saved us, that all our sin has been put away by His bloodshedding
on that cross, that there is, as the Apostle says, therefore
now no condemnation to them that are in Christ. Nothing that would
restrict or keep God as a holy and a just God from blessing
me. There is nothing. You say, well, what about if
I sin today or tomorrow? They were all future when He
loved me and chose me in Christ. They were all future when Christ
died in my place on that cross. And not only that, that God will
bless us according to Christ's righteousness. That I'll be blessed according
to His works, not mine. that I'll be blessed based on
who He is, not what I do. That He loved me, that He promised
me all good because He looked at me and put me with Christ
and in Christ and views me in Christ so that I can say, as
He is, so are we in this world. You say, well, if If a person has this kind of
hope, hope by grace, free grace, nothing else, they'll run wicked,
wild, do everything in this world. No, they won't. Because this hope has a purifying
effect on us. John said, Beloved, now are we
the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that
hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. You see, those who have been
made pure, righteous, by God's grace in Jesus Christ, they are
pure. And yet, in this flesh, they
seek, by God's grace, to purify themselves. Paul describes this hope as a
helmet. You ever feel like the whole
world just like coming down on you? That it ought to be like raining
fire and brimstone out of heaven on your head because of that
natural wickedness of us all? Or because of all the trials
and the troubles. He says, like a helmet. Therefore, let us who are of
the day, the children of light, be sober, putting on the breastplate
of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. Not only that, he says, like
an anchor. Oh, you feel like we're adrift. No. He said, God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability or the unchangeableness
of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable
things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have
a strong consolation who have fled for refuge. to
lay hold of the hope set before us, which hope we have as an
anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth
into that within the veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered,
even Jesus, made an high priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek."
Now, what is the hope of this anchor? Christ. And not just Christ,
but Christ crucified. Because a forerunner, the reason
that word is used, a forerunner was used to describe that little
ship that had as its home a harbor that at low tide a bigger ship
could not get into. And so the forerunner, that little
ship would go out to where that larger ship was at low tide and
take the anchor on the end of the rope into that boat and carry
it back into the harbor, drop it in the harbor until such a
time as the tide would rise up and then that ship could go sailing
in the harbor. Christ is the forerunner of His
people. He left the harbor of heaven.
He came down and He bore all our sins in His body on the tree. He took and He entered back into
heaven and anchored His people there until such a time as God
brings them in at His appointing. Someone said, hope is to the
soul what wings are to the eagle. It elevates it above the world.
It raises us toward heaven and fills us with its spirits. So the psalmist gives us oftentimes words like this, be of good courage
and he shall strengthen your heart. all ye that hope in the
Lord. Behold, the eye of the Lord is
upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy. And now, Lord, what wait I for?
My hope is in Thee. Why art Thou cast down, O my soul,
and why art Thou disquieted in me? Hope Thou in God, For I shall
yet praise him for the help of his countenance." Some people want happiness without
hope. You must have hope or you'll
never have happiness. Happy is he that hath the God
of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God."
I'm going to give you two more verses,
and I'm going to hush. One is in Romans 15. where the apostle is beginning
to close out this letter, and he says to these believers at
Rome, Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in
believing. that ye may abound in hope through
the power of the Holy Ghost." What does the Spirit of God do?
He enables God's people to believe God, to believe on Christ. And believing on Christ, we have hope. We have hope. And then here's the last one. Paul writes to the Colossians,
and he speaks of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven. Whereof you heard before in the
word of the truth of the gospel. There's only one word of hope. And that's in the Gospel of Jesus
Christ. Now, I could have entertained
you this morning. I could have honored you dear
mothers. And you are, in a measure, worthy of honor. I'm thankful
for you. But if you have hope, It'll come through the gospel
of hope, which is the gospel of God's grace in Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. Look to Him. Listen to Him. Believe
what He says. Because believing on Christ and
trusting Christ is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Father, this day we thank you
for your word, for your promises that are yes and amen in Christ. Give us hope by enabling us to
turn from all other hopes and to trust and rest in Christ and
what he accomplished in his life and death for all. In believing
on him, Lord, you lift our eyes outside of ourself to Christ. And looking to Christ, we see
him seated at the right hand of the majesty on high, and behold
the glory that awaits all the redeemed. We thank you and we
pray in Christ's name. Amen.