Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to the chapter that we read,
the second epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians, and chapter
2, and just reading a few words from in verse 16. Verse 16. The last words in that verse,
good hope through grace, the subject of our friend's first
hymn. The whole verse reads, and if
I read verses 16 and 17, these are with which the Apostle closes
this chapter, this part. 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. To Thessalonians chapter 2 verse
16, just the last words there, good hope through grace. The
apostles' aim in writing to the Thessalonians is to comfort them
He asks of the Lord in this way, comfort your hearts, establish
you in every good word and work. And in the beginning of this
chapter, he addresses one of the things that had been troubling
them. They were expecting that the
Lord would come at any time. This had troubled in several
different ways with the Thessalonians. One, because they thought he
would come suddenly, they were leaving their employments, they
were just going about from house to house, not redeeming the time,
not spending the time profitably at all, and so the apostle needs
to warn them of that, address that issue, so that they actually
continue their lives. And then there is the thought
that the loved ones that had already died, that they then
had perished, the resurrection had already taken place, and
he deals with that in the first epistle. And then there's the
thought here, that they are shaken in mind, troubled, in verse 2. And he says that ye be not soon
shaken in mind or troubled, neither by spirit nor by word, nor by
letters from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. The Church of God is to be looking
for Christ to come. The language is, even so come,
Lord Jesus, the Spirit and the Bride, they say, come. But the Church is not to be living
in constant fear that that will be so. He tells them that there
will be a great falling away before that time come, that there
shall be great wickedness there shall be those that are walking
in unrighteousness or described in verse 10 with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness in them that perish and he gives the secret
of identifying who these are in that they are those that received
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, those that
had pleasure in unrighteousness. So after warning them of that
falling away, and of those that shall be of the wicked one, and
not loving the truth, and loving unrighteousness, then he seeks
to comfort them with what God had done for them. And he tells
them that he gave thanks to God for them, not just sometimes,
but always, in verse 13. And he tells them that they are
brethren beloved of the Lord. I wonder how we would react if
we had a letter from a highly esteemed minister or as here
this is from one of the apostles and telling us that he gives
thanks always for us and that we are beloved of the Lord. It
would be very encouraging, very strengthening that another could
actually see the grace and blessings of God upon us that maybe that
we couldn't see ourselves and there might be some of you this
evening very low despondent in your minds very discouraged who
may be one of the brethren, have tried to lift you up. They've
tried to tell you of the things that they've seen that the Lord
has done for you and helped you over the years, and you find
it hard to receive it or accept it. You want that comfort in
your own soul, but the Lord is pleased to convey comfort through
the means of those that are looking on, testifying of what they see,
and giving that reassurance that what they see is not the work
of the wicked one, nor of those that don't love the truth, but
of one that does love the truth and does love the Lord, and they
seek to assure you and tell you of it, and the Apostle is doing
that with the Thessalonians here. He tells them because that from
the beginning He has chosen them to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. He traces back that chain
of blessing that has come to them and that they've been called
by His Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And then He exhorts them to stand
fast in those traditions that they had been taught, the way
that he'd set them in through his preaching and through his
ministry. And so then he comes to the verse
where our text is and gives them these blessings, tells them of
that which God has already done for them. And it is not just
our Lord, it is the Father and his Son, both in salvation, our
Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God. We read, I believe it's
in the Gospel according to John, the Father Himself loveth you,
even our Father who which hath loved us and given us everlasting
consolation and good hope. through grace. And it is this
last clause of what the Apostle is setting before the Thessalonians,
what has been given to them, that I want with the Lord's help
to look at this evening. And good hope through grace. What is grace? Grace is the free,
unmerited favour of God. The favour especially that God
gives to his children to sovereignly, freely impart to them the blessings
that the Lord Jesus Christ has purchased for them and delights
to give them. And it is grace that is actually
that helping hand that furnishes the people of God with the strength
that they need. The Apostle, who is writing this
to the Thessalonians, we read in his letter to the Corinthians,
when he had the thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan,
the Lord not taking it away, but saying, My grace is sufficient
for thee. My strength is made perfect in
weakness. Grace never can be earned. It is free. It is given in the
face of even provocations. It is that which God gives to
sinners and He gives it to them because of His beloved Son and
because of what He has done for them. What is hope? Hope is vital and it is saving. We read in Paul's epistle to
the Romans, in chapter 8, in verse 24, For we are saved
by hope. But hope that is seen is not
hope. For what a man seeth, why doth
he yet hope for? For if we hope, for that we see
not. then do we with patience wait
for it." Very clear statement. We are saved by hope. It is that which the Lord gives
us here below before we see heaven, before we enter heaven, before
we go through the swellings of Jordan. He gives hope. You think of the psalmist, cast
down, maybe one of you cast down tonight. Why art thou cast down? Why art thou disquieted? Within
me hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health
of my countenance and my God. But our text says a good hope. There are many that will have
a hope that is not a good hope. But what these Thessalonians
had was a good hope. That is, it was founded upon
Scripture and it was founded upon God's gracious work for
them and in them. And I want to, with the Lord's
help, trace that out, that good hope out this evening, that we
may clearly see what He was saying to these Thessalonians and what
the Spirit says to us. that they had, and we trust we
have, a good hope through grace. And I want to look at it in five
particulars, and so look at each point as we come to it. Firstly, the foundation of hope. That is that which is outside
of us, the foundation that is laid by grace. And this is really
based upon what the Apostle has noticed in verse 13. He says
of these Thessalonians that God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. There is that for each one of
the people of God, before they were born, before the foundation
of the world, God's children are chosen in Him. They have been loved with an
everlasting love. And it is because of that, that
with lovingkindness the Lord draws them. With the first movings
of grace to a sinner, the undeserved favour of God to them were in
eternity past. He saw me lost and ruined in
the fall, and love me notwithstanding all. It's very important for
us to not just think of the choice in Christ or Christ's choice
of His people as something that is not directly concerning us. We read in the Word that the
names of the people of God are in the Lamb's Book of Life from
the foundation of the world. That's where they were first
written up. That's where they were first
put there. And it's outside of ourselves,
it is in God Himself. It is in the God that has first
laid that foundation Everlastingly, it is the God that gives life
and He is the God that has control over death. It is Christ that
then has come and in the fullness of time, He Himself has lived,
taken on Him the seed of Abraham, made like unto his brethren,
that he has stood in their place under the law, and made of a
woman, and lived in this life, endured the contradiction of
sinners against himself, and worked out a rave of righteousness,
not just for an indistinct or undetermined people, but for
those same people that were chosen in him. And then He goes to Calvary. He lays down that life. I have
power to lay it down. I have power to take it again.
This commandment have I received from my Father. And it was grace,
grace to sinners, grace to His dear people that brought Him
to come and to take their sins upon Him. Thou hast laid upon
Him the iniquity of us all, one by one. They shall look upon
Him whom they have pierced." Not just an undetermined number
or sins that could not be identified, but the sins of His people. And
that was done outside of ourselves, before we were born. It was done
by the Lord Jesus Christ for us. It was done out of love,
love by the Father to send the Son, love for the Son to willingly
so go and to endure and to fully drink up that cup in the place
of His people. A substitutionary offering before
you or I were born, ever entered into this world, drew breath
and began our life of sin. The grace was given us in Christ
before he spread the starry sky and before we were born and in
all what the Lord has done upon this earth and especially at
Calvary. the foundation of hope, then
firstly, is exactly where the Apostles said it was here in
verse 13, where from the beginning He had chosen them to salvation. It was in what has been done
by God, by Christ, for us. The second way that this is a
good hope through grace is that it has a foundation of hope in
our lives by grace. And I'm thinking in this point,
mainly of that which is in providence, where we taste that the Lord
is gracious even before it is in a spiritual and a saving way. Providence and grace go hand
in hand together. The great strength and help of
Providence is that it is very clearly seen, not just by the
people of God, who are the subjects of those Providences, but those
that are looking on. If we take it with the Apostle
Paul, and we think of when he was Saul persecuting the people
of God, And then God changed, he stopped him and his life was
turned completely about. The church saw that, they saw
what had happened. But it's not just at that point
of conversion, it was as it was with him. It is right through
our lives, before Moses ever had his preparation and work
of leading the children of Israel to the promised land. He was
born in a very particular time and way. and preserved his life
in a time when many of the male babies were being killed and
found and brought into Pharaoh's household. There was those providences
which were remarkable that are recorded in the Word of God.
And we don't just read of Moses' life starting at the burning
bush. We read of that that went on
before that time. And God's people, their lives,
their testimony does not just start at their call by grace. Parents, native place and time,
all appointed were by Him. May we never look over the grace
of God shown when he causes us to be born under the sound of
the truth to godly parents and to hear the gospel. It is God's
grace that does that, not chance. We see the Lord's appointing.
Yes, we bless the Lord that there are those that have never been
brought up under the truth, the Ruths, the Rahabs, those that
are brought in and that say that, though I be not like one of thy
handmaidens, there are those that the Lord has plucked in
that way. And of course, the Gentiles in
the time of the Scriptures, They were first generation Christians,
if you like. They had not those that had been
telling them right from A child, yes, with Timothy. The Apostle
says that he had known the Holy Scriptures from a child, which
are able to make thee wise unto salvation. And that is a great
blessing. That was the Old Testament Scriptures
he knew, and he knew very well. And the blessing is God uses
the Scriptures, Old Testament and you. for the conversion and
blessing of his people. And so those foundation of our
hope is when we look at those things that cannot be going say,
they cannot be argued with, others have noticed it, they've seen
what has actually happened in our lives, in our families, the
things that have begun working together for good. Remember in
Romans 8 we read, we know that all things work together for
good, to them that love God, to them that are the called,
according to his purpose. But when do they start to work
together for good? And surely we must say, as soon
as one is born, or even before that, with our parents' lives,
or even grandparents', those things that were done that worked
for good. And we think of our Lord and
his mother Mary and Joseph, because of the taxing or the census that
was taken and already in place well before their time, that
they should then come to Bethlehem in obedience to that law, a civil
law, and yet then the Scriptures are fulfilled. The sign is given. The hope is given, the evidence
given, this is the Christ that was to be born at Bethlehem. And we trace the providences
around that that actually brought them to Bethlehem at that time. And so those things, they are
to be gathered up to be a hope, a good hope for the people of
God because we know that God does work in providence and he
does guide all things to the end of the intention of saving
his people. It is good for us to really notice
this. I often say this to young friends
when they want to know what they should do in their lives,
their career, or what they should be training for. is to see how
the Lord has already shepherded them, placed them, given them
a leaning one way or another, or perhaps put them in situations
where they have a little taste and see the abilities that God
has given them in different ways. And over all of us, we can look
back how much of our lives have been shaped by our employment
what we have done, and many times we've entered upon that path
of employment before we were called by grace. And yet when
we've been called by grace, those things that we've entered upon
We have seen the Lord's ordering it, purposes in it, that have
directed where we should hear the Word, what our lives should
be from that time on. And we're to be looking at that,
not as by chant, but saying, this is the grace of God. And this is then a foundation
for having a good hope through grace, because it has a foundation
in the works of God. If Laban and Bethuel could say
when Abraham's servant came, that the thing proceedeth from
the Lord, and it is a providential thing that brought the servant
to Rebekah and to them, then surely we may be able to see
in our lives as well, when like things happen, that the thing
proceedeth from the Lord. And when we see that, that then
is a foundation for hope that the Lord not only is in it, but
that has a favour towards us. His attentions towards us are
as those of His own people. Well, the third foundation of
hope is in our calling. and of course this is the most
vital part of it all because without the calling then we can't
look back to that first foundation that is laid in Christ and the
everlasting love of God, nor can we really view providences
as leading to salvation. But the Apostle again in verse
13, he says of these Thessalonians, that God hath from the beginning
chosen you to, and immediately it goes together, to salvation,
through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth,
and to make exactly clear what he is meaning in saying that,
he says, whereunto he called you by our gospel. There is the
foundation of hope, to be called, our calling. And here is very
clearly stated, he called these Thessalonians by their gospel. They came preaching the good
news of salvation through Jesus Christ. And these Thessalonians believe,
we read that when you received the Word of God from us, you
received it not as the Word of men, but as it is in truth, the
Word of God. We read also how it actually
came to them when they came and preached to them in the first
epistle that he writes to them. He says of them that that gospel
in verse five of chapter one of first epistle, 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 he says, "...ye became followers
of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction
with joy of the Holy Ghost." And so the foundation of hope,
a hope by grace, is to be called by grace. raised the free, unmerited
favour of God, passed by us and bid us live. The Lord gave eternal
life, He quickened us, He opened our ear, He caused us to live,
and He caused there to be life, spiritual life put in us, and
instructed and taught us in the way that we should go. All that
is bound up in that call a loosening from the world, a severing from
one and a cleaving to the other, the Apostle Paul changing from
what he was and then joining to those that he had persecuted. John Newton, what a difference
in his life, the change that God wrought, that work which
is by grace. has profound effect in a natural
way, changing the heart, renewing the mind, but turning the feet
to Zion's Hill. It is a change, a thorough change,
from the heart that affects all of the life, the thoughts, the
words, the conversation, the choices, Everything is swayed,
is governed by what God by grace has done for that sinner. The grace of God, the free favor
of God makes a real change, a gracious change, a holy change, a change
by the Spirit of God. not just any change, but a change
that leads to Christ, a change that leads to heaven, a change
that leads to the people of God here below, and a cleave to them
and cleave to the Lord. And so when we have a good hope
through grace, the third thing here is that that hope is founded
upon the Lord's calling us out of nature's darkness and into
his marvellous light. It is founded upon what the Lord
did for us, the Lord's choice of us. that has resulted in our
choice of Him. God reconciling us to Him, so
that instead of enemies, at peace with hell, with God at war, in
sin's dark maze they wander far. Instead of that, it is being
brought to be like Abraham was the friend of God, or like Enoch
to walk with God, so that he was not, for God took him. So
when we have a good hope through grace, it is founded upon God
who graciously called us, quickened us, made us alive. That is the third foundation. The fourth is the giving us to
hope on these things. That is by God's grace. Many in this world receive of
what we would term the Lord's common grace. He opens His hand. He satisfies the desire of every
living thing. He is good to all. His tender
mercies are over all His works. He is one that gives his reign
upon the just and unjust, him that serveth God and him that
serveth him not. But very, very few will ever
ascribe that to God. Very few will actually say that
what we have in our food, our raiment, our homes, comes from
God. Very few, like the Samaritan,
will return to give thanks to God, though those ten lepers
all received of the healing from his hand. How many in a hospital
ward today would actually, when they'd been healed, return to
give thanks to God? Very few. Very few would even
ask for help of God. Some do. But when they are healed,
they never give God the glory. So they also do not have, and
we would say they do not want, any comfort from the fact that
they've received these things from God. And don't let the devil
say, well, there can't be a God, because many ungodly people,
they have just as many blessings, healings, and helps as what God's
people do. Yes, they do. And at the last
day, the Lord shall say to them, You never asked for these blessings,
I gave them to you. When I gave them to you, you
never gave thanks. This one of my children did ask,
and I gave it to them as an answer to prayer, and they acknowledged
it so, and they gave thanks to me. And that shall be the condemnation. of those who have received the
common grace and favours of God that He gives to all men. He
is the Saviour of all men, especially of them that believe, but they
never ascribe it to God. and even if they do, that they
are not blessed with being able to or wanting any comfort from
the fact that these things they receive from God. So in the fourth
place, a good hope through grace is a hope that is by God's grace
given us that sees the grace of God, that sees the hand, it
traces the hand, it traces the goodness back up to God. It doesn't just look at the gift.
It is not like those that the Lord reproved and said that you
followed me not because you saw the miracles, but because you
did eat of the loaves and were filled. They had had temporal
food for their bodies and I don't doubt that they really valued
it. They needed it. They knew the value of it. To
get a free meal and to get it miraculously done is a wonderful
thing. But what a solemn thing, they
didn't think. This One that is so miraculously
providing this food, surely He is the Messiah, the Son of God.
What about our souls? What about our salvation? What
about that which is better than for bodies that perish, but a
soul that shall never perish, that shall endure forever? But they didn't see it, and they
passed by such a blessing. So if you and I can see the blessings
of God, if the Holy Spirit takes you, shows you your calling,
shows you from that the reason why you were called is because
of those things the Lord has done in your life, and He's brought
you to a time of calling, and why He did those things is because
He loved you with an everlasting love, and you trace that line,
but it's not you that traces it. In a way it is, but it is
by God's grace that we do. A good hope through grace. In
other words, put in this way, by the grace of God I have a
good hope. God has given us that hope. If
we have a hope beyond the grave, a hope that we're his people,
I hope that we've been called. I hope that He's been ordering
our life to that end. I hope that He has chosen us
and loved us with an everlasting love. And I hope that all these
things that have worked together for good in your life are the
saving work of God, where God has raised up that hope. It's
not just for a poor sinner to do that work himself. It is right
that we should meditate, think and watch and observe God's hand
and God's providence and mark it out, but it is the blessing
of the Lord to give us to see what others do not see, and actually
to see the Lord's hand, for Him to shine on His work, to own
His work, To come like He did with the man that was born blind,
He asked him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He didn't
know who He was. Who is He, Lord? Thou hast both
seen Him, it is He that speaketh with thee. He could then see
that all that had happened, it was happened by the Son of God. To see the Lord's work, to see
the Lord's handy work, No, the Lord does own His own work to
His people. He is not ashamed of what He's
done for them, and He'll make them know He has done it for
them, and through that, through Him graciously letting them know
then that is a blessing itself, to have that good hope. You know,
when my mother died, when I was 25, and my eyes were holding,
and I could not see that she was saved. When she breathed
her last, I felt that she was lost. But there was many, many
things I had seen, I'd heard of her prayers and everything
that the Lord had done in those last week or two. And yet I didn't
see them in a way that so clearly showed the work of God. And it was then, she died on
the Saturday, on the Lord's Day, my father got me to read a sermon
of Mr. Frank Gosden's. And his text
was, they that say such things declare plainly that they seek
a country. And he went through some of those
things that the Lord's people clearly say, that declare that
they seek a country. And one of them was with Ruth,
that thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. and I had
heard my mother speak in very similar ways. We had a General
Baptist minister come to see her and she was blind, she was
within a few days of her passing, and he went and sat by her bed
and talked to her and she made no recognition, no evidence at
all that she knew anything was being said. It looked like she
was unconscious. And then the minister got up
and he stood next to me in the doorway and my father sat down
beside mum on the bed and he started talking to her and suddenly
she broke her silence. And she says, I don't want this
people, I want my own people. The minister heard it, but I
heard it. And it was that that was brought
back so powerfully to mind when I read that sermon. And the Lord
so blessed that. And He so showed of all the things
I'd heard and seen, that to this day I have no doubt whatsoever
of the eternal safety of my mother. In fact, it's been one of the
most strongest things, real helps in the ministry, in seeing the
grace of God and the blessing of God. But I've always counted
it such a great blessing. Why did the Lord show that to
me? he would have been just to just
leave me in darkness and to the end of my days feel that my mother
was lost. But he didn't. And he opened
my eyes and he showed his own work, owned his own work in her. And so for her, I had a good
hope. And it was a good hope through
the grace of God, not just to her, but to me, that he should
so graciously show it and reveal it to me. And so this blessing
is the fourth reason why it is a good hope, where it is a hope
that the Lord has raised us up to. You know I often say that
a true faith will support us If we've got a false faith, we
will have to support it. And we may say the same with
a good hope. A good hope will support us. It'll comfort us. But if it is
a false hope, then it's something that we have got to prop up all
the time. That doesn't say that there are
those times with the Lord's dear people that they lose their hope,
they can't see it, they can't see their signs and they really
struggle. But they haven't got their comfort
then. But when the Lord comes graciously,
and He raises up hope, and He gives them this hope, that is
a good hope, because He's the author of it. And so, in a sense,
even those dark times when we've had no hope, when they're contrasted
with times that we have had a hope, You may say, where did that hope
come from? It didn't come from me, otherwise
I'd keep it going all the time. But if it comes from God, it
comes as a blessing from the Lord. Well, there's one last
foundation of hope, and that is the realisation of our hope
will also be by grace. Good hope through grace does
not stop by being called by grace, but when that hope is realized,
when that hope will no longer be something that is not seen,
hope will be finished and turned then to sight. It'll be the thing
that we hope for that we've ended into. And if you and I end up
in possession of what we've hoped for, Where shall the crown be
placed? But on grace. Let grace triumphant
reign. Why? Because the Lamb of God
has been slain. Because Christ has been slain. Because He's turned the captivity
of His people. He's turned their darkness. He's
raised them up to a hope. He's blessed them. And you visit
them and they have that assurance that grace that has called me
grace that has shown me that it is His work, grace that traces
back to see the things in my life that He's done by grace,
and grace that traces back to His everlasting love of God and
what Christ has done on Calvary, that grace will not let go until
hope is made a vital and living reality in heaven. In these ways,
when the Apostle says, good hope through grace, we understand
this as such a precious blessing And I pray that Lord would bless
each of you tonight with this good hope through grace, through
the grace of God to give you a hope beyond the grave, to give
you a hope that He indeed has begun a good work in you, and
He that has begun that good work will perform it. unto the day
of Jesus Christ. That hope is laid up on what
God has graciously done for us and what we believe. He has given
us that hope by grace and we shall realise the true fruits
of it and the reality of it beyond the grave. May the Lord bless
this word and give us each a good hope through grace. Amen.