me this morning to the book of the Thessalonians, the second
letter of the Thessalonians, chapter
2, and I'll read a particular passage 2 here of
this scripture and talk to you about it for a little while here
this morning. 2 Thessalonians chapter
2 beginning at verse 13 the apostle here Paul is the
author of the book. He says in verse 13 that we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you. That is, his reference is to
the brethren and sisters. in Christ that make up the church
at Thessalonica, we're bound to give thanks always to God
for you. Brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit. and belief of the truth, whereunto
he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast
and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether
by word or our epistle. or our letter, now our Lord Jesus
Christ himself, and God even our Father, which hath loved
us, and hath given us everlasting consolation, or everlasting comfort,
and good hope through grace. comfort your hearts, and establish
you in every good word and work. Now, this is what I want to talk
to you about here this morning. I want to talk to you about HOPE,
H-O-P-E. It says, Which hath loved us,
and given us everlasting consolation, and good hope through grace. Hope. Now, there is a definition
for that word that I like real well. And the definition of the
word hope is that it's a feeling that what is wanted will happen. That's what hope is. Hope is
a feeling that what is wanted will happen. Now, it's a common
expression. All of us use hope to express something,
something that we want. And everybody can say, I hope. He doesn't have to be educated
or uneducated to find use of the expression in his conversation,
I hope. Everybody can say, I hope. Nothing is more often said than
the expression, I hope. And I've said myself, I hope
it will be all right at last. I hope for the best. I hope I shall be a better man
someday. That's my desire. I hope that
my desire will be fulfilled, that I might be a credit to the
human race some way or somehow. I hope that will come to pass. I hope all my family will get
to heaven. I hope my wife and my boys and
my grandchildren and my friends and those that I love, I hope
that they'll finally at last get to heaven. They live on hoping. I do and you do. They grow old hoping. And they die at last And I ask
the question, how will they die hoping? They hope that when they
die that they are in heaven. But they are not. They are lost
and undone forever and forever. They're lost in that world which
is beyond the grave. They hoped, but it wasn't a good
hope through grace. Everyone has a hope. When someone dies, there's always someone around
to comfort be deceased as relatives, wife and children. And they'll
generally say, well, don't worry or don't fret. He or she was a good man or a
good woman. They had some faults, I suppose,
but they really was no worse than the common, ordinary person. And they tend to give the kinsmen
some hope, but it's a false hope. It's not a good hope. If all that a man's got in this
life that he hopes he'll go to heaven when he dies, if that's
the only hope he's got, he hasn't got much hope. There's got to
be more to it than that kind of a hope. So I conclude, or
as I thought about this and tried to make something out of it,
and I hope I have, I concluded that this subject
of hope is of great importance because here in the book of Romans
it says that we are saved by hope. Romans chapter 8, I think
it is, verse number 4, I want to read it to you. Or at least I thought that's
where it was. Verse 24, all right, thank you. It says in verse 23, And not
only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of
the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting
for the adoption to wit, the redemption of our body. For we are saved by hope. That's what Paul tells these
Romans. 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? If he sees it, what does he hope
for? Well, we're saved by hope. So
if that's true, then let us make sure our hope is sound, that
it's a sound hope. Let us make sure that it's a
sound hope and that it's a good hope. So that brings up the question,
what is a good hope? A good hope is a hope that a
man can explain. Now, if you don't remember what
I've said prior to this, I want you to remember this. Kind of
lock it in your heart and in your mind. definition of a good hope from
the Scripture is, is that a good hope is a hope that a man can
explain. Now, if you'll turn with me to
the book of 1 Peter, I'll read you a Scripture here that will
shed some light upon this. chapter 3 and verse 15. Peter here says in verse 15,
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always
to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the
hope that is in you with meekness and with fear." So what I'm saying
here is the definition of a good hope is a hope that a man can
explain. What saith the Scripture? The
Scriptures says that you ought to be always ready to give an
answer to every man that asketh you a reason for your hope. So a good hope is a hope that
you can explain. It's a hope that you can tell
out to others. It has a voice. It manifests
itself, this good hope. So let us make sure our hope
is sound, and that is it's a good hope that we can explain. If your hope is sound, you must
be able to give some account for it. you must give some reason
for it. If your hope is sound, and it's
a good hope, and you're saved by hope, then to give an answer
to every man that asks you, what is your hope? You can explain
your hope. If I ask a man, well, are you
a Christian man? Are you saved by the grace of
God? Are you a believer in God's Christ? What do you believe concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ? Who is this man called Jesus? And you're silent and you can
give no answer. It's because you have no reason. You have no good hope. Your hope
is not Sam. What is a good hope? A good hope
is a hope that a man can explain if he has a good hope. Well,
you must be able to show why, wherefore, and on what ground,
or on what basis, and for what reason. Now, let no one misunderstand
here this morning what I'm saying or trying to say, I do not say
that deep learning and great knowledge are needful for salvation. It is possible, not only possible but it's true,
that a man might know twenty languages and have a vast amount
of knowledge at his fingertips, he might even have the whole
body of divinity by his side and yet be lost. Now, maybe many
fine words can be upon a man's lips but yet not an ounce of
the grace of God in his heart. Now, if you'll turn over with
me here to I Corinthians chapter 13, and I'll read something here
that will maybe shed some light on what I'm trying to say. I
Corinthians chapter 13. Listen to what it says. Thus far, I don't want to be
misunderstood and say that a man has got to have great knowledge
relative to salvation. He's got to know who God is and
know who Christ is. He's got to know that. But here
it says, in this 13th chapter, the apostle writing to these
Corinthian people, He said, though I speak with the tongues of men
and of angels, and have not charity. Now, charity means love. It would be a better translation
if it was just love there, but then these were English translators
when they translated the New Testament here from the Greek
and the Latin. The word charity fitted their
understanding better than the word love. So he says, if I speak
with the languages of men and of angels, if I can speak like
an angel in all the languages of men and I have not charity,
I have not love, he said, I have become a sounding brass and a
tinkling cymbal. I'm nothing, just a sounding
brass, just a thing that makes noise. And though I have the
gift of prophecy, and I understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains
and have not charity," he said, "'I'm nothing. Have all this,
yet I'm nothing. And though I bestow all my goods
to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and
have not charity, It profits me nothing. Charity suffereth
long and is kind, charity envieth not, charity vaunteth not itself,
is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemingly, seeketh not
her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoices not
in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth, beareth all things,
believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth. Love never
fails. But where there be prophecies,
they shall fail. Where there be tongues, they
shall seize. Languages, and where there be
knowledge, it shall pass away. We know in part and we prophesy
in part, but when that which is perfect is come, that's the
Lord Jesus Christ, then that which is in part shall be done
away. When I was a child, I spake as a child. I understood as a
child. I thought as a child. But when
I became a man, I put away childish things. Now we see through a
glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, and
then shall I know even as I am also known, but now abideth faith,
hope, and charity, these three, but the greatest of these is
charity. Charity is the everlasting love
of Almighty God that God has for his children in that he so
loved us. He so loved us that he chose
us in Christ before the world ever was. He chose us in Christ. He put us in Christ. Now listen
to me. He chose us in Christ. He put
us in Christ. And he kept us where he put us,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he sent the Lord Jesus Christ
out of this everlasting charity, out of this everlasting love,
He sent him to come to this earth and become a man, and as a man
accomplish redemption on behalf of those that he gave the Son
out of everlasting charity. So if a man has a good hope,
he can explain it. He can explain his hope. is in
him who loved him and gave himself for him in the Lord Jesus Christ. I hope in Christ. I hope in God. I do not hope in myself. I do
not hope in my feelings. I do not hope in second-hand
conversation. I hope in Christ, in Christ alone
as my sin-bearer, one who stood in my place, one
who bore the penalty due me against my sins, who hath pardoned me,
hath forgiven me of all of my sins, sins of yesterday, sins
of today, and sins of tomorrow. He took care of all of them,
wiped the slate clean, and there is no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus. All the charges against me as
a sinner have been laid on the Lord Jesus Christ, and He paid
the full penalty that I owed against my sins, 16 ounces to
the pound, not a pound more or a pound less. He paid all that
I owe and clothed me in His spotless righteousness, and there I ever
stand in Christ where he is at the right hand of God and stand
there forever. That's explaining what a good
hope is. If a man's got a good hope, he
can explain it. I don't mean that he has to have
a perfect understanding of the Greek, He has to have a perfect
understanding of the Latin or the Hebrew. That's not what I'm
talking about. He might be able to have all
these things, speak all the languages, but if the love of God has not
been shared abroad in his heart, in the Lord Jesus Christ, then
he is like a tinkling cymbal, a sounding brass, nothing, the
Scriptures say. Well, I could go on in that, but I
won't. It's going to take up too much time. But there's thousands,
multiplied thousands, who are members of Adam's race. They
see no necessity of a clear knowledge, which I believe is absolutely
essential to a saving hope. They seem to think that as long
as a man goes to church on Sunday and has his children baptized,
everything will be all right. But I believe that a man ought
to know what he believes. Now, that may sound like it's
difficult, but it's not. A man, if he believes anything,
he ought to know something about it. He ought to be able to give
a clear assessment, a definition of some sort or other. A man
ought to know what he believes. A good hope is a hope that a
man can explain. I believe that the requirement
set up, that is, the standard of requirement of the Scripture
demands that. Well, another thing about this
hope is this. A good hope is a hope that is
drawn from the Scripture. If a man has a good hope, he
can explain it, and if he has a good hope, that hope comes
from the Scripture. It doesn't come from feeling,
it doesn't come from religious excitement, it comes from the
Scriptures, which is the Word of God. This Bible here is given
by God, it's given to man by inspiration, that every word,
in the Bible is inspired by God. There is nothing in the Bible
that is not inspired, that is, comes from the mind and the hand
and the tongue of God Almighty, and it's written here for our
profit and for the exercise of our growth and so forth, and
every Every hope that is a good hope must come from the Bible. It can't come from my limited
capacity. I cannot give life to any man. I can't give life to myself. Life must come from God Almighty,
must come from his hand. And the revelation of who God
is What God is like is drawn from the Bible. It's drawn from
the Scriptures. It can't come from any place
else. The Bible is the revelation of
God unto man. So if a man has a good hope,
it must be drawn from the Scripture. Because most of men's hopes nowadays
are imaginary hopes. things of the imagination. And if that's all that a man
has is hopes, imaginary hopes, then his hope is built on sin. You remember our Lord said that
there was two men, one built his house up on the rock, and
one built his house upon the sand, and when the storms came
and the wind arose and blowed, the house that was built upon
the sand fell down. But the man who built his house
upon the rock is still alive. So if you build your hope on
imaginary things, you're building on a hope that will not stand. It's a hope of sand. Oh, if hope is a sound hope,
a man ought to be able to turn to the Bible for the source He
ought to be, if he's got a good hope and he can explain his hope,
then he ought to be able to come to the Bible and find a text
or find a passage of Scripture or a series of Scripture or a
chapter of Scriptures as the source of his hope. Our hope and our confidence must
arise from something that God has said in the Bible, something that God has said himself
in the Bible, the Word of God, the revelation of God to man. So hope and confidence must arise
from something that God has said in the Bible, and that our heart
has received and believed. Now, just let me give you one
thing here. It says, When we were without
strength, Christ died for us. That's the revelation of the
Bible as to what the Lord Jesus Christ did for believing sinners,
that He died for us. He rose again for us. He ever lives for us. So you can go to the Word of
God, to the Bible, for the source of your reason. The reason I
believe that I am saved by the grace of God Our Lord Jesus Christ
says that salvation is by grace. It says not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but it's according to his mercy hath he
saved us. So if it's a sound hope, it can
be explained. If it's a sound hope, it must
be drawn from the Scriptures, not from imaginary thoughts and
experiences and wild dreams that we might have. It's not enough
now to have a good feeling about the state of your soul. That's
not enough. That does not answer the requirements
of a good hope. You may feel good and die tomorrow. You can't trust in your feelings.
So to have a It's not enough to have good feelings about the
state of your soul. You may flatter yourself. You
may flatter yourself and say, well, all is right with me. I believe I'm going to heaven
if I die tomorrow. And yet there's nothing to show
for the reason. You may think that and say that
and convince yourself of it, But you have no reason for what
you say and what you believe unless it's drawn from the Bible,
unless it comes from the Word of God. And you can believe the
Word of God because one thing about God is that I know for
sure that God is immutable. He is the same yesterday, today,
and forever, and he does not change, and he does not lie. And if God says that he gives
this poor sinner who believes his testimony, the testimony
of God concerning his son, if he says, I give unto that sinner
eternal life, then you can bet on it. You can take that to the
bank. God won't lie. If he gives you
eternal life, you have eternal life, he'll never take it back.
He won't change his mind. He won't be discouraged at what
you do or what you don't do and say, well, I'll just pull that
away from him. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, see, you've
got to have a reason and the reason is Christ. Well, listen,
the heart, you can't trust in your heart. The Bible says there
in the book of Jeremiah, chapter 17 and 9, it says that the heart
is deceitful and wicked and no man can know it. this heart,
this sinful heart of ours, this heart that we're born with, this
nature of ours. Don't trust in your nature. Your
nature is sinful, your heart is sinful. That's the center
of a man's being, spiritual being, is his heart. And it's deceitful. It will deceive him, it's wicked.
And then over in the book of Proverbs it says, He that trusteth
in his own heart is a fool. Listen to me, good feelings,
without Scripture do not make up a good hope. I don't care
how good you feel. You might feel good one day and
bad the next. Then what are you going to do?
Good feelings without the Scriptures do not make up a good hope. Can
you show me nothing more than your vague expectations? I hope when I get old and ready
for the grave that I'll go to heaven when I die. Give me your
reason why you're going to heaven when you die. Is it because you
feel good? Is it because you haven't taken
God's name in vain? Is it because your neighbors
say you're such a good fellow? That's not good enough. You've
got to give me something that's drawn from the scriptures. Well, that makes up a good hope. Can you show me nothing more
than your vague expectations? Take more than that. And the
third thing about a good hope is that it rests entirely upon
Jesus Christ. A good hope rests entirely upon
Him. Beware of supposing that any
hope is a good hope which is not founded on the Lord Jesus
Christ. All other hopes are sinking sand. Don't build on those hopes. They're sinking sand. Church
membership is no foundation of hope. You may belong or may belong
to the best churches in the area but yet never belong to the Lord
Jesus Christ. You may go regularly every Sunday
and hear the Orthodox clergymen and yet never hear the voice
of the living God. If we have nothing better than
that to rest upon than church membership, We're in bad shape. But the biggest part of this
world, at any given time or any given place, their hopes rest. Hopes of going to heaven when
they die as a member of the church. Why join the church? I've been
baptized. You've got to have more hope
than that. Because a good hope rests alone
entirely on Christ and in Christ, who Christ is and what Christ
has done in your behalf, the substitute. God only deals with
you and I on the principle of substitution. God become a man. God deals with us on the account
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who became a man. He became a man. He had flesh and blood and bones. He is a man just like I'm a man,
apart from sin. He had no sin. Our salvation rests alone, entirely,
absolutely on Him. Him and Him alone, not me and
Him, not me and Jesus, our good friends. It's Jesus alone. Well, listen, we may be washed
in the waters of baptism, yet know nothing of the Word of Life. Christ himself is the only true
foundation of a good hope. His work is perfect. From the
time he was born as a baby in Bethlehem State, from that time
until he was taken by wicked hands and crucified, He lived
in complete harmony without sin, and everything that he did, every
word that he spoke, every thought that he had, was without sin. He established, on the behalf
of the people that he represented, He established sinless perfection,
and that sinless perfection is what clothes us as we stand before
God. We're clothed in His righteousness. His work, the work of His person,
His person, He was immaculate. His work was immaculate and perfect. All that He has done is transferred
from Him to the believer, and we appear before God as though
we had never seen Him, being in the Lord Jesus Christ. This
business of a good hope rest entirely on Christ, not on you. Brother Joe here, we talked the
other day, and I mentioned to him two things. I said salvation
is not dependent upon character or on conduct. I said that then
with all the enthusiasm that arises in my soul, and I say
it now, it's not about character, it's not about conduct, it's
about Him. It's about trusting Him who provided
everything that's necessary for the salvation of the soul. That's
what the Word of God says, and that's God's testimony concerning
Christ, that Christ is all. Trust Him. Lean on Him. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. That's the good hope. Well, over
in the book of 1 Peter, let me read this verse. I've got to
hurry here. 1 Peter, I think chapter 1, chapter 2. Chapter 1 of the book of 1 Peter,
verse 6. Therefore, also, it is contained
in the Scriptures. It is in the Scriptures. Behold,
I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect and precious, and he that
believeth on him shall not be confounded. He is the stone. He's the rock of ages. He's our
hiding place, our high tower. Unto you, therefore, which believe,
He's precious. Oh, the preciousness. And to
them which be disobedient, that is to those that don't believe
the testimony of God concerning His Son, it says, to them which
be disobedient, The stone which the builders disallowed, he said,
is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and
a rock of offense to them which stumble at the word being disappointed,
whereon also they were appointed. But ye are a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should
show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness
into his marvellous life, which in times past were not a people,
but now are the people of God, which had not obtained mercy,
but now you have obtained mercy." Ah, listen, another thing about
this whole A sound hope is a hope that is felt. It's felt inwardly
in the heart. Look over here in the book of
Romans, chapter 5, verse 5. Listen to what it says. It says, Verse 5, chapter 5,
Hope maketh not ashamed. Why? Why? Because the love of God is shared
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. And then in the twelfth chapter
of the same book, the book of Romans, Romans chapter 12 and
verse 12, listen to this, Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation,
continuing instant in prayer. Can anyone say that a man can
pass from death to life and not be conscious of it? I said this
hope is felt in the inward mind, in the heart. A good hope is
a hope that is felt inwardly in the heart. And a man that
has a good hope is conscious of it. If you have a good hope,
a sound hope, a hope that you can explain, a hope that's drawn
from the scriptures, if you have this hope, then you're conscious
of it. You've felt it. The love of God's been shared
abroad in your heart. You found out who Christ was.
You found out why he came. You found out what he did. You
found out where he's at. And you found out what he's doing. And you're conscious of it. Your
hope, your expectation is solely in him. Well, listen, can a man
pass from death unto life and be forgiven? and be pardoned
of his sins, quickened, clothed in his righteousness, yet feel
nothing of this mighty change." He doesn't feel that there's
something different about him than this other fellow. Something
happened to him that didn't happen to him. There's a change. Lazarus was dead. of the Lord Jesus, the brother
of Mary and Martha. They came to the Lord and said,
Your friend Lazarus is dead. And he said, Let's go. And they
went to the place where Lazarus was buried. And he was in a stone
vaulting tomb. And they rolled a rock against
him. And our Lord went there to the
tomb. And he said, Lazarus! He called
him by name. He'd been dead for so many days
that his sister said, there's no use. Said, corruption has
set in. Said, he smells, he's stinking. Our Lord said, Lazarus! And Lazarus came forth. You mean to tell me that Lazarus
didn't know that he was dead and now he's alive? This business
of a good hope can be felt in the inward man. You know, you
slave, you're not, it's not presumption, it's something that took place. The love of God was shared abroad
Can a weary man lie down in bed and not feel rested after you've
worked all day out in the hot sun, and you come home at night
and lay down in your bed? Is it impossible for you to feel
rested? No, sir. Your old body will take
right to that bed. parched, thirsty traveler in
an African desert, drink water and not feel refreshed? Absolutely not. Can a half-naked,
hungry, homeless wanderer in the streets Can he be clothed,
fed, and housed, and not feel comforted? I believe in every case when a man is saved
by the grace of God, something will be felt, and that makes
up a good hope. I can't believe that a man can
be a true believer if he does not feel something inside. And so I say, beware of a hope
that is not felt. The hope, oh, a good hope, is
a hope also that is manifested in our lives. It is outwardly
seen. It's not a silent hope, but it's
a hope that speaks. A man that has a good hope will
show it. He'll show it in all of his ways. He won't be perfect. He'll stumble
and he'll fall, but he'll rise again. And the tenor of his life
will go in one direction. It's like the Mississippi River.
The Mississippi River starts way up there and maybe in Minnesota
or somewhere, I don't know. But I know one thing, it's flowing
south. It's going in one direction.
And it winds up down there at New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico,
that great, the biggest river in the United States of America.
It flows south, goes in one direction. But on its course of going south,
it will go west, and it'll go east, and then it'll drop back
and go south, and then it'll veer off and go west. But the
tenor, the tenor of that river is going south! It's going in
one direction! And a man, a man who has experienced
God's salvation in Christ, His life is going in one direction.
He may fall. He may falter. He may be full
of doubt and full of fear, but he'll rise and get back in the
course. He won't fall fatally. He'll
fall, but he'll rise again and go in that direction. And I'm
telling you here that a good hope, a man that has a good hope,
he'll show it. in his character and in his conduct,
all of his ways, he'll feel a constant obligation to serve and to be
obedient to God in Christ. And he'll try to please Him from
whom all his hope comes from. He'll try to do that. He'll say
within himself, I'm bought with a price. The price was the blood. He bought me rock, stock, and
barrel. He paid the full price. All that justice demanded, He
paid for it. He died in my stead. He rose
again in my stead. He said, because I live in you. And I feel that in my soul that
I want to do right. I don't always do right. I want
to do right. I'm going in that direction.
I fell a million times, and if I live a little longer, I'll
fall some more. But bless God, I fall. His arms are underneath me. His everlasting arms cradle me
and lift me back up, and I go again. Remember these things
not quickly. Number one, a hope that a man
can explain is a sound hope. This hope must be drawn from
the Scriptures. Thirdly, this hope must be founded
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And this hope that is a sound
hope will be felt in your soul. And this hope That is, a sound
hope will be manifest in your life. That's a good hope. What
is your hope? I hope in Him. I hope in His
person. I hope in His Word. He's forgiven me. I've been pardoned. I've been before the judge. And
I've been judged. I've found guilty. Guilty as
charged. But I've been forgiven. For some reason in
me, no reason in me, the reason's in Him. He said, I'm His substitute.
I'm His Savior. All that's required, I'll supply. What God demands, God provides. Let's stand and we'll meet again
for a few minutes here this evening.