What a great thing it must be
for a believer to finish their days like Paul did. He says in 2 Timothy 4 verse
6, I'm already being poured out like a drink offering, and the
time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight.
I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Now there
is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but also
to all who have longed for His appearing. The wise man says that it's better
for us to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting. It's good for us to number our
days, says Moses in Psalm 90, that we might be wise and that we might be led by God to have
His priorities and His values as ours. And what a great hope. What a great hope. What is it
for us to have that hope? What is it for you to rest your
head on your pillow at the end of the day? Or even more importantly,
to rest your head on your pillow at the end of your life and have
that hope Hope means confident expectation. To have that hope. That hope that is a real hope. It's a living hope. That's what
I wanted to talk about today. We have hope. We have hope for
our friend in Canberra. We have hope, of course, that
she might be restored to good health and restored to her family.
But most of all, we have hope in God. We have our hope in someone
else. The hope that Paul had is a hope
that's laid up in heaven. It's a hope which is there in
a place where it's unaffected by the things of this world.
Can your hope Can your hope be moved by the circumstances of
life? Can your hope be moved by good
feelings and bad feelings? Can your hope be moved by things
that are said in this word about who God is? You see, we live
in a dark world. In fact, when you think of the
impacts of sin in this world, they bring two things, don't
they, to bear on so many people. They bring guilt. So many people
live, laden down with guilt. And so many people live with
despair. where there's no hope and there
is no future. Evolution is such an evil and
wicked doctrine. What does it say? You came here
by accident out of nothing. for no meaning whatsoever. And when you leave here, you
leave here as a dog dies, or as a worm dies. You come from
nothing, you go to nothing, and here you are in the midst of
two nothings trying to make something out of this world. No wonder
all that man will do in those circumstances is work to gratify
the flesh. And then the circumstances of
life take away that comfort and there is no hope. There is just despair. We live in a dark, dark world. A dark world. But God's children have a hope. We have a real hope. We have
a hope that is our life. We have a hope that's kept in
a place of holiness. It's kept in a place of rest.
It's kept in a place of praise and glory. See, our hope, according
to 1 Timothy 1, verse 1, our hope is Him. He is our hope. falls an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the commandment of God, not by the commandments of men. Commandment
of God, our Saviour. What a great description of the
Lord Jesus. God, our Saviour. and the Lord
Jesus Christ, our hope. He is our hope. And what is the ground? That's
the question, isn't it? What is the ground? What is the
reason for the hope that's within you. We've heard of Paul. We know what his reason is. What a wonderful thing it is
to think on that day of you meeting God and God saying to you, well
done, thou good and faithful servant. What is it to know the
smile of God the delight of God upon your life. Not just to know
it then, but to know it now. Romans 8.24 says that we are
saved to this hope. We are saved in this hope, not
in feelings. but in the Lord Jesus, and they
eagerly wait with perseverance. Galatians 5.5 says, We by the
Spirit, out of faith, for hope of righteousness, wait. Paul describes this good hope
is a good hope through grace in 2 Thessalonians 2. And here
we have in Colossians, a description of this hope. It's a hope which
is laid up for you in heaven, whereof you heard before in the
word of the truth, the word of the truth of the gospel. A good hope. A good hope is a
hope that a man can explain. I asked you to give the reason
for the hope that's within you. What will you give as your reason?
There are many people in this world with a false hope. The
Lord Jesus described a tragic, tragic group in Matthew chapter
7. They come to the Day of Judgment
having lived expectantly, having lived hopefully. And they come
to Him and they acknowledge Him as Lord, Lord. And they bring
to the Lord Jesus wonderful works. They'd actually performed miracles. They'd cast out demons. They'd
spoken in His name. They'd bring their good deeds.
And then He says those shocking words to them. And all of their
hopes are dashed. You see, I hope you want a hope,
that on that day, your hope will be sound and steadfast and secure,
that you will not have anything in your hands to bring. You'll
be able to explain, as Paul did in that great verse in Galatians
2.20, he says, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer
I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faithfulness of the Son of
God who loved me and gave himself for me. It's a good hope. It's a good hope that can be
explained if you look down there in Colossians. It's a hope that
came to these Colossians and it came to them and it brought
forth fruit, but it came to them and they heard it and they knew
it. They knew the grace of God in
truth. And it came to them from a faithful
minister, Epaphras. It's a gospel and a hope that's
found in the scriptures. Your hope needs to be grounded
in what God has said. We've just read in Psalm 33 about
how His word is right and His word is true. It's found in the
scriptures. It's found in the Old Testament
scriptures. It's found in the New Testament scriptures. A good
hope is a hope that a man can explain. A good hope is a hope
that's found in the scriptures. A good hope is a good hope that
looks solely to Christ Jesus alone. Look in verse 4 of Colossians. It's a hope that we can explain,
a hope that's found in the Scriptures, a hope that looks solely to the
Lord Jesus who is our hope. It's a hope that's felt. We rejoice, God's children, with
joy unspeakable. What is for us to have our sins
completely and perfectly washed away, so God sees me as holy? Blessed is the man whose sins
the Lord will never count against him. There is now no condemnation. It's a hope that's felt and it's
a hope that's seen. So this hope is a hope that brings
action into the lives of people. They have love for the saints.
They hear and they delight in the word of the truth of the
gospel, verse 5. They have realised that this
has come to them. It's come to them in Colossae.
and it didn't come to many other places in the world at that time.
It came to them with power. It came to them, they heard and
they knew, and they learned from Epaphras. It's a hope. What a hope it is to have a hope.
that as Romans 5.5 says, a hope that maketh not ashamed, a hope
that doesn't disappoint us. I want a hope that's not going
to let me down. I have hoped and wished for so
many things. The older you get, the more you
realise you've wanted this and you've wanted that. And like
mirages, they disappear as reality. kicks in. You young people think
that you've got this world sorted and then reality will kick in
and then your tired old body will fight against you and limit
you. The tired old body will get to a stage where it can do
absolutely nothing. I want a hope that's not going
to disappoint me. This hope that I'm talking about
here is called in Hebrew 719 a better hope David says, my flesh shall rest
in hope. Peter calls it a living hope,
and it's hope that's in us. In 1 John 3.3 it says, everyone
who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. What it is to be pure before
God. What a remarkable thing to stand
before the living God who is holy and cannot do anything other
than punish sin, to stand before that God and to be purified. How does it happen? How do you
get purified? Not just purified on the outside,
I want to be purified on the inside. What did Peter say when
the gospel came with power to the Gentiles? In Acts 15.9 it
says they're purifying their hearts by faith. That's how we purify our hearts.
We look to Him. And this hope is a hope that
produces, doesn't it? It produces, and it produced
in these Colossians, a love and a faith. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Nothing else can give this hope. In verse 5 of Colossians, this
hope comes from hearing, that hope comes from believing. You see, they're saints in verse
2, and they're faithful brethren. The Word came to them. The truth came to them. The Gospel came to them. And they knew the grace of God. They delighted in the grace of
God in truth. You see, the true Gospel reveals
the true character of the living God. It reveals the true character
of His Son, and it reveals us in our true character, and it
reveals to us how God saves sinners like us. You see, it's the Gospel
of God. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the gospel of the grace
of God. It's the gospel of peace. See, to have hope is to have
peace with God. A real peace. A peace that cannot
be shaken by the things that happen in this world. It's a
peace that rests on Him as He is. It's a gospel of peace because
it's God's gospel and it's His response to His Son. What does the Father look to?
He looks with unceasing delight on His Son. What do the angels
do at the moment? They look with unceasing delight
on the Lord Jesus Christ. What do the redeemed in heaven
do at the moment? What are they doing there now?
They are looking at the Lamb of God and they are singing His
praises. That's why Paul calls it in 1
Timothy the glorious gospel of Christ. It's a gospel of your
salvation. And it's a gospel that in Ephesians
1.19 is mysterious. There is just so much that Christians
delight in that we cannot explain. How can you explain the Trinity? I have no idea. I know it, and I believe what
God says about it. I love the fact of the Father's
redeeming love, the Father's choosing love, I beg your pardon,
the Son's redeeming love. the Holy Spirit's regenerating
love. I can't explain the eternal union
of God's children with Him. I can't explain what it means
for us to be predestinated. I know that God has determined
all things, but my hope is resting on the fact that His love is
unchangeable. His purposes are immovable. His counsel will stand, which
is why Revelation 14.6 says that this is the everlasting gospel,
and it's the gospel that comes, the gospel that comes to us. It's the gospel of the grace
of God in truth. And it's the hope, isn't it?
It's the gospel that gives us hope. You can't link hope in
the scriptures apart from the gospel, which is what Paul does
here, doesn't it? The hope which is laid up for
you in heaven whereof you heard before in the word of the truth
of the gospel and it's come to them and it's come to them through
a faithful servant of God." And Paul himself learnt this Gospel
directly from God. He didn't learn it from men,
he learnt it from God. This hope is the hope that cannot
be moved by the things of this world. You see, the Gospel message
is an objective message and it has a definite context. If my hope is the hope that Paul
has, then my Gospel needs to be his gospel. You see in Romans
2 he says, my gospel. When does the gospel become my
gospel? When does the gospel that Paul
declares become my gospel? Quite simply, the Gospel that
Paul declares becomes my Gospel when I delight in it as Paul
delighted in it, when I can say it's mine, when it becomes good
news to me. It helps me nothing if it's good
news to other people and they're rejoicing in it. It's got to
be good news to me. If I'm going to have a good hope,
then I have to have a hope that's founded on good news. Good news from God. Good news
from God to me. Good news of grace that really
saves. Good news that's in the scriptures. How can I know if my gospel is
the Gospel. There are half a dozen points
that I'll bring to us quickly. According to 1 Corinthians 15.3,
the Gospel is according to the Scriptures. In fact, Paul mentions
it twice in that short passage of Scripture. According to the
Scriptures. According to the Scriptures.
What Scriptures is he talking about? The Gospel that Paul declared,
the Gospel that Epaphras brought, is a Gospel that lines up with
the Old Testament Scriptures. The Gospel of the Old Testament
is as much a delight to God's children as the Gospel in the
New. What a wonderful thing. We talked
about it earlier. What a wonderful thing. to be
one of those people who heard that word and sheltered that
night under the blood. What sort of a day would they
have had? We know that they groaned under hard labour. We know that
the more God brought judgment to the Egyptians, the more they
rebelled and the harder the toil became. What a day they had. They woke up that morning Millions
of them aren't there? A husband fighting with a wife,
neighbours fighting with each other, sinful people, and yet
that day that day, and it didn't matter
how weak they were, how insincere they were, or what other things
they did. That evening, only one thing
mattered to those people. Only one thing brought hope. Only one thing brought peace. Only one thing brought deliverance.
Was there blood on the door? Were they sheltering under the
blood? What a great picture of God's
salvation and redeeming of his people. What a wonderful picture
it is of that high priest going into the Holy of Holies with
that blood that represented the blood of the Lord Jesus, and
he had on his heart, on his chest, the names of all of the children
of Israel in their tribes. And he went into that place on
their behalf. And what did the children of
Israel do that day? What was the command of the children
of Israel? On that great day when their
sins were taken away, their one command was to do nothing. This is a work of another to
save you. Does my Gospel line up with the
Old Testament Scriptures? Do I find in the Old Testament
Scriptures confirmation and confirmation and confirmation that salvation
is of the Lord, as Jonah learned? Does God get all the glory in
salvation? Well, God is a jealous God. His name is jealous. He will
not share His glory with another. God the Father chose. God the
Son redeems. God the Son regenerates. We read it in Colossians 1, didn't
we? That great list of God's activities. He's qualified us. He's made
us fit into the Kingdom of Heaven. He's delivered us from the Kingdom
of Darkness. He's put us into the Kingdom
of Light. He has redeemed, He has forgiven,
He has reconciled, and all with a purpose that He will present
his people, holy, blameless, and above reproach in his sight."
That's hope. That's the ground for hope, isn't
it? That is what the Lord Jesus has done. The real Gospel gives
the Lord Jesus preeminence in absolutely everything. Isabel
loves that verse, Christ is all. He's all in the scriptures. He's
all in heaven. He's all in salvation. He's all in the new creation.
He's all for a believer. If we are chosen, we are chosen
in Him. If we are justified, we are justified
by His righteousness. If we have faith, He's given
it to us. He's the object of faith. He's
the author of faith. He's the finisher of faith. If I'm sanctified, I'm sanctified
in Him. He that sanctifies and those
who are sanctified are one. If I'm redeemed, if I'm brought
out of the horrible sin that I've placed myself in by my wicked
works, I'm redeemed by His blood. If I'm a child of God, I'm a
child of God because I'm united to Him. Christ is all and is
in all. And if my gospel is the Gospel,
and my Gospel is my hope, then the character and attributes
of God in all the Scriptures will be the ones that I love. Don't you love the fact that
God is absolutely holy? Don't you love the fact that
He cannot wink at sin? Don't you love the fact that
because He's holy, He demands absolute holiness? Nothing short
of perfect holiness gets into heaven. I love the fact that
He's just. There's a beautiful verse in
Isaiah 28.17 that says, He makes justice the measuring line and
righteousness the plummet. and if you have an accurate measuring
line and you have a plumb bob You have the measuring tools
necessary to build a building, don't you? You don't have the
tools to build it, but you have the measuring tools. If you can
determine what is perfectly vertical and what measurements are, then
you can lay out a building and you can lay out the bits and
pieces and you can put it together. He makes justice the measuring
line and righteousness the plummet. I love the fact, God's children
love the fact that He's sovereign. He's absolutely sovereign, perfectly
sovereign. There is not an atom in all of
this universe that isn't moved perfectly according to His will. I love the fact that He has the
power to make His counsel stand firm. I love the fact that He
can promise, and we can go to this Word and see His promises
fulfilled. He made over 2,000 of them in
the Bible. What a great record our God has
given us of perfect faithfulness to His Word. Don't you love the
fact that God doesn't change? I am the Lord, your God. I change not, says Malachi 3.6. Therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. The sons of Jacob loved the fact
that God doesn't change. His love doesn't change. His glory doesn't change. His attributes don't change. If he loved you now, if he loves
you now, He loved you exactly the same before the foundation
of the world. He loved you exactly the same
when He sent His Son into this world. He loves you exactly the
same when you leave this world and go to heaven. And His love
will be exactly the same in the new creation. All there is, is
an increase in revealing of His character. And if my hope, if my hope is
in my Gospel, then the Gospel must come to me where I am. Will it come to me where I am?
Or will it say to me, you do something, and then God will
come to me? The Bible describes us as dead
and helpless, unable, And we need life. What a great picture
of saving grace is the Good Samaritan. The man was left for dead, naked
and bleeding. And who comes to him? The Good
Samaritan comes to him and binds him up, gives him life, gives
him providential care, and looks after him. It comes to us. You see, that's what Paul talked
about this Gospel in verse 6. It's come to you. The Gospel
comes. It's declared in all the world
that it comes with power. And I have no power of my own. Will this gospel save the worst
of sinners? Paul describes himself in 1 Timothy
as the chief of sinners. So a sinner is not just one who
commits sin, the sinner is one who does nothing but sin and
has no one else to blame. A sinner is one who has no claim
on God, is a beggar or a leper in need of God coming to him. If I'm going to have hope, If
I'm going to have peace with God, if I'm going to rest on
those days when I can't rest in anything else, will my gospel
keep me saved? Will it keep me? Will it preserve
me? Will it keep me with my eyes
fixed on Jesus? His gospel does. The sheep are
in His hands, in the Father's hands. Who can take them out
of His hands? Who can pluck them from His hands? And the final question is, can
I meet my Maker? Can I face death with my Gospel? See, the reality is that Isabel's
situation is absolutely no different from anyone else's here, is it?
Not one of us have a second of life guaranteed to us. Not one
of us. It's not written down anywhere.
There is no promise. God knows. It's written down
in His books. But we don't know. We think that
life goes on forever. It does go on forever, but life
on this earth is just a vapour, just a flower that looks wonderful
for a minute and then disappears. Can we face that last great enemy
with this Gospel? The real Gospel, the Gospel of
the Lord Jesus, the Gospel that Paphras brought to these people,
is a Gospel that comes, a Gospel that saves, a Gospel that reveals,
a Gospel that keeps, a Gospel that keeps these people to the
end. How are they going to be presented?
Who's going to do the presenting? Can his work fail? What's he going to do? He's going
to present you. Not me presenting myself. Verse
22. He has now reconciled in the
body of his flesh through death to present you holy and blameless
and above reproach in his sight. This gospel is a gospel that
keeps his people grounded. I want a ground. I want a ground
and a foundation that's steadfast, that's not going to be moved
by the things of this world, the things of time. It's going
to delight in what these scriptures say about me and about who my
God is and how he saves his people. See, it's grounded in verse 23
of chapter 1. It's grounded and it's steadfast. And it's not moved away from
the hope of the gospel which you have heard. I pray that God would grant to
us the confident expectation that his servant Paul had, that
those people in Colossae who continued in the faith, No doubt,
many didn't continue in the faith. But those who continued in the
faith were grounded by God. They were made steadfast by God. They are the planting of the
Lord. They would never be moved away
because God wouldn't let them be moved away. And their hope
was a hope that carried them to the end. Let's pray.