Good evening. Our text is going
to be in Romans 5 that Brandon just read. But if you've got
it, hold on to it if you want to. But we're going to start
off in 1 Peter. Our topic tonight is a reason
for hope from Romans chapter 5. But here in 1 Peter 3, 1 Peter 3, in verse 15, Peter tells
us, us strangers elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father. that we should 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 fear. Have you had that question asked
to you? I have personally. It comes in
many different phrases, many different ways
of it being asked. I don't think I've ever had someone
walk up to me and say, what's the reason for your hope? But the time that stands out
to me that I was asked this question, and when I tried to answer it,
left not only myself, but the person who asked, more confused
and confounded than if they had never asked at all. At the end
of the discussion, I felt so miserable that I just wanted
to crawl into a hole and hide. I had done a horrible job trying
to explain the reason for my hope. Maybe the Lord will be pleased
to use some of what I say tonight to bring to my remembrance should
I ever be asked again, and I'm sure I will be. Before we begin, though, we've
got to define this word hope. In today's vocabulary, hope is
meant, well, it's wishful thinking. In school, especially in college,
If someone were to ask me how I did on a test, how'd you do
on that test? I hope I passed. That answer meant I had absolutely
no expectation of getting a passing grade. Nothing I had done had
prepared me for that test. It was a vain wish that I was
going to pass. If the teacher graded on a curve
large enough, I might scrape by. The hope we're discussing
tonight is nothing like that hope. This hope we're talking
about can be more closely related to the word trust. We're talking about a hope that
is confident. It is sure of the outcome. When we take our little children
downstairs to the nursery, at some point, not all of them are
there yet, but at some point when we take them down there,
they stay down there without any issue. They're comfortable,
they're satisfied, they have no cares about you leaving them
for a little while. Because they know in just about
an hour's time you're going to come back down and get them. They have a confident expectation. They're hopeful that you'll be
back. For those of you still in school,
you don't go to school with any fear of being kept there and
not having the ability to return home. You know at the end of
the day you're going to go home. You have a confident hope. It's a hope because you're away
from home. You're not where you want to
be yet, but you hope for it, you long for it, and you're confident
at the end of the day that's where you're going to be. This
is the hope we're talking about tonight. That hope that looks
away from what's currently going on in your situation to a expected,
a sought-for and a desired outcome that you're certain will come
to pass. Now that we've defined that,
I hope well enough. There's a couple of things to
see about our hope before we address the reason for our hope.
One thing is absolutely certain. Our hope is going to be displayed. It is going to be revealed. How does it reveal itself? At
what time are we going to show forth our hope? Let's look here
in 1 Peter 3, beginning in verse 8. Finally, Be ye all of one mind,
having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful,
be courteous, not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing,
but contrarywise blessing, knowing that ye are there unto called,
that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that will love life, and
see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his
lips that they speak no guile. Let him eschew evil, and do good. Let him seek peace, and ensue
it. For the eyes of the Lord are
over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers.
But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is
he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is
good? But, and if ye suffer for righteousness'
sake, happy are ye, and be not afraid of their terror, neither
be troubled. 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 fear." When will our hope, our trust, our confidence in
the Lord be revealed in such a way that a friend, a loved
one, maybe even a stranger will take notice and ask How can you
possibly bear up under all that is going on around you? How are you able to stand? As the Lady Gabe spoke of recently,
when her daughter died, she was rebuked by her friend for not
lashing out in anger. That friend was asking, What's
the reason for your hope? Why aren't you angry? How can you endure this? Our
hope will be on full display when trials and tribulations
befall us. I thought about Israel at the
Red Sea. Have you ever considered how
good it seemed that Israel had in Egypt just before the Passover? As plague after plague after
plague fell upon Egypt, Israel wasn't touched. They were safe. They were secure. Indeed, these
slaves went to their Egyptian neighbors and borrowed from them
jewels of silver and jewels of gold. They had been given favor
with the Egyptians. They could walk up to their neighbor
and say, can I have that golden pot? Here it is. Take it with you. Then they followed the Lord and
left Egypt to the Red Sea, where they found themselves literally
between a rock and a hard place. Red Sea before them, hemmed in
on the left and on the right, and the army of Egypt with 600
chariots coming behind them. From the perspective of that
Egyptian army, They're dead. We've got them. We're going to go in and slaughter
them. And the ones we don't slaughter, we're hauling back to Egypt with
us to be our slaves, as they rightly should be. That was the
Egyptian army's thoughts. Well, Moses, you've brought the
people out here. You've hemmed us in. The army
of Egypt is coming to destroy us. What's your hope now? Moses replies, fear ye not, stand
still and see the salvation of the Lord. Moses had no natural,
no visible reason at that moment in time to have any confidence
that they were going to escape. There was nothing he could do
in himself. There was nothing the Israelites could do against
Egypt. Even the people of Israel turned
against him. Yet he demonstrated his hope
and his confidence in the God of his salvation. Just as Moses
did when he was in dire distress, so the child of God will also
display and demonstrate their hope when trouble comes. And
the question will eventually come to us in that trial, during
those times, especially from someone who puts their trust
in a little G God. Because they're going to watch
you, and they're going to see you bow to the sovereign will
of God. And they're not going to be able
to understand it. If their little G God put them
in whatever condition they're seeing you in, in whatever condition
they feel you're undergoing so great a difficulty, they would say of their little
God, he's abandoned me, he's failed, he's not kept me. And the child of God says it
is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. when that day comes, when our
hearts are heavy, when all around us appears to be falling apart,
when we flee to the Lord our salvation, and those around ask,
how is it that you haven't completely fallen apart? Or as Job's wife
said, dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and
die. May we be able to tell the reason
for our hope in a manner that is clear. Now let's turn to our
text, Romans chapter five. Romans five, verse one. Therefore,
being justified by faith, we 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. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also, Knowing that tribulation worketh patience,
and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh
not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. Paul here,
just as Peter did, shows us that first, tribulations, trials,
heartaches, troubles in this world come to us. Those tribulations work with
patience. They cause us to learn patience.
We are all, by nature, impatient beings. We want everything right
now. It starts from the time we come
from the womb. And unless God has mercy on us,
we'll be that way until we leave. We want it, we want it now. And it doesn't matter what it
costs other people. It's gotta be mine. But the Lord sends us tribulations
to teach us, stand still. and see the salvation of the
Lord. While learning patience, we gain
experience. And that experience leads us
to hope. When we start going to school,
I'm talking the first day you left as a little child to go
to school for the first time. For some of us, it's been a while.
But think back to that little boy or that little girl that
left that house for the first time. How unsure, how scared,
how uncertain we were when we left that house. That fear, that uncertainty,
that anxiety, that was a little tribulation. Looking back, It
was nothing. But to that little child that
left, that was just a mountain, a great trial. But we learn through the years
of school that that first day of school isn't something to
cause fear. As we got older, it was a little
exciting. We're going to see our friends
that we haven't seen all summer. We're going to reacquaint ourselves
and have fun again. That's experience. And the longer
we go to school, the more sure we become of the outcome, we
have a confident hope for the end of the day, we're going to
go home. and all's going to be well. Our Lord deals with us so very
patiently, as with little children, and he teaches us and guides
us as we need. Even Abraham grew in faith. He wasn't called upon to offer
Isaac until he had learned patience. and had experienced that the
Lord is faithful to fulfill his promise. What did Abraham learn? What was his answer when asked
by Isaac to give a reason for his hope? My son, God will provide
himself a lamb for a burnt offering. Just as Abraham, we will be led
through various trials so that we are taught patience to look
to Christ, gain experience, and with it have a confident hope,
a hope that has a sure foundation, a hope that looks back on the
experiences and says, the Lord has provided for me. The Lord
shall provide for me. Now beginning at verse 6 through
verse 11, Paul expounds on the hope that we have. Lord willing,
we'll spend just a few more minutes and we'll see that our hope is
the same as Paul's hope. That Christ died for sinners. That we are justified by His
blood. We are reconciled to God by His
death. We are saved by his life, and
we have received the atonement. Get in verse six. For when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good
man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. To man, in his self-righteousness
and his pride, the first cause of a believer's hope is so foreign
that no man, no woman, not me, not you, can know it without
God Himself revealing it to us. First cause we have to hope is
that God, the Lord Jesus Christ, came into the world to save sinners. Being raised under the sound
of the gospel for most of my life, I thought everyone was
aware that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Everyone's a sinner. So when
a good friend of mine who was quite religious in college looked
at me one day and said, well, you're not a sinner, are you? I didn't know how to respond.
I didn't know there were people that thought that we weren't
all sinners. What hope can we have if we're
not a sinner? There's no hope in these scriptures
to anyone who claims, I'm good enough, I'm whole, I'm complete,
I can stand before God, and he has to receive me. The first and only confidence
of my hope and my trust is that Christ died for the ungodly and
commendeth his love toward us while we were yet sinners. Christ died for us. Would you
have a confident hope that you're accepted before God? then may
God be pleased to reveal to us that we are, that I am, nothing
but sin apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. If He's pleased to reveal that
to us, our hearts will cry out and justify God, saying, if He
beholds me apart from Christ, He must condemn me. for I am
guilty of sinning against him and him alone." The first standing
we have for our hope is the end of verse 8. While we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. Paul then builds on this foundation,
verse 9, "...much more then, being now justified by his blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through him." Our Lord Jesus
Christ, seeing His bride polluted in her own blood, bore our sins
upon the tree. He suffered The wrath and penalty
that was due our sin laid down his life for our sake and rose
again for our justification. He lived a life free from sin
and earned a righteous standing before God, not for his own sake
but for those he came to save. He paid our debt. He bestowed
on us that righteousness so that when God sees us in Him, He sees
a people who have kept every jot and tittle of His law. When all is dark and bleak, when
the world stands against us, why do you have such confidence
and hope in Christ? Jesus Christ died for us while
we were yet sinners. Much more, He was raised again
for our justification. Our hope is founded on Christ
died for us. Much more, He bore our sins away
and was raised again, proving His sacrifice was accepted. And
the result of this acceptance? He has justified us by his blood,
and we shall be saved from wrath through him. Paul continues, our hope is that
we are reconciled to God. Verse 10, for if When we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.
Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. While we were enemies against
God, while we shouted out, no, God, God sent His only begotten
Son to die for us, making peace. When our Lord took upon Himself
our sin, our guilt, our iniquity, and hung upon that cross at Calvary,
the anger, wrath, and judgment of God fell upon Him, and our
sins were paid for in His body. The price being paid, the wrath
and anger of God put away. There is now peace between God
and men in the Lord Jesus Christ. After our Lord shed his blood,
laid down his life, rose again for our justification, he ascended
into glory where he sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high. the work being accomplished,
salvation being secured, He set down where He ever liveth to
make intercession for us. Our hope? Much more. Being reconciled, we shall be
saved by His life. Before He went to the cross,
our Lord prayed and left His last will and testament to us.
Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with
me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast
given me. For thou lovest me before the
foundation of the world." Hebrews 9, 15, and 16 says, for where
a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of
the testator. For a testament is of force after
men are dead, otherwise it is of no strength at all while the
testator liveth." Our Lord laid down His life and His testament
went into effect. And He rose again to ensure that
His will is accomplished. on the foundation of Jesus Christ
came into the world to save sinners. Our hope is found in He died
for us. He justified us. He reconciled
us to God. We are saved by His life. In verse 11, And not only so,
but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
we have now received the atonement. Most of the time when we read
that word atonement, it involves the meaning of a covering, but
this word atonement here means restoration of the favor of God. In my sin, in my unbelief, even
knowing what great things God has done for me, I still naturally, generally
think that God just barely accepts me in Christ. That He's accepted
me because of Christ, but it's just by the skin of my teeth
that I'm accepted. Because in my flesh, I still
consider Him to be much too like myself. And sinfully, I still consider
that he accepts me almost begrudgingly. After all, I sent his son to
the cross. It was my sin that held him there. May the Lord forgive me for having
such low thoughts of his character. Our Lord delights to show mercy. A man who is in love with his
bride does not go to the wedding ceremony with hesitation or reservation,
but he goes joyfully. And he brings her into his home
and into his life completely. And with great desire, he keeps
her there. Our Lord calls us his bride. His desire is toward us, each
individual that he gave his life for. We have favor with God in Christ
Jesus. What a glorious reason we have
to hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. We know this hope every day. But oh, how it shines forth when
we're under great turmoil and tribulation, when the temporal
things of this world are fading away, and I'm asked, what is
the reason for your hope? May the Lord bring to mind his
wonderful blessings towards me. Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest
in the flesh, died for us while we were yet sinners. He has justified
us by His blood and reconciled us to God by His death. We are saved by His life, and
His favor is upon us through Jesus Christ. Let's read Romans 5 again. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we 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. And not
only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation
worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. And hope maketh not ashamed,
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, yet perventure for a good
man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more, then, being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if,
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved
by his life. And not only so, but we also
joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received
the atonement." Eddie. And y'all be remembering
William as he prepares for Sunday Bible study. And Lord Will and
Gabe will be back to bring services Sunday.