To be able to be with God's people,
to realize that we have this morning. I tell the folks at
Katie all the time, let's don't ever assume that we'll be here
again. We may not. This may be the last
time that we ever meet together. Who knows, Lord may come back
today. I think about that passage of
scripture, The Lord said, in a day that you think not, that's
going to be the day that the Son of Man is going to return.
Let's ask our Lord's blessing. Our Father, we are so thankful
this morning to be able to be in your presence with your people. I ask you this morning, would
you be pleased to bless the word to our hearts. Lord, help us
to worship, help us to hear, help us to see the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. I'm gonna ask you to take your
Bibles and turn with me to the book of 1st Peter chapter 3. 1st Peter 3. I'd like to look at one verse
of scripture. Verse 15. 1st Peter 3.15 The Apostle Peter, under the
inspiration of God's Spirit, says, 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. it's marvelous to have a heart,
to have a desire to rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ as you
contemplate being detached from any other hope or confidence
in the Lord Jesus Christ other than being saved by the grace
of God. To think, the Lord has saved
me by grace, not because of my works. but because he chose to show
mercy to me. Now that's a settling thought
to realize the Lord chose to show mercy to me. A believer dwells upon the wonders
of the Lord's mercy to him. He thinks on that, dwells on
that, And this is what a believer truly believes. God saved me
on purpose. God saved me by grace. Now, if you tell a man, you tell
somebody that you have a hope, that you have some confidence,
that Almighty God has truly saved you. You tell a man, I truly
believe that when I die, and I believe I'm going to die, I
believe that when I die, I believe that I'm going to be with the
Lord. I believe that Almighty God has everlastingly loved me. I believe that the Lord Jesus
Christ died specifically for the sins of His people. I believe
when He laid down His life, I believe He laid down His life for the
sheep. And I believe that I'm one of
God's sheep. You know, if you're going to
make a statement like that, you ought to be able to back
it up. You'll back it up with a word from God. Darwin Pruitt and I have been
friends for probably 35 years. And about 35 years ago, Darwin
told me that his nephew asked him this question one day. He
says, Uncle Darwin, you say that salvation is by grace. You say
that salvation is by the grace of God. And this guy over here
says that salvation is this way, and this one over here says salvation
is this way. And he said, now, here's what
I want to know. How do I know what's right? How do I know who's telling the
truth? And Darwin told him, he said,
but for the grace of God, you won't. And but for God's grace, he said,
you're going to die. And you're going to meet God.
But for the grace of God, the Lord's going to put you in hell.
I thought that's a good answer. But for the grace of God. You're not going to know. Everybody
and their brother says that salvation is this way, and this one says
this way, and this one says... Peter says, 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. Everybody says, I believe
that salvation is by the grace of God. Everybody says that. But everybody doesn't believe
that salvation is by the grace of God. They say it, but they
don't believe it. Most people will say, I believe
that God offers graciously salvation to all men. And if a man is willing
to accept the gracious offer of the Lord by his free will,
then the Lord will graciously save him. That's not the right
answer. That's salvation by works. That's salvation by me exercising,
they say, my free will. And that is nothing more than
works religion. And the scripture said it's not
by works of righteousness which we have done. But according to
his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Ghost. Believers have a good hope. They have a hope that is based
upon God's word. Now, what I want us to consider
for just a few minutes is if you are going to give somebody
a reason for the hope that is within you, what are you going
to say? What's going to be the answer?
Brother Henry told me one time, he said, you have folks that
know the gospel, that believe the gospel of God's grace, and
people will ask him, what do you believe? What do y'all believe
there at Bethel Baptist? What do you believe? And he said,
normally what'll happen, he said, a believer, a believer that has
sat under the gospel for years and years and years will say,
well, And they'll try to think of everything that they've ever
heard concerning God's grace and sovereign grace. And he said
they'll stammer and stutter and they'll try to give a right answer. He said, but They struggle with
it, but he said when somebody stands up and he says for a few
minutes just lays out just as plainly from the scriptures what
God has to say concerning the salvation of his elect. They'll
say that's what I believe right there. That's what I believe.
That's right. would be the answer. What's the
reason for a good hope? Now here's what I want to look
at for a minute. Sanctify, the scripture says,
the Lord God in your hearts. Now that word sanctify right
there, what it actually means is holy. Make holy. Consecrate or purify the Lord
in your hearts. Now, let me tell you what you
that believe, believe. You believe that God is holy.
If someone were to say, well, explain to me the holiness of
God. Well, I can't. I'm not going to be able to.
I just, do you believe God's holy? More holy than I can ever
explain. I just, I don't, you know. In
the year the scripture says that King Uzziah died, I saw also
the Lord sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up. And his train
filled the temple, and above it stood the seraphims. Each
one had six wings, with twain he covered his face, with twain
he covered his feet, with twain he did fly. And one cried unto
another, back and forth, all back and forth, holy, holy, holy
is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. So I know this, the Lord is holy,
I know that. But when the scripture says sanctify
the Lord, that is make holy, consecrate the Lord in your hearts,
what does that mean? I know he's holy, well what does
it mean for me to sanctify him? It is to regard it as. Regard
Him as holy. Acknowledge Him in your heart. And you that believe, you do.
You do. You're going to admit it. I don't
even know how to express. I don't know the holiness of
God. But my ignorance of being able to explain or to regard
it as He is truly does not take anything away from His holiness.
I know that He's holy. We sanctify the Lord in our hearts. That's the evidence of life.
He's holy and I know that I'm a wretch. That's what I know. The Lord is God Almighty. He's God and I'm a worm. There's
a battle that's going on within every believer. And that battle
that rages in every believer is battling over this issue right
here. There's an old man, there's two
natures in every believer. There's two natures, there's
two men there. You read Romans 7, that's not
even up for debate. Two men. There's an old man that
does not regard God Almighty as holy. He regards himself as
the one that's high and lifted up. His own will, but there's
a new man there that acknowledges God's holiness. You are the Lord. Let me give you something from
the scriptures concerning sanctifying the Lord in your hearts. And actually, let me tell you
what sanctifying the Lord in your heart actually comes down
to. It's just as simply as I can put it. You sanctify the Lord
in your hearts when you believe God. I believe Him. Let me prove
that from scripture. You remember when the nation
of Israel was in the wilderness and there was no water and they
gathered themselves together and began to complain to Moses,
we don't have any water. And the Lord was told by Moses,
and this was in Exodus 17, Moses was told by the Lord to supply
water for the people. He said, I want you to take this
rock. And he said, I want you to strike
that rock one time. I want you to strike the rock. And the Lord told him, and he
said, I'm going to stand on the rock when you strike it. You strike this rock and water
will come out. And it did. It did. And then
the next time in Numbers 20 verse 8, the people complained again
about their thirst. And the Lord told Moses, said,
now this time I want you to speak to the rock. And the scripture says, Numbers
20 verse 8, Speak ye unto the rock before their eyes, and it
shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them
water out of the rock. Moses was angry with the people
because that second time they complained again about him. Why'd
you bring us out? Why'd you bring us out of Egypt?
Get us out here in the wilderness and we're going to die and we're
going to this and the scripture says Moses was angry for the
people complaining. He said that second time, he
said, here now you rebels must we, must we? fetch you water out of this rock."
And Moses lifted up his hand, the one that God told him, he
said, you speak to the rock this time. And he lifted up his hand
with his rod and he smote the rock twice. And the water came
out abundantly. And the congregation drank, and
their beast also. And then the Lord gave the true
meaning of sanctifying the Lord. In your heart, Numbers 20 verse
12, and the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, because you believed
me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel,
therefore you shall not bring this congregation into the land
which I have given them. So to sanctify the Lord in our
hearts is to believe God. To believe the Lord is the author
and the finisher of our faith. To sanctify the Lord is to believe
that Almighty God, the Father, has chosen a people in Christ
He gave those people to the Lord Jesus Christ, wrote their names
in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world.
We sanctify the Lord in our hearts when we believe God. When God
Almighty reveals Himself in these scriptures, God's people believe
Him. They believe Him. Scriptures declare that when
the Lord Jesus Christ laid down His life For the sheep, you know
what the scripture says concerning Him laying down His life? 2 Corinthians
5.21, He, the Father, has made Him sin for us. He who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. Do you know what
a believer does? He believes God. I can't explain
to you. Somebody say, explain the depth
of the Lord Jesus Christ being made sin. He was made sin. I can't. I can't do that. But do you believe that He was
made sin? Yes, I do. That's what you sanctify the
Lord in your hearts. And be ready To give an answer, be ready always
to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the
hope that's within you. Now I'm gonna just give you three
very brief reasons. This is gonna be, I was going
over my notes this morning and I thought, this seems to me,
and when I tell you what these reasons are, you're gonna say,
Well, I knew that. Very simple reasons. But every
believer has this reason. This is the reason for the hope. Here's my first reason. And remember,
these reasons are evidences of life. They're not the source
of life. This is the evidence that God's
already done something for you. Here's the first reason. Here's
the reason of the hope. Our hope is in Christ. Why do
you believe that? Why do you believe that? Here's
the first reason. I admit and I agree in my heart
that I am a helpless, wretched, needy sinner. I believe that. I believe that.
I believe that left to myself, as I am born in Adam, this is
what I believe about myself. I am totally depraved. I do not believe that I was born. Now at one time, I believed that
I had a will. I believed that every man had
faith within him and all he had to do was exercise it. I believed
that at one time. But after the Lord was pleased
to call me out of darkness, to reveal His Son in me, I have
a different attitude about myself and here's my attitude about
myself and now as I was born in Adam, I believe that I was
born dead in trespasses and sins. I don't believe that I was born
with a free will. I don't believe that I was born
with the ability to be able to reconcile myself back to God. What is the reason for the hope?
Well, here's my reason for hope. Number one, I was not floating
down the river of life, you know, just waiting for somebody to
throw me the lifeline so I could grab ahold of it. No, I was a
corpse. Just floating down the river
of life. You can throw me all the lifelines you wanted to.
And you know what a corpse will do with a lifeline? Nothing. What's going to happen? God's
going to have to do something for me that I can't do for myself.
The Lord was going to have to give me life. What's the reason
for the hope? I was dead. Which brings me to
my second point. This sinner right here, one that
agrees with this truth, there's none that doeth good, no not
one. This one that believes now that
truly all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Here's
my second point and reason for the hope. for God Almighty showing
mercy to a dead dog sinner. Here's my second point. The Lord
came to save sinners. He came to save sinners. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom the Apostle Paul said, I'm chief. What's the reason of your hope,
Paul? I was dead. And Christ came to
save dead sinners. You know if General Motors made
an announcement that they're going to be giving brand new
cars away to everybody that was born in Central Louisiana. Everybody that was born in Central
Louisiana on October the 5th, 1949 is going to get a brand
new car. I'd say, you know what? I'm going
to get a new car. Because that distinction right
there, I fit. I fit that criteria right there.
I was born in central Louisiana. I was born in Alexandria, Louisiana,
October the 5th, 1949. I'm going to get a new car. That distinction right there
is for me. According to 1 Timothy 1.15, Christ Jesus came into this world
to save sinners. If Almighty God has given me
a heart revealing to me that I am before God, not just one
that every once in a while, you know, stumbles a little bit. Here's the distinction of a sinner. One that does nothing, Bill,
but sin. That's all I do is sin. I'm not talking about every once
in a while. A sinner is one that all he does, that's all he does,
The Lord looked and he saw that every thought of the imagination
of man was evil continually. That's a sinner. But as God said
one time, a sinner is a precious thing. The Holy Ghost has made
him so. Man by nature doesn't believe
he's a sinner. Oh, I may not be as good as some
people, but I'm not nearly as bad as most of them. That's an
attitude of a man that does not see himself. But you find a sinner,
all he ever does is sin. Now, I tell you what, you've
got an old nature about you. that's going to try to convince
you. You know the heart is desperately wicked. It's deceitful above
all things. And let me tell you what your
old wicked heart, I'm talking about the heart in which we were
born in Adam. You know what that heart's going
to tell you? You're not that bad. You're not that bad. I mean, there's some bad people
in this world, but you're not one of them. You're just not,
I mean, you know, I try to be a law-abiding citizen, you know,
as often as I can. Really, I do. You know, I don't just go out
and just do, I'm talking about really bad stuff. Now, some of
the minor things I realize I might slip on something. You know what
that is? That's deceitful. That's deceitful. What's the reason for your hope? The reason for my hope is that
the Lord has now revealed me to be nothing but a sinner. And
I've got an old nature and it has not changed one bit. I got
an old man in me and that's all it does. I'm just, I'm a wicked
sinner. But here's a reason my hope,
Christ Jesus, came into this world. According to God's everlasting
covenant of grace, came into this world, he who has everlastingly
stood as the surety of God's sheep, he who was made of a woman,
made under the law, that he might be made sin. bear the guilt of his people.
And here's the third reason, the reason of my hope. By God's
grace, by the Lord's grace, not in order to obtain salvation,
that'd be by works, but as a result of the Lord doing something for
me that I could not do for myself. He gave me a new heart. He imparted life. I wasn't seeking Him. I wasn't
seeking the Lord. How do you know you weren't seeking
the Lord? Scripture tells me no man seeks after God. Was Saul of Tarsus seeking the
Lord on the road to Damascus? How did he come in contact with
the Lord? The Lord stopped him by grace
and revealed himself to him. Who art thou, Lord? He said,
I'm Jesus of Nazareth, the one that you're persecuting. And
what did he say? Lord, what would you have me
to do? What would you have me to do?
What did Saul of Tarsus do? He cast himself upon God's mercy. What would you have me to do? Here's the reason for the hope
that the Lord would give me a heart to come and to cast myself upon
him for mercy. Not for salvation, but because
he'd already saved me. I tell you when a man or woman
casts himself upon the mercy of God, God's already done something
for them. All that the Father giveth me. Now let me tell you what I know
so far about that scripture. That there is an election of
grace. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. I know this, that salvation is
sure for those that the Father has given him. And him that cometh
to me, that word cometh is a continual thing. If you've ever come to
the Lord, you're coming still. There's not one believer in here
that has not continually come to the Lord. Since the day that
God called you out of darkness, you're still coming. You're hearing
of Him right now and you're thinking, you know what? I think the Lord
has shown me that I was born a rebel against God. And thanks
be unto God that God would come into this world to save sinners.
And the reason of my hope, He gave me a heart to come. Because
I wouldn't have come if He hadn't called me. I wouldn't have called
on Him if He had not called on me. I believe God. I believe that I have a good
hope. What is your good hope? I have
no confidence in my flesh. I believe the salvations of the
Lord. I believe that Almighty God has had mercy and compassion
on me when I didn't have sense enough to get out of the rain.
I believe that the Lord was pleased to not let me perish. That's
what I believe. And I believe that God has kept
me until this day. And I believe, by the grace of
God, that when I leave this world, I believe that he's gonna receive
me unto himself. And that where he is, that's
where I'm gonna be. You believe, Marvin, that you've
been the reason for that? No, sir, I don't. No, sir, I
don't. I believe that the first day
he ever gave me a heart to cast myself upon him was by grace. And as I came to him the first
time, that's the way I'm coming this morning, by the grace of
God. And I pray that the Lord bless
the word to our hearts for Christ's sake, amen. All right, let's
just take a break. Believe it or not.