We're so glad to be here with
you this morning. I pray the Lord will give him
a word of comfort and instruction and blessing for you. My prayer
to him before I came up here to this pulpit today was threefold. Father, glorify thyself. Our Lord prayed that in the Garden
of Gethsemane. He said, glorify me that I may
glorify thee. That's our end and goal to glorify
God, chief end of every man. Secondly, that he would exalt
and honor the Son. Our Lord has promised to bless
those who honor the Son. He that honoreth me, Christ said,
my Father will honor. And thirdly, my prayer was that
the Lord would make me a blessing to you and enable me to give
you a word of comfort and hope and peace. I said to my granddaughter
Carrie and to Adam Simpson, who is with us this morning, this
congregation loves the gospel. As you were coming in and we
were sitting there visiting prior to the service, I brought him
up to date on you all. I said the apostate loves Christ
and the gospel and they love Christ and the gospel. It's always
a joy and a privilege and a blessing to come here and worship God
with you. His presence is truly among you. This morning we're going to turn
to 1 Peter chapter 3. My subject today is the believer's
hope, and I hope by his grace it will
be a blessing to you, the believer's hope. In 1 Peter 3, verse 15,
the apostle says to us, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Sanctify the Lord How do we sanctify
the Lord God? The Lord God is holy. We don't
make him holy. We don't add to his holiness.
The Lord God is sovereign. The Lord God is omnipotent, omniscient,
and omnipresent. How in the world do we sanctify
him? What Peter is saying here is
acknowledge his holiness. Acknowledge his sovereignty.
When our Lord taught the disciples to pray, he said, Start your
prayer this way. Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Thy name is holy and reverent,
and I admit it, and I acknowledge it, and I rejoice in it. I sanctify
the Lord God. He is God. He is holy. He is sovereign. He is above
all. The Lord thy God reigneth. I
acknowledge that. Acknowledge it where? In your
heart. Sanctify the Lord God in your
heart. Many of you sitting here will
readily say, well, I'm just not able to, as a lot of people talk
about praise the Lord all the time and blessed Jesus and say
these things like I hear people just say all the time, well,
praise the Lord. Well, Peter says here, for you
to sanctify God in him. This is the main place right
here. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Sanctify God in my heart. That's where God is acknowledged
and worshiped and sanctified. God is spirit, and they that
worship God worship him, not in mouth. only but in spirit
and in truth. So this is what you sanctify
the Lord God. Acknowledge his holiness and
majesty and glory and power and you do it in your heart. In your
heart. That's the place. God doesn't
look on the outward countenance alone. He's not impressed by
our much speaking. The Lord looketh on the heart.
That's where judgment takes place. That's where he is pleased, when
we worship and acknowledge his holiness in him. And then he
says, secondly, he says, be ready. Be taught, be established, be
ready. Be filled. Let your conversation
be established with grace. Be ready. Always, always have
the Word of God in your heart. Be taught. Feast upon the Word. Study the Word. Learn the Word. And be ready to give an answer,
a reply, to every man that asks you. You don't have to run around
and be trying to impress everybody with your salvation, but you
be ready when someone asks you. When a brother asks you, or a
sister, or a mother, or a father, or a cousin, or a relative, or
a fellow workman, or a neighbor, or your children, you be established
in grace and in the gospel and in the word of God. Be taught
and be ready, always. when they ask you to give them
an answer. Ask you what? Listen. A reason
of the hope that is in you. You say you're a believer, you're
a child of God. You say that if you leave this
world today, you go to be with the Lord. Your sins are pardoned,
your sins are forgiven, you're a child of the King. Give me
a reason why you believe that. You have a hope of eternal life,
a hope of eternal glory, and we do? Well, tell me why. Give me a reason for the hope
that's in you. And listen, and do it not with
cockiness and with pride and with arrogance and looking down
on someone else. Do it with meekness. Do it with
humility. Like David said, Lord, who am
I and what is my house that you should show such mercy to us? Richard Baxter one time saw a
drunk staggering down the street, and he watched him. And with
compassion in his heart and humility, he said, There, there except
for the grace of God, goes Richard Baxter. So when someone asks us a reason
for the hope that we have in Christ, be ready to give them
an answer. But be ready to do it with meekness
and with the fear of God. And like you were talking about
this morning, except for His grace, we'd fall. We'd fail. We'd depart. Do it with meekness
and fear. Not fear of men, but fear of
God. Fear of God. Turn with me to a verse of Scripture
over in 2 Timothy 2. This is talking about the same
thing here. 2 Timothy 2. Verse 24. 2 Timothy 2.24. The servant of the Lord must
not strive and argue and debate and quarrel and pick a fight
with people. The servant of the Lord must
not strive, but be gentle. Be gentle unto all people, all
men. Be kind. We don't find fault with a man
because he's blind, do we? No, we help him across the street.
We don't criticize a person who is afflicted and handicapped
because they stumble and fall. We pick them up. But except for
the grace of God, we'd be blind, and we'd be lame, and we'd be
still in our sins. So be gentle to all men, and
apt to teach, to show them the way, to point out the way. They
may despise it, they may not receive it. But the wrath of
man's not going to work the righteousness of God. You're not going to persuade
anybody that God's on the throne by by anger and wrath. You're not going to persuade
anyone that we're sinners and need a Savior by getting mad
at them. They have to teach, to instruct. Be filled with the
Spirit and filled with the Word that you may instruct them. You
don't get mad at your children because they don't understand why you
tell them to do certain things. You try to teach them and show
them why. Why are you telling them this? Why this is so? So
we have to teach and patient, be patient, forbearing. Patient
with others. Now listen. In meekness, now
here's those people that's asked us what we believe and why we
believe it. And we say we're Christians and
we're children of God and we have a, we're looking for a city
whose builder and maker is God. Why? Give me a reason for this
hope. Well, do it in meekness, in humility,
instructing those that oppose themselves. They're their own
enemies. They're opposing themselves.
They're doing things that are wrong for them. They're not believing
what is good for them. They're opposing themselves.
They're not destroying you, they're destroying themselves by not
believing the gospel. When you're talking to someone
who doesn't believe the gospel, they're not opposing you. They
can't touch you. They can't change you. They can't
affect you. They can't hinder you. They're
opposing themselves. They're robbing themselves of
the blessing. They're hurting themselves. And
so they're opposing themselves. If, peradventure, if God, peradventure,
will give him repentance, he might. He can. He gave us repentance. His goodness led us to repentance. We fought the gospel, and one
day we quit fighting. Why? Because he gave us repentance. We didn't believe it, hated it,
despised We opposed ourselves. We robbed ourselves of the blessing. We hindered ourselves. We hurt
ourselves, like the man in the tomb cutting himself. And then God gave us repentance,
stripped us, and broke us, and brought us to Christ, and humbled
us, and shut our mouths. He can do the same for them,
and he's the only one who can. The pastor prayed for our children
while it He's the only one that can do
anything for them. I can't. I would. I'd give my life for
one of them. For forty years, I would. Believe
me, you would too. But only God can break the heart.
Only God can reveal Christ. Only God can make an enemy into
a friend. A rebel into a son. Only God. So for adventure, God
will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.
But he's not going to use instruments of wrath and instruments of anger. I know something about that.
He's not going to do it. So go back to my text and look
at it. Sanctify the Lord God in your heart. Exalt God in your
heart. Honor God in your heart. Worship
Him in your heart. Love Him in your heart. Magnify
Him in your heart. God is God, I believe it. And
be ready always. Be taught, be established to
give an answer to every man who asks you a reason of the hope
that's in you. And do it with meekness. Do it
with humility. Do it with kindness. And do it
with fear, fear of the Lord. Now then, The word hope is a
good hope, a good word. It's a good word in reference
to salvation and eternal life. It's a scriptural word. The apostles
used this word frequently, a hope. Have a good hope, a blessed hope,
a living hope. And I'm not going to ask you
to turn to all of these, but And we'll give you several places
where the word hope is used, and it may be good if we look
at some of them. Turn to Romans 5, verse 1 and
2 first. Paul talks about we rejoice in
hope of the glory of God. Believers, we rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. It says in verse 2 of Romans
5, by Christ also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand. And we rejoice in hope of the
glory of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ prayed,
Father, glorify them with the glory which you've given me. I've given them the glory which
you've given me. Now we rejoice in hope of that
glory. That's what Paul is saying here.
In hope of that glory. Turn to Galatians 5. Galatians chapter 5. And here the apostle says in
Galatians 5 verse 4, Christ is become of no effect
unto you whosoever you are justified by the law. If a man tries to
be justified before God, and righteous and holy before God
by the law, or by the deeds of the law, Christ is of no effect
to him. He's fallen from grace, he's
departed from the gospel of grace. For we, through the Spirit, wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith. We have a hope of not
only being eternally glorified, but we have a hope of perfect
holiness, perfect righteousness in Christ. That's our hope. Perfect. We're going to be like Him. We're
going to see him as he is and be like him. We're going to be
conformed to his image. That's my hope. That's your hope.
All right? 2 Thessalonians 2. Listen to
the way Paul uses it here. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verse
16. 2 Thessalonians 2.16. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given
us everlasting consolation and a good hope through grace. We have a hope of the glory of
God which Christ gave us. We have a hope of perfect holiness
being conformed to his blessed image And that hope is given
us by the Father and the Son. It's a free gift. We didn't earn
it. We didn't merit it. We didn't work for it. He gave
it to us. And it's a good hope. It's a
good hope through grace. Our Father, who's loved us eternally,
has given us that good hope. He gave it to us. Alright, watch
another verse. In Titus chapter 1, there's two
verses here, right over a few pages. Titus chapter 1. verse 1 and 2. Titus chapter
1, verse 1 and 2. Paul, a servant of God, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect, and
the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness, in
hope of eternal life. Eternal which God, who cannot
lie, promised before the world began." That's our hope, eternal
life. The glory of God, the righteousness
and holiness of God, the gift of God, and eternity, never ending. When we've been there ten thousand
years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing
God's praise, no less days, 10,000 years, than when we first begun. Think of it then. Eternal. Glory, holiness, conformity to
Christ, eternally. Now watch, right across the page,
Titus 2, verse 13, and we're looking for it. We're looking
for it. We're looking for that blessed
hope. You see how the disciples used
this word? We're looking for that blessed
hope, that blessed hope. The glorious appearing of the
great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for
us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify us,
sanctify us, purifies under himself a peculiar people, a particular
people, a different people, zealous of good works. All right. Preacher, give me a reason why
you have that hope, that hope of glory, the glory which God
gave the sons. at perfect holiness, now and
then. Perfect holiness, the gift of
God, perfect righteousness conformed to the image of Christ, that
Christ will come again and receive you, and you'll eternally be
with the Lord. Well, I think if you'll turn
with me to the book of Lamentations. Jeremiah, in the book of Lamentations,
gives us six reasons for his hope. Six reasons. In the book of Lamentation, verse
3, and I'm going to read this portion, and you be patient and
follow along, read it with me, but Jeremiah's speaking here
of himself, and he's speaking here of Christ, our Lord, who
became, or made sin for us. who was a man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief, who suffered, who was under the judgment of God
for us. But this is Jeremiah speaking
of himself and speaking of Christ. Now listen, I am the man, Lamentation
3 verse 1, I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod
of his wrath. He has led me and brought me
into darkness and not into light. Surely against me is he turned.
The Lord God, He turned His hand against me all the day. My flesh
and my skin hath He made old, He hath broken my bones. He hath
built it against me, encompassed me with gall and travail. He hath set me in dark places
as they did be dead of old. He hath hedged me about, I cannot
get out. He hath made my chain heavy.
And when I cry and shout, He shutteth out my prayer. He hath
enclosed my ways with hewn stone. He hath made my paths crooked.
He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret
places. He hath turned aside my ways
and pulled me in pieces. He hath made me desolate." You
ever felt these things? Sin overwhelms you and overcame
you, and God's my enemy. Darkness, not light. Christ felt
all this in the garden of Gethsemane. He said, my soul is sorrowful
unto death. And on the cross, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? The judgment of God. Before there's going to
be forgiveness, there's going to be judgment. Before God clothes
a man, He'll strip him. Before God exalts a man, He'll
humble him. Before God lifts a man on high,
He'll bring him down to hell. Before a man God gives life,
He'll kill him. That's right. We're going to the cross too.
We're going to be slain by judgment. You judge yourself, you won't
be judged. He bent his bow, verse 12, he
bent his bow and made me the mark for his arrow. He certainly
does. He had caused the arrows of his
quiver to enter into my reins, into my innermost being. I was
a derision to all my people, their song all the day. They laughed at me, made fun
of me, sang songs about me. He has filled me with bitterness.
He has made me drunken with wormwood. Broken my teeth with gravel stones. Oh, the pain, the agony. Covered me with ashes. Rolled
me in the dust. He's removed my soul far from
peace. I didn't, I found no peace. I forgot good. And I said, my strength and my
hope is perished from the Lord. Now then, remembering my affliction
and my misery, my sin, my guilt, my transgression, David said,
as ever before me, against thee have I sinned. The wormwood and
the gall, my soul hath them still in remembrances, humble in me. And this I recall to mind. and
therefore have a hope. You've got, after all that, you've
got a hope. After all that, you have a hope
of glory and a hope of holiness and a hope of eternal life and
a hope of conformity to Christ's image. You, of whom all this
has been said, you've got a hope. How could you have a hope? How
in this world could such a creature have a hope? Here it is, six
things. Number one, it's the Lord's mercies
that I'm not concerned. You want to know my hope of glory
and righteousness and eternal life and conformity to Christ?
God's mercy for me. It's not merit, it's His mercy. It's not my words, it's His mercy. It's not my morality, it's His
mercy. It's not justice, it's mercy. Paul said, I obtained mercy. He said that twice in one chapter
in Timothy. He said, I obtained mercy! Mercy! Mercy is for the guilty. Mercy is undeserved, unmerited. A man can build his hope. Now
listen, a man can build his hope. Of grace and eternal, on salvation
eternal, I am only one of two things. On himself and his works,
and on God and his grace. Not on both. I don't have a hope because of
who I am or what I've done. I don't have a hope because I
made a profession of faith and joined the church, preached a
sermon or two, gave a dollar or two, worked in the church.
I have a hope because God is merciful. God is merciful to
sinners. He said that to Moses. Moses
said, Lord, show me your glory. Show me your glory. Show me your
greater glory. And the Lord God said, all right,
Moses, I'll cause my glory to pass before you. I will be merciful. I will be merciful to whom I
will be merciful, and I will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious. God is gracious. God is merciful. He told Moses that. And David
said that. David said in Psalm 130, out
of the depths. We've been reading about them.
Out of the depths of darkness and death and sin and inability,
out of the depths I cry unto thee, Lord, hear my voice. Lord,
if you should mark a neck with it, who would stand? But there's
forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. God is plenteous
in mercy. And our Lord Jesus Christ one
day was eating with the publicans and harlots and sinners, and
the old religious Pharisees stood off to the side, and they said
to his disciples, Why, why does your master, why does your master
fellowship with people like that? Why does he eat with publicans
and sinners? And the Lord knew their thoughts,
and he turned and said, The well have no need of a physician,
but they that are sick. I've come to call, not the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. You go learn what that means.
I will have mercy. I will have mercy. That's how,
why I have a hope. God said, I will show mercy. I will show mercy. Well, why
not to me? Why not to you? Everybody in
the Scripture who sought mercy found it. The publican in the
temple, Lord, be merciful. Christ said He went out just
to find. The woman with the sick daughter, Lord, be merciful. The Lord healed her. Blind Bartimaeus. Jesus said, David, have mercy! touched them. The thief on the
cross. Lord, mercy. Mercy. Remember me. Today you'll
be with me in paradise. You know my hope? God is merciful. Here's the second one. Look at
it. Same verse, 22. My hope, it's the Lord's mercies
that I'm not concerned because His compassions fail not. His what? His love. His love fail not. His love fails
not. His love for his people is as
old as eternity. He said to Jeremiah, I have drawn
thee with an everlasting love. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore with loving kindness
I've drawn thee. My hope is not that I love God.
My hope is that He loves me. Really. We know Him. I know, someone quoted this while
ago, I know whom I have believed. And we do know Him. And oh, that
I may know Him. That I may grow in grace and
knowledge of Him. But my hope is not that I know
Him. My hope is that He knows me. He knows me. I hope is that he loves me. Okay. And I think that's what we're going to have
to do. you.