Long time, knowing Brother Jim
and I know he's done such a good job here, but Paul told me, I
think it was yesterday, that it's just obvious that Jim has
done such a good job when he's here and preaching the gospel
because he says he just made it easy for him. And I know that,
and I'm so thankful to be here and see Paul. Like Paul said,
we go back a long way, and I don't have a better friend than Paul
Mahan. I love him dearly. He's such a constant encouragement
to me. And, you know, this thing of
this is a very blessed assembly. In the sense that you get to
hear the gospel preached by somebody faithful to your souls. Now,
I went through an experience recently, I guess I look pretty
healthy now, but less than a year ago, I thought I wasn't going
to make it. I got down to looking at me now, you won't believe
this, I weighed 145 pounds a few months, probably nine or ten
months ago. I told my wife I was going to
die, and I thought for several weeks I was going to die. And
I was made to think of a lot of things during that time. It
looked like I wasn't going to make it. Other than Christ Himself,
other than His perfect righteousness covering my naked soul, other
than His blood, what was most precious to me at that time was
the fact that God in His adorable providence had made it to where
from a child I could hear the gospel. From a child, I had a
pastor who was more concerned about me knowing the name of
Christ than his own name. And let me tell you, that is
the greatest, other than Christ himself, that is the greatest
possible blessing that God can bring upon you. It really is. It's a greater blessing than
a believing wife or husband. That's how important this thing
is. What a reason you have to be thankful. I thank God for
this congregation. I thank God for your pastor.
Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. I just want to read one verse.
I want to read verse 16. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Verse 16, Now our Lord Jesus
Christ himself, and God even our Father, which hath loved
us, and hath given us everlasting consolation, and good hope through
grace. Good hope. through grace. Paul tells us in our text that
the Lord Jesus has given the believer a good hope through
grace. Do you have a good hope? A good hope. We read in Romans chapter 8 verse
24 that we are saved by hope. Now, If I am saved by hope, I
better make sure I have the right hope. I better make sure that
I have a good hope. Now, hope, if you look through
the Scriptures, hope is a dominant theme in the Scriptures. It's
a twin grace with faith. When the writer to the Hebrews
wrote in Hebrews chapter 11, verse 1, to define faith, he
says, now faith is the substance or the ground of things hoped
for. Now, hope describes these three
things in the Scriptures. First, hope describes the anticipation
of a good. Now, I hope one day when I die
and meet God in judgment, I hope to be accepted by God Almighty. I have a hope that when I come
into God's presence, the thrice holy God, that he's going to
say, come in. You're accepted. You're completely
accepted through Christ. I've got a hope of being accepted
by God. That's my anticipation of a hope. Secondly, a hope in the scriptures
means the ground upon which that hope is based. Why do you hope
that? Because of Christ. Christ in
you. The hope of glory. And hope,
in this thing of hope, it's also included as the object upon which
your hope is fixed. We read in 1 Timothy 1, verse
1, the Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope. That's what a hope's
all about. I mean, every day we have a hope. We have a hope one day to see
Christ. When we pray, we have a hope that our prayers are heard.
We have a hope that our sins are forgiven. We have a hope
that we know the living God. We read phrases in the Bible
like this, Acts 23, 6, the hope and resurrection of the dead.
Acts 26, 27, the hope of the promise of the fathers. Galatians
5, 5, the hope of righteousness by faith. Colossians 1, 23, the
hope of the gospel. Romans 5, 2, the hope of the
glory of God. 1 Thessalonians 5, 8, the hope
of salvation. Ephesians 1, 8, the hope of his
calling. Titus 1, 2, the hope of eternal
life. And in the New Testament, three
adjectives are used to describe hope. First, we read of a blessed
hope. Titus 2, 13, looking for that
blessed hope. If you have a hope in Christ,
you're blessed. You're blessed. You're supremely
blessed by God. He's done something for you He
hasn't done for everybody else. It's also described as a living
hope. 1 Peter 1, 3, He hath begotten us again unto a living hope by
the resurrection of Christ from the dead, as opposed to a dead
hope or a false hope, a living hope. And then we read in our
text of a good hope through grace. We hope that our sins are pardoned. We hope that our hearts have
been renewed. We hope that we're at peace with
God. We hope we're of that great number
of God's elect, adopted, redeemed, justified, sanctified, and accepted
in Christ. We have a hope to be in heaven.
Is that hope a good hope? Is that hope a living hope as
opposed to a dead hope? We read in Romans Five, five,
hope maketh not ashamed. Is my hope a hope that I won't
be ashamed of in judgment day? A hope that I won't be put to
shame at in judgment day? Do I have that good hope spoken
of in the scriptures? Now, that's what I want us to
consider this evening. What a good hope is and whether
or not I have it. I want to give you five marks
of a good hope. I got these from a sermon preached
over one hundred years ago by a man by the name of J.C. Ryle,
and I thought that these marks were so outstanding. And if you
have a hope, if you have a good hope, this hope will manifest
all five of these marks. So I want you to listen carefully
as we consider these things. First, a good hope is a hope
that a person can explain. A good hope is a hope that's
drawn from the Scriptures. It's drawn from God's Word. Thirdly,
a good hope is a hope that's based on Christ alone. Fourthly, a good hope is a hope
that's felt within. And last, a good hope is a hope
that's manifested outwardly. every time. First, let's consider
this first point. A good hope is a hope that can
be explained. Turn with me in your Bibles to
1 Peter 3. 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 fear." That's pretty clear, isn't it?
I must be able to explain in my own words a reason for the
hope that is in me. what that hope is and how I know
I have it. And if I can't tell you what
my hope is, it's because I don't have a hope. It's as plain as
that. If you can't tell me what your
hope is, it's because you don't have a hope. A hope, a good hope,
is a hope that a person can explain. Now listen to me carefully. I'm
not saying that you have to be well educated and have a great
knowledge to be saved. There are many people who are
expert theologians who could maybe even quote the scriptures
from cover to cover and could explain all the different nuances
and the finer points of theology and can tell you what the difference
between superlups I can't even say it. Superlative Stereotypism
and all the things the theologians say. They can tell you all the
difference and don't know Christ and don't have a good hope. Yet
there are others who can't read or write, who have a hard time
expressing themselves in any way to anybody, yet they have
a hope in the living God. They know Christ and they have
true wisdom and are saved. So when I'm saying this, I'm
not saying, when I say you got to be able to explain what your
hope is, I'm not saying you have to have great theological knowledge
and a bunch of intelligence and so on. But I am saying this,
you must know what your hope is. And you must be able to explain
that hope to others. It's not possible to possess
a good hope and to know nothing about it. You can't do it. If a lady knows how to bake a
pound cake, she can tell anybody else how to bake a pound cake.
It's really very simple. Knowledge is essential to saving
faith, and knowledge is essential to a good hope. Our Lord said
in John 17 3, this is eternal life, that they might know thee,
the only true God, as opposed to a false God. that they might
know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast
sent." Now, my dear friends, we know who we worship, and we
know why we worship Him. Where in the New Testament do
you find men and women called Christians, believers, the children
of God, who have no knowledge of the gospel of God's grace,
or the personal work of Christ? You don't find it. Every single
believer knows Christ, and they know who and what their hope
is. Now, knowledge alone is not a
good hope, but there is no hope to be had apart from a knowledge
of the gospel. We read in James chapter 1, verse
18, "...of his own will begat he us through the word of truth."
Our Lord said, "...you shall know the truth and the truth."
shall make you free." No one has a good hope who doesn't
know that that good hope is through grace. Now, again, I'm not saying
you have to be a learned theologian, knowing everything about God,
sin, grace, redemption, and salvation. I'm not saying you've got to
know everything about those things, but I do know this. First of
all, you have to have a knowledge of the character of God. You've
got to know He's holy. You've got to know he's righteous,
that he's on the throne, that he hates sin, and he must destroy
and put away all that's contrary to himself. He must do those
things. You've got to know he's sovereign.
There's no such thing as a believer who doesn't know God's sovereign.
They might have never heard the term sovereignty, but they know
he's on the throne. They know he rules and reigns,
and they know he's the first cause behind all events. And
he's king in salvation. If you don't know that, you don't
know God. Every believer knows something about the character
of God's holiness and righteousness. Everybody that's a believer knows
something about sin. I'm not talking about just the
acts of sin. I'm talking about the nature of sin. I know. Paul
said this. He didn't use this statement,
I know much. But he said that when he did, he really meant
something. He said, I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells
no good thing. You got to know something about
that. You got to know that not only am I, am I sinful, but even,
even my righteous acts are nothing but filth and dung in God's sight
because of who doesn't. You got to know something about
that. That doesn't take great theological knowledge. Somebody
says, well, I don't understand it. It's easy to understand.
It ain't that you don't understand it. You might not receive it,
but anybody can understand what the Bible teaches about man.
You got to know something. You got to know something about
grace. You got to know that salvation is by grace alone. Somebody says,
are you telling me that you have to intellectually understand
that salvation is of the Lord? Yeah. I am telling you that. You've got to understand that
salvation is all of God's grace, from the beginning to the end.
God planned it back in eternity past, according as He has chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world. God purchased it
in the death of His Son. God applies it. Our free will
doesn't bring it to us. God does it. It's not of Him
that will it, nor of Him that will it, but of God that shows
mercy. It's God that preserves us. You've got to know those
things. Salvation is by grace. You've got to know something
about Christ and what he did on the cross. You know, everybody
will give you an opinion of what they think about Jesus, won't
they? Not too many people can tell you anything about Christ
crucified, though. You can't separate the person
and the work. It's not Christ only, it's Christ crucified.
what he did. You've got to understand that
the only way that I can come into God's presence is through
the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. You've
got to know those things. A hope that does not understand
this is not a good hope. A hope is a hope that a person
can explain. Now, my dear friends, if you can't explain your hope,
it's because you don't have hope. Every true believer, if you're
a believer, you can explain that hope. Be always ready to give
every man an answer, a reason for the hope that's in you. My
hope is Christ, His precious blood. Secondly, a good hope
is a hope that is drawn from the scriptures. Psalm 119, 49,
remember the word unto thy servant. upon which thou hast caused me
to hope." Psalm 119, 81, "'My soul fainteth for thy salvation,
but I hope in thy word.'" Romans 15, 4, "'Whatsoever things were
written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through
patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.'" Now, if our hope is a good hope,
it must be based on God's written Word. If my hope is sound, I
must be able to turn to some text or fact or doctrine of God's
Word and say, here's why I have this hope. It's got to come right
from the Scriptures. J.C. Ryle said, our confidence
must arise from something that God has caused to be written
in the Bible for our learning and which our heart has believed
and received. Now, listen to me. It's not enough
to have good feelings. I've talked to so many people.
Well, I feel saved. I just feel like I love God and
I feel like God loves me and so on. Well, how do you know? Can you show me from the scriptures? Scripture says in Proverbs chapter
28, verse 26, He that trusts in his heart is a fool. Jeremiah
17, 9 says, the heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all
things. Who can know it? It's not enough
for me to have good feelings without a word from God's word.
It's not a good hope. Somebody says, well, I believe
I'm saved because just about everybody thinks I am. That doesn't
make you saved either. Your spouse can think you're
saved. That doesn't make you saved. Your hope must be from
the Word of God. You must be able to point to
it. Let me give you a few examples. If you have a good hope, you
must be able to point to that which God has revealed in His
Word and say, I draw my hope from this. Let me give you just
a few examples. Romans chapter 5, verse 6. It says, When we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. Now, I
find something in there I can get hold of. I know what he's
talking about when he says, without strength. I don't have any strength
to do anything. I know what he's talking about
when he talks about ungodly. I'm ungodly. The Bible says Christ
died for the ungodly. Now, I can get hold of that,
and I can get some hope out of that. I can get some hope that
I'm going to be brought into his presence, holy, accepted,
and unblameable in his sight because of what Christ did. 1
Timothy 1.15. when we were, or this is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I am chief. I'm a spinner. He came
to save sinners. What about that Ethiopian eunuch?
He was, had Philip preaching the gospel to him, and he asked
the question, he said, what does hinder me from being baptized?
Now, he was asking that honestly. He wanted to know, why should
I be baptized? He wasn't so sure about everything.
He felt like maybe it might be presumptuous for him to think
he ought to be baptized. So he said to God's preacher,
he said, what hindered me from being baptized? He said, if you
believe with all your heart, you may. And that Ethiopian eunuch
said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Do you believe
that? You've got a good hope, if you
believe that in your heart. That's a good hope. That's a
hope that's based on the Scriptures. Without reading and hearing the
Word of God, you must live and die in ignorance and without
hope. You see, faith and hope are inseparable. Where there
is faith, there is hope, and where there is hope, there is
faith. And faith and hope come from hearing, and hearing by
the Word of God. And any hope that is not founded
on God's Word is a false hope. Are you saved? I hope so. Tell me why. Can you explain
it? Can you show me from God's Word? Can you give a reason? Somebody
says, well, I think I am because I did this, or I feel that, or
I experienced this. That ain't enough. Tell me about
now. Can you turn to God's word and
tell me what your hope is? Now, thirdly, and this is most
important, a good hope is a hope that rests entirely on Jesus
Christ. First Timothy 1.1, the Lord Jesus
Christ, which is our hope. Colossians 1.27, Christ in you. The hope of glory, if you have
a good hope, it's based entirely on Jesus Christ. Now the man
who has a good hope, he bases all of his hopes of pardon, all
of his hope of salvation, all of his hope with acceptance with
God on Christ and Christ alone. Plus nothing, minus nothing.
Turn with me to Philippians chapter three. Paul says in verse three, we
are the circumcision. We are the true children of God. We're the ones who are true believers.
And he gives this threefold mark of a true believer. He says,
which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. That word rejoice means glory.
We put all of our trust, all of our confidence, all of our
hope in him. And we have what? no confidence
in the flesh. That's the threefold mark of
the true believer. He sees his own wickedness. He
flings away his self-righteousness, and he lays the burden and the
weight of self and sin entirely on Jesus Christ. If you have
a hope, you base it on him alone. Now, somebody comes up to me
and they ask me the question, what makes you think that you're
saved? Good question. What's your answer? What makes you think that you're
saved? One answer is acceptable. Because
of the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because
of his substitutionary death on the cross. When from the dust
of death I rise to take my mansions in disguise, even then shall
this be all my plea that Jesus lived and died for me. That's it. That's my hope. What
about it? What about it? Is there anything
else? No, nothing else. That's it. The substitutionary
death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. Well, what makes
you think God's going to accept you? Because of the righteousness
and merits of Christ. Not because of anything I've
done or been unable to do or felt like doing or wanting to
do. Only because of the imputed righteousness of Christ. What
makes you think your sins are going to be forgiven? How do
you know your sins are going to be forgiven? What makes you
think God's going to look over those things? Because of the
blood of Christ. That's it. We read in Romans
5, 9, being justified freely by his blood. Doesn't say he made justification
and forgiveness and acceptance with God possible. It says we're
justified by his blood. That means when he shed his precious
blood, my sin was put away, and his righteousness was imputed
to me, and I'm accepted before God. That's why I believe my
sins will be forgiven, because of the blood of Christ. What
makes you think God hears your prayer? Now, that's some kind
of question. What makes you think that the
thrice holy God will hear the prayers of a vile maggot like
you? What makes you think that? Because
of the intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ. This pitiful little
prayer that goes up for me, it's not only sinful because I have
wandering thoughts, it's sinful because a defiled being brings
it up. And even my prayers ought to
send me to hell. But yet God hears that prayer
and he's well pleased with it. He accepts it. He answers it.
How come? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
takes that prayer as my intercessor and he presents it to the Father.
And it's accepted. You see, it's all Christ. My
hope is Christ from the beginning to the end. What makes you think
you'll persevere? What makes you think you won't
fall away? His grace. His power. What makes you think
you'll be accepted at the end? Well, we read in Ephesians 1,
6 that we're accepted in the beloved. And that word is literally
we're graced in the beloved. Accepted in Him. You will, with
the disciples in the matter of salvation, see no man save Jesus
only in this thing of hope. A man who has a good hope rests
entirely on the Lord Jesus Christ. We read in 1 Corinthians 1.30
that Christ has made into us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Now, that covers it all. Christ is all in salvation. In
election, he's everything. In righteousness, he's everything.
In redemption, he's everything. In sanctification, he's everything.
In perseverance, he's everything. In judgment, Christ is all. And you cannot, now listen to
me, you cannot be saved until you trust Christ alone as your
salvation. Not Christ and, not Christ plus,
but Christ alone. And what a good hope he is. He's
a good hope now. I was made like I was telling
you at the first about that sickness I had. I was made to think that just within
a few hours for several weeks, I was just waiting to die, thinking
I was going to stand before God in judgment. And I remember one
one evening in particular, I lost my assurance. I started thinking,
oh, What if what I believed isn't true? What if it won't get me
to heaven? What if salvation has something to do with my works
and the things I do? Well, if that's the case, I'm
in trouble. I'm doomed for hell. And I started getting scared.
I remember I laid there in my bed at night. Nobody was around. I laid there and I cried like
a baby. I thought I was going to go to
hell. I thought God was going to cast me off. I just forgot
the gospel. I forgot how Christ is my hope.
The Lord allowed me to do that. And then I remembered Psalm 32,
verses 1 and 2. Blessed is the man whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord will not impute iniquity. This is all Christ. I remembered.
I was enabled to remember that my acceptance with God, my hope
for salvation was not based on anything that had anything to
do with me. There's not a thing that I could
do to make myself better in God's presence and sight, and there's
not a thing I could do to make myself worse in God's sight.
My acceptance was based only on the Lord Jesus Christ, His
righteousness and His merits and His shed blood. Now, my dear
friends, that's a good hope. You can have all kinds of religious
people talking, and they'll tell you your hope's got to be in
this and that, and you've got to do this and that for hope.
Well, I tell you, when it comes down to where the rubber meets
the road, if you think you're going to die, that stuff's going
to fly away. And the only hope that's any
good is the hope of the righteousness and merits of Christ. That's
a good hope. If you have a good hope, your
hope is Christ alone. Not Christ and, not Christ plus,
but Christ alone. Have you ever let go of everything
else? Let go of your works, your tears, your prayers, your efforts,
your doctrine, your evidences, the things you've done, the things
you haven't done, and rested in Christ alone? Oh, that's a
good hope. Fourthly, a good hope is a hope
that is felt inwardly in the heart. A good hope is a hope that's
felt inwardly, in the heart. Romans 5 verse 5 says, Because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given to us.
Romans 12, Paul speaks of rejoicing in hope. Rejoicing. Hope is something
that we feel in our hearts. Anyone who has a good hope is
conscious of it. It's manifest in different ways
to different people, I realize that. And the apprehension of
it is different. I'm not saying that believers
at all time have full assurance. A lot of times they don't. And
it's only because of self-righteousness that you don't. If you look to
Christ at all times, you'd have assurance at all times. And if
anytime you don't have assurance, it's because you're looking within
and not looking to Him. I can guarantee you that. But
still, a good hope is a hope that's felt inwardly. If you have a good hope, it's
something you feel. Now, listen to me carefully. We must, we
must watch out for empty emotionalism. I wouldn't give you two cents
for it. But I equally dread cold, unfelt, dead, dry orthodoxy. I dread that just as much as
I dread wildfire Pentecostalism. One is as evil as the other.
I wouldn't give you a nickel for feelings only. My soul, my
feelings change a thousand times a day. It might be that one day
that I feel like maybe I'm not even saved because of the evil
thoughts I have. That doesn't change my salvation.
It doesn't have anything to do with it. Feelings don't have
anything to do with it. I wouldn't give you a nickel for feelings
only. My feelings change so much, but I wouldn't give you a nickel
for any religion that's without feeling either. I wouldn't do
it. Life in Christ is something you
feel in your soul. Peace is a feeling. Joy is a
feeling. Rest is a feeling. Confidence is a feeling. The witness of the Spirit that
we experience is a feeling. The fear of God is a feeling. You see that? That's foolishness
to imagine that you can experience God's saving grace and saving
love and not feel it. Can Lazarus be raised from the
dead and not know it? Can blind Bartimaeus receive
his sight and not be aware of it? Can a weary man lie down and
not feel rested? Can a thirsty man drink and not
have his thirst quenched? Anyone that's been translated
from darkness to light feels something within their souls. Now, I can't tell you when I
was saved. I don't have any idea, actually, within years of when
it happened. I just don't know. As a matter of fact, if you've
got to look back twenty minutes for assurance, you've missed
Christ or you trusted Him now, that's the question. But I know
that one time I was dead, now I'm alive. One time I didn't
love Christ, I love Him now. One time I didn't see any glory
in His person. There was a time when you could
have told me of the glories of the Redeemer, that's nice, but
it wouldn't have meant anything to me. Well, now somebody tells
me about the excellency and the glory of Christ, of His kingship
and of His sovereignty, of His reign, of His effectual atonement,
of His irresistible grace. You tell me that, I get excited.
I'm glad to hear about that. Something I feel, something I
delight in, something I rejoice in. I was condemned and now I'm free.
Will you tell me that you can see something of redeeming love? of redeeming power, of almighty,
sovereign, irresistible, invincible, effectual grace, to your hell-deserving,
ill-deserving soul, and not feel it. Somebody says, oh, there'll be
somebody, I bet there's somebody thinking, oh, I hate myself because
I don't feel it. Yeah, you do. You wouldn't be
saying that if you didn't. You wouldn't. Somebody said,
oh, I'm afraid I don't feel it enough. Well, if you didn't have
feelings, you wouldn't be saying something like that. You know, a mark of
grace in the soul is a struggle. If there wasn't a struggle there,
if there wasn't that fight with sin, that fight with self, that'd
mean you wasn't alive. Don't trust your feelings, but
don't trust faith without feelings. A good hope is a hope that's
felt inwardly in the heart. And last, a good hope, a good
hope, I'm talking about the hope of the Scriptures, the hope that's
truly in Christ. A good hope is a hope that's
manifested outwardly in the life. Now turn with me to 1 John, chapter
3, verse 2. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. And it does not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall
be like Him. For we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this
hope in him, that hope in Christ, it doesn't just say any kind
of old hope, this hope in him, every man, that hath this hope
in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." The Apostle James
said, show me your faith without your works, I'll show you my
faith by my works. Somebody says, I trust Christ
that I'm going to prove it by doing nothing and just living
a life of indifference and carelessness and worldliness and sin. And
I say, I don't believe any works. Yeah, you believe the works.
Yeah, you show it. You'll be in hell for it, too.
He says, show me your faith without your works. I'll show you my
faith by my works in the sense that I'll show you my faith because
Christ is all to me. I live for him. I live for his
glory. And that proves that I trust
him alone. The man or woman who has the hope of eternal life
in Christ seeks to purify his life and conduct, imitating the
character and the conduct of the Lord Jesus Christ in this
world. If Christ is my hope, I seek
to walk after His example. 1 John 2, verse 16, He that saith,
He abideth in him, ought himself also to walk, even as he walked. If Christ is my hope, I love
Him and keep His commandments. 1 John 5, verses 2 and 3, by
this we know we love the children of God when we love God and keep
His commandments. For this is the love of God that
we keep His commandments, that we seek to honor Him. If Christ
is my hope, I seek to be detached from this world and attached
to Christ. Colossians 3, verses 1-3, If
ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which were
above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of the Father.
Set your affection. That means everything. That means
my goals, my desires, my ambitions, my faith, my trust, my confidence,
what I want for my family, what I want for my children, what
I want for everybody. Set your affection. That's everything. on things above and not on things
on the earth. Oh, this life is just a vapor.
We're going to die pretty soon. I want to set my affections on
things above. Now, you listen to me. It is
impossible. It is impossible to hope in Christ
and not live for Him. It can't be done. If you're a
true believer, you will willingly bow to the Lordship of Jesus
Christ in your life. And your greatest goal is for
Him to reign in you and to control you. You want to be His little
robot. Folks, I think it was you that
said this to me. I remember I was so impressed
with this statement. You know, folks, when they hear about the
sovereignty of God, they say, I don't want to be a robot. Well,
I'm not so sure if that's such a bad thing. I think I'd like
to be his robot. I'd like for him to be in me
so much that I got no choice in what I do. The worst thing
that can happen to me is to be left to my free will. The worst
thing that can happen to me is to make my own decisions in any
way. Oh, I want him to reign in me and to rule in me and cause
me to honor him in everything that I do. A good hope is always
manifested outwardly. in the life. And if you have
a good hope, the hope that is according to the Scriptures,
you will have all five of these marks. I'm just persuading you
of it. A good hope is a hope that, first of all, is a hope
that you can explain. A good hope is a hope that's drawn
from the Scriptures. You can turn to God's Word and
say, this is the reason for my hope. A good hope is based on
Christ alone. Not Christ and this or that,
Christ alone. Fourthly, a good hope is a hope
that's felt inwardly in the heart, and a good hope is a hope that's
manifested outwardly in the life. Now, if you have this good hope,
be zealous and watchful over it. Don't become indifferent
because you have a good hope. Seek to make it stronger. Seek
to trust Christ more. I know you can't make it stronger.
You all know what I'm saying. Seek to trust him more. Seek
to rest in him more. Be jealous over this hope and
watchful over it. Keep it ready for trials. They
come on us like a thief in the night. My soul, if you go through
a trial without having assurance and hope, that trial's so miserable.
But if God sends you through a trial and you've got assurance
in faith, you've got assurance in Christ, it's nothing but a
blessing, like a breeze. You tell that hope to others.
They have no hope apart from hearing your hope. You know,
the Lord Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5, I think it's verse
16. He said, You are the light of the world. Now, there's another
place in John where he said, I'm the light of the world. But
he said, You are the light of the world. My dear friends, the
folks around you are not going to have a good
hope unless you tell them what your hope is. You are the light
of Rocky Mount, Virginia. And you have a responsibility. I have a responsibility to seek,
by the grace of God, to tell others that hope, to seek to
bring others to hear of that hope. The best thing you can
do for somebody is get them to come to church. That's just so. It is. That's the only way folks
are going to have a good hope is through you telling them that.
I know God's sovereign. I know the only way anybody will
be saved is through Him saving them. I'm aware of that, but
he works through memes. He works through the preaching
of the gospel. So if you've got that good hope, don't keep it
to yourself. Spread it out. I hope that's been a blessing. Somebody asked him, are you saved? He said, is Christ at the right
hand of the Father? He said, yes, and I'm saved. And that's my hope. He's been
with me. We thank you for the blessing
that you give us. We want to be able to hear it
and go where it's coming from. We thank you for bringing it
to us so clearly through this Mass. And I don't know if you've
really been hearing it, but the blessing we give to us is that
we believe, we believe in Jesus Christ, the Son, the Living God,
and we have You know what's that? It's a... It's a... It's a...