1 Peter chapter 3, I want to read
you one verse of scripture. Verse 15. But sanctify the Lord God in
your hearts. How do you do that? Oh, to God
be the glory. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name be glory for thy mercy and thy truth.
Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. And be ready always to
give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope
that is in you with meekness and fear. With meekness and fear,
knowing that only His grace has made you to differ. Answer that
question. If anyone should ask you, do
it with meekness and fear. What would be your answer to
that question? If you were asked, and I'm asking,
and myself, you believe you'll be accepted
by God when life is over, when this vapor has vanished, this
short life, and you stand before the God not like men imagine
Him to be or wish He would be or think that He is. But God
as He is, just, holy, righteous. What's your hope of entering
glory with such a God as that? What would be the answer to that
question? Our Lord Jesus, when He was on
earth, on more than one occasion, spoke about those who had a false
hope. Well, his most fierce enemies
did, didn't they? Who do you think you are, they
would say to him. The son of God? We know better
than that. We know your mama, we know your
daddy's son of God. In bondage? What do you mean
in bondage? We're Abraham's children. We
don't need you. Crucify, crucify him, our Lord. In Matthew chapter 7, I don't
know, I picture this and oh what a dreadful, terrible picture
it is. But it's the truth. Our Lord
said so. He said, not everyone that saith
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven. Really? Well, I thought that's all there
was to it. Lord, Lord, Jesus, my Savior. No, no. But He that
doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. They asked him
on one occasion, what should we do that we might work the
works of God? This is the work of God that
you believe on that one whom God did sin. Many will say to
me on that day, and I don't picture this as being one or two crazy
moonies, but these people imagine this. They go right up to the
very throne of God Almighty, of the Lord Jesus Christ, persuaded,
I mean right up to that moment, thinking they're going to enter
glory and are not convinced until they hear the words from his
own mouth saying, I don't know you. I've never known you. Depart from me. Oh wait, Lord,
Lord, wait, wait. There must be some mistake. We've
done many wonderful works in your name. We've cast out demons
in your name. We're miracle workers. Depart
from me, I never knew you." Ooh, dreadful, terrible picture. But
it's true. But, but, oh let's turn from
that. The Word of God just as certainly
tells us that there's such a thing as a real hope for a sinner. A sure hope, as Paul just sang,
for a sinner like me. Believers know some things, don't
they? And first and foremost, they
know whom they have believed. Faith is not a leap in the dark. Faith is coming from darkness
into light. Having the Son of God revealed
to your heart. I know whom. Oh, there's the
answer of our hope. That's where salvation is. Not
in what, as you've heard many, many times. It's not in what
I know, but who I know. Who I know. Before Paul's conversion,
Saul of Tarsus, man, he knew a lot of things. A lot of what's. I believe Paul could probably
keep you up all night long whether you wanted to or not. Talking
about the law and the ceremonies. Ask him anything. Any of the
sacrifices, Paul could tell you all about them. About the traditions
of the fathers, oh that was a favorite topic of Paul's. The traditions
of the fathers. But with all that, think about
it now, he didn't know God. He didn't know God. All that
time that he was killing the disciples, the followers of the
Lord Jesus Christ, all that time, he thought he was doing God a
service. He thought God was pleased with
that. Oh, religion. Blind, blinded
by religion. Religious but lost. Paul couldn't,
or Saul rather, couldn't have known God. He couldn't have known
God because he didn't know Jesus Christ. He thought he knew God. Sure he did. But it's impossible. No man cometh to the Father,
Christ said, but by me. You can't get there from any
other point. I've heard of people being lost on the driving
or on the highway and stop and ask some fella, man, I'm going
so and so, how do I get there? I'm lost. The old fella said,
you can't get there from here. You start and try to go to God
from any other place other than the Lord Jesus Christ, you'll
end up just lost. It's impossible. All things our
Lord said are delivered to me of my Father. And no man knoweth
who the Son is but the Father, and who the Father is but the
Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. All the blessed revelation
of faith, of Christ. No man comes except the Father
of drawing, and that included Saul of Tarsus. Oh, but after
that God in mercy, When it pleased God, Paul said
to reveal his son to me. My, how Paul changed his tune. My daddy, that was one of his
favorite expressions, Donnie. I would stiffen up about something,
you know. My daddy didn't subscribe to
go stand in a corner. Son, we're going to give you
a time out. His time out was that belt on my butt. That was
the time out. I was wanting a time out. Mercy! But I was dumb enough
to balk about something he'd tell me to do and he'd say, I'll
tell you what son, I'll bet you I can change your tune. Boy,
he sure could. He was very good at it. The Lord Jesus Christ, the God
of all grace, changed Saul of Tarsus' tune. Jesus of Nazareth,
that imposter, If it takes my last breath, I will spend my
life stamping out the memory of that deceiver. But then, he
met him. Not the imposter, not the deceiver. Oh no, he met King Jesus, the
mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, and saw
the Tarsus hit the dust at the feet. of the Lord Jesus Christ
and then he arose and said, man, I don't want to know nothing
else about anything except Jesus Christ and him crucified. Oh
yeah, he changed his tune. Believers know who Jesus Christ
is the same way that Paul came to know by Christ revealing himself
to them. John chapter 17, our Lord said
in his high priestly prayer, And this is life eternal, that
they might know Thee, speaking to His Father, that they might
know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast
sent. 1 John 5, These things have I
written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God,
that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and just keep on
believing. and that ye may believe on the
name of the Son of God." And we know that the Son of God has
come and has given us an understanding that we may know Him. We may
know Him. That is true. And we are in Him. That is true. Even in His Son,
Jesus Christ. This is the true God and life
eternal. In answer to this question, What
is the reason for your hope? I want to speak about just four
places in scripture where it speaks about hope. How it's described,
and I'll be brief. I'll be brief on each one. Four
things that the believer has in the Lord Jesus Christ as a
good answer to his hope. The believer's hope, first of
all, it's a good hope. Is it not 2 Thessalonians? Chapter
2, you know it by heart. Now the Lord Jesus Christ himself,
and God even our Father, verse 16, which had given us, loved
us rather, and had given us everlasting consolation and good hope, through
grace. Good hope, Daryl, through grace. Comfort your hearts and establish
you in every good word and work. Oh, what makes this hope good? Good enough to justify a sinner
before God Almighty? To have Jesus Christ say concerning
that man like he said concerning that publican, I say unto you,
not the preacher, Not the priest, not the pope. No, I say unto
you, imagine this. The Son of God says concerning
believing sinners, I say unto you, that man's going home justified. Justified, oh my soul. What a
blessing. Picture this. You're in a court
of law and suddenly the prosecutor, you know, he's at his table at
his desk and defense lawyers over here on the other side.
And the prosecutor walks over to the table of the defense,
shakes his hand, and becomes a partner with him in the defense
and joins hands in declaring, that man's not guilty. Oh, God's law, the law of God,
our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, it has no quarrel
against us now. It's been satisfied in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, mercy and truth are met
together. Righteous and peace have kissed
one another, and they both declare. Join hands, justice and mercy
in declaring. I'll find no fault in them. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? God justifies. God justifies. Who is he that condemned? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. What gives a sinner a good hope?
Good enough to present him without a stain of sin before God? This does. Being robed in the
rites of Jesus Christ to be presented to Christ as a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should
be holy and without blemish. How about that? And this, to
present you faultless before the presence of His glory with
exceeding glory. Imagine that. How can that be? Because the hope that God gives
believing sinners is a good hope through grace. Not through merit,
not through works, not ours, not through will, but through
free grace. Nothing else can. The hymn writer
said, it was grace that first inscribed my name in God's eternal
book. Because grace that gave me to
the Lamb who all my sorrows took. Grace taught my soul to pray
and made my eyes overflow. It's grace that's kept me to
this day. And I like this part. Will not
let me go. Will not let me go. Thank God. Grace made me with
Him. God's pure, free grace gives
a sinner a good hope. Real grace. Real grace. Nothing less than that will help
me, will it you? I need a miracle, as we said
last night. And only God can perform it.
With me, it's impossible. But not with God. Bless His name. He does perform it. As Paul said,
it's His work. A real hope. a real hope. If that's the reason for my hope,
I answer in the words of that old hymn, my hope's built on
nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not
trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand. Nothing can get me off of it.
Nothing can shake me off. On that rock, that solid foundation,
all of the ground is sinking sand. Years ago, when I was still
living in Danville, you know, most of you, many of you know
Brother Lindsey Campbell and the church at Danville teaches
and a faithful, faithful man. But each year during his family
reunion, he's got several brothers, and one of the things that he
would arrange during that time, when they would all get together,
they would have a golf match. And it would be whoever wanted
to play against the Campbells, Lindsey and his brothers. And
it would be like Friday and Saturday, they would play four different
courses each day. Eighteen holes in one course,
and then in the afternoon another, and then Saturday again. But
one year, I did it a couple years, but I learned it, you know, it
was, they had, the cards were just stacked against us, we couldn't
land. But anyway, it was at the club that Lindsey was a member
of, it was a private club. And of course I wasn't a member.
But I arrived there, went up to the driveway, parked my car,
and was in there waiting for everybody else to get there.
And I noticed this guy over there just kept looking at me, checking
me out. Then he walked over and said,
howdy, my name's so-and-so. I said, well, I'm Larry Criss.
He said, what are you doing? I said, well, I'm going to tee
it up here in a little bit. He said, are you a member here? And I said, no sir, I'm not a
member. He said, well, if you're not a member, you can't. About that time Lindsey come
through the door, I said, I'm with him. I'm with him. Oh, you're with Lindsey? Oh,
that's fine, that's fine. Brothers and sisters in Christ,
we're with him. When we stand before God Almighty. That just and holy and righteous
God demands perfection, demands absolute righteousness. Oh, I'm
with Him. I'm with Jesus Christ. God sees
my Savior. And then He sees me in the Beloved,
accepted and free. Someone told me recently concerning
Robin, my wife, they said, Larry, she makes you look good. I said,
yeah, she sure does. No argument. And I appreciate
it. Oh, Jesus Christ makes us look good in the sight of a holy
God. Here's the second thing about
the answer of a good hope. Hebrews chapter 6 verse 19, which
hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast,
which enters into that within the veil, that which anchors
our souls in turbulent times, in this world that, oh, sometimes
tosses our little vessel. back and forth on angry ways,
but that which anchors our souls is that blessed hope we have
in Christ, causing us to look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus
Christ unto eternal life. Both sure and steadfast, Paul
says, as an anchor that enters within the veil Jesus Christ
himself. This afternoon I got a call from
a good, good buddy of mine. Dear, dear friend. Known him
for years. In Kentucky. He's in the hospital
now. Been there for a while. Man,
he's been having it tough for the last several years. And he
just broke down on the phone and started crying. And I just
listened. I just listened. Listened to
him cry. And I cried with him. But one of these days, glory
to God, God Almighty is going to take His omnipotent hand and
wipe every tear away. Remember telling your children
when they were young, what are you crying for? You've got no
reason to cry. You've got nothing to cry about.
Oh, God's going to wipe all tears away. We're not going to have
nothing to cry about. There'll be no reason to cry in heaven. Verse 20 of Hebrews 6, Wherefore,
whither rather, whither, the forerunner is for us entered. Even Jesus made a priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek. He represents us before the throne
of God. I'm with him. I'm with him. Is Tennessee like Alabama? I
think it's like this all over the country now. Man, it seems
like every other commercial is some ambulance chaser, a lawyer. Call me. Let me represent you. Let me take your case. Oh, I
have an advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous. He's
taken my case. And God hears him pray, his blessed
anointed one. In Ephesians chapter 2, Paul
tells us that Christ so much represents us before the Father,
that we are so identified with Him, appearing in the presence
of God for us on our behalf, it's as though we're already
there. Ephesians 2 and 6, and it raised us up together and
made us set together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. I'm with Him. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, how blessed is that person. who by the grace of God has learned
to look to Christ alone for the whole, I mean the whole, of his
salvation. The whole of his acceptance with
the Holy God. Ooh, they can like Simeon, that
old man, in the temple that day. How about that? Just by chance
he was in the temple. And they bring in That baby,
that little dark-skinned Jewish baby boy in the arms of his mother. And God whispers in Simeon's
ear and says, that's the Son of God. That's the Messiah. That's the one I promised you
before you died that you would see. And Simeon goes over and
says, may I, may I? And he takes him, embraces him
to embrace the Lord Jesus in the arms of faith. And to see
him. And Simeon said, well, let me
die. God, let me die. I've got nothing
else to live for. There's nothing I'm going to
see in this world to equal this. Here's a third thing about the
hope of a believer. Peter tells us it's a living
hope. 1 Peter 1 and 3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy
hath begotten us again into a lively hope, a living hope, by the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead. Why does Christ's resurrection
give us a living hope? Because His resurrection The
very fact that God raised Him from the dead tells us that God
was satisfied with the sacrifice of His Son. That He accepted
it and raised Him from the dead. Christ on the cross said, just
before He commended his spirit back to God the Father. He said,
it is finished. And three days later, God said,
Amen, my son, it's finished and proved it by raising him from
the dead and setting him at his own right hand and giving him
a name above every name that every knee has gone about before
and tongue confessed that he is the Christ of the glory of
God the Father. Oh yes, a dead Savior saves no
one. It's because He ever liveth that
He's able to save to the uttermost all that common to God by Him. As Brother Paul preached and
sang, any needy sinners here tonight. I remember thinking
that way. As Paul is saying, I wonder,
I wonder, can there be mercy for a sinner like me? Can God
save me? Will God save me? I know He doesn't
have to. Oh, like that leper? You don't
have to. You don't owe it to me. You're
not obligated to do it, but if you will, if you will, wonder
how long it's been since anybody touched that poor, diseased leper. He was an outcast. If anybody
even walked toward him, he would have to cry out, don't come to
me. I'm an outcast. Don't come near me. I'm unclean. I'm unclean. Lord, if you will,
if you will, He could make me clean. And Jesus touched him. He touched him. I will. I will.
Oh, he touched me. I wish I could sing. I think I can, but everybody
else tells me I can't. Oh, He touched me in the joy
that floods my soul. Christ said, I am He that liveth
and was dead, but behold, I am alive forevermore and have the
keys of hell and death. The resurrection of Jesus Christ
guarantees, it's the first fruits of the resurrection of all His
people. That's exactly what he said.
Verily I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the
ground and die, it abides alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. Because I live, ye shall live
also. I'll live as long as Jesus Christ
lives. The life He has is the same life
I have. My life is derived from Him. Oh, what a blessed, blessed hope. Wherefore it's also, Peter went
on to write, contained in Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion, a chief
cornerstone, a left precious, and he that believeth in Him
shall not be confounded. Not be ashamed, not make haste. I think it was old John Kent
that wrote these words. Betwixt Jesus and the chosen
race, subsists a bond of sovereign grace, that hell with its ephemeral
train, shall never desire, nor rant in twain. This sacred tie
forbids their fears, for all He has and is, is theirs. With Him their head, they stand
or fall, their life, their surety, their all. I'm with Him. I'm with you. The last thing,
we read this verse last night, it was in our text, of blessed
hope, Titus 2 and 13, looking for that blessed hope in the
glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. I had for years heard people,
preachers, prophecy experts, you know, Talk about when Christ
is going to come, how He's going to come, where He's going to
come, and never say a word about who's coming. not seeing the forest for the
trees. Who's coming? It's the One who
is coming that makes it a blessed home. It's the appearing of Jesus
Christ that makes it a glorious appearing. The very heaven of
heaven, the glory of glory will be to see the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself What a blessed, blessed hope. Believers are not told
to look for the signs of Christ's coming, but to look for the coming
Christ. Not one of them shall fail to
be with Him in glory. These are they that follow the
Lamb, whether so ever He goeth. Following His tracks, His steps,
steps of perfect obedience. God puts us in His steps. Behold the King in His beauty. Oh, what a blessed, blessed hope
to be with Christ forever. To look upon the face of the
One who saved me by His grace. Why can't I sing? I quote all these hymns, but
okay, I know there's no need for me to prove it to you that
I can't sing. Oh, the one who saved me by his
grace, what a day, glorious day that will be. Oh, a good hope,
a living hope, a blessed hope, a sure and a steadfast hope. Is that Does that describe your
answer? Of the reason of the hope that's
in you? One of my favorite hymns written
by William Kalper, There is a Fountain. Did you know the history of that
hymn? William Kalper at one time was
committed to an asylum, an institution. People who cared for him, loved
him, thought he might commit suicide. It was during that time
that he wrote that hymn. There was a relative visiting
him while he was in this state of depression, a believer, and
told him about the Lord Jesus Christ and his power to save.
And Cowper said he burst into tears and said, that's the first
time I ever saw a ray of hope. He said when that friend had
gone, He opened his Bible at random, as he thought, but in
the providence of God, his eyes fell on these words in Romans
3, verse 25, Jesus Christ, whom God has set forth to be the propitiation
through faith in his blood. This account of Christ's redeeming
work touched Calper's heart and God used it to give him faith
in his son. Cowper wrote, there shone upon
me the full beams of the sufficiency of the atonement that Christ
has made, my pardon in his blood, the fullness and completeness
of my justification, and in a moment I believed. He said, so I was
so thrilled. by this new found hope that he
described in that hymn. And he based it upon Zechariah
13 and 1. In that day there shall be a
fountain open for sin and uncleanness. There is a fountain filled with
blood, drawn from Immanuel's veins. and sinners plunged beneath that
flood lose all their guilty stains. Paul wrote, Know ye not that
the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived,
neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor adulterers, nor infeminate,
nor abusers of themselves with mankind. nor thieves, nor covenants,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit
the kingdom of God. And such were some of you." No question about it. Such were
some of you. I'm going to wrap this up, but
let me tell you a story. When I was a boy back in the
mountains of West Virginia in the summertime, man, we didn't
have much to do. Poor as paupers. My buddies and I would get together
and somebody would tell us, hey, we discovered a new swimming
hole. Like it had never been, nobody had ever known of it before. Like Christopher Columbus. Well,
where is it? Man, we'd hike to it or if somebody
had a car, we'd pile in and find it. We'd go to that new swimming
hole. And a lot of times, one especially
comes to my mind, man, we parked and walked out on cliffs, man,
there was a swimming hole, but it was about 20 or 30 feet below. You'd have to jump off. Well,
that wasn't a problem, but we weren't plum ignorant, Brad,
because we didn't know, you know. what was right under the surface
of that water, so somebody would make their way down, however
they could find a way to get down, swim out to the center
of that, dive down, and then they come up and yell at the
rest of us standing up on those rocks, I didn't touch the bottom. Jump! Jump! It's safe! It's safe! And sinners plunged
beneath that flood. lose all their guilty stains.
Sinner, jump. Jump. You won't touch the bottom. You won't touch the bottom. Listen. Such were some of you. Look at
us standing there. Extortioners, fornicators, adulterers. Such were some of you. But by
God's grace, He plunges beneath And now look, we come out, my
soul, you're washed. You are present tense, sanctified. You are justified in the name
of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Oh, John. Ever since by faith
I saw the stream, thy flowing wounds supply, redeeming love
has been my theme and shall be till I die. I like this last
one especially. Dear dying Lamb, by precious
blood shall never lose its power. Till all the ransomed Church
of God be saved, the sin no more. Glory to His name. God bless
you. God bless you.