The Savior and Hope

If you will, turn in your Bibles with me today to 1 Timothy chapter 1. 1 Timothy chapter 1. I want to read the first two verses. 1 Timothy chapter 1, verses 1 and 2. an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope. Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I want to call our attention this morning to The apostle's words in his greeting to Timothy, the truth that I want us to think about this morning is that the Lord Jesus Christ is both our savior and our hope, our savior. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God, our savior, And Lord Jesus Christ, our hope. We see those two words have been added by the translators, which is, but Christ is both our savior and our hope. Lord Jesus Christ, God's darling son, who came into this world, the eternal son of God, who was made flesh and dwelt among us, he is. our savior, and our hope.

I want you to look back just a few pages into the letter of Ephesians chapter two, Ephesians chapter two, and beginning with verse 11, reading these two verses here, verses 11 and 12, These are words which the apostle wrote to the believers, Gentile believers, in the church at Ephesus.

Wherefore, remember that you in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that is, the Gentiles and the Jews. The Jews had the commandment of circumcision and all the rest of the world were considered the uncircumcised, the Gentiles, the pagans, the heathens, the Greeks. Remember that at that time, Gentiles in the flesh, you are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. This was their condition before the Lord had saved them.

They were without Christ, and when a person is without Christ, he's without God, and he is also without hope. Now, that doesn't mean that a person may not have a hope that doesn't have Christ, but a good hope is what I'm talking about, a good hope. The scripture in the book of Job speaks about the hope of a hypocrite. and it is compared to a spider's web. The hope of the hypocrite is compared to a spider's web, how easily it is broken. But I'm talking this morning about a good hope that a person has who has Christ as his Lord and as his savior.

Also a few pages forward in Colossians chapter one, Colossians chapter 1 and verse 27, again the apostle is speaking to believers, and he writes to them, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Again, we see that it is Christ being in a person, which means that that person has A hope, Christ is both our savior and our hope. And I want you to consider with me these two questions. First of all, what does Christ in you mean? I think just a casual reading of the scriptures, the New Testament. Everyone should be impressed with the importance of that question. What does it mean, Christ in you? Christ in you, the hope of glory. Is Christ in everyone? Is Christ in everyone in this world? Is Christ in everyone that is born into this world?

Well, you know the answer, of course, to that is no. The Lord Jesus Christ speaking to a very religious man, and we can't even begin to understand how religious this man by the name of Nicodemus really was, a Pharisee, a very religious man. And he would approach Christ as a good teacher. And the Lord told him, verily, verily, truly, truly, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And right after that, he repeated that, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh. We've all been born of the flesh. Everyone in this world is born of the flesh. But a person must be born of the spirit. He that is born of the spirit is spirit. Now, our Lord said born of water and of the spirit.

And so people under Satan's teaching, try to tell us that baptism, sprinkling some water on a baby's head or something like that, or putting an adult underneath the water in immersion, that that is the new birth. It's not. That's not what our Lord is speaking of at all. When he said born of the water and of the spirit, he didn't say that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the water is spirit.

The water here in this text means the spirit. Born of the water, even of the spirit. Just like our Lord later told that woman in Samaria at the well that the water that he would give unto those who asked would be in them a well of water. And it's speaking of the Spirit of God. A person must be born again of the Spirit of God. That's what it means to have Christ in you, Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Another verse, if you will, in Galatians, there in that same vicinity, Galatians chapter four. Galatians 4 and verse 19, my little children, this is the apostle Paul writing to believers, those who had professed faith in Christ at least, but they were being tempted to turn away from Christ, or not necessarily turn away from Christ, but to add something to Christ, the law. the law of Moses, to be circumcised and keep the dietary laws and keep the Sabbath and all of those things that was in that old covenant that God gave to the nation of Israel. And Paul was concerned about them. He had heard that these false teachers had come among them teaching that.

And that's the reason he says, my little children of whom I travail in birth Again, until Christ be formed in you. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ formed in you. As 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17 tells us, if any man, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. Christ in you. That's what it means to have Christ in you. It means to be born of the Spirit of God.

And we know God is chosen by the foolishness of preaching to save those who believe. It's a mystery. It is a mystery. Our Lord told Nicodemus, the wind bloweth where it listeth, and you hear the sound thereof, but you cannot tell from whence it cometh nor where it's going.

And the preaching of the gospel, when God so approves and so has determined that he's going to save a sinner, an individual, Usually, not always, but most of the time under the preaching of the gospel, the spirit of God brings a message of Christ home, home to a person.

And then it becomes everything to that person. It's not just religion that you pick up on Sunday morning and put down after you leave church. No. It's Christ in you. It's a new life. It's a new way of living. It's a new desire to serve God, to honor God, to glorify God, to live for God, to please God. A new creation. A lost person doesn't have that. Dead in trespasses and sins.

That's the reason a person must be born If you look at another passage with me, John, the gospel according to John chapter 1, this is where we see when a person is born again. John chapter 1 and verse 11. John chapter 1 and verse 11, he, that is Jesus, he came unto his own, that is the nation of Israel, and his own received him not.

But as many as, as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. which were born, not of blood. You see, grace isn't inherited. A father doesn't pass salvation or the new birth down to his children. Grace doesn't flow in the bloodline. It's not, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh. nor of the will of man, but of God." What distinguishes us from most of the churches that you pass by today on your way here? Most of the churches that you pass by as you come here to worship God, what distinguishes us?

Well, there's many things, but first and foremost is we believe, as the Bible declares, salvation is of God. It's God who saves sinners. It's God who calls His elect. It is God who died and shed His blood as the Son of Man to save His people. That's what distinguishes us more than anything else. We believe that God is sovereign, that salvation is by grace. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus. Only God can create. Man can make things, take things that God has created and make some things, but only God can create, and only God can save a sinner.

And when God gives you new life, when you're born of the Spirit of God, it is manifested, your new life is manifested by believing in Christ, trusting in Him. Well, that's what it means to have Christ in you, but what does Christ in you, the hope of glory mean? It means that our hope, and that word hope, consider that expectation. That's what it really means. Christ in you, the expectation of glory. It means that we expect Glory solely based upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter in his first letter put it like this, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And notice, which according to his abundant mercy, does anyone deserve to be saved? Really? Does anyone of God's creatures, mankind, deserve to be saved? Deserve that God would give his son to die for that person's salvation? No one deserves salvation. Therefore, if we're going to be saved, it's going to be by mercy. And remember this, mercy deserved is not mercy. is going to be by grace, and grace merited is not grace.

No, Peter said, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us, birthed us, begotten us again unto a living hope, a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Our hope, our expectation of eternal life, of being with God, why did Paul say to die is gain? How could a man say that? Men fight, do everything we can to preserve our lives in this world, and yet the apostle Paul said to die is gain. For a believer, for a child of God, to die is gain.

To be with Christ is far better. This expectation that a believer has is based or bottomed, that's the way the old writers used to put it, bottomed, bottomed upon Jesus Christ, upon his life. Upon his person, first of all, that he is God manifests in the flesh. Upon his life, a perfect obedience in loving God with all his heart, all his soul, and all his mind, and loving his neighbor as himself, perfect righteousness. Of his death, he didn't die as a martyr.

Several years ago, we had the privilege of visiting in London, and I told Pat, I said, now, we're going to go to Smithfield, Smithfield. And we had a hard time finding it on the map, but we found it. There's a little marker there in a park-like place. And that's where many of the English martyrs, because they would not, they would not agree that any priest, any man, had the power to turn a piece of bread and a cup of wine into the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ. Transubstantiation, that's what they call it.

They wouldn't bow to that. And so what happened? They were burned. They were burned at the stake. They were martyrs. They died for their faith. Christ didn't die as a martyr, my friends. Some say he died as an example, showing men how we should suffer and how we should, be enabled to experience things that are disagreeable. No, he didn't die as an example. He died as a substitute.

He took the place of everyone that God had chosen in old eternity and written their names down in the book of life. Christ took their place and the hell that those persons deserved, it fell upon him. Yes, his life, his death, but that's not all, his resurrection.

Paul tells us that on that third day, he was raised from the dead, but being justified by his resurrection. In other words, when Christ came out of that tomb, God justified him. He did. He'd been punished, bearing the sins of his people, and laid in the tomb, but when he came out of that tomb, those sins were gone. And God justified that. God declared that he was satisfied with that sacrifice. When he said on the cross, it is finished, our salvation was finished, if you're one of us.

I mentioned this in a message last Wednesday night. Spoke with a person last week in Mexico that I've known over the years, some while, and he'd been very sick since I'd seen him last, and he told me, he said, well, you know what they say, I was paying for my sins. I said, no, no, you're not paying for your sins. If a person pays for his sins, he'll still be paying when billions and billions and billions of years have passed by, and the debt will still not be paid. It took God the Son as the Savior to pay the sin debt of his people, and he paid it, and God raised him, declaring to all the world he's satisfied.

But you know, that's not all either. Well, the scripture tells us, as we read that at the beginning of the service in Romans 5, for if when we were enemies, I don't, preacher, preacher, I don't like to be told that I was an enemy of God. I know you don't. I don't like to hear it either.

But it's the truth. Because of our sin, our sin nature, we come into this world enmity with God. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled, how? By our works? Of course not. By our baptisms? No. If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. That's the only way a sinner may be reconciled to God.

You see why we sing about Christ? Why we talk about Christ? He's everything. What's the message of the Bible? It's Christ. What's the message of salvation? It's Christ. Yes. People sometimes say, well, you know, you preached that message before. Well, I've only got one message, and I only want one message. I remember a friend of mine, Brother Scott Richardson, preached in West Virginia for many years, pastored up there, but one of his critics there in Fairmont, West Virginia said, well, all that man preaches is Christ. And somehow, word got back to Scott, and he said, put that on my tombstone. Put that on my tombstone, my grave marker.

All he preached was Christ. Well, let me give you four things very quickly about this hope, Christ, our hope. This hope of salvation is the believer's anchor. Let me show you that in Hebrews chapter 6. This hope of salvation, that is Christ, is the believer's anchor.

Hebrews chapter 6, verse 18 and 19, that by two immutable things. You know what the word immutable means, don't you? Cannot change. is immutable, that's one of his attributes, characteristics, the immutability of God. There are about two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie. God is a God of truth, but to show us and to comfort us By these two immutable things, we might have a strong consolation.

That's what I want. I want a strong consolation, don't you? I want to know if I walk out that door today and on the way home some 18-wheeler plows over the top of me and I'm ushered out into eternity, I'm in heaven. I'm with the Lord. I want a strong consolation. I don't want to live, hope so, maybe so. No, I want a strong consolation. Don't you?

Well, God has given us two, but these two immutable things, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge, that is, those who fled to Christ the refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul.

We live in a world of ups and downs, a fallen world, a world under God's curse. A Christian's condition could be compared to a ship on a sea. The sea's not always smooth, is it? Sometimes it's like glass, sometimes it's waves, choppy and waves up and down. And a believer's life is like that. Sometimes we're on the mountain, sometimes we're in the valley, tossed and turned. Providences of God and a child of God's life. Things you don't understand. I've pastored now for long enough. I've seen God's people go through so many different things. Things you'll never understand. I don't understand.

And you hear these so-called Preachers saying, well, if you just believe God, everything's going to be all right. You'll never have any problems. You'll be wealthy, healthy, all of that. It ain't so. A believer's life is like that ship. But the ship, if it's anchored, a sheet anchor, it'll ride the storm. It'll go up with the waves and come down. But it'll stay, and that's the hope that a child of God has. It's the anchor of our soul. And one other thing, I have some more, but let me just give you this one other thing. In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5.

My son casually had announced while ago that clock was broken. I didn't know if he was doing that for my benefit or yours, but I've got a watch here. Preacher used to get up in the pulpit, and every time he got up there, the first thing he did was take off his watch and put it up there. A little boy came to church with a preacher's son one day and he asked his friend, he said, what does it mean when your dad takes off his watch? Nothing. Nothing. But notice here in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 8. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. The hope of salvation.

This is a believer's helmet. And this reminds us that as believers, as God's children, we're like soldiers, soldiers of the cross. It's easy to understand, isn't it, how important a man's helmet is if he's going into battle? I mean, if a person's wounded in the head, usually that sidelines the soldier. He might get wounded in his arm or his leg or something, still be able to carry on, but a wound in the head, no. It's so important, this hope. But we must stir up this hope that is in us.

Think about heaven. Think about being with Christ. Paul said if we have hope in this world only, we are of all men most miserable. We have hope of eternity in the presence of God, enjoying God. Most of the blessings of heaven are We speak about our negative blessings. No more pain, no more sorrow, no more sickness, no more death, no more separation. The positive blessings of heaven.

All I can say is God has prepared something for us. We can't even imagine what it's going to be like to be with our Lord. And you know, to be done with sin, to be done with this old nature, that'll be heaven, won't it? That'll be heaven itself, to be with Christ. Well, I pray the Lord would bless His word to us here this morning.

The Savior and Hope

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