Turn back to the book of 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. I'd like to read beginning with
verse 13 and read down through verse 17. Paul the Apostle is the writer
of the book to the Thessalonians and he says, but we are bound
to give thanks always to God for you brethren beloved of the
Lord. love to the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren,
stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether
by word or by our epistle. 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, comfort
your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. I want to talk to you primarily
this morning about verse 16. We'll take this as our text.
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. I like this phrase, which hath
loved us. Now, beloved, we know that the
love of God is unpurchasable and it is unmerited. I have loved
you, the Lord says, with an everlasting love. There's no way for you
to get God to love you. You may think this morning that
there must be some way that I could move the Lord to love me. But
my friend, God's love cannot be purchased. It cannot be merited. God's love is like His grace.
It is unmerited. Now, back before the solemnity
of silence was broken by the song of the first angel, God
loved His people in Christ. God loved us in Christ and He
chose us in His Son, with reference to nothing else, considering
nothing else, He chose us in His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. We're thankful for the Lord Jesus.
We're thankful for Him because we know that He pleased the Father
in all things. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ
did no sin, neither was there any guile found in His mouth.
We know that the Lord Jesus Christ honored the holy law of God and
satisfied every jot and tittle of it, fulfilling it to the full. But beloved, we realize that
as we are chosen in Him that the Father now is inclined toward
us. The Father now loves us. We are
loved because Christ is loved. Christ is the Beloved One and
we've been accepted in the Beloved. We've been accepted in Him. The
Father loveth the Son and hath committed all things unto His
hand. Remember, the Father loves the
Son. Are you in the Son? If you be in Christ, chosen in
Him, then, my friend, you've been loved of God before the
solemnity of silence. was ever broken by the song of
the first angel. Back before the ether air was
disturbed by the flapping of the seraph's wings, God loved
us and chose us, sent his affection upon us, and chose us in his
beloved Son, the Lord Jesus. Ephesians 2 and verse 4 says,
But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ, by grace ye are saved. Now, Beloved, He
hath given us, we take note here, He hath loved us, and that didn't
end, and it didn't end right there, but He hath given us,
He hath given us. Now, He had to give it to us,
that is this everlasting consolation that the text speaks of, and
the good hope through grace, it had to be given to us because
we couldn't get it any other way. We could not get it any
other way. There's no one here that could
earn these blessed, eternal mercies and consolations and grace. No
one can earn that. Therefore, He had to give it
to us. And that, beloved, is indeed
grace. Well, what has He given? Everlasting
consolation, everlasting comfort forever. There is nothing, my
friend, in the Bible about a temporary salvation. The Bible doesn't
say anything about being born again and again and again and
again. Our consolation, our good hope,
is an everlasting consolation and an eternal hope. God's salvation
is forever. Nothing taken away and nothing
can be added. It is God's Word. We take note
that also, having given us everlasting consolation, that He gave us
good hope through grace. He gave us good hope through
grace. It's a great act of grace that sinners should have a hope
at all. Is it not? Seeing that we're
the kind of people that we are, that we have broken God's law,
we thumbed our nose, you know, in Adam one time at God, and
told him to go on back to heaven, and we would run this world.
that there should remain a hope for man after man is fallen,
after man has sinned against God, after man has rebelled against
God, that there should remain a hope is a thought which should
make our hearts leap for joy and gratitude. There is hope
for the people of God, for men and women of faith, for boys
and girls that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. There is hope
indeed. because we were in the prison
house of the damned, you remember, and Satan had written over our
cell, no hope, no hope. I remember that. I was a young
lion when the Lord laid hold of me and when the Lord called
me by the gospel to salvation. But I remember that I was without
hope and without God in the world. Christ came to my cell He exercised
His divine prerogative and took out the key, and He had the key,
you know, and He does have the key to your cell, my friend. You're here this morning and
you know not Christ, and you have not the good hope through
grace that the text is talking about. Remember that it must
come, He must give it to you, it must come from Him. The mercy
of God, the faith that saves the soul must come down from
God and it must be given. It's the divine prerogative of
the Lord Jesus Christ to take the key and to put it into the
lock and let us go free. And bless the Lord, he was pleased
to do that. And the poet said, I'm blessed,
I'm blessed. My rags are gone, and I am dressed
in garments white as snow. I'm married to the Lord the Lamb,
whose beauties I can ne'er explain, nor have His glories shown. In Romans chapter 15 and verse
13, It says, now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace
in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of
the Holy Ghost. Now he is called the God of hope
because he is the author of all well-grounded hope, all of the
well-grounded hope of his people. All hope of which he is not the
author, my friend, is a false delusion. If God is not the author
of the hope that you have, then my friend, it is false. In the
New Testament, there are three adjectives that are descriptive
of the good hope that God has given us through grace. In our
text, it is called the good hope. In Titus 2 and 13, it says looking
for that blessed hope. It is called the blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior
Jesus Christ. And in 1 Peter 1 and verse 3,
it speaks of this hope as being a living hope. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his
abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively or living
hope by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this
text is talking about a good hope through grace which will
be a comfort to the hearts of the Lord's people and which will
establish them in every good word and work on their pilgrimage
to eternal glory and eternal bliss. But the question comes
to me, and I've come here to ask it this morning of you, is
the hope that you entertain, is the hope that you have, is
it a good hope? a good hope through grace. Now
some people I know do not like personal questions. They do not
like to be put on the spot. But I asked you this morning,
preaching as a dying man to dying people, I asked you, is your
hope a good hope? Jesus said on one occasion, what
thank you of Christ. Whose son is he? I wonder this
morning if any of you here could answer that question. Well, probably
there are some of you that can. Now, beloved, hope is a word
we use frequently in connection with a lot of things, but especially
in the matter of religion. Now, this word has been used
a lot this past week. I've heard many, many times on
television the word bandied about. People are hopeful. Many, many
things have happened in our nation. Many people were lost at the
World Trade Center and at the Pentagon. And there are people
walking the streets, pictures of their loved ones, trying to
find somebody with some information about their loved ones. And they're
hopeful. They have a hope. And I heard
a story last night that was heartbreaking. there was one Anthony Rodriguez
who was a fireman in Washington DC or not in Washington DC but
in New York City and he went to the World Trade Center when
it was the first tower was hit and he was dispatched there and
he has never showed up since but his wife she was expecting
their second child and on Friday she went to the hospital and
had an eight-pound and four-ounce girl. And the doctor, being that
the family did not or had not chosen a name as of yet, the
doctor named her Hope. Hope. And so, my friend, hope
is a word that we use quite often in many and varied and sundry
ways. But we often hear people say, I hope that I'm saved. Others say, I hope my heart is
right with God. I hope that my heart is right. I hope that we'll all meet in
heaven. I hope that everything will turn
out all right at last. George Whitefield made this statement,
hoping, he says, men live on, hoping men grow old, hoping men
die at last, yet hoping they're lost forever. There are many
false hopes in this world, and don't you forget that. And so
this morning, the thing that must be determined here is, is
my hope a good hope? Is it a solid, is it a substantial
hope? Is it a hope of which God is
the author. Now if it is not good now, it
won't be good in the day that we come to die. It will not be
good in the day when we stand before God. If it's not good
now, we cannot trust in that, and we certainly, it will not
do for us to face God with a false hope. Is my hope, is your hope,
a good hope? Now the Bible has a lot to say
about hope. Paul said in Romans chapter 8
that we're saved by hope. We're saved by hope, and of course
he was talking about hope in the gospel, hope in the Redeemer,
hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Romans chapter 5, he said,
hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad
in our heart by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. And then
the verse that I read to you out of Peter, where it says that
God has begotten us again unto a living hope. Now, beloved,
if our hope meets the standard of the Holy Scriptures, examination
won't hurt us, will it? Now, if our hope meets the standards
of the Bible, the standards of the Word of God, then it won't
hurt for us to examine our hope. If my hope is not a good hope,
the best thing that I can do is let the preacher take a shot
at it. Let him take a crack at it. Now,
if a man can shake you from the pulpit, you had better be shaken. You had better be shaken. If
a man can disturb you, you had better be disturbed now. Not
then. It'd be too late then. But if
you can be disturbed now, then my friend, now is the time for
you to consider your situation. If you're on the Rock of Ages,
Jesus Christ, if you're built upon Him, then you cannot be
shaken. You will not be shaken. Now I've
come this morning to attempt to identify the good hope of
the Bible, the good hope through grace. And I want to bring you
six marks this morning of a good hope through the grace of God.
and the first mark that I want to give you, and I'll try to
go rapidly through these. But nevertheless, I believe that
God by the Spirit can use these to help us to examine ourselves. And I hope this morning that
you will examine yourself as we attempt to give you these
six marks of a good hope. Now, beloved, first of all, if
my hope is a good hope, it is a hope that I can explain. It is a hope that I can explain. There's a lot of people who let
other people do their thinking for them, let other people, we
might say, practice their religion for them, and I've heard men
say, My wife takes care of the religion in this family. And
then I've heard other people say, well, we just kind of lean
on grandpa and grandma and on their religion. But my friend,
if we have a good hope, that hope is a hope that we can explain. First Peter chapter 3 and verse
15 says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. And be ready
always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason
of the hope that is in you, and do it with meekness and in fear. We must be ready always to give
an answer to any man that asks us a reason. Why do you anticipate
good, future good? Why do you anticipate that you're
going to be with the Lord in the by and by? On what basis
do you accept that or feel like that you have hope? In your own
words, my friend, tell. Tell it out. Why? and how it
is that you believe that you're going to the world to come and
be with the Lord for all eternity. You don't have to be a theologian.
You don't have to be a public speaker. Are you a child of God? Are you saved? Do you know? Are
you born again? Are your sins put away? Are they
forgiven? Do you feel, really feel in your
own soul that you're one with the Lord and that you're in fellowship
with Him, that you've been reconciled unto Him? There was a man by
the name of Calerio, he was an Italian fellow, who wrote a book
on the death of Christ. And the Roman Catholics didn't
like the book, so they confiscated all the books they could find
and they burnt them. And they brought him to trial
and they asked him, what is the first cause of salvation? And he said, the death of Christ. Well, they said, what is the
second cause of salvation? And he said, the death of Christ. Well, they said, what is the
third cause of salvation? Thinking that somewhere along
the line that he would give credit to the church, to the sacraments,
to works. And so they asked him the third
time, what is the third cause of salvation? And you know what
he said? He said, the death of Christ.
And so my friend, they put him to death. And so I say to you
this morning that the first mark of a good hope is one we can
explain. Simply explain that Jesus Christ
is our substitute. Christ is a substitute for all
things. Nothing is a substitute for the
Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is salvation. Now the
second mark of a good hope is that it is based that it is drawn
from, based, bottomed, on the Word of God alone. It is bottomed
on God's Word. Romans 15 and verse 4 says, For
whatsoever things were written for time were written for our
learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures
might have hope, that we might have hope. This book is written.
This is the holy word of God. This book was written in order
that we might have Hope. Psalm 119 verse 49 says, Remember
the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to
hope. The Word of God. Do you value
the Word of God? Do you treasure the Word of God?
Is it sweeter than honey to your heart? Do you really base all
of your convictions upon the Word of God? What do you base
your ideas upon? Your religious ideas? Your so-called
faith? What do you base it upon? Well,
I believe the Word of God. I believe it. Now, I saw a bumper
sticker sometime back that said, God said it, I believe it, and
that settles it. But there's something wrong with
that. If God said it, that settles it, whether I believe it or not.
If God said it, that's all that's necessary. And beloved, the scriptures
are plain on this subject. John 3 in 18 says, He that believeth
He is not condemned. He that believeth not is condemned
already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God. John 3 and 36 says, He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He that believeth not shall not
see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. John 6 and 37
says that all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
they that come to me I will in no wise cast out. Do you believe? What the Word of God says is
your faith based on the Word. Isaiah said, He was wounded for
our transgressions. Do you believe that He died in
your room? Died in your stead? Died in your place? Did He suffer
the agonies of the cross? You know that He suffered not
for His own sin. He had no sin. But He died in
our place, wounded for our transgressions. He was numbered with the transgressors. Peter said, We were redeemed
not with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with
the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the question
is asked sometimes, what would you rather have? Would you rather
have a voice from heaven speak to you? Would you rather have
a vision? Or would you rather have a copy
of the Word of God? Which would you rather have?
A lot of people, you know, they say, well, I had a vision. And other people will say, well,
you know, I have had a voice from heaven that spoke to me.
But I'd like for you to turn to your Bibles to 1 Peter chapter
1, and look, if you will, at a couple of verses here. The
book of 2 Peter, I'm sorry, the book of 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1, and I want to
read the beginning here with verse 17. received from God the
Father honor and glory, when there came a voice to him from
the excellent glory, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased. And this voice which came from
heaven, Peter said, we heard when we were with him in the
holy mount. Well, how honored that Peter
should hear that voice, the voice of the eternal God, saying, this
is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. But he goes on
to say, we have also a more sure word of prophecy. Yes, I heard
the voice. I heard it when I was with him
on the Holy Mount. But we have, he says, a more
sure word of prophecy than even that. where unto you do well
that you take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place,
until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts, knowing
this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private
interpretation, no man wrote the scriptures as he himself
was inclined to do so, but the Scriptures, as he explains in
verse 21, came not in old time by the will of man. They did
not come by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Think of a ship on the water
with sails and how that ship is moved by the wind. Men were
moved, holy men of God were moved to write the Holy Scriptures.
We believe in the inspiration of the Word of God. And so we
would rather have a copy of the Word of God. Because, beloved,
the true hope of the Gospel is one that is based and bottomed
on the Word of God alone. He that hath the Son hath life. So saith the Word of God. And
he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. And unless you're
in union with the Lord Jesus Christ, you have not life. Okay, and that brings me to the
third thing, the third mark of a good hope, and I'd like to
say to you this time that this hope rests on Jesus Christ alone. It rests on Christ alone. If you have your Bibles and can
find 1 Timothy chapter 1, you can look at this first verse,
chapter 1 of 1 Timothy verse 1, and I want you to hear what
this verse says. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ,
which is our hope, which is our hope, makes it clear that Christ
is the hope of the believer. And then in Colossians 1 and
27, Paul said, Christ in you is the hope of glory. A Christ
not in you is a Christ not yours. Unless Christ abides in your
heart by faith, then He is not yours. Therefore, He is not your
salvation. Who are we anyway? We're sinners
before God, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
We have no righteousness of our own. If we pooled all of our
righteousness here, it wouldn't be enough to save any one of
us. None of us. We have no righteousness that
is going to please a thrice holy God. We need righteousness. We
need His salvation. We read in John 1 and verse 12,
He came unto His own, but His own received Him not, but to
as many as received Him. Him. To them gave He power to
become the sons of God. Him. Not His church. Him. Not His doctrine. Him. Christ. Beloved is salvation. The Bible
teaches that salvation is not a doctrine, it's a person. It's
a person. If you're going to be saved,
it's Christ that is salvation. And you cannot be saved apart
from being in union with the Lord Jesus Christ. That union
being made by the Holy Spirit. They that are joined unto the
Lord are one spirit. And if you're joined to Christ,
you're one with Him. words of the hymn that we sang
when we were standing a few minutes ago. My hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. My friend, Christ is salvation. We are predestinated, those of
us who are in Christ, to be like Him. God is going to conform
us all to His blessed image. God is in love with His Son,
are you? If you're not in love with His
Son, you're not like God the Father. If you're like God the
Father, you love the Lord Jesus Christ, and you'll put all of
your eggs in His basket, just like God the Father has put all
of His, all of His treasure for sinners is found in this person,
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Alright, that brings me to the
fourth mark. And that is that a good hope is actually and realistically
felt in the soul. Romans 6 says that by the Spirit
of God, that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts.
And we're not ashamed. The love of God has been shed
abroad in our hearts. The Spirit of God has warmed,
the Spirit of God has melted, the Spirit of God has moved our
hearts to experience and we have experienced God's amazing grace
and love in our hearts. And there's some questions I
think we need to ask and try to answer in this connection.
I say that if you have a good hope through grace, that is a
hope that is realistically felt in the soul. You feel this in
your soul that you're truly joined unto the Lord. Let me ask a few
questions. Can a man pass from death to
life and not feel it? No, I don't think so. Can a man
be regenerated? Can he be renewed? Can he be
pardoned? Can he be justified and not feel anything? I don't
think so. Rutherford said, salvation is
more than an ocean. Something must be known and something
must be felt. Can a thirsty man drink and not
be refreshed? Can a hungry man eat and not
be satisfied? Can a naked man be clothed and
not be warmed? Can a weary man lie down and
not be rested? Can a sick man be healed and
not rejoice in his soul? A good hope will be felt. There will be peace and there
will be joy in the heart. The Kingdom of God, the Bible
says, is not meat and drink, but it's righteousness and joy
and peace in the Holy Ghost. A good hope will praise God. And it will praise God anywhere. A good hope, I say, will praise
the Lord. I know we're being tried at the
present time. I know this nation is being tried. And I know that we're coming
into days that are uncertain, very uncertain. But my friend,
the people of God, those that are in union with Christ, and
those that know the Savior assuredly, they have an anchor that holds. And they will be praising the
Lord for whatever and whenever things occur in this life. We
will not sorrow as others who have no hope, because we have
that good hope through the grace of God, and that good hope will
praise God when we're burying our loved ones, or when we're
standing by the sickbed, or when we're in a place of affliction. That hope will praise God anywhere. The man who has a good hope has
entered into his rest. He's entered into it already.
Somebody said, well, I expect to enter into rest when I die.
Well, I think there's an element of truth in that, that there
will come a time when there will be no more labor and sorrow and
we will enter into that rest. But those who are truly now anchored
in the Lord Jesus Christ, who believe the testimony of Holy
Scripture and have been enabled by the grace and Spirit of God
to come savingly to the Lord Jesus Christ, they have already
entered into rest. and they've experienced rest
in their souls. They are at rest in the Lord. I'm not trying to go to heaven,
are you? I'm not trying to go to heaven.
I give up on that a long time ago. Trying me? Trying to go
to heaven? I can't. Listen, I've seen the
end, as Job said, of all perfection. Saw the end of it. Saw the end
of it in myself, and I saw the end of it in everybody I know.
The end of all perfection. The only one I know that is perfect
enough to turn the head of God toward my soul is Christ. And
when we're in Him, then we have what God has for sinners. Are
you in the Lord Jesus Christ? Now we're not trying then to
go to heaven. We praise God. We are going there by the grace
of God. If we have a good hope through
grace, if we have that no soul salvation that's talked about
on the pages of Holy Scripture, then we know that we're on our
way to eternal glory. I'm not serving God to stay out
of hell, are you? Next February, I'll be preaching
50 years, but I'm not preaching to stay out of hell. Preaching
won't keep anybody out of hell. Do you realize that? Somebody
said, well, I thought preaching would probably keep a fellow
out if anything would. Well, it won't do it. I'm telling you,
a preacher can go to hell from the pulpit. He can die in the
pulpit and go straight to hell. Old Brother Barnard said, there'll
be so many preachers in hell that their feet will be sticking
out the windows. And it may be very well so. This land is full
this morning of preachers that are lying on God. They don't
know a thing on earth about God. Standing up talking about, oh,
we just can't understand this. God's made a mistake. And Mother
Teresa here the other day said, God's got a whole lot of explaining
to do about all these things. Well, my friend, God don't have
to explain Himself to anybody. And not only that, He does not
give an account of His matters. He has mercy on whom He will
have mercy, and whom He will, He hardeneth. Oh, it's not of
Him that willeth nor of Him that runneth, but God that showeth
mercy. Salvation's of the Lord, it's
in His hands, in His hands entirely. It's His work, it's not a human
project. It's God's work. It's Christ
that died in our place and satisfied a holy God and turned away His
wrath in order that we would be able to someday be in His
presence. So I'm not serving God to stay
out of hell. Now the fifth mark of a good
hope is, if a man has a good hope, I believe that it'll be
manifested in the outward life. It'll be manifested in our lives,
in our personal lives. Somebody said if there's a light
on in the house, surely you can see it through the window. Surely
there will be some evidence of it. 1 John 3, verse 2 and 3 says,
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear
what we shall be. But we know when He shall appear,
we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is, and every
man that haveth this hope in Him, this hope in Him, will purify
himself even as the coming one is pure. So there'll be a change,
there'll be a difference in the life if the Lord Jesus Christ
is in our life. Our attitude will be different.
Our thoughts about ourselves. Oh, we're pretty important special
people, are we not? Yes, we are. Yes, so dignified
and just so important. But my friend, if the grace of
God ever comes into your heart, it's the only cure there is for
pride. For God to humble you and teach
you his truth. If you ever understand that you're
a depraved creature and that all men and all women are fallen,
and they can only be restored to honor and dignity through
the grace and merit of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you'll be
humbled in your heart. You'll be humbled. We don't like
to believe the doctrine of depravity. We don't like to believe that
we're all depraved, but we are. Every one of us. We come forth
out of our mother's womb speaking lies. And our attitudes have
been hateful toward God. We'd stick a butcher knife in
the back of God if we had an opportunity. By nature we do
that. We're sinners, you see. We're
depraved preachers. And our attitude will change
when God visits us and when things happen. Oh, it's been wonderful
to see God save some people around here and to see how different
our attitude was. You couldn't even approach some
of the people that's been saved here in the last few years before
they got saved. Couldn't approach them. They
didn't want to talk. But it's amazing how different
they are now. Thoughts about ourselves and
thoughts about God. How wonderful it would be if
you people thought about God as He has revealed Himself. Always wonderful and refreshing
to find somebody who knows the Lord. Knows the Lord. Yes, I know the God of the Bible. Know Him. I'm acquainted with
Him. And this is life eternal, you know, that you might know
me, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom I sent. This is it.
This is it. When you take your loved one
out to bury him in the grave, eternal life is knowing God.
That's what it is. It's knowing the Lord. You've
got to be acquainted with Him and be in union with Him. So
do you think rightly about God? Now you know you don't. Some
of you people detest the Bible, and some of you won't even read
the Bible. You wouldn't read the Bible, you won't do it, because
you don't know God. You don't know the author of
the Bible. You say, I can't understand it. Well, if you knew the author,
it'd help a whole lot. But your life will be changed
if you ever really meet the Lord, if you ever come to know Him,
and if the light's ever turned on in your soul, God ever flips
the switch and the light comes on, then you'll know the Lord.
Well, has your hope affected your outward life? It is not
good. It's not a good hope unless it
has. The Bible says, 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17, if any man be in
Christ, if any man be in, I in, in Christ, then he's a new creature. Old things have passed away.
Behold! Behold! Look! All things have
become new. Isn't that amazing? Ephesians
2 verse 8 through 10, by grace are you saved through faith,
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, there it is again, in Christ Jesus unto what? Good works. Good works. We are
God's workmanship. Have you ever looked in the mirror
and asked yourself the question, is this what God is the author
of? Is this What God has done? Well, my friend, if God has truly
saved you, then your life has been changed. Somewhere along
the line, you'll be different. You'll be different. You're bound
to be. Now then, the last thing, and the clock, I hope nobody's
been looking at it, because the clock is in my favor this morning.
It is dead still at about 23 minutes till 12. And so, I haven't even looked at my watch. But we're on our last point,
and here we are. The man who has a good hope,
listen to this, knows that there was a time when he didn't have
it. He knows in his own heart and
soul that there was a time when he didn't have it. He just simply
was without it. I invite you to turn with me
to 1 Peter chapter 2. Let's quickly read this verse.
1 Peter chapter 2 and I want to read verse 9 and 10. But ye, he says, are a chosen
generation. You are a royal priesthood, a
holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should show forth the
praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, but are
now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now
have obtained mercy. I've met a number of people in
my travels through this world that told me they've been saved
all their lives. I remember one young lady out
in Indiana. Her father was a preacher of
all things. She said, I've been saved all my life. I'd never
known a time when I wasn't saved. And I told her, it's entirely
too long. That's too long. You say, what do you mean, preacher?
I'm saying that if a person never knew they were lost, if they
never understood what it was to be alienated from God, If
they never understood the sin situation, if they never understood
their lostness, they do not know that they're saved and they're
not saved. Do you know that there was a time when you didn't have
it? Why? There's many of you could stand
up and say, man, I know very well when I didn't have it. I
had no hope. And I was without God in the
world. No question about it. One man said he was filled with
the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. I don't believe him. Nope,
I don't believe any such word as that. The Bible says we're
all the children of wrath, even as others. Born with a nature
contrary to God. Born with a need to be quickened. Need to be raised up from spiritual
death into spiritual life. Ephesians 2 and 1 says you have
to be quickened. Speaking of the Ephesian brethren,
who were dead. There was a time when they were
dead, now they're alive. What do you think of that? Amen? We're alive in the Lord, quickened,
having been brought out of our spiritual death. Somewhere, friend
of mine, between the cradle and the grave, you must pass from
death unto life, or you'll go to hell. You must pass. There has got to be a work of
grace in your soul. You have got to come to experience
that love and the mercy and the grace of God turning you and
your heart unto the Lord. Well, I wonder this morning if
you have passed the examination, do you have the good hope through
grace? Well, somebody said could you
before you quit just tell us What this hope really is? What
it really is? Well, this good hope, hope through
grace, is a hope that we shall in life here be preserved by
God's love and kindness day by day as we live out our days here.
It is a hope that when we come to die, for die we must, unless
the Lord shall come first, that we shall have all sufficient
grace to leave a good testimony In that last solemn hour, when
we're ready to leave this world, we have a good hope that we'll
be able to die well, die the death of the righteous. We have
the hope that after death, that our souls, out soaring the sun
and the moon and the stars, shall enter into the realm of spirits
and to be with Christ. We believe and hope that the
day shall come when this body though it has become food for
worms, shall be quickened and called by the voice of Christ
from its bed of dust and its silent sleeping place. We believe
that these bones shall live again and that our souls and bodies
shall be reunited and that when the Lord Jesus shall stand at
the latter day upon the earth, as Job said, we shall see God. That's what we believe. So we
would say with Augustus' top lady, These eyes shall see him
in that day, the God that died for me, and all my rising bones
shall say, Lord, who is like to thee? This is the Christian
hope, that he shall live forever in the perfection of enjoyment,
that he shall have all spiritual joys in communion with Christ,
and that we shall walk the golden streets and forever praise the
Lord that brought us into an existence of perfect bliss. This is the hope, the blissful
hope, the hope by Jesus given, the hope when days and years
are past, that we shall meet again in heaven. May the Lord
be pleased this morning to own His word, own His message, and
I trust that if there's anyone here and you've been enabled
by the Spirit of God to see your condition, and you've took the
test, and you said, I got no hope, preacher. I've got no hope. I don't have any hope for eternity
that's well-founded, well-grounded. I don't have a hope that God
is the author of. I've got a hope maybe that I'm the author of,
but I've got no hope that God is the author of. I hope this
morning that the Spirit of the Lord will not give you any rest,
that in this troubled world, in this ninth month of the year
2001, that the Lord will rest your soul and bring you into
a state of peace and comfort. May God bless His Word to all
of our hearts this morning. Dear Lord, we thank You for this
privilege we had to be here this morning to preach Your Word,
and we do ask that Thou would own this message and glorify
Yourself, giving life. You're the giver of life. Jesus
is the life-giving Spirit. So raise the dead, Father. Raise
the dead. Raise the dead and give them
life. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.