What is your hope before God? Do you hope to go to heaven when
you die? Do you hope to hear the Lord
of glory call you in the last day, saying, Come, ye blessed
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world? Do you hope to escape the wrath
of God in the day of judgment? and to be numbered among the
white-robed throng of the redeemed? If so, why? What's the basis
of your hope? If you have hope before God,
what is the basis of that hope? Here in 1 Peter 3 and verse 15,
the apostle Peter tells us, sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. That is, hold God in high reverence
and esteem in your hearts. As our Lord taught us to pray,
our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, sanctified
be thy name. Now let us then sanctify God
in our hearts. Think of him reverently and speak
of him reverently and walk before him reverently. And be ready
always Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh
you a reason of the hope that's in you with meekness and with
fear. In the scriptures, the people
of God are said to have a good hope through grace, a blessed
hope. Sure and steadfast hope a hope
that's the anchor of our souls in the midst of tempestuous trials
troubles and heartaches of life a Hope which maketh not ashamed
now if I have a hope that maketh not ashamed I must be able to
give a reason for it If I'm not ashamed of my hope, if my hope
doesn't embarrass me or will not cause me embarrassment, if
my hope is not a confused hope, then I ought to be able to point
to the Scriptures and say, this is why I have hope. Not point
to myself, not point to the church, but point to the Scriptures and
show why I have hope before God. What is the reason of your hope?
For most people, the basis of their hope in this day is an
old religious experience. Something happened when they
were a little boy, a little girl. They had some kind of an emotional
trauma and some slick deceiver pumped a profession of faith
out of them, got them to join the church and say, now you're
saved and I believe in Jesus and everything's all right. Well,
Saul had a real religious experience. Both Saul of Tarsus and King
Saul, but they didn't know God. Some folks think that great religious
privileges is a basis of hope. One of the strong objections
to the matter of infant sprinkling or infant baptism, even to the
matter of in many Baptist churches, folks bring babies up to the
front and they have some kind of a ceremony where they dedicate
babies to the Lord. All of that stuff, Gary, is based
upon the premise that these things do something for you. And I have
never yet met anyone who had such a thing done to them who
didn't point back to that and say, now that gives me some hope.
That gives me some hope. Lot's wife had experiences like
you and I've never had. But Lot's wife went to hell.
Religious works and devotions give folks hope. They think because
they've gone and done this, they've served this way or they've done
this thing or made this sacrifice, then they certainly have hope
before God. But I'm gonna tell you that none of us have ever
begun to serve God like the Pharisees and the scribes. We sometimes
base our hope upon our feelings and our experiences. We think,
well, boy, I feel so religious now. I feel so spiritual. I feel
so devoted. I feel so consecrated to God.
I feel so remorseful for my sin. I like what Martin Luther said.
He said, feelings come. And feelings go, and feelings
are deceiving. I trust the living Word of God. Nought else is worth believing. Lindsay, our hearts are deceitful.
Don't you trust your heart? Our hearts are desperately wicked.
Nobody knows his heart. Nobody. Folks say, well, if I
know my heart, bless your heart, there's one thing you don't know.
You come near knowing anything than knowing your heart. Our
hearts are deceitful. Well, what is the reason, then,
of our hope? Let me take you to the word of
God and show you the basis of my hope. This is my subject this
morning, the reasons of my hope. We'll begin back in Matthew chapter
16. Matthew chapter 16. I want to show you five or six
things in this book which give me hope before God. I have hope
of eternal salvation. I have hope of standing before
God accepted forever. I have hope of entering into
God's presence upon the basis of Christ's finished work for
this reason. Number one, verse 16, Matthew
16, verse 16. I know, I know that Jesus of
Nazareth is the Christ of God. I know that. I've read this book. And I've found that there is
only one person, only one person, who meets every requirement given
in the Old Testament Scriptures of him who is the Messiah, the
promised Redeemer of God's elect. And that person is the man, Jesus
Christ, who was born at Nazareth more than 2,000 years ago. Here
in Matthew 16, 16, the Lord had asked the disciples, said, who
do men say I am? And they said, one says you this,
one says you that. And then Peter, he asked Peter,
he said, whom do you say I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Now this is the confession of
my heart and the confession of my mouth. It arises from what
I've seen, read and heard in the word of God. It arises from
the experience I've had believing Him and the experience I continually
have believing Him. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. Now what does that mean? Now
everybody says that. Everybody says that. Everybody
says Jesus of Nazareth is Christ. That is everybody who claims
to be Christian. Everybody says, one way or another, Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. But what does that mean? You
remember the Apostle John says, every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. Well, now
then, that means then that everybody, everybody who acknowledges that
the man who was born at Calvary, or born at Bethlehem 2,000 years
ago and died at Calvary, that that man is the Son of God that
everybody saved? Oh, no. Oh, no. All the Mormons
believe that to one degree or another. All the papists believe
that always had to one degree or another. Does that mean it
doesn't matter what a person believes? Oh, no. to say that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, to say that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of the living God, is to declare that that man who
was born of Mary's womb is himself God Almighty who has come here
to save a people, and he's gotten the work done. That's what it
means to confess that Christ has come in the flesh. It's to
confess Him according to Scripture. We recognize that Jesus is that
one of whom the angel spoke when he said, Thou shalt call his
name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. So
to confess that Christ has come in the flesh is to confess that
Jesus of Nazareth, that man, is himself God. That he came
here on an errand of mercy to save his people from their sins.
And having finished his errand of mercy, having put away the
sins of his people, he's ascended up into glory, for he accomplished
what he came here to do. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
came here in the flesh. Oh, what a wondrous thing to
comprehend. No man can comprehend it. Let's
just consider it. He who is the infinite, incomprehensible
God, having neither body nor physical limitations of any kind,
took upon himself, took into union with himself humanity. Real humanity a body was prepared
for him in the womb of the Virgin by God the Holy Spirit a body
Which he could have sacrificed to God for us. He came and took
into him into union with himself humanity for us Jesus Christ
came in this flesh. The prophet said, unto us a child
is born. That's talking about the humanity
of Christ. Unto us a son is given. The Lord Jesus Christ was not
born as the Son of God. He was given as the Son of God. He was born as a child of Mary,
living upon this earth as our representative. The Lord Jesus
Christ perfectly obeyed God in all his will as our substitute.
He voluntarily gave himself into the hands of divine justice to
die in the place of sinners. And that very Christ who died
rose again in triumph over death, hell, and the grave and ascended
up to glory. But why did he do all that? Because
he loved us. Because he contracted with the
Father in the covenant of grace to accomplish our redemption.
Because he swore he would do it. Because he came here as our
surety to fulfill it. All right, that's the first basis
of my hope. I know that this man who was born at Nazareth
is himself the Christ of God. Number two, look in Hebrews chapter
seven, verse 25. I have hope of eternal life.
I have hope of everlasting salvation because I know I know and believe
that Jesus Christ is able to save to the very uttermost the
very chief of sinners. Because he lives, because he
reigns, because he sits upon the throne of glory as prince
and savior, I know that he can give life to sinners. He can
save the vilest of sinners by the virtue of his shed blood.
Look here what the apostle says. He is able also to save them
to the uttermost. What a blessed word. That means,
Bobby, He's able to give you and me the uttermost extremities,
the uttermost fullness, the uttermost riches of God's glory. Able to
save to the uttermost. Look at it now. Them that come
unto God, By Him. Able to save who? All them that
come to God by Him. Now that's what faith is. Faith
is coming to God. Faith is coming to God by the
mediation, by the merit, by the blood of Christ, the sinner's
substitute. Faith is coming to God believing
that He is and that He's the rewarder of them that diligently
seek Him. Well, how do you know he's able to save to the uttermost
all them that come to God by him, seeing he ever liveth to
make intercession for them? I know that salvation is altogether
the work of God's almighty free grace in Jesus Christ the Lord. Therefore, I have hope. Jesus
Christ came into this world to save sinners of whom I'm chief.
The Son of God has the authority, the power, given him by God the
Father to give eternal life to as many as the Father gave him.
The Lord of glory has promised that he'll save all who come
to him. He promised he would. He says,
come unto me, all ye that labor and heavy labor, and I might
possibly give you rest. That's not what he said, is it?
He said, I'll give you rest. He said, him that cometh to me,
I probably won't cast out. That's not what he said. He said,
Larry, if you come to me, I won't cast you out ever for any reason. I won't cast you out. Oh, preacher,
do you reckon he'd take such a worthless sinner as I am? Do
you reckon that he'd take one so vile as I am? Surely that
doesn't mean me. Oh, it means you. It means whosoever
cometh unto me. half everlasting life. That's
what it means. That's what I've done. I've come
to Christ, a worthless, guilty, helpless, hell-bent, hell-deserving,
doomed, damned sinner, naked, without one thing to offer Him
except sin, pollution, corruption, and defilement. That's all. I've
come to Him, and He took me in. That's what my hope is. That's
it. But pastor, do you think you'd take me? Oh, John Bunyan
put it well. He said, come and welcome to
Jesus. Well, how do I come? Any way you can get to it will
be all right. Any way you can come, just come on. Come to Christ. Come to him by faith. But my
faith is so weak. Mine too. But my faith, my faith
is so fickle. But my faith is so up and down. Mine too, only mostly down. But
I come to Him. Sometimes people talk about faith
and preach to sinners like they've got to be, before you can be
saved, you've got to have that kind of strong faith that a fellow
has when he takes his last step over the threshold of the gates
of heaven and enters into glory. This is true faith. It's not
the best kind of faith, but it's true faith. There's a woman with
an issue of blood. She'd spent all her substance
on physicians of no value. She'd wasted it all. She'd gone
from one religious quack to the other, none of them helped. She'd
wasted all her substance on physicians of no value. But somebody told
her about the Christ of God. Somebody told her, this man,
he's God Almighty. And if you can get to Him, if
you can get to Him, you'll be all right. And Merle, she came
in the press, bent over and bowed down in her corruption and her
guilt. The law said, you can't come to Him because you're unclean.
The law said, stay away from Him, you're unclean. But she
said, I'm dying. I've got to get to Him. And she
believed the report. She said, if I can just touch
the Him, of His garment, I've been made whole. And that day,
in the midst of that huge thronging crowd, everybody bumping shoulder
to shoulder, elbow to elbow against the Son of God, she squeezed
her way through the crowd and touched the hem of His garment,
and immediately she was made whole. And the Lord Jesus said,
somebody touch me. That's true faith. That's true
faith. Now sometimes that faith Like
Peter, here's the Lord, say, come to me, and he walks across
the water of a raging sea and comes to him. But it's the same
faith. You see, it is not the quality
or the quantity or the measure of our faith that saves us. Merle,
it's the object of our faith. It's Christ the Lord. All right,
thirdly, I have hope of eternal life because I know that this
Savior, This Christ of God is able to keep that which I have
committed unto him forever. Look in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy
rather, chapter 1, verse 12. This is Paul's last epistle.
He knows the time of his departure is at hand. He's about to leave
this world and he knows it. And this is what he says, I know,
I know. Oh, blessed is that faith which
speaks with confidence concerning the things of God. I know, I
know. I speculate about most things,
this is what I know. I know whom I have believed. And am persuaded, I stand convinced,
Convinced by the Word of God, convinced by the experience of
grace. I stand convinced that He, He
whom I have believed, is able to keep that which I have committed
unto Him against that day. My faith is not in what I believe,
Mark Henson, but whom I believe. I recognize that there is no
true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ apart from the true teaching
of the doctrine of Christ. I understand that. But believing
the doctrine will never save your soul. Election never saved
anybody. Believing in proper effectual
redemption never saved anybody. Believing in irresistible grace
never saved anybody. Believing in the final perseverance
of the saints never saved anybody. Believing Him is that which saves
our souls. You understand that? Faith's
in Him. Faith is in Him. Now, this is
what faith is. It's commitment. You remember
in John chapter 2, after our Lord had performed a miracle
at the marriage feast in Cana of Galilee, turning water into
wine, folks said, whew, man, this is it. And many believed
on His name. And in the very next verse, the
last verse of the chapter, the Scripture says, But the Lord
Jesus did not commit himself to them, because he knew what
was in their hearts. The words are exactly the same.
Buddy Darty, to believe on Christ is to commit yourself to Christ.
It's not just to believe facts about him. It's not just to believe
historic or even theological data concerning him. To believe
on Christ is to commit yourself to him. God committed all His
law and justice into the hands of His Son. He committed His
will into the hands of His dear Son. He committed His people
into the hands of His Son as our surety. The Lord God, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit committed the honor of His name and His
being into the hands of Jesus Christ, the mediator and our
surety. Now, if Christ has kept all that God committed to Him,
then surely he can keep all that I've committed to him. I'm confident
he will preserve me in life and comfort me in death. I'm confident
that he will see me through every trial. I'm confident this side
of the trial. Sometimes I'm confident in the
midst of the trial. Sometimes I'm not so confident.
But that doesn't change anything. He keeps me. I'm confident that
he will raise my body from the grave and keep me in the day
of judgment. I'm confident that when I fall,
he'll lift me up. And Rex Bartley, I'm more confident
of his love for me than I am of hers. And I'm sure confident
of hers. You understand that? I'm confident
of this. When I sin, he makes intercession
for me. When I fall, he's my advocate. When I am at my worst, I have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and
he's the propitiation for my sin. I have hope. but I'm a child
of God because I both heard and obeyed his word. In John chapter
eight, verse 47, you don't need to turn there. Our Lord was talking
to the Jews and he was telling them what it is to be a child
of God, to be the seed of Abraham. And they said, you don't need
to tell us anything. He said, Abraham's our father. We've never been
bonded. We've always been free. God's
our father, we know that. And our Lord said this, he that
is of God, heareth God's word. What a statement. He that is of God, heareth God's
word. Now, that doesn't mean merely
that he hears it with these ears. That means he hears it with understanding
bowing to it. All who are born of God, all
who are taught of God hear his word. They're given understanding
in the things of the kingdom of God and they bow to God's
word. Now, you can fuss about that,
you can argue about that, you can read books about that, but
I'm telling you, I'm telling you, no man, no woman, no matter
how religious, is born of God. who doesn't hear his word? No,
sir. Well, I will say before I ever
heard his word and bowed to it, no, you weren't. I started to
say, I'm sorry, and I'm glad to tell you, no, you weren't.
I'm here to tell you salvation comes when God takes his word
and pierces your heart and gives you life and faith in his son. I've heard that God Almighty
is strictly just. that he will by no means clear
the guilt out. I've heard that he's absolutely
sovereign, having mercy on whom he will have mercy. And yet I've
heard that he is full of mercy, that he is a God full of compassion,
willing to forgive sin. And I've heard and understand
now how God in his holiness can be absolutely just, inflexibly
holy, and yet forgive my sin because he provided his own son
as my substitute. Jesus Christ the Son of God has
made full satisfaction to the justice of God for the sins of
his people. I've heard how that this Christ
who died for sinners really does receive sinners. I've seen it in his word. There was a woman named Mary
Magdalene out of whom the Lord cast seven devils. A woman named Rahab, a harlot. Ruth, the Moabitess about whom
we've been studying. That cursed woman from a cursed
race. All heirs of grace. Our Lord
Jesus came and showed himself to play the part of the good
Samaritan. He comes to one who's fallen among thieves, beaten
and robbed and left for dead and he comes and says to him,
here's some wine for you, here's some riches for you, get up here
on my animal and ride away to the inn. Oh no. He came to the
man, picked him up and he poured in the wine and he washed his
wounds and he set him on his beast and he carried him to the
inn. He said, now take care of him. That's what he did for me,
isn't it? Isn't that what he did for you?
He came where we were, we couldn't come to him. He didn't offer
us the oil and wine of his grace, he poured it in. He didn't offer
us a chance to go to glory, he carries us there and provides
everything needed along the way. There was a woman he came to
at Jacob's well in Samaria that had five husbands. She didn't
really have any at all. She wasn't even a prostitute.
She was just a slut. Common, base, vile. Had no regard for herself and
nobody else had any regard for her. But the Lord Jesus came
to her. And he created an interest in
himself. And before he left there, he
had given her himself. Hear me now. The Lord Jesus Christ,
full of grace, full of mercy, full of goodness, full of power,
full of merit to save sinners, gives life to dead sinners. He
receives sinners in all their defilement and saves them by
his grace. That's what I heard. God said,
come and I came. God said, look, I look. God said,
repent, I repent. God said, believe, and I believe.
Fifthly, I have hope of eternal salvation because the Lord is
the portion of my soul. He's all I've got. This is what
the prophet said. We read it earlier. The Lord
is my portion, saith my soul. Therefore will I hope in him.
He's my portion. I just read that story about
Happy Jack a little bit ago. The old huckster going down the
road, selling his wares, just a poor man, heard those two women
singing a little tune. I am a poor sinner and nothing
at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all. He thought, well,
that sure suits me, and he started singing the song. And he'd just
go down his road. Every now and then, he'd sing
the words, mostly just humming along. After a while, the word
of God pierced his heart. They started to attend the place
of worship, and God spoke to his heart. He was converted.
Back in those days when everybody wanted to act like the judges
and the jurors of righteousness, and you had to apply for church
membership and pass examination. Some places still practice that
nonsense, but he went and applied for church membership, and he
had to go before the deacons and the elders, you know, and
had to be judged worthy. And they said, well, tell us
about your experience. And he said, I'm a poor sinner and nothing
at all. Jesus Christ is my all in all. And the pastor said,
now, Brother Jack, you're gonna have to tell us something more
than that. He said, what more can I tell? I am a poor sinner
and nothing at all. And Jesus Christ is my all in
all. He said, but don't you have some doubts? I often have doubts. He said, oh, no. I can never
doubt that I am a poor sinner and nothing at all. And surely
you wouldn't have me to doubt that Jesus Christ is my all in
all. He says he is. And after a while, they finally
recognized they wasn't gonna shake him from his refuge, and
they received him into the church, and he was always known after
that as Happy Jack. And he would sing this to them,
I am a poor sinner and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my
all in all. That's my hope. That's all, that's
all. But what about your feelings? They're nothing. What about your
works? They're sin. What about your
righteousness? Filthy rags. A preacher? You mean Christ is everything? Oh yeah, that's it. Christ is
everything. My wisdom, my righteousness,
my sanctification, my redemption. And there's one more thing. I
have hope, because I've not yet been turned away from this hope.
That's what Paul said. He said, he said, if you continue
steadfast, grounded, and settled, and be not moved away from the
hope of the gospel, God's gonna present you at last, holy, unflammable,
unreprovable in his sight. Oh, now may God give you the
blessed, good hope of grace through faith in his son, For christ's
sake amen lindsey, you lead us in the hymn, please