I invite you to take your Bible
and turn back to the book of 2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 it
is. I want to begin this morning
with verse 13 and read down through the end of the chapter. But we
are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved
of 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 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 a little bit this morning about the good hope that
the people of God have through grace. the good hope through
grace. You come here this morning, I
wonder what kind of hope you have. There are many that are
deceived in this world. We see where that Paul in writing
to the Thessalonians in this second chapter spoke in verse
10. He said, with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness, the devil is outworking power and signs
and lying wonders. and that they that have received
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, that they
all might be damned, that they may have a strong delusion, that
they might be damned that believe a lie, that believe a lie. Beloved, there are many lies
being perpetrated in this world today. We know that many in the
religious world are confused and know nothing about how God
saves a poor sinner from everlasting burning, how God saves sinners,
how God delivers sinners out of their bondage into life and
liberty. And many are hearing a false
gospel. Many hear many things which are
contrary to the Word of God, many things which the Bible will
not support, many things which will never, never give liberty
and freedom to an individual in this world, never will they
receive deliverance from their sin. Now as I look here in these
verses, Paul in verse 13, he said, I'm bound to give thanks
to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord. Paul was writing
to these Thessalonians and he was reminded in his heart of
the fact that due to their deliverance from sin, And the fact that God
had saved them and that their lives had so dramatically changed
by and through God's grace. He said, I'm bound to give thanks
to God for you. And the fact that you have believed
on the Lord Jesus tells me that you're beloved of God. That God
has loved you. That God had set His love upon
you from old time. That God before the morning stars
had ever sang together loved you. God, before the song of
the first angel ever broke the solemnity of silence, loved you,
that God loved you as His people. He said, you're beloved of the
Lord. He said, because God hath from the beginning, God hath
from the beginning, God hath before you were ever brought
into existence God back in old eternity. The Bible tells us
in Ephesians 1 and verse 4, according as he has chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world. God has chosen his people in
Christ before the foundation of the world. And he says here,
I'm bound to thank God for you because God has from the beginning
chosen you to salvation. Jesus said, you've not chosen
me, I have chosen you. Salvation is of God from the
beginning to the end. Salvation is of God, it's of
the Lord. Jonah learned that in the College
of the Whales Ballet when he said, salvation is of the Lord. We know as we read this verse
of scripture here that we've been chosen by God. Well, shut
up. Not to our choice of Him, but
to His choice of us. And Paul said this took place
through sanctification of the Spirit, through us being set
apart by the effectual working of God's Holy Spirit. We believe
here in the effectual call that God calls his people out of the
world, that God lays hold of them, and that God arrests them
in their way and draws them effectively unto Himself. And I'm sure this
morning there'd be none of us here saved if it were not for
the operation of the Divine Spirit in our lives. If it was not for
the work of God in our souls, none of us would have ever been
turned from sin, none of us would have ever had a good hope if
it hadn't been for God taking the initiative and God drawing
us unto Himself. And we're told here this is through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Now
it's wonderful that the truth of God is still being preached
in this world. Somebody mentioned the other
day, I believe it was Brother Randy as he left, he said it's
really amazing and wonderful that there's still yet the truth
of God in this world, that there's still some light in this world. And Paul says, you people have
been set apart by the Spirit and you believe the truth. You
believe the truth. You believe the truth about yourself.
I don't know how many of you here this morning know the truth
about yourself, but these people knew the truth. They believed
the truth about themselves, that they were sinners before God,
that they were lost, that their natures, their very natures were
contrary to God, that they were lawbreakers. and that they needed
one to be their substitute, which was holy, righteous, and perfect.
They needed a Redeemer. They needed a Savior. And they
believed the truth about themselves. And then they believed the truth
about the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, the Bible teaches that
God sent Christ into this world, that He was sent, anointed of
God, appointed of God, and He will never be disappointed. The
Lord Jesus is the Savior, and He came into this world. God
having sent Him into this world, He's the God-man, He's God, and
He's man. He's all together the very God
of very God. And we believe that Jesus is
God manifested in a body. And we believe that Jesus went
to the cross, that He went to Calvary, and He suffered there
in our room and stayed in place. We believe that. We believe that
God charged The Lord Jesus Christ, with all of our sin and all of
our guilt, He laid it on Him, and then the Lord Jesus suffered
as if He was as much a sinner as we are. And Christ, as He
paid that sin debt in full upon that old rugged cross, we believe
that's where God bought us back from the slave market of sin,
and that's how we're saved. We believe that about the Lord
Jesus Christ, that He is the all-sufficient Savior. He's the Son of the Living God. And then we believe the truth
about God the Father, that God the Father is an absolute, total
sovereign, and that He rules this world. This is God's world,
and He rules it. and that he does according to
his own will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. And none can say unto him, What doest thou? None can
stay his hand. He's an absolute, total salvation.
These people believe that. That God was in charge. That
God was the author of salvation. That God had started this work
and God will finish it. And then in verse 14, he says,
You were called by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. You were out here in the world,
you were lost in sin, and you had no hope, but we preached
the gospel to you, and God called you through the gospel. You were
called to the Lord Jesus Christ. And you were called to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't it marvelous that
we're joint heirs with Christ, that we belong to Him, and that
all that Jesus, all that Jesus has been given, and the Bible
says that the Father loved the Son and gave all things into
His hands. that the Lord Jesus, that He
has all that God has. And if you want what God has,
you get it through Christ. And you get it as you are joined
to Christ, as you believe on Him. And so we recall to the
obtaining of the glory. You know, Jesus had glory with
the Father before He came into this world. John 17 spells it
out. He had glory there. He's heaven's
best. And He had glory with the Father. He was one with the Father. And
He was in eternal union with the Father. He was at the Father's
right hand. And He came down. The Father
sent Him down. And that glory, Jesus said, which
I have with the Father, I'll give to you. I give it to you.
And when you are taken up to heaven to be with us, to be with
me and my Father and the Divine Spirit, then you'll have the
glory, the same glory that I had when I was with the Father before
I came out into this sin-cursed world. Therefore, he says, brethren,
you stand fast. You stand fast as delivered people,
as those who have experienced the grace of God in your heart.
You stand fast as those that have been delivered from sin,
and been delivered from the lies of the devil, and have been delivered
into the glorious kingdom of God, into that life and liberty
that's in Jesus alone. He said down here in verse 16,
Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
I like what Paul said there. Our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul believed that Jesus was
Lord. And I believe that Jesus is Lord. And I believe that anyone who
comes and talks to me about Jesus being their Savior, I believe
that we need to question them as to whether or not they believe
He is the Lord Jesus Christ. Or whether they bow their knee.
to His Lordship, whether they submit themselves daily unto
His Lordship. Now the Lord Jesus Christ Himself,
and God even our Father, God even our Spiritual Father, God
our Spiritual Father, you know He's not the Father of anyone
except those who are born again. those that are in the Son, those
that have this living union with Christ, those that believe on
the Lord Jesus. He's their spiritual Father,
but He's not the Father of all men. This universal fatherhood
of God and brotherhood of man that we hear so much about in
our day, there's nothing to it. It's a lie from hell. God's only
your Father if so that you're in His Son, the Lord Jesus, by
faith. Are you a believer on the Lord
Jesus Christ? Now he said, which hath loved
us. There it is. The Father loved us and gave
us to the Son in that eternal love gift. Back yonder before
the foundation of the world. And he says that he hath given
us. And when we find the word given,
that means that we got it without paying a price for it. That means
we got it as a gift from God. That means that God gave it to
us. That means it's free grace. That
means that we didn't merit it, that we didn't warrant it, that
we didn't get it because of our worthiness or who we are, but
it was given to us. A free grace gift from God. It says that He has given us
everlasting consolation. Now, beloved, that's wonderful,
isn't it? We read in the Bible that He said, I give unto my
sheep eternal life. I give them eternal life. I don't
give them temporary life. I give Him eternal life. Jesus
said in John 3 and 36, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life. That's the kind of life that
Jesus Christ gives unto His people. God is not an Indian giver. He
doesn't give life and take it away tomorrow. The life that
God gives is eternal and He said that we've been given everlasting
consolation. We've been given a consolation
that will last for all eternity. And it's a comfort, it's an inward
comfort. It's a comfort that God gives. We read over in the book of Romans,
chapter 15 and verse 13, that there it says that God is the
God of hope. That He is the God of hope. Well,
what does that mean? Well, it means that God is the
author of all well-grounded hope. And this is the God that's given
us everlasting consolation. And then, listen to it, and He
says, and good hope. and good hope through grace. God hath given unto us everlasting
consolation and good hope through grace. Now my question to you
this morning is, as you sit here before me, is, is your hope a
good hope? Is it a good hope? What is it
that you're depending upon this morning? Is your hope a good
hope? Is it a valid hope? Is it a hope
given by God? Is it a hope that is given through
grace? You know, we often speak of how
that there are people that And we call them workmongers that
believe that somehow or other they can merit eternal salvation,
that they can merit God's favor. Now we know that nobody can merit
the favor of God. We know that all men are dead
in sin by nature. None can merit God's favor. This is a good hope through grace.
We know by works of righteousness, we're not justified by works
of righteousness, not our own works. We're justified through
the positive obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're justified
through His obedience, by one man's obedience. We're justified
before God. But we have a good hope through
grace. God hath bestowed favor upon us when we were undeserving
and we didn't merit what God's done for us. But we have a good
hope because of what God has done in us and for us. Now some people do not like personal
questions. Paul said in the word, he said,
examine yourself. to see whether or not you be
in the faith. Is your hope this morning a good hope? Jesus said,
what thank you of Christ? Whose son is he? That's a personal
question and that's a searching question. What thank you of Christ? You know, we need to examine
ourselves and the preacher as he stands before you needs to
ask you this morning. I feel compelled to ask you.
I feel that I must before God with judgment day honesty ask
you, is your hope a good hope? Now, hope is a word that we use
quite frequently in connection with a lot of things, but especially
in the matter of religion. We say often, I hope I'm saved,
or I hope my heart is right with God, or I hope at last we'll
all meet together in heaven around the family circle and the circle
will not be broken in heaven. I hope that we'll all meet in
heaven. George Whitefield said, hoping
men live on. He said, hoping men grow old. He said, hoping men die at last,
and yet hoping they're lost forever. I'll tell you, listen to me,
you need to examine whether or not your hope is a good hope
that's been given to you by God through His grace. Well, what must be determined
is is my hope a good hope. Let me talk about that a little
bit. Now if my hope is not good, if your hope is not good, we
need to find it out right here, don't we? We need to find it
out right here in this world. We should not wait. Listen, if
it's not good hope right now, it won't be good hope when you
die, and it won't be good hope when you stand before God. So
if we can expose this morning your hope to be something other
than a good hope through grace, Then my friend, that's exactly
what God would have us to do. Is my hope a good hope? The Bible
has a lot to say about hope. Paul said in Romans chapter 8,
he said we're saved by hope. And in Romans 5, he said hope
maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in
my heart by the Holy Spirit. In 1 Peter 1 and 3, he says God
has begotten us again unto a living hope. Now if our hope is a good
hope, I want to say that examination won't hurt it. It'll never hurt
it. You can let the preacher take
a crack at it, you can let him shake you if he can from the
pulpit, and it will not hurt you at all. If you're on the
rock, I mean if you're on the rock of ages, Jesus Christ built
upon Him, then beloved, you cannot be shaken. And you will not be
shaken. And I want you, every one of
you, to be on the rock. And I want you to have this good
hope that Paul talked about in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and
verse 16. I want you to have it as your
possession. Now I've come to bring you this
morning six marks of a good hope. We're taking an examination,
and I want you to examine your hope, the hope you say you have,
and I want to try to give you six marks of a scriptural hope. First of all, if my hope is a
good hope, If it is a good hope through grace, it is a hope that
I can explain. I want you to turn in your Bibles,
if you will, to the book of 1 Peter chapter 3. 1 Peter chapter 3
and look at verse 15. It 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 with
meekness and fear. He says, I want you to be ready
all the time if somebody asks you, well, what is the reason
for your hope? Why is it that you think you're
going to heaven? Why is it that you think that
you will find good in the unseen world? Why is it that you feel
in your own heart some degree of peace and rest? What is the
reason for your hope? Peter said you be always ready
to give an answer to any man that asked you. In other words,
this hope is explainable. It's not so mysterious, and I've
talked to people who said, well, I couldn't begin to tell you.
I've got a hope, but I couldn't begin to tell you what it is.
I couldn't describe it to you. I don't know anything about it
other than I just feel I have it. Well, beloved, the Bible
says you can explain it and that you ought to be able to explain
it in your own words. Now, you don't have to be a theologian,
and you don't have to be a public speaker, and you don't have to
be some kind of an orator. You don't have to take any course
in religion. You just gotta know whether you
passed from death to life or not. You just gotta know whether
God has touched you or not. You gotta know whether you're
born again. Well, the Spirit of God has come in and is living
in you. You must know your sins are forgiven. And if God has delivered you
and saved you, then you know that God has put away your sin,
that He cast it behind His back, that God said, I won't remember
it against you anymore. You need to be able to tell people
that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses men and women
from their sin, and that blood cleansed me, thank God, from
my sin, and I've been delivered, and I got the hope in my soul
of eternal life because my sin has been put away. And if you're
going to heaven, then you must have a reason to believe that,
and you must be able to speak that. There was a man one time,
an old Italian fellow that wrote a book. on the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Roman Catholics, they didn't
like the book that he wrote, so they confiscated all of the
books that they could find, and they burnt those books, and they
brought him to trial, and they tried him before a tribunal,
and they asked him, they wanted him to recant what he had to
say in that book, because he spelled it out, that salvation
was through the blood of Christ. that it was through Christ's
death that men are reconciled to God. And that the death that
Jesus died on the cross was the death that he ought to have died.
And he spelled it out that God saves sinners through a substitute. And so they brought him to trial
and they asked him, they said, what's the first cause of salvation?
And he said, the death of christ well they said i won't do as
an answer so we'll ask you again so they ask him again they said
what's the second calls of salvation that and he said well it's the
same as the first calls is the death of christ And then they
said, well, you know, if we ask him the third time, surely somewhere
he'll say that the third cause of salvation would be the sacraments
or it would be the church. Surely he will somewhere or another
comply with what we believe. So they ask him, what's the third
cause of salvation? And he said, it's the death of
Christ. And so they put him to death.
They put him to death. But this man, he knew how to
answer people that asked him about his salvation. He knew
what to say. He understood. He could explain
his hope. And this, my friend, is what
we must be able to do. A good hope is one that we can
explain. And if this morning you say,
I don't know, preacher, somehow or other, I just can't explain
what I believe. I don't know anything about it.
I can't explain it. My mama told me I was all right.
And mama called me honey and said everything was all right.
That won't do. That won't do. That won't do.
You've got to know how it is that God takes an old sinner,
a wriggling worm of the dust, a depraved sinner, and reconciles
that sinner to himself, how he accepts him in the beloved. Now
secondly, a good hope is one that is based, drawn from, and
bottoms on the word of God. That's what a good hope is. Now,
in Psalms 119 and verse 49, David said, Remember the word unto
thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope. Well, now, if God said in His
Word, made a statement in His Word, you know the Bible says
that where the Word of the King is, there is authority. There
is authority. If God says it, Then, beloved,
we must believe it. We must believe it. All to believe
the Word of God. Now, the Scripture says in John
3 and 18, He that believeth on the Son is not condemned. He
that believeth not the Son, that he is condemned already because
he's not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And in John 5 and 24, it says, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me
hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but
is passed from death unto life. And in John 6 and 37, Jesus says,
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and they that
come to me The man that gets to me, the man that believes
on me, the man that the Father teaches to me, when he gets to
Christ, Jesus said, I'll never cast him out. I'll never cast
him out if he gets to me. Now, beloved, you can believe
those statements because they're the Word of God. And Isaiah said
he was, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was wounded,
I mean he paid the price. God will not charge our bleeding
surety for our sin and exact from him full payment and then
charge it to us. No, no. He was wounded for our
transgression. Peter said, we were redeemed
not with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but we were
redeemed with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We've
been redeemed with His precious blood. Well, let me ask you a
question or two. One is, which would you rather
have? Would you rather hear a voice
from heaven Would you rather see a vision or would you rather
have a copy of the Word of God? Which would you rather have?
Well, beloved, I want a copy of the Word of God. I'd rather
have the Word of God because, let me read to you out of 1 Peter,
or 2 Peter it is, chapter 1. If you can turn there with me,
2 Peter, chapter 1. And I want us to look. Beginning
with verse 17, and we'll read down through verse 21. For he
received from God the Father honor and glory, that is Christ,
when he was upon the Mount of Transfiguration, when there came
in such a voice to him from the excellent glory, here's the voice
coming out, here's a voice from heaven that Jesus received. And this voice said, this is
my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. This voice which came
from heaven we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount,
Peter said. We have, now look at verse 19,
we have also a more sure Word of prophecy, where unto ye do
well, that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark
place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.
Peter said, we got a more sure word than that one that came
down from heaven. We heard the voice. We heard
the voice, but now we got a more sure word. Well, Peter, what
is that more sure word of prophecy? Well, he said in verse 20, knowing
this verse that no prophecy of the scriptures of any private
interpretation for the prophecy came not in old time by the will
of man. The will of man did not produce
the Bible. The will of man had nothing to
do with this word that we have, this living word that we have
before us to read, to study, to believe, that tells us about
salvation, tells us about what God's done through Christ. You
know, God is not what we imagine Him to be. Many, many people
feel that God is what we imagine Him to be. But your opinion of
God and my opinion of God is not worth a snap of your finger.
It's what the Word of God reveals God to be. What God is. And the same is true about you.
You say, well I know who I am. You know who you are, do you?
Well, my friend, it's not what you imagine yourself to be that's
the truth. It's what God says you are in
His Word. You see, we're shut up to God's
Word. And our experience must be one
that's based and bottomed on His Word. And if you want to
know the truth, then you've got to find it in this book. Look
at this. He said, this prophecy came not
in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. So I would rather have, my friend,
a copy of the word of God because it's a more sure word. You say,
well, I heard from God one time. Well, you might have. But I'll
tell you this, when you read it in the Bible, you don't have
to worry about whether you had too many beans for supper, or
whether or not, you know, that it's just too hot that day, or
you don't know for sure what happened. But if you read it
in the book, if you read it in the Word of God, that's a sure
word of prophecy. And so, you gotta, your hope
has to be based and bottom and drawn from the Word of God. All right, in the third place,
A good hope rests, now get this, a good hope rests on Christ alone,
on Jesus Christ alone. I invite you to turn with me
to the book of 1 Timothy chapter 1, the book of 1 Timothy Chapter
1 and look at the first verse the first verse Paul an apostle
of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord
Jesus Christ Look at it's how it's spelled out here 1st Timothy
chapter 1 verse 1 and the Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope
which is Our hope, our hope is the Lord Jesus Christ. And in
Colossians chapter 1, let me give you one more verse here.
Colossians chapter 1 and verse 27, to whom God would make known
what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among you, among
the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you. That's Colossians
1 and verse 27. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Do not lose sight of the fact. Our hope is built on Christ.
It must rest on Him entirely, completely. A Christ outside
of you is a Christ not yours. A Christ in you is the hope of
glory. And until He is in you, you don't
have any hope for eternity. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now, let me just say a couple
things here that I must say. I must say that Christ is the
sinner's only. the sinner's only hope now there
is no in this world there is no cure-all medicine for the
body I know there's been a lot of concoctions come up with that
people say well this is a cure-all but for the body there is no
cure-all in this world but my friend there is for the soul
whatever form sin may take If it be the blind eye, if it be
the deaf ear, if it be a stony heart, if it be a dull and seared
conscience, there is a medicine. Hear me now, there is a medicine
in the veins of Jesus that we may well call the divine healer. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
will heal our sin, whatever form it takes in our life. The Lord
Jesus, there's never been a case that baffled His skill. The Lord
Jesus, He's able to save to the uttermost all that come unto
God by Him. We must be plain, the Lord Jesus
is the only hope for the sinner. There isn't it anywhere else.
There is no door anywhere else. There is no way anywhere else.
Christ is the door. Christ is the way. He's the only
hope in our salvation. I mean, search it out. I mean,
examine yourself. Does your hope rest on the Lord
Jesus Christ alone, not deadly doing. The old psalm said, sinner
nothing do, neither great nor small. Jesus did it, did it all
long, long ago. He did it all. He did it all.
My friend, we must understand that, that Christ is the only
hope for the sinner. And Christ is the joy of those
who believe on Him, because He is their only hope. We want Him
as our meat and drink, our continual nourishment. There's no lack
which a Christian has which the Lord Jesus cannot supply. There
is nothing in Christ which we don't need as a Christian. We
need everything that's in Him. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee I find. in Christ. We must rest, beloved,
our soul upon Him. Now then, I want in the fourth
place to say that a good hope is actually and realistically
felt in the soul. A good hope is a hope that is
actually and realistically felt in the soul. In Romans 5 and
verse 5, Paul talked about the love of God which is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. And you know, I've often been
greatly moved and impressed by the melting by the warm and loving
presence of God in my own soul and in the presence or in the
lives of the Lord's people as they testify of the melting and
of the nearness of God through the Holy Spirit in their souls,
what they have felt in their soul. Now there are some questions
that we need to answer. And when we begin to think of
our hope and about an individual, you know, Samuel Rutherford,
one of the old Puritans said, salvation is more than a notion. He said something must be known
and something must be felt. And a good hope is something,
you know, that is realistically felt in the soul. I ask, can
a man pass from death to life and never feel it? And never
feel it? My answer would be no. Can a
man be regenerated, renewed, pardoned, justified and not feel
anything? Can he? Well the question is
no. Can a thirsty man drink and not be refreshed by his drinking? 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 by his lying down? Can a sick man be healed and
not rejoice in his soul? A good hope, beloved, will be
felt. in the soul you'll know it if
God has saved you you'll know it you will feel something somebody
said well I don't go on feelings well I'm not saying you gotta
go on feelings but I'm saying this there is no way you're going
to be in the kingdom of God very long until you're going to have
that old icicle in your heart broken and God's going to begin
to warm your heart and you're going to begin to feel something
in your soul you just must you will feel something in your soul. I told you you need to draw your
experience from the Word of God and bottom it right there. But
also there's something that's felt in the soul. Now a good hope will praise God
anywhere. A good hope will praise God whatever
circumstances that you find yourself in. You go out to the cemetery
to bury somebody and if you have If you have that which the world
doesn't have, you've got a relationship with God, and you're in Christ,
and you have peace in your heart, even though this one that you're
about to bury is one of the best loved ones on earth to you, and
you hate terribly bad to see that one go. Yet, my friend,
if you know the Lord, and if you have a true experience in
the grace of God, you can praise the Lord knowing knowing that
the end of a thing is better than the beginning knowing that
whenever we sow that body into the dust of the earth and it
passes through the sieve of the worms that there's coming a time
when God's going to raise that body from the dead and God's
going to raise that one up and their soul is going to be united
with the body if they know the Lord a good hope will praise
God anywhere A man who has a good hope has entered into his rest,
the Bible says. He entered into his rest. That's
why he feels something. He feels some rest. And now,
listen, I'm not trying to go to heaven, are you? I'm not trying. Somebody said, are you trying,
preacher, to go to heaven all the time? Are you preaching so
you can go to heaven? No! No, I'm not preaching so I can
go to heaven. I'm not serving God to stay out of hell either.
I'm saved by grace. I'm saved through what Christ
did for me. I'm not working my way to heaven. If you're working
your way to heaven, you're a busy person. And you better be busy. And you probably better get more
busy than what you are if you're going to work your way to heaven.
Because it's an impossible task. But I've entered into my rest
in Jesus. Jesus is my rest. Somebody said,
you keep the Sabbath preacher? I say, well, Jesus is my Sabbath.
I rest in Him. He's my rest. I rest in Him every
day of the week, not just on the Lord's day. I rest in Him
all the time. He's my rest. And I'm asking you this morning,
do you have a good hope? Well, fifthly, if a man has a
good hope, it'll be manifested in his outward life. You know
the scripture says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17, that if
any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. All things are passed
away, behold, all things have become new. And in 1 John 3,
verse 2 and 3, it says, Beloved, now are we the sons of God. 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 he goes on to say in the next verse, and he says, And
every man that haveth this hope in him purifieth himself, even
as Jesus, the one coming back, is pure. There's a purifying
effect that takes place through the hope being planted in our
souls. It purifies us. Now listen to
me. I'm trying to say to you this
morning that if there's a light on in the house, It will be seen
through the windows. It will be seen through the windows.
That you can't hide it. You just can't hide it. You're
not to put the light under the bushel. You're to put it on a
candlestick where everybody in the house can see it and we're
to give light even out of the windows. Our attitude will be
different, that's what I'm trying to say. Our thoughts about ourselves
and God will be different. Has your hope affected your outward
life? Is it changed your life? Have you ever asked yourself
that? You looked at your life? Is this what God is the author
of? You know there's some people here that they make a lot of
decisions based on the fact that God lives in their lives, that
God lives in their heart, that they're Christians. They make
a lot of decisions because they know the Lord. And for Christ's
sake, they do a whole lot of things that they wouldn't otherwise
do. There are people here that say no to a lot of things that
they would never say no to if it wasn't for the fact that they
had a good hope in them. And I'm telling you that when
we look at ourselves, and although we fail in so many, many ways,
we can say, well, God's been here and God's at work. You know,
the scripture says, it's God that worketh in you to will and
do of his good pleasure. God's working in his people.
And this is what God has done. This work is God's work. And
He's changed our lives. And this is due to the hope that
God's planted in us. The last thing is this. The sixth
mark of a good hope is that the man who has a good hope, the
man who has a good hope, he knows that there was a time when he
didn't have it. There was a time when he didn't
have it. There was a time, we read in 1 Peter chapter 2 verse
9 and 10, that there was a time when we were not the people of
God, there was a time when we had not received mercy, but now
we have obtained mercy. Now we have received mercy. In
other words, there was a time when we passed out of death to
life. I talked to a woman one time out in Indiana, And she
was a preacher's daughter, and I asked her one Sunday morning
after the service, I was out there visiting and preaching,
and I asked her, she was standing next to her daddy, and he was
a preacher from Kentucky, and I said, are you a Christian? And she said, oh, she said, I've
always been saved. I've been saved all my life,
I've been saved. And I said, well, young lady,
I'll tell you something, I think that's entirely too long. It's
too long. You say, you were born and saved?
No, there ain't nobody born and saved. John the Baptist, I believe,
was filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother's womb. But there
isn't, I don't believe that's God's way of doing business.
I believe this, that we're all children of wrath, even as others.
You know, when we're born into this world, we're all lost. We're
all lost when we're born into this world. You half-heat quickened,
Paul said, who were dead. There was a time when we were
dead in sin. You have to be made alive who
were dead. Even when we were dead. Ephesians
2 and 5. Even when we were dead in sin. And so, beloved, the Lord has
quickened us. There was a time when we were
lost and now we're saved. A time when we were blind, now
we see. A time when we were Headed for
hell now. Change courses, we're headed
for heaven. Somewhere between the cradle and the grave, we
must pass from death unto life. Have you passed from death, spiritual
death, unto life? John 5 and 24, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him
hath sent me. Not under condemnation, because
they have passed. passed from death unto life. So beloved, I asked you this
morning, have you passed the examination? Do you have a good
hope through grace? Do you know the Lord? I mean,
is your hope a good hope? Is it a good hope? You know we're
going to stand before the Lord one of these days. The Bible
says it is appointed unto men once to die and after this the
judgment The Bible teaches that we're going to stand before God.
I will and you shortly must stand before God. Do you have a good
hope? Do you have a good hope? That
will be something that you will experience in time. You're going
to experience in time. You say, well, I don't know whether
or not I'm one of the elect or not. Nobody knows whether they're
one of the elect until they have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ
And I don't preach just to the elect. I preach to every creature
and I tell you this morning that you will never know whether you're
one of the elect till you believe on the Lord Jesus and then when
you believe Then you know in your heart God has indeed from
the beginning chosen me to salvation through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. That's when you'll know that
you're one of God's elect after you believe on Him. No way in
the world to know otherwise. Can't know. No way. So I asked
you this morning, do you pass the examination? Do you have
a good oath? Do you have a good hope? You're all going to die.
All of us are going to die. Do we have a good hope? May God
be pleased to bless and to own the message. In the name of Jesus,
may God own His word today. Let's have a hymn in