Let's turn back to Colossians
chapter one. I want to look at verse five
once again. Paul was giving thanks. And look
at this remarkable, remarkable statement. For the hope. Which is laid up
for you. In heaven. Now what an awesome,
stupendous thought. The hope that is laid up for
you in heaven. Now this is not talking about
the subjective feeling of hope. Now that's a great feeling. It
is a great feeling to have a confident expectation with regard to the
future. What a wonderful thing it is to have hope. You know, there's no worse feeling
than despair. When you feel despair, that means
you don't feel any hope that anything's ever going to get
better. What a horrible feeling. But what a joyful feeling is
hope. But the joyful hope we have is
in the gospel of Christ. So when he's talking about the
hope that's laid up for us in heaven, he's not talking about
the hope we feel. He's talking about the hope himself.
Turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter 1 for a moment. Paul, verse 1, an apostle of
Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus
Christ. And notice that which is, is
in italics. You can pull it out and you can
read it just like this. The Lord Jesus Christ, our hope. Our hope is laid up in heaven. You see, he by himself purged. Oh, I love to think about this.
By himself with no contribution from me or you. No help from
me or you. He by himself purged our sins. And he sat down at the right
hand of the majesty on high from henceforth expecting till his
enemies be made his footstool. And he's in heaven. Your hope
is in heaven. That's how secure you are. That's
how complete your hope is. He is in heaven. Look in Colossians chapter three. If you then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. There's your hope. Sitting there. on the right hand of God, sitting
because his work is done. Sitting there because there's
nothing left to do. He put away my sin. The question
of my sin has been taken care of. And there my hope is who
completed my salvation, seated at the right hand of the Father. Heaven, the abode of God. Heaven, the place of the throne
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The place of holiness, the place
of happiness, the place of praise, the place of rest, the place
of security. Best of all, the place where
I'll be beholding the face of the Lord Jesus Christ and I'll
be conformed to his image. Heaven. Your hope is in heaven. Now, the feeling of hope is a
confident expectation. with regard to the future. Now,
I've been talking about Him who is our hope. My hope is not in
my feeling. Now, like I said, hope is a great
feeling. I'm thankful for hope. But you know, you can have this
great feeling of hope, and it can be a misplaced or a misguided
hope. The question is, what is the
ground of your hope? I'm not asking you about the
feeling of your hope. The feeling of hope is a wonderful thing,
but what I want to ask you about is what is the ground of that
feeling of hope that you have. Now, what is the reason for that
hope? Peter said, always be ready to
give an answer to every man that asks you for the reason of the
hope that's in you. Now, I have a hope. Hope is a
confident expectation with regard to the future. I have a hope
that when my name is called on judgment day, God is gonna look
at me and say, well done. Thou good and faithful servant. Now how can you entertain such
a hope as that? Because Jesus Christ is my righteousness before
God. And when He looks at His Son,
He says to His Son, Well done, thou good and faithful servant. And if I'm in Him, He says the
same thing to me. That's my hope. that everything
that God requires of me, he looks to his blessed son for. What
a blessed hope. That's the reason, that's the
ground of my hope. Now, Paul said in Romans 8, 24,
we're saved by hope. Now that's not talking about
the feeling of hope, is it? You know, sometimes you feel very
hopeful and sometimes you wonder whether or not you're even saved.
He's not talking about the feeling of hope that might be great one
day and kind of down the next. He's talking about the hope himself.
I'm saved by Christ who is my hope. Christ who is my peace. In Galatians chapter five, verse
five, Paul said, we wait for the hope of righteousness by
faith. The hope of justification, the
hope of Christ in you, the hope of glory. I live yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me and the life that I now live in the flesh.
I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me. Paul called it in first or second
Thessalonians 2.16, a good hope through grace. Don't you love
being saved by grace? My favorite word is Christ himself,
the Lord Jesus Christ. My second favorite word is grace.
I love being saved by the grace of God. What a good hope there
is in grace. Now, I've given this outline
before. What is a good hope? Let me give
you five things real briefly. A good hope, first of all, is
a hope that a man can explain. I can explain to you what my
hope is. My hope is that when Jesus Christ died, he died for
me. You know, if you believe that
Jesus Christ died for everybody and some of those people wind
up in hell, your hope is not the death of Christ. Your hope
is in something you do. But here's my hope. It's not
in something I do to make what he did work for me. My hope is
that when he died, he died for me. That's all my hope, that
all God requires of me he looks to his son for. Now, if you've
got a good hope, you can explain what that hope is. You know what
it is. Secondly, a good hope is found
in the scriptures. I better have a Bible verse.
I better have the word of God to tell me why that hope I have
is real. If I can't go to the scriptures
to show why I have this good hope, the hope is no good. Thirdly, a good hope is a hope
that looks solely to Christ. Just like those people when they
were bitten with the brazen serpent, one place for them to look, Christ
only, not Christ and Christ alone. And fourth, a good hope is a
hope that is felt on the inside. If you believe that Jesus Christ
is your hope, It's going to do something for you on the inside.
You're going to rejoice with joy, unspeakable and full of
glory. If you really believe that Christ
is your hope, it's going to make you feel good. It's going to
make you happy. You're going to rejoice that
all that God requires of you, you have in his son. And if you
have a good hope, it's a hope that is seen on the outside. It's a hope that does something
for you. Now, if it doesn't do anything for you, if it doesn't
make you different, it's not a good hope. Now, this hope is
called in Hebrew 719, a better hope. You know, the hope of Christ
is better than the law, isn't it? It's better than the law. It's called in 1 Peter 3, a living
hope, not a dead hope, but a living hope because it's him who lives. It's called in 1 John 3, verse
3, a hope that's in him. Every man that has this hope
in him purifies himself even as he is pure. Now, what does
this hope always produce, this hope in Christ? Now look back
to Colossians 1. Verse 3. We give thanks to God
and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. Since we heard, remember, Paul
never met these people. He'd met their pastor who told
Paul about them, Epaphras. Since we heard of your faith
in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have to all the saints. Now notice who he thanked for
these things. He didn't say, we thank you for this. He said,
we thank God for this. We thank God for the faith that
you have in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all
the saints. Now, those who have hope, two
ways they're described. One, they have faith in Christ
Jesus. And number two, They have, they
possess love. A love that's not just in word,
it's not just I love you, but a love that's in deed. They possess
a love for the saints of God. Now, those who have hope are
those who are relying in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what
does it mean to be relying in the Lord Jesus Christ? What's
that mean? There's no more important phrase
than in Christ. Well, what I thought about was
when God judged the world with a flood, there was one place
of safety. Just one. Where was it? It was in the ark. If you were
outside of the ark, you would not be saved. If you were touching
the ark, you would not be saved. If you even got the tarry substance,
the pitch that it was pitched with on your clothes, you would
not be saved. The only way you could be saved
is if you were in the ark. Now I love thinking about that.
great sailing vessel, the Ark. As a matter of fact, I've read
that the dimensions of it are perfect engineering. It's a ship
that could not capsize. It couldn't be turned over because
of the way God had it built. And I'm sure that people looked
upon that Ark and they watched Noah building that Ark on dry
ground. And they thought, he's plum crazy.
What is wrong with that man? building that huge of a ship
on dry ground. I'm sure there were others, perhaps,
who admired the ark, admired the engineering that went behind
it. But what was it about that ark? You know, I love thinking
about Noah and his family entering in. Do you know he entered into
that ark before a drop of rain hit? Isn't that awesome to think
of? He believed God. He entered that
ark before a drop of rain And when they were in the ark, that
huge sailing vessel, the scripture points out that it was pitched
within and without with pitch. Now that word pitch is the word
where we get atonement from. I think that's so beautiful.
It was pitched inside and out with atonement. What kept the
wrath of God from getting into the ark and kept them safe? One
thing. the atonement of the Lord Jesus
Christ. His precious death on Calvary
Street, what he accomplished by that. You know, God's wrath
could never touch me. I'm kept. The wrath can't get
to me because of the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
what is it that keeps us on the inside? It was pitched without
and within. What is it that keeps me coming
to Christ? What is it that keeps me from
leaving? Is it because I'm afraid of what's going to happen? Is
it because of some laws I'm trying to keep? No. I tell you what
keeps me in Christ is the preciousness of His blood. That keeps me right
here. I don't want to be anywhere else.
Now that's what it is to believe on Christ. Now I think, why did
they go into the ark? Not everybody went into the ark.
Why did the folks go in, they went in? Because God said, come thou and
all thy house into the ark. That's why they went into the
ark. God said, come into the ark. Now, coming into the ark
typifies coming to Christ. Now listen real carefully to
this. You don't come to Christ because you know you're one of
the elect. You don't come to Christ because you know Jesus
Christ died for you. You don't come to Christ because
you know you're born again. You come to Christ because he
told you to. That's the only reason that's
needed. This is a command. Come ye into
the ark. Come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said, come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden." That's talking about
laboring under the burden and sense of sin. He said, come to
me, all you that labor and heavier laden, and I will give you rest. All of our hope is in Christ.
We have no plan B. We have no contingency plans.
I love that song. 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. When he shall come with
trumpet sound, oh, may I then in him be found, dressed in his
righteousness alone, faultless to stand before God's holy throne. Wherever you have this hope,
you'll have a genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. You're
somebody that could be described like this. You don't look anywhere
but Christ. Only being in Him is your only hope. And not only
is there faith in Christ, but Paul tells us that he spoke of
the love which you have to all the saints. And wherever you
have faith in Christ, you'll have a love to the saints of
God. He that loveth him that begat
also loveth him that is begotten of him. Turn to John chapter
13. John chapter 13. Verse 34. A new commandment I give unto
you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you
also love one another. By this shall all men know you're
my disciples. Not by your doctrinal orthodoxy,
not by the claims you make, but if you have love one to another. That's the badge of discipleship. Same thing John was talking about
in 1 John chapter 3. Turn to John 15 verse, John chapter 15. Verse 12, this is my commandment, that you love one another as
I have loved you. How's he loved you? And that's
how you and I are commanded to love one another. Look in first
John chapter three. Verse 23, And this is His commandment
that we should believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another as He gave us commandment. I turn back to
Colossians chapter 1, if you will. Paul says, we give thanks, verse
3, to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always
for you. Since we heard of your faith
in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have to all the saints
for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof you
heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel. Now this hope is the hope you
heard of. Faith cometh by hearing. You
heard of this. And you heard it in the word
of the truth of the gospel. Now listen to me very carefully.
No one is saved apart from hearing the word of the truth of the
gospel. I love that phrase, the truth
of the gospel. You know, the gospel is the truth.
The gospel gives the truth concerning the true character of the living
God. It gives the truth concerning
the true character of man and his sinfulness. And it gives
the truth concerning how God saves sinners by His grace. The
truth of the gospel. Now, we read in Romans 1.1 of
the gospel of God. It's not the gospel of man. We
read in Mark 1.1 of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the gospel
concerning him. It's about him. It's for his
glory. We read in Acts 20.24 of the gospel of the grace of
God and truly the message of the gospel is a message of free
grace. We read in Romans 10.15 of the
gospel of peace. God is at peace. And here's the reason why he's
at peace with me. It's because of his response
to his son. Now, what did his son actually
accomplish? The complete salvation of everybody
he died for. How did the father respond to
it? He was well pleased, well satisfied
with what Christ did. And you know what? That gives
me peace. Nothing else. If you tell me
that my salvation is dependent on something that I do, some
experience I have, something I get straightened out, I have
no peace. But oh, the peace that comes
from knowing that everything God requires of me, He looks
to His Son for. Truly, this is the gospel of
peace. It's called in 1 Timothy 1.11,
the gospel of the glory of Christ. It's called in Ephesians 1.13,
I love this, the gospel of your salvation. The good news of your
personal salvation. Now listen, you know what you
do when the Lord saves you? You find out he saved you. It
really is that simple. You find out he saved you. You
don't do anything to get saved. I hate it when people say, well,
I got saved, right? No, the Lord saved me. The Lord
saved me. And when the Lord saves you,
what you do, you find out you've been saved. The gospel, the good
news of your salvation. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. It's called
in Ephesians 6.19, the mystery of the gospel. And I love the
way the gospel is filled with mysteries. I mean, these glorious
mysteries that we can't understand. We just believe them. If you
could understand them, they wouldn't be mysterious. The mystery of
the eternal union of the elect with Christ, how we've always
been in the Beloved, how we never began to be excepted. The mystery of one God in three
different persons, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
What mystery, what glory in the gospel? You don't understand
this stuff. You just believe it. I remember
one time a guy told me, I understand God's sovereignty and man's responsibility.
I thought, oh, all you prove is you don't know anything. We
believe. We believe. And I love this,
Revelation 14, 6, it's called the everlasting or the eternal
gospel. It's always been. The hope is
found in hearing the truth of the gospel. Now, notice the way
he said this. Verse five, for the hope which
is laid up for you in heaven, where have you heard before in
the word of the truth of the gospel, verse six, which is come
unto you, the word of the truth of the gospel. Aren't you glad
the Lord came to you? I love that parable of the good Samaritan,
where he came to him where he was. Lord came to me. I didn't come to him. He came
to me. which is coming to you as it
is in all the world and bringeth forth fruit as it doth also in
you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth."
When have you heard? When you know the grace of God
in truth. You come to know and recognize
that grace is the truth. Don't you love that scripture
in John 1 17 where the Lord or John said the law was given by
Moses. But grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Now, wait a minute. Isn't the
law true? Yep. It is inspired by God, but
it's not the truth because it only gives half the story. But
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh, the hope we have is laid
up for us in heaven is coming to us wholly because of the grace
of God in truth. Now, I just tried to look at
every word that's used in the Bible to describe grace. It won't
take but a few minutes, this is what I want to close with.
He said, you knew the grace of God in truth. The first description
I thought of was in Romans chapter 11, verse five, when Paul spoke
of the election of grace. Don't you love the election of
grace? It's not an election of foreseen faith. It's not an election
concerning some good work that he foresaw you do. No, it's an
election of grace, free, unmerited favor. When he called me, he
chose me by his grace. I love the election of grace.
And then we read in Romans chapter three, verse 24, being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus.
Justification by grace. I'm going to get ahead of myself,
because I was saving this for Sunday night, but I want to go
ahead and give it anyway. Don Fortner called me yesterday,
and he said, you know how you always say justification is not
just as if I never sinned, but justification is I've never sinned?
You know how you always say that? I said, yeah, I say it too. He
said, but have you ever given a scripture that illustrates
it? I don't know if I have or not. And he said, well, turn
to Ezekiel chapter 18, and I want you to turn there with me. We'll
look at it again, I reckon, Sunday night. I'm still on my thunder
for Sunday night, but this was such a blessing to me. Now, justification
is not God treating me as if I never sinned. It's not just
as if I never sinned. If I'm justified, that means
I never sinned. Now, look here in Ezekiel 18,
look what this says. beginning in verse five. But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and
right, and hath not eaten upon the mountains in idolatry, neither
hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel,
neither hath defiled his neighbor's wife, neither hath come near
to a minstrel's woman, and hath not oppressed any, but hath restored
to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath
given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with
a garment. He that hath not given forth
upon usury, neither hath taken any increase, that hath withdrawn
his hand from iniquity, hath executed true judgment between
man and man, hath walked in my statute, and kept my judgment
to deal truly He is just. He is just. And that's justification. That describes me. That describes
every believer. Never done anything wrong. Always
done that which is right. So obviously justification is
by grace. And then in 2 Corinthians 12,
9, we read of sufficient grace. Paul had that thorn in the flesh
that beat him to death. We don't know what it was, and
there's no point in speculating. I don't know what it was, but
I know that he asked the Lord three times that that thorn would
be removed from him. And you know, the Lord didn't
say, no, I'm not going to answer that prayer. He didn't say that.
You know, if he would have said that, Paul, if it was some kind
of thing he was struggling with, he would have thought, well,
I don't need to worry about it anymore. The Lord didn't say that, but
He did say this, My grace is sufficient for thee. Thorn and all, you're going to
be pleased to be saved by sheer free grace. Then we read of the promise of
deliverance from the dominion of sin by grace. Paul said in
Romans 6, Fourteen, sin shall not have dominion over you. That's
a promise because you're not under the law, but under grace. We read of the calling of grace
when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by his grace. We read of him giving more grace.
Don't you love that? He giveth more grace. I love
that scripture. That's what I mean is more grace. Uh, more grace. He giveth more grace. And then
in Hebrews chapter four, verse 16, we read, let us come boldly
to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace
to help in time of need. Oh, the grace of God. And look
what he said in verse six of Colossians one. which is coming
to you as it is in all the world. Your grace always does. Always. It brings forth fruit. Now he's speaking of the fruit
of God, the Holy Spirit. You see, if you're born of God,
if you're born above, you have the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit,
the fruit of the spirit is love. Love to God. Love these people. Fruit of the Spirit is joy. You're happy that salvation is
utterly in Christ. Makes you glad, makes you happy.
It's peace. Oh, the peace of knowing His
righteousness is my personal righteousness before God. It's
long-suffering. God's long-suffering to me. I'm long-suffering to you, and
you're long-suffering to me. The fruit of the Spirit is goodness,
gentleness, graciousness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance. You see, the grace of God always
brings forth the fruit of God, the Holy Spirit. It brings forth
fruit. Now, believer, when you lay your
head on your pillow tonight, remember your hope is laid up
for you in heaven. That's how secure you are. However
secure the Lord Jesus Christ is, that's how secure you are. Your hope is laid up for you
in heaven, and you will soon be there with him. Wait, a better
day is coming. I love what Paul said in 2 Corinthians
3.12, seeing we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech. Let's pray together. Lord, how we thank you for thy blessed son, our hope. The man in glory who created
the universe and upholds all things by the word of his power. He who is the brightness of your
glory. and the express image of your
person who by himself purged our sins and is set down at thy
right hand. He is our hope, our hope laid
up in glory. Lord, we ask that you would drive
us from any false hope that we have and cause us to lay hold upon
the one hope, the only hope, the Lord Jesus Christ, your blessed
son. Now bless this word for your
glory and for our good. In his most precious name and
blessed name we pray. Amen. Dwayne Cummings in closing here. 272. Let's stand and sing
the Solid Rock. 272.