It was a good song service. We
sang that second hymn. One line struck me. I love to
tell the story for some have never heard the message of salvation
from God's own Holy Word. I pray that that's what always
happens in this place. If you would, open your Bibles
to 1 Peter. 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3. We're going to read v. 14-15. 1 Peter 3.14. But,
and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are
ye, and be not afraid of their terror,
neither be troubled. 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." 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 reverence." I want to take a few minutes tonight to talk
about a reason of hope. I want to look at some places
in the Scripture that teach us about our hope so that we might
be ready when asked, what is your hope? We are a people who
love worldly hope. We love to be encouraged by hope.
We love to encourage others with hope. And we love to encourage
ourselves to always feel that we have hope. Most people go
through life searching to quench their hopes. The hope of prosperity,
the hope of contentment, the hope of being loved, the hope
of being saved. It's a daily grind that they
go through. And we occasionally attain one of our hopes. But
it's our path on this earth that through trials and tribulations,
we come again and are left searching and trying to find more hope. Only we are taught that we're
sinners. Only when we're taught that we're
sinners do we realize what a tough task these hopes are to attain.
And then we're shown that all we are is sin. And we see that
these things are impossible for us. But my message tonight isn't. I'm going to focus on all our
failures. All our shortcomings and all
our inabilities to find hope in this world. Because that's
not the place to look for hope. Turn with me to Matthew 19. Matthew
19. Matthew 19 verse 23. Then said
Jesus unto His disciples, Verily I say unto you, that a
rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again
I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the
eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom
of God." When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed,
saying, or in Mark's version we realize they just thought
this, Who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them, He heard
them, and He said unto them, With men this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible. The disciples were amazed at
His words and thought to themselves, Who can be saved? Our Lord simply
tells them, with men it is impossible, but with God it is possible.
And do you know what the greatest part of this answer is? It doesn't
matter what question you ask, the answer is always the same.
How can a sinner be made righteous? How was the Lord made sin? Am
I saved? With men, it's impossible. but
through the Lord all things are possible." Now, if you weren't
sure where to look for hope before, there it is. With man it's impossible,
but with God all things are possible. With man there's no hope, but
with God there is hope. And we can even go further than
that. Let's go to 1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy 1. And you might say, we can go
farther than saying with God there is hope? Yes, we can. 1 Timothy 1.1, Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus
Christ, which is our hope. And as our pastor said on Wednesday,
he's preaching out of this book, that which is, isn't necessarily
there. So it says, an apostle of Jesus
Christ by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus
Christ our hope. This tells us that God our Savior
and the Lord Jesus Christ is our hope. Now, it's not bad news to find
out all the earthly things that we hope for, are worthless, filthy
rags. Because you have to see the darkness
before you can cherish the light. The reason a person cherishes
earthly hope is because they don't have the true and living
hope. Now look at 1 John 3.3. 1 John 3.3. And every man that hath this
hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure." So it says,
every man that hath this hope in him. So what hope is he talking
about? Let's look at verse 1 and 2.
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us,
that we should be called the sons of God, Therefore the world
knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we
the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall
be. But we know that when he shall
appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."
This hope of being called the sons of God, of knowing that
we are the sons of God, and that we shall see Him as He is." This phrase, this hope in Him,
tells us a great deal. Our hope is in Him. If we look
anywhere other than Him, other than the grace of God and the
blood of Christ, we will perish. We know our salvation is 100%
in Him. And to place the smallest bit
of credit in us or in my works is to mean that our hope is not
in Him at all. A sinner's hope is to rest completely
in Him. There is no contingency plan. There's no plan B. There's no
other way to salvation. We can't put one foot in one
half and one at the other and at the last minute decide if
we're in or out. To be saved, a sinner's hope must be in the
Savior. Now let's turn to Romans 5 and
spend a little time there. Romans 5. Starting the first
verse of Romans 5, By faith we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by
faith into His grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope
of the glory of God." Not only is our hope in the glory of God,
but we rejoice in that hope. And that's because He's a perfect
hope. Now if we continue in verse 3, not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience,
and patience worketh experience, and experience hope. We glory
in tribulations. It's hard to glory in severe
trials and sufferings. But here's why we glory in these
tribulations. Tribulations worketh patience."
Our trials will teach us patience. And then in verse 4 it says,
"...our patience gives us experience, and through this experience we
get hope." We gain hope from our experience because we see
the true glory of God. We see His holiness, His majesty. We understand through all the
trials, through all our experiences, that all things work out for
the good of His people and for His glory. And I'm up here trying
to express to you how great a hope the children of God have in the
Lord Jesus Christ. But as it says here in this verse,
the only way to true hope is through experience. And may we
all be given this experience to see the true hope. And then
verse 5 starts, And hope maketh not ashamed. There have been
times in my life where I've acted ashamed of what I believe. Whether
I didn't want to argue with someone, I didn't want to offend someone,
or I just wanted to fit in. And I pray that the Lord would
use those experiences to give me a strong hope that I would
never be ashamed again. You know, the Word of God is
truly wonderful. Though sometimes when I read
a portion of Scripture, it makes me to feel my sin. and to be
almost in despair. And when I read these five words,
and hope maketh not ashamed, it stopped me in my tracks because
I started thinking of those times when I acted ashamed. I was ashamed
of the gospel and how embarrassing it is to fear men more than to
fear God. And if I'm ashamed, then I don't
have hope. But thankfully, I heeded the
advice of a man who once said, when you're reading the Scriptures
and you become troubled, the worst thing you can do is stop
and look at yourself. Keep reading. Look towards the
Lord for comfort. So then it says in verse 5, "...and
hope maketh not ashamed because..." That's an important word. It
tells us the reason for what was just said is coming next.
So why are we not ashamed? Because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. A couple important things to
see here. First, the love of God is what keeps us from being
ashamed. But so many people misinterpret
this phrase, the love of God. The phrase can mean my love or
any man or woman's love to God or love for God. And any child of God does love
Him. But our love is earthly, it's
feeble, it's wavering and it's a filthy rag. We should know
that hope does not depend upon or supported by our love to God,
but rather the other way that this phrase can be interpreted
as God's love to us. It's God's love that gives us
hope and makes us to not be ashamed. Another thing to notice here
is the Holy Ghost is who puts it in our heart. This is a love
that's put in us. This isn't something we've acquired
through hard work or perseverance. We've acquired through living
a good life or by luck. None of that's true. We've done
nothing to deserve it. It's not a payment for a job
well done. It's not something we expect. what we should expect
and a thing we deserve. And it's most definitely not
a bribe. If you do something, I'll do something. It's simply
a gift. Now, we all love gifts. Now kids, how exciting is it
on Christmas morning when you get to come downstairs and look
under the tree and you get to see all those gifts? You find
the ones that have your name on it because you don't care
about the rest. You see some that are really big packages
and you see some that are really tiny. You look at some and you
know exactly what that one is and you look at others and you
can't quite figure them out. So you pick that one up and you
shake it and you feel it. How heavy is this? And then you
turn it upside down and back and forth. Is it moving in the
box? What could it be? Now, when it's time to open them,
you just tear into that first one. You've picked one out and
you just tear into it and look what it is. Now, it doesn't matter
if in that package is a pair of socks or if it's the best
gift you've ever seen. You know what you're going to
do next? You're going to move on to the next gift because you
can go back to that one. And next year, you're not going
to remember most of the gifts you got the year before. And
remember this, parents and kids, any gift your parent gives you
doesn't ultimately come from something you've done or something
that you deserve. That present, that gift comes
to you because your parents love you. But the gift from this passage
of Scripture, the gift of having peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ, where we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God, this gift is the greatest gift of all. It's both the gift
you need the most and the gift that you didn't know you need.
It's a gift we often take for granted now, But one day, we
won't be able to take our eyes off that gift. It's a gift that
we don't deserve, a gift that seems brand new every day. It's
a gift we shamefully forget about, but the giver constantly reminds
us that we still have it. It's a gift we cannot lose, a
gift that cannot be taken away, and its magnificence will never
fade away. It's a gift that isn't given
to those who deserve it, but a gift given to those who are
loved. It's a gift that is bestowed
upon those who are found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now if you
will, turn with me to the book of Lamentations. Lamentations
is just after Jeremiah. And we'll read verse 21, Lamentations
3, verse 21. This I recall to my mind, therefore
have I hope. This verse in among itself doesn't
stand out too much. But when you look and remember
the 20 verses that come before it, and the despair that is spoken
of, Such verses as he hath hedged me about that I cannot get out,
he hath made my chain heavy. When I cry and shout, he shutteth
out my prayer. He hath enclosed my ways with
hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked. He hath filled me with
bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood. With those in
mind, when you then read verse 21 again, This I recall to my
mind, therefore have I hope." What is it that is recalled to
my mind that gives hope? Whereas our margin says, make
to return to my heart. What is it that's made to return
to my heart? My heart to give me hope. After so much grief, why is there
hope? It gives us, in the next few
verses, five things. for us to have hope. Verse 22,
it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. We are sinners
and the wages of sin is death. Sin must be punished. God is
holy and does not let sin go unpunished. But the Lord is merciful
to sinners. Psalm 103.8 says, For the Lord
is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, plenteous in mercy. Our hope is found in Him, not
in us. Psalm 147.11 says, The Lord taketh pleasure in them
that fear Him, pleasure in those that hope in His mercy. And how
can we be sure His mercy is always going to be there? Psalm 118.29
tells us, O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for
His mercy endureth forever. The Lord came down to bear the
sin of His people. The sins of His children were
laid upon Him so that they didn't have to bear the wrath of God.
And that's mercy. If we look at the second part
of verse 22, We see the second thing, because His compassions
fail not. The Lord is merciful and He loves
us. Love is not something that God
does. Love is something God is. God
is love and that's His nature. His love for Christ and for us
in Christ is everlasting. I've drawn you with an everlasting
love. I've loved you with an everlasting love. That's why
it fails not. It has no beginning and no end.
Is there a better hope than one that's everlasting and unchanging? I am the Lord. I change not. The same today, yesterday, and
forever." How much does God love His children? The Lord prayed
in John 17, "...thou hast loved them as you loved Me." That's
the Lord praying that. That's amazing as a sinner to
hear that. How could God love me? Well,
the only answer is that when God sees me, He sees His Son. If we move to the third thing
in verse 23, it says, "...they are new every morning, Great
is Thy faithfulness." Great is His faithfulness, not
ours. Our faith has no part in salvation.
Mark talked about this this morning. And our hope better not be in
our faith. Somebody said, are you going
to heaven? And somebody else replied, yes,
I'm holding on and keeping on. No, that's not the reason I'm
going to heaven. That's not the reason I'm saved.
I'm saved because He holds me. I'm kept by the power of God
through faith. Philippians 1 says, He which
hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day
of Jesus Christ. Now the fourth thing is in verse
24. The Lord is my portion, saith
my soul, therefore will I have hope in Him." So the fourth reason
we have hope is that He's my portion. When we hear the word
portion, we think of a certain amount, such as we cut a pie
and we look at it and we think, I want that piece. That's the
big one. I want my portion. Something that's bigger. And
someone's going to get a bigger one than others. When we cut
pie, one's bigger and somebody gets a bigger piece. But here,
the word portion means inheritance. The Lord is my inheritance. The
Lord is my reward. God said to Abraham in Genesis
15, Abraham, I am your shield, and I am your exceeding and great
reward. In 1 Peter 1, in whom we have
an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth
not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the
power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. Again, our hope is not a what,
it's a whom. Christ is our inheritance. Now,
verse 25 gives us the fifth reason for hope. The Lord is good unto
them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. The word
wait here means the straining of the mind in a certain direction
with an expectant attitude. A forward look with assurance. Now hold your place here and
turn to Matthew 15. Matthew 15. We struggle with waiting. And honestly, we almost never
wait for more than a few moments. If my wife and I are going somewhere,
and I get ready first, and I yell and say, you know, how long is
it going to be before you're ready? And she says, give me
a minute. Now she's pretty good at that,
meaning that that's really what she means, 60 seconds. So do
I wait? No. I go turn on the TV, or I
get a snack, or I check my email, and oftentimes what I choose
to do takes longer than what she's doing, and she has to then
wait on me. I say this to show how hard it
is to wait, at least for me. But there are two things that
will make us wait. They'll make us wait on something,
or more importantly, wait on someone. The first, we realize
there's nothing more important. The second, we realize we've
got no place to go or nowhere else to go. Now, in Matthew 15,
we're here. Here's an example of waiting
on the Lord. Verse 21, Matthew 15, 21. Then
Jesus went thence and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.
And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts,
and carried unto him, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy
on me, O Lord, thou Son of David! My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. But he answered her not a word. And His disciples came and besought
Him, saying, and I can hear myself doing this, Send her away. She's
crying after us. Get her out of here. But He answered
and said, I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house
of Israel. Then came she and worshipped
Him, saying, Lord, help me. But He answered and said, It
is not meat to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs." How humbling that would be to
hear. And she said, Truth, Lord. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from the master's table. Then Jesus answered and
said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee,
even as thou wilt." And her daughter was made whole from that very
hour. This Canaanite woman had a child
vexed with a devil. It is hard to imagine a worse
trial. You know, there was nothing more
important to her than helping that child. And she knew that
her only hope was in the Lord Jesus Christ. And remember, our
tribulation worketh patience, patience, experience, and experience
gives hope. This woman had this daughter
vexed with the devil, but she has hope now. This woman was waiting on the
Lord. Remember the definition of wait in Lamentations? The
straining of the mind in a certain direction with an expectant attitude,
a forward look with assurance. She was straining her mind in
a certain direction to the Lord with an expectant attitude. He's
going to help me because He's my hope. And she was looking
forward. She was looking to Him. She had
her blinders on. It didn't matter what those disciples
said. It did not matter what anyone else did to her. She was
looking in one thing and she wasn't going to be stopped. And
she was looking forward with assurance. She had no doubts
in her mind. To wait on the Lord is an action. Now hear that again. To wait
on the Lord is an action. Pray to Him. Worship Him. And don't ever stop seeking the
Lord Jesus Christ. And have assurance when you're
doing this, for He is the hope. So let's review the five reasons
we have a hope. The Lord is merciful. He is love. He is faithful. He is my portion,
my inheritance, and He is good to them that wait for Him. And I want to end this message
with something I heard Henry Mahan say. It's not a what, it's a whom. Christ is our inheritance. It's
not the pardon, it's the person. It's not the benefits, it's the
being. It's not the gift, it's the giver. It's not the place called heaven,
it's the person called Christ. You see, your children, they
feel secure in your home. They have food, they have clothing,
and they have shelter. My friends, their confidence
and trust is not in the food, it's not in the clothing, and
it's not in the shelter. Their confidence, their trust,
their hope is in the parent. As long as the parent is there,
they have all of these things. If you take the parent away,
all these things are gone. That's the reason I say, the
Lord is my portion. He is my inheritance. He is my life. is my hope of
glory. May that be a blessing to us.