Here's our subject this morning,
a reason to hope. A reason to hope. And our scripture
will be read from 1 Peter 3, verse 15. 1 Peter 3, verse 15. Now this is a most familiar passage
of scripture. You don't hear it preached upon
there often, but it's known to most people. You check in your
Bible while I read. 1 Peter 3, verse 15. Follow along
with me. 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. Be ready to give an answer to
every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that you have. the hope of eternal life, the
hope of a relationship with God. Be ready to give every man that
asks of you a reason, not an experience, a reason for the
hope that you have and that with humility and fear. Now, I want
to take this passage and speak from it almost phrase by phrase. The first statement is this,
sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Now how in the world
does a mortal man sanctify the Lord God? It says sanctify the
Lord God. Now how does a mortal man sanctify
God? God's essentially holy. God is
infinitely holy. God is perfectly holy. God is
unchangeably holy. We don't make him so. There's
no way that we can make God holy or add to his holiness or make
him any holier than he is. Well what does the apostle mean
when he says sanctify the Lord God in your hearts? Moses said
something about this or God did to Moses. He said you didn't
sanctify me You didn't sanctify me. I've told you to sanctify
me in the eyes of the people So when the Apostle writes here
Peter says sanctify the Lord God he means this for you and
me to regard God to be holy for you and I to believe and declare
and proclaim the living God to be holy, for us to look upon
God and to consider God and to regard the Lord God as a holy
God. an immaculately, infinitely holy
God. How big is your God? How holy
is your God? How great is your God? That's
the question I'm asking. How do you look upon God? How
do you regard God? How do you consider God? It says
for us to sanctify the Lord God. And my friends, he says in your
hearts. This is not a theology, it's an experience. This is not
a creed, it's not a catechism, it's a hard experience. We know
in our hearts that God is almighty. We must sanctify the Lord God
in our hearts. We must consider him to be holy
and eternal. We are frail, God is almighty. We are finite, God is eternal.
We are sinful, God is holy. This is what Job found out when
he saw the Lord. He had gone through all of these
experiences and finally he said, Lord, I have heard of you. and
now mine eye seeth thee." And the conclusion to which I've
come is this, that I am sinful and I abhor myself. When I see
God in his... You see his attitude? The holiness
of God overwhelmed him. The holiness, the majesty, the
greatness of God just consumed him and overwhelmed him. He said, I hate myself, I repent
in sackcloth and ashes. And Isaiah said the same thing
when he saw the holiness of God, he was overwhelmed with the holiness
of God. And that's what you and I have
got to have a better understanding of who God is. That's where everything
begins. It doesn't begin with you and
me and thoughts of heaven and pie in the sky and a sweet by
and by and our religion. It begins with who is God? Who
is God? In heaven's name, who is God? Do you see what I'm saying? Sanctify
the Lord God. Consider, regard God to be holy. Proclaim God to be holy. How big is your God? Just too
small, I'm afraid. Too small. And do this in your
hearts, in your heart. Now watch the second phrase.
Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Come before his presence
with fear and trembling and thanksgiving. God is in his holy temple, let
all the earth keep silence before him. But here's the second statement,
and be ready, be always ready to give an answer to every man
that asks you a reason for the hope you have of a relationship
with such a God. The hope you have of a fellowship
and communion with such a God. The hope you have of eternal
life and entering into the glory of such a God. What is your hope?
Most everybody's got some kind of hope. All the religious folks
I know got some kind of hope, like the Israelites of old. They
said, well, we've got Abraham as our father. We have Moses
and the prophets. That's our hope. We have a heritage
religion. We got it from our ancestors. The Pharisees said, well, I just
thank God I'm not like other people. I'm not an extortioner,
an adulterer, and I'm not unjust, and I fast, and I tithe, and
I give alms to the poor, and that's my hope. And then the
moralist said, well, I've kept all these commandments from my
youth up. That's my hope. And then the religionists said,
well Lord we preached in your name and cast out devils and
we did many wonderful works in your name and that's our hope,
that'll get us into the presence of this awesome holy God, this
high and great potentate, holy and reverent is his name, but
that's how we're going to get in, you know, by preaching in
his name and doing many wonderful works and the fundamentalists
said, well I made a decision Back when I was 10 years old
they had a raid on the junior department when the hot shot
evangelist came to town and I got saved, I walked down the aisle
and made my profession and I was baptized and joined the church
and I hope to see you in glory. What is your hope? What is your
hope? Could I borrow your ears for
a few moments and tell you about something that is so vital and
so important? I mean a sure hope, a scriptural
hope, a God-given hope. Now do know this, let's look
at our text again. It says, sanctify the Lord God,
the Lord God, in other words, give God the glory. Any hope
that does not give God all the glory is not a good hope. Now remember that, any hope,
any place your religion begins or ends, if it doesn't begin
and end with God, He is Alpha and Omega, He's the author and
finisher of our faith. That's what scripture says. So
any hope that you have that does not begin with God is a false
hope. Sanctify the Lord God, the Lord
God. Who maketh thee to differ? What
hast thou that thou didst not receive? In heaven the song is
unto him who loved us and loosed us from our sins in his own blood. Huh? Sanctify the Lord God. Give God the glory. Give God
the glory. And I say any hope that does
not begin with God and continue in God and end with God is not
of God. Because he's determined that
no flesh shall glory in his presence. He said, Let not the rich man
glory in his riches, nor the strong man glory in his strength,
the mighty man glory in his might, the wise man glory in his wisdom.
He that glorieth, let him glory in this, that he knows me, that
I am the Lord God. Sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts. Now any hope, listen, that is
not a heart work is no hope either. For with a heart man believeth
unto righteousness. That's what the scripture says.
God says, I'll take that stony heart out and give you a heart
of flesh. A pliable heart, a soft heart. A heart that can receive impressions. I'll take that old rock, that
old cold, hard, dead. A stone is cold, a stone is hard,
a stone is dead and lifeless. You can't even make a dent in
it with a hammer. But God said, I'll give you a
new heart. So sanctify the Lord God in your heart. That's where
salvation work is done. It's not pressing down an isle.
It's not burning a candle. It's not making a lot of signs
with your hands and throwing water in your face and wearing
certain clothes and certain way you dress and doing this, that.
Salvation is a heart work. God Almighty looks not on the
outward countenance. He looks on the heart. That's
right, on the heart. God seeth not as man seeth. That
which is highly esteemed among men in religion is an abomination
to God. And most of today's religion
is an abomination to the living God. It's an abomination to any
intelligent person. Especially to God. So you sanctify
the Lord God in your heart. This is a heart work. It's not
shaking my hand, joining our church. It's knowing God in your
heart. My son, give me your heart. Keep
your heart out of the issues of life. Out of the heart, the
mouth speaketh. I could go on all day talking
about these scriptures that refer to the heart. Be ready, always,
to give an answer. Where are you going to get the
answer? From the scriptures. From the
scriptures. Not from your feeling. Not from
your experience. Not from the soul winner that
gave you the Roman road. You be ready. You! Don't you
direct... Well, I don't know what I did.
Go ask my soul winning buddy. Go ask my preacher. No, I'm asking
you. You glorify God. You give God
the glory. You ascribe to Him the credit.
And you do it from your heart. And you be ready. You be ready. Always! to give an answer, yourself,
out of the word of God to every man that asketh you a reason,
faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the word of God. He, his word
is the foundation of faith. Nothing is so because I think
it. It's only so if God said it. If they speak not according
to the word of God, it's because there's no light in them. That's
what Isaiah said, no dawning, no morning, no glimmer of light,
if they speak not according to the word of God. So you'd be able to give a reason,
always, a scriptural reason, a Bible reason, what does God
say? Well, I think a man has to be
baptized to be saved. It doesn't say that in God's
word. Well, I think there's a purgatory where folks go and spend so many
years and we pay them out or pray them out or plead them out
or something. It doesn't say that in God's Word. Where did
you get that? Well, I think that's not the answer. What does God
say? And then he says, Sanctify the
Lord God in your heart. Be able, be ready to give always
a reason, a reason, a scriptural reason for your hope with meekness
and fear. God rejected the proud. I'm so
weary of proud religionists, arrogant religionists, haughty
religionists, have the world by the tail on a downhill pull,
somebody says. They're so cocksure and presumptuous. They got a corner on God. They
own God. They're like the old Israelites
that said, we've got Abraham and everybody else is going to
hell. Oh, I tell you what arrogance. What arrogance, what haughtiness,
what presumption covers religion in this day? They've got all
the answers. It's hard to find a center, isn't it? Here I raise
mine Ebenezer, the hymn writer said, hither by thy help I'm
come, and I hope by God's good pleasure safely to arrive at
home. Brother man, you ought not talk
that way. You're supposed to say you're sure for heaven if
he's already there. Well, I ain't already there.
And I'm not as sure for heaven as if I was already there. I
hope, I got a good hope and a strong hope, but that hope's in Christ.
And I'll tell you this, let him that thinketh he standeth take
heed lest he fall. That's what the Word of God says.
Take heed brethren, lest there be found in you an evil heart
of unbelief. Oh, I know we're hedged about
on one side with the promises of God that give strength and
courage and hope. Well, let me tell you something.
We're hedged about on the other side with warnings, fearful warnings,
lest we presume. And I'll tell you the worst creature
on this earth is a presumptuous creature. What about your hope? What is your hope? What is your
hope? Well, the author of a good hope
is God. I know that. He's the author of anything good.
Every good and perfect gift comes from God. And then a good hope
is given to us. That's what the scripture says.
We've been given a good hope. That's the gift of God. And then
a good hope is by and through the grace of God. The grace of
God. Now, I'm going to give you six
things I want you to write down. And I want you to consider them.
If you care to, you can order this tape and you can listen
to it again and again. You can share it with friends.
And this is years of experience of reading God's Word and preaching.
I'm not a novice. I've been preaching a long time
in a lot of places all over the world. And I know a little bit
about the scripture. And I tell you my aim is the
glory of God. And my objective is to bring
you to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't
want you just to have religion. I don't want to just have religion.
I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection. I
want to win Christ and be found in Him. I want to know the Son
of God in redeeming love and redeeming faith. And this I know,
here's the reason. A fella comes up to me and says,
what's the reason? Give me a reason for the hope
that you have of eternal life. Well, first of all is this, and
I'll give you six. The Word of God plainly declares,
plainly declares, that we are born in sin. Now fight it if
you want to. Grit your teeth, gnash your teeth,
bug out your eyes, do what you want to, clench your fists, but
we're born in sin. Shapen in iniquity. Conceived
in sin brought forth speaking lies. We're sons of Adam Sons
of Adam we born the image of the earthy and with children
of wrath even as others. That's what the Word of God says
We bear the image of the earth in with children of wrath and
we're under condemnation Now a good hope is to be born again
That's right to be born again. Our Lord said, except the man
be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. God doesn't
take the old flesh and the old man and reform it. He creates
a new man in Christ Jesus. There's a new birth, there's
a new creation. There are a lot of false ideas
about the new birth. It's not a religious decision.
The new birth is regeneration. It's the work of the Holy Spirit.
I'll give you some things about the new birth to study. Number
one, the new birth is of God. It's a work of God. We're born
not of the flesh, not of the will of the flesh, not of the
will of man, not of fleshly inheritance, that is, blood relationship.
We're born of God. Born of God. It's God that begets
his children. Secondly, it's by the power of
the Spirit. We're born of the Spirit and the Word of God. It's
through the Word of God. We're born not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible seed by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. And this new birth is a new creature. John said we have passed from
death unto life, and we've got evidence of it. We love the Bradford.
There's evidence of it. We're a new creature in Christ
Jesus. Sure we have an old nature. We're sure we have the old man.
Sure we have the old nature that we had before. Same eyes and
ears and mouth and nose. We're the same person naturally
and physically. But we're a new person spiritually. We've got a new nature and a
new heart. We're a new creature. We've got new principles. We've
got a new family. We've got new ideas. We've got new objectives.
We've got new motives. We've got new attitudes. There's
a conflict between that new man and old man. But there is a new
creature, and a hope is to be born again. Old John Newton or
one of those fellows said, I'm not what I ought to be. I'm not
what I want to be. I'm not what I'm going to be.
But thank God, I'm not what I used to be. And a man who's been born
again can say that. And then secondly, the Word of
God declares that we're sinners, plain old sinners in God's sight. Somebody said to a friend of
mine the other day, I've been saved, I'm no longer a sinner.
Listen to me. You were born a sinner, you've
always been a sinner, and you'll be a sinner till you drop dead
and they put your carcass in the ground. Now you're a sinner,
and a man says he has no sins, a liar, and the truth's not in
him, and he's made God a liar. There's no such animal on this
earth as a person without sin. Everybody listening to my voice
has committed sin this day. Back this moment, you don't love
God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and you don't
love your neighbor as yourself, and that's sin. For him to know
to do good, and doeth it not, it's sin. You haven't given one
of your coats to your neighbor, you've got four coats, and he
doesn't have one, go over there and give him two of yours. Now
you know that's so, and I do, so a good hope would depend on
my sins being pardoned, forgiven, put away. I've got to have my
sins pardoned. All that sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Everybody. None good, no not
one. None that doeth good and sinneth
not. God Almighty looked down from heaven to see if there's
anybody that did do good and sin not. He said they're all
gone out of the way. They're all together become unprofitable. And that's preacher and parishioner.
That's in the pulpit and in the pew and in the world. They're
all sinners. They all dug out of the same pit, hewn from the
same rock, lifted to the same dunghill. If it wasn't for God's
grace, they'd all be right back there, too. How can sin be put
away? Well, the law won't do it. The
law won't do it. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. Works won't do it. We're not
justified by works. The Jewish sacrifices couldn't
put sin away. Sin's hard to put away. It leaves
a stain that's so deep, double-dyed, red like crimson. How can you
get it out? Well, here's the answer. Once
in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of himself. That's how sin is put away. The
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Do you hear that? That's what
God's Word says. Why do we argue with it? Christ
bore our sins in his body on the tree. He died that we may
live. My sins, past, present, and future. Oh, the bliss of that glorious
thought. My sins, not in part, but the
whole, are nailed to the cross. I bear them no more. Praise the
Lord. It's well with my soul. You see,
I believe Christ died for our sins up to the time we believe,
and after that we're responsible for it. And you're sure for hell
as Satan himself. Because to offend in one point
of the law is to be guilty of the whole law of God. That's
exactly right. Christ put away all the sins
of all believers, of all ages, and they are liable for none.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.
Sin is pardoned. In whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sin. by the death of Christ. All right, here's the third thing.
The word of God declares that we must have, now listen to me,
we must have a perfect holiness, a perfect righteousness before
the law of God and before the presence of God. Now, that's
what we've got to have. How good does a man have to be
to enter God's presence? How good? Well, pretty good,
preacher. No, it won't do. Pretty good
is not it. God can't tolerate pretty good. Almighty God can
only deal with perfection, can only receive perfection, can
only have communion with perfection. So what a man has to have to
stand in God's presence, the Bible says, is a clean hands
and a pure heart. A what? Clean hands and a pure
heart. Without holiness, immaculate
holiness, no man is going to see the Lord. No man. I don't
have that, that's what I say. I don't either. And no other
son of Adam has it, but the son of God has it. He said, except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the best
man who ever lived. The scribes and the Pharisees,
you won't enter the kingdom of God. Well, preacher, where can
such a holiness be found? In Christ. In Christ, that's
right, not in us. Our righteousness is a filthy
rag, but in Christ we have a perfect righteousness. Listen to this,
I told you we were born in sin, sons of Adam. By one man's disobedience,
we were made sinners. By identification and imputation
and impartation. Even so, by the righteousness
of Christ, we are made righteous and holy by his obedience. That's
why Christ lived on this earth as a man. He was born of a woman.
He was made of a woman, made under the law, he was subject
to every law of the home, the state, the laws of God, the laws
of the tabernacle, and he fulfilled every jot and tittle of the law
of God. He didn't come to destroy the
law, he came to fulfill it. Suffer it to be so to fulfill
all righteousness, so in Christ my substitute. I have a perfect
standing, a perfect holiness before God. That's what I'm saying.
So I'm going to see God. My hope is this, that in Christ
I have a perfect righteousness. Not that I'm doing the best I
can. I want to do the best I can. But the best I can is not equal
to God's demands and God's requirements. God has to spit it out. To come
short of the glory of God, even a little short, is too short. In Christ, I have perfect holiness. And then, by hope, fourthly,
the Word of God declares that God's just. He will not clear
the guilty. Now, He just won't do it. Sin's
got to be punished. It will be. It must be. It always
has been. The soul that sinneth will die.
That's what God said. Sin, when it's finished, bringeth
forth death. The justice of God says death
to the offender. And every one of them is going
to die. Every one of them. Now, good hope would depend on
someone, whoever is able, to take my place and die for me. And die for me. And satisfy God's
justice, enabling God not only to be a Savior, but a just and
holy Savior. See that? 1 Corinthians 15, 1-3
tells us that. Paul said, I preached the gospel
to you. You heard it. You believed it. You received
it. You stand in it. You're saved by it. that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures. He was buried
and rose again according to the scriptures. And that was the
very plea that Paul set forth in Romans 8 when he said, who
can condemn me? There is no judgment, there is
no condemnation, there is no demand that I die. Why? Christ
died. Christ died. That's substitution. You'll never learn the gospel
until you learn two blessed words, my friends, substitution and
satisfaction. Christ is our substitute before
the law, before the justice of God, before the holiness of God,
and being who he is, and doing what he did, he was able to satisfy
what we couldn't satisfy ever, one of us, throughout endless
eternity. It's not how much he suffered,
it's who suffered. You see what I'm saying? It's
not how much blood he shed, it's whose blood. So his death is
effectual. I'll never die, because I've
already died. You died, you died in Christ.
Died under the wrath of God, the judgment of God. Last of
all, the word of God declares that those who believe on Christ
must continue in the faith. Can't quit. He that endures to
the end, the same shall be saved. whose house we are if we continue,
if you continue in the faith and be not moved away. So I tell
you a good hope would be to be kept by the power of God in faith
and through faith. And I say this, you say, do you
plan on continuing in faith in Christ? By His grace. by His
grace. Well, in closing, the Word of
God declares that one day I'll die and they'll bury my body
and it'll go back to the dust. Dust thou art, to dust thou shalt
return. How are you going to get out
of the grave? You say you got out of your sins, you say you
got out of the dunghill, you say you got out of the old name,
how are you going to get out of the grave? He'll have to raise
you. So a good hope would depend on
the power of God raising me from the grave. He is able to change
our vile bodies and make them like to a glorious body. He's
my hope. He's my hope. Now I have two
messages on this tape. The way to God, the way back
to God. And this message I just delivered
on a reason to hope. You want it? Write to the address
that they'll give you in a moment and send a two dollar donation.
We'll mail you this one tape with both messages. on the one
take until next week God bless you