I'm going to read from a book,
from God's Word, a portion of Scripture that very few people
have ever read before. In fact, a book that most people
do not even know is in the Word of God, and that is the book
of Lamentations. Do you know where that is? Turn,
if you will, to the book of Lamentations, chapter 3, verse 24 through 26.
My subject today is, Therefore I Have Hope. or the believer's hope, or is
my hope a good hope? You know, hope is a beautiful
word. It's used often in the Word of
God, and especially in this passage of Scripture. This whole chapter,
chapter 3 of Lamentations, deals with hope. And he says in verse
24 through 26, the Lord is my portion. That word means inheritance. The Lord is my inheritance, saith
my soul, therefore I will hope in him. He's my portion. He's my inheritance. Therefore,
I will hope in Him. The Lord is good unto them that
wait for Him. The Lord is good to the soul
that seeketh Him. And He is my portion. Therefore,
I hope." You notice how often the Bible uses the word hope?
Paul said, now about it, these three, faith, hope, and love. The greatest of these is love,
but hope is one of the three. And then in Romans 8, 24, we're
saved by hope. And then in Romans 5, 5, hope
maketh not ashamed. And then in 1 Peter 1, 3, God
hath begotten us to a living hope. Then in 1 John 3, verse
3, every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself even
as God is pure. And then in 1 Thessalonians 2,
16, God had given us a good hope. Do you have hope? We're talking
about eternal hope, hope of eternal life, hope of eternal heaven
and glory. Is your hope a good hope? We're
warned in the Scripture to examine our hope. You know, somewhere
between proud religious presumption, and that's what we have so much
of today, somewhere between proud religious presumption And dead
despair is a believer's good hope. Somewhere in between there.
I don't want this proud religious presumption. I know I'm saved,
and if anybody makes it, I will. But I don't want this dead, cold,
lifeless despair which says, well, we don't know. We'll just
have to wait till the smoke clears and the dust settles and find
out if we wind up in heaven or hell. I don't want to go that
route, do you? But somewhere in between there. is the believer's
hope, and somewhere between fleshly familiarity with God. I don't
like that. I don't like this Jesus is my
friend, me and Jesus got a good thing going, and somebody up
there likes me, and build me a mansion next door to Jesus.
That's too familiar with deity. I don't like present-day familiarity
with deity. I don't want to go that route.
God is God. The Scripture says the Lord's
in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silence. The Scripture
says God is greatly to be feared. The ways of the Lord are past
finding out. How unsearchable are His ways,
the riches of His grace. and the secret things belong
to God and the revealed things to us to whom God reveals them.
But I don't want to go that fleshly familiarity route, but I don't
want to go either to that route of slavish fear, a fear that
will not let me come into God's presence and will not let me
approach boldly the throne of grace. I'm told to approach boldly
the throne of grace, but now note this. That is a throne. that we're approaching. We're
invited to come boldly before the throne of grace. You see,
it's still a throne. It's not my buddy's place. It's
the throne of God. And men who are wise look for
these things in God's Word. Somewhere between this fleshly
familiarity, calling God the man upstairs and the holy Son
of God superstar, somewhere between that fleshly familiarity and
this slavish fear, that will not allow me to open my heart
to God and walk with God as Enoch and Noah. Somewhere in between
there is a believer's good hope, a good hope. And somewhere between
this modern decisionism, where a fellow just walks down an aisle
and shakes the preacher's hand and says he believes Christ died
on the cross and And that fixes him up. He saves, you know, and
he's all fixed up for heaven. He's just nothing to it but just
walk down the aisle, shake the preacher's hand, and join the
church, and pay him a little money every Sunday. And when
you die, they'll give you a good send-off, and you'll wind up
with God. That's all it is. It's easy as falling off a log,
somebody says, to get saved. Somewhere between that and medieval
fatalism, which says that, well, there's nothing you can do about
it. If you're going to heaven, you're going to heaven. If you're
going to hell, you're going to hell. So just sit down in your rocking
chair and wait and find out whether you're predestinated to heaven
or predestinated to hell. Somewhere between that modern
decisionism, that easy believism, that walking the aisle and accepting
Jesus and getting all fixed up for glory, somewhere between
there and cold, dead, medieval fatalism is a good hope, a believer's
hope. Someone said something that impressed
me one time. He said, God has hedged us about
on one side with promises, precious promises, lest we despair. And if we didn't have the promises
of God, we would despair, wouldn't we? And He's hedged us about
on the other side with warnings. Warnings of apostasy. Take heed,
brethren, lest there be found in you an evil heart of unbelief
in departing from the living God. On the other side with warnings,
lest we presume. Somewhere in between there is
the believer's good hope. You know, it's not wise to take
God's mercy for granted. I just couldn't go that route
of joining the church and shaking the preacher's hand and letting
him tell me I'm saved and wait to find out if I am or not. I
can't go there. I don't take God's mercy for
granted. It's not wise. It's not wise to hide in a religious
profession that gives you no comfort and gives you no joy
and gives you no peace and gives you no fellowship with God. You
might pay somebody to pray for you now, but you can't pay somebody
to stand in the judgment for you. You might pay some preacher
to study the Bible for you now. You say, well, I don't know much
about the Bible. I just believe what my preacher believes. You
may pay a preacher to study for you now, but he can't stand for
you in the judgment. That book you hold in your hand
will judge you. It'd be wise if you got acquainted
with it. And that Lord Jesus Christ is
going to be your judge. God had committed all judgment
to the Son. The Father judges no man but
the Son. He's going to judge you. And
not as the Lamb, but as the Lion of Judah. So it'd be wise if
you didn't take God's mercy for granted. I hear preachers say,
everybody out there that doesn't have a doubt nor a fear, raise
your hand. I don't know. I read in the Scripture
of Enoch, who walked with God, but I also read of Judas, who
finally departed. They're both in there, and he
sold out. I read in the Bible of Paul,
who endured to the end, but also of Demas, Paul's companion, who
departed, having loved this present world. I read in the Bible of
the eunuch who believed, but also of Hymenaeus and Alexander
who made a shipwreck of the faith. I read in the Bible of David,
a man after God's own heart, but also of Simon Magus whose
heart was not right with God. I read of many who came in, and
I read also of many who went out from us because they never
were of us. And I read in John 6, 66, when
they heard these sayings, many of his disciples went back and
walked no more with him. God hath given us a good hope.
Has he? Do you have a good hope? It's
a hope. We're saved by hope. Hope maketh not ashamed. Now
about it, faith, hope. It's not a wish, it's a hope,
which a scriptural, spiritual hope is based upon expectancy. It's not just desire, but it's
desire with expectancy and with a promise which gives us that
anticipation and expectancy. But we're warned, as I said last
Sunday morning, to examine our faith, to examine our hope, to
examine our interest in Christ, to be sure that we're in the
Redeemer. And I wouldn't take it for granted.
You know, the Bible warns preachers about crying, peace, peace, when
there is no peace. We need to exhort and rebuke
and encourage and warn. We need to have people searching
the Scriptures to see if these things be so. We need to get
serious about this thing. We need to be solemn in this
day of apostasy and heresy. And so I'm going to give you
five marks of a believer's hope. I believe I can give you five
scriptural evidences of a good hope. Is my hope a good hope?
And I, like you, am seeking the Lord. I want to know Christ and
the power of his resurrection. I want to win Christ and be found
in him. I don't want to be among those
who cry, Lord, Lord, did I not preach in your name and do many
wonderful works and cast out the demons of drugs and alcohol
and so forth, and hear him say, I never knew you. I never knew
you. You're not among my own. You
never had saving faith. You never had a good hope. You
were in religion because of the possessions you could gain or
the popularity you could acquire or the the particular association
you could adopt, and you didn't know me. Do you know the Lord?
Let's see. Let's look at the Bible now.
Here are five marks of a good hope. First of all, a good hope. A good hope in Jesus Christ is
a hope that a man can explain. That's right. He can put it in
words. Now, listen to the Scripture.
Let's go to the Word of God. In 1 Peter 3.15, Peter wrote,
but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always
to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason, a reason
of the hope that is in you with humility and fear. Be ready. If you have a hope, you be ready
to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason for
the hope that is in you. Do you believe your sins are
forgiven? Give me a reason. Do you believe that you are a
child of God? Well, give me a scriptural reason.
Do you believe that your name is in the Lamb's Book of Life?
Well, give me a reason. Don't just say, well, it's so
because it's so. Give me a reason. Now, a good hope can give a reason.
I'm not saying that a man must be a scholar or a theologian.
Quite the contrary. Actually, a man may be brilliant
in many things and not know a thing about God. He may be brilliant,
he may be an intellectual, he may be a genius in the things
of this world and not know anything about God Almighty, and yet another
man may be scarcely able to read or write and know the mysteries
of the gospel and the secret of the Godhead and the beauty
of Christ and the glory of redemption. I'm not saying you have to be
a scholar or a theologian, I'm not saying you have to be a public
speaker. There are plenty of people that can't speak publicly.
Quite the contrary, a man may have fine words on his lips and
evil in his heart. That's right. Christ said that
of the Pharisees. He said, on the outside, you
appear beautiful to men. On the inside, you're full of
dead men's bones, extortion and excess. Well, what I'm saying
is this. And you know the scripture also
says, though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels
and have not love it, I'm a sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
So I'm not saying that a man has to be a scholar or a genius
or an intellectual or a theologian or a public speaker. I'm simply
saying this. If our hope is in Christ, then
we know it's in Christ and we can say it's in Christ. If our
hope is in the blood of the cross, we can say it's in the blood
of the cross. If our sins are put away by the sacrifice of
God's Son, we can say they're put away by the sacrifice of
God's Son. If we have come to Christ, we
can say we've come to Christ. You ask people, are you saved?
They say, well, I joined the Church. Well, now, they're telling
you. That's out of the abundance of
the heart, the mouth speaking. They don't say anything about
Christ, substitution, the cross, the gospel, redemption, righteousness,
God's wrath, God's judgment against sin. They talk about their affiliation
with the church. Your affiliation with the church
is not going to save you. The thing that will save you
is your relationship with Christ, your union with Christ. Christ
in you, that's the hope of glory. Not you in the Baptist church
or the Catholic church. That's not the hope of glory.
Christ in you. Paul said, I travail to Christ
be formed in you. So the first mark of a good hope
is to be able to express it. I like what Old John Jasper said,
who used to pastor over in Richmond, Virginia, back during the Civil
War. He pastored one of the largest
black churches in the South. And somebody asked him one time,
said, John Jasper, do you hope to go to heaven? He said, I sure
do. They said, well, what if you get up there to the gates
of heaven and somebody stops you and says, John Jasper, what
right have you got to be here? What are you going to say? Well,
old John Jasper looked at him and he said, I'm going to say
I've got no right to be here at all. I'm not here on my rights. I'm here on the righteousness
of Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. That's my hope. Can you say that? You're going
to tell God you preached and did many wonderful works and
cast out demons and gave your tithe? Quit your sins and these
things and expect God to roll open, open the gates and roll
out the red carpet? He won't do it. He'll say, depart
from me, I never knew you. The key to heaven is Christ.
The gate of heaven is Christ. Heaven is Christ. We're going
to enjoy Him forever. We're there on His rights and
His merits and His blood, not on ours. All right, secondly,
a good hope. A good hope in Christ is a hope
that's based on the Word of God. Listen to this scripture, Psalm
119, 49. "'Remember thy word unto thy servant, upon which
thou hast caused me to hope.'" Now, you think about that a moment.
David's writing here and he says, "'Remember thy word unto thy
servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.'" Now, you're
going to get in trouble. If you base your hope on your
feelings, you're going to get in trouble. You're going to get
in trouble if you try to base your hope on your experiences,
on your works, on your church affiliation. But if your hope
is born of promise and of the Word of God, if that's where
you got it, in God's Word, then it'll hold. It'll stay. It'll
stay, it sure will. The flesh is as the grass of
the field, and the flower of the field, the glory of man is
the flower of the field. The grass withereth and the glory
fadeth, but the Word of God endureth forever. You can't be shaken.
And my hope is based upon the Word of God. God said it. God
said, you're a sinner. Lord, I know it. God said, I
love sinners, and I sent Christ to die for sinners. And all sinners
who call on Him in truth and sincerity and believe on Him
and receive Him, I'll save." Now, that's my hope. I believe
God can't lie. "...in hope of eternal life,
which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began." That
was my text last Sunday, remember? "...in hope of eternal life through
Jesus Christ, from God who cannot lie." promised before the world
began. Why do I believe it? God promised
it. He won't break His promise. Listen to this scripture, Romans
15, 4. Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written
for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures
might have hope. You get that? These things were
written aforetime for our learning that we, through patience and
comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. Everything we believe
about God has to come from the Word of God. Our relationship
with God, our fellowship with God must be based on the Scriptures.
We must not put any confidence in the flesh, mine, yours, or
anybody else's. I hear people say, well, I sure
had confidence in that preacher. Well, the sooner you take your
confidence out of him and put it in Christ, the better off
you'll be. Boy, I sure had confidence in Brother so-and-so, and he
sure did let me down." Well, if he is down there where he
belongs in your estimation, he couldn't let you down at all.
You're down as far as you can get. Your confidence is to be
in the Word of God, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing is true
because I think it, only because God says it. Nothing is true
because I feel it. In fact, actually, my thoughts
are not God's thoughts, nor are yours. My ways are not God's
ways. Nothing is true because I believe
it. I believe it because it's true. Now, that's so. Let God be true, and ever man
a liar. That's Scripture. Proverbs 28,
26, listen to this. He that trusteth in his own heart
is a fool. It's tough to call a man a fool,
but that's what God says. If you're trusting in your feelings,
in your emotions, In your own heart, the heart's deceitful
and desperately wicked. Who can know it, Jeremiah said,
but you're a fool. When we consider our hope of
eternal life, when we talk to others of our hope of eternal
life, let our words be saturated with the Scriptures. Become familiar
with the Word of God. Be able to quote the Scriptures.
God will fulfill his Word. He will. Not one jot or one tittle,
he said, shall pass from my Word till all be fulfilled. A good
hope. will be based on the Word of
God. That's so. All right, thirdly, a good hope
rests entirely and completely on Christ. Now, I can't emphasize
this too much. Paul said in Colossians 127,
Christ in you, the hope of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
In 1 Timothy 1.1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, who is my hope. Paul, what's your hope of eternal
life? You founded some churches and ordained some elders and
deacons and was the first missionary and you were shipwrecked and
stoned and beaten with rods and scourged? No, sir. Christ is
my hope. Christ is my hope. Oh, rescued
man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? I
thank God the victory is already mine in Christ. Christ Jesus
came into the world, he said, to save sinners of whom I am
cheap. Christ is our hope. Our hope
is based entirely on Jesus' blood and His righteousness. I dare
not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground, I say, is sinking
sand. Now, I've got to have a perfect
righteousness before the law. Somehow, some way, if I'm going
to be redeemed, I've got to have a perfect righteousness before
God's law. That's what Scripture says. The
Scripture says that in Romans 3, 19, what the law saith, it
saith to them that are under the law, that every mouth may
be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God. I'm
guilty, you're guilty, the whole world's guilty. In order for
God to receive us and accept us and fellowship with us, we've
got to have a perfect righteousness before the law. Where are we
going to get it? In Christ. He is our righteousness. He has
made unto us righteousness. The Scripture says over in Romans
5, 19, by one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, so
by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. He who
knew no sin, this 2 Corinthians 5, 21, he who knew no sin was
made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. So in Christ, I have that righteousness
before the law, all right? I need a sin offering. I need
a sacrifice before the mercy seat. I've got to have it. Where
am I going to get a sacrifice that God will accept? The Scripture
says all the blood of bulls and goats on Jewish altars slain
cannot remove our guilt, our sin, or our sinful stains. It tells us that the blood of
bulls and goats and sacrifices cannot put away sin. Those were
pictures and types and symbols. Where are we going to get an
effectual sacrifice that can remove sin? Here it is, by one
offering. He entered into the holiest,
not with the blood of others, but with his own precious blood.
And by one offering, he perfected forever them that are sanctified.
By one offering, his blood. All right, I need a ransom before
God's justice. Where am I going to get one?
Christ is my ransom. Christ enabled God to be just
and justifier of the ungodly. God can forgive our sins and
still be God because he has an effectual ransom. Believers in
all ages have disagreed on matters of church government. They've
disagreed on matters of dress and discipline and custom and
these things. But believers of all ages have
agreed on one thing. He was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and by his stripes we're healed. They agree on that.
The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin.
They agree on that. All right, fourthly, a good hope.
It's felt in the heart. Listen to this scripture, Romans
5, 5. Hope, make it not a shame, because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Now, salvation is not
an owl work. It's not a flesh work. It's a
heart work. Now, many people saw Christ with
the natural eye who never saw him with eyes of faith. Many
people touched him with the natural hands, like shaking hands, who
never touched him with their hearts. When that woman came
behind him and touched him with his garment, he said, who touched
me? Well, the disciples were amazed. They said, lots of folks
touched you. He said, somebody touched me. It was a heart contact. And this
is where salvation takes place. And if a man's regenerated by
the Holy Ghost and brought to a genuine repentance toward God
and faith in Christ, it'll bring forth fruit in his heart. It'll
change him. He'll have peace in his heart.
He'll have rest in his conscience. He'll have love in his soul.
Those things are real. Let me ask you a question. Can
a weary man lie down and not feel rested? Can a hungry man
eat and not be satisfied? Can a thirsty man drink and not
be refreshed? Can a naked man be clothed and
not be warmed? Can a sick man be healed and
not rejoice?" He said, well, no. And neither can a dead sinner
be quickened and awakened, and neither can a guilty sinner be
brought to forgiveness, and neither can a repentant sinner be brought
to faith and not be joyful in his heart. Christ is real. Religion is not a burden, it's
a joy. That's right. It's not a burden.
It's not just a duty. It's not just meeting some requirements.
It's under new management. You ever drive down the street
and see a restaurant, a sign under there, under new management,
that means things are better. That's what they mean, things
are better. They're not worse. People talk about what they gave
up for God. I've received everything. I haven't given up anything that
wasn't bad for me. It's felt in the heart. And then
last of all, a good hope will be manifested in the outward
life. I don't care what anyone says.
The Bible's clear on this. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. He's a new person. He has a new
attitude. He has new motives. He has a
new direction. He has new manners. He has a
new master. All things have become new. Old
things have passed away. All things become new. James
says, show me a faith without your works. I'll show you my
faith by my works. You see, our souls are justified
by faith. Our faith is justified by works.
That's what the book of James is teaching, that a man who does
not have a godly life, and the bed of his will and the tenor
of his life in the direction of holiness doesn't know God,
because God is holy. and the fruit of the Spirit will
be manifested. We have two messages on this
tape, last week's message entitled, The Faith of God's Elect, and
today's message, The Believer's Hope, or Therefore I Have Hope.
You may have them for $3 if you'll write to me, both messages, until
next week at 11 o'clock, Henry Mahan bidding you good day. You have just heard a sermon
by Henry Mahan, pastor of the 13th Street Baptist Church of
Ashland, Kentucky. Address all correspondence to
Henry Mahan, Box 1700, Ashland,