If you will, let's open our Bibles
today to Romans, Chapter 8. I feel confident in what I'm about
to say, and that is that if you asked a hundred Christians to
list their favorite 10 chapters of the scriptures that on almost
every list would be Romans chapter 8. It's been pointed out it begins
with no condemnation. There's therefore now, today,
right now, this morning, no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. And it ends declaring the truth
that there shall be no separation from the love of God. In verses
38 and 39, I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of God. which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. Isn't that a wonderful truth?
No separation from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. No condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. And then of course verse 28,
I brought a message from this recently. and all-inclusive promise. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. to them who are the
called according to his purpose. All things, all things work together
for good to them that love God. And then we have in verse 30
what has been often referred to as a golden chain with four
links, four links in this chain. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
that's the first link, God. whom he did predestinate. The
second link, them he also called. The third link, them he also
justified. And the fourth link in this chain,
them he also glorified. What a wonderful, and it's just
packed. I mean, this chapter is just
packed with one marvelous truth after the other. But I want to
speak to us today from verse 24, a believer's hope. Verse 24, a believer's hope. For we are saved by hope, but
hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, whiteth
he yet hope for. A believer's hope. The Greek
word that is here translated hope. according to Strong's Concordance,
comes from a primary word meaning to anticipate. To anticipate
and usually with pleasure. It also means expectation, confidence. It's the same word that's used
in chapter four in verse 18, speaking of Abraham, where we
read, who against hope believed in hope. In other words, here's
a man 100 years of age and against hope, against any expectation
he had in himself, believed in hope, believed in expectation
that the God who had promised him a son would give him a son. The scripture there, who against
hope, believed in hope that he might become the father of many
nations According to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed
be. And look in Acts chapter two,
back just a few pages in your Bible, where we have this word
that is here translated hope concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts chapter two, and this is
a quote from the Psalm, Psalm 16. But in verse 26, the apostle
Peter said, let's read verse 25 also. For
David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before
my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved. Therefore, now this is the words
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore did my heart rejoice,
and my tongue was glad, Moreover, also, my flesh shall rest in
hope. In other words, while his body
was there in the tomb for those three days, it rested in hope,
in anticipation, and in expectation, because thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see
corruption. Well, as we look at our text
this morning here in Romans 8 and verse 24, it begins, for we are
saved by hope. Someone might ask this question,
has Paul changed his message? Has he changed his message? In
chapter 5 and verse 1 of this book, he said, therefore being
justified by faith, we have peace with God. Is he now teaching
that we are saved by hope? That's what we read, isn't it?
For we are saved by hope. Well, in the Greek, there's not
a word here that is translated by. The word hope demands a word,
but a better word would be in. For we are saved in hope. There are what we call three
cardinal graces. three cardinal graces that everyone
receives who is born of the Spirit of God. And you know these three
graces are faith, hope, and love. Every person born of the Spirit
of God, the new birth of God, that new principle, that new
man, everyone receives these three graces. 1 Corinthians 13
and verse 13, Paul said, but now abideth faith, hope,
and love. And look in 2 Thessalonians when
he writes to this church family, the church at Thessalonica. Every believer, every child of
God, experiencing the new birth, receives these three graces,
faith, hope, and love. In 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 2
we read, We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention
of you in our prayers, remembering without ceasing your work of
faith. Faith, that's a cardinal grace,
isn't it? A person must believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ. When Paul was asked that question,
what, Serge, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. your work of faith and
labor of love. We love Him because He first
loved us, but also hope and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ
in the sight of God and our Father. Well, back to our text this morning.
I want to point three truths Three truths about the grace
of hope, and then three objects of hope. Three truths about the
grace of hope. Number one, the grace of hope. Now everyone has a hope. I recognize
that. If you went down on the streets,
out on the street, went house to house, no matter, and ask
people, everybody that you would ask would tell you they have
a hope. They might not call it a hope,
but they have something they're hoping in. They have something
they're hoping in that when they stand before God, all is going
to be well. They have something that causes
them to have some hope that when they meet God, that they will
be received in faith, in love, and all will be well. Now, the Bible speaks about the
faith, or the hope, rather, of the hypocrite. Hypocrites, they
have a hope. But let me tell you what the
hope of the hypocrite is. It's like a spider's web. That's
what it's like. And if you put any weight upon
it, it's gone. There's no substance to it, the
hope of the hypocrite. But all men and women have some
kind of hope. But I want us to say from the
word of God this morning, three truths about the hope that God
the Holy Spirit gives his people. The first is this, the first
truth about this hope. The grace of hope that the Holy
Spirit gives is good. It's good. Now let's see that
in the Bible. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and
verse 16. The hope that God the Holy Spirit
gives His people in the work of regeneration, the first thing
I say about it, it is good. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse
16. 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. That's the first truth about
the hope that God the Holy Spirit gives His people. It is a good
hope. And the reason it is a good hope
is that it is through grace. Any and every hope or expectation
which is not through grace is not good. It just isn't. Let me say that again. Any and
every hope or expectation that men and women have, which is
not through grace, it cannot be good. And why do I say this? I say this because the word grace
means unmerited. And the opposite would be merited. And any hope a person has because
of his or her merit, because of something he or she has done,
is not a good hope. A good hope is a hope that is
of grace, that is through grace. Any other hope is founded upon
merit. Merit has to do with works, with
dessert, with earning, The Apostle Paul in Romans 11
said, concerning the saving of a soul, he said, it's either
of grace or it is of works. And you cannot mix them, just
like gasoline and water. They will not mix. And man, in spite of what the
word of God teaches, Men still try to mix works and grace. But I'm telling you this morning,
according to the word of God, that any hope that is not through
grace is not a good hope. And when you need it the most,
when you leave this world, when you need it the most, you're
going to find it's like a spider's web. It's going to be like that boat
that the one in Pilgrim's Progress, not Pilgrim, but the other one,
was ferried across, remember? And it was the name, Hypocrisy. That was the name of the boat.
That's when John Bunyan said, I learned there's a back door
to the way of hell. There's a back door to the entrance
to hell. And many people, religious people,
they're going to find out. They're going to go through that
back door to hell. Why? Because their hope is not
a good hope. It's not through grace. Paul said, and if by grace, then
it is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, than it
is no more grace, otherwise work is not more work. Those who trust in their free
will decision do not have a good hope. Those who trust in their
free will decision do not have a good hope. Why? Because they are trusting in
something other than grace, unmerited favor. The first time, you know, there,
uh, hermeneutics is a big word that, that we learned. It's,
uh, how to interpret the scripture. And one of the rules for scripture
interpretation is when you find a word, the very first time it's
used in the Bible, Most always, I guess always, but I won't say
most always, it's going to be used the same way all the way
through. And that's certainly true about
grace. The first time, the very first
time we find the word grace in the Bible has to do with Noah. Why was it that Noah was not
destroyed when every other creature was, every other mankind was
destroyed by the flood? Why was it that Noah and his
sons and their wives were not destroyed? Noah found grace in
the eyes of the Lord. He did not merit grace. He did not earn grace. It wasn't
because he was somewhat different from everyone else. No, no. It was because he found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. And every hope that men have,
which is not through grace, is not good. And I tell you something. It was never given to them by
the Holy Spirit. It's a work of the flesh. Now the second thing about this
grace of hope I want to point out, it is lively. Look with
me in 1 Peter, 1 Peter chapter one. In 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 3, the apostle said, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again. He, who begets? Who's the author of the new birth?
Remember in John chapter 1, the Scripture said, He came unto
His own, and His own received Him not. But to as many as received
Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, which
were born, first of all, not of the flesh. Not of the flesh. That's free willism, isn't it?
Not of the flesh. They were born not of flesh or
not of blood, first of all, not of blood. In other words, and
the Jews at that time that the Lord and John the Baptist ministered
to, you know, they continually brought this up. Well, we're
Abraham's children. Well, none of us would ever say
that today. You could go into probably every
Baptist church in Houston today and no one would say, well, we're
Abraham's sons. No, but I'll tell you what you
would hear. Well, my dad was a Baptist. My
parents were Baptists. I can trace my lineage all the
way back two or three generations. We're a family of Baptists or
Presbyterians or Methodists or Roman Catholics or what have
you. But the scripture says, which
were born not of blood. We cannot pass grace down to
our children. Oh, we wish we could, don't we? We would that we could, but you
know it's not so. That's the reason David, a man
who was a man after God's own heart, he had sons who were guilty
of rape, of murder, and rebellion. trying to steal the throne from
his father. Samuel, what a faithful man he
was, called when just a young man, and yet he had two sons
that were wicked, evil men, and caused people to hate the offering
of God. Now, grace is not Propagated,
it's not passed down through the blood, from father to son,
from mother to daughter. Oh no. Which were born not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, that's a free will, not
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. As much
as we would want to See people saved, and we do. Paul said,
I could wish myself a curse from Christ for my brethren. I have
a continual sorrow for them. But men are not born of blood,
or of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. Well
then, how are men born again? Of God. That's what Peter is
saying here. Blessed, blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant
mercy, abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ, of Jesus Christ from the dead.
The Lord Jesus told Nicodemus, the new birth is absolutely necessary
to enter the kingdom of heaven. We were all begotten the first
time in sin. David said, I was shapen in iniquity
and in sin. Did my mother conceive me? But
when we are born anew, born again, born of the spirit, we receive
a new man, a new creation in Christ Jesus. and this new spiritual
life is eternal, and this grace of hope is living, living. Just as the graces of faith and
love will never die, when a person is born of the Spirit of God
and trusts in the Lord Jesus Christ, he's given faith, If
that happens at 15, you come back when he's 85, he's still
going to be trusting in Christ. This is a living hope. If he's born again at 15, when
you come back, he has the love of God shed abroad in his heart
by the Holy Spirit. When you come back and he's 85
or 90, 75 and all the way down, he still has the love of God
in his heart. And the same thing is true about
hope. He has begotten us again unto
a lively hope. And the thing that I want to
emphasize here is that this hope, and just like faith and love,
once it is begotten in a person, this new nature, it's never going
to die. Paul was able to write to believers
in the church at Philippi, and he could have easily wrote the
scripture to you and I today. He did write it to us, but put
our name there. To the saints at the Lincolnwood
Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, being confident of this very
thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you shall perform
it unto the day of Jesus Christ. Salvation. People say, well,
you believe in what's saved? Always saved? It depends on who
does the saving. When God saves a sinner, he's
saved. I mean saved for time and for
eternity. These graces that are given in
regeneration, they're never going to die. His faith is lively. Now, you say, well, Preacher,
does that mean a person's faith will always be strong? No. No. Does that mean a person's
love will always be warm? No. Neither does it mean that
a person's hope will always be lively. But it will always be
there. It will. Sometimes I made this
statement a few weeks ago here in this pulpit. I said it's so
easy to be strong in faith standing here in the house of God with
the people of God. But when we're out there in the
world and on your job and in the hospital and things are happening,
that's a different matter then, isn't it? Sometimes our faith
is strong. Sometimes it's pretty weak. Sometimes
our love is hot, warm for the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes
it gets pretty cold. And the same thing is true about
hope. Sometimes it's very lively. Sometimes
it gets pretty weak, pretty weak. But it never dies. And I tell
you this also, as believers, we have a responsibility to stir
up these gifts. We have a responsibility to stir
up these graces of faith, love, and hope. And here's the third thing about
this grace of hope. First of all, it's good. If it's
given by God the Holy Spirit, it's good because it is a hope
through grace. And second, it is lively. It is living. And third, it is
purifying. Look with me in 1 John over just
a page or two towards the back of the Bible. 1 John chapter
3 and verse 3. And every man that hath this
hope in him, what hope is he talking about? He's talking about
that good hope. He's talking about that living
hope. Every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself
even as he is pure. The grace of hope that the Holy
Spirit gives is purifying. In other words, this hope is
going to be manifested in a person's life. It's going to be manifested
by a person's character. How would you define the word
character? How would you define that word?
A person's character has to do with qualities. Someone said
a person's character is the way that person acts when no one
is looking. That character. And this character,
this hope, it is purifying. J.C. Ryle said, those that have
this hope will feel, F-E-E-L. I like a feeling religion, don't
you? I know you can't base everything
on feeling. And feelings change. But I like
a feeling religion. I really do. I like to feel in
my soul the presence of God. I don't want just a head full
of knowledge. You can tell I don't have that.
But I want a heart religion too, don't you? J.C. Ross said, those that have this
hope, They will feel, I'm bought with a price. I'm bought with a price. I'm
bought with the blood, the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me glorify God in my body
and spirit, which are His. Now, let me give us three objects
of hope, and I'll be very brief. If you go back to our text in
Romans chapter 8, the apostle said, for we are saved by hope,
but hope that is seen is not hope. Hope that is seen is not
hope. For what a man seeth, why doth
he yet hope for? He already has it. Well, here are three objects.
Number one, to see Christ. That's one object of our hope,
to see Christ. None of us has ever seen Christ
except by the eye of faith. But we have this hope that one
day we shall see Him. You know the Old Testament prophet
Job. Some people believe that the
book of Job is the oldest written book in our Bibles. And in Job
chapter 19, this old patriarch Job, he had a hope and it was
sure that he was going to see God. That with these eyes, these
very eyes, he knew he was going to die. He mentions the fact
that worms would destroy his body. But yet at the same time,
I shall see God. I shall see my Redeemer. for
myself. We're going to see Him. In the
Beatitudes, the Lord Jesus said, Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God. How do we see God? Well, our
Lord told Philip, He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.
We're going to see the Lamb of God. That's our hope, that we're
going to see Him one day. Second, Not only is our hope
the object of our hope to see Christ, but it is to be like
Christ. In 1 John 3 and verse 2 it said,
We know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we
shall see Him as He is. You know to be like Christ is
to be without sin. He hath predestinated us to be
conformed to the image of His Son, and if we are predestined
to be conformed to the image of His Son, He had no sin, that
means we will have no sin. You and I have never lived a
second, a minute, an hour, a day without sin. We can't even imagine
I've been reading about Holy Adam. Before he sinned, what
must he have been like? Holy Adam. But once he sinned,
whatever that was, he was created in the image of God. He lost. It was marred bad. But one day
we're going to be like Christ. We're going to see him as he
is, and we're going to be like him. And third, the object of
our hope is to be forever without want. To be forever without want
throughout all eternity. The psalmist said, they that
seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. And that is going
to be fully realized in eternity. We will not want good health. We're going to have it. We're
not going to want the due of youth. We're never going to grow
old. We're never going to want fellowship. There's never going to be any
separation. We're never going to want life.
Death will never enter there. We're not going to want peace
and tranquility. There'll be no misunderstandings. There'll be nothing that shall
cause us to want in eternity. The psalmist again said, thou
wilt show me the path of life. In thy presence is fullness of
joy at thy right hand. Who's at his right hand? Well,
the Lord Jesus Christ is, and that's where we're going to be.
At thy right hand are pleasures forevermore. I pray that the Lord would encourage
all of us today with the truth concerning this hope. This hope. How about you? What about you
today? Is your hope a good hope? Is it through grace? Is it living? Is it lively? And is it purifying? I trust, if it isn't, that God
would give us a good hope through grace. We're going to sing a
hymn before we're dismissed.