THE CHRISTIAN’S HOPE
1 Timothy 1:1; Hebrews 6:18 (from ‘might have’),19, 11; Ephesians 1:18
All these scriptures include the word “hope”, and I was encouraged as to the simple thought I have in relation to hope when our brother gave out Hymn 213 before the reading:
‘In hope we lift our wishful, longing eyes’.
We read during the week in Job, “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope”, Job 7:6. When you are weaving cloth, the weaver’s shuttle is the part of the loom that flies from side to side, hence Job says, “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle” and then he goes on, “and are spent without hope”, Job 7:6. That is a depressing thing to have to say, but in chapter 11, although it is not Job who is speaking, it says “And thou shalt have confidence, because there shall be hope” (v.18).
There is not a lot of hope in the world. Hope in the world and in relation to people’s affairs usually refers to something that may take place, but nobody is really sure if it will or not; they cannot give you any assurance in relation to it. Or we might hope that we may go on holiday, or hope for a present on our birthday, but these things are not certain; they may come to pass or they may not. Why is hope in relation to this world’s things like that? Why is it uncertain? The simple answer is because the world’s hopes depend on fallen man. Hope in the world has no foundation or stability; it was flawed from the very beginning.
‘No hope hath man, deceived and far from God,
Guilty and lost, exposed to judgment’s rod’ (Hymn 275).
That hymn would be depressing if it only had that one verse, but God does not leave us there. No, the third verse of that hymn says:
‘Forgiveness now is preached through Him who died’.
That is the answer to the hopelessness of man. Hymn 423 says:
‘If it’s the hopeless case Thou lov’st to meet,
If it’s a sinner Thou dost run to greet’.
We are all hopeless cases, we are all lost and undone by sin, but the glad tidings gives us real hope, a hope that never fails. We are told why in chapter 4 of this epistle where it says “for this we labour and suffer reproach, because we hope in a living God” (v.10). That is the hope of the glad tidings; we preach hope in a living God “who is the preserver of all men, specially of those that believe”.
Peter speaks in his epistle of how God “has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead”, 1 Pet.1:3. That is the basis of the believer’s hope. Christ’s work included His death on the cross in relation to my sins: “who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree” (1 Pet.2:24), and then He was placed in a tomb. His going into the grave signifies His taking away completely of the first order of man from the sight of God. Then He was raised. What a work Christ accomplished; God “has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ”. Christ has been “raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father”, Rom.6:4. That is why believers can have a hope in a living Man. Not a hope, speaking carefully, in Christ who was in the grave, but our hope is in One who is out of death, having conquered its power. For those who believe, He has undone the works of the devil, having completely satisfied God in relation to my sinful state and my sins. So there is now a basis laid for God to come out in blessing towards me, there is now a righteous basis laid in the finished work of Christ. And if you believe in Him and His precious work, all of God’s thoughts of blessing, through all that Jesus has done, can be experienced by you and be your living hope.
The work that Christ has accomplished is so complete that what is in God’s mind for me in blessing can be realised now. Man might have a hope in something on earth here but what authority is there for that hope? Our hope as believers is founded on Christ, on a work that is complete, on His precious blood which has been shed and, as we know from John’s epistle, which cleanses us from every sin: “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin”, 1 John 1:7. God
is righteous to forgive me my sins because of the work of Christ. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins”. That is the result of repentance. If you are a repenting sinner, God is “faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” 1 John 1:9. My “righteousnesses are as filthy rags”, Isa.64:6. It is when we feel a sense of our need that God comes in, as proved by the jailor in Acts where he called out, “Sirs, what must I do that I may be saved?”, Acts 16:30. He felt a sense of need, he was about to kill himself and the answer was “Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved” (v.31). How simple the gospel is. It is not a complicated message, it is not a message that demands great deeds from us, it is a simple message that appeals that we come to terms with our sinful state:
‘Repentance only, God requires from man,
And faith in Christ, His well-beloved Son’ (Hymn 123).
You cannot come to God in any other way except through Christ. Through the sufferings of Christ, what a way has been opened for us to approach God. We spoke in the reading about the man in John 9 coming to know the Lord Jesus as his own Saviour, and ultimately having to do with Jesus as the Son of God. A reference was made to Paul when he went out to preach, that “straightway in the synagogues he preached Jesus that he is the Son of God”, Acts 9:20. That is who we have to deal with in the glad tidings; we have to deal with God Himself and the provision by God Himself of a Saviour, Jesus Christ.
I came across a lovely reference recently in Hosea 2: “And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope” (v.15). It reminded me of the scripture we had before us recently during the week which says, “For the grace of God which carries with it salvation for all men has appeared” (Tit.2:11); it is like a door of hope. The answer for the hopeless case of man that we sing about in Hymn 423 is in the glad tidings, it is in this door of hope, because “the grace of God which carries with it salvation for all men has appeared”. What grace! You think of people’s hopelessness. What little hope they have, hoping for something to miraculously appear and solve all of their problems. But the hope has appeared. Christ is our hope as we sometimes sing:
‘Hope of our hearts, O Lord, art Thou’ (Hymn 215).
What a hope He is! Do we all have Him as our hope? Young ones particularly, but all of us, myself included – do I hope in a living God? Do I have a living Christ as my hope? We can say in the glad tidings that the door of hope remains open. There is a day coming when we will have to do with God, when the door of hope in relation to eternal salvation will be closed. In the parable of the ten virgins, they all slept. Five who were prudent took oil in their vessels with their torches; five who were foolish did not and their oil ran out. When they returned from buying more oil, they found that the bridegroom had come, and the five foolish virgins found the door was shut. The bridegroom said, “I do not know you”, Matt.25:12. What a sobering moment that will be, an irreversible moment. But the door of hope in the glad tidings is open now.
Acts 27 speaks of a shipwreck, and Luke writes that at one point “all hope of our being saved was taken away” (v.20). What that must have felt like! In the middle of that storm beating down on them, the ship was breaking up. Everything that could have been flung out of the ship had been, and they felt that all hope of their being saved was taken away. But they did not perish; that scripture tells us that they all, two hundred and seventy six souls, got safe to land. Not one of them perished; the door of hope stayed open.
Have you found this hope? It is Christ! This first scripture says, “Christ Jesus our hope”. Thank God I can say that I have found Christ as my hope. When I had no one else to turn to, Christ met me in all my need. He loves to meet the ‘hopeless case’!
The scripture in Hebrews 6 speaks of those “who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us, which we have as anchor of the soul, both secure and firm”. I thought that hope brings in stability; “both secure and firm”. We all know what an anchor does. When a ship needs to remain in one place and not be pulled about by tides and currents, the anchor goes down and holds the ship secure and firm. Come to Christ! He can be your anchor if you will have Him! We can say that the anchor is Christ and His finished work, and we can rest assured that if we put our faith in Him and His precious work, He will hold us both secure and firm. Hymn 176 speaks of those trials and storms:
‘What though storms may rage against us?’.
We will be held firm in our knowledge of the Lord Jesus as our Saviour. There are some here who have been through far more trials than me, and they have found for themselves that the Lord Jesus has held them secure and firm. We could say that, in whatever trials we have been through, there would not have been anything to hold onto if we had not had Christ. He is the only means of our salvation, our only hope; He is our Rock,. It says “that he who has begun in you a good work will complete it unto Jesus Christ’s day” (Phil.1:6): it will be complete, He will never let us go. I remember a brother saying in a preaching, ‘Christ will go a long way in order to secure you for Himself, and if He secures you for blessing, will never let you go’. It is such a comfort to know that Christ will never leave us. If you have put your faith in Christ and in His finished work, however simple your love for Him may be, Christ will never let you down. We can testify to that; many persons can testify to the experience that having their trust in the Lord Jesus is an anchor to the soul. The soul is the most inward part of a person, the very being, and Christ holds it both secure and firm. Well, I trust that each one of us here has this hope, and in having the hope, you know that you are held by Him, secure and firm.
Verse 11 speaks about “the full assurance of hope”. Hope endures. 1 Corinthians tells us that love endures all things (chap.13:7) but Paul also speaks there as to hope. It does endure. As we have our hope in the Lord Jesus and in His finished work, not only are we held secure and firm but we are held in the knowledge that the hope that we have will endure. People may have their hopes in certain persons today to achieve great things. We might have hope that scientists will develop vaccines to combat viruses, although it is all given of God, but what about the next crisis that may take place? Who do we have hope in then? What happens then? There is no such doubt with the Lord Jesus. You do not need to turn to anyone else. Once you have your hope in Christ, you do not need hope in anyone else. Turn to Christ and you will find that He is your hope. Isaiah 33 says “he shall be the stability of thy times” (v.6), and that hope endures, it goes on to the end. We do not need to change our hope from one party to another party and hope for better things. We can have our hope in Christ; He has the answer to your need. In John 9, there was a man born blind – blind all his life. It does not say how old he was or how long he had been blind for; we can view that as a picture of sin in the flesh – the effects of sin and how it has been the result of man’s fall. God has the answer, Christ’s work is the answer to sin. He bore the penalty of sin; it says “For the wages of sin is death”, Rom 6:23. I can say that He died for my sins; I should have been condemned but the hymn writer says:
‘In our place condemned He stood’ (Hymn 426).
Christ was the One who was condemned: “For the wages of sin is death”. Christ had to die because my sins were put on Him at the cross. How sobering it is to contemplate One who was perfect in His life, perfect in His thoughts, perfect in His footsteps, perfect in all that He said.
Then what a hope the believer has of being with Christ. What a joy we have now in knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour. In a coming day, our hope will be realised because we will be with Jesus Himself. Hymn 213 says:
‘How will our eyes to see His face delight,
Whose love has cheered us through the darksome night!
How will our ears drink in His well-known voice,
Whose faintest whisper makes our souls rejoice’.
What a moment that will be when we see Jesus face to face! The One who hung there on the cross, the One who gave me a hope, the One who is my hope – I will see Him face to face. What a prospect! It also says in that hymn:
‘What but one loud eternal burst of praise!’.
The whole of eternity will ring with thanksgiving to Christ for everything that He has done for myriads of His own in removing their sins and giving them a hope, a hope that can never be taken away. We have a living hope; that is the key. Man’s hope is founded on what is dead, but the believer’s hope is founded on what is living.
In the last scripture that we read in the epistle to the Ephesians, it speaks of our calling; “so that ye should know what is the hope of his calling”. I trust that we are all conscious of being called. We are called to repentance, called to eternal life; all these things enter into what the hope of the believer is. Not only will our hope give us stability, not only will our hope endure because it is founded on the work of Christ, but we are
exhorted to know what is the hope of our calling. What does that mean to me? I can say simply that the hope of my calling is that I will in a soon-coming day be with my Saviour where He is. What a prospect to be with Christ! It speaks of “being with Christ, for it is very much better”, Phil.1:23. In that day, the call will go out and those who have put their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus and His finished work will be caught up to be with Him in the air. What a moment that will be! The “dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living who remain” – that is all believers alive when He comes – “shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air”, 1 Thess.4:16. What a moment that will be!
These were my simple thoughts. We have a hope that is far beyond anything here on earth because it is founded, not on anything that mankind has done, but on what Christ has done, on what God has done through Christ. It is stable and it endures. Do not miss out on it, do not put off for a moment the decision to accept Jesus as your Saviour. If you do not yet know Jesus as your personal Saviour, do not go out of this room without trusting in Jesus as your living hope. May God bless the word, for His name’s sake.
Preaching at Maidstone
31 January 2021
David H Bailey