PREACHING OF THE WORD OF GOD HOPE
Willie Dickson
1 Peter 1: 3-5; 3: 14,15; Romans 5: 1,2; 1 Thessalonians 4: 16-18
I would like to speak to you, beloved hearers, about one of the great blessings of the gospel. There are many blessings in the gospel. In fact, it would be rather lengthy to attempt to enumerate them, but I want to speak tonight about hope as one of the great blessings that God ministers in the glad tidings. God is spoken of in various ways. He is spoken of as the God of love, the God of grace, the God of glory, the God of peace, but He is also spoken of as the God of hope. What would this world be like without the message of hope that the glad tidings offers to men? Nothing ahead, nothing to hope for! As to everything materially, as far as this life is concerned, there is no perpetuity attached to it. It dies. But a message of hope, beloved hearers - what a gospel for men! - is what I want to speak about simply tonight.
Sometimes, when you speak to persons about their souls, they say, I can only hope for the best. Hope for the best, beloved hearers, when God in His infinite grace, the God of hope, is sending out the message of His wondrous love and grace to you so your horizon can be broadened and opened up as you think of the bright hope that God would offer you in the glad tidings!
So Peter here says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope" - "a living hope"! These Jews to whom he writes were dispersed all over the Roman earth at that time and they thought that every hope nationally had been extinguished, that there was no prospect. The nation had gone into ruin and, hisle they had the Scriptures that promised the Messiah to come, they were, so to speak, at difficulty in understanding what it was all about. But Peter says, God has begotten you again to a living hope. Can I ask everyone in this room at this time, do you know what that living hope is? He says, "through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead", a living and glorious Man raised from the dead in whom to put your hope. That is far better than hoping for the best, is it not? It is far, far better to put your hope in Christ Jesus, risen from the dead. What a hope! Has He ever let any soul down that has had that hope? Think of the myriads, millions of souls that have passed through time into eternity with that hope! Were they ever let down? No, they were never let down! And you will not be let down if you trust in Jesus. If you take hold of that living hope you will come into something that this world cannot give, cannot offer. Excuse me for repeating it, but having been so long a believer I find it difficult to envisage a person that has no hope. It must be morally awful to wake up in the morning and to say, Well, the Lord may take me today or death may take me today and I have no hope. Have you hope? I remember, a long time ago, when the submarine 'Thetis' sank off Birkenhead with a hundred and nine seamen aboard and they went down. The conning tower was blocked and there was no exit tor the sailors. The divers maintained a contact with the sailors inside by tapping on the hull, and as long as they heard a return tap they knew there was life there. But one day the tapping stopped, and the newspapers the next morning - I remember it still - right across the front page, 'No hope!' Think of that! No hope! A hundred precious souls lying in a tomb on the bed of the ocean and no hope. Far better to have a living hope in Jesus Christ, raised from among the dead, beyond death, beyond all sorrow, beyond all grief! He is there, that blessed Rock, that living hope in whom we can find our joy. Peter says, “to an incorruptible and undefiled and unfading inheritance, reserved in the heavens tor you, who are kept guarded by the power of God through faith tor salvation". "Guarded by the power of God"! If somebody says to you, Of course, you cannot show anything, you only have hope, how are you going to get through if you just have hope? "Guarded by the power of God through faith for salvation". Do you know, you youngest child, you youngest believer, that you are guarded by the power of God Himself? As going through this world the mighty power of God encircles those who trust in a living hope.
So in Romans 5 we find this wonderful part of the gospel. It says, ''Therefore having been justified on the principle of faith, we have peace towards God through our Lord Jesus Christ; by whom we have also access by faith into this favour in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God". "Peace towards God", no 'peace with God'. I trust everyone in this room has peace with God. You know what the hymn says:
'Can point to the atoning blood
And say, This made my peace with God? '
(No.357)
Can everybody in this room
'... point to the atoning blood
And say, This made my peace with God?'
But that is not this. This is "peace towards God". Oh, think of it! - the whole outlook is clear, "a living hope", "peace towards God", not a shadow, not a cloud, nothing to hinder your view of that blessed Administrator of blessing, the Lord Jesus Christ, up there! "Peace towards God"!
'When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea-billows roll,
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul'.
(Hymn 238)
That hymn was based on this verse, "peace towards God". And it says, "access by faith into this favour in which we stand". The children here may not know, but there is a house in Charlotte Square, Edinburgh, which is given to the Secretary of State as a token of grace and favour, the favour in which he stands with the Queen. He has this magnificent house in Charlotte Square. But a believer has much more than that. Oh, yes, a house up there and a house down here! "Access by faith into this favour in which we stand": could you better it? Could you offer anybody anything better than the gospel - "a living hope", and a house up there, waiting for you, and a house down here in which you can enjoy the favour of God. And it says, "and we boast in hope of the glory of God". Once you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, a lot of things come in. Trials come in; sorrows come in; persecution comes in. But I would like to tell you this, there is a day coming when the glory of God is going to till this scene, and it is going to be tilled with the Man after His own heart - that is Christ - and everything about it will vindicate God's choice in blessing amongst men. It says, "and we boast in hope of the glory of God". Men boast; they think of their achievements, and you have to say to yourself, What achievements they are! Some of these scientific things, and medically and in engineering and in other spheres of life, you have to own that man is a wonderful creature. I would not question that for a moment. Man as a creature is wonderful, and God unfolds to him His secrets as far as they benefit mankind. But they are nothing to compare with the glory of God into which you have access by faith at the present time, and you are going to have a part in it if you confess the name of Jesus. Does that hope burn in your heart? I think of the Lord's people gathered as they do. What keeps them in serenity of spirit amidst all the persecution? The martyrs in the time of the church of Smyrna and ever since, these martyrs up in the High Street in Edinburgh or St Andrews, what kept them going? They boasted in hope of the glory of God! They knew that the stake was not the end. They knew as the faggots were lit that that was not the end. They boasted in hope of the glory of God. Could you do that, boast in hope of the glory of God?
Now I want to use this other scripture in Peter, if I may, just to have a little word to the young ones amongst us to encourage them. He says, "But it also ye should suffer tor righteousness sake, blessed are ye; but be not afraid of their fear, neither be troubled; but sanctify the Lord the Christ in your hearts, and be always prepared to give an answer to every one that asks you to give an account of the hope that is in you". Dear young people, you go to school and your classmates say to you, You are not like other children; you do not sing the songs that we hear on the radio; you do not use the language, the naughty language, the wicked language sometimes, that they use; you children are somewhat different from us. What is it? "Sanctify the Lord the Christ in your hearts"! Young people, have you a little chamber in your heart that is exclusively for Christ that you can enter, that you can turn into? Every believer should have a place in his heart, a little temple, a little sanctuary, held tor Christ. That is the secret. If they ask you about these things, you say, I will let you into the secret. You do it ''with meekness and fear'': you do not try to show off. You say, The Lord Jesus Christ is my Saviour. He has a place in my heart, a little sanctuary reserved for Him, His own place; He is my Lord; He is my Saviour; and I am ready to give an answer as to the hope that is in me. I would encourage you young people: have a little, special place in your heart for the Lord and be always ready, if your schoolmates ask you these questions, to say, There is a special place that no one else has; He won that place in my heart because He died for me; He shed His precious blood for me; He suffered the agonies of Calvary for me, He has that place in my heart, and I am ready to give an answer why I am different, glad to be different! Why? Because the Lord Jesus has a place in my heart.
I just want to speak for a moment on the church's hope, the bright hope of the church, that hope that has sustained the church for two thousand years, that living hope. It says, “for the Lord himself, with an assembling shout, with archangel's voice and with trump of God, shall descend from heaven; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air''. Have you that hope? Is that hope burning brightly in your heart, the hope of the Lord's coming? It has been the cherished conversation of believers right through the dispensation. That was one thing they always spoke about, the hope of the Lord's coming, that bright hope. When that hope is fulfilled, will you be there? Is it your hope? Will you be amongst those myriads that will rise to meet their glorious Lord? Will you be among them? Will you be among that heavenly host that will sing His praise?
'Hark! ten thousand voices crying
'Lamb of God! ' with one accord;
Thousand, thousand saints replying
Wake at once the echoing chord.
'Praise the Lamb! - the chorus waking,
All in heav'n together throng
Loud and far...'. (Hymn 14)
The song proceeds. Will you be there? I will be there. Oh, yes! I know many here will be there. But will you be there when the Lord answers the hope which has been in the church's heart for two thousand years? He will come Himself. Will you be there? I just leave it with you, the awfulness, the sorrow of passing from time into eternity without hope, whereas if you accept the gospel, if you accept Jesus as your Saviour, you will be there, waiting for Him now, and you will be there with Him for all eternity. May we prove it for His Name's sake! Amen.
7 February 1993
(Minor revisions but not by Mr. Dickson)