The Hope of Advent

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

9 views

0 comments

00:00
I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me this morning to the book of 1 Peter.
00:09
Now if you've been with us in the weeks previous to this, you know we have been in a long study of the book of Genesis.
00:17
Several months have we been looking at that book and we plan to be in that book for, well, probably for a few years before we actually complete the verse-by-verse study.
00:28
But we decided that we're going to take a break during the Advent season, away from the study of Genesis since we have been investing so much time there.
00:40
And we're going to look at the four themes of Advent.
00:43
As I mentioned earlier, each week has a theme, therefore each week will have its own sermon on that theme.
00:50
Week 1 is the theme of hope.
00:54
Week 2, the theme of peace.
00:57
Week 3, the theme of love.
01:01
And week 4, the theme of joy.
01:04
So this morning we're going to be looking at the theme of hope.
01:08
And I do invite you, even though we haven't stood thus far for the reading of Scripture, I want to invite you to stand for the reading of the passage I'm going to preach.
01:16
I'm going to be looking at 1 Peter 1, verses 3-5.
01:29
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
01:34
According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
02:00
May God add His blessing to the reading and to the hearing of His Word.
02:04
May God write its eternal truths upon our heart.
02:06
And may God keep me from error as I preach.
02:10
Amen.
02:11
You may be seated.
02:22
Several months ago I introduced you to a word that is becoming more and more common in the modern vernacular when discussing the subject of religious affiliation.
02:36
And that is the word none.
02:39
Now, most of us think about nuns as those who are in the Catholic faith who dedicate themselves as women to the church and become nuns, N-U-N-S.
02:52
But that is not the way that I want to bring up the term today.
02:56
The word nuns refers to a new category which has risen in society.
03:02
Those who when asked about their religious affiliation would answer N-O-N-E.
03:10
None.
03:12
I don't have any religious or faith affiliation.
03:18
Author Timothy Beal writes in the Wall Street Journal, The fastest growing population on the American religious landscape today is nuns.
03:29
People who don't identify with any religion.
03:31
Recent data from the American Family Survey indicates that their numbers increased, get this, from 16% in 2007 to 35% in 2018.
03:46
Over the same period there has been a dramatic decline in the share of the population who identify as Christian.
03:52
Going from 78% of Americans in 2007 to 65% in 2018.
04:00
According to a report by the Pew Research Center released this month.
04:05
The rise of nuns is even more dramatic among younger people.
04:08
44% of Americans, get this, 44%, almost half, of Americans aged 18 to 29 identify themselves as nuns.
04:22
The author of the article goes on to say, what's going on? Well, a big part of the answer is that there is less social pressure to identify as religious, especially among young adults.
04:34
In fact, a young adult today, and this is still quoting the article, a young adult today is more likely to feel social pressure to justify being religious, than he is to feel pressure to not be religious.
04:51
The atmosphere of our culture has certainly shifted greatly in the last generation, even in the last 10 years.
05:00
There are things happening today that I think many of us don't think we could have imagined 10 years ago, 20 years ago, or even some of you who go back further than that, when you were younger, can you imagine some of the things that are happening today, and as far as it regards the church.
05:18
And this shift has not gone unnoticed, nor has it been without consequence.
05:25
Even to the point that the Wall Street Journal, a secular paper with no real religious affiliation, recognizes that for young people today, there is more social pressure to justify being religious, or being a Christian, than there is to justify simply having no affiliation whatsoever.
05:44
We find ourselves in a culture more and more that is devoid of Christian thinking, it is devoid of the Christian worldview, and it even has a loss of Christian categories of language.
05:58
We go out and we do witnessing, the last major thing we did was the fair, and I am amazed when we go to the fair, we spend 10 days, and we're in a rural area.
06:07
You know, we go out to Callaghan, and we do the fair, we do evangelism, for 10 days, we're there for several hours a day, handing out tracts, having conversations, and I cannot tell you, we've done this for, I think, going on 6 years now, and every year it seems to get worse and worse, that when I talk to people, people do not even know basic answers to basic questions about God, about the Bible, about Jesus Christ.
06:31
People are clearly more likely to know about Santa Claus, and the latest Disney movie, than they are to know about God, and His Scriptures, and His Son Jesus Christ.
06:45
And what's the most common phrase you hear? Those who went? If you're talking to someone, what do you hear? Well, I'm not a religious person! One of the most obvious results in this massive cultural shift, is a sense of hopelessness that has really overtaken people by and large.
07:14
In fact, I'll say this, more than ever, people are now being diagnosed anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and what do we do? We give them medicine that gives them more suicidal thoughts.
07:28
I never understood that.
07:32
According to an article in the Chicago Tribune, the rate of major depression among people has increased to 63% in people ages 18 to 25.
07:45
Don't we call those the best years of our lives? Do you remember when you were 18, Jack? No, I mean really, you were 18 to 25, you probably felt good, you probably looked good, and you still look good, but I mean...
08:01
Best years of our lives.
08:02
Now, 63% are claiming some form of depression, anxiety, major mental issues in that age group.
08:14
Now, I know there are some of you who may be inclined to argue the accuracy of those studies, and that's fine, I'm not here to stand on the accuracy of those studies, but what I am here to say is that we live in a world that is plagued with a sense of hopelessness.
08:30
Whether it be environmental, social, economic, whatever the factors, we live in a world of people who don't know what to hope in, and often have hope in nothing.
08:49
And I can't help but believe that there's a commensurate reality, that as an understanding of the Christian worldview goes down, an understanding of hopelessness and a reality of hopelessness goes up, it's almost like a teeter-totter.
09:01
The less we know of God and His Scriptures and His Word and His Son, the more we find ourselves lost in a world of despair and where nothing really matters.
09:10
You come into this world naked and you go out of this world naked, nothing in between matters because you came from stardust and to stardust you will return.
09:18
It's what we tell everyone, right? You're nothing but a grown-up germ.
09:24
People say, well, the baby in the womb is a clump of cells.
09:26
Well, technically, that's all you are.
09:29
If you want to get down to it, you're just a clump of cells.
09:32
If the evolutionary worldview is true, if the modern understanding of men is true, men and women, then it is to say we are nothing, we have no value, we have no hope.
09:47
Into that dark void of despair, the people of God are supposed to be ambassadors of hope.
10:00
Into this darkness, we are supposed to be the light.
10:09
No matter what the reason someone finds themselves hopeless, we have for them someone, I was going to say something, but it's actually someone in whom to hope.
10:22
We are representatives of a hope which comes not from economic prosperity.
10:30
We are representatives of a hope which comes not from medical technology.
10:34
We are representatives of a hope which comes not from social popularity.
10:38
But we are representatives of a hope that comes only through the Lord Jesus Christ.
10:46
And the New Testament is filled with passages about hope.
10:52
The New Testament is one after the other after the other passages that tell us about our great hope.
11:02
And one book in particular that focuses on the believer's hope, and I believe a very unique way, is the book of 1 Peter.
11:13
1 Peter is a little letter, and he's far towards the back of the New Testament, so some of you have never read it because you started your New Testament reading program, and you got through Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and you got a little tired around John and somewhere, and actually quit.
11:27
Maybe you made it through a couple of the books of Paul.
11:29
Maybe you even made it through Hebrews, which is really tough.
11:32
But by the time you got to those general epistles, you were done.
11:36
I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand if you've ever read 1 Peter, but I want to tell you this, if you haven't, you're missing out.
11:42
1 Peter is a tremendous work.
11:44
1 and 2 Peter together are wondrous books.
11:49
It's all the Word of God.
11:50
It's all wonderful.
11:51
But 1 Peter is a book filled with hope.
12:00
So can I just stop right now and tell you, if you came this morning with a sense of hopelessness, can I tell you to add to your reading program starting today not just the book of Luke, but the book of 1 Peter? Can you read Luke and 1 Peter? But I want to point to three passages today, because he actually uses the word hope several times in the book, but I want to look at three times that he uses the word hope in a very specific way, and I want to show you three aspects of hope, or really, in a sense, three ways in which hope is the driving force of the believer's life.
12:35
There's three ways that hope is what drives us forward.
12:40
The first way is we have a living hope.
12:42
We're going to see that.
12:43
The second way is we're going to see we have a life lived in hope.
12:46
That's the second thing.
12:48
And then the third thing we're going to see is the light of hope that comes out of us that affects others around us.
12:54
And we're going to look at three passages.
12:55
We're going to look first at chapter 1, verses 3 through 9.
12:59
Then we're going to look at chapter 1, verses 13 to 16.
13:02
And then we're going to look at chapter 3, verses 13 to 15.
13:06
Now, I know what you're thinking.
13:09
That's a long sermon.
13:11
And it may very well be, but I'm not going to exegete to the fullest extent each of those passages.
13:17
I'm just going to point out some things that you need to understand.
13:21
The first one is our living hope.
13:22
Go back with me in chapter 1 to verses 3 to 5.
13:29
Verse 3 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
13:34
According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope.
13:40
Stop right there.
13:41
Know this.
13:42
Living hope, true living hope begins when you're born again.
13:52
Jesus said, Unless a man be born again, he will not see the kingdom of heaven.
13:55
Unless a man be born again, he will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
13:58
You, if you are not born again, have no hope today.
14:03
If you are born again, you have no reason not to hope today.
14:09
Your new birth was the start of a new life.
14:13
And I want you to notice in this passage that your new birth came by God and not by you.
14:20
Notice that it says here, according to His great mercy.
14:23
Know what mercy is? It's undeserved.
14:29
You don't deserve mercy.
14:31
You receive mercy.
14:34
You don't get it because you deserve it.
14:37
You get it because the person who's giving it to you is good and they're giving it to you.
14:42
God gives us mercy.
14:44
We don't earn it.
14:46
God gives us mercy.
14:48
We don't deserve it.
14:49
In fact, you know what we are? You know what the Bible says? The Bible says we are enemies of God.
14:55
The Bible says we're born in sin.
14:56
The Bible says we love sin.
14:59
And we love our sin so much that when God tells us don't sin, when God commands us not to sin, you know what our response is? Get off the throne.
15:10
Let me sit on that throne.
15:12
Let me be the one who is in control of my life.
15:15
And that's where I was for 19 years.
15:18
I was sitting on the throne of my own life.
15:20
Most people thought I was a pretty good guy.
15:22
And you know what? From the outside, I probably was.
15:25
I didn't cheat a whole lot of people.
15:27
I didn't lie to a whole lot of people.
15:28
I didn't steal a whole lot of things.
15:29
But you know what? I was still a wretched sinner ready for hell.
15:34
And I know my heart.
15:35
And I know that in the real heart of Keith Foskey, there was nothing good until God came and gave me new life.
15:44
It says here, He caused us to be born again.
15:49
He did it.
15:50
Not me.
15:51
I didn't go looking for Him.
15:52
He came looking for me.
15:54
I didn't search Him out.
15:56
He searched me out.
15:58
He broke me in the pit of despair.
16:00
He put me into a place I'd never been before, where I was ready to take my own life.
16:04
And God saved me.
16:09
And don't think for a moment that's an exaggeration.
16:11
When I was 19 years old, I was in the deepest pit I'd ever been in my life and ever remember being.
16:17
Not because I was on any type of substance.
16:20
Not because I had found it.
16:21
I had a great wife and a great job and a great family.
16:24
But I knew one thing.
16:25
I was going to die.
16:26
And if I died, I was going to go to hell.
16:28
And I was lost.
16:29
And I was undone.
16:32
And God saved me.
16:35
Not because I asked.
16:38
But because He was merciful.
16:42
If you have been born again, you have a testimony like that.
16:45
Maybe not the same.
16:46
But your testimony is this.
16:47
You didn't do it.
16:48
God did it.
16:50
We have convinced ourselves as a people that salvation has something to do with what we do.
16:55
It's not.
16:56
It is a gift of God.
17:01
I love...
17:02
Very quickly, just for a second.
17:05
James is right next to this.
17:07
Turn over to James 1.18.
17:12
Just a few passages to the left.
17:14
James 1.18.
17:17
It says, speaking of God, of His own will, He brought us forth by the Word of Truth.
17:28
That word, brought us forth, literally means He gave us new birth.
17:32
That's what James is saying.
17:33
By God's will, He gave you new birth by the Word.
17:39
You see, you have to hear the Word.
17:42
And upon hearing the Word, God gives you a new heart so you can believe the Word.
17:46
This is why Romans tells us that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word.
17:55
You were born again because you heard the truth, and God opened your heart to believe it, if you've been born again.
18:01
But let me tell you, going back to 1 Peter, if you haven't been born again, if you have not been born again, you don't have a living hope.
18:11
There is only one true and living hope, and it comes first by the new birth.
18:18
But notice again in 1 Peter, it also comes founded upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
18:26
Notice what he says, according to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
18:36
You see, you don't just hope in hope, you hope in a person.
18:40
You don't just have faith in faith, you have faith in a person.
18:44
And that person is not a dead person.
18:48
He's not in a grave somewhere.
18:50
He's not under a tomb somewhere.
18:52
He didn't get buried in a shallow grave and have his bones eaten by dogs like some ungodly scholastics like to try to imagine.
19:00
But Jesus Christ was put into a borrowed tomb.
19:02
He's the only person in history who ever borrowed a grave.
19:07
Think on that for a second.
19:08
You don't borrow a grave, because you're going to be there forever, unless you're Jesus.
19:13
Because He only needed it for three days.
19:16
And He came out.
19:19
And He lives forevermore.
19:23
This past week I posted something on Facebook and it garnered a response and I want to respond to the response.
19:32
Now I don't take the pulpit to have social media battles, but this is an important statement.
19:36
What I said was this, listen, the Christian has no reason to be hopeless in a world where Jesus has risen from the dead.
19:46
I'm going to say it again.
19:47
The Christian has no reason to be hopeless in a world where Jesus has risen from the dead.
19:55
Now somebody, not a member of our church or anything, but somebody out in social media land decided to respond, not including mental illness, PTSD and depression.
20:10
Let me respond to that.
20:12
If you're suffering with mental illness, if you're suffering with depression, if you're suffering with PTSD and you come to me, I'm going to give you Christ.
20:22
Because that's the hope.
20:25
That is the only hope.
20:31
So I can only interpret this person as saying, Jesus can't help that.
20:36
Because that's the only way I can interpret that.
20:38
When I say, Jesus is the hope for the hopeless, and they say, well it doesn't work if you have PTSD.
20:43
It doesn't work if you have mental illness.
20:45
It doesn't work if you have depression.
20:47
Says who? What else am I to give you? Other than Christ.
20:58
I don't have anything else.
21:00
By the way, if you come to me for counseling, don't come expecting me to give you anything but Christ.
21:09
Paul said, I knew nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
21:15
If you're hopeless today, I've got to tell you something.
21:18
You don't need to be.
21:19
You need to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and put your trust in Him.
21:23
Because when your trust is in Him, no matter how bad this world gets, these present sufferings are not to be compared to the hope that is to be revealed in you.
21:35
I can't give you anything better than Jesus.
21:38
I can't give you anything greater than Him.
21:45
Nothing else do I have for you.
21:48
But I tell you, I have for you that which is the answer, who is Christ.
21:56
Our hope is founded on a living Christ.
22:02
Now verse 4 tells us also that our hope looks forward to an inheritance.
22:07
I'm not going to get out of my first verse, or my first point, because we're still looking at the living hope.
22:12
This is such a great, this is so rich.
22:14
And by the way, it's Calvinistic, by the way, because it starts with election.
22:19
Peter starts writing to the elect exiles in the dispersion.
22:23
It starts with election.
22:24
And then right here we're looking at God's purpose in election, choosing.
22:29
And it goes on to now talk about our inheritance, which has been preserved for us by God.
22:37
That's preservation or perseverance of the saints.
22:39
It's all right here.
22:40
We talk about Paul being the one who we rely on for our theology.
22:44
No, Peter's got it right here in the first chapter, the first paragraph.
22:49
It's all here.
22:51
And he says, we have been born again to a living hope, to an inheritance that is four things, imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you.
23:02
Let me say something about it very quickly.
23:04
Imperishable means it will not decay.
23:06
When we get to heaven, you know all the things that die here, all the things that decay here, all the things that get destroyed here.
23:12
You know when you put something outside, it begins to rust.
23:14
If you have something outside that's wooden, it begins to rot.
23:17
In heaven, those things will not rust.
23:19
They will not rot.
23:20
It's going to be there and it's going to be imperishable.
23:24
It will be undefiled.
23:26
It will be formed properly.
23:28
It will be cared for properly.
23:30
Unsoiled and perfect.
23:31
And it will be unfading.
23:33
It will never lose its luster.
23:36
You're never going to be bored.
23:37
I hear people say, I don't know how we're going to spend 10,000 years in heaven.
23:41
I'm going to get bored.
23:42
Really? Is this where we're at as a people? That we can't understand the power of Almighty God? We're so caught up in social media and telephones and email and all this stuff that we think we're going to get bored in heaven.
23:55
Really? Sorry, I'm a little off there.
23:58
But the point is, undefiled, unfading, and I love this word, kept in heaven for you.
24:10
Your promise, your inheritance, is being kept in heaven by God for you.
24:16
And let me tell you something, there's nobody better to hold on something.
24:19
You ever have somebody, hey, keep this for me until I come back.
24:22
Hold on to this for me until I come back and get it.
24:25
And you're always wondering, oh man, are they going to do something with what I gave them? If I gave them money, are they going to spend it? Are they going to lose it? Are they going to put it somewhere and not be able to find it? But when God says it's kept, here's the beauty.
24:38
You're kept in Him.
24:42
Jesus said you're in My hand, I'm in the Father's hand, I'm the Father of one, you're not going to be taken away, no one snatch you out of My hand.
24:48
You're kept, and here your inheritance is kept.
24:52
Both of them are kept by the same person.
24:54
And He cannot fail.
24:57
You want a reason to hope, there's your reason to hope.
25:00
You're trusting in the One who cannot fail.
25:02
God doesn't know how to fail.
25:03
And it is preserved.
25:11
You are preserved.
25:12
Look at verse 5.
25:13
It says, Who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
25:19
That literally is talking about you being guarded through faith.
25:25
You are being guarded by God.
25:29
Let me explain this.
25:30
When you get saved, it is a miraculous work of God.
25:38
And you stay saved by a miraculous work of God.
25:45
Some people think, I get saved by a miracle, I keep myself saved by my work.
25:53
Paul tells us that's not true in Galatians.
25:56
Have you who started in faith, now are you being made perfect in the flesh? No.
26:00
The answer is no.
26:02
But think of it this way.
26:05
I'll give you a quote from Spurgeon.
26:07
He said, Oh, if God were to put salvation in my hands, it would be lost in ten minutes.
26:14
I think he's giving himself some credit, because I don't think I could last ten minutes.
26:19
He said, If salvation were put into my hands, it would be lost in ten minutes, but my salvation is not there, it is in Christ's hands.
26:28
That's why you have hope.
26:30
You have hope because you were born again to a living hope.
26:33
You have hope because you were founded that hope on the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
26:37
You have hope because the inheritance that is promised to you is being kept by God for you, and you are being kept for your inheritance by God.
26:48
And it's all right here, in this short paragraph.
26:53
If you came today hopeless, I hope you leave filled with hope.
26:57
You have no reason, if you are in Christ, to leave hopeless today.
27:02
But now I want to show you another section of this text.
27:06
And again, I'm not doing a strong looking at every word extra Jesus.
27:09
I'm just showing you how this relates to our hope.
27:11
Let's look very quickly at verses 13 to 16.
27:14
Now, we haven't read these yet.
27:17
But this passage continues the thought of Peter, and it talks about how we live in light of this hope.
27:28
Notice this.
27:29
It says, Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
27:41
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.
27:47
But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.
27:53
Since it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy.
27:58
Now listen.
28:00
Our first point, we looked at really an indicative statement, meaning these are the things that are true.
28:08
You've been born again.
28:10
You've been born again to a hope in the resurrection.
28:12
You've been born again to an inheritance.
28:13
You've been preserved by God, and your inheritance is being preserved for you.
28:17
All of those things are things God is doing.
28:19
Now we come to the imperative, the command.
28:22
We go from the indicative to the imperative.
28:24
Now, what's the imperative? How do we live in light of our hope? Holy.
28:31
That's how you ought to live.
28:33
Now that's simple, but it ain't simple, is it? Living a holy life is easy to say, but it is a difficult life.
28:46
Notice what He says in verse 14.
28:49
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance.
29:00
Notice that.
29:02
How are we to live holy lives? First and foremost, to see ourselves as children of God who have been commanded toward obedience.
29:16
I want to tell you something.
29:17
I can't believe it in the church today, but it is true.
29:21
And if you don't believe me, I'll find sermons and I'll email them to you.
29:25
But there are pastors who are preaching that obedience is optional.
29:31
It doesn't matter if you're obedient or not because you're saved by grace through faith.
29:37
Let me tell you something about that.
29:40
We are saved by grace.
29:42
We are saved through faith.
29:44
But our obedience is not optional because if you have been saved by grace through faith, you have had a change of heart and your heart now wants to follow Christ in obedience.
29:58
If you don't have a heart that desires to be obedient, I would say you still have a dead heart.
30:08
Now, I want to add a couple of thoughts.
30:10
Number one, you will not be perfectly obedient and I'm not giving you a pass.
30:15
What I'm saying is that in your flesh, as long as we live in this flesh, we're not going to be perfectly obedient.
30:20
And that's not to give you a pass.
30:21
It's simply so that you don't leave this place thinking that I'm feeding to you some kind of legalistic propaganda which would say that you must be perfectly obedient or you're not saved.
30:32
It's not what I've said.
30:34
What I have said is this.
30:35
If you are living in outright disobedience to God and that doesn't pierce you to the very core of your existence, there's something wrong with your heart.
30:45
1 John tells us that if we have been born again, we will not continue to sin.
30:52
And Hebrews tells us that if we are gods, we will be disciplined when we do wrong and if we don't have the discipline of the Spirit, we are not His.
31:07
You say, well, man, you were all hopeful before, now we're all...
31:12
This is still about our hope because let me tell you something, hope is something that comes when you're born again, but we live in hope.
31:20
How you live shows whether or not you have hope or not.
31:25
You want proof of that? Proof is in the last point and I know that second point was kind of short, but let's jump very quickly.
31:32
I'm going to spend some time on this last point.
31:34
Go to chapter 3 and look at verses 13 to 15.
31:42
When I say hope is what demonstrates your life of faith, you say, well, how do you know that? Look at verse 13.
31:52
Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for doing good? But even if you suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed.
32:00
Have no fear of them, nor be troubled.
32:01
But in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.
32:15
Yet do it with gentleness and respect.
32:18
Stop right there.
32:20
Notice what that passage says.
32:23
It says basically this.
32:25
It says you may have to suffer for your hope, but when you suffer for your hope, stand, be ready to give a defense, but notice who you're giving a defense to.
32:37
A lot of people use this passage for apologetics and I believe in apologetics.
32:42
I teach apologetics.
32:43
I teach classes and courses in apologetics.
32:47
And you might not even know what that is, so let me just clarify.
32:50
Apologetics is defending the faith.
32:52
The word apologia means to make a defense for something.
32:56
And this is where that passage says.
32:58
It says to be ready to give a defense for the hope that is in you.
33:01
But notice it says, be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks.
33:08
Read it again.
33:10
It says, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.
33:20
Why would someone ask you for a reason for the hope that's in you? Because the hope that is in you is obvious.
33:31
Why would someone ask you for a reason for the hope that is in you? Because the hope that is in you is not just in you, it's out of you.
33:40
It's coming out of your mouth.
33:43
It's coming out in your life.
33:45
It's being demonstrated in how you live.
33:47
It's being demonstrated in how you do well and how you do poorly.
33:51
It's being demonstrated in how you succeed and in how you suffer.
33:57
It's being demonstrated in you.
34:00
And thus when people see you hope, they say, why? Why can you live with that kind of hope? And you say, because of Christ alone.
34:15
How can you live with that hope? Because my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
34:23
I shall not place my hope in anything else.
34:28
And I find my complete hope in Him.
34:36
Beloved, this passage is not so much about making the defense as much as it is about us knowing in whom we hope.
34:47
Notice how it starts, verse 15.
34:50
In your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy.
34:55
Can I ask you today, are you doing that? Are you honoring Christ today as holy in your hearts? And let me say something else.
35:09
Is Christ the Lord of your heart today? Notice what he says.
35:15
In your heart, honor Christ the Lord as holy.
35:22
Notice he references Christ as Lord.
35:25
Is Christ the Lord of your heart? Some translations say, sanctify Christ as Lord of your heart.
35:42
I like that.
35:44
Sanctify means set apart, so it's similar to what's being translated here.
35:50
But he says, set apart Christ as Lord of your heart and be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is in you.
36:06
Sometimes I ask people, how do you know that you're saved? Well, I believed on Jesus when I was a child, or I believed in Jesus when I was a teenager, or I went forward at a youth group meeting, or I went forward at a camp meeting, or I went forward during a vacation Bible school, and I answered the call, and I raised my hand, and I signed the card, and I went forward, and I was baptized.
36:43
Okay? Is Jesus Christ the Lord of your heart? I don't care what you did when you were 13, or 15, or 19, or 25, or 45.
37:03
Is Christ the Lord of your heart today? Some pastors will tell you, sign your Bible.
37:14
On the day you're baptized, that becomes your spiritual birth certificate.
37:18
You know what the Bible says? Make your calling and election sure.
37:26
It doesn't say go back and look at your spiritual birth certificate.
37:30
It says, examine yourself to see whether or not ye be in the faith.
37:42
How would we know if we're in the faith? Well, first, it does begin with that moment when we were born again.
37:50
But I would ask you, did that moment change your life and give birth in your heart to a living hope? Did that moment give birth to a living hope that's caused you to desire to live a holy life? And does that holy life demonstrate itself in such a way that others know of you, that you are of Christ? If you were put on trial today for your faith and hope in Jesus Christ, would there be enough evidence to convict you? We may sing, our hope is built on nothing less.
38:41
But is that true of you today? Is your hope in the living Savior? Is your hope founded upon His death, burial, and resurrection? Is your hope found in Him alone? Or are you in some way still hoping in yourself? In some way are you still hoping to find some kernel of righteousness upon which to plant your own goodness before God? Have you given up all for Christ? Have you turned from your sin and turned to Him? Have you truly been born again to a living hope? By God's mercy, I pray that you have.
39:28
Let us pray.
39:31
Father, I thank you.
39:33
I thank you for the living hope.
39:36
I thank you for the change that that brings.
39:40
And Lord, I pray that we would never fall guilty of the misrepresenting of Christ that would say that we could come to Christ and not have to change lives.
39:51
Lord, our lives, if we are in Christ, are found in Him, hidden with Christ in God.
39:59
There is no salvation outside of Him, and there is no hope outside of Him.
40:05
Lord, I pray for everyone under the sound of my voice.
40:08
I pray that today, as they hear my voice, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would work through this preaching of the Word.
40:16
And I pray that your Holy Spirit would reach down to those who have not been born again and would grant them the gift of regeneration, which would cause them to repent of sins and trust in Christ, who is our only hope.
40:35
Thank you, Lord, for sending Jesus.
40:38
Thank you for giving us a living hope.
40:42
We praise you and glorify you.
40:44
In Christ's name, amen.