Practical Effects of Hope, Part 2

Recap: The Nature and Inward Effects of Christian Hope

0:02 I would ask you to follow in your Bibles as I read this morning, as we have done for a number of the last Lord's Day mornings, verses 15 through the first part of verse 19 of Ephesians 1.

0:17 Ephesians 1, verses 15 through the first part of verse 19.

0:25 The Apostle Paul, writing to the believers at Ephesus and in the churches of the environment, in the environs of Ephesus, says,

1:02 As the Apostle Paul prays for the Ephesian Christians, he is concerned that God would give to them enlarged perception concerning three great... It matters.

1:35 Their hope, their inheritance, and the exceeding greatness of God's power towards them.

1:43 For several weeks, we have been focusing our attention upon the first of these three things for which the Apostle prays, namely, that they might know what is the hope of their calling. We've studied together the source of this Christian hope. It is what the Apostle calls here, their...

2:04 which is a term referring to the work of God in taking these Ephesians out of the raw material of lost, spiritually blind, spiritually dead humanity and bringing them, ushering them into the realm of the people of God whose eyes have been opened, as Mr. Cantine prayed this morning, they've been opened to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. God is no longer just a religious word. Christ is no longer just a religious ideal.

2:41 They have come to know God. They have come to know Christ. They have been called by God out of darkness into light. And it is only such a person who has what the Bible calls hope.

2:56 For Paul says, I am praying that you may know what is the hope of your calling. The hope which flows from this work of God. God calling you into the blessings of the gospel. Then we've spent time on trying to analyze the precise nature of Christian hope.

3:14 And it has nothing to do with the English word hope, which is mere wish, stronger at times than others, but biblical hope is confident expectation. It is confident expectation of the promised blessings of a complete salvation and that expectation is a promise of salvation. And that expectation is a promise of salvation. And that expectation is a promise of salvation.

3:34 It is always flanked on the one hand by fervent yearning for the blessings promised and on the other hand by patient waiting for those blessings. Then we looked at various aspects of this hope. We saw that Christ was the ground and the object of it. We saw that the scriptures are the basis and the unfolding revelation of that hope.

3:58 We saw that union with Christ is the means by which we come in to possession of that hope. We saw that the ultimate source of it was the grace of God. Now, last week we began to consider some of the practical effects of the Christian's hope. Paul is praying that the Christians at Ephesus might know with greater accuracy, might understand with deeper perception this hope of their calling, because he knows that that understanding will have very practical effects in their lives.

4:33 He's not concerned. He's not concerned that they merely swell the chambers of their minds with more facts about the Christian's hope. He's concerned that they may have an increased understanding to the end that there may be an increased measure of genuine Christian experience. For one of the unique things about the Christian faith is that it never says experience is to be arrived at any other way than by truth.

5:05 It is by the truth. It is by the truth that we are sanctified. John 17 and verse 17. And so Paul is concerned that the truth of the Christian's hope may be known to the end that the lives of the believers may be affected.

5:21 Last week we looked at the effects of the Christian hope within the Christian himself. And we saw that it is a major ingredient of true and constant joy. It's the basis for stability of soul. A major factor in the pursuit of godliness.

Outward Effects of Hope: To the Church - Mutual Encouragement

5:39 And it's the basis of true Christian composure in the face of death. Now this morning we move to a consideration of the effects of the Christian hope without. Not so much looking at the effects now within the believer, but the effects as they carry over into his interaction first of all with his fellow Christians. That is, its effects to the church.

6:03 And then in his interaction. In his interaction with the world. And so we'll consider them in that order. The effects of Christian hope, first of all, with reference to the church.

6:15 And I want to suggest two things this morning from the word of God. First of all, the scripture makes clear that the Christian hope forms the basis of substantial mutual encouragement. And when I say substantial, I mean that which has true substance. How is it that the people of God are to encourage and exhort one another?

6:39 Are we to go around and just chuck one another under the chin and say, well, look up, old boy, things will get better by and by, with some kind of just nebulous, vague comfort? No, no. If you'll go back to the passage we looked at last week, you'll notice that there was one part in the passage that I did not expound or emphasize with any degree of emphasis, and I deliberately passed over. In the light of our study this morning.

7:06 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, beginning with verse 13.

7:17 The mark of the unconverted person when he faces the grim reality of death is he has no hope. Oh yes, he has some wishful thinking. He hopes everything will turn out all right. He hopes.

7:36 He hopes that everybody, if there is an afterlife, will go to the same place and that it should be a good place. He has that kind of hope, but he has no biblical hope. He has no confident expectation. He can never look death straight in the eye and say, I know what you're going to do with me.

7:53 The Christian can. The mark of the Christian is he has hope in the face of death. Therefore, the apostle goes on to say, If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep, in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and left unto the coming of the Lord shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep.

8:18 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God. And the dead in Christ shall rise first. First, then we which are alive and are left shall together with them be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the end. And so shall we ever be with the Lord.

8:39 Now, what are the Christians to do with this knowledge? Look at the last verse in the paragraph, verse 18. Wherefore, in the light of this truth, wherefore, comfort one another with these words. Now, he does not use the word sa'atus, comfort yourselves.

9:01 We might expect that. Here is knowledge of the future blessings, of salvation, given by the word of the Lord. That Christians who are dead in Christ shall be raised up. Christians who are alive when the Lord comes shall be caught up.

9:21 There will be this grand reunion, glorified body and spirit joined together to be with the Lord. You would expect him to say, wherefore, comfort yourselves with these words. So that when I as a Christian face the grim reality of death for myself or a fellow believer, I would individually derive comfort. But he doesn't say that.

9:45 He says, wherefore, comfort, alleluia, one another with these words. In other words, the Christian's hope, Paul says, forms the basis of substantial, not personal encouragement, but mutual encouragement.

10:07 Now, the word for comfort is an interesting word. It's the same. It's the same word, root word, from which we get the word comforter, referring to the Holy Spirit in John 14. He is the one called alongside to help.

10:20 Now, Paul says, wherefore,

10:24 draw alongside to help one another with these words. Now, why did he say that? Why didn't he say, comfort yourselves with these words? Well, Paul was a very astute observer of human experience and the patterns in the lives of the people of God.

10:43 And what Paul observed is what any person observes who has his eyes open at all in the Christian life, and it was this. Just when my hope, my confident expectation of the promised blessings of salvation should be creating in me constant joy, stability in the midst of a trial, just when that hope should be creating in me that sense of an anchor to the soul, because I am yet imperfect and the remains of sinner with me, I get so swallowed up by the present trial, in this case, I get so swallowed up by the grief that comes in the face of death that my hope becomes dim to me. And instead of having joy, instead of being stable, instead of having all these other inward personal effects of the Christian hope operative in my life, I begin to live and think and act and mourn and grieve as though I had no hope. And it's at that precise point that I need my brother or my sister to put his hand on my shoulder and say, Brother, you're not to be as those who have

12:11 no hope. Are you in Christ Jesus through grace? Have you been called out of darkness into light? And my brother then pours into my ears the facts of my Christian hope.

12:26 He tells me that I'm destined for glory and as my soul is battered by this present trial and I feel like my ship is going to be dashed on the rocks of despair, he reminds me, I have an anchor to my soul. He says, cast it out. Let it grip.

12:44 And he comes along and ministers to me a reminder of my Christian hope and as he does, I am helped and consoled and brought back to the place of stability, back to the place of joy, back to the place where I'm pressing on in the course of godliness and holiness because my brother has given to me a substantial, a substantial encouragement on the basis of his knowledge of the Christian hope. Now by way of application, let me say several things. It's interesting that Paul assumes that the people of God are involved with one another to the extent that they know and are sensitive to each other's needs. When he says, wherefore comfort one another with these words, he's assuming that the people of God have such an interaction with one another that you will know when I'm growing dim in my vision of the hope and that you need to draw alongside and say, my brother, let me comfort you with these words.

14:00 Now do you see why the emphasis in the word of God upon weeping with those who weep, rejoicing with those who rejoice, bearing one another's burdens when one member suffers, all suffer with it and why again and again from this pulpit we keep emphasizing the church is not merely a preaching station, it is an organism, the family of God.

14:23 We need that loving encouragement and reminder. Second thing Paul assumes is that the average believer will be well grounded in his hope so that he's able to instruct another brother and remind him about the common hope that they share. When he says, wherefore comfort one another with these words, he doesn't say, wherefore comfort all for the teaching elder to comfort the poor brother who's forgotten his hope.

14:52 That isn't what he says. He doesn't say, get on the phone, call up the pastor. He knows all about the hope and you're in bad shape and you need to have somebody get you straightened out. No, he says, comfort one another.

15:02 He assumes that the common possession of the common believer will be this articulate understanding of the hope so that I'm able to convey it to another.

Outward Effects of Hope: To the Church - Christian Unity

15:16 And I believe the principle Paul enunciates here where the hope is to be used as the basis of consolation in the face of death. It's but one application of the general principle wherever the Christian hope should be an incentive to consolation, to solid encouragement, wherever it should be the basis of an incentive to holiness. At any point where you see a brother or sister who is not walking and living in the life of his Christian hope, you are to, remind him of that hope that in turn he may walk in the light of it. Now the second thing that the Christian hope does with reference to the church, it not only forms the basis of substantial mutual encouragement, but it creates a powerful incentive to the maintenance of Christian unity. Turn please to Ephesians chapter 4.

16:15 It creates a powerful incentive to the maintenance of Christian unity. Ephesians chapter 4. I shall read the first four verses, say a word about the general thread of thought and then zero in upon the phrase in verse 4. I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love, giving diligence to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, there is one body and one spirit, even as ye were called in one hope of your calling. Now the general drift of what Paul is saying is this. In the light of all the truth of the first three chapters, he says I want your walk, that is the pattern of your daily conduct, to be commensurate with your privileges. You've been called into such tremendous gospel privileges.

17:22 Think of them as we went through them in the first paragraph of Ephesians 1. Chosen in Christ, redeemed by His grace, given an inheritance, sealed by the Spirit. He goes on in chapter 2 and describes how they were raised from spiritual death, brought into privileges that previously only Jews had, but now in Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile, formed together into one body, chapter 3. He says now in the light of all those privileges, let your walk, your daily conduct, somehow reflect, your appreciation of all those privileges.

17:57 And dominant in a life reflecting an appreciation of gospel privileges is the cultivation of those graces which contribute to Christian unity. I beseech you to walk worthy of the Lord with what grace is dominant? Lowliness, meekness, long-suffering, all of those graces come to light in interpersonal relations, lowliness, the absence of strut and cockiness and self-assertiveness, meekness, the absence of ill-will, long-suffering, no short fuse on your trigger of your temper, but bearing with one another. You see, the graces he's zeroing in on have to do with the relationship of one believer to another. He says walk worthy of God, and in particular I mean cultivate the graces which contribute to true unity. Verse 3, giving diligence to keep, not to get, not to attain, but to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. God has constituted a unity amongst the people of God.

19:10 Now Paul says, you give diligence to keep that unity by cultivating these graces which will foster that unity. Now it's as though someone said, now Paul, you're assuming that the unity's already established. What is the basis of that unity? How did God constitute the unity?

19:30 And he answers that in the next couple of verses. There is one body. How do we know we're one? Because God, by His Spirit, brought us into one body of Christ, not two, not three, not six.

19:43 And he goes on to say, there is one Spirit. If you're a Christian, you're indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Paul says in Romans 8, 9, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he's none of His. Now does God have the Spirit of Christ?

19:54 Does God have one kind of Spirit for Jews and another for Gentiles, one for intellectuals and one for common people, one for rich, one for poor? No, no. One Spirit indwells the five or seven-year-old child who may be converted. Indwells the seventy-year-old man who's lived a life of profligacy and is converted in the midnight hour.

20:15 One Spirit indwells them both. One Spirit indwells the man who through some kind of damage or material that is here in his mind has an IQ of 80. Indwells the man who has an IQ of 145. One Spirit dwelling in rich, poor, high, low, cultured, uncultured.

20:41 You see how God constitutes the unity? All of these things separate people. The intellectuals pride themselves that they are the elite. They know.

20:51 And the man strutting around in his intellectual pride and God humbles him and says, You ought to know. You don't even know an answer to the simplest question in all the world. Who is God? How can sin be forgiven?

21:04 And the man becomes embarrassed. Direct question for theologians. What lies beyond the grave? What happens when I die?

21:13 Wonder of wonders through the Gospel his eyes are opened and he sees that he's a sinner and that Christ is the only answer to his sin and the Spirit who indwells him is precisely the same Spirit who indwells the man with limited faculties. You see how God constitutes the unity? He puts the same Spirit in the heart of everyone whom he brings to himself. Then he goes on to say, Even as you were called in one hope of your calling.

21:41 And when God saves men he not only constitutes them one body by placing one Spirit within them but he implants within the heart of everyone the same hope. The same confident expectation of promised blessings. And what is that expectation? That when Jesus comes I shall be like him for I shall see him as he is.

22:05 I will worship him I will serve him in the new heavens and in the new earth and I will follow the Lamb with us whoever he goeth. Now what can what can be the basis of a more solid abiding unity than that? One body one Spirit one hope and then he goes on to say one Lord one faith one baptism. You see his argument?

22:28 He said God has constituted this unity by bringing you all to oneness in these substantial spiritual realities. Now he says in the light of that maintain keep that unity. Now I want to focus upon how our common hope contributes to the maintenance of Christian unity. For he says even as ye are called in one hope of your calling.

22:58 Here I meet a brother in the Lord and we get talking together and I say what is your hope? And he says well my hope is that when I die or should the Lord come again I shall be with him. I shall no longer have to wrestle with these remains of sin within. I shall no longer have to know the agony of trying to serve God in this body but I shall have a body that will be like unto his own glorious body and he describes his hope.

23:28 I say you know what I've got the same hope within my own heart. How did you come to that? And he describes how God dealt with him and I say well that's the way I came to it. And I say brother we're one.

23:41 We got to this present point by the same influences of grace and we're looking in the same direction in the same expectations of what grace will bring. Now can you see how stupid it would be to say we're one in our calling hence we're one in our hope. Now let us show the reality of that oneness by being one in our walk together. See?

24:10 That's the argument that's here. So every time you allow division to come in the body of Christ you allow alienation to come between you and a brother that keeps you from experientially enjoying what's constituted there's a sense in which you're declaring a lie. You're saying I'm not one with that brother. I'm not one in affection.

24:36 I'm not one in purpose. Why what a denial of what God has done. He's made you one. Put you into one body.

24:45 Caused you to be indwelt by one spirit. Put one hope within your breast. Oh child of God Paul says. Let this be an incentive to labor the spirit in the bond of peace.

24:58 It's like a group of men in a common army fighting to preserve common liberties. Longing to reserve to a common land. How foolish if they begin to jab their bayonets at one another in the trenches. Stupid.

25:15 How incongruous. And so it is when the people of God allow division to come into their ranks. It is a denial of what God has done. Hodge has given a comment on this in his exposition of the book of Ephesians that I thought was choice and I'll quote it for you before making several applications.

25:37 The fact that Christians all have the same high destiny and are filled with the same expectations proves that they are one. The unity of hope is another evidence and element of the communion of saints. The Holy Ghost dwelling in them will rise to the same aspirations, to the same anticipations, to the same of the same glorious inheritance, to a participation of which they have been called. Now by way of application will you note with me the tremendous unifying power of truth.

26:19 You see it was not some ill-defined nebulous diversified notions about the future which formed the basis of unity. Paul says no. You are called in one hope of your calling and that Christian hope is a well-defined commodity. It's not some nebulous thing.

26:40 It's not some ethereal thing. So that this Christian over here has something he calls hope and he has something he calls hope and so Paul says we all got something in some way or other that God has already revealed in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit has brought you into the participation of entertaining that hope and it's the truth the understanding of that truth of that hope which knits your hearts together. The truth of God the more we understand it does not divide it unifies. And one of the biggest lies spawned in the evangelical church today is that doctrine divides and love the measure of our unity will be in direct proportion to the measure of the sameness of our judgment concerning the truth of God. When Paul is writing to a church beset with unity how does he seek to correct it? First Corinthians chapter one does he say now look you're all divided up and the reason is it's because you're concerned about truth forget your truth it will just knit you all together and everything will be alright. No no he's dealing

28:09 with a church beset with divisions and as he seeks to correct it notice how he does it. First Corinthians one ten now I beseech you brethren through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but in the same mind and in the same judgment. You see what he says is the answer to their disunity it's coming to oneness of mind judgment throwing out your mind not throwing out your judgment and just come together as the big watchword of key seventy three is somehow let's get together and they are in judgment the little bit we've experienced in our own assembly what is it that's knit us together literally someone from a little bush village in Africa to people off the streets of the jungle of New York knit us it's as the spirit of God increasingly brings us

29:38 to oneness of judgment and of understanding in the truth of God and so as we understand our hope more as I trust we do as a result of this study it should become an increasingly powerful motivation in our hearts to maintain the unity which God has constituted by putting within all of our hearts who are his in spite of all the diversity of our backgrounds our temperaments our ethnic and sociological influences in spite of all that the children of God and within our breast is one hope not two not three not four one hope that knits us together blessed be God for the unifying power of that hope and if God has put in the heart of my brother and sister the hope that they should be with him and it's a biblical hope and he's put the same hope within my heart well if they're good enough for God then I better be satisfied with those whom he is satisfied with well then I must hurry on to deal very briefly with the effect of this hope with reference now to the world we're looking at the outward effects of the hope how does it affect the church it forms the

Outward Effects of Hope: To the World - Armor Against Hostility

31:06 basis of substantial mutual encouragement it forms a powerful incentive to the maintenance of unity but now the Christian has a relationship with the world about him and when our Lord was about to leave the earth and go back to his father he made certain fundamental principles abundantly clear I want you to turn to John 14 and 15 for a moment this background is necessary if we're going to grasp the thrust of what I'm trying to convey in this next area of consideration Jesus made two things very very clear as he was about to leave and go back to his father that obedience to him would be the acid test of love to him John 14 21 he that hath my commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me the acid test of love obedience verse 23 John 14 Jesus answered and said unto him if a man love me he will keep my word verse 24 he that loveth me not keepeth not my words John 15 verse 14 ye are my friends if he do the things which I command you alright

32:35 the first principle he made abundantly clear that the measure of their love to him or the acid test of their love to him was the measure of their obedience second principle he made abundantly clear that obedience to him would be carried on in a hostile environment called the world look at John 15 verse 18 to 21 if the world hateth you ye know that it hath hated me before it hated you if ye were of the world the world would love its own but because ye are not of the world but I chose to serve you a servant is not greater than his Lord if they have persecuted me they will also persecute you if they have kept my word they will keep yours also chapter 16 in verse 2 they shall put you out of the synagogues yea the hour cometh that whosoever killeth you shall think that he offereth service unto God verse 33 in the world ye shall be of the world and the hostility of that world

34:03 in the light of this it should not surprise us that the Christian is again and again likened to a soldier in the midst of a conflict a veritable death struggle he is called to fight to wrestle to walk watch, to take up his armor, to wield his weapons. Now, in that general perspective, what does the hope do? What place does the Christian's hope have, seeking to obey Jesus Christ in a hostile environment called the world? Let me suggest two things.

34:40 First of all, it provides a vital piece of his armor in his conflict with the world. Look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 8. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 8.

35:07 But let us, since we are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. The context here, Paul is saying, there are those people of the world who have their fairy dreams about peace. And he says, when they say peace and safety, then comes sudden destruction. But he says, you're not in the dark that that day should overtake you.

35:37 He's showing the contrast between the sons of darkness and the sons of light. Now, being the son of darkness, the son of light in the midst of darkness, is no light matter. We're in a battle, we're engaged in warfare, and the sons of darkness are seeking continually to cripple and to wound, and to render ineffective the sons of the light. Therefore, we need armor with which to fight.

36:05 Now, he says, one strategic piece of that armor is your helmet. And what is my helmet? He tells me. It is the hope of salvation.

36:17 Now, in hand-to-hand combat, which is the only thing they knew in those days, the helmet was the most conspicuous and the most significant piece of armor. There have been people who've gone into battle in hand-to-hand combat, who've come back without a hand, without an arm or a leg, and they've lived to tell about it. So that when their grandchildren said, Grandpa, how come you don't have a right hand? He said, well, son, let me tell you.

36:43 And so he sits down, he explains the day when in the battle he lost his hand.

36:49 But there's nobody came back from a battle with this off, who told his grandchildren about it.

36:57 When the head's gone, you're gone. You've had it. You're done. And in hand-to-hand combat, it was the most vulnerable place.

37:05 For a man knew if he struck a blow to the head, he had the whole man. Why go for the fingers? Why go for the feet? Go for the head.

37:13 And therefore, the helmet was a strategic piece of armor, a most vital piece, and secondly, it was the most conspicuous piece. The way you could tell someone was coming out to fight was when his helmet would gleam in the sun. It was the first piece of armor, strategic. The place of importance, most conspicuous in the observation of others.

37:37 Now apply that to this whole matter of the Christian's hope. What is that that will protect us in our most vital and most vulnerable spot spiritually? It is the hope of salvation. The confident expectation that when Jesus comes, I shall be like him, for I shall see him as he is.

38:02 Now let's see how that works in some specifics. The world begins to frown, and it hopes to bully us with its frown. And when it begins to frown, say, I don't like you. We're supposed to shake.

38:14 We're supposed to do like Peter did when a little servant girl came up and said, Oh, you're one of that crowd. You were with him. Ah, you were one of them. Peter begins to curse and deny, saying, I know not the man.

38:25 He cowered before the frown of the world. Now what is it that will keep you as a Christian from cowering before the world, this frown? When all the fellows and girls in that school begin to brag about their utter indifference to God's moral law, and begin to make fun of you that you protect your virginity as a precious possession, and they begin to frown and mock, what's going to keep you? It's the hope that one day you'll look upon the Savior and he'll say, Well done, good and faithful servant.

38:58 The hope of salvation protects the head. When the world begins to frown and your judgment would begin, to get all out of focus, it's the confidence, I shall see him if I have his smile now. And I anticipate his smile then. I can bear the world's frown.

39:17 When the world begins to allure us and entice us, what makes sin attractive even to the Christian? It's his temporary pleasure. There is pleasure in sin for a season. And when the world and the flesh begin to entice us, what is it that breaks the power of that enticement?

39:36 The enticing element is the realization that at his right hand there are pleasures forevermore. I shall drink to the full of those pleasures which never, never bring the hangover of a smitten conscience.

39:55 The hope of salvation is my helmet, that when that blow would be struck to cripple me and to drag me into a path of sin, I am protected in the awareness of my hope. When the world...

40:10 Skepticism would tempt us. And the world would say, You're a Christian? Look at the troubles you go through. Why, I'm no Christian.

40:17 My bills are paid. My kids are...

40:19 Look what you've got. You're a Christian?

40:22 Paul says, You know how I handle that? My light affliction worketh for me a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while I look not on the things that are seen, but on the things that are not seen. It's the hope, the confident expectation. Every trial here, is building up an eternal weight of glory there.

40:45 You see it now? I've given you a little idea. We don't have time to be exhausted. But it's in these ways that the hope is the helmet that keeps us in the midst of battle.

40:56 Could it be, child of God, that you're being rendered vulnerable because you're not feeding on your hope? Go to the armory today. Find upon the fact and the circumstances of His return, the glory that awaits you then. Without even knowing it, as your mind feeds upon those things, God will be forging a helmet for your head.

41:23 And you'll go back into that same circumstance tomorrow and next week. And by His grace, be enabled to stand away with those who say that a Christianity which looks beyond the realm of time is too otherworldly. My friend, if you're not, in the biblical sense, otherworldly, you will be too worldly. The way for me and for you as the children of God to be kept from defilement is to have our head, in that sense, in the clouds and our feet upon the earth.

Outward Effects of Hope: To the World - Provoking Inquiry

41:57 The hope of salvation is our helmet. And then last of all,

42:04 this hope has a practical effect with reference to the world in that it should provoke an inquiry from the unconverted. As we carry out our obedience in a hostile way, in a hostile setting, much of that obedience is observed by the world. Sometimes the world is our own household. Yes, Jesus said it in John, in Matthew 10, 34, Think not that I am come to send peace.

42:33 I came not to send peace, but a sword. A man's foe shall be they of his own household. Frankly, these people that have what I call an unbiblical idea of covenantal relationship, that automatically includes the seed, the offspring of all Christians as being within the covenant of grace, I don't know how they face a statement like this by our Lord Jesus.

43:01 I don't know how. He came to administer the new covenant and he said, in doing it, I've come to bring division right in the household.

43:08 Isn't that what he said? He didn't say, I came to unify households. He said, I came to divide them. Sometimes the world is in your own household.

43:16 An unconverted wife, husband, son or daughter, brother, sister. That's why Jesus said in Luke, 14, 25, he that comes to me and hates not father, mother, brother, sister in his own life also cannot be my disciple.

43:30 Now in that particular setting, when you look at 1 Peter chapter 3, here we are carrying out our obedience in a hostile setting, the unconverted sometimes within our own household, but certainly in our place of business, fellow students at school, college, university, there at the hospital, in the shop. Now what should happen? Well, Peter's been talking about the sufferings through which the people of God will pass and now he says in verse 13 of 1 Peter 3, And who is he that will harm you if you be zealous of that which is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, blessed are ye, and fear not their fear, neither be troubled, but sanctify in your heart Christ as Lord, being ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you. See what he's saying?

44:36 Here's that ungodly man who's over you in that place of business. And because your Christian testimony is a mystery to him, he can't understand it, and because your godly life shows him up and irritates him, what does he do? He begins to abuse you. He begins, in the words of Peter, to be froward.

44:54 He begins to treat you with something less than respect and gentleness. And all he knows when anyone treats him that way is to fight fire with fire, but instead what does he see you doing? He sees you patiently submitting, not standing up for your own rights, retorting. Peter dealt with that in 1 Peter 2.

45:14 You realize I'm called to follow the example of my Savior, and the whole story's not told down here, but it will be told up there. And he observes you in that circumstance, possessed of something that he cannot fathom. And you come to work one day, and he finds out that your household has been beset with calamity. And in the midst of it, he sees you saying, but, praise the Lord. He scratches his head.

45:43 The guy doesn't fight back when I'm unreasonable. And now the roof caves in on him, and he says, praise the Lord. And then he watches you. And in every circumstance, he says there's something that makes that guy tick that I don't understand.

45:58 Until one day, though he's got a sneaking suspicion it might have something to do with religion, he screws up enough courage to come and ask you. He says, how come you live that way? And the Christian says, it's because of my hope. Your what?

46:14 My hope, dear friend. The confidence that the whole story's not told down here. I'm on my way to the celestial city. I shall look upon my Savior, and if I'm patient, when you're churlish and unreasonable, I shall in that day hear my master's well done.

46:35 And if I'm submissive in the midst of his disciplines and his chastenings, I shall have his smile. It is my hope. And then he says, well, what in the world lies behind that hope? Now Peter says, be ready to give him a reason of the hope that is within you when he asks. The clear implication being, the hope has such practicality, practical effects in the life of the Christian, that the ungodly beholding the fruit of it will say, hey, where's the root of it?

47:09 He'll say, I see the fruit, but what's the root? And he says, you be ready to tell them that the root is Christ, and that which he has done in your heart. People talk about ten steps to being a good witness. That's why I abominate all these concepts that limit witness to parroting some words. The witness, the witness of a believer is the total impact of a transfer.

47:37 It involves the lips, but it involves much more than the lips. It involves the whole man. Let me ask you, how long has it been since anybody asked you what made you tick?

47:52 Has anybody ever asked you?

47:56 At least indirectly? Is your life in any measure a head-scratching life that makes people go, well, makes him tick? Well, if the hope is burning within your breast, and the hope is that which is before you in every circumstance, Peter says sooner or later, someone's going to ask a reason. What a practical thing the Christian hope is when it forces the ungodly to start asking questions about the last thing in the world he wants to talk about, religion.

48:30 Oh, may God make the hope so real to us. Because the mark of the ungodly is he has no hope, you see. He sees us face death, and we're not shattered by it. He can't understand that.

Concluding Exhortation and Call to the Unconverted

48:44 Sooner or later, he's going to ask why. Dear child of God, my prayer for myself and for you, as we conclude our studies in the subject of the hope of his calling, is beautifully expressed by the apostle in Romans 15 and verse 13. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that ye may abound in hope in the power of the Holy Spirit. You see why the hope is so practical, why Paul prayed that they might know the hope of their calling. May it be our prayer that the Holy Spirit will fill us with this hope and that all of its gracious fruits may be born. But I do have a closing word to you who do not have this hope. You have no confident expectation of future blessings to be brought at the coming of Jesus Christ. You have no confidence in Jesus Christ.

49:42 And if you know your Bible at all, you know that if you're unconverted and you've not obeyed the gospel, the last thing in the world you want to think about is the coming of Christ, because the Scripture says, He shall come in flaming fire to take vengeance on all those that obey not the gospel. I think the saddest thing that characterizes every unconverted person in this building, be he child,

50:08 adult, student, cultured, uncultured, the saddest thing is that God says you have no hope. You may have some ideas and notions of your own about death and the world to come and all the rest, but that's all they are. It's notions founded on the shifting sands of your own human opinion. But oh my friend, may God grant you to see that in Jesus Christ there is true and substantial hope.

50:46 Repent of your own notions. Repent and turn from running your own life and thinking your own thoughts. And give yourself to Jesus Christ who said I am the way, the truth, and the life. And as you give yourself to Him, He will implant within your breast this Christian hope.

51:08 Hope attached to His calling you out of darkness into light. Then you too will know what it is. To have an anchor of the soul. What it is to face death with true Christian composure. What it is to have a solid basis for abounding joy. What it is to have a true incentive for a life of godliness in a hostile world. Paul's prayer was that they might know the hope of God's calling. I trust you know that hope more fully and that all of us together shall bear the fruits of that hope in our experience. Let us pray.

51:53 Father, we do thank you for the great doctrine of Christian hope. And for the joy that has been ours in these past four Lord's Day mornings as we've examined that hope together. And seen the scriptures open up to us. Oh we bless you and praise you that though many of us here know by experience what it is to be without hope we now know what it is to abound in hope.

52:22 Through the power of the Holy Spirit God we plead for those who sit here this morning who have no hope may they be brought by your mighty power to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as their hope and their salvation. Help us who know you that we shall feed our minds upon this hope. That we shall know it to be a helmet for us. Lord, help us.

52:54 That we may so live in the light of it that it will provoke that inquiry from the ungodly. That they may ask a reason of the hope that is in us. Hear us Father in what we pray and be gracious to answer us. Dismiss us now with your blessings.

53:11 Grant we pray that the remainder of this day may be sanctified to our prophet into your praise. Bless your people as they gather here again tonight. Bless Mr. Brown as he opens up the word. Bless your servant. Grant him journeying mercies as he flies to Pittsburgh and the ministry there. Lord, may we be reunited next Lord's Day with much joy. Be able to convey one to another reports of your blessing and of your salvation.

53:42 Hear us in this hour, please. We ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.