Sovereign Grace Church

...sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

(1 PETER 3:15)

Dear reader, are you among those who profess to be saved? Are you among those who profess to have everlasting life? If I ask you for the reason of the hope you have to enter into that celestial city, what answer would you give me?

Will you say—because ‘I believe’? Will you say—because ‘I turned from my sins’? Will you say—because ‘I follow the Lord Jesus Christ’? Will you say—because ‘I was baptized in His name’?

While all those responses appear to be the sound answers of a believing sinner, are they? Let’s remember my question — ‘What is the reason of the hope you have?’ (1 PETER 3:15).

Beloved believing sinner, while you may indeed believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, while you may indeed follow the Lord Jesus Christ, while you may have been baptized in His name, the reason of the hope we have, does not begin or end with ‘I’, but rather very blessedly it begins and ends with ‘Him’, our God, Christ Jesus the Lord!

Consider the multitude of ‘Pharisees’ that will stand before our Lord on that great day! Unconverted men and women, who are after the similitude of that Pharisee who said within himself “I thank thee, that I am not as other men are” they will say—‘I prophesied in thy name’, ‘I have cast out devils’, and ‘I have done many wonderful works.’ (MATTHEW 7:21-23)

Satan is “…more subtil than any…” and he deceives many professing untaught Christians today, into thinking that they have made themselves to differ. Rather than having a hope in Him who makes His people to differ, their false hope is found in thinking they made themselves to differ. They are those who blindly thank God, that they are not as other men are! And attribute their salvation to themselves and not the Lord Jesus Christ (Read 1 CORINTHIANS 4:7, JOHN 6:45).

Unconverted men and women say ‘I believe in His name’, they say ‘I follow the Lord’, they say ‘I was baptized’ — and yet, being dead in sins and trespasses, they cannot rejoice with God’s people who declare ‘I was made to believe’ “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man”, but very blessedly, undeservedly, “of God.” By His grace in Christ—He has begotten me by His Spirit, for He made me to differ!

Just ask our brother Paul, “Paul how is it that you believe on Christ?” He tells us in God’s word—I found myself believing because “…it pleased God…by His grace…to reveal His Son in me” (GALATIANS 1:15-16).

My friend, if the reason of your hope of eternal life…if the testimony of your hope of salvation does not start and finish with the Lord Jesus Christ, you are, even now, lost in the sin of your unbelief!

I pray, that the Lord will grant you to learn the song of the redeemed, for if you continue to sing within your stoney ground heart ‘I am worthy…I am not as other men are’ you ‘shall go away into everlasting punishment’ from the presence of the Lord (MATTHEW 25:31-46).

Beloved, the reason of our hope, the song of our hope, very blessedly, is that new song of the redeemed in Christ, that attributes all of our salvation to Him — who alone is “worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for [CHRIST] wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by [His] blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;” (REVELATION 5:9).

Believing sinner, what is the reason of the hope you have? Praise the Lord! It is HIM! The author and finisher of our faith, indeed the sure hope of our salvation is the Lord Jesus Christ himself — our sure hope of salvation by His blood and righteousness. AMEN!