GRACE OF GOD SERIES PART 4 A GOOD HOPE BY GRACE2007 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

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Date: 2007-12-09

Title: Grace Of God Series Part 4 A Good Hope By Grace

Teacher: Jerry B Simmons

Series: 2007 Grace Of God Series

Teaching Transcript: Grace Of God Series Part 4 A Good Hope By Grace

This morning we're continuing our Grace of God series. This is kind of part four as we're going through different topics and subjects, taking a break between 1st and 2nd Timothy and examining and taking some time to reflect upon the grace of God.

Now, grace, as we've been talking about, is unearned and undeserved favor, God's favor towards us that we do not deserve, that we cannot earn. We can't take away from it by blowing it. We spent some time with that last week, looking at what grace has and the relationship between grace and sin.

Where sin abounds, grace abounds much more. And so God's favor towards us is not impeded by our falling short and the stumblings that we have, nor is our good works an incentive for God to favor us more. We have His complete favor, His full favor, the fullness of His grace by faith in Him and what He has done for us. We simply receive grace.

what he has done and his magnificent grace by believing in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Grace is God's riches at Christ's expense. And we've learned over and over again that it's not by our expense, it's not at our cost, but it's at his cost. He paid the price. He accomplished it all.

Of course, as we've been looking at grace, we know that grace is more than we can really sum up in a single definition or a one line definition. It's something that is, well, it's incredible to try to understand and difficult really to try to grasp the fullness of God's grace.

And so each week we've been looking at a little bit fuller meaning of the word grace. We looked at what grace means in regards to salvation and the fullness of God's grace in that sense. Last week we looked at what grace means in regards to sin in our lives, our past sin, our present sin, and the things that we struggle with, and what grace means in regards to that, and the fact that grace abounds much more, which is glorious news.

But this morning, we want to continue our study of grace, looking at what grace means in regards to hope. What does grace mean in regards to hope? And the title this morning is A Good Hope by Grace. We have a good hope by grace, something to look forward to. Now, I'm sure you know hope in biblical terms is necessary.

Not hope in the sense of, well, the way we use it today is, you know, I hope I get what I want for Christmas and maybe I will, maybe I won't. Or I hope this will happen and there's the element of doubt and possibility. Well, it might happen, it might not. But hope in biblical terms is not that, doesn't have that uncertainty. It doesn't carry with it that element of doubt. Instead, hope could be defined as a possibility.

Confident expectation. It's something that's sure, that's steadfast.

You may not get what you hoped for for Christmas, but if your hope is in Christmas Day, well, that's going to get here. That's for sure. Day after day after day, that's going to come. It's going to happen. Unless the Lord comes back first. But you get the point. There's that confident expectation. It's going to happen. And in Christ, because of His grace, we have an excellent hope. A good hope. A confident expectation.

Here in Ephesians chapter two, we've studied this before, and I just want to touch on verse seven, but let's start in verse four. It says, but God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he had loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That is, you have been saved by grace.

Here in Ephesians chapter 2, Paul reminds us, first of all, salvation is by grace. We've been saved by grace. We were dead, but he raised us up and seated us in the heavenly places in Christ. But he says,

All coming down to verse 7, saying that in the ages to come, hope is something that we have not obtained yet. It's for something that is yet to come. And what is that that's yet to come? Well, it's going to take place in the ages to come. And he's going to show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. Now, I...

We studied this verse a couple weeks ago, and I made reference to, you know, we're going to look back and be amazed at, well, who's in heaven? You know, look at the amazing grace of God that you made it, that I was able to enter into eternity. But I want to share with you this morning, too, that...

I don't believe that this verse is talking about just the grace that's shown on earth, that in heaven, this verse means that we're always going to be looking back and, wow, look how gracious God was to us back there on earth when we when we lived that life. But for the rest of eternity, God is going to continue to be gracious towards us.

He says the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. His kindness towards us is not just what's going to happen here in this life, but he's going to continue for the rest of eternity to extend to us kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

In other words, for the rest of eternity, we will be receiving more and more and more of God's grace. God's going to be blowing our minds for the rest of eternity. And it's not just what takes place here on this earth.

I know that, you know, salvation is an awesome display of grace. And we've been looking at that and it's like, hallelujah, it's so exciting. But wait until you see what God has planned for you next. If you think salvation is something to be excited about, just wait until you see what's around the corner.

Remember what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2.9? As it is written, I have not seen, nor has ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.

There is so much more to grace than salvation, not to discount salvation or to belittle it, but to say, hey, there is much more according to God's grace. There's much more that he has in store for us. The ages to come, he's going to show us.

The exceeding riches of his grace towards us in Christ Jesus. We have a good hope by grace. And there's four portions of scripture that I want to look at with you this morning to talk about this hope and the relationship that grace has with hope. And so if you would turn with me first to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. Just a few books to the left there. Romans chapter 5.

Here we find grace means we have hope of the glory of God. We have the hope of the glory of God. In Romans chapter 5, verses 1 and 2, Paul says, Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Again, he reminds us, first of all, salvation is by grace. We've been justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It's something that has already taken place. Salvation is of grace from beginning to end. The past, he says, you have been justified by faith. And we have peace with God because that element has already been taken care of. That's salvation because of the grace of God.

But then in verse two, he says, we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, in which we stand. It's also not just past, but present. We stand in the grace of God and we stand there. We have access into that grace by faith. Again,

Again, it's not of our works, but it's by believing in Jesus Christ. It takes care of our past. It takes care of our present. We stand currently in the grace of God. But there's also the future that Paul says we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. There's something there's something that's yet to happen. There's the grace of God in our lives that will be displayed, that will be demonstrated today.

We have the hope of the glory of God. Past, present, and future, salvation is of grace from beginning to end. And because it's of grace, you cannot add to God's work of salvation, nor can you take away from it. It's complete. All you have to do, all we do, is simply receive it. It's not by works. It's not by keeping rules. It's not by doing good things. And it's not by being religious.

And you can't take away from it by blowing it, by messing it up. Paul says we have access by faith into this grace, by believing in Jesus Christ. Now, the point here that I'm getting to is that the fact that we have hope is because of grace. If there was no grace, we would have no hope. We would be discouraged. We would be downtrodden because, well, everything depends on us and we fail and we blow it.

But we have hope. We have the hope of the glory of God because of his grace. It's by grace that you are saved through faith. And it's by grace that you have hope through faith. It's by grace that we have hope. We have access by faith into this grace.

Now, this is important because sometimes we can feel like second-class Christians. You know, I can see why this person should have hope or has hope because, you know, well, they do this and they do that and they have these characteristics and they're a lot like Jesus. And I, not really, I have these areas of difficulties and these areas that I fall short and I don't read my Bible that much and I barely come to church. And so I don't have much hope.

But the reality is we have hope by grace. It's all by grace. Grace means that you and I can rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, that we don't have to be caught up and tripped up by our works or how we're doing or how we've been walking, but that we can rejoice in the hope of the glory of God because we have received what he has done for us through his son, Jesus Christ.

We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. What does that mean, the hope of the glory of God? I think there's two things that I'd like to point out this morning in regards to the glory of God. First of all, it means that we will get to see him as he truly is. To rejoice in the hope of the glory of God is looking forward and rejoicing in the knowledge that there will be a day. Right now, we don't have much physical, visual information.

audible communication with God. Right now, it's through His Word. It's by His Spirit ministering to our hearts. But there will be a day that we will stand before Him. There will be a day that we have access to Him. There will be a day when He will be seen for who He truly is. The word glory there, it means recognition that belongs to a person.

It's not talking about, you know, we talk about glory and you can think of, you know, the visual picture of the angel and they have that, you know, white light shining around them and that's the glory part. Well, that's not really what he's talking about. He's not just talking about this white light or this type of thing, but it's the outward expression, it's the outward glorious appearance as a result of the...

The value or the reality of what's within, it's the reflection, the outward reflection of what's really going on on the inside. And so what's going to happen when God is glorified is the whole world, all of humanity glorifies.

We'll be able to recognize God for who he truly is. All of his splendor, his glory, his brightness, his adornment. It's going to be displayed and unmistakable for all to see. It will be recognized by all who have ever lived. When God is glorified, he will be recognized. His glory will be revealed. It will be revealed that he is the king of kings, that he is the creator of

His grace and his mercy will be seen and evident. His fullness will be revealed. And we, because of grace, have a hope of seeing him in his fullness. We have the hope of rejoicing in that day when he is recognized for who he truly is. But that's not all. What it means to hope in the glory of God, the hope of the glory of God, is that we also will be partakers of the glory of God.

Not only will we get to see him in his fullness and who he is and recognize his glory, recognize him for who he truly is, but we will be partakers of the glory of God.

I know that sounds a little bit strange, probably, but but let me share with you a few things from the scriptures. Colossians chapter three, verse four. When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. We're going to be part of the revelation of God, part of his plan, part of his work and who he is. In first John chapter three, the apostle John is writing there and he says, beloved, now we are children of God.

And it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. John says, we don't know yet what we're going to be like. There's more to...

eternity than what we see now. There's more to us in eternity and the eternal life that we possess than what we see now. But when he is revealed, when God is glorified, then he says, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. We get to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God because he is going to appear. And when he does, when he is revealed, we

We will partake of that glory. We will be like him for we shall see him as he is. Now, what am I talking about? I'm not talking about, OK, we're all going to be gods. No, none of that junk. OK, but just the fact that we will have new glorified bodies. God is going to include us.

As part of his plan, Philippians chapter three, verse 21 tells us that he will transform our lowly body, that it may be conformed to his glorious body.

The grace of God in our lives is such that we get to hope and rejoice in the hope that we have when he is glorified, that we will get to see him, we'll get to see him as he is, the fullness of who he truly is, but we will also be like him. He will transform our lowly bodies to be conformed to his glorious body.

First Corinthians 15 also goes into all of this that we shall bear the image of the heavenly man. Remember there, Paul says, hey, we shall not all sleep, but we will all be changed. Every Christian will be changed. There is a new body that awaits. There is a new glory that God is going to bring upon those who believe in him in eternity because corruption cannot inherit the incorruptible.

The immortal cannot inherit immortality. Paul tells us there that this corruption must put on incorruption or this corruptible, this body that I have that breaks down, that fails, this body that has problems and disease and sicknesses. It needs to be done away with and it needs to put on incorruption. This mortal body that I have needs to put on immortality. And so there's a new body,

that God has that's conformed into His image, conformed to the image of His glorious body that God has in store for us. We get to rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We have the hope that we will see Him as He is, that we'll be with Him, that we'll appear with Him in glory, that we'll have glorious bodies or glorified bodies that are conformed into His image. And again, it's a matter of grace.

It's not just the really spiritual that have this hope or the really religious or those who are really faithful in the things of God. But grace means that we have the hope of the glory of God, that we get to see him as he truly is and will partake in the glory of God and receive new bodies and that we will be like him because we believe in Jesus Christ by our faith in him.

He bestows these things to us. There's nothing we can do to add to that. And we cannot subtract from that by the things that we do, by the areas that we fail, by the ways that we fall. So first of all, grace means that we have the hope of the glory of God. Second, turn with me now to 2 Thessalonians 2. A couple books now to the right. 2 Thessalonians 2. What does grace mean in regards to hope?

Well, grace means that we have everlasting consolation and good hope by grace. Grace means that we have everlasting consolation and a good hope by

Second Thessalonians chapter two, verse 16, Paul says, Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and our God and father who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace, comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work. Paul is saying,

Bestowing a blessing upon the Thessalonians, saying, hey, may God comfort you and establish you in every good word and work. But inside that blessing, he inserts a truth about God. The truth is that he has loved us and he's given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace.

Here again, we see another element of grace. What does grace afford us? What does grace do in our lives? Man, we've seen so many things, but here by grace, he's given to us everlasting consolation and good hope, everlasting consolation.

As a result of his love for us. Now, I continue to be astounded by this phrase, everlasting consolation. And I would encourage you to just really let that phrase sink into your heart. Everlasting consolation. Spend this week meditating on that concept and what that means to you. What God means by that, that we have everlasting consolation.

How many of you have ever experienced something hard, difficult, or painful in life? Of course, we all have, right? Every one of us. Life is difficult and we experience hurtful things. In fact, before some of those things took place, before some of those hurtful times happened in your life, I'm sure that you did not know that it was possible to feel as much pain as you have endured up to this point.

beforehand, you didn't even know that it was possible to experience that amount of pain and have that amount of hurt and face that much difficulty. It didn't seem real. It didn't seem possible. But here you are, and you've gone through some things that, well, have been tremendously hard. But the good news is you have, by grace, everlasting consolation.

Everlasting consolation. God gives to us by his grace comfort that lasts. How amazing is that? You know when we're talking to someone and

Something happens, we have our kind of things that we say to try to ease the situation and kind of bring a moment of comfort, right? Oh, it'll be okay, you know, but how long does that comfort really last? Well, it'll be okay. It maybe comforts me for the time it takes me to snap my fingers, but not much more than that. We have words of comfort that we give even beyond that, and they may be important, they may be good, they may bring comfort.

But what God has for us is not something that's temporary, not something that will fade away. God has, by his grace for us, everlasting comfort. For the rest of eternity, we get to look forward to everlasting comfort. Man, people who do not receive God's grace are missing out because everybody misses.

experiences, hurts and pains in this life. But we get to experience them with the God of all comfort at our side. Paul calls God by that title in 2 Corinthians 1.3. He's the God of all comfort who comforts us in our tribulation. Paul says we ourselves are comforted by God. He is the wonderful counselor.

He is the God of all comfort. It's something that we can rejoice in even in the midst of difficulty and pain. You know, Pastor John Corson wrote the book, A Future and a Hope, as a book to minister and bring comfort to those who are going through difficulties and going through hard times because he himself has experienced those difficulties and hard times much more than many of us.

We have a future and a hope. You know why? Because of the grace of God. We have everlasting comfort. Not something that's temporary, but something that will last for eternity because of God's grace. And no matter what the pain, no matter what the difficulty, no matter how great the tragedy, God's everlasting comfort will be sufficient, more than sufficient for the rest of eternity. We have this hope.

You know, Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 4, we don't sorrow as those who have no hope. And that's the point. We have a hope. We have a hope that even if we don't understand now, why did this happen in my life? Why did these things take place? Why did that happen to that dear saint over there? Well, often we don't have explanations. We don't have the answers many times in this life.

But we have the hope. We have the promise. We have the surety that we will have everlasting consolation, that we will have comfort that lasts for eternity. Everlasting consolation. We're going to get to be with loved ones again. We'll receive the answers to all the whys and the questions that we have. We'll be able to look back and see God's plan. And it won't be, man, Lord, you sent me through all that just to accomplish this little thing here.

It won't be that we'll look back and go, that was it, God? I mean, come on, you surely could have done better than that. No, we're going to get into eternity. And we're going to carry with us some scars, some difficulties. But as God reveals himself to us, as God shows us, there'll be everlasting consolation. We'll never have to ask about, why did that happen again? The answer, the comfort that he gives will be sufficient for eternity.

Never a question again. Never an issue. Never a concern or a burden upon our heart. But we'll be comforted for eternity. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4...

That our light affliction, although it doesn't feel light when we're going through it, but in retrospect, our light affliction, which is but for a moment. Again, it doesn't feel like just a moment when we're going through it. But in retrospect, our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. There's something far greater. Now you're experiencing hurts and pains now.

that are far greater than you even knew is possible to experience, but even far greater beyond that is the weight of glory that God is working on your behalf in eternity. The weight of glory that awaits there, the things that is being accomplished by these times and these difficulties in your life are such that they exceed well beyond the difficulty that we face.

It will be everlasting consolation for us. Yeah, we can't figure it out this side of eternity. We can't figure out why. There's those difficulties, those hard times. But we'll be comforted for the rest of eternity by the God of all comfort. We also have a good hope, he says. And this is where I get the title for this morning's message. Because good hope. We have not an uncertain that hopefully maybe it'll turn out good. But we have the promise of God.

Of a good hope by his grace. Now, the emphasis again is by his grace, because Paul said he's given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace. Again, to make the point, it doesn't matter what you've done or how you've been. It's not.

You have a better hope because you've been so faithful. And so, you know, you have a good hope. And, you know, sinner over here, he doesn't have such a good hope. But no, the reality is, if you believe in Jesus Christ, you have a good hope. You receive it by faith in Jesus Christ. There's no other work that you must do. There's nothing else that can be accomplished by you.

The good hope that you have is assured by the grace of God. Not only will we be comforted with everlasting consolation, but we'll get to see the fulfillment of God's promise that we often look to and hold on to in Romans chapter 8, verse 28. And we know, not we speculate, not we guess, not maybe, hopefully, maybe.

with some doubt, but we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. Here's something. It's a confident expectation. God's promise. All things work together for good. We have a good hope that all things will work together for good. A guarantee, a confident expectation that whatever happens in my life, God will work it out for good.

Now, that's pretty incredible to think about. I mean, I'm sure that you can think back through your life, through some of those difficulties and hard times, through some of those times where it just doesn't really seem like anything's happening, anything's going on. Of course, we can look at the times that, man, God's really working and moving, and wow, we see him working, and wow, yeah, we can see him working all things together for good. But then there's those times where, what about we just...

Not necessarily that we're experiencing the hardest times of our lives, but it's just kind of like they're in the middle. God will work all those things together for good as well. The hard times, the good times, the bad times, the mediocre times, everything. Your entire life is going to be worked together for good.

It's a promise of God to those who love him and are called according to his purpose. We have a guarantee. Now, this again is something that the unbeliever does not have.

It's by grace. So every believer has this good hope. Everyone who receives Jesus Christ, but the unbeliever doesn't have this hope. And I can't imagine that going through life and experiencing the difficulties, experiencing our times and not having any idea if there's anything good ever going to come out of it. The promise isn't for every person, but it's to those who love God and are the called according to his purpose. We have a good hope by grace, a promise, a guarantee that

That God will work all things together for good. Not because of our good works. So we can never think, well, that was going to work out for good. But, man, I blew it. I only read three chapters today instead of four. Man, I lost that good hope. No, it doesn't matter.

We judge ourselves based upon our works and sometimes we think we have a really good relationship with God and other times we think we have a not so great relationship with God because we judge our relationship with God based upon our works. God doesn't deal with us in that way. He deals with us in grace. We have a perfect relationship with God by faith in Jesus Christ and therefore we have a good hope no matter what has taken place because of God's grace. He won't take it away just because we blow it because it's by grace.

Grace means for you and I that we have everlasting consolation and good hope for the rest of eternity. We'll be rejoicing, comforted over God's promises, the fulfillment of his word and his work that he did in our lives. This light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

We have great hope in Jesus Christ by his grace. Let's move on now to Titus chapter 3. Would you turn there with me? A couple more books to the right. Titus chapter 3. Grace means that we have the hope of the glory of God. Grace means that we have everlasting consolation and good hope. And grace means here in Titus chapter 3 that we are heirs of eternal life. In Titus chapter 3,

Looking specifically at verse 7, but let's start in 4 for the context. It says,

whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. And having been justified by his grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Having been justified by his grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Because of God's grace, what grace means towards you and I is that we are heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

What does that mean? What is that talking about? Well, Jay and I say, hey, praise the Lord. We're going to have heirs by his grace. No, we're going to be heirs by his grace. Heirs, heirs. Anyways, but the fact that we are heirs is related to our adoption as sons and daughters.

Because John chapter 1 verse 12 says, Again, it's by grace. We believe in his name and he gives us the right to become children. He adopts us as children of his own.

We become heirs because we are his children because we've believed in his name. Not because we've worked so hard, not because we've done so well, but because we've believed by faith through grace.

We are heirs. We are his children. Romans chapter 8 says it this way. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. We are heirs of God. We are joint heirs with Christ.

That's another thing to meditate on if you so desire. To consider what does that mean? What is the ramifications of being a joint heir with Jesus? We share in the rights and privileges of Jesus as the Son of God.

For the rest of eternity, we share in the rights and privileges of Jesus as the Son of God. We are heirs. We are joint heirs with Jesus.

It does not make us equal to Jesus by no means. It does not take away his preeminence. Not at all. He is the only begotten son of God for sure. But we are adopted children of God and joint heirs with Jesus. It means that we have an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that does not fade away reserved in heaven. First Peter 1.4. We are.

Have the rights and privileges of Jesus for the rest of eternity. That's pretty incredible. Revelation chapter 21, verse 7. There is God is just finished outlining kind of the whole end time scenario, the whole plan.

Then he spends a few moments at the end of the book to encourage those who read it to press on, to keep going, to look up and to continue to follow him. And he says in Revelation 21, 7, he who overcomes shall inherit all things and I will be his God and he shall be my son. There's something yet in eternity that God has in store for us. We experience a limited relationship with him and we have full access to God, but it's

limited full access to God and the fullness of that relationship, the reality of that position that we have will be realized in eternity when we're joint heirs with Jesus. When we overcome, we will inherit all things and he will be our God and we will be his children. Now, what does that inheritance consist of? What does it mean that we are heirs? What does it mean? What is that inheritance that we receive?

This is where, well, we can't really go into detail. Remember when Paul, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, I apologize, 2 Corinthians chapter 12, he's telling a story about himself, referring to himself in the third person. He says, I know such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know. God knows how he was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter. Here's what Paul's saying here.

I was caught up into paradise. I was caught up into heaven. He doesn't talk about what he saw. We don't know if he saw anything. But what he heard, he said he heard inexpressible words, which it's not lawful for a man to utter. Here's the point. The reality of what God has for us in eternity, it's not even possible to describe just the words that you will hear in eternity.

Again, I is not seen, nor is your heard, nor is entered into the heart of man what God has for those who love him. What God has prepared for those who love him. You can't even describe. Paul says it's inexpressible words with with the Greek language, which was wonderfully detailed and and had a really good. If there was ever a language that was going to be used to describe something that was real difficult to describe. Well, probably the Greek language would be able to do that.

But he says it's inexpressible. I'm not even able to express what I heard. It would be unlawful for a man to do so, to try. It would just be horrible. God has in store for us. We're heirs. We're joint heirs with Jesus. We have an inheritance that's incorruptible, that's undefiled, and it won't fade away. And what does that mean and what is that? Well, just wait and see.

But it's going to be awesome. It's going to be great for the rest of eternity. Now, sometimes we can think of eternal life and go, man, that's kind of boring. You know, the long days, the longest days, you know, those are the ones that are most boring, right? The longest classes in school. Those are the ones you're like, man, can you just get me through this?

Think of eternity as a long time. It's like, oh, it's got to... I mean, after a few thousand years, you know, now it's like, it's like, you know, that movie where it's like, you know, the guy's living the same day, you know, every day over and over and over again. Like, come on, eternity? No. No.

Eyes not seen, nor his ear heard, nor is entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. In the ages to come, he's going to show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. We have an eternal, incredible, inexpressible life before us. God has such great things in store. He can't even tell us. Our language is too limited. Our mind is too constricted.

We can't even begin to understand and know the reality of what God has in store for us because it's far greater than we could possibly understand. Grace means that we have the hope of the glory of God. We'll have new bodies. We'll get to see him as he is and we'll be like him in his image. Grace means that we have everlasting consolation and good hope. No matter what the hurt, no matter what the pain is,

God will comfort us and it will last for eternity. And we have the good hope knowing that all things work together for good. And not only that, but we're heirs of eternal life. Grace means that we inherit eternity. That we're joint heirs with Jesus. Grace not works does these things in our lives. You cannot be good enough to earn these things. Nor can it be taken away.

Because of us falling short. You receive these things. God has all these things in store for those who believe in Jesus Christ. And you receive it simply by faith. Let's turn to one last portion of scripture. 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. Not so much an explanation of grace, but an application of grace.

First Peter, chapter one, verse 13, he says, therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Here, Peter tells us, therefore, what has he been talking about? Well, he's been talking about this salvation that we have, this awesome salvation by the grace of God. Since we have this awesome salvation by the grace of God, therefore, here's what we ought to do.

He says, rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Rest your hope fully on that time. You won't find hope in this life. If you want a confident expectation, it's not going to be found in a person. It's not going to be found in a job. It's not going to be found in that place where you want to live or that career. Confident expectation will only be found in Jesus Christ.

And it will only be found when he is revealed. Eternity is our confident expectation. It's the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now, that's an important point here. When is the grace brought to us? At the revelation of Jesus Christ. You ever wondered why we're to look forward to Jesus' return? Why is this such an exciting event for us? Because that's the time that his grace will be brought to us.

We receive His grace now. We stand in His grace. But the fullness of what He has for us, the fullness, the realization of God's grace in our lives will be brought to us when Jesus is revealed. Peter says, set your hope on that time, at that moment, when He is revealed and you receive the fullness of all of these things we've been looking at this morning, the hope that we have in Jesus Christ by His grace.

We are to hope and set our hope fully at that time because that's when we'll receive all that God has for us. You know, when I was young,

My mom used to have us make those chains. You ever made those chains like out of construction paper counting down the days till Christmas, right? So you make like 25 days at the beginning of December, 25 links in the chain. And each day you cut it off. And so you're kind of visually seeing each day. Oh, man, look, the chain's only that short. It's almost Christmas time. And then, oh, it's that short. It's almost Christmas time. And there's this expectation that was built up, this anticipation, this expectation.

excitement and the closer it get the more excited we would get and the more it would impact our lives how cute yes in the same way set your hope fully on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of jesus christ it's better than christmas count the days oh we don't know the day or the hour but we know today we're one day closer than yesterday

And tomorrow will be one day closer than today. And the closer we get, the more excited, the more the anticipation will be there, the more our hope will be set fully upon that time and upon that moment. The closer it got to Christmas, the more impact it had on my life and my sister's life in the same way. It's high time now to awake, Paul says in the book of Romans. Your salvation is nearer than when you first believed. Peter goes on here and

Chapter one, look at verse 14. He says, as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts as in your ignorance. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct because it is written, be holy for I am holy. It's not by works that we have this grace. It's not because we're so good or we're so great or because we're so holy. But the impact of

of the expectation of receiving this grace, when we put our hope fully on the grace that is to be brought to us when Jesus is revealed, the impact in our life will be holy because he is holy. In 1 John 3, remember I read to you verse 2 earlier, it said, we'll see him as he is and we'll be like him. It goes on to say, everyone who has this hope purifies himself. And so here we find the application. These are the things, the hope that we have in God.

And it's important to understand these things and meditate and rejoice in these things because that hope and resting our hope fully on the things of God will impact our lives in a way that we will walk uprightly before Him. It's not that we walk uprightly before Him and therefore we have hope. That's typically how our minds think. But that's works. That's wages. No, we have hope by God's grace because of what He has done, because of His goodness.

And as we understand that, as we recognize that, as we embrace that, as we look forward and anticipate his coming, as our hope is rested upon that time, the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ, it will impact our lives. It will change us. It will make us more like him now as we're prepared to meet him and be conformed into the image of his glory. Grace means that we have the hope of the glory of God.

We're going to get to see him as he truly is. We'll get to partake of the glory of God. We'll receive new bodies, glorified bodies conformed into his image. Grace means that we have everlasting consolation and good hope. That we'll get to be with loved ones again. That we'll have the answers to all of the whys and questions and heartaches that we've ever had. That we'll get to look back and see God's plan and see all things work together for good.

Grace means that we are heirs of eternal life. We share in the rights and privileges of Jesus as the Son of God. And we have an eternal, incredible, inexpressible life awaiting for us. So rest your hope fully upon the grace. Because Jesus is coming back soon. And I have not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.

That in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace towards us and his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. We have a good hope by grace. Let's pray. Lord, thank you that by your grace we have this incredible hope. Thank you, God, that it's not based upon us. Lord, the burden is on us that we would be stressed out and overwhelmed by keeping track of if our good works outweigh our bad. Lord, thank you.

that you said it is finished, that you accomplished it all at the cross. And Lord, by receiving you, by believing in you as you promised, Lord, we receive the fullness of your plan for us. We receive salvation by your grace. Lord, we've been justified and we stand now in your grace. But Lord, you have so much more in store for us. We have a good hope in you. Thank you, God.

For all of the plans that you have for us. Thank you, Lord, for your goodness and greatness towards us. Thank you, Lord, for your everlasting consolation. Lord, that we don't have to ever experience anything pointless or worthless. But Lord, that those things are working for us a far more exceeding weight of glory in eternity. Thank you, God, that what you have in store for us is not boring things.

Lord, it's inexpressible. We can't even fathom it yet. Oh, God, we look forward to spending eternity with you. It's amazing. What is man that you are mindful of us? Thank you for your grace. Help us, Lord, not to hope in this life. Forgive us, Lord, when we get caught up and consumed by the things of now and tomorrow. Lord, we get so shaken by the trials and tribulations.

so disappointed when the things that we wanted to happen don't happen. Lord, forgive us. Help us not to hope in this life, but help us to put our hope fully, completely, wholly in the grace that is to be revealed to us when you appear. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.