Living Hope: Hope in God

Psalm forty-two is an expression of a troubled person, a troubled person who alternates between speaking to God and then speaking to himself.

On the one hand, the psalmist prays to God, pouring out his grieving heart, expressing hurt and pain and suffering.

But on the other hand, the psalmist talks to himself.

And I'm certain that many of you are familiar with the expression of the psalmist in verse 5 of Psalm 42.

He says, Why are you cast down, O my soul?

And why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation, and my God.

Sometime in the early 1600s, the Puritan preacher Richard Sibbs wrote a book about this verse, an entire book on one verse.

So you can never complain about me preaching on one verse anymore.

That you haven't, but don't do it, please.

That's a joke, you can complain.

I'm terrible at making jokes.

What's interesting is that Richard Sibbs entitled his book The Soul's Conflict with Itself.

The Soul's Conflict with Itself.

And the book goes to show that hope is always present in the God of our salvation.

Life may seek to drag us down.

It may come up and tackle us from behind or trip us up.

Our days might bring anxiety, they might bring pain, they might bring darkness, they might bring hopelessness.

But it is vital in those moments for God's people to talk to themselves.

Don't worry about what other people think when you talk to yourself.

Just talk to yourself.

Instruct your soul with the truth of hope.

That's what Peter sought to do in his first letter to the early church.

I'm sure that the recipients of his letter were very much like the psalmist in Psalm 42.

If we back up a little bit in Psalm 42 to verse 3, the psalmist says, My tears have been my food day and night.

Some of you know what that's like.

He says in verse 6, My soul is cast down within me.

And then in verse 7, it's as though he's standing on the seashore and the waves are just coming at him, but he presents it as though God's waves are coming at him.

He says, Your breakers and your waves have gone over me, being crushed by God.

I'm pretty certain that the circumstances of the psalmist generated feelings that were echoed by first century Christians.

They were exiled in the Roman Empire.

Not only did they feel far from their earthly homes, but I'm pretty sure they felt far from their heavenly home.

And so Peter wrote to give them hope.

Every fall, Allison and I enjoy good apple cider donuts.

Emphasis on good apple cider donuts.

Now, obviously, apple cider is the key ingredient.

But to obtain apple cider, the apples have to be crushed or mashed to obtain the juice.

There are times in life that we feel like those apples.

We feel that the crushing nature of our sin-cursed world seeks to destroy us.

Because it doesn't work the way that God intended it in its sinless perfection.

Now, our circumstances are not identical to what the psalmist endured or what first-century Christians struggled with.

But the emotional, mental, and spiritual struggles that we go through are very similar.

And it's through that that we can know and understand that Peter's command to hope in Christ transcends time and place.

Last time we were together, we were encouraged by Peter in God's purpose in life.

This morning I want to direct your attention to 1 Peter 1, verses 3 through 5, in order to hear the command to hope in God.

1 Peter 1:3–5

Peter writes for us, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope.

A living hope that comes through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, to an inheritance that is undefiled, to an inheritance that is 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.

Born again to a living hope.

Hope, as we generally use the word, is something that we desire, but that is riddled with uncertainty.

For example, if we are traveling in the midst of a winter storm where the snow is traveling horizontally such that it's a whiteout, we might say, I hope to make it home.

That's our desire, but there's some uncertainty in it.

We might say, I hope I have enough groceries to last the week.

I hope to make it home, to be with family for the holidays.

The way we use hope in everyday language includes a level of desire, but it always comes with varying doses of uncertainty.

The Bible never expresses hope in that way.

The scriptures always express hope in terms of certainty, not uncertainty.

The Bible understands hope not as something that we desire to happen, but may not.

Instead, it teaches hope as something that will happen.

It is certain.

There is confident expectation that something will take place.

That's why the psalmist can exhort us to hope in God.

There is no shifting, there is no changing, there is no uncertainty with our God, is there?

When all around us is uncertain, our God is an anchor for our souls.

Peter tells us here that our hope is to be grounded in God's character.

It is to be grounded in God's character.

But we have to know that God's character serves as the basis for his action.

That's why Peter writes here, according to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again.

I want you to take careful note of what's happening here.

In verse 1, there is this reference to a dispersion of people, a driving out that scatters people so that they are in exile.

Then in verse 6, there is a reference to being grieved by various trials.

And then in verse 7, there is a reference to a testing of our faith.

But right in the middle of that, there is a sense of living hope.

So we have on the outside this pressure, this trial, this pain and agony, sorrow and anxiety.

But in the midst of that, Peter says, talk to yourself.

Remind yourself of the character of your God.

The attribute highlighted here is mercy.

I like to refer to Nehemiah chapter 9, where we have a provision of description of God's mercy.

Nehemiah 9 · chapter mention

It's very clear, I think, in Nehemiah chapter 9.

Nehemiah 9 · chapter mention

Nehemiah was the man whom God sent back to the city of Jerusalem to rebuild the walls that had been torn down by Nebuchadnezzar's destruction.

And when the completion of the wall was accomplished, Nehemiah commanded the people to sing a song.

To sing a song that recounted what God had done in Israel's history.

And throughout that song there are references to God's mercy.

Let me show you what I mean.

In Nehemiah chapter 9, verse 19, the people sang of God, You in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness.

Nehemiah 9:19

For forty years God's people wandered in the wilderness in doubt, in mistrust, and in rebellion.

And in their rebellion and lack of trust in God's leading, God probably should have forsaken them.

But he was merciful and he continued to lead them.

A little bit later in that same chapter, in verse 27, it recounts the time of the judges that we have in our book of Judges in the Old Testament.

We read there, In the time of their suffering, they cried to you, and you heard them.

And according to your great mercies, you gave them saviors, who saved them from the hands of their enemies.

Over and over and over again in the book of Judges, God gave them saviors.

A little bit later in verse 31 of Nehemiah chapter 9, referring to the time of national captivity by the Babylonians, it says, In your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God.

Nehemiah 9 · chapter mention

From a human standpoint, there was good reason for God to forsake the people in their years of wandering in the desert.

There was good reason for God to not save them from their enemies during the times of the judges.

There was good reason, we might say, for God to make an end of Israel, just to be done.

But God's mercy would not allow him to make an end of his people.

God's mercy would not allow him to go there.

God did not give Israel what her sin deserved.

Why?

Because his mercy is great.

The psalmist says it is abundant.

The prophet Jeremiah tells us that God's mercies never come to an end and that they are new every morning.

Beloved in Christ, when life is going well for you, remind yourself of God's mercy.

When life is rough and full of pain, remind yourself that his mercy is great and that it is new for you every morning.

Without God's mercy, life would be unbearable.

But because of his mercy, we can have hope.

This truth is foundational for life and it is sustaining in the midst of trials.

Why?

Because God's character generates his actions.

In this case, Peter tells us his mercy drives him to act.

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again.

This may be a surprise to you, but we did not give birth to ourselves.

If you question that, ask any mother.

We also cannot give birth to ourselves a second time.

We did not cause our physical birth, nor do we cause our spiritual birth.

This is a rebirthing by the power of God.

Any spiritual life we possess has God as its direct cause.

He causes us to have new life, to be a new creation, and that action is driven by God's character, from his great, ever new mercy.

That demands that we see our lives through the lens of God's mercy and grace.

It demands that we interpret the circumstances of life all around us every day by means of who God is and what he's done for us.

But not simply what he's done for us, but what he's done to us.

It's not inappropriate to talk about what God has done for us.

We receive God's blessings all the time.

But I would suggest to you that the emphasis here by Peter is on God doing something to us.

In his great and wonderful mercy, God took already born human beings and caused them to be born again.

His mercy was not content to leave you spiritually unborn, so to speak.

His mercy was so great that it gave you a rebirth to a new life.

And if you have not experienced that rebirth, I urge you to come to God in humility and seek his mercy found only in Christ, because it's in that mercy that we have a certain hope.

Peter addresses certainty by highlighting some truths that move us toward hope in all circumstances.

He tells us very clearly that our hope is grounded in certainty.

Now we know that circumstances change.

Today is not like yesterday.

Some of you are saying, praise God, from whom all blessings flow.

Today is not like tomorrow.

This year is not like next year.

The circumstances in which we find ourselves are wholly uncertain.

Therefore, we cannot rest our hope in this life.

We cannot rest our hope in medicine because medicine isn't always guaranteed to work.

We cannot hope in our bank accounts because financial ruin can come at the most unexpected times in the most unexpected ways.

We cannot put our hope in government because most politicians are, well, politicians.

We cannot hope in our own abilities because an accident or disease can rob us of those abilities.

If we are to have hope in an uncertain world, it must be anchored, it must be established in an unchanging and unmoving place.

It must be a hope that lives.

Notice the adjective describing the hope to which we have been born again.

Living.

It is a living hope.

It's not a dead hope.

It's not a languishing hope.

It's not a dejected hope.

It is a living hope brought about by a living Christ.

If our hope is to be a living hope, then it must be founded in a living Savior.

But that Savior was crucified.

And being found dead, hanging on a cross, he was buried.

A living hope cannot be found in a dead Lord.

A living hope cannot be based upon an occupied tomb.

Unfortunately, too many Christians live as though they have a dead Lord and therefore a dead hope.

In his second letter, Peter wrote, We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses.

The scriptures tell us that the disciples were eyewitnesses of the occupied tomb and of the empty tomb and of the risen Lord.

There were over 500 witnesses to his resurrection.

There are Jewish and Roman sources that say the tomb was empty.

Our hope can be a living hope because the tomb is empty.

Listen to what the Apostle Paul told the Corinthian church.

I'm certain you've heard this before.

He wrote, If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.

We are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that Christ was raised, whom God did not raise if there is no resurrection of the dead.

For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised.

And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

And also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished.

If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we of all people are most to be pitied.

But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, being the first fruits of all who've fallen asleep.

Our hope can be living because it is founded in a Lord who conquered death and left behind an open tomb.

One of the anchors that we have in certainty is the anchor of God's protection.

He says, We have been born again to an inheritance that is imperishable, unfading, and undefiled, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith.

This idea of an inheritance is carried over from the Old Testament, primarily seen in the Old Testament and God's promise to Israel of the blessing of land and of descendants and of this unknown at the time blessing that God had given them.

Carried over into the New Testament, some of those elements are changed a little bit.

No longer is the inheritance for God's people in earthly land, but in heaven.

The inheritance that's found where our citizenship is, because our citizenship is in heaven, and so we look forward to a city whose builder and maker is God, not some human being.

We still look forward to something, to an inheritance in our homeland where God is.

And that inheritance is imperishable, it is undefiled, and it is unfading.

So, beloved, if you are the recipient of God's mercy and salvation, then you have been promised an inheritance with Christ.

That inheritance will never go away.

Nothing can take it away.

It will not rot, it will not spoil, it will not tarnish.

The other night I was making one of my favorite meals for our family, shrimp and grits.

And I needed some hot sauce for it.

We don't often use hot sauce in our home, but for a couple of meals we do.

And we hadn't used the hot sauce since we moved to Grand Forks, and so I didn't know where it was.

So I asked Allison, where's the hot sauce?

And she told me where.

And I'm spinning the thing in the cabinet looking for the hot sauce and and not finding it.

And she she pointed it out to me, and I I said, Really?

That's the hot sauce?

She says, Yeah, that's that's what we've always used.

And I said, But it's supposed to be red.

It was it was some sort of sickly green.

I said, Really?

She said, Yeah, that's that's what we use.

I said, But it's green.

And she took the bottle and she opened it and she smelled it and she said, It smells fine.

And I said, Here, let me taste it.

So I I tasted it and it tasted fine, so I used it.

We haven't gotten sick, praise God.

Your inheritance will not spoil.

These are characteristics of heaven, aren't they?

Isn't this what Jesus meant when he said, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, because in heaven those things don't happen.

But I would suggest to you, though, that our hope is not in the inheritance itself.

Our hope is in God's care for that inheritance.

An earthly inheritance can go away quite rapidly.

If we are looking forward to an inheritance, but our parents or our grandparents have a long stay in a nursing home or some other care facility, that inheritance can be eaten up very rapidly.

An inheritance can slip away before we know it.

But our eternal inheritance is not like that.

It is kept in heaven for you.

This is what theologians call a divine passive.

God is the agent of keeping.

God Himself keeps the inheritance.

God Himself protects your inheritance with Christ.

It is his care that keeps it pure.

It is his care that keeps it safe.

It is his care that keeps it waiting.

But that's not all.

Not only is your inheritance kept safe by God, you are kept safe by God.

Notice what he says.

Kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded.

That's another divine passive verb.

God is guarding you.

Can you imagine the encouragement that would have been to a first-century Christian who's being suppressed on every side?

In his commentary on this passage, Tom Schreiner comments, Peter emphasized in the strongest possible terms the security and the certainty of the reward awaiting believers.

The inheritance is secure.

And we are secured by God Himself.

He guards us.

This is a military word that was used in war contexts when a king would station a garrison of troops within a city to guard it from enemy invasion.

It's the same word used by the Apostle Paul in Philippians 4, verse 7, where he wrote, And the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:7

Let your heart and mind rest there for a moment.

Peter's first readers were hounded by enemies on every side.

They had people picking at them for their faith, ridiculing them for believing in nonsense, being accused of being people who ate human beings, cannibals, because of their participation in communion.

Their world was turned upside down.

I'm certain they could say with the psalmist that their souls were cast down and their hearts were in turmoil.

Maybe that's you.

Maybe you've been ridiculed or taunted or bullied.

Perhaps your personal situation has you stressed and anxious or depressed.

Your tears may soak your pillow at night, or you may not know what tomorrow may bring.

Maybe sorrow clouds your heart and your soul and your mind.

It may feel as though you are surrounded by wolves.

We read to Joshua constantly.

Books are his favorite toy.

But there are some books that are only allowed to be read at nap time or at night, because he will destroy them.

Otherwise, he loves Adam raccoon books.

If you aren't familiar with Adam Raccoon books, they are written and illustrated by the son of Charles Schultz, who was a believer, is a believer.

So it's about a raccoon.

And these books are all parables for kids.

And in one of these books, Adam Raccoon gets lost in a dangerous forest because he has separated himself from the king by chasing after one of his favorite toys.

He's surrounded by wolves in the forest, and the wolves all leap at him at the same time, and Adam Raccoon is cowering in fear with his eyes closed, waiting for the inevitable, but nothing happens.

He opens his eyes, and the wolves are cowering in fear.

And he doesn't understand until he feels the king's hand on his shoulder.

Because the king has guarded him.

Hope in the certainty of God's protection.

There's another anchor of certainty to our hope, and that is the certainty of our completed salvation.

Peter writes that we are guarded through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last day.

God sustains our faith.

Do you ever think about that?

There is a sense in which our salvation, that God's work of saving his people, has not yet been completed.

There is still an aspect of salvation that is coming in the future when God will restore us completely to himself.

A time when we will be rescued even from the presence of sin.

When, as Peter will write later, when this creation is burned up and replaced with a new heaven and a new earth.

God says that aspect of salvation is ready.

When the time is right, when God's purpose and plan are complete, he will fulfill and complete our salvation.

We have yet to experience it.

But it's as good as done.

It's certain, it's guaranteed.

We are told to make lemonade when life gives you lemons.

Peter says, When life gives you lemons, tell yourself what God has done.

When life crushes you, talk to your soul and tell it the truth of God's mercy and grace.

When life slugs you in the chin, remind yourself of the certain anchors God has given you.

Remind yourself that no matter what life brings, God will complete what he has begun in you.

And when you begin to live in the place of that kind of hope, you can be motivated to follow Christ no matter what life brings.

I purposely skipped a sentence in this passage.

It's the first sentence in verse 3.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Christian's hope is based in God's character and God's action.

It's grounded in certainty instead of uncertainty.

And when our hope is founded there, when our hope begins to be a living hope, it should result in praise.

We're going to think more about this next time when we consider one of the more confounding statements in Scripture in verse 6.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials.

Rejoicing in trials.

Praise in exile.

Huh?

How does that make sense?

I mentioned Psalm 42.5.

In the first half of the psalm, the psalmist wrestles with the reality of his personal circumstances, trying to grasp them and what feeling pain and agony and stress.

In verse 5, he reminds himself to hope in God.

Then following verse five, he wrestles with God.

The sort of spiritual version of Jacob physically wrestling with God.

In fact, he wrestles with God so much that at one point he says, I say to God, my rock, why have you forgotten me?

Maybe you've cried that cry.

But at the end of the song, the psalmist returns to the theme of verse 5.

After wrestling with his circumstances and wrestling with God, he says, Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me?

Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

If you rejoice in trials, if you can praise God in the midst of suffering and tears and pain, then you are either mentally unstable, or your soul has wrestled with itself and settled in the place of hope.

Settled in the place of a unchanging, living hope founded in the unchanging, living God who is great in mercy.

Do you get a sense of Peter's methods?

He knows that sometimes life is terrible.

He knows that sometimes we go through things in life that we wish never would have happened.

He knows that we experience trials of many kinds.

But he doesn't tell us to talk about those experiences.

He doesn't tell us to process our way through them.

He doesn't tell us to read self-help books.

He doesn't even tell us to pray more.

No, all of those things can be helpful in the right place.

But Peter knows that only a living hope will carry the Christian through life in this world.

And that living hope must be grounded in the merciful God who is powerful enough to keep us, to guard us, and then to fulfill his promises.

Peter says that's true.

That is the God we have.

And he lays this out before us so that we can then encourage one another to hope.

To tell us that we can weep with those who weep, that we can grieve with those who grieve, that we can support those who need support, that we can be examples to one another, that we can speak the truth in love to others and to ourselves.

The truth that there is a living hope found in the living Lord.

Could you pray with me?

Lord Jesus, we we struggle.

We struggle to have this kind of hope.

We don't understand it, we don't grasp it, we we it's hard.

Give us that living hope.

Cause us to talk to ourselves about the truth found only in you.

In your name we pray.

Amen.