Our Great Hope; God's Great Love

Romans 5:5 --- And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

This scripture speaks about Hope. It speaks about Love. Let’s think about what those mean. What is Hope? What is Love?

First of all, Hope.

Psalm 25 says that “No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame.” Psalm 33:18 says “But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love.”

But Proverbs 11:7 says “When a wicked man dies, his hope perishes.” Prov 23:18 “There is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.”

Romans 8:24 says “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?” I Tim 1:1 Paul talks “of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope.” I Tim 4:10 “we have put our hope in the living God.” Heb 6:19 “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.”

Heb 11:1 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.”

You see? Hope is not something uncertain. It is definite. Do you remember Christmas when you were a little child? You hoped for Christmas morning, didn’t you? Was there any doubt that Christmas would come? No. That was certain—yet you hoped. You looked forward to it. You knew it was coming even though you didn’t know everything that would be there.

That’s a picture of our hope. Our hope is in Jesus Christ and His coming back to earth again. His coming is even more certain than any Christmas morning that we have already experienced. Why? Because He is God and has said that He was coming back. God doesn’t lie. It will happen!

That is our hope. Our hope is in Christ Jesus. Now that leads us to the second part of this verse: “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” Love!

Do you see? Hope brings Love. Love brings Hope. They are linked together. Think back to Christmas morning as a child. You were hoping for it. Right? Why? Because you loved it. It had the promise of something nice.

The same is true a thousand times over with our hope in Jesus Christ. This hope does not disappoint. We’ve all been disappointed by something here in this world. But not Jesus. This hope does not disappoint. And we get some of the promised blessings right now. He puts His love in our hearts. We have this hope; He answers it by putting His love in our hearts.

Now let’s think about that love.

Jesus is called our friend. A friend. I have friends. How do you know that some one is a friend? You want to spend time with each other. You like talking with each other. You enjoy doing things with your friend.

But Jesus is better than any earthly friend we can think of. We should be longing to spend time with Him. Do we talk with Him? Pray to Him? Read the Bible? It is the Bible that tells us of this dear Friend.

Our God is also called our Heavenly Father.

Think of earthly fathers. Children love it when daddy comes home. Some of my children still enjoy sitting on my lap. Young children can’t sleep unless they’ve been kissed and tucked in bed by daddy. Children’s faces brighten when their daddy smiles at them across the room.

Oh, how much more with our Heavenly Father! Do we love being in His presence? Do we long for His loving embrace and smile of approval? Are we looking forward to His words, “Well done”?

Finally, Jesus calls the church His bride. Now that’s love, isn’t it! And what are brides doing in the days and weeks before the wedding? Are they bore? No. Are they dreading it? Not if it is love! No, they are longing for the wedding day. They are hoping! And they know that hope will come to pass soon. They look for ways of talking with their groom. They read and re-read notes that their beloved groom wrote. A bride is usually thinking about her groom all the day long. When she is out she will see something and say “Oh, my groom likes that!”

How much more we should be thinking of our heavenly groom!?

Shouldn’t we be looking forward to talking with Him? We can—in prayer.

Shouldn’t we be looking for ways of reading His love notes to us? We can—that’s what the Bible is.

Shouldn’t we be finding out more and more about Him all the time? We can—the Bible shows us Jesus.

In short, if we have this hope, He has given us love. And if we have this love we will long to see Him more and more. And because we have this hope, we will long to be more like He is because we love Him. “Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.”

But maybe you’re thinking: “this isn’t true of me.”

If that’s so, then cry out to God and ask Him to change your heart so that you love Him. God is a God of compassion, but you must cry out for mercy. Jesus spoke to the leaders when He was here on earth. He knew their hearts and He said “I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts.” What a dreadful condition. If God’s love is not in your hearts, then the only thing that He will say to you on the Day of Judgment is “depart from Me you worker of iniquity!” That would be no hope—and no love.

But you can make sure of it right now. You can cry out to God that He would set His hope in your heart and pour out His love in you. Then you will long to be with Him and He will give you peace—the peace that passes all understanding. He will give you the strength to face whatever comes your way. Strength even to face death itself—because He is there with you. Isaiah writes:

Do you not know? Have you not heard?

The LORD is the everlasting God,

the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and his understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary

and increases the power of the weak.

Even youths grow tired and weary,

and young men stumble and fall;

but those who hope in the LORD

will renew their strength.

They will soar on wings like eagles;

they will run and not grow weary,

they will walk and not be faint.

How Great is the Love of the Father!

I John 3:1 - 3 --- How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

When the apostle John wrote this, he was excited. And now, almost 2000 years later we can read these words and still feel the excitement that John had. In fact, when we think about what these words mean, we should be very excited ourselves.

John starts out this chapter by saying: “LOOK!” “BEHOLD!” “Check it out!” He doesn’t want anybody to miss this. This is very important and very special. So what is it that is so special?

God’s love!

John is blown away by God’s love. He is almost running out of words to describe whole great and grand and big this love is. He says: “what sort of love is this?” This is like nothing here on earth. He says that this love is poured out on us, lavished on us, given to us in an abundant measure!

So, what makes John so excited about God’s love?

It is because he understands what he was, who God is and where he is now going. That is, he sees the past; he sees the present and he sees the future and he knows that he is not getting what he deserves.

Let me explain.

Just like the Apostle John we should look at our past—at who we are. The Bible says that we are all sinners. “There is none righteous—no, not one. There is no one who understands; no one who seeks God. All have turned away and have together become worthless.” Not a pretty picture! But, wait—it’s worse. The Bibles says that all of our righteousness is like a stinky, filthy rag. God looks at the best that we have and says—Yuck! It is filthy!

And just like John we should also look at who this God is. He is holy! That is, He cannot stand to have sin in His presence. All sin is disobedience and rebellion against Him—He must and will punish it.

Whoa! That sounds like bad news. But John is happy and excited at God’s love. How can a holy God, who hates sin, ever love us who are sinful and wicked?

That’s what is so special about God’s love. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” God gave Jesus Christ in our place. We deserved the punishment, but Jesus took our punishment. And what do we get in return? His righteousness! Now, with that righteousness, we can come to God and God loves us.

Paul wrote about it in this way: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

You see? We did nothing to deserve this. We weren’t good, righteous, cute or important. We were ungodly—yet Christ came and loved us so much that He took our place.

That’s why John is so excited! He escaped God’s punishment. He passed from death to life. There is no greater love in all the world than this. Jesus Christ laid down His life for His people.

But now, let’s bring this around to us. We see that the Apostle John was excited. But what about you? This can only be true if you are born again. But what does it mean to be born again?

It means trusting in Jesus. It means saying to God—“I am a sinner. Please have mercy and save me.” It means loving God with all your heart, mind soul and strength because of the great love that He has shown you. It means loving what He loves and wanting to do things that please Him.

But if you have not made Jesus your Lord and Savior, then you cannot be excited by God’s great love. All that lies ahead is God’s certain wrath and punishment. But that’s why I implore you to repent and believe on the name of the Lord Jesus. Trust in Him and you will be saved. Believe on Him and you will see and know His great love for you.

And let me just say something more about God’s love. It is not temporary. It lasts! His love is eternal. If He loves you know, then He will love you tomorrow and He will still be loving you throughout all eternity. And His love is strong! It can save the worse sinner—so that means it can save each of us!

And look too. He didn’t just save—No! God brings us into a very close relation. We are made to be His children. Children of the most High God! Wow! What a calling! All of His infinite riches are made available to us. And best of all, we can come into His presence.

He is our Father. He cares for His children—He protects His children—He provides for His children—He guides and teaches and corrects His children.

And He is also our Friend—All because of His great love for us. Oh! How great is the love that the Father has lavished on us!

Jesus Loves Me; This I Know

Blessed Assurance—Jesus is mine! O, what a foretaste of glory divine!

We just sang that. And yet another line said “Angels descending bring from above, echoes of mercy and whispers of love.” And we sang that Jesus loves me!

God loves us. O blessed thought. We are given a great joy right here and now because God loves us. He loves me. He loves you. Have you given that any thought? Just how big is this love? “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!”

Let’s think about this by asking some questions:

1) Who is this that loves us?

2) How great is this love?

3) What is my response?

First. Who loves us? God does. We read in John 3:16 that “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son.” This is God the Father. God the Father loves us and gave a great gift to us. God the Father loves me! This I know; for the Bible tells me so!

But that’s not all. Paul writes that “The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” It is the Son who loves me! The Son, Jesus Christ, love me. This I know; for that Bible tells me so!

Oh, but that’s not all either! Paul writes that “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” You see? It’s the Holy Spirit that loves me too! This I know; for the Bible tells me so!

Let’s review. God loves us; this we know! The Father loves us; this we know. Jesus, God’s Son, loves us; this we know. And the Holy Spirit loves us; this we know—for the Bible tells us so!

That’s pretty amazing really. God loves us. But just how big is this love? We use this word “love” in a lot of different ways, don’t we? I say that I love my wife. I also love my children. But I also love going to the beach. I love a good sandwich or a plate of spaghetti. But it should be obvious that I don’t love spaghetti the same way that I love my family. Right?

So what is this love that God loves us with? How great is this love?

It is HUGE! “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (I Jn 3:1) He calls us His children! It’s that big. We weren’t His children. In fact, we were His enemies.

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:6 - 8) “The sinful mind is hostile to God.” (Rom 8:7)

God loved us so much that He died for us while we were still hating Him. That’s how much He loved us.

Why did He have to die?

So that we would not die. That’s why. You see each of us in our sin had to be punished. We sinned against God. This was not a small thing either. This is against GOD! He is infinite and any punishment would have to be equally big. But there is no way that any of us could ever stand up under that punishment except it be spaced out for a real long time—that is, forever. That’s what hell is. God giving sinners the punishment that they earned—forever.

But God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit loved us. And they brought salvation for us. The Father planned it; the Son came and carried it out and the Holy Spirit brings it to our hearts. That’s how much He loves us. Jesus came and took our place and our punishment.

That is a big love. A very big love. And what should our response be?

Believe.

Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Believe. God gave His one and only Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. You see? Our response is critical. Either we believe and are saved, or we don’t and are condemned. “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.” (Jn 3:18). It’s not enough to kind of agree; not, you have to believe. Trust Jesus to love you and to save you completely.

Then you are changed. Not that you change yourself. No, God changes you. So now you have new desires and new loves. You have a love for God and His ways instead of being His enemy. Now you love the Bible, because the Bible tells you about His love for you. You look at the Bible as though it is a love letter from God to you. And you now have a thankful heart. Thankful for His great love.

You must remember that this love is only for those who love Him and have believed on His name. For those who trust in Him. Otherwise you are condemned and He is angry. You are in danger of punishment. But for those of us who have trusted in Jesus, we can take great comfort in His love for us that will not ever fail.

Yes. Jesus loves me. God the Father loves me. The Holy Spirit loves me. This I know. Now let’s sing that song again and really enjoy it because this great God loves us!

The Unseen Commander

 

Before me was encamped the enemy.
  His hosts were ready and prepared for war.
  I cried to my Lord and my Captain for
A plan of counsel to leave them with no plea
Except their ultimate destruction. But he
  Responded, "Wait." "Wait?!" cried I, "Whatever for?
  The enemy is arrayed right now for war
And you say 'Wait'? "Yes," said he, "by this tree."

So I waited there amid the trees of balsam
  And wondered what my Lord had thought to do.
  The enemy began to march. "I'm through,"
I thought; when there above me stirred a calm.
      He was marching in the tops of the trees
      And said: "Rise up. I've given to you your enemies!"

---II Sam 5:22 - 28

- D. Benning

A New Psalm

Psalm 151

My Lord and my God, in the midst of mine adversities Thou art with me. When the host of those who despise Thy Name assail me with the babblings of their mouth, Thou art my Comfort and my Stay. When my soul is disquieted within me, I cry out to Thee, and Thou, O God of my salvation, calmeth my troubled spirit with Thy grace and loving kindness.

Let me always sing the praises of Thy matchless Name. Thou, who wast from time immortal, changeth not nor doest Thou fail. The glories of Thy Righteousness are shown forth in the firmament. Thou, who can but speak a word to destroy us, hath been long-suffering in Thine unbounded grace.

O Lord and King, we come before Thee, humbly bowed on bended knee. Thy worthiness is made known in Thy Love for us, the unworthy. Day by day we plead for mercy. Day by day we receive it from Thy bountiful hand.

O Lord, my God and my Savior, let me always uphold Thy precepts and with my mouth proclaim Thy goodness. For the Lord is Lord; He alone is God, neither is there any on earth or in heaven besides Him. Worthy is He of all laud and honor both now and forevermore. Amen!


- D. Benning