Got Hope?
OMM
“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy
faith; praying in the Holy Spirit;
keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord
Jesus Christ to eternal life”
(Jude 20-21).
Roy Huebner, perhaps the greatest Bible expositor
alive, signs his salutations with Jude 21. Is it a wonder what makes a man who
has been in ministry as long as I have been alive remain hopeful?
Frankly, I get worn out and disgusted with the faithlessness and
selfishness in Christendom today, and that includes myself. Sometimes my hope is
shaken and I get distracted by cares, forgetting for a moment what awaits me.
And yet there are mature tireless men, like Roy, who do not lose hope, because
they have chosen to look ahead and not at their present surroundings. And with
this message of hope that is the precious possession of the mature, I trust you
and I both will be encouraged.
Three things in this passage occupy our focus and keep
our hope fixed:
1. But you, beloved, building yourselves
up on your most holy faith; praying in the Holy Spirit;
We are to build ourselves up in holy faith praying…
Though many choose not to build themselves up this is our individual personal
responsibility and obedience. We have no right to cry about a thing when we fail
to build ourselves up in holy faith. And we do it how? Praying
in the Holy Spirit. This
is paramount. Our most important and powerful privilege is true prayer. Not the
babbling of the heretic or lust-ridden requests but true Scriptural, spiritual
prayer originating with and delivered by the Spirit. This is how we are to be
sure we are built up in our own most holy faith.
The more hopeless I become, the more I learn to pray.
And then, the more hopeful I become.
2. keep yourselves in the love of God
We are kept continually by the love of God.
We are to be sure we keep ourselves in His love.
We hear so much about our
love, our commitment, etc. We
had better be glad that God loves us and is committed to us. And that is not of
ourselves but for His own namesake! The great motivating energy toward us by
which we receive grace is the love of God. This is why we have a hope in the
world and are destined for life not destruction. The great message is that God
loves us. We have a great living hope in this loving God who is our Father.
3. waiting anxiously for the mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.
We are busy building ourselves up in holy faith keeping
ourselves in His love for the time being. We are looking ahead anxiously
for there is something
greater than the now: faith
we need for today and today only. In heaven there will be no need for we shall
be glorified. Love will always exist and will remain for eternity. Hope is what
we need to make it until we see God. For man hopes only in what he cannot see
(Rom 8:23-25).
Our great activity, that which we engage in with great
eagerness and anxious anticipation, is waiting. We wait for the mercy of our
Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. This
great mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ by which he grants us this eternal life is
why this Man is our very hope. When
Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in
glory” (Col 3:4).
We anxiously await with all the apostles what shall
be:
having a hope
in God, which these men cherish
themselves, that there shall
certainly be a resurrection of
both the righteous and the wicked. (Act 24:15)
through whom also we have obtained our
introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we
exult in hope of the glory of God.
(Rom 5:2)
For we through the Spirit, by faith, are
waiting for the hope of righteousness.
(Gal 5:5)
to the end that we who were the first
to hope in Christ should
be to the praise of His glory. (Eph
1:12)
looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the
glory of
our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; (Tit 2:13)
Therefore, gird your minds for action,
keep sober in spirit, fix
your hope completely
on the grace to be brought
to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
(1
Pet 1:13)
Beloved, now we are children of God,
and it has not appeared as yet what we
shall be.
We know that, when He
appears, we shall be like Him,
because we shall see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on
Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. (1Jo 3:2-3)
Our
hope is not in bettering our condition. Our hope is not in changing our
situation. Our hope is not even in reckoning on the facts of our faith. Our hope
is that Jesus is coming to take us away to be with Him and give us eternal life
with Him in glory!
I need to hear that and read that as much as you do.
This is the great substance of encouraging preaching since the midnight cry of
John Darby in the mid 1800’s, who declared ‘Rapture, ho!’ We must
encourage one another with these words that any moment our life and glory
appears and His name is Jesus.
So
with all who are faithful and who pray diligently in the Holy Spirit;
so with all who keep themselves in the love of God; and so with all who
anxiously await the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so with all we who eagerly await glory and eternal life at the coming
of the One who is our life let us live with great hope while it is still
called today.
Let no one ask, “Why are you
disquieted, O my soul?”