Living Hope - Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. He said, that's not how you were bought. He says, knowing that you were not redeemed with your perishable things like silver and gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers. But how were you bought? He says, but with the precious blood as of a lamb unblemished, the spotless blood of Christ. Christos Messiah.

That's how you were bought. He died for you. Substitutionary atonement. He died.

He died in your post. Because you have to understand what it costs. Grace is free for you, but it's not cheap at all. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world.

It was Alexander Pope in his essay on man who wrote these words. Hope springs eternal in the human breast. We are undeniably and incurably hopeful.

We give ourselves away with two words. If then, for example. If only my candidate wins, then. If only my team signs that player, then. If only I get that degree, then. If only I get that job, then. If only I get married, then. If only I get divorced, then.

If only I get that cosmetic surgery, then. But so often our candidate wins, our team signs that player, we get that degree, we get that job, we find that spouse, we get that divorce, we have that cosmetic surgery, and we are left completely and totally disappointed. You see, putting your hope in something that can't deliver is very, very frustrating.

But when you put your faith in Jesus Christ and his finished work on the cross. Hope does spring eternal. Because it's a very different kind of hope.

Open your Bibles once again to First Peter, Chapter one. Peter's description first in verse three of that hope. As I said last time, the way hope is used in our culture, it's almost always the same. It's wishful thinking.

Why, I just hope that this is what happens. But in the New Testament, the word that's used for hope means a certain eager expectation, a certain eager expectation of what is to come. Peter speaks of this in verse three.

He says, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, mercy meaning not getting what we do deserve, according to his great mercy, has caused us to be born again. And then these words to a living hope. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. You see, it's not wishful thinking. It's a living hope. And the reason it's a living hope is we have a living Lord. Christ is raised in the dead. That first words on that Easter morning, he's alive.

And because he's alive. Our hope has life. This isn't the hope of heaven. It's certainly included, but it's not the hope of heaven. This isn't the hope for someday. This is the hope for today.

It's called a living hope. And he says this can have a profound effect on us. You see, he wants to let these people know how special it is to be saved. As I said last time, these are a group of people that are being persecuted. They are being persecuted by the Jews. They're being persecuted by the Greeks and really persecuted by the Romans and soon Nero will be shipping them off to Rome to the Colosseum.

These are people who are very much afraid about what's going on around them. And one of the first things that Peter tells them is, look, you have a living hope. And you have to understand just how spectacular, how wonderful, how great it is to be saved and to have a Savior. He then goes on and describe that in verse 10. He says, as to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. He said it was revealed to them that they were not just serving themselves, but you in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preach the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven.

It's an interesting thing. He says, first of all, do you realize how great salvation is? The prophets, they were intrigued by it. They didn't know exactly what they were writing.

They knew it didn't apply to them. You read something like Isaiah Chapter 53. Isaiah is writing this 700 years before Christ is born. And Isaiah is saying, there's a savior coming. There's one who's going to die for us. Our transgressions are going to be forgiven. He's not sure who it is or when it is, but he's intrigued by that.

And then Peter says, you know what? Not only was the prophets intrigued by it, but he says there were people like me and Paul, you see, and people like John who went about the world offering that salvation to people like you and you believed it. And we weren't doing it on our own. We were moved by the Holy Spirit of God.

But he still isn't finished. It intrigued the prophets because it was such a great thing. It was proclaimed by the disciples and the apostles in the early church. And then he says at the end of verse 12, things into which angels long to look.

I love that. Angels sense the greatness of salvation. In my opinion, they don't get it. They're like, what? You mean these sinful people who are disobedient to you? Who want nothing to do with you?

You would become one of them and then die for them? What's interesting, the translators, I believe, of the NASB and most of the English translations, use a word there to be kind because they don't want to use the literal word. It says that angels long to look into this. That word is epithumeo. The Greek word epithumeo is translated many times in scripture, lust. Isn't that interesting? They lust to look at that. It also is translated covet, which would be appropriate.

They covet it. How could these people be so special that God would become one of them and die for them? He said that's how great salvation is. That's what it means to have this living hope in you. Not for some day, but for today. He says that's how wonderful it is.

Now he's going to go on and explain. He's going to give them three things that they can apply to the hope that they have in them, this living hope, not only for them, but for us. The first thing is this. If you've come to Jesus Christ, you can hope. Remember, that's the certain eager expectation. You can have the certain eager expectation that your life's going to be better, that you're going to live better than you've lived before.

That's a wonderful thing. He says, though, we have some responsibility of our own, what it requires of us. He says, therefore, prepare your minds for action. Keep sober in spirit and fix your hope. There it is.

Completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Three things he says. The first thing is he says in the numerical standard, he says, prepare your minds.

It's not exactly. The King James is a little bit closer here. It says, gird up your loins. Gird up your loins, yes. He says, take your outer garment, roll it up, put it in your belt, and let's get to work here. Let's do something. You've got to go into action here.

When you wanted to do something in action, you had to take your outer garment, pick it up, and tuck it in so your legs are free to bend or run or whatever it is you need to do. He says, you need, he says, first of all, to gird up your loins or take what it takes to work. Secondly, he said you need to be sober.

It doesn't say, it says in spirit, but that's not in the text. That word sober means abstain. Abstain from what? The way you were.

That's the whole point. Abstain from the way you were and abstain from the way they are out there. He said you need to abstain. And then the third thing is, he says, you need to fix your hope completely.

That word fix is the word epizo. And it means you need to have all your expectations on the hope of the grace that brought you, that we brought at the revelation of Jesus Christ. He said that's the part you need to do. That's what it requires of us.

Why should we do that? Verse 14, as obedient children. You see, our salvation is so spectacular that you're now a child. You're a child of God. He says now as obedient children. You see, it's just not that I'm a person who is saved, but now I'm a child of God.

You are too. I've been adopted into God's family. He said as obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lust in which, he says, were yours in your ignorance. And then he says words that scare the daylights out of us. He says, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves. Also, in all your behavior, because it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy, from Leviticus.

I don't know about you, but the first time I read that, I thought, wow, there's a standard I can't meet. Holy? You be holy? And he didn't just say you be holy like Ralph.

I could be holy like Ralph. He said you be holy like your father. And see, that word holy has such a strange connotation to us, but it's simply hagios. It means to set apart. God is holy because he is holy other, as the philosophers say.

What's that mean? He's set apart from everything else because everything else is his creation. So he tells us to be set apart. You need to be set apart. From what?

The way I was and the way they are. He said you set yourself apart from the way you were and the way you are because God's your father. And he said, oh, by the way, just to throw this in for a little motivation, he's not just your father, but he does have another occupation. He said if you address this father, the one who impartially judges according to each man's work, conduct yourselves in fear during your time of your stay on earth.

Oh, he also is a judge. We know about the judgment seat or the beam of Jesus Christ. We'll all stand before that.

We've seen that in Corinthians. And your life will come down to wood, hay, stubble, and gold, silver, and precious stones. I just read this week Chuck Swindoll said that he always viewed his life at the judgment seat of Christ. He said the image I need in my mind is a gigantic dump truck. And he said that'll be everything that I've ever done will be in the dump truck.

And it'll come up and they'll just dump it in at the judgment seat of Christ. And he says, and then God will come and just start working through it. And he said he's just taking big gobs of wood, hay, and straw and throwing them on the fire. And then he goes, oh, look, I find a piece of gold.

Oh, look, I find a precious stone. He said, I have a hunch that so much of what I've done is wood, hay, and straw. He says, you need to live differently because of who your father is. When we raised our boys, one of the things that would be said to them often every time they went out into the world would be don't forget who you represent. You see, don't forget that. That's what Peter's saying here. Don't forget who you represent. Don't forget, you see, who's your father. That's what he is saying.

And it's kind of interesting. He said we should live differently because of that. He says you have to understand your salvation is so great and grace is so wonderful. And grace means gift. Grace is free to you.

But he said don't misunderstand this. Grace is free but it's not cheap. He said don't make that mistake that all your sins are forgiven because of the finished work of Christ on the cross. Don't think for a moment then, well, see, grace is just wonderful. It's sort of what Paul said in Romans.

Hey, if grace covers all our sins, let's just sin all the more. He said, make anointa in the book of Romans. Here he says this, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver and gold. By the way, when there was a slave, you could buy him. If you were an indentured servant and someone would give you the silver or gold, you could buy your freedom. Be set free, called redeemed.

Agorazzo or ex agorazzo, set free. He said that's not how you were bought. He says, knowing that you were not redeemed with your perishable things like silver and gold from your futile way of life, inherited from your forefathers, well, how were you bought? He says, but with the precious blood as of a lamb unblemished, the spotless blood of Christ. Christos, Messiah.

That's how you were bought. He died for you. Substitutionary atonement. He died for you. He died in your place. He said you have to understand what it costs.

Grace is free for you, but it's not cheap at all. He says, then, for he, Christ, the Messiah, for the Messiah was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you, who through him are believers in God, who raised them from the dead and gave him glory. He says, so that your faith and what? Your hope are in God. See, it keeps going back to hope.

You have to understand why. These people felt hopeless. Their situation wasn't going to get better. In fact, it was going to get emphatically worse. They knew what was coming.

They were pretty much being hated by everybody, and now it was starting to cost them their lives. He says, yeah, but you've got this living hope. You see, you've got this living hope. Don't take your eye off this living hope that you have. It's not just the hope of heaven someday. It's the hope for today. And he says the first aspect of this hope is pretty clear, he said. It's the hope of a better life. You can live differently than the way you lived before you were a Christian. That's what he's saying.

How do you do that? What are the things you should be about? I'll just give you three. One is this. You need to pay close attention to what you look at. If you want to live differently than the way you were before Christ, you need to pay close attention to what you look at.

Someone once said you become what you look at. And we live in a culture, by the way, that is just loaded with images, isn't it? It's just unbelievable, in fact, the amount of images we now have. I thought there would never be a way for us to see more images than we saw on television.

I thought that's incredible. Look at all the stuff you see on TV and think of all the things you look at, especially the advertisements. But think of this. Almost every one of you are carrying a smart device, and all day long you can look at images.

It really comes down to what you look at. You have to be careful with that. You see, the availability of images now has caused pornography in America to be epidemic. Why?

Well, I can look at it right here. He said you need to be careful what you look at. Secondly, you need to give greater thought to the consequences of sin rather than its pleasures.

Let me say something to offend you on purpose. Every stupid, terrible thing you've ever done ignored this principle. Every stupid, terrible thing you've ever done ignores the principle that you didn't give enough thought to the consequences. You gave all your thought to the pleasures of sin. It won't just be you that's hurt. It's not just your relationship with Christ that's hurt. It's the people that love you so often are hurt. It's the people who don't know Christ yet but know you are hurt. You have to think about that. Thirdly, you have to cultivate your time with the Lord. I don't know how you can live in this world or any world as a believer in Jesus Christ and not spend time every day allowing His Word to speak to you and in prayer you speak to Him.

I think it was Bill Bright that called that spiritual breathing. But it's exactly right. That's how we do it. You have to cultivate that. Be careful what you look at.

Give greater thought to the consequences. Cultivate your time with the Lord. Being saved is so great, that living hope is so wonderful that you can have a better life.

In a moment we'll see as to why. Secondly, I can hope to have a capacity to love other believers. I can hope to have the capacity and you can hope to have the capacity to love other believers. This is never optional with God.

It seems to be with us. He said, since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. Wow. By the way, both kinds of love are in that verse.

This makes it worse, not better. He says, since you have an obedience to the truth, believe the gospel. He said, and you purified your souls, and here's the reason you did it, for a sincere love. That word love, fla'o, brotherly love, friendship. He said, of the brethren. And then he says, fervently agape one another from the heart. Now let me put it in English you understand. He says, you need to love unconditionally, that's agape, each other.

And you need to like each other. That's what he says, brotherly love, fla'o. You see this is extremely important and we're going to see why. Hold your place here and go with me now back to John 13, the gospel of John. John 13, the night before Christ was crucified. One of the first things that Jesus did that night is he went and he washed the feet of the disciples. That's the position of the lowest slave in the house.

He did it. Their feet were filthy, they came in for dinner and he got down and he washed their feet. And then in verse 12 he begins to tell them why. He says in chapter 13 verse 12, Now when he had washed their feet and had taken his garments and reclined at the table he said to them, Do you know what I've done to you? Really interesting question.

I mean it's not as obvious as it seems. They probably thought, yeah, he washed our feet. Boy, he did a lot more. He says this, You call me teacher or rabbi. You call me rabbi and Lord, kurios. He said, you're right, for so I am. If I then the Lord and the teacher washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.

Imagine by now their brows are perferral. You know, what? He says, For I gave you an example that you should do as I did to you. You mean we're supposed to wash each other's feet whenever we get a chance? It's a picture. It's a metaphor. Drop down to verse 34.

Same night, same context. Jesus says in verse 34, A new commandment I give to you that you love one another. Even as I have loved you, you also love one another. There's a commandment to them and to us. We need to love each other.

How? Like Christ loves us. Wow. Unconditionally. Forgiving. Patient.

All those kinds of things. He said, yeah, you need to love one another. Now he's going to tell them reason. He says, verse 35, By this all men will know that you're my disciples if you love one another. Jesus understands what people are like. Look, you love some people. You could care less about most people. And there are a few people you don't like at all.

You see, that's just life. Jesus says, no, no, that's not the way it's going to be with you. And by the way, let's go back to Peter.

That's a problem for Peter's audience. You see, what was the church like? Well, in Peter's church, there were there were Jews who were what we call messianic Jews. They had come to Christ and believed in him as their savior. Now, Jews didn't like any Gentiles. They viewed the Gentiles as unclean. Well, they had a lot of Gentiles in the church, but they just didn't have Gentiles. They had Greeks in the church. Now, the Greeks saw themselves as intellectually superior to everybody else. In fact, from the Greeks' point of view, everybody but a Greek was a barbarian. That's the word. The Greeks said, you know what everybody else talks like but us?

Bar, bar, bar, bar, bar. They're all barbarians. They're ignorant. Then there are the Romans. The Romans said we conquered the world. It belongs to us. So you have Greeks, Romans, Jews.

Oh, by the way, you have slaves. They're all in the church. You know what the church was full of? Prejudice. You see, it was prejudice. They didn't like that. On a whole, the haves don't like the have-nots. The have-nots don't trust the haves. You see, that's the way it is.

By the way, has anything changed? I don't think so. Sadly, but I can remember years ago hearing Tony Evans from Dallas say that the most segregated hour in America is Sunday morning.

Is that sad or what? That's the church. That's the church.

There's no place for that. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com. That's OnePlace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. .