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Colin Smith: May we by God's grace and mercy grow in hope. As we do, we will be a better witness. As we do, we will lead purer lives. As we do, we will experience a deeper comfort, and as we do, we will enjoy greater strength.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. I'm Steve Hiller. Glad you're with us today. Colin, last time we began a message called "Hope's Surprising Outcomes," and you just highlighted those four surprising outcomes right there. For those who missed it, we looked at the first two last time, and you can go back and you can listen at our website, openthebible.org. It looks like we've got two more in store today.

Colin Smith: Yes, and the way in which hope makes a difference to our grieving. It brings us comfort in our sorrow is the first of these. Paul speaks very wonderfully of how we do not grieve like those who have no hope. He's not saying we don't grieve at all. He's saying that hope makes a difference to the nature of how we grieve. We're going to look at how hope brings comfort, and we're going to look today at how hope brings strength.

The apostle says that we toil and strive because we have our hope set on the living God. In other words, you won't have energy to keep doing the work that God calls you to do unless you have hope set on the living God. That's what energizes us and sustains us in the work that God calls us to do. These are wonderfully practical things—comfort and strength. Who doesn't need these two things? Well, these are the things that hope brings.

Steve Hiller: Let's continue to look at this from the book of Romans. We're in chapter eight as we're continuing our message called "Hope's Surprising Outcomes." Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: When you look at the suffering of your own life or the suffering that is in the life of another Christian believer, remember that you are not seeing the full picture. You say, what is the full picture? Well, John tells us: "When he appears, then we shall be like him." When he appears, our risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ will return in power and in glory. He will appear, and when he appears, we will be like him.

Now, there are some ways in which we are like the Lord Jesus Christ already. Remember that the Lord Jesus Christ became like us. From all eternity, he shared the life and glory of God the Father. He has always been at the Father's side, but when he came into the world, he had to walk by faith, not by sight. He needed to pray. He knew what it was to be hungry, to weep, to fall asleep exhausted. He knew what it was to wrestle with the cost of commitment to God's own will. He carried a cross, and he went right into the valley of the shadow of death.

The Lord Jesus Christ became like us in the pain and suffering of his incarnation so that we might become like him in the glory of his resurrection. That's our living hope. The Apostle Paul speaks of it in 2 Corinthians chapter four, where he speaks about how, as part of our Christian experience, we find ourselves afflicted and perplexed and persecuted and struck down.

So then, the question is: Why are we not crushed? Why are we not driven to despair? Why are we not destroyed? The answer he gives is this: "We know that he who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and bring us into his presence." We have this living hope, and your faith will stand as you look to the glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ and find hope in what you will be. When he appears, we shall be like him.

Now, how do we know that this is so? John tells us: "We shall be like him because we shall see him as he is." Friends, this is an amazing statement. God said to Moses, "No one can see the Lord and live." No one. Why? Because as our Lord Jesus made clear, only the pure in heart can see God. If you were not completely and utterly pure, the immediate presence of God would consume you in just a moment.

When God's people sinned in the desert after the commandments had been given the first time at Mount Sinai, God said to Moses that he would send an angel to lead the people into the promised land. But then God said this: "I will not go up among you lest I consume you." Then God said, "If for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you."

The presence of the glory of the infinitely holy God, his immediate presence with sinners, would consume us in a moment. That is why God says, "I can't go with you because no one can see the Lord and live." That is why the Prophet Malachi, at the end of the Old Testament, says, "Who can endure the day of his coming and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire."

And yet right here, John tells us Christian believers that we shall see God. Do you see what that means? Only the pure in heart can ever see God. So, if you were to see God, then every vestige of sin would need to be removed from you completely, and John says that's how it's going to be. We shall see him as he is.

Notice the direction of the argument. This is very important. The fact that we will see him is the proof that we will be like him because only spirits made perfect—only glorious resurrected bodies, perfect spirits in glorious bodies—could ever hope to see God. What John is saying is "see him we will." That wonderful truth that you will see him tells you that you will indeed be like him.

The question that he's dealing with is: How do we know that we will be like him? The answer that he gives is we know that we will be like him because we will see him as he is. So just to be clear, he is not saying you had better become like him if you're going to have any hope of seeing him. That would be to leave the impossible task on us of trying to earn our own final salvation. "Have I lived a life that is pure enough to get me into heaven?" That is not what he is saying. The argument is entirely the other way around.

He's saying to those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ: This is your glorious hope. You will see him, and when you see him, you will be completely free from sin and from all of its ugly effects. You will be holy. Your heart will be completely pure. You will love God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength, and you will love your neighbor as yourself. "I shall behold his face; I shall his power adore and sing the wonders of his grace forevermore."

That is your glorious future in Christ. That is your hope. When that hope burns brightly in you, it will have a transforming effect on your life. Look at what John says: "Everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he, the Lord Jesus Christ, is pure." Notice here that John is making a statement of fact. He doesn't say if you have this hope, well, you ought to purify yourself. What he says is you will. You will.

We all move in the direction of the thing we really hope for. What we hope for shapes what we do. A man hopes to marry a woman he loves. His hope is to spend his whole life with her. So how does that hope shape his behavior? He moves in the direction of his hope. He spends as much time with her as he possibly can. Hope drives his behavior. If he wasn't interested in spending time with her, well, no one would really believe that he actually had his heart set on spending his life with her. Clearly, his heart is somewhere else.

No, our great hope is to be with Christ and to be like Christ. Hope drives behavior, and this hope will shape what we do. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself. The brighter your hope of being like Jesus in glory, the purer your life will become right now. You'll pursue what you hope for. Grow in hope, and you will live a purer life.

Steve Hiller: We have two more surprising outcomes of growing in hope coming up in just a moment, so I hope you'll stay with us. If you ever join us late, have to leave early, or you want to go back and listen to what you missed—or just listen to a program again—you can do that at our website. Come to openthebible.org. You can stream the program or you can download an MP3 for free. Again, that's at openthebible.org. Another way to listen on-demand is through the Open the Bible app, which you'll find for free at your app store.

Open the Bible is a listener-supported program. It's your generosity that allows us to bring you Pastor Colin's teaching each day. As you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to send you a copy of Pastor Colin's brand new 30-day devotional book. It's called *Grow in Hope*. Colin, who is this book for?

Colin Smith: Well, this is for everybody who wants to have hope, and I think that's absolutely every person. We all need hope. If you would like to have hope drip-fed into your life for 30 days, then *Grow in Hope* is a devotional that will do just that. It's full of the promises of God. It shows that hope comes from God, it comes to us through the Lord Jesus Christ, and it comes to us by his marvelous grace. 30 days of hope—I think that's something that everyone can use, and I hope it's going to be a blessing to everyone who reads it.

Steve Hiller: We'd love to send you a copy of this as our way of saying thanks for your financial support. You can give online at openthebible.org or when you call 1-877-OPEN-365. That's 1-877-673-6365. Again, the website is openthebible.org. Let's get back to the message. Again, here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: So we've seen two things: Grow in hope, and you'll be a better witness. Grow in hope, and you will lead a purer life. Here's a third marvelous and glorious thing: Grow in hope, and you will experience deeper comfort. 1 Thessalonians chapter four, verses 13 and 14: "We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep."

Now, the Apostle Paul is not suggesting here that Christians don't grieve. The more a person loves, the deeper they will grieve the loss of a loved one. Paul is not saying that Christians don't grieve. What he is saying is that our grief is different from the world's grief because it is shot through with living hope. Paul then describes our hope, the glorious day in which every single one of us as believers will participate. No believer will miss out on this. One way or another, we will all share in the joy of this glorious day.

And in the verses that follow, the Apostle makes five glorious affirmations. First, the Lord himself will descend from heaven. Jesus Christ is coming again. Second, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. Now, some of you will be thinking right now of the names and the faces of dear loved ones who have died, and you miss them. But you are going to see them again. They are with Jesus, and he will bring them with him when he comes.

Then the Apostle makes a third affirmation: The dead in Christ will rise first. The souls of believers are with the Lord Jesus, already perfect in his presence. These souls are away from the body, and they are at home with the Lord. But when the Lord Jesus Christ comes again, the souls of believers who have died and are already with Jesus will be clothed with resurrected bodies—bodies adapted for eternal life.

This is stated very beautifully, clearly, and wonderfully in the Shorter Catechism. It's a document that was written in 1674 by believers who wanted to frame in as clear a way as possible the heart of the Christian faith. They did it—a catechism does this—in the form of questions and answers. It was a kind of tool for teaching the Christian faith. And so there's this question: "What benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?"

And the answer is this: "The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness and do immediately pass into glory, and their bodies, still being united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection." Christ will bring with him the souls of believers who have died, and they will be clothed with resurrected bodies.

Then the Apostle says: "We who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air." Now, you read a statement like that, and you say, "Now how can this possibly be? How could these bodies rise to meet the Lord in the air?" I mean, even Michael Jordan could only jump to a staggering height of around four feet.

Well, the point, of course, is that on this glorious day, we will be given resurrected bodies, and we will be given resurrected bodies at the same time as our departed loved ones. This is what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians and chapter 15: "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. The trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed."

And then he says: "And so we will always be with the Lord. So encourage each other, comfort each other with these words." Take this in, brother, sister. Believe it. Grow in hope, and you will experience a deeper comfort.

So we've seen three things: Grow in hope, and you'll be a better witness. Grow in hope, and you're going to lead a purer life. Grow in hope, and you will experience a deeper comfort. Very briefly and lastly, grow in hope, and you will enjoy greater strength. Listen to this from 1 Timothy chapter four and verse 10: "We toil and strive because we have our hope set on the living God."

Now what a wonderful verse that is to end with this morning. Is there anyone here who feels tired, jaded, exhausted? Anyone here who feels a need for greater strength? Maybe you can identify with the discouraged old man who said, "My back is all sore, my knees are all bent; my get up and go has got up and went." Well, grow in hope, and your strength will be renewed. You'll be able to continue in the battle. You'll be able to toil and to strive inasmuch as your hope is set on the living God.

Grow in hope, and your strength and energy will be renewed. Toiling and striving takes energy. Losing hope is the fastest way to run out of steam. But if your hope is set on the living God, your strength will be renewed. Now every single one of us needs this. Isaiah says: "Even youths faint and become weary, and young men shall fall exhausted."

You know, my older son has competed on a number of occasions in the Ironman. What an extraordinary competition that is. The fitness of athletes who can swim more than two miles, and then cycle for more than 100 miles, and then run 26 miles as a kind of a warm-down—I mean, it is absolutely astonishing. But you only need to stand at the finish line and see the truth of what Isaiah is saying. There are limits to all human endurance. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted.

But then Isaiah says: "But those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength." This is how you stay the course when you're feeling really tired of the battle. Grow in hope, and your strength will be renewed. So may we by God's grace and mercy grow in hope. As we do, we will be a better witness. As we do, we will lead purer lives. As we do, we will experience a deeper comfort, and as we do, we will enjoy greater strength.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called "Hope's Surprising Outcomes," part of our series *Grow in Hope*. If you've missed any of the programs in our series, come and listen online at openthebible.org. You can stream the program or you can download an MP3 for free. Again, that's at openthebible.org. One other way to listen is through the Open the Bible app. You'll find that for free at your app store, and it's a great way to listen to Pastor Colin's teaching on the go, really on-demand, as it fits your schedule.

Well, Colin, it's Friday, and the weekend's coming.

Colin Smith: Yeah, and I want to encourage you to get to church on Sunday. Find a church where the Bible is opened and where Jesus is the center of attention. If you live in the Chicago area and you don't have a church home, I'd love for you to join us at The Orchard. There are six locations in the northwest suburbs. For more information, go to theorchard.church. That's theorchard.church.

Steve Hiller: Thank you, Colin, and thanks for listening. I'm Steve Hiller, and I hope you'll join us next time. This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

Colin Smith: Hi, this is Pastor Colin again, and I want you to know about *Watch Your Doctrine*. *Watch Your Doctrine* is a six-session course that is geared for leaders but accessible for every believer. The six sessions will introduce you to six central truths of the Christian faith: how we know God, how God speaks to us, how sin affects us, how God's Spirit brings new life, how we're made right with God, and what Jesus accomplished on the cross.

There are questions at the end of each session, and you can use them on your own or you can discuss them with a friend. For more information or to begin this free online course, visit openthebible.org/courses. That's openthebible.org/courses.