Sermon Tone Analysis

The Life Changing Power of Godly Hope

1 John 3:1-10

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Grayson Baptist Church - Jan. 24, 2016

*Hope is a wonderful thing.

John Maxwell said, "Hope is one of the greatest gifts leaders can give to those around them.

Its power should never be underestimated.

It takes a great leader to give hope to people when they can’t find it within themselves.

*Winston Churchill recognized the value of hope.

He was prime minister of England during the darkest days of World War II.

Churchill was once asked by a reporter what his country’s greatest weapon had been against Hitler’s Nazi regime.

Without pausing for a moment he said: 'It was what England’s greatest weapon has always been -- Hope.'" (1)

*In vs. 3, the Apostle John talks about the hope we have as Christians, but what kind of hope was he talking about?

One Thanksgiving when he was a little boy, Pastor James Chandler got asked to say the family prayer.

And in that prayer he said: "Dear God, I sure hope the Oakland Raiders make it to the Super Bowl!"

*James remembers that prayer, because he learned it "wasn’t really appropriate."

And he said, "As I grew, I also learned that real hope is not the kind of hope I mentioned in my prayer.

Real hope is not a wish, but confidence in a certainty."

(2)

*I like that definition: "Real hope is confidence in a certainty."

Real hope, Godly hope, Bible hope, is joyful confidence in something that is certain.

That is the kind of hope John is talking about in vs. 3: Confidence in the certainty of all we have in Jesus Christ.

*He’s talking about: Our hope of Heaven, our hope of the resurrection, our hope of perfection, the hope of all that we have in Jesus Christ.

And John says: "Everyone who has this hope in (Jesus Christ) purifies himself, just as He is pure."

*In other words: Real hope in Jesus Christ has the power to change our lives.

And in today's Scripture, God gives us four truths about the life-changing power of hope.

1. First: Real hope is hungry to be holy.

*Real hope longs to be like the Lord Jesus Christ.

We see this truth in vs. 3, but we also see it down in vs. 5-7.

There John said:

5.

And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.

6. Whoever abides in Him does not sin.

Whoever sins has neither seen Him nor known Him.

7. Little children, let no one deceive you.

He who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous.

*In vs. 7, there is a hunger to be righteous, just as Jesus is righteous, a hunger for holiness.

Jim Elliot had a full measure of this holy hunger.

He was one of the heroes of our faith in the last century.

*Jim Elliot was one of the five missionaries who were speared and hacked to death by Auca Indians in the rain forest of eastern Ecuador.

It happened on Jan. 8, 1956, and the missionaries were armed with rifles but they did not try to defend themselves.

*"Life Magazine" later ran a ten-page article on their mission and death.

But I want you to hear these few words from Jim Elliot’s journal, written in 1949:

*"I am dwelling in a generation to whom nothing is holy.

Sacredness is an aspect people never assume toward anything. . .

Oh, to be holy!

Just to sense for a moment that I have somehow, however small, simulated some measure of Thy character, Lord Jesus."

(3)

*Jim Elliot was hungry to be holy.

And the Apostle John says that all Christians should hunger for holiness.

But why should we be hungry for holiness?

[1] One great reason is because of what’s behind us, and that is the cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

*The cross of Jesus is why John could say what he said in vs. 1: "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!" The cross of Jesus Christ was what led those missionaries to lay down their lives, even when they could have defended themselves.

*Colossians 1:14 tells us that in Jesus Christ "we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins."

And Colossians 1:20 tells us that our peace with the Heavenly Father came "through the blood of His cross."

So Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price to give us hope.

*God’s Son took all of the punishment for all of our sins on Himself when He died on the cross for us.

And the more we really look at Jesus' sacrificial love, the more it gives us a hunger for holiness.

*When she was a young lady, Frances Havergal saw a picture of the crucified Christ with this caption under it: "I did this for thee.

What hast thou done for Me?" Frances was so inspired by the cross and that question that she quickly wrote a poem.

*Later she was dissatisfied with her poem, and threw it into the fireplace.

But the paper came out unharmed!

Finally, at her father's suggestion Frances published her poem, and we still sing the words today:

"I gave My life for thee,

My precious blood I shed;

That thou might ransomed be,

And quickened from the dead.

I gave, I gave, My life for thee,

What hast thou given for Me?" (4)

*Why should we be hungry for holiness?

-- Because of what’s behind us: The cross of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

[2] But also because of what's before us: A perfect eternity in Heaven with Almighty God.

*That's what was on John's mind when he wrote vs. 2: "Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."

*William Barclay explained, "John has just said that the Christian is on the way to seeing God and being like Him. . .

The man who knows that God is at the end of the road will make all life a preparation to meet Him." (5)

*So Church: The more we focus on what's behind us, and what’s ahead of us, and Who is ahead of us, the more we will seek to purify ourselves, even as He is pure.

Real hope is hungry to be holy.

2. And real hope refuses to be satisfied with sin.

*It simply refuses to be satisfied with sin.

The Apostle John reminds us of this great truth in vs. 4, where he said: "Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness."

Real hope refuses to be satisfied with sin.

*That's why down in vs. 8-9, John also said:

8.

He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning.

For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.

9. Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God.

*What does this Scripture say to Christians like us who know, or should know that we fall short every day?

Well, one thing it says is this: God will never, ever, even for one second give us the green light to sin.

And it helps us to know that John was warning the early Christians about false teachers who were trying to justify sin.

*William Barclay explained: "This passage was first directed against the false teachers called 'Gnostics.'

They had come up with more than one reason to justify sin.

The Gnostics basically believed that only our present physical bodies were evil, so there was no harm in satisfying our selfish desires.

*They actually taught that a truly spiritual man was so protected by the Holy Spirit that he could sin to his heart's content and take no harm from it.

They even taught that true Gnostics were obligated to explore the heights and plumb the depths of sin, so they might truly know all things."

(6)

*Well, that's as big of a lie as you will ever hear.

God hates sin, and He will never, ever give us a green light to sin.

*Now I don't think any of us would ever intentionally believe that it's good to sin.

But we tend to have another problem: Denial and spiritual deception, spiritual blind spots.

There are some sins we tend to be blind to.

Maybe we don’t consciously excuse our sins.

But we have a tendency to pick and choose which Scriptures we are going to obey.

And we have a tendency to ignore the others.

*For example, there are liberal Christians today who want to ignore the clear Bible teachings on abortion.

And I doubt any of us would ever do that, but what about the Scriptures on tithing?