Christ our Hope: 1 Timothy 1:1 by Dr. Rod Mattoon

Scripture

• 1 Timothy 1:1

About this sermon

Many years ago a submarine was rammed by another ship and quickly sank off the Massachusetts coast. Although rescue was impossible at that depth, a diver was dispatched to determine if there was still life aboard the disabled vessel. In the black cold of the ocean depths the diver placed his helmeted ear against the hull of the sunken sub and heard a faint tapping sound. Carefully he made note of the dots and dashes and decoded the following message: "Is—there—any—hope?" With great remorse he carefully and slowly signaled back to the person who was at the threshold of eternity: "Hope--in--God--alone." The message of the diver is the message needed for today's generation for it is truly the only real message of hope whether people agree with it or not. Matthew Henry said, "The ground of our hope is Christ in the world, but the evidence of our hope is Christ in our heart." Don Basham worded this truth this way when he said, "Our hope lies not in the man we put on the moon, but in the man we put on the cross of Calvary." Our hope for Heaven is in the Lord Jesus Christ. The world hopes for the best, but Jesus Christ offers the best hope. You and I don't have a "hope so" salvation but a "know so" salvation by trusting Christ as Saviour. John said that we can KNOW we have eternal life (1 John 5:13). The hope we have in Christ produces a number of traits in our lives as Christians. One of those traits is purity. * 1 John 3:2—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. (3) And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. The poet Martha Snell Nicholson wrote concerning the Second Coming of Christ: "Each morning I think, with a leap of the heart, He may come today. And each evening, when I awake I may be in glory. Each day must be lived as though it were to be my last and there is so much to be done to purify myself and set my house in order. I am tiptoeing with expectancy! There are no more gray days for they are all touched with color; no more dark days for the radiance of His coming is on the horizon; no more dull days, with glory just around the corner; and no more lonely days, with His footsteps coming ever nearer, and the thought that soon, very soon, I shall see His blessed face and be forever through with pain and tears." We look forward to the day when we will see Jesus face to face. Until then, may our hearts keep singing. Until then, may we carry on by serving the Lord. This 34-minute message was preached on Sunday night, September 11, 2022, at Lincoln Land Baptist Church.

Topics

• Hope
• Jesus Christ