Hope Is a Person

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: At some point in our lives, probably many points, people will fail us. Whether friends, family, or complete strangers, they will fail us. Pastor Chris Brooks challenges us to examine us where we’re putting our trust.

Pastor Chris Brooks:
Faith in Christ alone is what saves us.
Faith in Christ alone is what sustains us.
Faith in Christ alone is what revives us.
Faith in Christ alone is what keeps us.
Faith in Christ alone is what gives us the hope that we need to point the world to Jesus.

Nancy: We’ll hear more about that hope today on the Revive Our Hearts podcast. It’s November 12, 2021, and I’m Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth.

Well, yesterday Pastor Chris Brooks of the Woodside Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan shared about the tragic loss of his son. Then he took us to God’s Word where even in the most painful, difficult circumstances, we can find hope. He took us to the opening verses of 1 Peter chapter 1, and he began explaining what it means to be a Christian in this world, to be an “elect exile.”

I hope you’ll open your Bible, if you possibly can, and follow along as today he picks up where he left off with that idea. Here’s Pastor Chris Brooks.

Pastor Chris: To be an exile, in a very literal sense, meant to be homeless, on the move, nomadic, without voice, and without power. There are times and moments in situations that cause us to feel that way.

We should not be surprised, though, when pain comes into our lives and situations come into our lives that cause us to feel displaced and powerless and voiceless. We should not be surprised because we are not just exiles. We are “elect exiles.”

So let’s deal with the first word—elect. What does that mean? To be elect means to be chosen. Chosen by whom? Chosen by God.

To be elect means to be favored. Favored by whom? The world? No! You’re an exile for the world, but you are favored by God.

To be elect means to be special—special and distinct from all other people of the world. The people of God are elect, chosen to be exiles.

“Now, Chris, I didn’t get that in theology class or Bible study. I didn’t know that to be elect, to be chosen by God meant that I was going to be assigned the task of being in exile.” But that’s what it means. What it means is that you are chosen by God to live as exiles in this world.

Then Peter gets into some pretty deep theology. He says that you were chosen “according to the foreknowledge of God.” Foreknowledge means that He knows all things, from the end to the beginning.

But this is not speaking of cold, scientific facts, ladies. This is speaking of intimate, personal knowledge. Not only does He know everything about you, He knows you. He sees you. And He chose you.

He chose you for glorification? Yes. But He’s also chosen you and me to be exiles in a fallen world:

• To be special but displaced.
• To be favored but strangers.
• To be fully hopeful in this world, but yet weeping.
• To be dying but yet fully alive.
• To be broken but yet beautiful.

Isn’t it amazing that in His design, providential wisdom in creation, He created us with such capacity that we can feel dual emotions at the same time? You are not mono-emotional. You can experience weeping and hope at the same time because you are God’s wonderful, magnificent art in creation. He made you fearfully and wonderfully with such capacity that you can be dying on the outside and alive on the inside—elect and exiles.

He said this was “according to His foreknowledge in the sanctification of the Spirit.” Sanctification, meaning “to be consecrated, to be selected, to be set apart for a special assignment.” And what is that special assignment? “For obedience to Jesus Christ.” He selected you, “according to His foreknowledge,” and set you apart so that you can be obedient to Him as an exile in a fallen world full of pain, so that you might show forth the power of His blood to a watching world.

I don’t know what your goals are in life, but maybe I can introduce a new one to you. And this is the goal that none of us want to sign up for, and that is: I want to glorify God even in my suffering.

All of us want to have great days and be wonderful leaders. But who sets as a goal, “God, I want to be at my best when things are at their worst?” But you were chosen for that. You were chosen to go through suffering like somebody who’s elect. Not like somebody who’s not elect.

You were chosen to go through suffering not as someone who lacks hope. But Paul says when we mourn, may we mourn not like those who have no hope because we are a people of hope. We have hope eternal.

Peter then goes into this promise of hope. And what’s strange, from here to the end of the passage, and I’m going to try to move through this as swiftly as I can. You would think, after saying he was in exile and that the ones he was writing to were exiles, that Peter would go into a lament . . . but he doesn’t. He goes into a praise. He begins to praise God for three things, and I think all of these things are instructive to us.

Where does his hope come from? Well, first he praises God that heaven is secure. Look at verses number 3–5 with me, if you will. He says:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope.

There it is! You and I are not just born, because if we were just born, then we would be children of despair. But we have been born again, rescued from despair and birthed into hope. But notice that this hope is not grounded in some shallow optimism. Peter is not writing as a self-help guru. Look at what he says:

Born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Now, if I was at home, I would tell you that’s worth shouting over. Peter just said that our hope is not grounded in memes or shallowness or some mere optimism or some pep talk. But our hope is grounded in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Hope is alive because hope is a person who is alive. Because Jesus has conquered death, we have hope.

He goes on to say, not only that, but we’ve been born again 

. . . into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Here is where hope is found: it is that I have an inheritance in heaven. And why is it kept in heaven? Because you keep all important documents and possessions in special places. God wasn’t going to risk your salvation being stolen, so He kept it in heaven.

We’ve got a safe back at home, and we keep all of our important documents there. God has kept the promise that you will be saved through this, that somehow, some way His salvation is going to be seen. Even when you can’t track Him, ladies, you’ve got to trust Him because He is a Man of His word. He cannot lie. He has kept your salvation in heaven.

But here’s what I love about it: He put a security guard in front of it—a security guard that not even Satan could get through. Who’s the security guard that’s keeping watch over your inheritance? Verse number 5 tells us: 

Who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

• God is the security guard over your salvation.
• God is the one keeping watch over your soul.
• God is the protector of our promise.

So what do we do when pain encroaches? We remind ourselves of the Word of God, that I’ve been born again to a living hope. And in those days and weeks and months that followed the passing of our son—the deepest pain I have ever known—it was the Word of God that revived my heart. It was the Word of God that revived my hope.

It was me being reminded that He has given me a promise—a promise that He has not failed on, a promise that will bring about my good and His glory, a promise of salvation in this life, in this situation, and in the life to come, guarded by Him.

Peter praised God that heaven is secure. May we praise God that the most important thing in all of the world—our salvation and our relationship with God—would never be stolen away.

Then Peter shifts, and he begins to praise God for something else. Again, paradoxical, but he begins to praise God for our suffering because it reveals our faith. Look at verses 6–9:

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Man do I wish I had three hours more to impact the beauty of what he just said. The first thing that I love about Peter is that he does not sugarcoat trials. The Bible is not a Bible of myth or make believe. It deals with real world stuff. It deals with the pain and the heartache that comes with life.

And what Peter says is that you are going through something now that grieves you, and:

• It’s all right to admit grief.
• It’s all right to admit sorrow.
• It’s all right to cry.
• Even in the midst of a conference, it’s alright to be in worship and crying out to God, “How long, O Lord?”
• It’s alright to be honest with Jesus.

Peter is honest and says, “In this season you are grieving.” Why? Because of various trials. But then, as he does throughout this letter, he keeps bringing them back to hope. He acknowledges, “Yes, you are exiles. Yes, you are in a fallen world. But don’t you forget that you are also elect, given a promise kept in heaven, guarded by God. He will not fail you.”

So what is the hope even in trials? It is that “the tested genuineness of your faith” is going to be revealed. And according to Peter, this is “more precious than gold.”

Now, I told you I come from a family of educators. My dad would have me as a young man helping him to grade tests and papers even on the weekend. Can you get that? But my dad used to have a saying: “Son, there are two reasons for every test. There are always and only two reasons for every test. Either, one, to reveal what the student does not know. Or, two, to affirm what the student does know.” Only two reasons for a test.

Peter is saying to us that the trials you are experiencing in this world is not designed to expose your lack of faith but to reveal the genuineness of your faith.

You can say all you want that you love and trust Jesus. But you know when it’s proven? When the trial comes. You can say all you want about how great He is. But you know when it’s proven? It’s when you’re lifting holy hands while tears are streaming down your eyes. You can tell the Lord all you want, “I love you.” But I want to see you do it with a broken heart, with pain in your soul.

Peter believes that concerning those who have put their faith and trust in Christ, that inside of us is something supernatural called “grace” that is energized through faith in Christ that gives us the ability to rise above our present pain to give Him the praise that He is due. It is the genuineness of your faith, and he says that this is more precious, sisters, than gold.

He says that gold will perish, though it’s tested by fire. He says your faith is going to be found “to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”

So when Christ returns, there is going to be praise offered to Him by all the world. (Check out Revelation 7:9.) People from every tribe and every language and every tongue are going to be praising Him, giving Him the glory and the honor.

But you know, some of those folks in that sea of people, you know why they’re going to be praising God? Because of the genuineness of your faith. Because they saw you trusting Him in the midst of the trial, and it drew them to faith in Jesus.

You see, Satan thought he won when he put Christ on that cross. But he didn’t know that on that cross, Christ was defeating death, that the cross was the death of death.

Satan thought he won when he sent the devastation and the trial to your life. But don’t you fall for fake news. The fact of the matter is the trial was given so that the world might see the genuineness of our faith, that it is not shallow or surface deep, but it is rooted in the hope of the revelation and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is guarded by God, a promise in heaven that shall be revealed at the day of His return.

I’m going to praise Him now because I know how the story ends—He wins!

And this is why we have to understand the ordinances. This is why we have to understand things like the power of baptism. Because all of those things reveal and speak to us about our union with Christ.

I died with Him, and I rose again with Him. And because He lives, I live. And because He is victorious, I am victorious—not because I am strong, because I am not. But when I am weak, His strength is made perfect.

Peter praises God. Even though he’s in exile, he praises God that heaven is secure. He praises God; the suffering reveals the genuineness of our faith.

Ladies, if you want to know what the focus of your faith is, just examine what you look to in moments of suffering. We’re wired for faith.

• Some looking for hope have put their hope in things that overpromise and under deliver. 
• Some have put their hope in philosophies that overpromise and under deliver.
• Some have put their hope in people that overpromise and under deliver.
• Some have even fallen into the trap of putting their hopes in politics that overpromise and under deliver.

Economies will fail.
Government will fail.
People will fail.
Mama and Daddy will fail, though they love you.
Husbands will fail.
Children will fail.

But there is One who is faithful from beginning to end—the only One who is worthy of our trust. And that is why Peter says in verse 13 of this chapter that you and I are to “set our hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Not partially. Not faith in Jesus and . . . But faith in Christ alone.

• Faith in Christ alone is what saves us.
• Faith in Christ alone is what sustains us.
• Faith in Christ alone is what revives us.
• Faith in Christ alone is what keeps us.
• Faith in Christ alone is what gives us the hope that we need to point the world to Jesus.

In the face of brokenness and pain, Peter closes this poetic stanza, verses 10–12, by praising God that salvation has come. Verse 10 says this:

Concerning this salvation, [the promise of salvation—the three tenses of salvation that I have been saved; I am being saved; and I will be saved—that promise of salvation, he says . . .] the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

Again, I wish I had three hours . . . I’ve got 56 seconds. What Peter says is that your God loves you so much that He mobilized prophets to look into Scripture and the Holy Writ, searching for the promise of the Christ who was to come, His sufferings and subsequent glories, and they found this grace.

Their hearts were so excited that they came to realize that they weren’t searching for themselves, but they had been commissioned by God in service to us who live post the cross. Christ has died. He has risen from the grave. He is alive. He is victorious. And since we are in Him, salvation has come to us.

So that means I’m not waiting for a promise. I have a promise. The promise that I have is that He is keeping me. The promise that I have is what the enemy meant for evil, God is going to use for my good and His glory.

I’m not ready to write a book on why my son passed away. Honestly, that’s not something I’ve talked publicly about much. Because of my respect for Nancy, and because of my heart to see the Lord minister to you, I broached the topic, but only for a night. I’ll shed some tears this evening, no doubt, but though I’m weeping on the outside, I am full of hope on the inside.

And you know why I am full of hope? Because I know that my promise, my son’s promise, is secure. You see, my son was a worshipper. And what I know is that he is now in the most glorious worship service any of us have ever seen. Praise God for this gathering, but now, he is in the presence of angels. He is lifting his voice. He is seeing the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Why? Because his promise is secure in the God of hope.

Don’t let the enemy steal your hope, ladies. God is faithful. Let’s pray.

Father, we thank You that in our brokenness we can come to You. We thank You that we can be honest about our grief. Thank You that we can cry to You. We can look to You. But when we do, we thank You that You fill our cups. Some come empty. We simply pray, “Lord, fill us up to overflowing.”

Lord, we trust You because You are the hope of our salvation. And it’s in the mighty, matchless and magnificent name of Your Son and our Savior we pray, in Jesus’ name. And all God’s daughters say, “Amen.” Amen.

Nancy: Amen. The hope we have in Christ—that’s what helps us stand firm even if and when our world is crumbling.

Pastor Chris Brooks gave this message at our Revive ’21 conference about a month ago where we talked about the importance of being spiritually grounded. Being grounded in Christ, grounded in the gospel, grounded in the Word of God, and grounded in the hope that we have in Christ.

Dannah: Yes. And while getting grounded was the theme of our conference, it’s more than just a theme or catchy phrase, because we believe that getting grounded in Jesus is something that needs to happen every moment of every day.

So, to that end, I want to tell you about a tool to keep you grounded every day all year long. It’s the new 2022 Revive Our Hearts Wall Calendar.

Not only is this a practical tool with Scripture to keep your mind dwelling on truth, but it’s just such a beautiful piece of art for you to hang in your office, your home, your kitchen. And it’s been hand lettered and illustrated by our very own Revive Our Hearts team. Each page contains inspirational quotes from Nancy to go along with the Scripture verses of the month.

Nancy: And we’d love to send you this calendar when you make a gift of any amount to Revive Our Hearts. We’re so grateful for your support of this ministry which is reaching the hearts of women today around the world. Thank you for being a part of making that possible.

And we hope that this resource, the new 2022 Wall Calendar, will remind you to stand firm no matter what may come your way in the year ahead. Visit ReviveOurHearts.com to make your donation today, or you can call us at 1–800–569–5959. When you give, be sure to ask for the new Revive Our Hearts Wall Calendar.

Dannah: This week you’ve heard several ways to get grounded in Christ, but what happens after that? Well, next week Nancy’s going to share more with us about how to stay grounded. Please be back for Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth reminds you of the hope found in Christ.

All Scripture is taken from the ESV.

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