16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, 17 comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.” (2 Thessalonians 2:16–17 (ESV)
A SERMON DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON ON THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH 15, 1888.
There is only one more expression upon which I will say a sentence or so. God has given us “good hope through grace.” It is of grace, and therefore it is a gift, and He has given it to us through the operation of His grace upon our hearts. It is a hope, a good hope, a “good hope through grace.” We have a good hope that God’s love will never fail us, and that, when life dies out on earth, we shall enter into His rest forever, and behold His face with joy, we have a good hope that, when days and years are past, we shall meet in heaven, we have a good hope of dwelling throughout eternity with our God, “forever with the Lord.”
O Father, after You have done so much for us, and given so much to us, it is but little we ask of You now, when we pray You to comfort our hearts, and to stablish us in every good word and work! I cannot understand what those do who have no God, I cannot comprehend the condition of those who have no “good hope through grace.” What can they do?
They have to work very hard from Monday morning to Saturday night, on Sunday, they have no day of rest, no thought of a world to come, no rising to a purer atmosphere. They lie in bed, perhaps, in the morning, and then get up, and lounge about in their shirtsleeves, there is nothing for them to get but what is found beneath the moon, and very little of that. It is better to be a dog than a man if there is no hope of a hereafter. It is better not to live at all than to live such a dead, good-for-nothing life as that man lives those lives without God, and without hope. Surely, you who are without God and without Christ, have your sinking, your mourning, your dull times, have you not? What do you do then? Perhaps you try to drug yourself with strong drink. Alas, some do that, and this is mischievous indeed, to try to poison conscience, and silence the best friend you have within you!
Do not so, but think about God, and about “our Lord Jesus Christ.” This way lies hope, where stands that cross, and He pleads who received there those five wounds for sinners, this way lies your only hope. Oh, that you would think of it, and consider it! If God Himself comes down from heaven to save men, it must be worthwhile for man to look and understand what God did for him in that wondrous sacrifice. Look, for— “There is life for a look at the Crucified One;” look now, for— “There is life at this moment for thee.”
Especially is their life for you who came in here troubled, downcast, almost wishing you were not alive at all, but fearing that, when life came to an end, it might be worse for you than ever, for you have “the dread of something after death.” Oh, that you were reconciled to God through the death of Jesus Christ! That being done, He would comfort your hearts, and you would be led into every good word and work through gratitude to the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, and His grace would save you, and preserve you to the end. May this be the very moment when you shall seek and find the Lord! “If thou seek him, he will be found of thee.” God grant it, for His dear son’s sake! Amen.
May the Lord’s truth and grace be found here. Have a blessed day in the Lord.
Soli deo Gloria!
His Word Today 