Hope is a feeling of expectation and a desire for a particular thing to happen. We hope our favourite sports team will win. We hope we get the job we want. We hope for a good life. In this world we hope for many different things. Let’s not trivialise hope, but no matter how much we hope for something, our desire ultimately has no control over the thing we hope for.

All things we hope for in this life is temporary. In fact we hope for nothing, we wish for them. One thing we can all be sure of, one day we will all die. We place our hope in many things to earn a place in Heaven. Many hope in good deeds, church attendance, prayers, baptism, and rising a good family. The Bible tells us we cannot earn Heaven by good deeds or acts. God’s Word the Holy Bible says in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

There is no hope of Heaven outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 10: 9-10, says “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” True hope exists only in Jesus Christ. In the introduction to his first letter to Timothy the Apostle Paul wrote, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus our hope.” Ephesians 1:18-19 teaches us a great truth about God, “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power.”

The Holy Spirit of God enlightens our eyes to the great hope that is found in Christ. The call of salvation by God’s conviction of sin and judgement to come is the only hope we have. When God, by His grace on the sinner calls us to repentance we have a great inheritance. The inheritance of glory is only to them that believe in the true Saviour.

Without Christ we are dead in our sins and under the judgement and wrath of God. The good news is that Christ has come to pay the price for sin on the cross. Job 27:8 warns us, “For what is the hope of the hypocrite, Though he may gain much, If God takes away his life?”

When God takes you from this life you will stand before Him to given an account for your life. Make no mistake about it the judgement is a very serious and a real event. It will not be a loving reunion with loves ones. The wrath of God is serious. Almighty God must punish sin.

All have sinned and fallen short of God’s standards (Romans 3:23). Your only hope today of a joyful and happy entrance into Heaven is to turn to Christ and believe the Gospel. When you leave this world will you stand in the hope of Christ or the dread, doom and destruction of your sins?

Do you stand on your pride? Humble yourself today before the living God. Repent and believe the Gospel while God has given you time.