Hope Maketh Not Ashamed
By, James L. Thornton
Romans 5:1. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
2. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
3. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
4. And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
5. And HOPE MAKETH NOT ASHAMED; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”
Here Paul tells us that hope takes away shame.
Hope is a product of experience.
Experience is a product of patience.
Patience is a product of tribulation.
“Tribulation worketh patience,
Patience worketh experience,
Experience worketh hope,
And, Hope Maketh Not Ashamed.”
It’s a long route to hope.
The poet says, “Where there is life, there is hope.”
But the converse is truer, “Where there is hope, there is still life.”
Because living without hope is not life, it’s just existing.
Paul says, “If in this life only I have hope I would be of all men most miserable.” I am convinced that instead of life being a prerequisite to hope, hope is really the prerequisite to life.
When you remove hope from a person’s life, you have taken away the wind that drives the sails, and propels a man through his existence. If you take away my hope you remove my reason to exist.
We are born into a lively hope by the Spirit of Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 1:3. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ..”
Satan recognizes the awesomeness that comes to a life that has hope. He is aware of the value and the power of hope. If he can take away my hope he takes away my strength.
Paul tells us in Hebrews 6:18. “That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to LAY HOLD UPON THE HOPE SET BEFORE US:
19. Which HOPE WE HAVE AS AN ANCHOR OF THE SOUL, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;”
Life is a troublesome sea, a tempestuous place. But our, “Hope is the anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.” Life is full of perils, one problem after another. But in the stormy sea of life, we have an anchor and that anchor is our hope.
We have hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. If our adversary can destroy that, he can take away our hope. And he also brings to a halt our power in the Kingdom Of God, and he renders us useless to the Church and makes us frustrated with-in ourselves if he can take away our hope.
To amplify our miss-deeds to us is a great pastime of Satan. The first way, I believe, that Satan can destroy your hope is by keeping you living under condemnation.
It is Satan’s earnest pastime to amplify in my mind what I do wrong. There is a chink (narrow opening) in everybody’s armor. Everybody has an Achilles’ Heel (a venerable place). There is not anybody that is without a flaw. There is not a person living that has reached a state of perfection.
And the devil is present when I do something wrong and assaulting me with a stinging guilt and hopelessness. And he tells me that when I fail in some area, thought, word, deed—when I fail in some area I thought I had conquered, that I just as well not have any hope, that I’m spiritual derelict, that I,m a bum languishing in the gutter of spiritual failure.
And he takes my hope away, and if he can take my hope away he can take my power away. If Satan takes my hope, he takes my faith. “And without faith, it’s impossible to please God.” I must have faith to please God.
If Satan can make me feel like that I am a miserable wretch. If he takes my faith away I walk under a cloud of condemnation—he renders me useless, frustrated, and ineffective. But, “Satan Is A Liar and the father of lies and the truth is not in him.”
“Unto us, a Child is born this day in the city of David (Not A Condemner) but a Saviour which is Christ the Lord.” (Glory, Hallelujah) (A Saviour, Not A Condemner). If Satan can take away my hope then he can destroy me.
One of the two ways that Satan try’s to destroy me is To Magnify, In My Mind, My Failures. I have had things in my life which were enemies to my spiritual success, personal things, and different things for different people. Things we wrestle with and struggle with.
I’ve known times when, honestly before God, I’ve prayed, I cried, I repented, and my repentance was genuine. I thought I had buried it once and for all. I honestly believed I put it under the blood of Jesus and that it would never rise to torment me again.
Then some other time, whether it was thought, word, or deed, some other time, I would realize I had not properly disciplined myself spiritually as much as I thought I had, and that same enemy, that I had fought before, would rise up again.
And the devil would take my hope away and say to me, “See there you don’t really have what you think you have.” “And you are just a spiritual failure, a miserable wretch.”
At the same time I came to the altar, maybe the 1057th time, I took it to the Lord in prayer. I hang on to a scripture, “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
He didn’t put a number on it, He didn’t put a time limit, “If you will confess, I’ll forgive,” “If you’ll confess, I’ll forgive.”
So I took it back to Him again in prayer and said, “It’s me again.” “What’s the trouble?” “Same as always, I’m a failure.”
1 John 1:10. “If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and His word is not in us.”
I know from personal experience that there comes that time when you can unload it upon Him, and He can empower you to live above that thing and get the victory over it, and have confidence (hope) and trust yourself again.
You must get to that place, you must have hope, you must have faith and confidence in yourself and in His mercy.
Guard with your life your hope, “For hope maketh not ashamed.” I’m not ashamed to stand in His presence, I’m not ashamed to lift my hands, I’m not ashamed to believe in Him, for I have hope through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
1 John 2:1. “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:
2. And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
John is not telling us to live a sinful life, rampant, carelessly, evil, and in lust. John says “IF” any man sin, don’t give up, don’t quit, go back and claim the promise, “we have an advocate (supporter, helper) with the father.”
Romans 7:24. “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” We have around this honest spirit, a dead body.” 25. I thanks (be to) God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Psalm 139:1. “O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me. 2. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
3. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. 4. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. 5. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.”
Lord, you know more dirt on me that I know myself.” You know me, yet you love me. And because of that, I have hope. And “Hope Maketh Not Ashamed.”
The second way Satan tries to destroy our hope: Satan talks to us about how we have failed in our commitment to God. Let us listen to Peter.
John 13: 37. “I will lay down my life for thy sake.” And Peter meant it.
Matthew 26:34. “Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. 35. Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee.”
And Peter meant what he said, it was not an idle boast. At the arrest of Jesus, Peter pulled his sword to defend his Lord. Even though the forces were vastly superior to him. Peter then “followed afar off.” But he was there.
Peter’s denial: Matthew 26:73. “And said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech bewrayeth thee. 74. Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. 75. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And He Went Out And Wept Bitterly. Someone has said that “Grown Men Don’t Cry.”
I feel that Peter’s weeping was more than a few minutes or an hour, but I feel his weeping extended through the next three days and nights until someone came running to tell him that Jesus was risen and had sent him a message.
Mark 16:7. “But go your way, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee: there shall ye see him, as he said unto you.”
You can read the happy ending to that story in the 21st chapter of John’s Gospel as Jesus uses such kindness to bring Simon Peter back into the fold. Hope Maketh Not Ashamed.
From such a fall and such a recovery we can also find hope for our own faults and failures if we have the weeping spirit of Simon Peter an obey John when he said, 1. “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 2. And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
Hope Maketh Not Ashamed:
By, James L. Thornton
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