on going off the spirit that's the Holy Spirit
he's the one who calls us He's the one that does the work of
regenerating us, taking out the heart of stone and putting in
a heart of flesh. He's the one who gives us eyes
to see and ears to hear. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. The Father elected us, chose
us in the covenant of grace. The Son redeemed us successfully
on Calvary's cross. And the Holy Spirit regenerates. And so the Lord says at the very
end of the Bible, the spirit. And the bride. That's the church. That's the ass. Say. Come. Come. Nowhere in God's Word does he
say think about it. Wait for this or wait for that.
It's always come. Why? because there's going to
come a moment in time, and we don't know when, when he will
come riding upon that white horse. Come now. Today is the day of
salvation. Let him that heareth say, come. You've heard and you've come,
then you tell others, come. Let him that is a thirst Come. You thirsty? Come. Come. The polluted waters of the cisterns
of this world can never satisfy the thirst of God's people. It
may quench the thirst of a reprobate, but God's people are sickened
by it. Let him that is a thirst come,
and whosoever will, Whosoever will. That doesn't mean that
you've got to exercise. That means that God's made you
willing. That's the work of the Spirit, isn't it? He makes us
willing in the day of His power. Are you willing? That's a good
indication that the Spirit of God is calling you. Whosoever
will. Let him take of the water of
life freely. Can't buy it. Can't bargain for
it. Come, just like you are, without
one plea. But that Jesus Christ died for
me. Tom's going to come lead us in
the hymn on the back of our bulletin. Let's stand together. Thy works not mine, O Christ,
speak gladness to this heart. They tell me all the work is
done, they bid my fear depart. Thy cross, not mine, O Christ,
has borne the awful load of sin that no one else could bear but
our incarnate God. Thy death not mine, O Christ,
has paid the ransom new. Ten thousand thousand deaths
like mine would have been all too few. Thy righteousness, O
Christ, alone can cover me. No righteousness can satisfy,
save that which is of thee. Please be seated. Good morning. Would you turn
to the Book of Matthew, Chapter 14, Book of Matthew. We'll begin reading in verse
22. If you are here this morning,
a sinner, this passage that we're going to be reading together
is going to bring great encouragement, great comfort. Because you see,
the truth is, as we read it, you're very familiar with it,
this is really a picture of a sinner in this world, wearing his ship
right now, this morning. And our plea as we read is that
I'd like Peter, oh Lord, bid me to come unto thee. Verse 22, and straightway Jesus constrained
his disciples to get into a ship and to go before him unto the
other side while he sent the multitudes away. And when he
had sent the multitudes away, He went up into a mountain, apart
to pray. And when the evening was come,
he was there alone. That's where our Lord is, seated
on the right-hand side of the Majesty and I, who ever live
at the inner seat for his children. But the ship was now in the midst
of the sea, tossed with waves, for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the
night, Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. Do you see
yourself there, sir? It's impossible to go against
the ordained trials and afflictions to the point where we're saying
all is lost. Not to him. Straight way. And not only that, he was above
the water. No trial or affliction. He's above all that. And when the disciples saw him
walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit. And they cried out for fear.
But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer,
it is I. Be not afraid. Oh, Lord, would
you do that this morning for me, for you? I want to hear that
so much. And Peter answered him and said,
Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he
said, come. And when Peter was come down
out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind, boisterous,
that's us, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried,
save, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched
forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of
little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And don't lose this,
verse 32, and when they were come into the ship, the wind
ceased. That's why we're here this morning,
beloved. We want the wind to cease. Then they that were in
the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth, thou
art the Son of God. And when they were gone over,
they came into the land of Gennesareth. And Mark, Mark says that when
they came to the other side, they knew him. One day this ship
is going to be going across the Jordan for the last time. and
then we should see him for who he is face to face. That's our
prayer this morning, that he would do something for us again
that we're not able. Let's pray. Father, we're so thankful that
you are a God of mercy and how we rely upon the multitudes of
thy tender mercy, most especially when you gather us together in
your ship. Forgive us, Lord, for continuing
to set our affections on the storms and on the knowing that
you've ordained all of them. So we ask that you would be merciful
again to enable us to look to the one that is able, Jesus Christ,
the righteous one. So we plead you would send him
here this morning to this ship. Remove all our fears. and to
say to us once again, it is I. Be not afraid. Would you do that for us this
morning, oh Lord, through the preaching of your gospel again,
through the one that you call to lift Christ up, and may you
enable us together to hear and to see that we may worship you
in spirit and in truth. Forgive us of our unbelief again
and again, as we look to the one who is faithful, Jesus Christ,
the righteous one. For it's in his name that we
pray, amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing hymn number 23 from the Spiral Gospel Hymns hymnal,
number 23. Pass me not, O gracious Father,
sinful, wretched though I be. Though you might in truth condemn
me, let your mercy fall on me. Love of God so everlasting, Blood
of Christ so rich and free, Grace of God so strong and saving,
Magnify them all in me. Pass me not, O blessed Savior. Let me hear your gracious call. I'm a guilty, helpless sinner. feet I fall, love of God so everlasting,
blood of Christ so rich and free, grace of God so strong and saving,
magnify them all in me. Pass me not, O mighty Spirit,
You can cause the dead to live. Speak the word of saving power,
Give me faith and make me live. Love of God so everlasting, Blood
of Christ so rich and free, Grace of God so strong and saving,
Magnify them all in me. Pass me not, O poor lost sinner! If you will, you can save me. Reach down with your hand of
mercy, saving others, Lord, save me. Love of God so everlasting,
blood of Christ so rich and free. Grace of God so strong and saving,
magnify them all in me. Please be seated. We open your Bibles again with
me, please, to Zechariah chapter 9. We're going to continue in
this same passage. And I want to begin by quoting
what the Lord told Moses at Mount Sinai. I will in no wise clear
the guilty. I will in no wise clear the guilty."
And what God was saying is that I am a God of absolute holy justice. My law is inflexible, and I will
punish every sin - every sin. That's what the scripture says
here. Look, verse 9, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, thy king cometh unto
thee. He is just. Just. God cannot save without
satisfying his justice. And that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ came to do. He came to satisfy the holy justice
of God so that God's nature would not be compromised. Most folks think that somehow
God's going to just forgive them because he's a merciful and loving
God. That may be - that may be the
first cause of his salvation. The first cause of our salvation
is that he has loved us with an everlasting love, but it doesn't
end there. Justice had to be satisfied. Sin had to be paid for. And as I said in the first hour,
we all come into this world at enmity with God. And the father
told the son, he said, sit down here at my right hand until I
make thine enemies thy footstool. So all the enemies of God, which
is everybody, is either going to be found like Mary sitting
at the footstool of the Lord Jesus Christ, constrained by
his love, or they will find themselves with his foot on their neck being
consumed by his wrath. The justice of God must be satisfied. The only way that God could be
just and justify us was to put all the guilt on our substitute,
our sin bearer. and exercise the full fury of
his wrath against the Lord Jesus Christ on behalf of his people. There's no salvation apart from
justice. That's what the Lord is saying. When I come, I'm going
to come lowly, riding upon an ass. I'm going to draw all my
people to myself by my constraining love, by my mercy and my compassion
for them. But at the same time, I'm going
to come as a just God, for I cannot clear the guilty. They're guilty. Their sin must be paid for. The justice of God. God's holy
law must be satisfied. It is inflexible. No exceptions, no exclusions. The scripture makes it clear
that every jot and every tittle must be fulfilled. And the Lord
said, heaven and earth and pass away, but my word shall never
pass away. And then he told John the Baptist,
he said, I've come to fulfill all righteousness, to satisfy
the demands of God's holy law on behalf of my people. What hope? We're not looking
for God to save us apart from His justice. The Lord came as
a just God. Job chapter 25 verse 4 says,
how can a man be justified with God? How can he that is born of a
woman be made clean? And then the next verse says,
even the moon and the stars are not pure in his sight. The amoral luminaries in space
that have never sinned, the scripture says they're not pure in his
sight. How are we going to be pure in his sight? How's it going
to be? Turning me to Psalm 143, this, I hope, is going to be
a message of encouragement and hope to the believer and that
those who have yet to experience the grace of God will be drawn
by His Spirit to come, to cast all their hope on Him. Psalm 143, look at verse one. Hear my prayer, O Lord, give
ear to my supplications. Lord, I need for you to supply
me with a righteousness outside of myself. I need you to supply
me with a justice that I can't satisfy. Give ear to my supplication
in thy faithfulness. Answer me, and in thy righteousness,
and enter not into judgment with thy servant." Lord, don't judge
me by your law. If you enter into judgment with
me, you remember what Aaron had to do? Aaron had to bear, and
Aaron's a picture of Christ as our high priest, Aaron had to
bear the iniquity of the holy things. That means that if God
judges me and you based on what we're doing right now, we're
going to hell for it. That's the truth. The Lord Jesus
Christ has to bear the iniquity, how much iniquity there is in
what we're doing right now. I know there is for many. I freed
out a long time ago, I can't get out of my own way. I mean,
I'd love to be able to get in this pulpit and have no flesh
and no consideration for anything other than the Gospel and God,
and I can't do it. I can't. I mean, you can't sit
there and have undivided attention to Christ, can you? Can you? The Lord's got to bear the inequity
of our holy things. And that's what David's saying,
enter not into judgment with thy servant. Lord, if you judge
me by the best thing I've ever done, I'm going to hell for it.
For in thy sight shall no man living be justified. For in thy
sight, no man living shall be justified. He can't justify himself. Lord, you're going to have to
justify me. Here comes our King. He's coming lowly upon an ass,
and the Lord says, Rejoice! Rejoice, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, you daughters of Jerusalem! Your King is coming unto you,
and He's going to satisfy justice. He's going to satisfy justice
so that there's no wrath to fear. No wrath. The full fury of God's
wrath was poured out on our substitute on Calvary's cross. The wrath
of God, as we saw in the first hour, will come. They will come
against all those who will not bow now. Turn with me to Romans chapter
5. We're looking at the justice of God. There's no salvation
apart from justice. Don't think. You know, Scripture says, you
thought that I was altogether such a one as thyself. Someone
offends you, and they come to you pleading your forgiveness,
and they're genuinely broken for it, you forgive them because
of the compassion that you have in your heart. You don't demand
retribution. You don't demand justice. Don't think God's that way. I'm
not like you. I'm holy. I'm other than you
are. Now, I'm not suggesting in any
way that you've got more compassion in your heart than God does.
Oh, no. The love of God is seen in the
sacrifice that He made of Himself on Calvary's cross. For greater
love hath no man than this, that He lay down His life for His
friend. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son. Where our compassion is nothing like His compassion,
But what I'm saying is that we don't demand justice from one
another. Why? Because we don't want somebody
to demand justice from us. We extend forgiveness and compassion
because if they turn around and demand justice for us, it's eye
for an eye and tooth for a tooth, and we're in trouble. God doesn't have to fear anybody
asking justice from him or demanding justice of him. So our God is - His compassion
is not - nothing like our compassion, but it's not without justice.
His justice must be met. Rejoice. Justice has been satisfied. The law has been fulfilled. The
wrath of God has been put away. Sin's been buried in the depths
of the sea. Rejoice, ye daughters of Zion. He has come riding upon an ass
lowly, and He brought justice with Him. You have your Bibles open to
Romans chapter 5. Look with me at verse 6. For when we were
yet without strength - when we were yet without strength, not
when we were of little strength, but when we were dead in our
trespasses and sins, unable to do anything for ourselves, without
strength, Christ died for the ungodly. That's who he died for. So are you ungodly? Now, you
can look up that word. It's actually the word worship
with the Greek alpha in front of it. And when the alpha or the A is
put in front of a Greek word, it negates that word. It makes
that word the opposite of what it is. And so this word ungodly literally
translated means unable to worship God, unable to come into the presence
of God on your own, unable to present anything before
a holy God that would enable you to enter into His presence.
That's who Christ died for, the ungodly. the ones who cannot
worship on their own, the ones who are dependent upon the Lord
Jesus Christ to present His righteousness on their behalf and rent His
veil in order for them to be able to come and enter into the
presence of God. They cannot come on their own.
They're ungodly. They're unable to worship. They
can't enter into the presence of a holy God unless they'd be
consumed. Even Aaron, when he went into
the Holies of Holies to take blood and put on the mercy seat.
He had to go, don't come in here without blood, Aaron. Now Aaron may have, you know,
he may not have been thinking the right things or whatever,
I don't, but he could not enter into that Holies of Holies without
blood. If he did, God's going to kill
him. You and I cannot come to the presence of God without the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, but all with his blood. With
his blood, what's the Lord? What the Lord said to Aaron,
Aaron, you put that blood right there on the mercy seat and here
I will meet with you. I will meet with you. When we were yet without strength,
without ability, without any righteousness and inability to
come into the presence of God, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die. Now that means a self-righteous. Nobody's going to lay down their
life for somebody who's self-righteous. Yet, peradventure for a good
man, some would dare die. If someone was good, you might
be willing to lay your life down for them. But God committeth
His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, We weren't
just self-righteous. We weren't good. We were in opposition
with God. We had our fish raised to God. We were not believing on the
Lord. We trusted in our own righteousness.
We were at enmity with God. And why were we yet sinners?
Christ died for us. Much more than being out justified
by his blood. And here's the king. This is
Zechariah chapter nine, verse nine. Rejoice, O daughter of
Zion. Shout, you daughters of Jerusalem.
Your king has come unto you. And he's coming with justice.
Justice. He's gonna satisfy justice so
that you don't have to fear the wrath of God. And here's what
he says. Be now justified. justified by His blood, we shall
be saved from wrath through Him. Oh, that's the only way to be
safe from the wrath of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming
again. We saw that in Revelation chapter 19. He's coming on the
white side again. His eyes are going to be like
fire. His tongue is going to be like
a sword. He's not coming by me. He's coming
with a lead with all the angels of glory. He's coming as a conquering
king with an army. I mean, God used one angel in
the Old Testament to kill 10,000 people. One angel wiped out a
whole army. Well, what's the world going
to do when the heavenly hosts come with the word Jesus Christ
as a conquering king? King of kings, the Lord of lords
written upon his thigh. I don't want anything to do with
that, do you? I really don't. And we don't have to. Because he's come riding upon
an ass, lowly, compassionate towards his people. satisfying
justice. For if when we were enemies,
verse 10, all men are enemies of God. We're
born into this world enemies of God. Someone says, I've never
hated God. I've never anything against God.
I've always loved God. That's not what scripture says.
That's not what the scripture says. If when we were yet enemies of
God, we were reconciled to God by
the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be
saved by his life. And not only so, but we also
joy in God through the Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received
The covering. The atonement. Men left to themselves
will do whatever they have to do to try to atone for themselves. Try to make things right with
God. And God saying to us, you can't
make things right with me. You can't atone for your sins.
You can't offer me anything that's going to satisfy my divine justice. That's why I sent my son. to fulfill all righteousness.
Go back with me to our text. Behold, thy king is coming unto
thee, and he's come. Remember, this was prophesied
500 years before the Lord came, riding upon that ass on his triumphal
entry into Jerusalem. And all the people were saying,
Hosanna, Hosanna. And just a few days later, that
same crowd was saying, crucify him, crucify him. That was all
part of God's purpose. He is just. Having salvation. Now, on the margin of my Bible,
there's a translation given for that phrase, which is saving
himself. That's the literal translation
of having salvation. And we know that salvation is
of the Lord, and there's no salvation apart from what he provides.
When David sinned in Psalm 51, he said, return unto me the joy
of thy salvation. Lord, it's yours. You're the
one that purposed it. You're the one that fulfilled
it. You're the one that exercises it. You're the one that makes
it effectual. You're the one that brings it
to its fruition. It's your salvation. But here
the scripture says God is saying to you and me that when your
king comes, he's going to come with justice for the purpose
of saving himself. Save himself. Our union with Christ is so real. The scripture refers to the church
as the body of Christ. How much a part of your body
is your hand, or your eye, or your ear, or your foot? That's
a pretty important part, isn't it? Just let it get injured and
see if the whole rest of your body doesn't tend to it. And
the Lord's saying, I came to save myself. The church of the
Lord Jesus Christ is called the Bride of Christ. And the man
and the woman are to become one flesh. And the scripture says,
as He is, so are we. We're in Christ. We're in Christ. He said, I come to save myself,
save my body, save my bride. You see, the body benefits from
what the head does. That's why Paul said, when Christ
was crucified, I was crucified. When Christ was risen from the
grave, I was risen from the grave. That I might know the fellowship
of his suffering. Somebody's phone's going off.
Somebody help me out with that, if you don't know. If it's not
yours, find out whose it is, please. Thank you. Look at verse 12. Turn you to the stronghold, ye prisoners of hope. You prisoners of hope. Now, a prisoner is a person who
is bound captive. And I'm going to make a statement
that is true. All men are prisoners. All men
are prisoners. All men are bound captive. Don't
think for a minute that you're just willy-nilly free on your
own to do whatever you want. All men are bound. All men are
prisoners. You're either a prisoner to the
law of God and a prisoner to sin, or you're a prisoner to
Christ, one or the other. One or the other. And both groups are willing prisoners. They're winning prisoners. We
were willing to be prisoners to our own sin. We were willing
to be bound by the law. until the Lord made us willing
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and become his bondservant. Isn't that what Paul called himself?
He said, I'm a bondservant for the Lord Jesus Christ. When God
gave the law to the children of Israel, he said, if a Hebrew
gets in trouble financially and has to put himself out as an
indentured servant to another Hebrew in order to pay his debt,
then when the debt's paid, that Hebrew is free to leave. He's
free to leave. But if while he was an indentured
servant paid off his debt, his master gave him a wife, then
when he leaves, he's got to leave his wife behind. And if they
had children while he was in indentured service to this master,
he's got to leave his children behind. But if that servant says
to his master, when the debt's paid, I love my master, I love
my wife, and I love my children, then the master is to take that
servant and carry him to the door of the house and bore his
ear through with an awl and mark him for life that he is now a
bondservant of that master. Now that story represents two
things. It represents what the Lord Jesus Christ did when he
came into this world and fulfilled all righteousness. And he said
at the end of his life, I love my master. I love my wife and
I love my children. And I will be bore through not
in my ear, but I'll be bore through in my heart. In my hands, in
my feet. In order to save my family. But
also represents everyone who's in Christ. Because the service has been
given, the debt's been paid. And the believer says, I love
my master. I love my wife, I love my children. Bore me through with the ear
and caused me to have an ear that hears everything. That's
what that was a symbol of. Being bore through with the ear
with it all was to mark that man that the master's word was
all he was concerned with. Whatever the master says, my
ear marks me as a servant of my master. What a glory in that
you're a child of God. That's your experience, isn't
it? You just, you believe everything God says, don't you? Your ears
tuned to him. You want to know what he has
to say. No, not, I'm not suggesting that
you're obedient to everything that God, that, that grieves
us that we're not able, but you cannot not believe what God says. Can you believe everything he
says? And there was a time when you were a prisoner to sin and
a prisoner to the law so that you could not believe God. And
now you can't not believe Him. That's what the Lord meant when
He said, I've come to set the prisoner free. and I've come
to lead captivity captive. You're either going to be captive
to sin and captive to the law and captive to your inability
to worship God and captive to your unbelief, or you're going
to be captive to Christ. With your ear bored through,
listening intently for whatever he has to say, speak, Lord, for
thy servant listeneth. Isn't that what Samuel said? A prisoner of hope. You see, those who are prisoners
to sin and prisoners to the law have no hope. They have no hope. All men. You remember when Potiphar's
wife falsely accused Joseph and he was put in prison? And the
scripture says that whatever was done in that prison, Joseph
was the doer of it. It's a picture of Christ. What did Christ do when he came
into this world? He came into this prison that
we live in. And there were two men in that
prison that he interpreted dreams for. One was a baker and one
was a butler. And they both had a death sentence
on them. And they had a dream while they were in prison. They
came to Joseph and Joseph interpreted the dream and said to the baker,
you're going to die. In three days you're going to
be brought out of prison and Pharaoh's going to take your
head off. And he said to the butler, In three days, you're
gonna be taken out of prison, and you're gonna be restored
to the right hand of Pharaoh. You see, the baker and the butler
represent every one of us. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this prison of death that you and I live in, and he said to
every one of us, some are gonna die, some are gonna live. I'm the interpreter of that. And God's people say, oh Lord,
have mercy on me. Lord, save me. Cause my face
to shine upon me again and we shall be saved. A prisoner of hope. What are you a prisoner of? The
word hope. here in this passage is used
as a noun. A noun is a person, place, or
thing. Some places in the scriptures,
the word hope is used as a verb. When God tells us, he says, why
art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God. The Lord's admonishing, commanding
us, put your hope in God. That makes hope a verb. It's
an action word, something we do. And the Lord calls on us
to put our hope in God. But there's only a few places
where hope is used as a verb. In the majority of places, hope
is used as a noun. And it's used specifically to
identify the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the hope of our glory. And so when the scripture says
that God's people are prisoners of hope, They're prisoners of
Christ. They're bond servants of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Thou art my hope, O Lord God. Thou art my trust. That's what
David said in Psalm 71. Turn with me to Romans chapter
four. Romans chapter four. Abraham, who is called the father of the faithful, is used
in Romans chapter 4 as an example of faith. and a pattern of faith. In other words, what Abraham
experienced is exactly the same thing that every believer experiences.
And so when God says in verse 17 of Romans chapter four, as
it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations before
him whom he believed even God who quickeneth the dead and calleth
those things which be not as though they were. This matter of hope is believing
when God says something that has not yet happened is happened. And it's believing God is believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. You've not yet entered into glory.
You've not yet seen him as he is and been made like him. You've
not yet shed this flesh, but your hope is that you believe
that which has not yet happened as if it did, because God said
so. Now, when a man makes a promise
to us, he may not have the integrity
to fulfill that promise. That's the reason that the bank
requires you to sign the note when you borrow money. They don't
know you, but that's your oath, isn't it? Or he may not have
the ability to fulfill his promise. Are either of those things true
of God? Scripture says our God cannot lie. And He possesses
all power and all ability. So what is the source of our
hope? It's the declared Word of God.
And there's nothing more sure in life. There's nothing more
sure in this world. All the promises of God. All
the promises of man. are unstable at best, just like
your promises are, just like my promises. The only thing that's
sure and steadfast is the promise of God. And so we rest our hope
on his promises, don't we? Look at verse eight, that's all
Abraham had. All Abraham had was the word
of God. He didn't have anything else. God didn't give him a map.
He didn't tell him about the place he was going to be. He
said, Abraham, you come, you follow me. I'm going to take
you out of the earth of the Calvary. I'm going to lead you to a land
that you know not. And step by step he walked by
faith. And so it is in this life for
the child of God. We live by faith, not by sight. Believing God each step of the
way. Believing God. I'm here to call
on each of us to believe God. Just believe God. Why would you
risk believing anybody else? His word is sure. Believe me. Verse 18, Romans chapter 4. Who against hope. Now that's
a noun. Who against hope. He believed in Christ. Against
all evidence. He believed in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He had no place else to go but
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's what faith
is. And most men, most folks just
believe in themselves. You know, I got this. I can,
I can handle this. No, you can't. And even if you
are able to handle the circumstances of this life, I promise you you're
not going to be able to handle death. Not going to happen. So Abraham, who against hope,
believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations
according to that which was spoken, so thy seed, so shall thy seed
be, and being not weak in faith, he believed God. Who do you believe? What do you
believe? Abraham had a word from God,
and he just believed God. What was the word from God, Abraham?
Now, this is after the Lord took him out of the earthicalities,
and he lived many years in the promised land. He still didn't
have a child. He said, Lord, I've got Eliezer, my servant.
Maybe he'll be my seed. The Lord said, no. This time
next year, Sarah's going to have a child. Well, wait a minute.
Sarah's 90 years old. That's not possible. Against
hope, he believed God. How is it possible for a woman
who's gone through menopause 40 years ago, 50 years ago, how
is it possible for her to have a child? And here I am, 100 years
old, how is that possible? And God said to Abraham, after
Sarah had laughed, is anything too hard for God? Is there anything
I can't do? Am I not able to save to the
uttermost anyone that comes to me by Christ? Yeah. Yeah, nothing's
too difficult. And so against hope, he hoped,
he believed in hope that he might become the father. And being
not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead when
he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness
of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promises
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God, and being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he
was able also to perform. Abraham's being given to us as
a pattern of faith. Are you fully persuaded with
all of your heart, mind, and soul that everything God says
is true? that everything he promised he's
going to do, that it's impossible for him to lie, and that he has
the power to accomplish everything he's promised? If you're a believer,
you're saying, yeah, I do. And you'll say with that man,
Lord, help down my unbelief. But by that, what you're saying
is, help my flesh. My flesh doesn't believe anything.
But this new man that you've given me, this spirit of grace
and faith that I have in my heart, I believe everything that God
says. I can't not believe him. I used
to be a prisoner of sin and I could not believe God. I couldn't worship
God. I couldn't come to God. Now I'm a prisoner of hope. I'm
bound to the word of God. I'm bound to his promises. I've
got no place else to go. That's what it is to have faith.
That's what Abraham's saying. That's what the Lord's saying
about Abraham. And that's true of every believer. I can't not
believe God. I've been made a prisoner, a
bondservant, a prisoner of hope. And Christ is my hope. And therefore
it was imputed to him for righteousness. Because God made him a prisoner
of hope, now Abraham now is righteous. Righteous because he's believing
God. Now it was not written for his
sake alone. that it was imputed to him, but for us also to whom
it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our
Lord from the dead. This wasn't just for Abraham,
this is for you, this is for me. The same thing's true of
every child of God who's been made a prisoner of hope. You and I are either prisoners
of hope or we're prisoners of sin. That's true. What do we believe? That the
Lord Jesus Christ, verse 25, was delivered up for our offenses. He bore in His body all the sins
of all of God's people and satisfied God's divine wrath once and for
all, putting away those sins, establishing righteousness and
justice. And He was raised again. That little preposition for, I've
told you this before, you know this is true. It's translated most often because
of. Okay, when the Lord, and here's
the point of this passage, when the Lord Jesus Christ bowed his
mighty head on Calvary's cross and declared, it is finished,
everything necessary to make us justified before God was satisfied
in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And God Almighty was
obligated to raise the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead because
everybody that he bore their sins for was justified. So he
was offered up for our offenses and raised again because of our
justification. Believing the Lord Jesus Christ
is risen by the power of God. Therefore, Therefore, being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here we are, prisoners of hope. Only the prisoners of hope have
peace. We were at one time, according
to Ephesians chapter two, without God and without hope in this
world. But now, but now, we're prisoners of hope. and
what hope we have. The sure promises of God fulfilled
in the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith
into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. The glory of God is going to
be seen when our eyes open in glory and we see the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's when the hope of, that's
when the glory of God is going to be seen and that's our hope.
He's our hope. He's our hope. And this is the only thing that
puts everything else in this world in its proper place. I
know we all get so consumed with the things of this world, but
here's what the Lord Jesus Christ said. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,
and all these other things should be added unto you. And not only so, verse three,
but we glory in the tribulation also, knowing that tribulation
worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. We wouldn't be casting our care
upon him if we didn't have any cares. We wouldn't need someone
to save us if we weren't lost. We wouldn't have to have a deliverer
if we weren't in trouble. So we glory in these troubles
and tribulations knowing that experience leads to hope. And hope maketh not ashamed. How many times have you put your
hope in somebody and you ended up with an empty basket? How many times have you been
ashamed that you trusted them or somebody trusted you? This
hope can never be made a shame because here's why the hope of
glory, Christ in you is your hope of glory is what the scripture
says. He's our hope. We're prisoners
of hope. Rejoice, O daughter of Zion.
Shout, ye daughters of Jerusalem. Your king is coming to you. And
he's come satisfying justice. And he's come saving himself.
And he's come riding upon a lowly ass. And he's made you to be
a prisoner of hope. Hope maketh not shame. Why? Because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which he has given unto
us. In closing, turn with me to Hebrews. Romans chapter eight says we
are saved by hope. We're saved by hope. But hope
that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why does
he have hope for it? But if we hope for that which
we see not, we do patiently wait, wait for the fulfillment of that
hope. And then at the end of 1 Corinthians
13, the scripture says right now we have faith, hope, and
charity, love. And the greatest of these is
love. Why? Because hope's not gonna be in
heaven. Faith's not going to be in heaven. Not as a verb,
the noun will be there. But faith will be our experience
and hope will be our sight. And the only thing left in glory
is going to be perfect love. Hebrews chapter 6 and I close. Verse 13. For when God made promise to
Abraham, this is how many times Abraham is used as an example
of faith. God made a promise to Abraham.
Abraham believed God and was counted in for righteousness.
And he hoped against hope. His body being 90 years old and
100 years old, and Sarah's being 90, he believed God and was strong
in faith, believing that what God had promised he would perform.
He would perform. Did God perform what he promised
he would perform when he said, your king cometh unto you? Did
he? Did he satisfy the law? Did he
present himself as our righteousness? Is justice met? Abraham believed God, and when
God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no
greater, he swore by himself. When you have to sign a debt,
a note, in order to secure an oath, you're signing by your,
it's not just, generally it's not just your name, it's some
other asset that you might have that you're giving as a collateral,
isn't it? The Lord's name is his collateral.
Surely I blessed, surely blessing, verse 14, I will bless thee and
multiply, I will multiply thee. And so after he had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise. Brethren, that's what we're doing
right now. We're patiently enduring until we obtain the promise of
our hope. For men verily swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
You make a promise, you sign the document, that ends the strife. We're in God willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise. And that's all he shows us to
the heirs of promise. You say, well, I don't have any
idea what he's talking about. I don't care what he's talking
about. This is no interest to me. I want to get back into my
life and back into the world. This is just religious stuff.
Well, God's not speaking to you. But I'm here to tell you there's
some folks here that are hanging on every word of God. And that's
the only hope they have. The only hope they have. He's gonna show unto the heirs
of His promise the immutability of His counsel, and He confirmed
it by an oath. Told Abraham what He was gonna
do, and then He slew those animals and walked between them with
a smoking pot and a burning furnace, and that was a picture of Christ's
sacrifice on the cross, and wouldn't God say, not only I've confirmed
my promises with an oath, I've given you my word, and I've
confirmed my word with my actions. You know, sometimes all man has
is their word. And their actions, sometimes our actions don't follow
our words, do they? God's actions follow his words.
So I confirmed the immutability of my counsel with my word, with
my oath. that by two immutable things,
and let me say, God's the only one that that word can go toward.
You tell me something that's immutable besides God. That's a divine attribute, isn't
it? It doesn't apply to anything
else. And the Lord said, you sons of Jacob, I'm the Lord,
and I change not. I'm immutable, and that's the
only reason you're not consumed. I've established the covenant
of grace, and I'm the same yesterday, today, and forever. I'm not going
to change. I'm going to fulfill my promises. I had a council
meeting with my Son and the Spirit and the covenant of grace. I
fulfilled it with an oath, and I'm going to complete everything
that I've purposed. by two immutable things in which
it is impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation. A strong consolation. Oh, I've
got hope. This isn't as God, I hope it's
gonna rain, I hope my ball team's gonna win, I hope things are
gonna work out, I hope my marriage gets fixed. No, this is a strong
consolation. This is the promise of God to
save his people. You who have fled for refuge
to lay hold upon the hope set before us. We have a hope. We have Christ in glory seated
at the right hand of God who's making intercession for us. We
have an advocate with the Father. We've got a righteousness with
God. We've got all the blessings of God in Him in the heavenlies.
And we've taken hold of Him. Which hope we have. as an anchor
of the soul, both sure and steadfast. Now what other hope do you have
that's sure and steadfast, that's an anchor for your soul? There's no place else to go for
that kind of hope. That's why the Lord said, you
prisoners of hope. which entereth into that within
the veil, whither the forerunner is for
us entered, even Jesus made a high priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek. Oh, that veil rent. From top
to bottom it rent. The holies of holies was exposed.
The mercy seat was there. And God says, now come, come. The sacrifice has been made.
The blood's been shed. I've confirmed my immutable counsel
with my immutable oath. Stay out there. You're going
to be a prisoner to the law. And the law shows no mercy. Come in here and you'll be a
prisoner of hope that will be sure and steadfast and anchor
for your soul. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
oh, how we pray that you would give us ears to hear your words
and to believe you. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Number 232, let's stand together. We'll sing this hymn a cappella,
number 232. Christ, our Redeemer, died on
the cross, died for the sinner, paid all his due. Sprinkle your soul with the blood
of the Lamb, you. When I see the blood, when
I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass
over you. Chiefest of sinners, Jesus in the fountain open for sin
and I will pass will pass over you when I see the blood when
I see the blood when I see the blood I will pass, I will pass over
you. Judgment is coming, all will
be there, each one receiving justly his due. Hide in the saving, sin-cleansing
blood, and I will pass, will pass over you. When I see the
blood, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will
pass, I will pass over you. Oh, great compassion. O loving kindness, faithful and
true, find peace and shelter under the blood, and I will pass,
will pass over you. When I see the blood, When I see the blood, when I
see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you. Thank you.