Turn to Hebrews 11. We've been
going through this chapter at a very slow pace. And we refer
back to this first verse often because it reminds us of this
very fact of what faith is. What is it to believe God? Now,
faith in Hebrews 11. Now, faith is the substance,
that means the assurance. When I say, when I look into
my heart and I think to myself, okay, I believe this. This is
something I believe. God's Word here, what He's saying,
I believe it in my heart. I believe it with all my soul.
That's the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things
not seen. Things that we hope for because
we can't see them yet. We hope for eternal life, don't
we? We hope to be numbered in that number of folks that the
Lord Jesus has loved from before the world was. We have a hope. I want to talk to you this morning
about our only hope. This last week, two folks of whom we know have
passed on through that doormark death. One, whom in all outward appearances
loved the gospel, the good news, She loved to hear about Christ
and Him crucified, just as you and I do. She loved to hear about the one
who stood as her substitute before the almighty judgment
of God. And the other gave very, very
little. Very little creed to God's holy word at all. On one hand, one had attended
services all that she could for many years. She could have gone
anywhere, you know. There's a lot of churches around
here. You can go to ten different churches, I believe, within a
two-mile radius around this one spot. Ten different kinds of religion. Yet God drew her here to rescue. She loved to hear that gospel. She came here faithfully. As
long as she could drive herself, she showed up here on Sunday
mornings. She came to hear the message
of Christ over and over and over again and again. She professed
that these were the words of life, yet we don't put our hope for
her in anything that she did, do we? The other had very little to
say. He had very little to say about
the Son of the true and living God. He came on an occasion. He came on an occasion of a request
of his wife. He's attended here a few times
recently. We've seen him here in his wheelchair. And I even went and spent a couple
of hours with him one day to relieve Roberta of the care for
her husband. Let her get out, go shopping,
go do something. And in that time that I was able
to spend with him alone, there was very, very little that we
could agree upon when it comes to the sovereignty of God. Now before you think that I'm
pointing my finger at him, I'm going to tell you the same thing
I just told you about Maxine. We don't put, we don't put our hope in what
people have done or what they're doing. Our hope is in only one place.
There's only one that we can have any sure hope of. What did we read back there?
Faith, believing, is the substance of things hoped for. It's the
proof of things hoped for. There's only one hope. There's only one gospel. There's only one Savior. There's
one substitute, one sacrifice, one mediator between men and
God, and that is Christ Jesus the Lord, the hope of glory. My only prayer of hope for both
families and friends is this, there is
one body, one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of
your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all who is above all and through all
and in you all. That's in Ephesians 4 verse 4-6.
That's my hope for you. And this is the one called Jesus,
for he shall save his people. That's my only hope. That's the
only hope every child of God has, our only hope, and that
is in the Lord Jesus Christ and what he's done. Paul declares
that I wish to know nothing of you save Christ and Him crucified. Can you grasp that? Do we grasp
that enough? Do we allow ourselves to put
any hope at all in our attendance here to rescue? Do we allow ourselves
to put any hope at all in our support of the ministry of the
Gospel of Christ going out from this place? Oh, I hope not. Because that's all vanity. There's
no assurance in that hope. Our only hope can be that our
faith be in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our assurance. Our Lord tells us in Romans 10,
verse 13-15, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord
shall be saved. But he goes on, he says, through
the Apostle Paul, how then shall they call on Him in whom they
have not believed? And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? I want to talk to you this morning
about our only hope. We were looking in our Friday night study, talking about separating the
wheat from the tares. We don't want to do that ever.
You and I don't have the privilege that God has to look upon the
hearts of men and women. We never want to think to ourselves,
and I was expressing this point as I was pointing my finger across
at the empty table where Brother Mike and Shirley used to sit.
I pointed out there's three fingers pointing right back at John.
You see, because John is acceptable to doing this very thing, and
that is to judge. I fall into that very trap that
I'm warning you about. I'm warning myself about. The
trap of saying, how can this person be saved when they're
doing this? How can that person be saved when they're doing that?
You know what we could do? We could say that about Jacob,
couldn't we? We could say that about David,
couldn't we? We could say that about Abraham.
How could God save that one? How about we say this instead?
How could God save me? My only hope for those who have gone on to
be through that doormark death or for myself is the Lord Jesus
Christ, that I belong to Him. Paul puts it this way, that I
be found in Him, having no righteousness of myself, which is of the law. but the righteousness of God
which is in Christ Jesus. We hear these words often from
those who have lost a loved one, don't we? These words that come from their lips, they say
they're in a better place. I think it's just because it's
an easier way to explain death to some who know not the Lord. How do we know? What assurance do we have that
a loved one may be in a better place? Why do they think that? Maybe
it's because the person was good. Maybe they were kind. My neighbor,
some of you remember that he stayed with us for a little while
here while we were waiting for the assisted living home to open
up a spot for him. Arlie, he was probably one of the meekest,
nicest, loving men that I've ever met. I was thinking about,
because he lived across the street from us for 33 years. I was trying
to think of one of the, times that I remember him doing something
that was just beyond being nice. We had some folks that lived
behind him that would love to play their mariachi music until two or three
in the morning sometimes on a weekday. And I remember him saying to
me, he says, I went out there one night, he says, I just, I'd
had enough of it. I couldn't take it anymore. He
says, I hollered over the fence, hey, unless you want to hear
me play my trumpet at 6 o'clock tomorrow morning with your hangovers,
you guys better stop it. That's about the meanest thing
I've ever heard him say. He said they stopped. He was
a trumpet player. And I think he'd have done it.
I know I would have. I wouldn't have warned him about
it. I'd have gone out there and hung over the fence of that trumpet
at 6 o'clock in the morning with their hangover and just blared
it out. But he didn't. He's one of the nicest guys I've
ever met in my life. When I preached his funeral,
or his celebration of life, I surprised everybody. I surprised
them with this. I said, I have a hope. that Arlie
is in the heavens with God Almighty, and it has nothing to do with
how good a person he was. But he was such a nice guy, I
don't care what he was. Our hope is not in what people
do. So it might come as a shock to
you when I say I hope, I have a hope for both Maxine and for
Ron. And I talked to Roberta a little
bit about this. It comforted her a great deal.
I have a hope for both of these two that we know that they're
truly in a better place, but it has nothing to do with what
they've done. Our sister, though she had not
been here for quite some time, under the preaching of the gospel
in a long time, she never looked elsewhere for her peace with
sin. Where are you going to go? Where can we go where we hear
the words of life? I mean, true life. Guaranteed
life. Not a life that depends upon
something we have done, but a life that is guaranteed through the
Son of the Living God. Where else are you going to go?
Nobody else talks about Him in that way. Everybody else talks
about Him as being somebody who's waiting for you to accept Him.
He's waiting for you to accept His mercy and His grace. We know, don't we? We know that
if God left us to wait, if he was waiting on us, he'd be waiting,
and waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and it would never come
until he did something about it. She loved to hear the gospel. She never looked anywhere else
for peace. She believed and she professed
that Christ and Him crucified as her only hope of salvation. She put no trust in anything
she did or had in this flesh. The Apostle Paul puts it this
way, he says, for we are the circumcision which worship God
in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. That's Psalms 3, verse 3. She
trusted God. That's how you put it. That's
as simple as you can put it right there. She trusted. She believed. She believed who
He was. She believed that He was God
Almighty in the flesh. Not just some man who did good
things and walked this earth, but THE God Almighty in the flesh. The very One who created all
that we have. She believed, she believed that her only righteousness was
a righteousness found in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of
God. And she believes that God raised
Him from the dead because death could not hold Him. He was the
God of everything. He's the God of life. He's the
God of everything. Heaven and earth and under the
earth. All power had been given to Him. And she believed God
the Father accepted that sacrifice for her. She trusted God. She believed
His Word as true and right. Scriptures declare in John 3.16,
Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. In Hebrews 11, over and over
and over again, we're given testament of a great cloud of witnesses
who believed God, who believed His Word, who trusted He would
fulfill all that He had promised. Over in verse 4 we read, By faith
Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice. It was not
a sacrifice of his hands. It was a sacrifice of an animal. He had shed the blood of an animal
and a picture of Christ in his blood covering our sins. And
the Lord covered. covered Adam and Eve with the blood of animals, or
with the skins of animals. A picture of his covering as
well. Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice by faith. Another one over in verse 8,
we see by faith Abraham, which when he was called to go out
into a place which he should After received for an inheritance,
he obeyed and went out, not knowing whether he went. In verse 17, we read where Abraham
again, by faith, when he was tried, he offered up Isaac, and
he that received the promises offered up his only begotten
son. In verse 31, we read again, and by faith, the harlot Rahab
perish not with them that believe not, when she had received the
spies with peace." Remember what Rahab did? She hung that red
thread out the window of her home, and her home was spared
there in Jericho. These all died in faith. And
there's one who gave them that faith, and that same kept them
in faith. And I want to look at those two
verses. Turn over to Ephesians chapter 2 if you would. Ephesians
chapter 2. And read for yourselves these
very words that God is promising you and I through the writing
of Paul, the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesians.
It says there in verses 8 and 9, for by grace Are ye saved
through faith? And that not of yourselves, it
is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Now
turn over to 1 Peter chapter 1, and look with me over there.
1 Peter chapter 1. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ
to the strangers. Did you catch that? That's God's
people. Folks, we're strangers in this
world. If you go into any church anywhere and you tell them that
your God rules over everything, they're going to tell you, you're
crazy. You're a strange one. We're not
puppets. I have a right to decide my destination. You go in there and tell them,
if God leaves you to make that decision, you're going to take
the wrong path. If it weren't for God's love for me, I would
have. They'll tell you you're crazy. You're strange. What a different thing to say
in this world that God rules over everything, including my
will, including my soul, including my decisions. What does it say in the Psalms?
He causeth us. You know, we just read that,
didn't we? We just read that. What was that? Psalm 65. I'm
going to turn back over there for just a moment. Let me read
that again. I think we just read that, didn't
we? Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee. That's strange! God caused you to come to Him?
That's right. That's what His Word said. Strangers. Scattered. Those who
are scattered throughout time, throughout all the world, throughout
Pontius, throughout Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. And then He says this word. Oh,
this is the word the world of religious hate to hear. And that
is this. Elect. Called. Chosen. Love from before the
foundation of the world. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Did you notice
that all three of those points were from Him? They were all
about Him and nothing about you. He says, Grace unto you and peace
be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy,
abundant mercy and grace, hath begotten us again unto a lively
hope, a living hope, a hope in the One who is living and sitting
on His throne today by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. to an inheritance, incorruptible. You know why it's incorruptible?
Because it's of God. Who's going to corrupt God's
purpose? What kind of a God could be corrupted,
his purpose have corrupted? It wouldn't be worth calling
him God, would it? Maybe a nice guy, maybe this,
maybe that, but he wouldn't deserve the word God. An inheritance incorruptible
and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven
for you who are kept. Are you kept by something you're
doing here? Does it go on to explain next that you're kept
by what you do, going to church on a Sunday, or supporting the
gospel, or feeding the poor, or doing anything? No, it says
this, you are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed. in the last time. The point of
this salvation is that it is of the Lord from start to finish. And not only did He provide Himself
to sacrifice to God for our sins of His people, it says this,
whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son. That He might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Moreover, even so, Even more
than that, whom He did predestinate, them He also called. Whom He
called, them He also justified. And whom He justified, them He
also glorified. That's our hope. That's our sure
hope. How are you going to call on
one that you've not heard? You know what? I know that Ron has
heard the Word of God through myself, through his wife, through
sitting here under the preaching of the Gospel. It doesn't matter
how many times. How many times did the thief
on the cross hear the Gospel preached? It wasn't very long before he
said what he did to the Lord, was railing against Christ along
the other side with the other thief. Our Lord is talking about His
chosen people, His elect. This is our hope, that He has
an elect, that He has a chosen, that He has someone that He calls
My people. They will call me their God,
and I will call them My people." Our Lord makes this distinction
between His people and the world. When He asks some religious of
that day, they said, tell us plainly, are you the Christ?
And He said this, He says, I told you, and you believe not. The
works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me.
But ye believe not, because ye are not of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice. We see
here the ones who don't believe because they're not His sheep.
And these over here that hear His Word. There's our hope. I don't know if I'm saying, John,
do you hear the Word of God? Do you hear? Do you believe? That's our hope. We can't see that. But I can
grasp it in my mind because I hear the Word of God being told to
me. He has a people! And He saved
them! His sheep hear His voice, His
Word, and believe. This is my hope for this man. He has heard He's heard with ears of the flesh,
maybe God spoke to his heart. I know this, that the Lord of
glory shall lose none for whom he died. Turn over to the book
of Luke, chapter 23. Let me read this for you. All that
the Father giveth me, shall come to me, and him that cometh to
me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.
And this is the Father's will, which hath sent me, that all
which He hath given me I should lose nothing." Look at verse 39 over here in
Luke chapter 23. And one of the malefactors, which
were hanged, railed on him, saying, If thou be the Christ, save thyself
and us. But the other answering rebuked
him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing that thou art in
the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, We receive
the due reward of our deeds. Isn't that what we say? If God
were to leave us, we would receive exactly what our just reward
is? We've sinned against God. We
understand that sin requires death. The soul that sinned shall
surely die. But this man, he says, speaking
of the one who hung in the middle, hath done nothing amiss. He knew no sin. He was perfect
in everything that he did, including going to the cross for the sins
of his people. Verse 42, and he said unto Jesus,
Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom, and here's
what I want you to see. Right here, what a beautiful
statement. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today
shalt thou be with Me in Paradise. When did this man hear of the
Word of God? I'm glad the Lord didn't tell
us. He may have heard about the Lord
Jesus and the truth of Him just moments before. Through the words
of those wicked men who were standing there railing on the
cross, if you be the Christ, come down and save yourself.
That might have been all it took for the Lord to touch this man's
heart. You and I might look at it and
say, that's all it took, but did you know that it took a miracle?
Our Lord put everything in place. He created all it is, but it
was more for Him It cost Him more to save just one of His
people than it did to create all that is. It cost Him His
Son. Our Lord thanked the Father over
there in Luke 10. In that hour, Jesus rejoiced
in spirit and He said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and
the prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes, even so, Father,
for it seemed good in Thy sight. All things are delivered to Me
of My Father, and no man knoweth who the Son is but the Father,
and who the Father is but the Son, and He to whom the sun will
reveal him. And he turned unto his disciples
and he said privately, blessed are the eyes which see the things
that ye see. What did Moron see? Just as we don't base our judgment
on Maxine, By her faithfulness to the church, we don't base
our judgment on Ron. By his lack of, he heard the
gospel. I can't tell you how much that
brought warmth and peace to our dear
sister. It brought as much warmth and
peace to her about her husband as it does for you and I to think
of our dear sister Maxine, who's now sitting with Christ in heaven. No more tears. No more pain. She can hear perfectly now. She's
not stuck in bed alone in some hospital anymore. She's with
the millions who have gone on before us to be with the Lord. That's my hope. And it's the
same hope I have for Ron. Because it's a hope in our Savior,
the Lord Jesus, and in Him alone. You look at me. You see this man who has a lot of shortcomings. Remember who it is you listen
to? Who our Savior is? I have a hope to see both of
those folks, but my hope is not in any way
or anything of them. It is only in Christ. It is only
in His Word, just as the cloud of great witness is given in
Hebrews 11. I believe. At the last hour, God granted
one thief, one sinner, faith in Him, and
he believed. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sin, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace
ye are saved, and hath raised us together and made us to sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages
to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness
towards us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works,
lest men should boast. Let me close with this. Where is your hope? Where do you put your hope? Where is your hope for yourself
as well as these two that have passed on before us? Is it in what you've done? Is it in the change that may
have happened in your life? Maybe you don't do what you used
to do. Maybe you're a better person today than you were before.
Maybe you're kinder, more helpful. I warn you, if that's where your
hope to be in a better place is, your hope is vanity. Vanity
is worthlessness. It's like a shadow. There's nothing
there to put stock in. I pray your hope is only in Christ,
the God-man, God in the flesh, a body prepared for death as
it says in Philippians 2 verse 8, and being found in the fashion
of the man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. I pray your hope is in the fact
that God the Father accepted His only begotten Son's sacrifice
for His people. I pray that your hope, He accepted
Him as the Redeemer. As their Redeemer. I pray that
your only hope is that God accepted His Son as their justification. He accepted Him as their sanctification. As we read in Hebrews 10 verse
14, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are
sanctified, and he raised them to his own right hand, the hand
of all power." That's what we read in Hebrews 1 verse 3. "...who
being the brightness of his glory," speaking of Christ, "...and the
expressed image of his person, and upholding all things by the
word of his power, when he had by himself purged Our sins sat
down on the right hand of the majesty on high. The people of God have one hope. Christ Jesus the Lord. Our only
hope. Amen.