We're going to be in the book
of Hebrews again. We finished chapter 10, first hour. We're going to be
in Hebrews chapter 11, this hour. Hebrews chapter 11. Let's read our text, Hebrews
chapter 11. I just wanna look at the first verse for this hour.
Now, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. I've titled this message
Things Hoped For. Things Hoped For. God people,
as we heard the first hour, are given faith in time, faith to
believe God. By that faith, we have hope.
We have hope of eternal life. Where our faith comes from is
from the Lord, where it looks to is the Lord, and who gets
all the glory for it is the Lord. And even this hope that we have,
he gets all the glory for this hope. Everything that was accomplished,
he accomplished it. Therefore, we have hope. Now
we believe by this faith, we believe God. Did you know it's
impossible to believe God unless he gives you this faith? It's
true. He has to give you this faith.
If he doesn't, we'll never believe God. The miracle is we believe
God over self. We take sides with God over self. Lord, I am the sinner. I deserve
hell. I deserve to be eternally separated.
I deserve your wrath. And the Lord's reveals by faith
what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross of Calvary. And
we see that we no longer deserve that wrath because the sin has
been put away. What a hope. What a hope. Things that we hope in. We have
a hope of knowing he is faithful that promised. Not only is it
a miracle that we believe God, but another glorious truth is
that the Lord's not capable of lying. He cannot lie. cannot
lie, if he promised it, it's going to come to pass, or it
already has come to pass. That's our God. We can hope because
our God cannot lie. This hour I hope to look at a
few things that God's people hope in, hope for, because of
God's faith bestowed, things hoped for, things hoped for.
If I don't have this hope by grace, by His grace. If He doesn't give me this hope
by His grace, I don't have anything. I don't have anything. He says
in Job chapter 27, verse 8, for what is the hope of the hypocrite,
though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul? What's
the hope of the hypocrite when he gained? Matthew 16, 26 says,
for what is it What is a man profited if he shall gain the
whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give
in exchange for his soul? This is why we have hope. This is why we have hope is because
we don't try to gain the whole world. The Lord shut us up to
Christ, showed us that our righteousness is his filthy rags. We need his
righteousness. We hope in the righteousness
of Christ. We do not hope in our righteousness.
We do not hope in our getting. I heard a saying one time, and
it's a funny saying, but everybody, especially it's more predominant
now than it ever has been, but the saying goes, get all you
can, can all you get, and sit on the can. That's the saying.
And that's true, that's how society is, that's how we do, that's
how, by nature, what we try to accomplish physically. But when
it comes to this salvation, the Lord's the only one that did
the getting. He's the only one that did the getting. He must
give faith to believe he did all the getting. He accomplished
what he set out to do and he did. We have hope because he
said, it is finished. It is finished. First thing I wanna look at that
we hope in, I've already named three or four, but first thing
I wanna take the time to look at is mercy. We hope in the Lord's
mercy. Mercy is not getting what you
deserve. not getting what you deserve.
We hope in God's mercy and God's choice in having mercy on whom
he will have mercy and whom he will harden us. Turn with me
to Romans chapter nine. Verse 10 says, and not only this,
but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac,
for the children being not yet born, nor having done any evil,
any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election
might stand not of works, but of him that calleth. It was said
unto her, the elder shall serve the younger, as it is written,
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. What shall we say then,
is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he said
to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I
will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but
of God that showeth mercy. The miracle of mercy and having
hope in this mercy is that we see, we can see plainly why God
would hate Esau. We can see that. Especially if
the Lord's ever made you a sinner, you see why the Lord would hate
you, why the Lord would hate you. But the miracle is that
he chose to have mercy on Jacob. Why would he do that? Why would
he do that? Because he wanted a vessel of
honor for his glory. He wanted a vessel of honor for
his glory. This is the Lord's electing grace. This is the Lord choosing to
show mercy. And we hope in that choice. We
know that we would not have chose God. He's not that we chose him,
it's he chose us unto eternal life. No, we would have been
just like Esau and been aided. And I love how clear he's saying
this, the children not even being born yet, having done neither
done good or evil. It wasn't based upon them in
any way. It was based upon God's saving
grace, God choosing to show mercy on Jacob. So then it is not of
him that willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same
purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in
thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the
earth. Therefore he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and
whom he will he hardeneth. Now here's gonna be the response
to the non-believers, by the non-believers. Right here, this
is the response. Thou will say then unto me, why doth he yet
find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Saying it's God's fault then, blaming God. If I don't believe
the Lord Jesus Christ, it is all my fault. And if I do believe
the Lord Jesus Christ, God gets all the glory. It's his fault,
he did it. It's his fault. I lost my place. Thou wilt say
then, why do ye yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
Nay, but O man, who art thou that replies against God? Shall
the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made
me thus? Think about that. The thing formed, we're a creature.
We're creatures of dust and we think so highly of ourself. I
mentioned this Wednesday night, I think, but we are narcissistic
by nature, aren't we? And we're victims. That's exactly
what, Adam in the garden, that's exactly what came out whenever
the Lord said, Where art thou, Adam? And he said, here I am.
And he said, who told you that you were naked? And Adam said,
the woman that you gave me. It's your fault. I'm a victim
here. No, you're not. You're not a
victim. You chose to do that. It's evidence of what we are.
And what we see here is that if the Lord himself, if he doesn't,
if we think that we're high enough to look at God and say, what
are you doing? We're God in our own eyes, aren't we? Ebenezer
said, the Lord will do whatsoever he wants to with the inhabitants
of heaven and the earth, and who can say unto him, what doest
thou? Who can say unto him? The Lord had to put him in the
dirt for about seven years before he came to that, before the Lord
gave him repentance, didn't he? That's exactly what it was. Who
art thou that reply us against God? Hath not the potter power
over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel into honor
and another into dishonor? What if God willing to show his
wrath and to make his power known endure with much long suffering,
the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, that he might make
the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had
before prepared unto glory. And I like this next verse, even
us, even us. I want to be an us,
don't you? Even us whom he had called Not
of the Jews only, but also the Gentiles. He prepared his chosen
people as vessels of mercy. Vessels of mercy fitted unto
glory. made for His glory. We know our ending destination,
don't we? I don't wanna get ahead of myself.
That's one of the last things we hope for. I'm gonna get to,
I hope, this morning. But we hope in His mercy. We hope in
His mercy because He delights in showing it. If we knew He
was the God of mercy, but yet He never showed mercy, that wouldn't
do us any good, would it? But the scripture says that He
delights in showing mercy to His people. Psalm 100 says, for the Lord
is good, his mercy is everlasting. You know what that word everlasting
means? I've told you a hundred times. But I love it, that's
why I get stuck on it every time I see it. It means it never had
a beginning, it never had an end. That means you and I can't
do anything against it. You and I can't, we can't hurt
it. It won't expire, it doesn't diminish. That's what that means. And he
delights in showing it to you and I, dead dog sinners. His truth endureth to all generations.
His mercy's inexhaustible, inexhaustible. And he says that's exactly how,
listen what he says in Isaiah 54. With everlasting kindness,
will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord, thy redeemer. He's
talking to his people. With everlasting kindness, I'm
going to have mercy on you. That's the promise from the God
that cannot lie. Our God that cannot lie. I'm
going to have mercy on you. I'm going to save you, and then
you're gonna be saved. I'm gonna do all the work, and
I'm gonna let you know about it. And that's exactly what he did by
his mercy. That's why we hope in mercy.
We believe by his faith. We believe, well, that's exactly
why we hope in his mercy, is by faith. That's what gave us
the ability to do that. If the Lord gave us what we deserve,
we would have deserved a punishment for our sin. We would have deserved
the wrath of God, the judgment of God. Justice had to be satisfied. But by his mercy, we didn't receive
that. Christ received that for his
people on the cross in our room instead. And so by doing, satisfied
all the law's demands, satisfied justice once and for all, satisfied
God's wrath, there's no more wrath. The sword of justice has
pierced the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ and now it's been
sheathed, never to be opened again. towards the Lord's people. He's seated as a successful redeemer
of his people, and he is the successful redeemer of his people
all by his choice to be merciful on whom he will be merciful. Christ took what we owed, the
punishment of sin. He owned our sin as his own on
the cross, nailed them to his cross, the sin of his people,
and he put them away for every person he died for. They're gone
now. They're gone. The Lord's the
only one that can make something really disappear. Did you know
that? Make something appear out of nothing, but the only one
that can make something disappear, made our sin disappear. They're
gone. Never to be remembered again. We have a blessed hope
in his mercy. David said in Psalm 33, 18, behold,
the eyes of the Lord is upon them that fear him. And if you
fear him, it's because he called you to fear him. Gave you repentance
and faith. That's the only way we fear the
Lord. The eyes of the Lord are upon them that fear him, upon
them that hope in his mercy. You hope in his mercy? His eyes
are upon you then. He made you do that. He delights
in showing mercy on his people on behalf of his son, not because
of what we do, but because of what he done. Not because of
what we've accomplished, but because of what he's accomplished.
Zechariah 9 says, turn you to the stronghold, you prisoners
of hope. You like being a prisoner of hope? Yes, I do. Yes, I do,
a prisoner of hope. Even today do I declare that
I will render double unto thee. Double unto, what's the double?
Well, that's mercy and that's grace, isn't it? That's our second
point. Grace, mercy and grace. What
do we hope in? We hope in his mercy because
he delights in showing it. We love being a prisoner of it.
We love being a prisoner of his mercy, don't we? We hope in his
mercy to the saving of the soul and we hope in his grace His
grace. Turn with me to 2 Thessalonians
2. Both the men read from 1 Thessalonians,
and I thought they were initially going to read what I had wrote
down here, and that wouldn't have mattered, but I was very
thankful. As we come to the end of this
message here in just a few moments, we'll see that what has been
read coincides exactly with what the message is, so I'm thankful
when the Lord does that. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 16 and
17. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our God, our Father, even our Father, which hath loved
us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through
grace. comfort your heart, establish
you in every good work and word. We have a good hope through grace. We hope in the Lord's grace,
the everlasting, that's another time he's used everlasting, never
had a beginning, never had an end. We have everlasting consolation
with our heavenly father by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Song says, was grace that taught
my heart to fear and grace, my fears relieved. By grace, the
Lord makes us a sinner. And by grace, he shows us the
Savior. By grace, he shows us that we deserve hell. And by
grace, he says, but I put away your sin, you shall not die.
That's grace. God ever makes us a sinner, we
will hope in his amazing, glorious, sovereign, saving grace. We'll
hope in that. It's freely given to his people.
And you know, we put words on grace, but really, there's
only one kind of grace. It's sovereign. There's only
sovereign grace. There's only amazing grace. There's
only saving grace. We put those words on it because
people have misconstrued the word so much. But there's only
one grace, isn't there? It's the grace of God. For by
grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself. It
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Grace
is getting what we do not deserve. We hope in mercy, not getting
what we do deserve. No, we hope in grace, getting
what we do not deserve. And what is that? The Lord Jesus
Christ, his precious blood, his precious blood. Grace is getting
the blood when we deserve death. And then he tells us the most
beautiful part is that he's the one that washes us in his own
blood. And then he tells us, when I see the blood, I'll pass
by you. He washes us in it, robes us in his righteousness, and
then tells us exactly what he did. He says, as long as I see
that blood, I'm going to pass by you. You can't get the blood
off of you. Isn't that glorious? Grace is when we deserved hell,
damnation. We get love, love from God. If we ever see ourself as the
creature that we are, that's used that Christ said on the
cross is I'm a worm and I'm no man. That word translates maggot. It's not a good, I like to fish. It's not a good fishing worm.
That has a little bit of a use. Maggots have no use, do they?
They're disgusting creatures and that's what we are by nature.
Oh, we need grace. Lord, you're gonna have to take
my place on the cross of Calvary and give me eternal life because
I can't do anything to change this, the sin that I am. That's
exactly what he did, by grace, by grace. We deserve the full
fury of his wrath, but here the songwriter says, oh, to grace,
how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be. Let that grace
now, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee, prone to wonder,
Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here's my heart,
take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above. How is it? that the just and sovereign creator
of this universe, the Alpha and Omega, the King of kings and
the Lord of lords, the sustainer of life, all life, all life,
can be pleased to look on me and pardon me. Because he looks
upon his son by grace. He looks to the blood by grace. He looks to Christ and pardons
his people. How is it that he not condemn
us to eternal torment? How is it that he made us accepted
in the blood? Because Christ Jesus suffered
that torment for his people. Christ Jesus shed his blood for
his people, and he died in their place, redeeming them back to
God. Now he is the justifier, and
he is still just. He's just and the justifier.
Couldn't just be just and you and I go free. Didn't work that
way. Somebody had to die. Wages of
sin is death. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. So he couldn't let us go free. So
what did he do? God sent forth his son, made
like, robed in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned
sin in the flesh. No wonder the songwriter, how
did he do that? By grace. By grace, that's how
he did that. We got what we did not deserve. No wonder the songwriter said,
amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like
me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now
I see. We hope in that grace. We hope in the Lord's grace that
saved his people from their sin. Now go back to our text in Hebrews
chapter one. There's quite a bit in this little
verse And I want to try to touch on
it briefly. He wrote 11-1, now faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
What is the substance of things hoped for? Christ is the sum
and substance. Christ is the sum and substance.
Christ is all. Christ is all. His finished work.
His resurrection. We weren't there. It's not seen
naturally, it's seen spiritually. We have evidence though, don't
we? We have evidence, we've received a good report. His finished work,
we weren't there when he finished the work, but we see it by faith,
don't we? This is things not seen physically, it's things
that are seen spiritually. His blood, that's something,
we can't see his blood, but we believe it. We have evidence
of things not seen. We hope in the Lord Jesus Christ
now and for the life to come. We hope in the Lord Jesus Christ,
the sum and substance. Sum and substance of the gospel,
sum and substance of salvation, sum and substance of redemption,
sanctification, justification, he's all, he's all. Romans 8.24
says, for we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not
hope. For what a man seeth, viteth he yet hope for. Man sees it,
he don't hope for it anymore. Two things are going to end when
we open our eyes in glory, whether we go by way of the grave or
whether we go by way of the trumpet. Two things are going to end for
the believer. Hope and faith. You won't need either one of
them up there. You won't need either one of them. Faith will
end in sight. Hope will end in sight. Paul
said, if this life only we had, have hope in Christ, this life
only we'd be of all men most miserable, but aren't you glad
that we have hope in the life to come because of what Christ
did? We have hope in death. That's
the last thing I wanna talk to you, talk to us about this morning,
hope in death. Acts 24, 15 says, we have hope
towards God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall
be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. It's interesting that the first
hour is how the just live, and here we are again with the just
and the unjust, the only two kinds of people in the world.
They're all gonna stand before the presence of the holy God. But God's people need not fear
death because Christ died in their place by grace. Need not
fear that last breath leaving our body because he promised
when that happens, I'll never leave you and I'll never forsake
you. You'll be right there. And when
we open up our eyes, he'll be right there and we'll be we'll
awake in his likeness, not not in the likeness of sinful flesh
anymore. His likeness, perfect righteousness, perfect holiness
will awake. Because of what Christ did on
the cross, by his grace and mercy, we now hear the glorious truth
of the gospel. There is now, therefore, no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. Now, therefore, right now. Always
get hung up on that word, now. It's always right now. It's never
not gonna be right now. Proverbs 14, 32 says, the wicked
is driven away in his wickedness, but the righteous hath hope in
his death. Hope in death. Well, there's
not another message on the face of the earth that'll give you
hope in death. Not a single one. But we have hope in death because
of his mercy and because of his grace. These are the things hoped
for. The only way that a sinner can be, stand before the throne
of God, stand before his majesty, Only way we can stand there spotless,
perfect, as righteous as he is, is by grace and mercy alone.
By grace and mercy alone. Not what we do, but by him choosing
to do everything for us. And that's what he did. That's
what he did. He accomplished that for his
people. This is why, this is why Lord's people say, well,
though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Though he slay me, yet I'll
trust him. our hope in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Colossians
1.5 says, for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven,
where have you heard before in the world the truth of the gospel? We have hope that's laid up for
us in heaven, laid up for us in glory. We hope in His electing. We hope in His saving. I could
have had 17 different points to make. I just picked three
and kind of hit the door. It's going to skim over the rest of
them. We hope in His electing. We hope in His saving. We hope
in His calling. We hope in His keeping. We don't hope in ourself. There's no hope in us. But we
hope in Him, His finished work. We hope in Him. We hope in His
grace and mercy. We hope in the person and the
finished work of Christ. These are the things we hope
for. He actually, we hope, we know.
We don't have to hope for this one. We know that he actually
accomplished salvation on the cross of Calvary. That gives
us hope. That gives us hope. We hope in
death because you know what he said? He will not see his children. He will not let his children
see corruption. He cannot deny himself. We have hope in the resurrection.
You know why? Because our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, looked
at Martha and said, I am the resurrection and the life. He
that believeth on him shall never die, never, never, never, never
perish, never perish. We hope, we hope in God making
Christ all of our wisdom, all of our righteousness, all of
our sanctification, and all of our redemption. That's why Paul
said looking for that blessed hope. That's what it is, it's
a blessed hope. It's been given of the Lord. We look for that
blessed hope of the glorious appearing of the great God and
our Savior, Jesus Christ. This is the hope of the Lord's
people. This is the hope, to awake in
his likeness. That's the hope. We hope in his
grace. We hope in his mercy. We hope
in his blood. We have hope in death, because
he died the death. It would have done us no good
to die it. He died our death. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? These are the things hoped for,
for the Lord's people. Let's pray. Father, we are thankful
that you've given us hope in you. No confidence in our flesh,
just hope in you. Take this and bless it to our
understanding for your glory, we pray in Christ's name, amen.