Isaiah said, Ho, everyone that
thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And ye that have no money, come,
buy and eat. Yea, without money, without price,
buy milk and buy wine. Pray the Lord will make these
poor sinners able to drink from the fountain of life this morning.
It's good to see you all here. So glad to be here. We had to
have some visitors with us and hope everybody will take time
to get to know one another. So let's stand together. Tom's
going to come lead us in the first hymn, which is the one
on the back of your bulletin. Move here. Three years ago, It
seems like I've known him all my life. But Jared Way, she moved
here three years ago, and what a delight to this fellowship
he has been over the last three years. If you miss getting to
know this dear brother, you've missed a treat. I hope that you'll
take time to speak to him at least today. Well, he's fallen in love with a girl by the name of Lauren,
who's been here a few times, who attends the church where
Gabe Stoniker pastors in Kingsport, Tennessee. And Jared, for some
reason, is moving up there. You're going to be missed sorely
here, brother. We're hoping that you and Lauren
will get to come back and visit with us on a regular basis. But
I asked Jared if he would read scripture for us this morning
and lead us in prayer. So, Jared, please, please come. Good morning. Please turn with
me to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. I want to begin reading in verse
15 and then read through the end of the chapter. And this
passage is Paul's prayer for the Ephesian church and to the
faithful in Christ Jesus. Wherefore, I also, after I heard
of your faith in the Lord Jesus and love unto all the saints,
cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in
my prayers. that the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. The eyes of
your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the
hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his
inheritance in the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us who believe. according to the working of his
mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him
from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly
places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion,
and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also
in that which is to come. and hath put all things under
his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the
church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth
all in all." As Paul prayed, I pray for this
church, I pray that the Lord would send his spirit of wisdom
and revelation to us. I pray that the eyes of our understanding
may be enlightened. that we may know what is the
hope of His calling. And if we are to receive any
of these things, any of these blessings, here's where they're
going to come from. Read with me the end of verse
19. According to the working of His mighty power, which He
wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. Let's pray. Oh, dear Heavenly Father, Lord,
we thank you for your righteousness. Praise your holy name, Lord.
Father, we pray now that you would send your spirit of revelation
and wisdom to us, Lord. Please reveal unto us your greatness. Father, we pray for this man
that's about to preach to us. Pray that you would bless his
words with your power, Lord, your mighty power. Oh, Lord,
please bless it to our hearts that we might think on you. Oh, Lord, we pray for other churches
that we love dearly who are meeting this morning. Pray that your
word might go out strongly. Pray that you would call out
your people, Lord. Oh, Lord, We thank you for your son. We
thank you for what he did for us, Lord. Oh, Father, save us. We need your mercy. In your name
we ask all these things. Amen. Let's stand together. It's my privilege to be here
with you this morning. It's been too long. I'm glad to see those that I
have known, those that we know each other, and good to see those
that are new to this congregation. It's just a real privilege to
be here. I should say that the church
in Merida sends their greetings to this congregation and we're
thankful for the fellowship the Lord has brought us into his
family, one with his children all over the world and even in
heaven. So we're thankful. My parents
send their greetings. My dad is the way with words.
He said, just tell them what I'm supposed to say. I don't
think wrong with that. He gives flowers and he says,
I hope it says what it's supposed to say. So he's just not very
good with words. But he sends his greetings also. This morning, I want us to open
our Bibles to the psalm. I got scared. That's my next
message. I pulled out the wrong message. That's not right. Psalm 130. Psalm 130. As I was hearing the
message this morning, what a rejoicing And the Lord, our Lord Jesus
Christ, Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that healeth thee, but I must
confess, you're going to think that somebody copied somebody's
notes. I thought, well, it's good. It's good. You'll hear
it once and you'll hear it twice. That's the way we preach the
gospel. If something is worth saying,
it says it over and over again. And the words of the preacher
are like nails. They secure the matter. All God's preachers see eye to
eye, preach the same message. So no matter where in the scriptures
the Lord leads us to speak from, it's always going to be Christ.
Jesus Christ and our hope in Him. Now, this morning I want
to bring this title to this message, Who has a reason to hope? Who
has a reason to hope? And I want us to see from this
passage, who has a reason to hope? The scripture says in Ephesians
chapter 1, But at one time, all of us, at one time, we lived
in this world without God. We lived in this world alienated
from the commonwealth. We were without God, without
hope in this world at one time. But blessed be our Lord and God,
our Savior Jesus Christ, He has begotten us again into a lively
hope. We have hope this morning. Who is it that has hope? And
I want you to see with me this morning who it is that have hope. And if you find yourself in this
text, you have an everlasting, a sure
hope, a blessed hope. Notice, the question I'm going
to be asking over and over again is, who has reason for hope? And the first thing I want us
to see out of the Scriptures, the message that the Bible teaches
us is the people who have hope are true sinners. That's the
first thing. The message of the Scriptures
is Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. What kind
of sinners? This is where we copied our notes.
From the head to the foot, there's no soundness in us. Let me see
if I can be disciplined and stay with my notes. I do have it written
out. David is saying right here, Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to
the voice of my supplication. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness
with thee that thou mayest be feared. I wait for the Lord. My soul doth wait, and in his
word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord
more than they that watch for the morning, I say more than
they that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem Israel from
all his iniquities." Who are the people who have hope? David
says here, out of the depths, Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee." This is the cry of a true sinner. A true sinner. This is heartfelt conviction
that all that I am is sin. This is not just a part-time
problem with sin. I was speaking to a man. He came
to me and wanted to speak to me after the service. He was
troubled. He was upset. And I wondered what he wanted
to speak to me about. And I felt very uncomfortable
because it was almost like he was wanting to confess to me. He said, I have this great sin. And he named it. And I looked
at him. I said, is that your only problem? And he said, yeah. I said, you
have a much greater problem than that. You know, if that's your
only problem, you don't have very much problem. But the point
is, the man does not know how sinful he is. If it's just one
sin that bothers you, and a lot of people think of that. They
think, oh, I have done this one great thing. And sin is deserving
of death, no matter what. All sin is committed against
God. But our problem is much greater.
It's our nature. It's who we are. Sin is what
we are. Out of the depths have I cried
unto thee. The psalmist said this in Psalm
chapter 40, innumerable evils, innumerable evils have compassed
me about. I'm not able to look up. My sins
are more than the hairs of my head, therefore my heart faileth
me. O Lord, be pleased to deliver
me." More than the hairs of my head. My sins and iniquities,
he's saying, have literally taken hold. There's no soundness in
me. Do you know what Jesus Christ
came into the world to do? He came to save sinners. So if
you are, by the grace of God, a bona fide sinner, as they say,
bona fide sinner, there's no soundness in you, then you have
reason to hope. Jesus Christ came to save sinners. The problem with most people
is you can't find a real sinner. You can't find a real sinner.
They'll admit that they have committed sin. I've done this
and I've done the other. But a dead dog sinner? Oh no,
don't offend me. You see, I've got some righteousness. I've got some part of clean healthiness. Like the pastor said, it's only
that leper that came before the priest and showed him all parts
of his body and there wasn't any spot on his body that didn't
have leprosy. Every bit covered. Then, the
priest said, you're clean. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save His people from their sins. The psalmist says, out of the
depths. He did not come to save His people from their finances. He did not come to give them
better marriage, health, wealth and prosperity. That's it. He came to save His
people from their sins. Out of the depths have I cried.
What depths? How about pride? Man is proud. Out of the depths of sin. How
about pride? How about self-righteousness? How about unbelief? out of the
depths of unbelief. You hear the gospel say, Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Have you
found your sayings? Say, Lord, I can't believe. Have
mercy on me. Have mercy on me. Out of the
depths of my unbelief, have mercy on me. How about the
depths of our evil thoughts? The imaginations, the thoughts
A man's natural mind are enmity against God. Natural mind's thoughts
are enmity against God. Have you ever been in this place,
out of the depths, the depths of sin, depths of murmur? These are the ones who have hope
because the Lord Jesus Christ came to save sinners. Notice it says, Out of the depths
have I cried unto thee, O Lord, It is a cry. It is a cry. You spoke of that also. It is
a cry. God hears a man when he cries. When he cries. If this is not
a heartfelt cry, oh God have mercy on me. It's just a little problem you
have. God doesn't hear that kind of sinner. He's still trusting
in something he's got. He's still trusting in something.
Can you hear the blind beggar Bartimaeus along the side of
the road? He had heard that the Lord Jesus
Christ was the healer. He had heard that the Lord Jesus
Christ healed all manner of diseases. And here he was in his darkness.
Here he was blind, unable. And when he heard that the Lord
Jesus Christ was walking by, he cried, Jesus, thou Son of
David, Jesus the Anointed One, the Christ of God, the fulfillment
of the Old Testament. He cried out in faith. He cried,
have mercy on me. You know what the Scripture says?
The Lord Jesus Christ stopped. He stopped. There's not a man,
a woman, a child that cries unto the Lord that the Lord doesn't
hear. That's the one who has hope. He cried, Thou Son of David,
have mercy on me. They tried to keep him quiet,
but he cried the more. Have mercy on me. Can you see
the man that was dying on the cross? That thief. He couldn't do anything. He couldn't
perform anywhere. The only thing he could do was
die. That's the only thing he could do was die. And he looked
at the Lord and he said, Lord, remember me. Remember me. That's the cry of the heart.
Remember me when you come into your kingdom. Have mercy on me. It's not something just superficial.
But it's true. It comes by the revelation of
the Holy Spirit. You've heard this before and
it is so. A sinner is a sacred thing. The
Holy Spirit has revealed it to him or made him so. When the
Holy Spirit comes in the preaching of the gospel, when Christ is
by His Word magnified and God gives eyes to see the Lord Jesus
Christ. We see ourselves in the light
of His glory. We see our sinfulness in the
light of Him on the cross, of sin because you have not believed
on Me. We've done a lot of bad things
and we're probably going to do a lot more. But the sin that
condemns a man is the sin of unbelief. You have not trusted
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Man trusts and, well, I'm not
that bad. I think it's going to be all
right with me. You don't know. But when the Lord Jesus Christ
shines in the gospel and shows us who we are in our heart, then
we cry. That man has hope. That man has
hope. Okay, here's the second thing.
The man who has hope is the man who calls on the Lord. Out of
the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord." Unto Thee, O Lord. This cry is unto the One who
can save. The One who has power to save. His name is Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins. God says this in Isaiah 45 verse
20, they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven
image who pray to a God that cannot save. There is only one
name given among men whereby we must be saved, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh Lord, Jehovah. We heard one of the names of
our Lord this morning, Jehovah Rapha. but they that know thy
name shall put their trust in thee." Call on the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the one who has all authority
to save. No one else can save you from
your sins but God Himself. He is the only one that has authority
to do so. He is the only one that has the
power to do so. Why are you going to call upon
a God who tries to do something and can't do it? You don't go
to a doctor that is a foot doctor and ask him to do heart surgery,
do you? I don't know where that came from. I don't know where that came from.
But that's true. You don't go to someone who is not qualified
and can't do it and ask him to do something. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the Savior of sinners. He has authority to save. He
has all power to save. And when do I need to quit? Do you believe that the Lord
Jesus Christ has all authority to save? He said, all power,
all authority is given me in heaven and earth. He is God against
whom sin is committed. He is God. He has authority to
forgive sin. He has the power to put away
your sins because He died and in His death He put away the
sins of His people. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
cleanses us from all sins. He has the power, He has the
authority. Like I said, there's no sense
praying to a God that cannot save. Many people in religion
have a puny God that wants to do something, wants to save,
but He can't do it unless you give Him permission. If somehow
or another they make faith a work, you must believe and therefore
God will do something for you. This man is crying, O Lord have
mercy on me out of the depths unto thee. It's unto the Lord. A person can't look for salvation
where salvation is not to be found. Not to the church. The
church can't save me. The church can't save you. Not
to any man. Not to this man, not to that
man. There's only one God-man, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Come to Him. Not to Pope, not
to pastor, not to evangelist, not to the Virgin Mary. There's
no salvation in any other name. That one name that was given,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Not to a doctrine or creed. A
person may be right in doctrine and not come to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Our knowledge doesn't save us,
Jesus Christ saves us. Whosoever, Romans 10 says, Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever
shall call. This is one sure mark of one
who has hope. He's calling on the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's calling. He believes. A believer calls and is always
calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, when
the Lord came to Ananias and told him about Saul of Tarsus,
you know what he said? Ananias was afraid of Saul of
Tarsus, and rightly so. But you know what the Lord said?
He prayed. He's calling on my name. He's
praying. When He says, under thee, O Lord,
do I cry, like I said, it's not merely a lip utter, but a heart
cry. One that is born out of true
conviction. You know, a baby cries because he has life. And there's hope of life in the
baby when he cries. A baby cries because he has life. and there's hope of life in a
baby when he cries. Here's a third thing we can see
here, those that have a hope, a blessed hope. Those who have
hope, those who have hope in verse 2 says, Lord hear my voice,
let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication. Those People have hope who own
God's sovereign right to do with them as He pleases. That's the
third thing I see there. People have a hope. The person
that cries, owning God's sovereign right to do with me as He pleases,
they have a hope. And what I'm saying by that is,
people come to the Lord Jesus Christ begging for mercy, they
have a good hope. But if some people come doing
some kind of deal, will and deal, they have no hope. They don't
know the Lord Jesus Christ. See, it says here, Lord, hear
my voice, let thine ears be attended to the voice of my supplication. We are beggars. We are beggars
at the throne of mercy. Lord, if thou shouldest mark
iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? There's no hope for me. There's no hope for me if you
charge me with what I deserve. The Lord Jesus Christ, God, our
Savior, saves His people by His pure and sovereign mercy. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I'll have mercy. I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. We are supplicants. Have mercy
on me. Have mercy on the guilty. Oh Lord, have mercy on me. David, what he is doing here
is judging himself. He is judging himself. I am the
sinner. I am the guilty one. He doesn't
make excuses. So long as a person is making
excuses. You know, I was born in a family
that that's what we did. You know, I was raised or educated
this way. My sin is my sin. My sin is my
sin. So long as a person is talking
about excuses, people talk about excuses today, right? Nobody
has fault. It's not my fault. Men by nature
like to hear that. It's not my fault. Who read the
Scriptures? I can't find you right now, but it's what he said.
It's not our fault. Oh no, it's our fault. It's our
fault. The psalmist here and every believer
who has true hope admits before God, I am a great sinner and
I cannot stand before you. You're a holy God. I cannot come
before you except you show mercy. If you mark my iniquity, I can't
stand, you can't stand, no man can stand. No man is going to
seek God's grace until he confesses his guilt. No man is going to
seek for mercy until he finds out he's miserable. He has no
hope. Lord, if thou shouldest mark
iniquity, if God should charge a call to us to render an account,
be accountable, Hold us responsible for every iniquity, every idle
thought, every sinful thought. Sin is much more than what we
do. Sin is who we are. And if God should call us to
answer for any one sin, who can stand? Who can stand? But the man who judges himself
guilty and justifies God in his condemnation, That's the man
who will seek mercy. Oh Lord. The psalmist said this, that
thou mayest be clear when thou judgest. The scriptures teach us every
mouth is going to be stopped. Every mouth is going to be stopped.
The whole world becomes guilty. This man that has hope judges
himself. We have come before a holy throne. We've come before the throne
of the living God. And we judge ourselves to be
guilty. And we cast ourselves at His mercy. O Lord, O Lord,
if Thou shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? Here's
the fourth thing. Those that have a true hope are
those who believe God's Word. Those who believe God's Word
concerning the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross to
put away their sin. Here's the fourth thing. Those
who believe God's Word concerning the work of Jesus Christ on the
cross to put away the sins of His people. Where do you see
that? Notice there it says, for, but there's forgiveness with
thee. Where do you get that from? He got it from God's Word. From
God's Word. And he believed God's Word. That's
the man who has hope. The one who hopes in God's Word. The one who believes God. God
has said in His Word, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved. Do you believe? You have hope. And this hope that we're talking
about is not a I hope it happens, or this is a sure expectation,
a sure expectation. Thanks be to God for this verse,
verse 4, but there is forgiveness with thee. Do you see faith reaching
out? Faith, it's already there. He's
crying for mercy. A person who has hope is crying
for mercy, but God already has begun that good work. Because
He's looking to the one who is merciful. He's looking to the
Lord Jesus Christ, the fountain of mercy. Thanks be to God. There
is forgiveness with thee. Where do you come up with that?
We cannot say anything that God has not said first of Himself,
otherwise we'd be guilty of idolatry. Where do you get that? If thou
shouldest mark iniquity, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness
with thee." Notice, let's look at a couple
of texts. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 7. In whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness of sin. the forgiveness of sin through
His blood. How many sins? All our sins. The forgiveness of all our sins. Colossians 1 verse 14 says the
same thing. It says, "...in whom we have
redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. Do you believe God forgives sins
by the blood of His Son? Then believe. Keep on believing. Trust in Him. Claim. Call. Call. Lord, look to Your Son. Look to the Lamb. Don't call
me to answer for my sins. That sacrifice that you provided,
Jehovah-Jireh, let that be my sacrifice. Let that be my death. Let His righteousness be my righteousness. There is forgiveness with Thee
that Thou mayest be feared. You say in 2 Corinthians chapter
5 and verse 21 it says, was made sin for us, who knew
no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him."
God took the sin of His people and laid them... He was made
sin. He was made sin for us. The innocent
died in the place of the guilty. The one who knew no sin. He died
on the cross. And by that sacrifice, God is
both just and the justifier of those that trust, believe God. Believe the testimony of God
concerning His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Who He is and what
He came to do. Trust in Him. That means just
faint. Faint in His arms. Don't try
to do anything. As long as you're trying to do
something, you're not trusting. Have you ever been in a car with
somebody driving along and you say, oh, I trust your driving.
And they come up on the stop sign and your hands fly out,
your feet hit the board. Where went your trust? Where'd
your trust go? A person that really trusts your
driving could fall asleep. Maybe you shouldn't, but you
could fall asleep. The person who trusts rests. The person who trusts in the
Lord Jesus Christ rests in his finished work. It's not trying
to earn salvation. He is all my righteousness. He
is all my wisdom, all my sanctification, all my redemption. I am a debtor
to grace. Debtor to grace. There is forgiveness
with thee. That is good news. That's good
news. Good news for sinners. If thou
shouldst mark iniquity, who can stand? Christ came to save sinners
like you and me." Well, there is mercy with the
Lord Jesus Christ. He says, I delight to show mercy. Here is the fifth one. Who has
a good hope? Notice in verse 5, I wait for
the Lord. That's resting. I wait for the
Lord. Those who wait for the Lord to
do all the work of salvation. Those have a good hope. It's
only a good hope if he who begun a good work in you will perform
it to the day of Jesus Christ. If you have to contribute one
thing, one work, one anything that you have to add to it, that's
not a good hope. it's going to fail. In due time,
it's going to fail. But if you wait on the Lord,
that means constantly looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. We
are being saved. We are being saved. Have you
ever tried to do something in the power of the flesh? I'm talking about, you know,
you say, well, I'm just going to stop doing that. How did it
go? We can't do it. The apostle Paul
said, the good that I would, I don't do. That which is flesh is flesh
and continues to be flesh. It doesn't get better. I'm trying to say mejora. It
doesn't mejora. Those that speak Spanish. It doesn't get better.
It's flesh and it's going to be flesh until this body is put
in the ground. Wait on the Lord, my soul doth
wait, and in His Word do I hope." His Word is a sure Word. His Word, He is God that cannot
lie. He has promised, all those that come to Me, I
will in no wise cast out. All that the Father giveth me
shall come unto me, and he that cometh unto me, I will know why
it is cast out." It's His Word. He's God. He has magnified His
Word. Wait on the Lord. Wait on His
Word. We have no right to have any
hope outside of what God has revealed in this book. in the
Lord Jesus Christ. This book is a book to reveal
the Lord Jesus Christ. It is, as they say, a hymn book. It's about Him from beginning
to end. And notice the sixth thing. Not
only do they wait on the Lord, this will be a short point, but
they continue to believe. They continue to wait. My soul waiteth for the Lord
more than they that watch for the morning. I say more than
they that watch for the morning." You see, it's not a good hope
if you made a profession of faith and did your baptism. Who? Who
are you talking about now? Faith is a life. Those that wait
on the Lord, those that trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, salvation
is today. today is that while it is today,
come to the Lord Jesus Christ. If a person has to look to an
experience of yesterday, I was baptized last week, says a person,
that's my hope. That's a bad hope. That's a bad
hope. A person has to look in the back
at some experience. It's always, now, to whom coming. My soul waits for the Lord. There's
going to be a day when the Lord comes for us and we're in His
presence. I'll be satisfied, as the psalmist
said, when I awaken. It's like, that's when I know
I'm going to be plumb saved. Truly saved. That's when I'm
going to be truly saved. I'm being saved. I was saved.
an eternity passed, I was saved when the Lord Jesus Christ paid
the price, I was saved when the Spirit of God gave me life, and
I'm being saved today. My soul waits. I still wait. You still have a problem with
sin? You're being delivered today. What keeps you believing in the
Lord Jesus Christ? If the Lord let you go for a
moment, you'd go away. were kept by the power of God
through faith, through His faithfulness, in faith, believing on Him, trusting
on Him. Now, verse 7 says, Let Israel
hope in the Lord. Those that continue to believe
until the Lord comes for them, they have a good hope. A sure
hope. And all of God's chosen people
have the same faith. Who are those that have a good
hope? There's not a hope here and a hope there. Y'all believe
that way and that's your hope. All Israel. All of God's people
have the same hope. There's only one faith. There's
only one faith, the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ, the faithfulness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your faith can't save you. My
faith can't save me. Your faith is full of holes.
You believe and yet you must confess, Oh Lord, help my unbelief. What is unbelief? What is doubts
and fears, anxiety? People are popping pills for
anxiety. It's unbelief. What? Unbelief? Unbelief? Faith is believing God. We are
saved by the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. As man, he believed
God. It's a great mystery. God was
manifest in the flesh, but as man, he obeyed God the Father. That is the righteousness in
which we stand. That is the righteousness in
which we are closed. That is the righteousness in
which we are accepted, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That
is the holy garment, that when He sees us, He sees His Son. That's our only hope. We're kept
by the faith of God. We're saved by the faith of the
Lord Jesus Christ, believing on Him. Galatians chapter 2. I'm not saying that as I want to say it. Galatians chapter 2 and verse
16. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith. It doesn't say
in Jesus. It says of Jesus. That's His obedience. His obedience
unto death, even the death of the cross. That's the faith that
saves you. Okay, is anybody going to be
saved apart from believing in the Lord Jesus Christ? No. That's
next. It says, we're saved by the faith
of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ. That's your faith in Him. That's
you trusting in His finished work. We have believed in Him
to be saved, or it says, we have believed in Jesus Christ that
we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the
works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh
be justified. All of God's chosen people have
the same faith, the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. They believe
in Him, trust in Him, and He is the Savior. looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. And the reason for this
hope, verse 8, and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquity.
Now, I know you love this. His shalls. His purpose. His
purpose. He shall redeem his people. What a blessed hope we have.
He shall redeem. Briefly, four things that encourage
us, give us hope. First of all, it's God's purpose
to show mercy. It's God's purpose. He said,
I'll have mercy. Secondly, it's His glory. It's
His chief glory. He said, the Lord, the Lord,
Jehovah, Jehovah. I'll be merciful to whom I'll
be merciful. I will be merciful. It's His glory. Third, He is
able to save. He has power. He is able to save. And fourth, He is faithful. He is faithful. What He said, He will accomplish. Who is it that has a reason for
hope? Those that know their sinners. Those that call on the name of
the Lord. Those that are coming as beggars. Those that are coming
as supplicants. Those that justify God. and their condemnation, take
God's part against themselves and beg for mercy. If you mark
iniquities, who shall stand? Those that look to the forgiveness
of their sins by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the doing
and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have hope. There is no other
hope. Those that wait on the Lord.
Salvation is of the Lord. those that continue to wait on
the Lord. He that begone to good work in
you. And all Israel have the same hope, because it is His
purpose to save His people. May the Lord bless His Word. I'm glad to have hope. Hebrews
chapter 6 speaks of that hope which is an anchor of the soul,
both sure and steadfast. What other hope is there? What
other hope is there? Where else are we going to go?
What great hope there is in the finished work of our Lord. Cody,
thank you, brother. We're going to be preaching again
tonight in Sarasota. We covet your prayers for the
services over there. Start at 6 o'clock tonight. So,
Tom, would you come, please? Number 36 in the softback terminal,
let's stand together.