Okay, very good. Let's turn our
Bibles again to Acts chapter 26, and I just want to, if the
Lord allows, speak about these verses, and speak especially
about the hope. There's a glorious description
in Zechariah 9, which we'll look at in due course, which says
that you're a prisoner. God's people have been rescued
by him, and our Lord Jesus takes captivity captive, and he makes
them prisoners of hope. Paul stands before these men
as a prisoner, stands there in chains, and he says in verse
6 of Acts 26, now and now I stand, he speaks of what he was before,
we've looked at that earlier, and now I stand and am judged
for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers. Under which promise our twelve
tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come? For which hope, say King Agrippa,
I'm accused of the Jews? Why should it be thought a thing
incredible with you that God should raise the dead? Paul stands as a prisoner of
hope. One of the things I want you
to see right at the very beginning is that hope is something that
we are called upon to do. But almost, almost, in Acts and
in Romans 4 and 8 and other places, hope is a noun. See, faith is a doing word. And
faith is a noun. But here, hope is a noun. Hope
is who the Lord Jesus Christ is, isn't it? And it's all of
the promises wrapped up with Him, and it's a reality. It's
not a doing word, it's a being word. And if you were to stand
judged, would you be standing judged and be accused of the
hope that you have in God raising the dead? That's what Paul was
standing there, wasn't it? He's standing there with this I'm judged for the hope. He's
no longer, in this last of these meetings before a court, as it
were, he's no longer being accused of those things that would have
caused him to have offence for the Romans, accused him of sedition
and treason and desecration, as it were, of the purity of
their temple in Jerusalem. He's now just accused of one
thing, the hope. I'm standing there because of
the hope. All of those other accusations are full to the ground,
but I'm standing here now, I'm testifying to the hope of the
promise made of God unto the fathers. There's no question about our
apostle remaining absolutely consistent to the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. His first Gentile sermon we have
recorded speaks in Acts 13 in Antioch, he says, and we declare
unto you the glad tidings, how that the promise which was made
unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us, their children,
in that he hath raised up Jesus again. As it is also written
in the second Psalm, thou art my son this day. I have forgotten
thee, as concerning him that raised him up from the dead.
Now no more to return to corruption, he said on this wise, I will
give you the sure mercies of David. Paul was a recipient of
mercies. He was a recipient of mercies
and he preached mercies. He preached the mercies of our
God, the sure mercies of David. The David was going to have a
son, and David was going to have a king, and that son was coming
from David's law and was going to reign, and he was going to
have a kingdom that lasted forever. That's a king, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Paul says that verse that we looked at in some detail
in Acts 24, 14, you see, so I have hope toward God. I have hope
toward God that there will be a resurrection from the dead. Paul preached this hope, this
hope toward God, and he said in that verse, in Acts 24, he
says, we worship God. I worship God. I worship the God of my fathers,
believing all things that are written in the law and the prophets,
and have hope toward God that there shall be a resurrection
from the dead. To have hope toward God, we must
worship God as the one living and true God. We must worship
Him in His true character, as the Scriptures reveal Him. And
we must worship Him as Paul worshipped Him. And that's simply believing
all things. Paul worshipped Him as a sinner
saved. A sinner saved by grace. He didn't stand before a gripper.
presenting anything of his righteousness. God's ministers stand before
other fallen sinners without ever wanting to put anything
of themselves and their righteousness and their deeds and their worth
in any way between sinners and a saviour. Paul just was wishing,
even in chains, he had a heart's desire, didn't he? He had a heart's
desire that they would be saved. And he preached as a sinner.
A sinner by birth. A sinner by nature. A sinner
by choice. A sinner by practice. A sinner
is someone who can do nothing but sin. A sinner is someone
who can blame no one else for their sin. A sinner is someone
who makes no excuses for their sin. A sinner comes to God pleading
mercy, needing grace. A sinner comes to God knowing
that all of his acceptance before God is entirely bound up in the
person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The great promise,
the promise made unto our fathers. Paul was a sinner, chosen of
God. Paul was a sinner bought with
a price. He was a prisoner of hope. He
was the Lord's prisoner, wasn't he? Paul was a sinner saved by
irresistible grace when God met him on the Damascus road and
said, I'm having you, and you will be my servant. And all of
what you've done before makes absolutely no difference. It's
all under the blood. He was made captive of the Holy
Spirit. He was a sinner sealed and preserved
by the grace of God. He was locked up to the grace
of God. I am what I am, says Paul at
the end of his life. I am what I am by the grace of
God. Not that I am what I am by my own works, my own will
and my own worth. He's a sinner. Sinners living
in the hope of the resurrection. And a sinner waiting in faith. Prisoners of hope. Hope, as we
just read in out of Acts 24, hope is simply believing the
facts and believing the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone
has hope, don't they? Everyone has hope. The hypocrite's hope, says Job,
verse 8, verse 13. The hypocrite's hope shall perish. See, Agrippa had hope, didn't
he? Now Griffith stood before him and he had a hope. He had
a hope that he would be right. When you ask people whether they're
going to heaven or not, whether people leave here and go to heaven,
everyone has a hope, don't they? That everyone will meet everyone
else in heaven. The hypocrite's hope, says Job
8.14, says, shall be cut off. and those in whose trust shall
be a spider's web." Imagine you're clinging over a precipice and
all you have is a spider's web. You're holding on to it, aren't
you? You're holding on to it. People hold on to hope. There
are some shocking stories told about Niagara Falls, but there
was a story told of a man who'd got himself into trouble and
he was clinging on to two men and they were clinging on to
a log as they floated down towards that Terrible abyss, and the
men on the shore threw a rope out. One man grabbed onto the
rope. The other man couldn't grab onto
the rope, he was clinging so tight to the log, and went to
his death. The hypocrite's hope shall be
cut off, and it shall perish. The Lord causes his people to
hope in him by taking away all the other hopes of this world. The believer's hope is in the
person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ completely. Hope is believing what God says
and believing that reality to be the reality of life. It's
seen through the eyes of faith. And it's only seen through the
eyes of God-given faith. It's only seen as the Lord Jesus
Christ is revealed. Our God makes promises. Paul
was talking about his hope being a promise that was made to the
fathers, wasn't it? A promise that was made to Abraham,
a promise that was made in the garden to Adam, that the seed
of the woman will crush the serpent's head. And the promises rest on
the character of God. The promises reveal the character
of God. Our God is unchangeable. His
purpose is immutable. His ability and power is unchallenged. When Paul speaks of hope, he's
speaking of the one that he met on the Dabascus Road and would
meet again often. The one who met Moses at the
burning bush and made a simple promise, didn't he? He said to
Moses, you and your people, all that nation Israel, they're coming
back here to worship me on this mountain. They're coming back
here. And it doesn't matter what a superpower does, it doesn't
matter how weak Moses' flesh is, it doesn't matter how Belligerent
the Israelites are, it doesn't matter how strong the Egyptians
are, then God makes a promise. Makes a promise to the fathers.
The promise is sealed and certain. Our promises are based on the
clear word of God. God is called, in Romans 15,
13, the God of hope. See, He doesn't give a hope like
we give hope to other people, doesn't it? The God of hope fills
you with all joy and peace in believing that not only do you
have hope because of who He is, but you may be bound in hope. And how do you be bound in hope?
Through the power of the Holy Ghost. Through the power of the
Holy Spirit. The hope, that verse in Colossians
127, we love to quote so often, isn't it? What's the real hope
of a believer? Christ in you. Christ Jesus in
you is the hope of glory. What a remarkable thing, what
a remarkable, remarkable promise from God, isn't it? That in sinners
like us, with nothing to commend ourselves to God in any way at
all, because of pure and utter sovereign grace, because of redeeming
love, because that the sins of all of God's people were put
away completely and forever. Sinners like us, made to rest
and to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, are a fit habitation
in this earth. on this earth for the God of
glory. A holy God takes up residence
in people in this earth because they're perfectly fit. They're
made fit by him, the hope of glory. Hebrews 6 speaks of the
full assurance of hope. Paul stands there as captive, doesn't he? Captive to hope. I'd like us
to look a little bit at Zechariah chapter 9. Zechariah is the second
largest book of the Old Testament. The Gospel of Zechariah is a
glorious gospel, full of extraordinary pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ
coming, the Lord Jesus Christ reigning and ruling, and the
Lord Jesus Christ building his church, the Lord Jesus Christ
revealing people to himself. And he says in verse 9 of chapter
9, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout! O daughter of
Jerusalem, behold, thy King cometh unto thee. He is just and having
salvation, lowly and riding upon an ass, upon the colt, the foal
of an ass. What a glorious description of
the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the things that's remarkable,
isn't it, is the condescension of our God when he took upon
himself human flesh and the depths of that condescension, wasn't
it? When he's made a man and then
he was emptied himself and he was made as a servant. And he
was so seemingly insignificant in this world that he could live
with people in Nazareth for 30 years almost. and they didn't
have a clue that they had God living in their presence. He
could live with his brothers and they could never accuse him
of sin in any way at all. Never an evil thought came out
bubbling to the surface of his countenance before them. Never
a wicked act of anything at all. All they saw was perfect purity
and they didn't have a clue who he was. He could go to Jerusalem. He
could go to Jerusalem having revealed himself before those
crowds and he could slip through that crowd unnoticed by men. He's revealed when he chooses
to reveal himself and to the rest of the world he seems so
insignificant. He's lowly, isn't he? He's lowly. What a glorious description of
our Saviour. He has every right, doesn't he,
to come as the mighty conquering saviour. And yet he comes as
one touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He comes
as one, as Matthew 11 says. He says, come unto me. He says,
come unto me right now. Come unto me. Don't lag a muscle. Come unto me, all you that labour
and heavy laden. I will give you rest. Take my
yoke upon you and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly in heart,
and you'll find rest for your souls. I don't know about you,
but the daughters of Zion can rejoice. They're told to rejoice
in this King that comes lowly. The other description of him
there in verse nine is he is just. Everything our God does
is perfectly just. In salvation, he must be just. It's the just one that was put
to death by a just God. That's why on the cross of Calvary
he could only ever have died for the sins of those people
who were united to him in eternity, who were given to him by the
Father. The notion that God put his son to death for sins of
people who are in hell is a blasphemy against the nature of God. He
is just. And the great comfort of God's
people is that a just God, having punished the sins of all of God's
people in the Lord Jesus Christ, a just God can never punish them
again. That's why he can say, can't
he, Paul can say to you right now, there is no condemnation.
You're justified. Your sins, brothers and sisters
in Christ, have gone altogether. The very character of God is
our comfort. The very character of God is
our hope in this world. We're nothing but sin, and he's
just and perfect and holy. We're 100% sin, and he's 100%
holiness. And there is that extraordinary
transaction, isn't it? That he bore our sins, and as
much as he bore our sins, we now bear the very righteousness
of God. We're made to be holy. By His
work. That's what it says, isn't it?
He's just, verse 9 of Zechariah. Having salvation, lowly, riding
upon an ass, upon the occult, the foal of an ass. For want of time, I'll skip over
verse 10. As for thee also, by the blood
of the covenant, by the blood of thy covenant, I have sent
forth thy prisoners. Out of the pit wherein there
is no water, that pit of man-made works religion, that pit that
we dug with our father Adam, that pit that we keep digging
for ourselves as Jeremiah declares it, we build for ourselves, we
dig for ourselves cisterns, great big cisterns that are meant to
hold water and they leak like a sieve and there's nothing held
in them. I have sent forth thy prisoners.
I am sovereign mercy and grace, and in the sovereignty of my
glory and power, I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the
pit where there is no water. Then he says to us, doesn't he,
this is all the picture of the Lord Jesus Christ coming. Zechariah
promised it. The hope that was promised to
the fathers is here. He says, turn you to the stronghold,
you prisoners of hope. Turn you to the stronghold. Our God. Our God is a strong tower, isn't
he? He's the high tower, the stronghold
of our palace. Isaiah describes the stronghold
in Isaiah 26. I'll just read it for you. In
that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah. We have
a strong city. God's children have a strong
city. Salvation will God appoint for wars and bulwarks. When they
read salvation in the Old Testament times, in the Hebrew, they were
reading the name Joshua. They were reading the name Jesus.
You can read it without, in Isaiah 26, you can read it without the
italicized words. We have a strong city. God, salvation
will appoint wars and bulwarks. Our God builds a city. It's a
city that comes down from heaven. It's a strong city. We have a
strong city. Open ye the gates that the righteous
nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. No question about
who the truth is. And then he says, thou will keep
him in perfect peace. Isaiah 26.3, whose mind is stayed
on thee because he trusteth in thee. There is only one who ever
trusted the Lord Jesus, who trusted his Father with perfect faith,
didn't he? And when he trusted his Father
with perfect faith, we all do this world, brothers and sisters
in Christ. We live in this world by the faithfulness of the Son
of God. We live on the basis of his faith, that's our hope. Trust ye in the Lord for ever.
For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. That's the stronghold,
isn't it? It's him. Him. Ye prisoners of hope, verse
12. Even today do I clear that I
will render double unto thee. Isaiah 40 tells us what the double
is, isn't it? You tell my people. You speak
comfort to the word to my people. You tell them. You tell them,
don't you? Tell them that their warfare
is accomplished, that their iniquity is pardoned. It's gone altogether.
It's pardoned. For she has received the Lord's
hands double for all her sins. She's not only had the complete
and utter removal of them, but she's been given the very righteousness
of God. I will render double unto thee.
This is what a prisoner of hope is declaring. When I have bent
Judah for thee, and filled the bow of Ephraim, and raised up
thy sons as iron against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee
as the sword of a mighty man, God will rule over the nations
for the glory of his people. And then, verse 14, and the Lord
shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as a
lightning, and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet. The trumpet,
there's no question about what the trumpet is. The trumpet is
the gospel. God is responsible for declaring his gospel. God
makes his ministers. God makes his hearers. God makes
it effective in the hearts and the lives of his people. God
blows the trumpet. Isn't it wonderful when he blows
a trumpet? Isn't it wonderful? It speaks of that Jubilee trumpet,
of course, doesn't it? When everything that we've lost
is completely restored to us because it all belongs to God.
It all belongs to God. The Lord shall blow the trumpet,
and shall go with the whirlwinds of the south. The Lord of hosts
shall defend them, and they shall devour and subdue with sling
stones. And they shall drink and make
noise as though through wine. They shall be filled like bowls
at the corner of the altar. Verse 16. And the Lord their
God, this is what it is to be a prisoner of hope, is to rest. the entirety of our salvation
in the personal work of our great God and his promises that he
makes to us. Paul stood as a prisoner, and
he says, I'm a prisoner of hope. And the Lord their God shall
save them in that day, in that one day, in that one day on Calvary's
tree, he'll save them as the flock of his people. You see
the possessive pronouns that he brings to our memory again
and again and again. He says, my people, my people. He says, their God, the Lord,
their God shall save them in particular. He won't try and
save them. He won't make an offer of salvation. He'll save them
and he saves them in one day as the flock of his people. He'll
save his flock. He'll gather his sheep. You can
read about it in Ezekiel 34 and the Lord Jesus refers to it and
calls himself the good shepherd in John chapter 10, the flock
of his people. For they shall be as the stones
of a crown, and lifted up as an ensign upon his land. They'll be the stones of the
crown, at least the jewels. You can read about it in Zephaniah
chapter 3 in Malachi, just over a few pages in Malachi. He's going to gather his people
together, isn't he? It says in verse 16 of Malachi,
And they that feared the Lord spoke often one to another. That's
what happens when God puts his fear of himself into the hearts
of his people, that fear which is the beginning of wisdom. They
speak often one to another. They speak about him one to another. That's what we do in church,
and that's what church and all things associate. We speak about
him. And the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a book of remembrance
was written before him, For them that feared the Lord, and that
thought upon his name, that thought upon the character that we've
just been talking about, and we keep talking about, we want
to declare as clearly as we possibly can the name, the character of
our God. And then what does he say in
verse 17? It's a lovely description. This is how the Old Testament
finished. And they shall be mine. They shall be mine, saith the
Lord of hosts. In that day, in this one day,
When I make up my jewels, I will spare them, as a man spares his
own son a certain thing. They'll be the stones in the
crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his
land, upon his land. So he'll raise up his church
in this world, and he'll set his seal upon his church. and
he'll raise them up as a banner. We don't have time to go to song
and song, but if you might read in chapter two that the banner
over, he takes us into his banqueting house. He takes us into the place
where he feeds his people and celebrates with them. He takes,
he took me into his banqueting house, the shulamite said, and
his banner over me was love. Verse 17. For how great is his
goodness. How great is his goodness? He's
been good to us all, hasn't he, Atarsus? He's been good to all
of his church through all generations. He's good in everything that
he ever does. He's good in the things that
he withholds from us, and he's good in the things that he gives
us. And can you say Can you say to
Zechariah, how great is his beauty? So that's what they're singing
in heaven, aren't they? They're singing of the beauty of our
God. How great is his beauty. Form shall make the young men
cheerful, the new wine the maids. He pours the new wine of His
Spirit into the hearts of His people, that new wine of faith
and hope and love. Everyone is captive. Everyone is captive. We're born
in this world as captives, aren't we? And God's people will make
His people captive of hope. Sinners are captive of their
sins, and God's people are made captive of hope. Captive of Him,
the Lord Jesus Christ came to set the prisoners free. He came
to make captive captive. He's made us captive to His love
and to His grace, and God's children cannot not believe. We're captive
to Him, and we love being captive to Him. I just want to finish
by looking at one of the most remarkable pictures in the Old
Testament, which is the description of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's
extraordinary when he gives the Ten Commandments, and people
in religion, like the people that Paul was speaking to, were
captive. Captive to the law, and the law is a captivity of
sin and death. And as soon as he declares The
Ten Commandments, he says to the people of God, you're not
going to build me an altar. You're not going to come and
worship me on the work basis of anything you do. Verse 24
of Exodus 20, you build an altar of earth, shall you make unto
me and shall sacrifice thereon bird offerings and thy peace
offerings, thy sheep. And in all places where I record
my name, I will come unto thee and bless thee. And if thou may
be an order of stone, thou shalt not build upon it of hewn stone,
for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.
Neither shall you go up by steps unto mine altar. You don't come
to God on the basis of steps, and you don't come to God on
the basis of anything you do whatsoever. We go up perfectly
and immediately in the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't have time to
read all of it, but the very next thing he speaks of in Exodus
21 is about a servant. About a servant who's obviously
sold himself into slavery. And he has an option before him,
doesn't he? He was captive and now he can
go free. He can go free. He can't take
his wife and he can't take his children. And he says, you have a choice. But the servant says in verse
five, if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife
and my children, I'll not go free. He said, I had a freedom,
didn't I? But I don't want that freedom
of this world. Then the master, verse six, shall
bring him under the judges and he shall also bring him to the
door and under the doorpost and the master shall bore his ear
through with an oar and he shall serve him forever. He loves his
master. You mark me, you bore my ear
through with an awl, so that I hear your voice. That you mark
me as one of yours, and I'll serve him forever. If you read
Psalm 40, you'll see that's exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ did.
Lord, you have opened my ear. I'm a prisoner of hope. I'm a prisoner of hope. Thou art my hope, O Lord God,
Thou art my trust. Time doesn't permit us, but I'd
love for you to go home and read Romans chapter 4 and the glorious
descriptions of the hope that the Father of all the faithful
had. I'll just read the verses that
I like quoting to you often. I pray the Lord might send you
home with the desire to read it with relish. He against hope, believed in
hope that he might become the father of many nations, verse
18, And he said, he staggered not, this is Abraham, the father
of all the faithful, he staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully
persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. He believed the word of God,
his ear was bored through, I just want to hear what the Master
says. I just want to be made to believe it and to trust Him.
And it was accounted to Him for righteousness, the very righteousness
of God. Let's pray. Our Father, we pray
that You might make Your face to shine upon Your people, Heavenly
Father, that we might behold again our Lord Jesus Christ. that we might find him, Heavenly
Father, all of our hope, all of our hope that our sins are
forgiven, that we can stand before you holy and spotless and unblameable
and unapprovable in the eye of your sight. Heavenly Father,
it's all because of the work, the hope of Israel, our hope. Heavenly Father, may we find
our rest and our peace in the place that you look to. you look
to your son when you see the blood you will pass over oh our
father you see the blood of your son may you cause us through
the eyes of faith to see it and restore the hope of our eternity
in the person and work of your dear and precious son our lord
jesus christ bless your words to our hearts heavenly father
for we pray in his name and for his will Thank you for joining.