Brethren, let's turn to Ephesians
chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. If you were a member of a large
family, and you sat down to the reading of your father's will,
you'd be listening for one thing. You'd be listening for your name
to be called. And when your name was called, you would be hanging
on every word because you have an interest, and you hope, you
have a hope, and you're listening for what that inheritance is
going to be. Well, the believer whose name
has been called by God, and we've been made sons of God, and we're
in His family, we have an inheritance. that's reserved for us. And so
we have an interest and we have a hope in heaven. And so we come
here to listen and to hear week in and week out because we want
to know what that hope is. We have an interest in the hope
of our inheritance. The gospel is that, that's what
the gospel is. Whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience
and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. hope. And we need to know. We need
to know what our hope is. What is our hope? Because God
the Father said to us, He said, sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that
asketh you of a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness
and fear. We need to know what our hope
is. Paul prayed here in Ephesians 1 that God would give these Ephesian
brethren more and more of the spirit of wisdom and the revelation
in the knowledge of Him. That their eyes would be enlightened
more and more. And here's the first thing he
said that he wanted them to have. He said in verse 18, the eyes
of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what is the
hope of His calling. The hope of His calling. That's
our subject this morning. The hope of His calling. Believers have a joyful, confident
expectation. A good hope. A sure hope. By the blessings of God our Father
and through the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what a hope is. It's a sure expectation. It's a joyful and confident expectation. A sure hope. through Christ. That's what we have. It's not
a hope like what you speak of when you say, I hope such and
such happens. Hopefully it won't rain on the
parade. That's wishful thinking. That's
not the kind of hope we're talking about here. This is a sure hope.
This is a sure thing. First of all, we have a good
hope because of who called us. It says there in our text, verse
18, the hope of His calling. His calling. In order to have
this hope, God first made us see that all our carnal hopes
were vain. That's what He begins to do.
A carnal heart, the natural heart, is deceitful. It's deceitful
with yourself. It's desperately wicked. It's
deceitful with our own selves. And so it'll fool a man into
thinking he's got a good hope. We thought we had a hope based
on some good in ourselves. You know, I'm not that bad. God
will receive me. We thought we had a hope based
on our good deeds. You know, I gave such and such
to that charity group last year and all these good deeds we did. We thought we had a hope based
on some religious works we did. You know, I joined the church.
I was baptized. You know, I read my Bible. I
pray. All these things. They thought
that was our hope. We thought we had a hope because we reformed
our life and didn't act like we used to. Maybe we did it two
or three times, four times. Reforming your life is like the
man who's trying to quit smoking. He says, it's easy. I've done
it three or four times. But mainly, we set our hope on
things in this world. That's what we did, mainly. We
just set our affection on hopes of various things in this world.
I was watching a documentary on this worst prison in Russia. And if you go to this prison,
this is the end of the line. The only people that are in this
prison are folks who are not going home. The warden said,
the only way if anybody leaves here is in a box out there in
the back. They said, you don't leave his
place. And they were interviewing one guy, and this man had two
or three life sentences with no possibility of parole. And
they asked him, they said, how do you live day to day knowing
you'll never get out of this place? And he said, well, he
said, I have to just think to myself that there's hope. Because
without hope, you can't make it. And he said, if I lose that,
he said, then I'm a goner. Well, that's what men do going
through this life. We're in a prison. We're in a
prison in our nature. We're in a prison under the broken
law of God, the justice of God. We're in a prison with Satan
having us bound with his deception. We're in a prison. But men do
this. Men just like that fellow in
prison. won't face the facts, won't look
at the facts and just look at things in this life to try to
give us some kind of hope and just go through from one hope
to the next hope, to the next hope. Well, this one didn't come
to pass. I hope maybe this next one will come to pass. Go to
that one. Maybe this one will come to pass. Go to that one.
And just live life like that. Listen to me, for the sinner
sitting here, you don't have Christ. I know what that's like.
I live my life like that. going from one hope to the next
hope, but they're all hopes of temporal things. Even if you
get them, it's just a temporal thing. And what's going to happen
is, the older you get, and as your time gets smaller and smaller
in this life, those hopes are going to get fewer and fewer,
until eventually, there won't be any. There won't be any. And
then you've got eternity to face after that. Job 27 says, what
is the hope of the hypocrite? Though he hath gained when God
taketh away his soul. What's his hope then? The hope
of the righteous shall be gladness, the scripture says, but the expectation
of the wicked shall perish. whose hope shall be cut off and
whose trust shall be as a spider's web." That's not very substantial,
is it? A spider's web? You know, you
just walk through one not even looking at it. Don't be out there
waving your hands and acting crazy in front of folks. It has no substance. It has no
strength. It's just a spider's web. That's
what our carnal temporal hopes are. There's nothing good in
them. And every believer was just that way. We were that way.
Look at Ephesians 2.12. At that time, you were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, that
is, from the true spiritual children of Israel, strangers from the
covenants of promise. We didn't know anything about
what the covenant of works was, and we didn't know what the everlasting
covenant of grace was either. And we had no hope, no hope whatsoever,
without God in the world. And is that where you are this
morning? If you don't believe on Christ, and I don't mean just
having made a decision for Christ and having said, well, you know
everybody else is doing it and I think I'll do it too. I'm talking
about truly in your heart, you really believe God. You're persuaded
that God is able to save you. that He's promised He will, that
He's done it through His Son and He will save you. If you
don't have Him and you don't believe Him, you listen this
morning. I want you to give me your undivided attention this
morning and listen. By God's grace, these folks here
that believe, they didn't do it on their own. You who believe,
you didn't do it on your own. And if you say you did it on
your own, you probably hadn't believed Him. Because here's
the facts. God, this calling, you look there
in verse 18, it's called His calling. You see that? It's the
hope of His calling. It's not man's calling. I can't
call you, and your mom and daddy can't call you, and nobody in
your family can call you, and you can't call yourself. This
is His calling. It's God's calling. He does the
calling. And the word means invitation. It means bidding. But it's not
the kind of invitation that preachers give when they get to the end
of the message and they beg you to walk down an aisle so that
they can get your name on a church floor. It's not that at all. That's Pontius Pilate preaching. You know what that is, don't
you? I've told you that before. Pontius Pilate preaching. Pontius
Pilate said a lot of good things about Christ. But then he turned
him over to the will of the people. That's what kind of preaching
that is. This is effectual calling. This is the effectual calling
of the saints. This is the internal high calling
of God. This is God calling irresistibly. Him doing the work. He's the
author of this call. And this call is Him calling
His child into eternal glory, to eternal life in Christ Jesus. When the Spirit of God makes
the commandment come, We're going through having just our happy
time and everything's good. Maybe we came to church because
somebody invited us and we just came in. Or maybe we've been
a bunch of times. And then one day we're sitting
there listening and God actually speaks in our heart. And the
commandment comes. The commandment comes. And God
begins to show us what the law really does say about us in our
heart. And He begins to show us that
we We see our own sins first. He shows us our own sins first.
And he starts showing us that our righteousnesses are filthy
rags. And then he shows us that when
Adam sinned in the garden, he was our representative. He was
the federal head. And when he sinned in the garden,
he established a sinfulness for his people. He established death
for his people. And so then, and he had a child
in his image, conceived of his corrupt seed, and he was polluted
and corrupt and a sinner just like his father was. And the
first thing, but he's just dead. And then that child sinned. And God imputed the sin. He imputed
sin to Him. The sin of Adam, He imputed it
to Him, charged it to Him, because that's what He was. He was a
sinner. And God makes you to see that. He makes you to see
you're a sinner in heart, in nature, in everything you are,
that's what you are. And so He makes you to see that
everything you've ever done, good or evil, good or evil. Everything you've ever done is
under sin. And it's an abomination to God.
It's all sin, every bit of it. And God pierces that conscience.
And when He does that, you can't get away from it. You'll turn
and you'll say, well, I'm just going to put this out of my mind.
You're going to be like the man in prison and just say, well,
I got things I have hope in. I'm not worried that that's...
And that voice will just keep speaking into your conscience
saying, no hope. No hope. And then you'll say,
well, you know, I think I've got some goodness in me. I think
there's some good in me. And that voice will cry a little
louder to you. No hope. No hope. And then you'll
decide, well, I'm going to go to that law and I'm fixing to
get things right here. I know I've not been living right
now. I'm seeing it and I'm going to, I'm going to turn over a
new leaf. You know what happens when you turn over a leaf? You
got the same leaf on the other side. And so you start trying
to work and you start trying to obey the law and you start
trying to think you've measured up then. And that voice thunders
and says, no hope! You have no hope! You're without
God and you're without Christ and you're facing eternity and
you've got no hope! None. And if you don't have Christ
sitting here this morning, that's the truth about you. You've got
no hope. None. What are we going to do? What
are we going to do? Well, we settle down in religion.
We get us some doctrine. We get us some true doctrine.
We get baptized. We settle down in the church
and we think, oh, now, now I've got me something. But here's
the problem. Look at Isaiah 57. Here's the
problem. Isaiah 57 verse 10, Thou art
wearied in the greatness of Thy way, yet saidst Thou not, There
is no hope. Thou hast found the life of Thine
hand, therefore Thou wast not grieved. And of whom hast Thou
been afraid or feared, that Thou hast lied, and hast not remembered
me, nor laid it to Thy heart? Have not I held my peace even
of old, and thou fearest me not? I will declare thy righteousness
and thy works. They shall not profit thee."
Now what do we do? We get to this place. Where do
we go? Well, when He's speaking in our heart, when He brought
us to this place where He sees I've not profited anything, that's
when He shows us the good news. That's when He reveals the good
news. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being
made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. The Lord Jesus Christ was made
the sin of His people. And the just judge of heaven
and earth charged Him with the sin of His people. And Christ
bore the stripes for those sins. And Christ paid the price we
owed for those sins. And Christ put those sins away
forever. Forever. They're gone. They're absolutely gone. They
do not exist. And there comes the sweetest
voice you ever heard. And the Lord begins to say into
that same conscience, that new man He's created, and He says,
let Israel hope in the Lord. Hope in the Lord. For with the
Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption.
And the light shines. The light shines and says, hope
in the Lord. And you think, I look to my imagination,
I look to my goodness, I look to my law keeping, I look to
the church, I look to all these things. I never thought about
hoping in the Lord. Why don't I hope in the Lord? And that voice keeps speaking
to you and says, for there's mercy with the Lord. That's what
I need. I need Him to withhold from me
what I deserve. I need mercy. There's mercy with
the Lord. And there's plenteous redemption
with the Lord. It means He's overabounding with
this redemption He's accomplished for His people. I might be one
of those people. And for the first time in your
life, You've been hearing the general call, you've been reading
things about God, and you've been hearing the Gospel preached,
but now the effectual, irresistible call has come. His call has come. And now, He's made you willing
to do something you never could do before. He's made you willing
now, because all your vain hope's gone, He's made you willing now
to cease seeing Christ as a skeptic, and scoffing, and mocking, Now
he's made you to see Christ believing in hope. And he's made you finally
cry out, honestly, honestly, God, will you have mercy on me? I can't pray anything else. I
just need mercy. And you know what mercy does?
He sweeps you up in His arms. Immediately. Immediately. You've been going all that time,
fighting and wrestling against Him and fighting against Him,
and just with the honest cry of, I need mercy. And He sweeps
you up in His arms and pulls you to His breast and purges
your conscience with His blood from dead works. And in that
inner conscience, you realize, I have salvation. He's made me
the righteousness of God by what He's done for me. I'm saved.
I'm justified. I'm accepted of God. You know what's happened? Just
like Adam's sin and he made all that, reserved all that death
for his people, Christ came and did all that work and went to
the cross and He's got righteousness ready for His people. Ready.
And just like we were born of Adam's corrupt seed, we're born
of Christ's incorruptible seed. And just like we did exactly
what our nature was to do when we were born in corrupt seed,
we sinned and God imputed sin to us. Now with that new nature,
we do what a child of God does. We believe on God. And God imputes
the righteousness of Christ to us. And it's where sin abounded,
grace super abounded. Because it's by no work of our
own. And not only did He restore life
to His people, He gave us something far above and beyond that. He's given us eternal life that
can never be taken away, that can never be removed. No charge
can ever be laid again. We can't fall from where He's
brought us when He's brought us there. Now that, my friends,
is a good hope. That's why Romans 5 says, we
rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Now we rejoice in what
He's done for us. Sinner, can I tell you something
from experience? I've been where you are. I've
been an unbeliever. I've been skeptical of the things
that God did and doubting and trying to prove Him wrong and
prove Him a liar. I've been there. I've done that.
Whatever else you do, whatever else you do in your life, don't
ever stop listening to the Gospel. Don't ever stop. I don't care
if you don't believe him. Don't stop hearing the gospel
preached. Find you a believer who knows
the truth and go where they tell you to go and hear the gospel
preached. The whole time I was hoping in a vain shadow, the
whole time, something was keeping me under the sound of the gospel.
I didn't know what it was, but it was God doing it. That whole
time that I was trying to, I hated the gospel, I was fighting against
the gospel, I didn't want to have anything to do with the
gospel. That whole time, God had somebody handing me sermons
on tape, taking me to hear the gospel preached, giving me things
to read that were true things to read. And He was doing that. That was Him laying the oil and
the wine and everything at my door constantly, the whole time. And in the season when he was
pleased to do it, he gave me a new heart. Oh, don't ever stop. Don't ever stop attending the
preaching of the gospel. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in the Lord whose hope the Lord is. He'll have to give you the
grace to do it. Keep attending. Keep attending. Now, believer,
for you who have this hope, our hope is grown the more that the
Holy Spirit sheds abroad in our hearts the love of God. It grows. And it grows through trials.
Turn to Romans 5. It grows through trials. How did we learn that first time
that we called on the Lord? How did He bring us to cry on
Him the very first time? Through a bad trial. He made
us see what an awful thing there was staring us back in the face.
And we thought there's no hope. No hope for me. Well, every time
He grows us and makes us really call on Him and really teaches
us that we have a good hope, you know how it's going to be?
Through a trial. Through a trial. Look at Romans
5.3. We not only rejoice in the glory of God, It says, and not
only so, but we glory in tribulations also. Knowing that tribulation
worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope,
and hope maketh not ashamed. We're not ashamed of hope because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given unto us. So if Paul gives, Paul's praying
for these Ephesian brethren, he's praying Father, I pray that
You will give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation and
enlighten their eyes more and more. And if God grants him that
petition, you know what He's going to do to those brethren?
He's going to put them through a terrible trial. A terrible
trial. But it's going to be good for
them because you know what they're going to learn from that? They're
going to learn that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose.
That's how we learn it. That's how we learn it. When
every time we're brought down to where we have no hope in ourself,
no ability. And isn't that just a pattern?
I mean, it's like a constant, repeated pattern over and over
and over. We felt that way as soon as we were saved, as soon
as he called us the first time. But then we get a little bit
feeling a little bit big, you know, we can stand. You picture
a little baby, you know, they get to standing and they're just
cruising on that furniture at first, you know, and they just
can just walk with that furniture. But then they get a little brave
and they think, I just step out there without it. And they fall. And then they learn. I can't
do that. And slowly, little by little,
he teaches. We get a little bigger and we
think we can do something. He sends us something and drops
us right back on our behind. And we see, then he picks us
up, and we see whose hand we're in. And we go a little further,
and we do it again, and he does it again. And he just keeps doing
that. And he's teaching us growth in grace. He's teaching us, I
can't stand by myself. Growth in grace is teaching us,
I'm all together, strengthless. I have no strength. That's when
you're growing. When you're growing down in your
self-ability, and down in thinking you can do anything, and up in
thinking God has to do everything for me. That's growing in grace.
And that's how he does it. All right. Secondly, that's his
calling. That's how we were called. Now
let's talk about what this hope, what is this hope when he calls
us? Well, above all, Above all, our
hope is God our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the hope.
He is the hope of His calling. Listen to this in Psalms. You'll be turning to 1 Peter
1. Let me give you some Scriptures while you turn there. In the
Psalms it says, In thee, O Lord, do I hope. In thee, O Lord, do
I hope. Thou wilt hear, O Lord my God,
in Thee do I hope." Look here in 1 Peter 1.21. 1 Peter 1.21. He says there, let me read a
few verses before that. Verse 18, as much as you know
that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your
fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you, now watch this, who by Him, It's by Him, who
by Him do believe in God, that raised Him up from the dead and
gave Him glory, that your faith and hope might be in God. That your faith and hope might
be in God. Timothy, in 1 Timothy, Paul said,
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our
Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, our hope. He's our hope. You see, when we've been born
of that incorruptible seed, God uses nothing of that old man
whatsoever that was in us. That product of Adam, what you
were when you were born the first time, He doesn't use that. He
doesn't amend that. He doesn't take some of that,
use parts of that. He uses no part of that old man. God creates
an entirely new man within. It's hard to talk about it in
mixed company, but when a child is conceived of seed, there's
a child created. Well, when you're conceived of
incorruptible seed by God, there's a man created within, a new man. Not of that old man, a new man.
And that new man is of God. God made him. It's Christ in
you. It's the Spirit of God in you.
And it's you in Christ. There's a union there that can't
ever be severed. There's a union there that can't
ever be broken. And so our hope, truly, our hope
of glory, of coming into glory, is Christ in you. The hope of
glory. He's our hope. And because we're
sons and heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, our hope in
Christ is of eternal life with Christ. And we're going to have
it. It truly is. Listen to the Scripture. It truly
is. It says, being justified by His
grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal
life. It's a guarantee. We're joint
heirs with Christ. We're going to have what He has.
Our hope is of being with our Savior in a sinless world forever. Not only our souls, but our bodies. Our bodies will be there with
Him forever. Listen to this. I've set the
Lord always before me because He's at my right hand. I shall
not be moved. You know who's saying this? It's
Christ saying this. Christ spoke this, and when Peter
preached this from this text on the day of Pentecost, he said
David knew he was saying this about Christ. When David penned
this psalm, he said David knew he was talking about Christ.
And he said, and this is what Christ said, when he was walking
this earth, serving for his people, he said, I set the Lord always
before me. He's at my right hand. I shall
not be moved. Therefore, my heart is glad.
And he says, and my glory rejoiceth. And he says, and my flesh also
shall rest in hope. It will rest in hope too. Just
like I do inwardly in spirit, my flesh will rest in hope also.
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer
thine holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of
life. In thy presence is fullness of joy. At thy right hand there
are pleasures forevermore. So look at Romans 8, brethren.
Look at Romans 8. Because Christ is in you, and
because you're one with Him, and He's that Holy One, that
man that's formed in us is holy. He's holy because Christ is holy. But not only is our spirit going
to go to be with the Lord immediately when we die, but He's going to
raise our bodies too. Look at Romans 8. Let me find
it here. Verse 9, you're not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Alright, now look at verse 10, and if Christ be in you, the
body's dead because of sin. It's still dead. Your body right
now, your old man, your old nature, your flesh, what is it? It's
dead. It hates God as much now as it ever did. The only difference
now is Christ dwells in you and Christ has the dominion. If He
takes His hand off of us, we will do whatever any sinner on
the planet will do. Anything. But look now, even
though that's the case, the body's dead because of sin, the Spirit
is life because of righteousness. You see that capital S? This
new man really is the Holy Spirit within us. It's the Spirit of
God within us. And it says here, look down it
up, verse 11. But if the Spirit of Him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. When you die, just like
He's quickened that inner man already, He's going to quicken
that mortal body. And it's going to be raised incorruptible
and given a new body. a glorious body, so that we're
going to be with Him in glory in body and soul and spirit. And just like we live now, but
in a glorified, sinless being with Him in glory. So believer,
his calling has formed Christ in you. That's what's happened.
And Christ in you is the hope of glory. Paul said, to whom
God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this
mystery among the Gentiles. That's what you are. Which is
Christ in you, the hope of glory. He's our hope. Alright? Thirdly,
let's hear some descriptions of our hope according to the
Scriptures. Look at Ephesians 4, verse 4. It's one hope. It's one hope. Look here. There is one body
and one spirit Even as you're called in, one hope of your calling. You see that? It's one. Just
one. The glory that's hoped for by
this believer, by that believer, by that believer, and that believer,
and that believer is the same hope. We got the same hope. You
know, I told you this before, and the reason is because we're
loved of God equally the same. We got the same hope because
we've been loved of God equally. No, not one man loved a little
more than another, equally. I've told you this illustration
before, I got it from Spurgeon. No, with us, you know, we got
to tend to our children, and so while we're tending to this
one, these over here get pushed on the back burner, and we're
not attending to them. And then we'll tend to them.
That one's getting kind of pushed to the side because we've got
to tend to these. We can't tend to them all perfectly the same,
all at the same time. We have not power to do that.
But our God does. He has no child of His that's
ever on the circumference of His love. We're all at the center
of His focus all the time. Isn't that wonderful to think
about? I read that and I thought, that
is a beautiful illustration. That's how it is. That's how
the Scripture reveals it to us. We each shall equally possess
heavenly glory. Equally. We've been chosen in
Christ the same. We're in the same everlasting
covenant of grace. We were bought with the same
precious blood. We've been justified by the same
righteousness. We've been born of the same Spirit.
We're in the same body. We're baptized with the same
baptism. That's what Paul is conveying to them in Ephesians
4. This is the theme of Ephesians. We've been made one in Christ.
We're all equally the sons of God. We're all made kings and
priests unto God. Can you imagine living in a kingdom
where everybody's a king? and being in a church where everybody
there is a priest and a guy. All are one in one kingdom, heirs
of the same inheritance. So every saint in heaven will
be equal. There's no division with our
God. That's worldly. That's the world. It's sin that
makes you want to get something a little bit better than somebody
else. That's sin. There's no division with God.
There's perfect love perfect equality with Him. That's why
He tells us there's no male and female, there's no bond and free,
there's no Jew and Gentile, it's just we're one. All these racial
distinctions and social distinctions and all of the distinctions we
make in this life, none of that will exist in glory. We'll be
one. Oh, and this is the other thing. The next thing. It's an
unseen hope. It's an unseen hope. Let me just
read this to you. Romans 8. We're saved by hope,
but hope that is seen is not hope. Hope that's seen. One day we
won't have hope, because one day we'll see Him as He is. But
for what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for it? But if we
hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for
it. You see, by making us wait for
this hope that's unseen, God is teaching us that His grace
is sufficient for us. That's what He's doing. To keep
us believing in hope and to uphold us through every trial, His grace
is sufficient to grow us in hope through every trial. Behold,
the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that
hope in His mercy, to deliver their soul from death and to
keep them alive in famine. Our soul waiteth for the Lord,
for He is our help and our shield, for our heart shall rejoice in
Him because we've trusted in His holy name. Let thy mercy,
O Lord, be upon us according as we hope in Thee. You think
He's going to disappoint that hope and that trust? If you want
your boys and your daughters to love you, love the Lord, and
worship the Lord, if they came and they started worshiping the
Lord, and they said, you know, Dad, I want to get here, I want
to go to this place, and I want to worship the Lord, and I want
to be there so I can hear the gospel preached, but I don't
have the money to get there, I don't have the whatever to
get there. I'm hoping you might give me what I need to get there.
You wouldn't disappoint that hope, would you? No. God's brought us to put all our
trust in Him and the hope in Him. You think He's going to
disappoint that trust and disappoint that hope and make us ashamed
for trusting Him and hoping in Him? Of course not. But this
is what He's teaching us through these trials. I do want you to
see this. Lamentations 3. Lamentations 3. This is why He's causing us to
go through this life, not seeing these things, but believing and
hoping, because He's teaching us to trust Him. He's showing
us, little by little, how sufficient His grace is for us. He says
here, Lamentations 3.21, right? It's Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations. This I recall to mind, verse
21, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed. Don't you see yourself sinning
all the time? Why aren't you consumed? The Lord's mercy. Because
His compassions fail not. Has He failed yet to be compassionate
for you? Look, they are new every morning. Just like it's the first day
I ever believe. It may not be that way with me,
it's that way with Him. The great is thy faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore I will hope
in Him. The Lord is good unto them that
wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is good that
a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the
Lord. Alright? And we do this waiting and this
hoping through faith. Let me read this to you. Galatians
5 verse 4 says, Christ has become of no effect unto you, whosoever
of you are justified by the law, you are fallen from grace. For
we, through the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith. We wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith. For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision
availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love.
Now in this life, the hope of righteousness that we're hoping
for is I'm hoping for Christ my righteousness to reveal Himself
in that boy right there. That's what I'm hoping. You're
hoping for Christ to reveal Himself in your sons and daughters and
in your loved ones. But the moment that we turn from
hoping and waiting by faith in Him and working towards them,
helping teach them and instruct them in love. The moment we turn
from that to preaching to them and at them instead of declaring
the gospel to them. And the moment we start trying
to make them see and make them believe and trying to turn from
this one gospel or anything of that nature, we cease. That's
law. That's turning to law. That's
turning to us. And we cease believing God and
waiting for this hope of righteousness to come through faith. And we
cease working by love. And then in the life to come,
this hope of righteousness is Christ our righteousness. He's
Christ our righteousness. I passed over something here
and I don't want to pass over this. I say this to us who are
fathers and mothers. I want us to dearly consider
that it may be that God has not revealed Christ in our dearly
loved children because He's first bringing us to the end of ourselves
and teaching us once again that we must trust Him. So trust in
God for the hope of righteousness to be revealed to those you love.
Believe God and do what you do for Him in love and wait on Him. Just wait on Him. Sometimes He
teaches us more in the process of teaching them
than he initially teaches them. See what I'm saying? All right.
And in the life to come, this hope of righteousness is Christ
our righteousness. We're waiting on him to come.
And we wait. We just keep waiting by faith.
We don't turn back to the law. We keep waiting on him. Just
keep waiting on him. Alright, let me skip down to
some things. Our hope is a sure expectation
of never being ashamed. It's sure of never being ashamed
for trusting the Lord. When Paul was in prison, even
after he was in prison, he said this, I know that this shall
turn to my salvation. through your prayer and the supply
of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, according to my earnest expectation
and hope." He said, I know this will. That in nothing I shall
be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also
Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life
or by death. Either one. Now that's a hope. That's hope.
Knowing I'm not going to be ashamed whether I live or whether I die. I'm not going to be ashamed.
That's a sure expectation. That's what scripture talks about,
this hope. All right, here's another thing.
Lastly, this is the end. It speaks of our hope as if the
object of the thing hoped for is the substance. The Scriptures
speak of our hope as if the object of the thing hoped for is the
substance. Listen in Colossians 1.5, it says, the hope which
is laid up for you in heaven. You see? It's almost like the
hope, our hope is hoping in the object that we're hoping for.
But he speaks of the hope as if the hope is laid up there
for you itself. Like that hope is the substance
of it. We've been begotten again to
a living hope. That's what he's saying, a living
hope. By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to
an inheritance that's incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away,
that's reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power
of God through faith under salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. It's ready. It's reserved. Wouldn't it be
wonderful today for some sinner to find out that this hope is
reserved for you? Wouldn't that be something? Find
out that God reserved this for you before the foundation of
the world. And believer, this hope is reserved
for you. It's reserved for you. 1 Corinthians 2.9 says, I hath
not seen nor ear heard, had neither entered into the heart of man
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. When you have a carnal object
for your hope, you may want to get, you say you want to get
to be, live to be an old age, or you want to have wealth, or
on and on and on, all these different hopes men have. You have no guarantee
it's going to come to pass. You don't even have a guarantee
you're going to live to the end of the day, much less anything else. But our hope
is sure. God's promise is this hope we
have. We have a hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie
promised before the world began. The Word of God will have to
fail before our hope can fail. God will have to turn into a
liar before our hope can fail. Now that's a sure hope. God can't
lie. He can't lie. By two immutable
things, He's made a promise to us so that we have strong consolation
And our hope has entered into the veil in front of us. Christ
has entered in as a forerunner. He's gone in before, that high
priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And he's that
hope that's laid up for us. That sure hope, that one that
makes it that our hope is sure and certain and steadfast. Let me give you this. This is
our hope. This is it now. Here it is. Hebrews
9.28. Let's look at this. I want you
to see these Scriptures. Hebrews 9.28. This is our hope
right here. Hebrews 9.28. Christ was once offered to bear
the sins of many. and unto them that look for Him."
That's what this hope is. We're looking for Him. That's
our hope. I'm hoping now every time I see
some bright thing in the sky, I think, oh, what if that's Him?
What if He's coming? I do. That thought goes through
my mind every single time. He says, to those that look for
Him, shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation? See, He took the sins away. They're
gone. He's coming back now without sin. He's carrying us to salvation.
Look at 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians 4. This is our hope. 1 Thessalonians
4. I would not have you to be ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that means those
that have already died, that you sorrow not even as others
which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus
will God bring with Him." They're with Him now in spirit. He's
talking about their bodies are coming out too. For this we say
unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the
dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words." I'm going to give you one more Scripture,
1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15. Look at verse 22. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive. Whatever man in his own
order, Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ's
at his coming, then cometh the end when he shall have delivered
up the kingdom of God, even the Father, when he shall have put
down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign
till he hath put all enemies under his feet, and the last
enemy that shall be destroyed is death. Every enemy is going
to be put down. Satan is going to be crushed
underneath your feet very shortly. And there won't be any more death.
No more death. Our sin will be no more. We won't
have any more sin. We won't any more grieve the
Holy Spirit because of our sins. We shall be as holy, harmless,
and undefiled as our great High Priest is. It does not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know when He does appear, we're going
to be like Him. We're going to be like Him. No weakness in worshiping
Him anymore. You know, now you worship Him
and we get tired. We get sleepy. I start batting
like this, and you know, nobody's watching me. The preacher's the
only one that sees me. We're gone. We won't have any
of that anymore. We won't. We'll be able to worship
Him with full strength. Full strength. And when we see
through a glass darkly now and rejoice like we do now at times,
just think what it'll be like when we worship Him perfectly.
That chorus then will be loud. It'll be loud. Perfect safety. No one with sin around us anywhere. Nobody with any hidden agendas. There won't be any pain, no sorrow,
no mental worries, not even a single drop of sweat there. Just perfect
peace. The Scripture describes it like
this. Rest from your burdens. Rest from all your enemies round
about. Rest from war. Rest from the
days of adversity. Rest from thy sorrow and from
thy fear. Just one eternal Sabbath rest. And it'll be a continual, never-ending,
uninterrupted communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. Can you
imagine, when you see Mary sitting there at Christ's feet, learning
of Him, can you imagine being able to do that for eternity? To have that good thing, that
one thing needful, and have Him for all eternity? Every man that
has this hope, you know what he does? He says, y'all can take
the world. I want Christ. That's it. You
can go after your wealth. You can go after your mansions.
You can go after your luxury cars. You can go after your high-paying
jobs. You can go after your climbing
a ladder. You can go after all those things. If it means it's
going to take away from me having time to worship Christ, you can
have Him, because I've got to have Him. I've got to have Him.
The man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as
he is pure. Now, like Paul, brethren, I cease
not to give thanks for you and to pray for you, that God may
give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge
of Him, that your eyes might be enlightened more and more,
that you might know, know the hope of His calling. Paul said,
now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing
that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. Amen.