Well, again, the message, I want
to remind everyone of our upcoming conference. It's in July 25th,
26th, 27th. Brother David Edmondson and Brother
Kevin is going to preach for us during that time. So be in
prayer regarding this. And I'll send out the flyers
and the order of service and everything prior this week. I'll send it out. And so pray
that God be gracious to us in this. I look forward to it. But right now, I want to think
about that. I want to think about this. I ask your prayer that God give
me the grace and liberty of his spirit for you. for you, that you might
find great cause to rejoice. That's going to be the message,
rejoicing, rejoicing in hope. And I hope that God, I long that
God would give you this joy and set your minds on something which is the source of joy and
remove it from what we think Joy, yes, joy is not in the things
of the world. There's no joy, lasting joy.
There's temporal joy, but there's really no lasting joy there.
Rejoicing in hope, rejoicing in hope. I pray God will bless
this to you. Be with, ask God's mercies on
those who are sick. Joanne, she's still feeling sore
from her fall, so pray for her. Others who are not able to be
with us, whatever reason, Jean had the funeral for her mother
yesterday. It's tomorrow, okay. So pray
for them as they suffer the loss of her mom. I ask you to constantly remember
God's men wherever they are. My heart during the week aches
for them because I know their pain. I know their toil. and
I know their work, and ask God's mercies on them and their congregations
when God brings it to your mind. Let's go to him in prayer. Our most gracious Father, we humbly bow before you in the
name of our blessed Redeemer, our sure refuge and hope. And Father, we ask this morning
that you would, by your grace and your Spirit, into this place,
Father, into this building, but not just the building, Father,
but into every heart. Oh, that you would move on every
heart to believe. That you would cause your Spirit
to give life to the dead. and comfort to the living. I
need you. Without you, I cannot do it.
Cannot preach, except your spirit give me the ability and liberty. Bring to mind the things that
you would have your people to hear, and pour it out from your
heart into mine, and from my heart to theirs, as is your way
and means. Be with those that are sick,
please. Lift up their minds and their bodies. But above all,
lift up their hearts and their spirits, that they may rejoice
in the hope that is set before them, even Jesus Christ, our
Savior. I plead for the forgiveness of
our sins. I plead that you would cast out
the things and cares of this life and then focus our minds
on the things of Christ. Lead us, guide us, strengthen
us. These things we plead in the
name of Jesus Christ, our Savior, for his sake. Amen. All right,
take your Bibles and turn with me to Romans chapter 12. Romans
Chapter 12, my verse will be found in verse 12, just the first
part. Paul says, rejoicing in hope. Rejoicing in hope. Now, as we've gone through this
chapter, we understand that this chapter was easily divided into
three sections. The first part is the exhortation.
He says, I appeal to you that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy and acceptable, which was made holy and acceptable
by the Lord Jesus Christ, by the mercies of God, that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable,
which is what? Reasonable. It's just reasonable
because of the mercies of God. Think of that. Because God chose
you, because Christ redeemed you, because the Spirit called
you, these are Definite reasons why we should give ourselves
as a sacrifice unto God. And be not conformed to this
world. Isn't that reasonable? Weren't you saved from this world,
from this sin, from death? Be not conformed to this world,
be you transformed by the renewing of your mind. Remember, God saved
you, gave you a new nature, And there's a struggle within you,
but the warfare, the battleground is the mind. And we must constantly
be renewing our mind, setting your mind upright. The flesh
would have your mind reverse the order. It puts you first. You've got to constantly reset
that. Renew your mind. You may prove what is that good,
acceptable, and perfect will of God. And Paul then begins
in verse 3 through verse 8 talking about the gifts of the church.
He first of all prefaces this by humility. Humility. He said, don't think of yourself
more highly than you ought to think. He's going to be talking
about gifts, and when we talk about gifts, if somebody's got
seemingly a better gift, what's the the tendency to promote self,
to promote our gift. He said, no, don't think of yourself
highly than you are. Know this, your gifts are just
that. They're gifts. They're gifts
given to you by God, and they are to be used. Whatever the
gift that God has given us, it is to be used, but with humility. And not only humility, look at
this, love. Let love be without hypocrisy. We must perform these things
that God has given us to do in humility and love. And love, he's talking about
pretend love. That's what he's saying, not
pretending to love, but actually loving. How are we to love one
another? How are we as believers to love
one another? Listen to what Jesus said, even
as I have loved you. That's how much you're to love
me. As He forgives you, that's how
you're to forgive me. And that's how I'm to forgive
you. Preemptively. Didn't Christ actually forgive
you before you even committed it? That's how we're to treat
one another. Not with hypocrisy. Be kindly
and affectionate one to another in brotherly love. And listen,
don't be slothful in this business. That's what he says in verse
11. He's not talking about your company or your job. He's talking
about the business of serving Christ. Don't be slothful in
this. Be deliberate. Be deliberate. And then he says this, rejoicing
in hope. Now having shown the ferventness
of our service, he now tells us something, exhorts us as believers
to rejoice in hope. Now why is this? Why would he
exhort us to rejoice? Because the flesh and the cares
of this life, many times the service of Christ that once thrilled
us, when we began our walk with Christ, this service thrilled
us. But as we go on, we become weary
in service. The joy that we once had becomes
cold. indifferent. Many times as believers
we fall asleep in the service and it becomes nothing more than
routine. We get up Sunday morning, why? Because that's just where
we're supposed to be. We go to worship, why? Because that's
just what we're supposed to do. We do that as a routine. It becomes
routine. I remember in the service when
we would perform guard duty, you know, a lot of times that
just gets weary. You work all day, you're tired,
and then somebody tells you, you've got to get up and pull
guard duty and watch. You know, what really got me
through a lot of that was purpose. If I thought it was meaningless,
it was very difficult for me to do that duty. But if I realized
what I was actually doing, I was there meant to protect my brothers. I was there to protect them. My service had purpose and that
helped me through. And so we as believers in Jesus
Christ must be reminded again and again concerning our service
that it has purpose. It has purpose. Someone once
said this, it caught my attention, stuck with me. Discipline without
vision is drudgery. Isn't that true? Service, discipline without vision
is drudgery. Now I would change that word
vision to hope. Service without hope is drudgery. It's drudgery. If our service has no hope, it's nothing more, at best it's
ceremonial. But it will not be joyous in
the least. Paul says to the believer, rejoice.
Listen, don't rejoice in your service. He didn't say rejoice
in your service. What did he say rejoice in? rejoice
in hope. We as believers are prone to
wonder, prone to sin because of the old nature. God in grace
has given us many things in life to enjoy. If you have any joy
at all, family, it's a good thing to rejoice in. Family is good. God gave that to us. It is a
joy. Your work or your job can be
a joy. Your children, your friends,
all of the entertainment, things that we do, we find joy in these
things. But listen, they are never meant
to be the source of it. They're never meant to be the
source. John Calvin said this, he said, Paul first forbids us
to acquiesce or to give passive assent in present blessing. He forbids us to ground our joy
in earthly things as though our happiness were based in them,
but bids us to raise our minds up to heaven that we may possess
what is solid and real joy. Believers, the things of life
are a temptation to set our joy in. rather than setting our joy in the giver of our hope and
salvation. These things are in constant
competition, aren't they? The flesh and the spirit always
having to do this. And so as we look at the joys
of earth, are they not fleeting? Have you not found that to be
true? Are they not fleeting? The job we strive so hard to
get, pretty soon it's just a job. The children we had, they were
a joy, they were a bundle of joy. And then they started growing
up. And you get to a place where
it's hard to find a lot of joy in it. You're home, it's a joy, but
then it's a constantly falling down, needing to be repaired,
Do you not see the vanity of these joys? Can you not see it?
If you put your joy in these things, it is constantly degrading. It's constantly eroding. Now sometimes we as believers
put our joy even in the service of God. This is a mistake. It is a joy to serve God. We begin to see great things
that God does, He's called us to do, and we see what good God
is using us for, but how long does that last? I became pastor of this church,
I was on fire. Well, you couldn't keep me down. I was on cloud nine. It was wonderful. Then what? Reality comes in. Providence hinders you. Dark
providences. Struggles. Pains. Difficulties. And it begins to wear on that
joy. This is why Paul says not to
rejoice in your service. Because that'll flee. That'll
go away. Our Lord illustrated like this,
the vine and the branches, right? Imagine this beautiful vine,
this vine coming out of the earth, and you see its branches extend
and there's so much fruit on these branches. Now does the branch have any
cause to rejoice in itself? Did it have anything to do with
the fruit that it now bears? Nothing. The branch did nothing
to produce the fruit. No, he should rejoice in the
vine, not the fruit and not himself. Jesus said, abide in me and I
in you. Isn't that cause to rejoice?
Unity. God put you in Christ and you
and Christ are one. Just as a vine and branches are
one. He said, Abide in me, and I in
you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide
in the vine, no more can you except you abide in me. Now this is just the plain truth. I'm the vine, you're the branches.
Now you know your place. You're not the vine. You don't
make this fruit. What fruit have you made? If
you've had any love at all, where'd that come from? Any joy, any
peace, temperance, meekness, faith? Where'd that come from?
Service? Where'd that come from? It didn't
come from you, it came from Him. I'm the vine, you're the branches.
He that abideth in me and I in him, listen, this is what's gonna
happen. He's gonna bring forth much fruit. Why? Because I'm the one producing
it. Now then listen, if you don't abide in me, you're nothing but
a withered branch. ready to be burned. That's all
you're good for. Jesus is the vine, dear believer.
He's the strength and source of all our service to God. So
to rejoice in our works is like the branch rejoicing in the fruit
and not in the vine. Paul says rejoice, believer,
but not in the things of life or the joys of this fleeting
world, not in your service to God, but rather rejoice in the
one true vine that gives you life. and faith. Rejoice in Him. Now why is this important? Because when we serve God, it's
not always, we're not ever always going to see this fruit. We're
not going to see things, we're going to be often times put in
darkness. So in When we're serving God,
sometimes all things appear fruitless. It appears fruitless. I feel
oftentimes like a little hamster in a wheel, and I'm just running
and going nowhere, like nothing's happening. If I were to base my joy in my
preaching, I wouldn't have any joy at all. I wouldn't. It appears fruitless. When providence
appears dark and there's no joy in sight, where do we find joy? Look over at Habakkuk. Habakkuk
deals with this. Habakkuk chapter 3, verse 17. He's talking about work. He's
talking about service to God. And he says this, although the
fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines,
the labor of the olive tree shall fail, the field shall yield no
meat, the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there
shall be no herd in the stalls. Although my situation seems desperate. Although I have no appearance
of any joy or hope in this present situation. Yet. Yet. I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of my salvation. That's what Paul's saying in
our text. Rejoice in hope. Rejoice in hope. David said this in Psalm 42,
he said, Why art thou cast down, O my soul? Why art thou disquieted within
me? Listen, hope thou in God. Now the idea is a big fat sheep
turned over on its back. It can't get up. He's cast. Why aren't they downcast? Oh my soul. The situation was
bleak. But he said, even in this situation,
I will hope in God. And you know what I hope for?
I know this. I will praise him. He said, I shall yet praise him
for the help of my countenance. He was trusting in God to deliver
him. Now, if we're to hope, if we're
to rejoice in hope, we've got to know what hope is. What is
hope? Our vernacular says hope is nothing
more than a wish. Gee, I hope. Gee, I hope this ends soon. But it's not a wish. That's not
what the word means. It means confidence. Rejoice
in confidence. Rejoice in assurance. Rejoice
in expectation of something. Our confidence in distress, in
affliction, in sorrow, in toil. What is our hope? What is our
confidence? This religious world has no confidence. No confidence. Why? Because their
salvation is a cooperative effort. If your salvation is based on
a cooperative effort between you and God, you have no confidence. You have no hope. Your hope is nothing more than
a dream or a wish. Gee, I hope God gets me out of
this. I don't know. He may not. Maybe he will. So
there's no hope. If your hope is not in Christ
alone, then you have no hope. Therefore, you have no joy. But
all who believe on Christ as their only hope, I want you to
understand that you have a good hope. It doesn't matter what
takes place. It doesn't matter if the mountains
fall into the sea. It doesn't matter if... I know
everybody's so worried about what the war's going on over
there in the Middle East. Who cares? Does it really matter? If they put a bomb on top of
this building, that's not going to remove our hope. Because our hope is not in the
things of this world. My hope is not in the things
of this world. And so believer, let us hope
in God. Now I've got four things about this hope. Rejoice in,
I'm going to give them to you and then you can, we'll go over
them. First of all, rejoice in the immutability of your hope. You that have hope in Christ,
it is an unchangeable hope. Second of all, I want you to
rejoice in the hope of Christ's success, Christ's victory. Thirdly, rejoice in the hope
of your calling. And fourthly, rejoice in the
hope of glory. First of all, rejoice in the
immutability of your hope. Go to Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6. Look at verse 17. Scripture says we're in God,
our hope. God willing more abundantly. Our hope, God, was willing to
do something. Super abundantly willing to do
something. And this is it. To show something. He's going to show us something.
He's going to show, manifest, reveal unto the heirs of promise
the immutability of His counsel. He confirmed it by an oath that
by two immutable things. What are these two immutable
things? His counsel and His oath. These things are immutable. They
can't be changed. Whatever God determined to do,
He will do. And when God swears He'll do
something, He can't lie. It's going to be done. By these
two immutable things, which are impossible for God to lie, we
might have a strong consolation, a strong hope. How strong is your hope? It is
as strong as the immutability of God's counsel and will. That's
how unchangeable it is. If your hope is in God, it's
immutable. You can't change it. Whatever
God determined to show you, He's going to show you. Whatever God
determined to do for you, He's going to do for you. The heirs
of promise, that we might have a strong consolation, listen,
who fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us. What's this hope? Which hope?
We have. as an anchor for the soul, both
sure and steadfast, which entereth in within the veil." Who's that? Who entered the veil? The high
priest, Jesus Christ. He said, where the forerunners
entered, even Jesus, a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. God is willing for us to rejoice
in hope. The hope set before us, the hope
we've laid hold of, even Jesus Christ, because of God's willingness
to show us this hope, it is an anchor. What is the anchor that
holds you? When everything is pulling you
in every direction, what's the anchor that holds you? What keeps
you? It's the immutability of God's
promise, God's counsel to save you. That's the only reason you
haven't moved. That's why you're still here
and everybody else left. That's why you still believe
and the others don't. Because you have an anchor that
won't let go of you. I always think about what Don
said about his little girl when he would, she liked to swing
on his fingers. You know Don Bigfella. And his
daughter would swing on his fingers and she would grab hold of his
fingers as tight as she can. She would hang on. Now she thought
that it was her hanging on to him. It wasn't. He was hanging on to her. The
only reason you're still here is because of this immutable
hope. That's it. He confirmed it by his oath.
Now listen, when God decrees something, that settles it. But
God did something for us. He doubled down. He said, not
only will I decree your salvation, I'm going to swear by it. And so rejoice, believer, that
your salvation is as sure as God's counsel and oath. Now let that sink in. your salvation
is as sure as the immutability of God's counsel and oath." In
other words, everyone God chose will be saved. Everyone Christ redeemed will
be saved. Everyone the Spirit calls will
be saved. Why? Because of the hope of the
immutable counsel of God. Because God decreed it. Have you considered why we preach
so much against free will religion? I mean, do you ever understand
why? It's not a subtle difference here. They believe that men who Christ
died for will go to hell. That's not a subtle thing. That's saying that the counsel
and will of God will fail. For one that God chose, for one
that Christ redeemed, for one the spirit calls ends up in hell,
God's counsel fails and God's a liar. Now that's why we preach
against that. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, all
that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Now who's going to
come to him? all that the Father gave Him.
And what is He going to do when they come? I will in no wise
cast them out. Why? For I came down from heaven
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.
And you don't have to speculate about this. This is the will
of Him that sent me. That of all He hath given me,
I should lose nothing. Any religion that opposes that
is a blasphemous religion. To suppose He would lose something. He loses nothing. Why? That was
the immutable will of the Father, that He lose nothing. And here's
my hope, and this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone
that seeth the Son and believeth on Him, do you believe on Him?
This is your hope. This is the will of the Father.
You that believe, this is the will of the Father, that they
may have everlasting life. That's the will of God. Now what
in time will change that? How long are we here? Can't even put my hands close
enough together, it's just so short. Nothing in that frame
of time is ever going to change what God has decreed for you. Rejoice in hope. regardless of what happened.
Rejoice in hope. Rejoice in hope. Because your
hope is unchangeable. It's immutable. Our God does not fail. Our God
does not fail. This is what God said about that
covenant. This is the immutable covenant that He said. He said,
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not according
to the covenant which I made with them, their fathers, in
the day I took them to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
What is that? The law. I'm not going to make a covenant
based on your works. My immutable covenant has nothing
to do with your obedience. Here's the new covenant I will
make with them. In those days I will put my law
in their inward parts. I'm going to make you holy. That's
my immutable covenant. I'm going to make you holy. Immutable, can't change it. Was there ever a chance you're
going to miss this? Was there ever a chance you that believed
that you were not going to be holy? No, God said, I'm going
to put my law in your hearts. What does that mean? That law
Christ fulfilled, he puts it in our new nature. Right in their inward parts,
right in their hearts, and they will be, I will be their God
and they shall be my people. Any chance that's not going to
happen? No, you have a strong consolation, you have a strong
hope that's going to happen. God said it would. And then I'm going
to teach every man that his neighbor is saying no to the Lord. Why?
They're all going to know me. I'm going to reveal myself to them.
And they're all going to know me. From the least of them to
the greatest of them. They're all going to know me.
And listen to this. I will forgive their iniquity. Is there any chance He would
have not forgiven you? This is His immutable will that
He will forgive my iniquities. And listen, and I will remember
no more their sins. A determined forgetfulness. I'm not going to remember them
anymore. Why? He can't. Christ bore them. Christ suffered for them. They're
paid. He can't. I'll tell you this, when calamities
come, we doubt the immutability of God's will. We doubt the immutability
of God's counsel. We say, will God forget His covenant? Has God forgotten His covenant?
It appears as though God forgot His covenant. He told me that I should not
suffer evil anymore, and yet, what do I feel? I feel like I'm
suffering evil. Has He forgot? What if my faith fails? What
if my service fails? Will He cast me off? What does
hope tell you? No. He will not cast off his
people which he fornicated. He will not. Why? It's his will. That's my hope. Rejoice. Rejoice in this hope. Secondly, rejoice in the successful
work of Jesus Christ. Now, all that God promised in
that oath was not just a promise. It's one thing to promise something,
isn't it? We make many promises. It's not really good until it's
fulfilled, is it? Well, I've got great news for
this, because everything God promised, listen, Christ fulfilled.
Everything God promised you, Christ fulfilled. Jesus, the
Son of God, who agreed in eternity to be our High Priest, has now
entered into the veil of God's holiness and for us paid the
redemption price in full. It's sure. Promises of God are
sure because our High Priest has secured for us all that the
Father promised. Remember in the Old Testament,
the Great Day of Atonement, I think it's one of the greatest pictures
of Christ's work. I think it's the clearest because
it's very exhaustive, it's a lot. But everything in it pictures
Christ. The High Priest pictures Christ, the altar pictures Christ,
The scapegoat pictures Christ. The blood offering pictures Christ.
The veil pictures Christ. Everything in this pictures Christ. The mercy seat pictures Christ. That high priest, he offered
a sacrifice. He confessed the sins on the
scapegoat. The scapegoat is taken away.
The offering has been made. He takes the blood. He dons the
priestly robes. He brings it into the very presence
of God. He sprinkles it on the mercy
seat. He comes out. Atonement was made. And everybody
rejoices. What's the problem with that?
Next year he had to do the same thing. Because He did not remove sin. That high priest did not remove
sin, but the fulfillment did. When our Lord Jesus Christ came
into the world as our high priest, our sins were put on Him. God
killed His Son for our sins. He paid the debt for our sins. Christ, our high priest, has
entered into the presence of God, not with the blood of animals,
but with His own blood, and He, by His one offering, forever
removed our sins. That's what it says in Hebrews
10. Hebrews 10 says, Every high priest standeth daily, ministering
the same sacrifices that can never take away sin. Listen to
your hope. But this man. Here's my hope. Rejoice in your hope. This man.
Now what's your hope? This man. What's your confidence? This man. This man. After he had offered one sacrifice
for sin, forever, never to be done again. Isn't this easy to see that,
I mean, the Papists, they're still offering him. They're still
trying to kill him. They kill him every week, trying
to kill his body and shed more of his blood. Now, this man,
after he offered one sacrifice for sin, what did he do? Sat
down. Significant that he sat down,
because that means something. He sat down because it was done. This is my hope. He said it's finished. Listen
to me, it's finished. It's done. My sin is fully, completely
paid for. 100%. Nothing left to owe. This is
how God can say, I will not remember your sins anymore. Because Christ
removed them from me. Paid that debt. He sat down.
from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool,
for by his one offering he hath perfected forever them that are
sanctified." Dear believer, this man, is he your hope? Do you not have great cause to
rejoice in your hope? This man did not accomplish part
of my salvation. This man accomplished all my
salvation. all of it. Religion's always striving to
earn a spot. Always striving to earn a spot.
My hope says my spot's already earned, just not by me. It's earned by Christ. There's
no joy It works religion because it's always in constant flux.
But believer, we may rejoice for Jesus Christ did not make
our salvation possible, but he absolutely accomplished it. This
is the gospel. This is our hope. And so look into the loving eyes
of your Savior and see then that He is our hope. Who made your
peace with God? Colossians 1 says, having made
peace, That's already something done. Paul said, having made
peace already by the blood of his cross. Then, you which were
aliens, you were foreigners, you were outside of God and what
did God do? He reconciled you. When were you reconciled to God? Now, there was a time you experienced
this reconciliation. But you were reconciled a lot
longer before you ever experienced it, because God willed it, and
Christ accomplished it, listen, because He made peace, you were
reconciled to God. He said, being reconciled in
the body of His flesh through death, that's what reconciled
you. To present you holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in His sight, listen, if you continue in faith
grounded and settled. Is this your hope? Is this your
hope? Let me ask you this. Do you want
another hope? You that believe, do you want
another hope? Will any other hope suffice but Him? Would you
like to help contribute to this hope? If you know He's your hope, you
won't want anything to do with Him. You want Him to be all your
hope. And don't worry, you that believe,
He is all your hope. He is. He's all your confidence. Thirdly, rejoice in your calling.
Go to Ephesians 4. Ephesians 4. So rejoice in the immutability
of God's will, God's purpose to save you. You will be saved.
Rejoice in this. Christ accomplished your salvation.
And thirdly, rejoice in this. Rejoice in your calling. Ephesians
4 and verse 4. There is one body and one spirit. That's exactly what Paul was
saying in Romans 12, isn't it? That we are one body. I like
how the scripture just laps over each other. It makes our labor
so much easier. The scripture just laps over
top of each other. You and me, we're one body. Christ is our
head. We have one spirit. We were saved
by the same spirit. Isn't that amazing? Different
place at different time, same spirit. Same spirit. Listen,
how do we know we're His body and we're saved by His Spirit?
Even as you are called in one hope of your calling. Now, a lost man can know everything
there is to know about the immutability of God's will. A lost man can know everything
there is to know about the success of Jesus' death, burial, and
resurrection. Knowledge of these things does not give you hope. It is the application of these
things that gives you hope. Without the calling, you have
no hope. Everyone God purposed to save,
everyone Christ died to save, will be called. Called to what? To life and faith. Every one of them. Jesus said
that. All that the Father giveth me,
what? Will come to me. They're going
to be called. They're going to be gathered
wherever they are, whoever they are. They're going to be gathered.
They're going to be called by the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit
will then take what Christ has done and actually apply it to
your hearts. Passover. Beautiful illustration
of this, isn't it? God swears he's going to come
in judgment that night and slay the firstborn. Now, you're the
firstborn. Kind of has something to do with you, right? Wait,
God's going to kill the firstborn? Well, that's me. He said, well, here's hope. Take a lamb without spot, without
blemish, and you kill him in front of everybody. I want everybody
to see this. And you take that blood of that
lamb, that spotless lamb, and what he had to do? He had to
apply it to the door. And what if they just put the
bowl right there by the door? Was that sufficient? Well, people think salvation
is by knowledge. If they can just assess this
knowledge, if they can just gain this knowledge, then they're
going to be saved. No, it has to be applied. And
there's one thing about it, the firstborn never applied the blood.
It wasn't his job. His job was simply this, get
in the house. What a picture of Christ. Every
part of that is a picture of Christ. He's the house. He's
the door. It's his blood and he applies
it. The application of the blood
is simply this. It is the new birth. You must
be born again. Isn't that true? I remember somebody saying this.
Some preacher was up there and he was saying, you must be born
again. Now let me tell you how. And he couldn't. Well, how can you be born again?
Tell me how. How can you be born again? anything to do with your physical
birth, you definitely had nothing to do with this. This birth is the spiritual work
of the Holy Spirit on the hearts of men. Unless a man is born
of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God, but will
suffer the wrath of God. But whosoever the Spirit calls,
he breathes the breath of life, and what is the evidence of that
calling? They believe in Christ. That's the evidence. That's the
breath. It's not their servile works.
You've got a believer, he feels in his heart he's got to build
a house for the homeless. Okay, that's great. Well, you've got
a religionist over here and he believes he's got to build a
house for the homeless. And they don't build houses.
What makes a distinction? Does that make a distinction?
No. No distinction. Your works are not going to be
your distinction. What is this? Faith in Christ
alone. That's the distinction. Do you have hope in anything
else but Christ? What is the hope of your calling?
The hope of my calling is God's immutable sovereign will to save
me. Christ's immutable work that
saved me. And it was the Spirit of God
that gave it to me. I didn't earn it. And you know what? I
ain't gonna keep it. I ain't gonna keep it. And fourthly,
you that hope in Christ, you also have hope of eternal glory.
Look at Colossians 1.27. So you have hope because of the
immutable will of God. Confidence. that you're going
to be saved. God's willed it. You have confidence. Christ paid for it. Christ died
for it. You have confidence. The Spirit called me. I believe.
I don't trust in my faith. I trust in the object of my faith.
And this is what God says to us who believe. He said, to whom
God would make known the riches of His glory of this mystery
among the Gentiles, which is what? Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Now when I preach to you, I'm
telling you Christ is not a hope. He's not one among many hopes.
Christ is the hope of glory. The hope of heaven, the hope
of eternal life, and like I said, it's not a wish. Please, that
first thing that comes into my mind is a wish when I use that
word hope. Confidence of heaven, assurance
of heaven is this, Christ in you. What's my assurance of heaven?
Union with Christ. My union with Christ is my only
assurance of heaven. It's my only hope of glory. And how do I know that I'm going
to receive this glory? Because Christ is risen. That's
how we know. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15,
look, if in this life only we had hope in Christ, we of all
people most miserable. Heaven without Christ is not
heaven. Wouldn't it be a misery to be
in heaven without Him? It would be hell. It would be
hell. But, Paul says, that's not the
case. But, now, is Christ risen from
the dead? and become the first fruits of
them that sleep. What is our hope in the midst
of death? When death comes, if Christ doesn't
come back, I do, I long for him to come back before. But if we
walk the veil of death, really, what is it to us who have hope
in Christ? The shadow. It's a portal. It's a door that
brings us from this sin-cursed reality of misery and sorrow,
and death ushers us into eternal glory. That's all it does. Why? Because the sting of death
is removed. It's gone. There's no sting in
it. There's no victory in it. Death
will not consume us forever. For a moment this body will lay
in the dirt. But soon, and very soon, our
hope is this, that we who are with Christ, that our bodies
will be raised and We will have an incorruptible body. Now, I
don't have any idea what that's like. I don't preach on that
much because I don't have any experience in that. I just know it's going
to happen. I have hope. I have confidence it's going
to happen. What is that like? I don't have a clue. I don't
know what that's like. You know what it's like to be
an incorruptible body? No. Once I thought I was indestructible
when I was young. I thought I was indestructible,
but that was foolish thinking. I wasn't. I was very much destructible. But here's my hope. that God purposed to save me. Have confidence. Rejoice in this. God purposed to save you. And
there ain't nothing to change that. Christ accomplished that salvation
that God purposed. Nothing to change that. When
God called you and you realized it, the joy Doesn't have anything to do with
it. You didn't have anything to do with it. He called you.
You believe today? You rejoice in hope today? Who's
doing that? What's our hope? Our hope is
that soon we will be with Him in glory forever. We sing this
hymn sometimes. Once I was an outcast, a stranger
on earth, a sinner by choice, an alien by birth. Here's my
hope. I've been adopted. My name's
written down. An heir to a kingdom, a robe,
and a crown. So a tent or a cottage, why should
I care? Christ has built for me a palace
over there. Though exiled from home, yet
still I may sing, glory to God, I'm a child of the King. Rejoice in hope. Rejoice in hope. Not in the fleeting things of
earth. Rejoice in the hope of God's
immutable counsel. God swore to save you. Is there
anything going to change that? No. Christ died for you. Is there
anything going to interrupt that? Anything going to defile that? No. God called you. Is there anything to keep you
from believing? If there's anything to keep me from believing, it's
got to be me. And God said, not even you. Not even you is going
to keep you from believing. Matter of fact, the more you
persecute me, the more I believe. That's God's grace. And then
we have hope of eternal glory. So when Paul says, rejoice in
hope, this should give us more zeal for service, shouldn't it? Service should not make us weary. If what? We rejoice in hope. God help us with this, I pray.
Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer. Kevin, dismiss us in prayer,
please. Father, thank You for us. I just thank You, thank You. You are a wonderful being, thank
you. Thank you, thank you. Thank you for purchasing this. Thank you for your son
purchasing this. As you said, your spirit is proclaiming. Your
purpose, your will, is accomplished by our help. We come to this in the spirit of
the Lord. We come to this in the spirit of the Lord. We come to
this in the spirit of the Lord. We come to this in the spirit
of the Lord. We come to this in the spirit of the Lord. We come to
this in the spirit of the Lord. We come to this in the spirit of the Lord.
We come to this in the spirit of the Lord. We come to this
in the spirit of the Lord. We come to this in the spirit of the
Lord. We come to this in the spirit of the Lord. We come to this
in the spirit of the Lord. We come to this in the spirit of the Lord. We come
to this in the spirit of the Lord. We come to this in the
spirit of the Lord. We come to this in the spirit of I just want
to know that both of you are going to be able to make our
hearts feel good. Thank you for listening to me. Thank you for
having me in this body. God is still there and I can
sing it to you. I can sing it to you. I'm going
to sing it to you. I'm going to sing it to you.
I'm going to sing it to you. I'm going to sing it to you. In there.