Amen. All right, if you take
your bibles now in turn with me to acts. Acts chapter 28. Acts chapter 28. Text will be found in verse 20. I'm entitled this message, the
hope of Israel, the hope of Israel. Now here Paul had come to Rome.
And because of his love and desire for his kinsmen in the flesh
to hear and believe the gospel, he now calls in the Jews. He calls in his kinsmen to hear
him and he desires to preach to them the gospel. And in verse
20 we see that Paul explains the reason why he is in prison. He says in verse 20, He says,
For this cause, therefore, I have called you to see you and to
speak with you. Here's His text. Here's the reason. Because. I'm in prison because
of this. I called you because of this.
I want you to see this because of this. For the hope of Israel,
I am bound with this chain. And it's because of the hope
of Israel, Paul was sent to Rome. Now notice, he didn't blame the
Jews. He didn't say, well those Jews
lied on me. That's not what he said. He said, I'm here because I preached
concerning the hope of Israel. The hope of Israel. because of this hope of Israel
he longed for, and it was the hope these Jews longed for. He's got them together and he
says, I'm here for the hope of Israel. Now I want you to understand,
when he said that, every Jew understood what he meant. Every Jew understood he was speaking
about the Christ. I'm here because I preach concerning
Christ. the hope of Israel. Now this evening, I want us to
take that and see exactly what the hope of Israel is. The hope
of Israel. Now, when I use this word hope,
we don't want to use the English definition of that, which is
nothing more than a wish. Gee, I hope. That's not what
this word is. He's talking about the confidence
of Israel. the confidence, the surety of
Israel. And I want to see three points
concerning this hope. First of all, the promise of
hope that was given to Israel. What is the promise concerning
this hope that was given to Israel? Secondly, I wanted to see the
promise of hope that had come to Israel. And thirdly, the promise
of hope that is yet to come. First of all, the promise of
hope that was given to Israel. Now, all of the Old Testament
Scriptures were given to the nation of Israel. They were given the promises
of God, that God would soon send a Deliverer, a Savior, what they
called Messiah, what we call Christ, God promised to send
one who would be manifest in three distinct offices. God throughout
the Old Testament Scripture promised that Christ should come and Christ
should be manifest, the hope of Israel should be manifest
in three offices, prophet, priest, and king. And so my first point
is I want to show you what Israel heard concerning this hope. First of all, I want you to see
that he was a king promised. The hope of Israel was to be
a king, a king. God promised according to scripture
that he would send an anointed king, a mighty king, a conquering
king. to deliver all the nations of
the earth and put them under Israel. Get that. God promised
that he was going to send a king. And this king was going to be
so powerful that he was going to dominate the entire earth
and he was going to set Israel above all nations. That was the
promise. There are many places you see
this, but go to Psalm 47. Psalm 47. Now, I want you to understand,
when the Jewish mind heard this, this is what they're hearing,
because they knew the scriptures, they knew them really well. Look
at this in Psalm 47, it says, Oh, clap your hands, all you
people, shouting to God with the voice of victory, triumph. Why? Why should you clap your
hands? Why should you rejoice? Victory's
coming. For the Lord Most High is terrible,
awesome, awesome. He is a great king over what? All the earth. I'm going to send
you a king and he's going to be over all the earth. And what
is he going to do? He shall subdue the people under
us. You hear that in the Jewish nation,
they're always being afflicted. They're always being captured.
They're always being taken away. They've been they've been tossed
to and fro for for hundreds of years. And they hear this and
said, oh, he's going to send a king and he's going to set
us above every other nation. And the nations under our feet. He shall choose our inheritance
for us, the excellency of Jacob, whom He loved. He's going to
choose inheritance for who? For Jacob, his people. In another place in Psalm 2,
He said, Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain
thing? The kings of the earth set themselves against the Lord,
and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder,
and cast their cords from us. He the sith in the heavens shall
laugh, The Lord shall have them in derision.
Then shall he speak to them in his wrath and vex them in their
sordid pleasure. Yet, in spite of all their hatred,
in spite of all their resentment, in spite of all their desire
to throw off his reign, listen, yet I have set my King. Where? Upon my holy hill of Zion. It's done. God said that. He
said, I'm laughing at this. God says, I'm laughing at you
because it's already done. This is not up for debate. This
is done. I have set my king where? On my holy hill in Zion, I will
declare the decree. This is a decree. This is not
an invitation. This is not a, you get one of
those polls. Everybody's taking a poll nowadays.
I get 10,000 calls a week, it seems like. Somebody wanted to
give me a poll, ask me a question. He's not asking a question. He
said, I've set my king and I've set him in Zion. That's where
he is. He's in Israel. Thou, and who is he? He's my
son. Thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee.
It is no wonder that Israel had great hope in the darkest of
hours. They heard these promises of God. These were promises. Even when they were defeated,
even when they were captives of other nations, God promised
that he would set his king over Zion. The second promise they
had is a promise of a prophet. A prophet would come. He not
only promised them a king to reign over him, but this same
king would be a prophet and he would speak Words of healing. His words would be the very words
of God. And by His word, He would heal
the wounds and diseases of His people. Look at Isaiah 61. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach, to prophesy. What? Good things. Isn't that
wonderful? God's sending a man to preach
good things to us. Good things. Unto who? The meek. He has sent me to bind
up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to captives, opening
of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the year of
jubilee, the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of the
vengeance of our God, the vengeance upon His enemies, to comfort
them that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion. Listen,
that's just to you, them that mourn in Zion. There's a lot
of mourning going on, but He said, This guy, he's going to
preach to one nation. He's going to preach to Zion.
What? Give them beauty for ashes, the
oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit
of heaviness. They might be called the trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be
glorified. This king of Israel was to come
and deliver Israel, and the prophet was come to speak of liberty
and freedom Acceptance with God to remove all weeping. A message of hope. The promise
of hope was a prophet of hope. A prophet to speak the word of
God. And thirdly, they were promised
a priest. A priest. For what? What does
a priest do? A priest makes an offering for
sin. That's what a priest does. Look
what God says this priest was going to do in Micah. In Micah
chapter 7. Micah chapter 7 and verse 19. It says, He will turn again. and have compassion on us. He
spoke about judgment, judgment, judgment, judgment, judgment,
and here's a promise, but He's going to turn again in compassion.
This is good news. He's going to turn again in compassion
and He will subdue our iniquities. He's going to tie them up, bind
them all into a bundle. Seen those sheaves? He just grabs
sheaves of wheat and you just tie them together. God says He's
going to tie all our sins together. And what is He going to do? And
He's going to cast our sins into the depths of the sea. He's going
to remove our sins. What a priest. This is going
to be a wonderful priest. So, daily though, Israel saw
those priests. Every day in Jerusalem, every
day that they weren't captive, there were two sacrifices a day.
Minimum, two. One oblation in the morning and
one in the evening. And throughout the year, multiple
other ones. You know what that reminded them
of? Sin. These offerings reminded them
that their sin was still there. When they've offered the morning
sacrifice, they thought for a minute, But the evening sacrifice was
just around the corner. They knew it was not sufficient. They knew their sins kept them
from the presence of God that required holiness. Who shall
stand? Who shall ascend into the hill
of the Lord or stand in His holy place? Only He that hath clean
hands and a pure heart. Therefore, their hope their hope
of being accepted with God rested in a coming high priest. They
were looking forward to a high priest who was going to come
to make a sacrifice that ended all sacrifices. Psalm 110 verse 4, The Lord has
sworn and will not repent. Here is the one they are looking
for, a priest after a different order. They were promised a priest
of hope, not after the order of Aaron, but after the order
of Melchizedek. And this priest was going to
end sin. He was going to put an end to
it. That's good, isn't it? That's a good hope. That's something
that they look forward to. A priest to put an end to sin.
Look at Daniel and see what this priest was going to do. More
specifically, He's going to cast them behind his back into the
sea, but Daniel here, he's very bold in this prophecy. Daniel
chapter 9 verse 24. He says, Seventy weeks are determined
upon the people and upon the holy city to finish the transgression. Finish it. It'll be done. Seventy weeks. Prophetic weeks,
but weeks. Seventy weeks prophetically He's
going to come to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make
reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness.
And what is he going to do? He's going to seal up the vision
in prophecy. He's going to fulfill it. Everything that was in there,
he's going to fulfill it. And then they're going to anoint
him as king, the most holy. This was the hope of Israel,
the Messiah, that he was to be a conquering king, a great prophet. to heal the nations, and a great
priest to end sin. So when they heard that, the
hope of Israel, they understood these things. They understood
these things. So Israel, no matter the trouble
God sent them, they always had a prophet, a priest, and a king,
but yet there's one thing about there, every prophet and every
priest and every king in Israel, they all died. He had a good king. And that
good king, his kingdom only lasted until when? Until he died. We have this same anxiety every
four years, don't we? Every four to eight years, we
got this same anxiety. If you have a good one, you're
just hoping that somehow that'll continue, but we're not always
sure. You have a bad one, and man, it's tough. Same with Israel,
they had a king every year. They didn't know what they was
gonna get next. Same with their prophets, some of their prophets.
Boy, they got some really horrible prophets, and God said most of
them were false. But God sent them prophets, but
yet, you know, Isaiah was a great prophet. He didn't last forever.
And priests, you might have had a good one or a bad one. But
what was different about this hope of Israel? He was going
to be forever. His kingdom was going to be forever.
His priesthood was going to be forever. His prophetic office
was going to be forever. This hope of Israel that Paul
preached to the Jews, they knew exactly what he meant by that
phrase. That it was because of the hope
of Israel, the Messiah, the preaching of the Messiah, he was in these
chains. Now secondly, the hope of Israel came. Everything that
God promised concerning the Messiah actually came. This message that
Paul preached, he longed for the Jews to hear it and he longed
for them to believe it. Paul says, I wasn't in prison
because of the customs of the law, I wasn't in prison because
of the Jews, I'm in prison because I preached the hope of Israel
had already come. He preached that the promises
of God concerning this prophet, priest, and king had been accomplished. Look at verse 23. And when he
had appointed them a day, they came, many of them lodging, to
whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading
them concerning who? Jesus. Paul was testifying that
everything God promised concerning the hope of Israel was fulfilled
in this man, Jesus. Everything. Everything. He expounded
unto them in all the Law and the Prophets from morning until
evening. Why? Because this whole thing
is about Christ. It's about Jesus Christ. That's
what our Lord said when He rose from the dead, isn't it? Beginning
at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded unto them in all
the Scriptures things concerning Himself. This is the desire of every preacher,
everyone who God gives a ministry to, everyone that God calls to
preach. This is always our constant, fervent desire to preach Christ
to you. That is it. I determined, Paul
said, to know nothing among you except this one thing, Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. He told Timothy, don't get involved
with vain janglings. It's our nature to get sidetracked
on things, to pick at things, genealogies and all of these
things that do nothing but breed more questions and no answers. But we don't have to question
this. There's no question about this.
Christ is the prophet, the priest, and king. Christ is the hope
of Israel. Now, what does that mean, the
hope of Israel? What do I mean by that? Preacher, I'm not a Jew. If that
was intended for the Jews, that doesn't have anything to do with
me. Well, this is the same problem the Jews had in Paul's days that
they thought. They thought. that only the promise
of hope was for that nation of Israel. And they were wrong. They were wrong. Even his disciples were wrong.
You remember when he rose from the dead, they said to him, asked
him that question, are you now going to establish your kingdom?
You see, they still didn't understand. that His kingdom is spiritual. He wasn't going to establish
a literal kingdom here upon the earth and set a literal nation
of Israel over all the literal nations of the earth. But rather Israel is not that
little land in Palestine, nor is it made up of only Jews. But
God's Israel is spiritual. So when I say the hope of Israel,
You believer in Jesus Christ, listen to me. I'm talking about
your hope. Your confidence to stand before
God. What is your hope and confidence
to stand before God? Why? You're Israel. You're Israel. You see that in Romans chapter
six, Paul explains this very clearly. I mean, Romans chapter
nine, Paul explains this very clearly. He says, now to the
nation of Israel, they had all the outward benefits, right? They had the law given to them.
They had the prophets. They had the priests. They had the Word of God. This
was the only nation that God made a covenant with. And that
covenant was a physical covenant with them. If they did these
things, if they kept his sayings, if they kept his law and abided
by his offerings, God kept them protected. What happens when
they fail to do that? God chastened them. He allowed
them to be captive. And then what? He would restore
them. And so the main hope of Israel
was this, God was going to save Israel. That was their hope. Israel hoped that God would save
them. Why? Because God said he would. God would save Israel. The problem is they misunderstood
it. It didn't mean every son of Abraham
was going to be saved. That's what Paul says. He says,
is the word of God of none effect? If God said he's going to save
Israel and look at Israel, they're not saved. Well, does that mean
God's word failed? Well, no. Why? Because not all
Israel are of the seed of Jacob. What are you saying? Just because
you're a son of Abraham does not mean you are a son of God. So what he meant, Israel, he
was talking about what? The elect. The elect of God. You remember he uses the twins
in the womb of Rebecca. They were both sons of Isaac
and both sons of Abraham. Esau was just as much a son of
Abraham as Jacob was. But we know this, God loved Jacob
and hated Esau to set the premise for us that salvation is according
to the mercy of God. The mercy of God. Salvation belongs to the Lord
and He has mercy on whom He will and whom He will He hardeneth.
Many in our day are deceived to think that the Jewish race
still holds some sway over things. That's a myth, friends. Why? Because Israel's not a physical
nation. It's a spiritual one. Are there
Jews in that? You bet. What's happening over
there right now is so that God should call out His people in
that area. What's happening right here is
so that God should call out His people in this area. Whatever
God's doing in Providence is to save Israel. Why? God promised to save Israel.
And so then see that Jesus Christ has come to save Israel and He
has. He has come to be the prophet,
the priest, and the king. Remember Jesus was the promised
prophet. In Deuteronomy 18 God told Moses,
He says, I'm going to raise up a prophet. like you. I'm going
to raise up a prophet like you and I will put my words in his
mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I command him.
And listen, if you will not hear him you'll perish. That's what
God said. Hear him. Hear his word because his word
will be my word. His voice will be my voice. Therefore
Jesus came into this world according to the scriptures, according
to the line of Abraham and the line of David He came among his
brethren He that was come among them They were commanded to hear him
And what did he say concerning his prophetic office? He said
this in John 14, He that loveth me and keepeth not my sayings.
He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings. And the word
which you hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me. Everything
that Christ spoke was the word of God. Was the word of God. Why? He was that prophet. He
was that prophet that was promised as the hope of Israel. He was
the prophet of God, and he came to do the will of God and speak
the word of God. And what was his testimony? I
can give you plenty of his testimony, but this is a clear one. Go to
John 6. Listen what the prophet of Israel's hope said in John
6. Remember, his word is the word
of God. His word is the word of God. He said this in verse 37, All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. That's the Word of God, isn't
it? That's the Word of God that Christ spoke. He said the Father
has given me a people. And listen to this, they're all
gonna come to me. And when they come to me, said
the prophet, 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 in case you're wondering what that is, and this
is the will of him that sent me. That of all he hath given
me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last
day. And notice this next part, the
experience of everyone that was given to him. He tells us the
prophecy, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no way cast out. That's the
prophecy. This is a prophecy, all that
the Father giveth me, I'm not going to lose nothing. And here's
a prophecy, this is how they're going to come to me. Look at
this. And this is the Father's will which has sent me. This is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on him
may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last
day. This is the experience of every one of them. They're going
to see me, and they're going to believe on me. Why? That's the will of the Father.
That's the will of the Father. He prophesied concerning his
success, didn't he? As the prophet of God, He said,
I came to do the will of God, and that is what to save Israel.
You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to save Israel. Is
that complicated? No, it's not complicated. It's a prophecy of God. Sinners
hear the prophet of God speak concerning hope to the hopeless. The prophet of God says that
God is willed to redeem his people and that all of them will believe
and he will raise them up. He will give them eternal life.
He will not cast them out. This is the word of the prophet.
He declared that God will show mercy, that God will save his
elect Israel, and he will call them by the spirit of God to
himself and they will come. They will believe, says the prophet.
And he says this later in that same text, everyone that eats
my flesh and drinks my blood shall have everlasting life.
Man, what did the prophet mean about that? He said, he that
believeth on me. That's what it is, to eat his
flesh and to drink his blood. He said, these words I'm speaking
to you, they are spirit and they are truth. They're spiritual
words. They're not literal words. They're
spiritual. And so the prophet prophesied,
everyone that eats my flesh and drinks my blood, everyone that
believes on me shall have everlasting life. This is the word that God spoke
by His Son. And even now speaks to sinners.
This is the same word He spoke to me, isn't it? Isn't that the
word He spoke to you? That's the word He spoke to me,
that He came to save sinners. Secondly, he is the priest of
hope. Jesus is the priest of Israel who should have come and
offered the only acceptable sacrifice. The hope of Israel must, there
must be a priest. There must be a priest. And this
priest that God promised was not going to be after Aaron.
It's not going to be a priest after the order of the law. He's
going to have his own order. And it's after the order of Melchizedek. Go to Hebrews 7 and see the apostle
here. He's telling you the fulfillment
of this prophecy in Hebrews 7. He's talking about this Melchizedek
fellow. He says, Melchizedek, he was a king of peace, king
of Salem. priest of the Most High God that
Abraham met returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed
him, to whom Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being by interpretation
the king of righteousness, and after that also the king of peace,
king of Salem, which is the king of peace." Oh man, how that pictures
Christ. He is the king of righteousness.
He is the only righteous king, isn't He? He is the king of righteousness. In other words, all righteousness
belongs to Him. Secondly, he's a king of peace.
Isn't that what the king came to bring, peace? He did. Notice
this, without father, without mother, without descent, having
neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto
the Son of God, abideth a priest continually. This is our hope. You that believe on Christ, this
is your hope, that you have an everlasting priest. an eternal priest. Now Melchizedek,
I know this, Melchizedek did have a father, he did have a
mother, it's just not named in Scripture for a reason, to show
forth by picture that Christ had no beginning and no end,
that He Himself is God, very God, the Son of God. Now Aaron's
line was always temporal, but this line of this high priest
was going to be continual. And he must be taken from among
men. We knew that in Hebrews 5. It says every priest is taken
among men. They didn't take that office
to themselves. And he says, so Christ. Christ
didn't take this office to himself. He was appointed to be priest.
God made him to be our high priest. And every priest had one office
to do, to make an offering. To intercede. That's what priests
did. They represented the people. God chose a priest and he said,
that's my high priest. Take him out. Separate him. He's
my high priest. And he's going to intercede for
you. That's what he did. He made offerings. Even so, how much more did our
Lord Jesus Christ, being the eternal high priest, offer an
infinitely more valuable sacrifice. This is our hope, friends. This
is our confidence that Christ was our high priest who offered
himself. He offered himself. As a spotless
sacrifice for sin, the necessity of the high priest, this was
necessary for us to be accepted, we must have a high priest. We
must have an offering. For this maxim is true, without
the shedding of blood is no remission. But it must be by sinless blood,
a perfect offering. So when Jesus came into the world,
he freely offered himself an offering for sin. So on the cross,
the scripture is fulfilled, the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity
of us all. We read that in Isaiah 53. The
Lord hath laid on him. the iniquity of us all. When
you when you hear that, what's first thing comes to my mind
is a scapegoat. That's just that's the picture here. That's what
the words are intended. The priest would lay his hands
on the goat and confess the sins of the people. That's only a
picture. Really, the sins didn't go to
the goat. It's just a picture. When the strong man carried the
goat away, he really wasn't carrying sin away. It was a picture. to picture what Christ was going
to do. The Lord confessed the sins of His people upon His Son
and He bore them in His own body on the tree. He carried them
away. He did so by being the second,
the goat, the sin offering, by His death and by His blood. He
suffered the vengeance of God, the hatred of God for sin. I
don't think we really know how much God hates sin. And you can't
see it unless you look at what he did to his son. I don't think
you can see how much God hates sin except you look at the cross.
When sin was found on his own precious son, what did he do
to him? Awake, O sword, and smite the
shepherd, the man that is my fellow. God made him to be sin
for us. Who truly knew no sin? Why? That we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. I just read that in Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53 and. First, he and it says, yet it
pleased the Lord to prove. He hath put him to grief. when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper his hand, and he shall see of the travail of his soul
and shall be satisfied. There is no other offering in
which God was satisfied with except the offering of his son. He is the only hope of Israel
in that his offering alone satisfied God and the Apostle in Hebrews
10 makes this very clear. He said, Lo, I come in the volume
of the book that is written to me to do thy will, O God, above
when he said, Sacrifice an offering and burn offering for sin, thou
wouldest not neither had pleasure therein. No pleasure in those
offerings of Aaron, none. which were offered by the law.
Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God, he taketh away
the first, that he may establish the second, by the which will
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ
once for all." You see what the high priest has done? You see
our hope? Our hope is that he has once, forever, and for always
sanctified his people. He has made us holy. Isn't that
what God intended? In Ephesians 1, according as
chosen us in Christ for the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame. Now, how in the world are you
gonna be without blame? Do you not blame yourself? I
look in the mirror and I blame myself. Truly, I am to be blamed, it
is my sin. But because of him, God will
never blame me. Got that? That's my hope. That's my hope, that God will
never blame me for my sin. Why? Because he paid for it. Paid for it. God was forever
satisfied when Christ died. Now, I wasn't around. I wasn't
even here. And yet God was already satisfied
with the offering of Christ on my behalf. On my behalf. And thirdly, he is the king of
hope. The nation of Israel expected
a spiritual deliverer from captivity of Roman authority. They looked for a physical deliverance.
So when Christ came and John the Baptist was his heralder,
That's not what they expected. When they saw Him coming, riding
lowly on the colt, to fold Him in half, what did they do? They
said, away with Him. Crucify Him! Crucify Him. But now that Jesus had come and
established the Word of God, He established the Word of God
as prophet, He established the word of God as the priest of
God offering a sacrifice and then God established his kingship
by his resurrection from the dead. God said to Christ, Sit
thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. Jesus Christ as a mighty king
did come and he did conquer all of the enemies of God. He conquered
the enemies of God. Satan was bound, cast out. The sins of his people were forever
removed. Death and hell were removed from
his people. He conquered his enemies and
now he has ascended to the throne of God where he is right now
reigning over all things. My hope is in a king that is
now reigning. I'm not waiting for Him to reign.
I'm not waiting for Him to come back and start reigning. He is
reigning right now. This is my hope. I have great
comfort in that, don't you? I have great comfort that God
is ruling and overruling all things for my good. For the good of Israel. Whatever
is happening to His people is for our good. Why? The king said
so. Is there anything outside of
his dominion? Name something. Name something outside of his
control. Name one oops. Hope. I didn't see that coming. There's
no hope in a king like that. I read this in a message a long
time ago. I preached, If your God is not sovereign over everything,
your God is not God. You got that? If there's something
outside the control of your God, then that's God and your God's
not. You see, my king controls everything. There's nothing that he doesn't
rule over. He's ascended now, and he has
accomplished salvation for his people. And you know what? As
king, he is going to make sure it's done. It's finished. The work is done. But now he's
going to fulfill it. I think of Joshua, the high priest. Remember that guy? He was dressed
in those filthy rags. He's a priest. He's supposed
to be in the white guy's filthy rags. Satan ready to accuse it. Doesn't get a word in before
Christ steps in and says, shut up. This is one pluck, a brand
pluck from the burning. You know what he said? He said,
take off that filthy robe and get him a priestly robe and put
it on him. Then I want you to put on a crown
on top of his head. And I like this. And he stood
by. That was the Speaking of Christ,
He stood by, you know what He was doing? Making sure it was
done. Scott, any chance that you would
have been not saved? Any chance? Whatsoever? No chance you'd have missed this.
I still think of J.D. when he was so worried about
that. He was so he was so concerned about that. He said, what if
I, you know, they were paying the rock, paper, scissors to
see who's going to go in. Right. Him and his brother. And
his brother won, I think. I don't think J.D. won. He really
didn't want to go in. And that night the Lord saved
him. And he said, you know, what if I what if I'd won? Was there any chance of him winning?
Oh, why? King said so. The king said so. And know this, we're surrounded
by enemies. And the biggest enemy you've
got is sitting right there in your seat. But the hope of Israel is this,
the king overrules everything. and you are kept by the power
of God unto salvation, ready to be revealed. I ain't seen
it yet. I haven't seen what it's really
gonna be like. I read about it, but I haven't really, I don't
even think I begin to feel what it would really feel like. It
doth not yet appear, John says, what we shall be, But I know
this when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we will
see him as he is. You can't see God as he is unless
you're like. Salvation ready to be revealed.
What's my hope? What's your hope? this hope that's
coming. I have a hope coming too, don't
you? I have a hope yet to come. One
day this body is going to fall into the ground. My spirit that
God has given me is going to rise and be with Christ until
when? Until the consummation, until
the time comes where he comes back and does away with all sin,
all enemies of God. That's my hope. I'll tell you
what, we'd be miserable if this is all there is. This existence is just, it gets
miserable. But see, we have a hope of something
greater, something better. Why? Christ bought it. He purchased it. He decreed it. Will He not do it? He's King. Who's going to stop it? Who shall
separate us from the love of God that's in Christ Jesus? Name
it. Who is it? Name me something that will separate
us from the love of Christ. If there is anything that can
separate you from the love of Christ, you are not in the love
of Christ. I've seen many people pretend
to be in the love of Christ and then go away. Why? Just because
they pretended. If they were really in it, nothing
could have separated them from it. Nothing should separate us
from the love of Christ. The love of God which is in Christ
Jesus. Nothing. Why? My hope is immutable. Unchangeable. I change all the time. But our
changing doesn't change Him. Doesn't affect Him at all, does
it? In fact, all our changing is part of His purpose. You got a good hope? If you believe
in Christ, you got a good hope. Why? You got the hope of Israel.
You got the promise of God. You have Christ. I do pray, God,
give you a blessing and refresh your spirit with that. You have
a good hope. and nobody can take it from you.
You got that? Nobody can take it from you. I'm so thankful for a hope like
that. Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer. Our gracious Father, dismiss
us with your blessings and mercy. Pour out your spirit upon us
and cause us to be grateful and thankful for the word that you've
given. Your hope is in Christ, our hope. I'm so thankful you've made him
to be the prophet, the priest, and the king, all our salvation. We give him the glory and honor
and praise, in Jesus' name, amen.