Good evening, it's a delight
to be with you. I told your pastor when he called
me Monday, I believe it was Monday, pretty short notice by the way,
that I would rather sit and hear him. And that's true, I would
have. But like he said, for some reason
he felt like I owed him. And I'm going to switch things
here just a little bit because I'm a lefty. Would you turn with
me to 1 Timothy 1? Such a delight to be with you,
my first visit. And I hope, as your pastor said,
we stay a little better in touch than we have over the years.
Our paths haven't crossed very often. So good to see his dear
parents, Henry and Doris. I'd like to begin by reading
just two verses in 1 Timothy 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus
Christ, which is our hope, unto Timothy, my own son in the faith,
grace, mercy and peace, from God our Father and Jesus Christ
our Lord. All Paul's epistles prior to
this had been written to churches, to groups of believers. But now he writes to an individual,
his first pastoral epistle to Timothy, and then he writes one
to Titus as well. But Paul's subject is the same,
isn't it? It doesn't matter. Whether he's
writing to a group of believers, a church body, or whether he's
writing to a single individual like his beloved Timothy, his
subject is always the same, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. He points his beloved son in
the faith, this young pastor to Christ. Did you notice, and
I know you're aware, when we, in reading the Word of God, see
words in italics, that means they weren't in the original,
but were added. Let's take out the two words
there in verse 1, which is, and just read it without them, and
Paul says, Our hope. Our hope. A hope of eternal salvation. That's a big word. That's a big
word. Salvation. Saved from the penalty
of sin. From the power of sin. And one
day, by that grace that called us out of darkness into His marvelous
light, saved from the very presence of sin, Here. In here. In glory. You'll never
hear a prayer such as Paul expressed in Romans 7, O wretched man that
I am. Thank God that will never be
heard. Because of Jesus Christ, our hope. He's our hope of eternal
salvation. Our hope of entering heaven.
Our hope of being accepted before a holy and just God. That's got to have a solid foundation. Because God just doesn't, contrary
to today's religious ideas of things, God doesn't accept just
anything. He demands perfection, doesn't
He? I remember when I was still a
boy at home and didn't have good sense, and I'll prove it by what
I'm about to tell you, when my father would catch me doing something
I knew better that I shouldn't be doing, and he would stand
over me, And when I was a boy and looked up at my father, I
thought, man, he's the biggest man in the world. But he would
demand, rightfully so, son, why did you do that? Why did you
do such a dumb thing? And the best I could come up
with Henry, look up at him and say, just because. That didn't
wash. He wasn't impressed with that,
just because. But do you know Most people in our religious
day base their hope of eternal salvation on no more than a flimsy
answer than that. What's your hope of salvation?
Ask them. What's your hope of standing
accepted before God? And that's their answer. Just
because. Because. Peter, when he wrote
his first epistle, said in chapter 3, but sanctify the Lord God
in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man
that asketh you, a reason of the hope that is in you with
meekness and fear. Notice the apostle Paul, when
he tells Timothy what his hope is, that is the apostle himself,
what Timothy's hope is, what the hope is of every child of
God, he doesn't begin with I, does he? He doesn't begin with
himself. Though at one time he would have.
At one time Paul would have began in response to the question,
Paul, Saul of Tarsus rather, what's your hope of acceptance
before a holy God? And Paul would have rolled out
a scroll and began to read to you all of his reasons. Because I'm a Hebrew of Hebrews. I'm a Pharisee. I live after
the tradition of my fathers. I'm blameless. Doesn't that sound
familiar? Paul would have been very happy
to take his place beside that other Pharisee that our Lord
spoke of in Luke 18, who stood and prayed thus to himself, I
thank you. I thank you that I'm not like
other men. That was Saul of Tarsus as well. But now he sums up all of his
hope of acceptance before God, all the reason Paul has of entering
glory, of being eternally saved, he sums up in two words only. And it doesn't include anything
about himself, nothing he's done, nothing he's experienced, nothing
but this, two words, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. That's all. He no longer speaks of himself,
his heritage, his religion, his works. Now it's Jesus Christ
alone. Saul of Tarsus, what happened
to you? I heard of you. I've read about
you. You hated Jesus of Nazareth. You had vowed to spend your entire
life stamping out all those that called upon His name. What happened
to you? And now you preach that gospel
you once destroyed, you once despised. What's the explanation? What in the world wrought such
a change in you? And Paul would say, you're exactly
right. I'm not worthy. It's not me.
It's not fit that I should be even called an apostle. I persecuted
the church of God and wasted it. What happened, Paul? But God. But God. That makes a difference, doesn't
it, Pastor? But God. But by the grace of
God, Paul would answer, he has answered, I am what I am. And his grace, which was bestowed
upon me, God's grace, was not in vain. God's grace is never
in vain. Aren't you thankful for that?
Paul would also write in Galatians chapter 1, speaking of his past,
Or what a blasphemer he was, a persecutor of God's people
and God's church, but then he would also write buts. But, thank
God for those blessed interruptions, those divine interruptions of
his grace. But God. But when it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and what did He
do, Paul? He called me by His grace. And
what did you do, Paul? When He said to you on the Damascus
road, Saul, Saul, what did you do? I fell down before Him. That's
what every sinner does. That's what God's grace affects.
It's always successful. Oh, when you hear Him, Calling,
you'll answer, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them and
they follow me, when it pleases God." Not the God of our day,
not that imposter that can't have his way. No, he's an imposter. He's an imposter. No, the God
we worship, the God of our salvation, the God of Scripture, He describes
himself as being that one who is in the heavens, ruling and
reigning, not some of the time, not occasionally, not even most
of the time, but all the time, doing whatsoever he hath pleased. Can't you rest on that? Isn't
that a soft pillow to rest your weary head on, fellow pilgrim?
Our God is in glory doing whatsoever He hath pleased. Would you turn
back with me to Exodus? Exodus chapter 14. I'd like to read two verses here
in Exodus chapter 14. The children of Israel have just
been brought about through the Red Sea by a miracle of God. And now they stand on the other
side, and they look back, and they see that great Egyptian
army floating, washing up on the shore. They were brought
across safely. What a joy it must have been
to Moses to stand there with Some say a million to three million. I don't know, but a whole lot
of people. But Moses stands there with them,
and every one of them are there. Every one of them that were redeemed
in Egypt that night with the blood of the Lamb, every one
of them has been brought forth. And what a joy it must have been
to that man to see all Israel safe and their enemies destroyed. Glory! It will be to our great
Redeemer in that day when He gathers every one of those for
whom He shed His precious blood and brings them around the throne
of His Father. And it will be His boast throughout
eternity. And the reason we cry, worthy
is the Lamb unto Him, because of all those the Father gave
Him, He shall say, I lost none. What a Redeemer! What a Savior! Look at verse 30 of Exodus 14.
It just sums up all that has just
taken place. These two verses just kind of
put in a capsule what has happened. Verse 30. Thus the Lord saved
Israel that day. What did Israel do? They were
the recipients of His grace and power. God did the saving. Thus, the Lord saved Israel that
day out of the hand of the Egyptians. And Israel saw the Egyptians
dead upon the seashore. And Israel saw that great work
which the Lord did. The Lord did. He did it all upon
the Egyptians. And the people feared the Lord.
They stood in awe of Him. They stood in wonder of such
a great God, and the song that they sing in chapter 15 demonstrates
that, when they say, Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the
gods? Who's like you? There's not another
like you. Glorious in holiness, fearful
in praises, doing wonders. There's not a God like our God. And Paul says it's concerning
the God-man, that man who is himself God, the Lord our Savior,
Jesus Christ, our hope. Take Paul to Corinth and set
him down in the midst of that flourishing city. and say, Paul,
are you impressed with the worldly wisdom of our Greek philosophers? Aren't you impressed by that?
And Paul would say, not at all. Not at all. As a matter of fact,
he would say, I'm determined. I'm not deterred. I'm not detracted. I'm not impressed. You've shown
me nothing better than this. You've shown me nothing as glorious
as this. As a matter of fact, I'm determined
to know nothing but this. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Take Paul to Ephesus. My, what
a place that was in that day. Ephesus. It was there that they
built that great temple to their goddess Diana. It was one of
the seven wonders of the ancient world. Paul, surely this impresses
you. Look at this. And Paul would
say, I'll show you a far greater wonder, a far surpassing wonder,
when he wrote his epistle to that church. God had blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ
Jesus. In Christ, He's loved us with
an everlasting love. My soul, what a wonder is that! What a marvel is that! And He
chose us in Christ. and adopted us in Christ, and
called us in Christ, and one day will be presented back to
him a church without spot, or a wrinkle, or any such thing,
all in Jesus Christ. Well, Saul, or rather Paul, what
about the law? What about the ceremonies? And
Paul would say, God forbid. that I should glory, saving the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Nothing between Christ and the
Apostle Paul. Nothing between my soul and my
Savior. Isn't that comforting? Nothing
between. Oh, once was my sin the mountain
of my iniquity and my sin between myself and God. And everyone
that's ever awakened to a sense of that, a sense of that, the
cry of their heart is, how can God? How can God save a sinner
like me? How can God, being the holy God
and the just God that He is, show mercy on a sinner like me? How can He be just and yet justify
a sinner like I am? There's that great gulf between
my soul and a holy God, once forcing me to stand afar off. But remember what Paul said again,
you that were afar off are made nigh. I love those words, don't
you, Paul? Made nigh, brought near by the
blood of Jesus Christ. God had made Him. to be sin for
us. Paul would write in another place,
everything with the apostle was him. It was him. Had made him
to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. Now, for every child of God,
Jesus Christ their hope, there is no condemnation. Nothing to
separate between me and my God. Jesus Christ has brought me to
God Himself being the way. In 2 Thessalonians 2, Paul spoke
of God giving us a good hope through grace. In Titus, he spoke
about Christ appearing, being that blessed hope. In Hebrews
chapter 6, our Lord is called the anchor of our soul that entereth
into the veil, a sure and a steadfast hope. And in 1 Peter chapter
1, it refers to our Lord's resurrection as being that living hope. All those things, a good hope,
a blessed hope, a sure and steadfast hope, and a living hope are all
brought together In one person. And Paul says, He's our hope. He's all that. He's all that
the sinner needs. Jesus Christ is a living hope. All the sweetness lies there,
does it not? Does it not? The sweetness lies
there. I am His and He is mine forever. Other religions, they continue. and don't require that their
founder be alive. Oh, but not so with the true
religion of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He lives. And because He lives, we live. What a wonder! What a standing
miracle, so to speak, is the fact that God has a church in
this world. Always. And there's only one
reason. There's only one explanation.
Christ says, because I live, ye shall live also. We live because of Him. The same
life in the members in His body that is in the head. The prophet
said, His name shall be called Wonderful. Wonderful. Everything about Him is wonderful,
is it not? Everything. In Him are hid all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. God has made Him to be unto us
wisdom and righteousness, sanctification, redemption. All things, all the
fullness of the Godhead resides in Him. One hymn writer put it
this way, Millions of years my wandering eyes shall o'er thy
beauties rove. and endless ages I'll adore the
glories of thy love." Jesus Christ, our hope. People will ask you
from time to time, is that enough? Is that enough? When you tell
them, Jesus Christ is all my hope, all my hope before God,
all the reason I have, of salvation, of acceptance before God, of
entering glory. The only hope I had, just one,
two words, Jesus Christ. And they'll look at you and say,
is that enough? Is that enough? You remember
those men that the bride in Solomon's Song asked? She asked them, have
you seen my beloved? And that was their response,
wasn't it? Well, who is he? Who is he? What's he above any
other? What makes him so special? And
she said, oh, if you'd ever seen him, you wouldn't ask that question. You wouldn't ask that question.
You would know there's not another like him. There's not another
like him. He's the fairest among ten thousand. There's not a flaw in him. There's
not a defect in him. He's the lily of the valley. And we answer likewise, yes. Our precious bridegroom, there's
none like him. Because he did for this sinner
what only God could do. What only perfect man and perfect
God could do. He did for me what nothing else
could do. Certainly what I couldn't do
for myself. He trod the winepress alone. Of the people, there was none
with Him. He said, I looked out and there
was none to help. There were none. Therefore, mine
own arm reached out and brought salvation unto me. He by Himself. Oh, what a glorious redeeming.
He by Himself bore my sins in His own body on the tree. And He did so completely, so
effectually. The prophet said that in that
day, the sins of Israel, God's true Israel, God's church, will
be searched for and they shall not be found. They're gone. They're gone. Bless His name.
And He well deserves the praise, does He not? Jesus Christ our
hope, yes, He's enough. He's enough. We love the singing
of Christ our King, and hail Him, blessed Jesus. Because there's
no word here ever heard so dear, so sweet as Jesus. Joseph, call his name Jesus. With good reason, Brother Henry. He deserves that name. He'll
live up to that name. He'll fulfill the meaning of
that name. For He shall save His people
from their sin. My soul, what a Redeemer. When sin abounded, Paul said
in Romans 5, grace doth much more abound. And our Lord, the
Lord Jesus Christ, our hope is Himself the very personification
of grace. Did you not find it so? Did you
not find Him full of grace and truth when you first came to
Him as a healthily needing sinner? That God had gotten lost? Wasn't
it old Scott Richardson used to say, God gets a sinner lost,
He strips him before He clothes him. Like old Bunyan wrote, it
was grace that taught my heart to fear. A necessary work. A painful work, but a necessary
work. If anyone had came up to me in
that day and said, God's being good to you. God's being gracious
to you. What? What? How can this be gracious? How is this merciful? I'm the
sinner. I'm going to hell. And I deserve
to go to hell. And there's nothing I can do
to stop it. Oh, but how gracious did that grace appear the hour
I first believed. Near to despair when He came
to me there and He told me that I could be free. Oh, He lifted me up and gave
me peace from above when He reached down His hand, His mighty hand
for me. What a Savior! Full of grace
and truth. All the glorious doctrines, the
doctrines of grace as we call them, those that speak of the
salvation of our great God and Savior, all find their beauty
in Him, their meaning in Him, do they not? Turn with me to
John chapter 11. Here's an example of that. You
know the passage very well. Lazarus has died. After his sisters
had sent word to he who loved him, and he stayed away. Lazarus has now been dead four
days. And then our Lord comes to Bethany. And He tells Martha in verse
23, Thy brothers shall rise again. And look at Martha's answer,
her response to that. Martha said unto him, I know
that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. She doesn't seem to draw much
comfort from it, does she? The resurrection to Martha is
something she certainly believed in, but it's a far off distant
event. It didn't seem to offer any comfort
to her aching heart at that moment. But look what our Lord says.
He brings Martha's thoughts of an event to a person. And there's a vast difference,
isn't there? Verse 25, Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection. I am the resurrection and the
life. And he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet
shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in Me shall never die. Believest thou this? They go to the tomb with Mary,
Martha, and our Lord. And look at these words at verse
41. Never a man spake like this man.
Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead
was laid. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, Father, I
thank Thee that Thou hast heard me, and I knew that Thou hearest
me always. But because of the people which
stand by, I said it. that they may believe that thou
hast sent me. And when he had thus spoken,
he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth." Lazarus, come forth. I don't suppose, I think it's
safe to say that Martha never viewed the resurrection the same
way after that, did she? She never ever after that thought
of the resurrection as a far-off, distant event. When she thought
about the resurrection, she thought of Him. She thought of Him who
said, I am the resurrection and I am the life. When you think
of election, when you think of that glorious truth of God choosing
a people before the foundation of the world, what do you think
of? Who? Who? We were chosen in Him. Without Him, Paul, no choice. Without Him, no election. Thou art my first elect, God
said, concerning His Son, and then chose us in Christ our Head. Our Lord told His disciples on
one occasion, there are 70 disciples that came back, that he had earlier
sent out to preach the gospel and heal the sick and cast out
devils, and they came back rejoicing because of that. Our Lord said,
don't rejoice because of this, but rejoice. Your names are written
in heaven. Your names are written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. Rejoice in that. Peter said,
you have an inheritance. incorruptible and undefiled,
reserved in heaven for you, a reservation in glory for you in the Lamb's
Book of Life. I've had occasion a few times
to be scheduled to preach someplace and travel, get there the day
before, the night before, And go into the motel I've been told
a reservation has been made for me. And go up to the desk and
say, I'm Larry Criss, I'm here. And they look at me and say,
okay. I say, well, there's a reservation
made for me, Larry Criss. They look down their book, no,
sorry, no reservation for you. And I think to myself, That Donny
Bell has done it again. Several times. Finally, I started
telling him, you let Mary make the reservation, Donny. But that can never happen here,
can it? That will never happen. That reservation made by the
hand of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ Himself. He says,
rejoice, child of God. Your name is written in heaven. There's a reservation made for
you in glory, and no man can change that. No man can take
your name away. When we think of redemption,
we think of Him, don't we? The glory of redemption is that
One who gave Himself for us. He loved me, Paul said, and gave
Himself for me. The value of redemption, the
worth of redemption, the sufficiency of redemption, Is that one who
redeemed? Infinite value. That cleansed
from all sin. And oh, we rejoice the same.
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood shall never lose its power
till all the ransomed church of God be saved from sin no more. Paul said, Jesus Christ, our
hope of all that. Our acceptance before the Holy
God? Again, the same answer. Jesus
Christ. Wherein God has made us accepted
and to be loved. God did it. It's His work. And He certainly won't reject
that which He Himself provided. In whom He said, I am well pleased. And Jesus Christ is our hope
of heaven. Is it not our hope of glory? Turn, if you will, to Revelation
chapter 21. Read a couple of verses here,
very familiar. I don't know much about heaven. You remember on one occasion
when two of John the Baptist's disciples stood with him, that
is, John the Baptist, and the Lord himself walked by, and John
told those two disciples that he is, behold, the Lamb of God,
And one of them was Andrew. So they began to follow the Lord. And he turned and said, Whom
seek ye? What do you want? And they said,
Lord, where dwellest thou? And he said, Well, come and see. Oh, children of God, that's where
we're going. We're going to come and see.
He said, Father, I will. In that high priestly prayer,
Father, I will that all those you give me be with me where
I am that they may behold my glory. In Revelation 21, verse
1, And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven
and the first earth were passed away, and there was no more to
see. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down
from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Perfect. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." There will be no
reason to cry in heaven. And there shall be no more death,
neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain,
for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the
throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto
me, Write, these words are true and faithful. And he said unto
me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end. I will give unto him that is
a thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. Old Augustus' top lady wrote
in his most famous hymn, When I soar to worlds unknown, and
behold thee on thy throne, O rock of ages, cleft for me, let me
hide myself in thee. As Paul said, in that day, I
want to be found in Him, just wrapped up in Him. When I was
a boy living up a holla in West Virginia, the last house in the
holla, me and my friends would go to the picture show, see the
werewolf, the original, and we'd be walking home, be dark. And
they lived down in the camp, it was called, where the mines
was where our fathers all worked. But I'd have to part company
with him and walk up that holler by myself. Boy, they said, Larry,
watch out for that wolfman. The wolfman? I'm not worried
about the wolfman. I'd give him that. Because I'm
not scared until we parted company. And I started walking up that
holler by myself. I was scared to death. And I'd
hear a rustle in the brush. Man, I'm beating them down. I'm
laying them down. And I'd make that last turn into
Holland. And there's that house. Last
house. That's where we lived at the time. And the porch light
was on. Oh, that was such a welcome sight. It was so good to be home. And
I'd go in. Go upstairs. Get ready for bed. And my mom would come tuck me
in. And she'd throw up that bedspread. And it'd come floating down around
me. I wasn't scared anymore, Paul.
I felt so safe and so secure. Oh, in that day when God Almighty
shakes this religious world and everything, everything and everyone
that's not in His Son is going to drop into hell, I want to
be found in Him. Just wrapped up in the perfect
righteousness of Jesus Christ. In verse 4 of chapter 22, and
we'll be done. Look what Paul says. Or I'm sorry,
look what John writes in chapter 22 of Revelation, verse 4. The
greatest promise in the Word of God. And they shall see His
face. They shall see His face. My soul, what will that be? What will that be? To see Him
who loved me and gave Himself for me. That will be the glory
of glory, won't it? The heaven of heaven. Pastor,
thank you for having me, and thank you. God bless each of
you. Thank you for your attention.