And, Lord, my soul to this dear
refuge flies. Hope is my anchor, firm and strong,
While tempests blow and billows rise. The gospel bears my spirit
on. A faithful and a changing God. Praise the foundation of our
God. He knows when promises can fly. That last stanza is awfully good,
isn't it? Thank you, Sheriff. The gospel
bears my spirit up. Good news. of Christ our hope,
a faithful and unchanging God, lays the foundation of my hope
in oaths and promises and blood. All right, go to Colossians chapter
1 now. We're going to try to finish
this up tonight, these gospel words. And since we only have
one word to deal with tonight, we should be able to finish. Colossians 1. Let's read verses 1 through 5
again. Colossians 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God, and Timotheus, our brother, to the saints and
faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colossae or whatever
church, grace be unto you and peace. from God our Father and
the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since
we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you
have to all the saints, for the hope which is laid up for you
in heaven. whereof you heard before in the
word of the truth of the gospel. Hope is the blessed word we're
going to look at tonight, the subject of tonight's message. I had a lot of difficulty with
this message because There are literally hundreds of scriptures
that deal with hope. And the difficulty was not in
finding something, but in what to leave out and where to go
and where to dwell. Hope. Now, hope, the word hope
means desire for an expected end. I want you to turn. We're
going to turn to Oh, four or five different passages, but
this shouldn't take too long, but it should be a blessing.
Romans 8. Romans chapter 8 tells us what
hope is. As we said, the definition of
hope is desire for an expected end. Something you don't have,
something you greatly desire, but don't have it yet, but expect
to have it some day. For some reason, you have this
hope. And we're going to look at the reason for our hope. And what is our hope? Romans
8. Now, Paul said in his letter to Titus,
before we read it, he said, our hope is this. We have this hope
of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, had promised before
the world began. So what we hope for is eternal
life. Eternal life. Every saint, every
believer, greatly desires. Remember I told you, hope is
something you greatly desire and expect to have. Every believer,
every saint, greatly desires eternal life. Now that just doesn't
mean to live forever. That means, well, it means real
life. Real life. Real life. Spiritual life. The life of God,
which is holiness of life. And this is the best I can do
with this. But it's the life of God. It's life, Christ said,
more abundant. real life, the life of God. See, God didn't depend on or
have anything material before He created this world. But He had life and perfect joy
and happiness and all of that. So somehow it doesn't depend
on anything material. And so eternal life is life with
God. Life with God in Christ. I didn't say God and Christ.
Life with God in Christ. Because that's the God we will
see and dwell with someday. Christ, who is God. Look at Romans
8. Paul tells us about this hope. If I'm not careful, we'll dwell
here a while, but verse 18 says, I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us. Because the earnest expectation
of the creature, that's creation, the world, creation, waited for
the manifestation of the sons of God, waits for this whole
thing to be over and God's people to be revealed. For the creature,
verse 20, the creation, the earth, was made subject to vanity. When God made everything, it
wasn't vanity. When God made this earth, it
wasn't vanity. That means empty and useless
and of no value and all that. It had great value. Before sin,
God looked at it and said, this is good. And God enjoyed it himself. God came down and walked. in
the garden, and man enjoyed the garden too, and what made it
most enjoyable was that God was with him, and he was holy. So it wasn't vanity before, but
it is now, subject to vanity, not willingly, that is the earth
had nothing to do with it, the animals had nothing to do with
it, but by reason or purpose of God, verse 20, you've got
to stay with me to understand It's by reason of God who has
subjected the same in hope. Hope of what? A new earth. And it'll never happen again
to the new one. Read on. Because the creation itself shall
be delivered from the bondage of corruption unto the glorious
liberty of the children of God. Now we know, read on, that the
whole creation grown and pain together until now. Pain, suffering,
calamities, disasters, trial, tribulation, pestilence, famine,
you name it. Disease, death, pain. Growneth. The whole creation
growneth. There was no fear of man in animals.
On and on. And not only they, but ourselves
also. We which have the firstfruits
of the Holy Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting
for this adoption with the redemption of our body, for we are saved
by hope. Hope, this scene, is not hope.
What a man seeth, why did he yet hope for? But we're saved
by hope. We're saved from sin by this
hope. We're saved from this doomed
world. This world's doomed. It's already been judged by God
and sentenced, just waiting to be carried out. Well, we're saved
from it, by hope. We're saved from despair in this
sinful world. By hope. By hope. He goes on to say in verse 25,
if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience. We wait for it. So we're waiting. for this expected eternal life. And this is what we desire. We're living with this desire.
We're waiting. We're waiting. We're hoping.
Groaning. And he says, I reckon that the sufferings of this present
time are just not worthy to be compared with the glory. The
troubles, the trials, the problems and so forth that we have now
is not worthy to be compared with joy. The only way the scriptures
describe it is unspeakable. Joy unspeakable. Brother Gabe
gave me this illustration. He said, if a dog could somehow
become a human being, with all the understanding that the human
being has, with all the faculties, hearing, sense of hearing, Communication
and all that. If a dog became a human being
and heard symphonies and all, things that he never paid attention
to before, things that before might have hurt his ear. If he
became a human being and heard these things and spoke things
and saw things and understood things that he never understood
before, and then he went back to becoming
a dog, how is he going to describe those things to his fellow dogs? That's what the Apostle Paul
said when he went to glory, the third heaven of heavens. He said,
I came back and he said, I heard things. It's not possible to
utter. That's why Paul said, I reckon
that the sufferings of this present time are just not worthy to be
compared. Our Lord said it in Isaiah 65 that the former things
won't even come to mind. They will not be remembered or
come to mind because of the glory that excelleth. The manifestation
of the sons of God. All right. Our hope is for eternal
life. Now, what is this hope dependent
upon? Where do we get this hope? What
is this reason? What is our reason for our hope?
Romans 15. Do not a lot of people have some
kind of hope of life after death? Don't they? Don't the Hindus?
Well, they don't have much hope. They hope to come back a butterfly
or something. Honestly, that's what they hope
for. And others, though, don't they hope? The Muslims, don't
they hope in life after death? Sure they do. Most folks do have a hope. Their reason is for various things. Where do we get this hope? What's
the reason for our hope? Romans 15. I love this. Romans
15. And I already told you, God,
who cannot promise, said these things before the world began.
And here's where we get our hope. Romans 15, verse 4. What things
soever were written aforetime were written for our learning
that we, through patience, that is, waiting on God, and comfort
of the Scriptures, might have hope. Our hope is in God's Word. Get all of our hope. From thus
saith the Lord." The written Word. Look at verse 13. Now,
the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing
that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.
The God of hope fill you with joy and peace in what? Believing. Believing what? His Word. That
you may abound in hope. This hope is not just a wish,
a wish, a wish, you know, cross your fingers, hope to die. Rabbit's
foot hope. No, no, no, no, no. It depends
on what God has written, what God has said, totally. We abound and we hope through
His Word. Look at Psalm 119. This is where
David got his hope. Psalm 119, over there. Do you know how often he talks
about hoping in God's Word throughout this psalm? Many, many times.
Well, let's just look at a couple of them. Psalm 119, verse 49. Psalm 119. David, all of David's
hope. I told you before that David
never had any miraculous visions and signs and wonders and miracles.
He didn't. Look at this, here's where David
got his hope, verse 49, he says, Remember the word unto thy servant
upon which thou hast called me to hope. David's hope was on the word of God. What word?
The books of Moses, the book of Job. There wasn't much else written before then. Ruth, he loved the Word of God. His hope was in the Word of God. Now, how do we know that this
is God's Word? How do you know? Don't the Muslims
say that their book is the Word of God? Don't the Hindus say
that Bhagavad Gita is their Word of God? How do we know this is God's
Word? Well, now this is just a fact. It's a revelation to
His people. It really is. I mean, it really
is. God reveals His Word to His people,
and that's why they believe it's His Word. It's a miracle. It's a revelation. God doesn't
prove Himself to you. at first. He just reveals the
Word to you. That's a fact now. God will not
prove Himself to somebody that demands He prove Himself. I don't
believe it's God's Word. Prove it. He won't do it. He
won't do it. But to that person who seeks
the truth and says, Lord, show me. I'm ignorant. I want to know
the truth. He reveals it. He reveals His Word. But this
book is not without concrete proof that this is indeed God's
Word. We don't have blind faith. Stay with me now. Stay with me.
This is the Word of God. How do I know? How do I know? Let me count the
ways. Many, many ways. Concrete proof that this is God's
Word. Let me just give you a few reasons
or rationale. about this book. This book was
written over a period of 1,500 years. 1,500 years it was being
compiled by 40 different men. 40 different men. No women, mind
you. Men. 40 different men. Most did
not know one another. And they did not collaborate
with each other. 66 books. written over a period of 1,500
years by 40 different men, and it tells the exact same story. Now, if you've got four men together
tonight, and each one of them went their
separate ways, and you gave them just a little clue of something
and told them to write a story, and they came back and compared
notes, it wouldn't sound anything like it. They wouldn't say the same thing.
In fact, you tell them the same story and tell them to write
a story about it, and you won't recognize it from any of them.
You won't agree, will it, darn it? Have you ever played that
little game called gossip? I mean the game, I don't mean
practice of actual sin. There's a little game. You've
played it, haven't you, where you whisper in somebody's ear
or something? Somebody whispers a fact, a statement in the person's
ear, and they whisper it in the next person's ear, and it goes
all the way around the room. And when it gets back to the original
teller, have you ever done that? You ought to try that sometime.
It's unbelievable. There may not even be one word
in that that was in the original. Are you with me, Tammy? Fifteen
hundred years. Forty different men. Didn't know
one another, didn't talk to one another. Tells the exact same
story in detail. What is the story? The Old Testament says somebody's
coming. Every one of them talked about
a person and described him in great detail. And these, listen,
time, Cannot, has not, will not, cannot destroy this book. Men
have tried to put this book away. There have been mass burnings
of it by those who hate it. They cannot destroy it. Circumstances can't do away with
it. Try as they may, men cannot do away with this book. Was it Jeremiah that the The
king ripped everything up and burned it, and God just told
him again, and he wrote it again. He can't destroy this book because
the scripture says, For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled.
Where is the master copy of this book? In heaven, with God. How do I know it's God's word?
How do I know it's God's word? Because of the wisdom of it. I've read a lot of deep books. I've read a lot of deep books.
I read War and Peace just the other night. I'm just kidding. But I've read a lot of deep books.
What men and women call deep books. Hath not God made foolish
the wisdom of this world? After having read some of this,
understanding some of this, because we know in part, yet what I do
understand and know, it makes foolish. Young people, let me
tell you something. You'll accumulate knowledge in
school. You'll accumulate knowledge of facts and so forth. Learn
trades. You'll learn trades, how to whatever,
lay stone or build houses. or be a nurse or whatever, and
you'll accumulate facts about various professions and so forth.
But that's not wisdom. That's knowledge of things. And
even that changes with each generation. You know that medicine used to
think, this is how we're going to cure people. We're going to
take the blood out of their bodies. Honestly, every doctor whom people
trusted and went to school to learn these things. They had
their schools, didn't they? And these doctors came out and
said, this is how we're going to cure this fellow. We're going
to bleed him. They wouldn't let people wash.
Wash off this protective covering, you know, the germs. Honestly,
wouldn't let fresh air in the room. Because that's where all
the germs are. And all these things were the
problem. All these things you're going
to accumulate in school. Sarah, you're going off to a higher
learning. Well, learn what you will, and
go where you will, but it's just accumulated facts that way man
sees it. Wisdom is to know God. Wisdom is to know God, and there's
only one place you can know God, find out God. Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? Because the world in general,
God's not in all their thoughts. You're going to study things,
but God's not going to be one of them. Not the God Bible. Wisdom
is to know God. How do I know this is God's Word?
Because of the wisdom. How do I know it's God's Word?
Because of the power of it. This word, and I could stay right
here a long time, this word is the power of God. It takes dead
people and raises them. It takes blind people and gives
them sight. Deaf people, gives them hearing.
It takes sons of devils and turns them into sons of God. It takes
dirty, vile people sitting on a dung heap and raises them to
sit among friends. It doesn't change life, it gives
life. The power of it. So I haven't felt the power.
That's why I say it's a revelation. The revelation. How do I know
it's God's Word? Because of the beauty of it.
The beauty of it. This is the holy Word of God. The beauty of it. Oh, I could just camp right here.
Because of the holiness of it. Holiness of it. It's holy. The truthfulness of it. God's
biographies of men. It's absolutely truth. It reveals what we've said before,
we've laughed at the thought of how Noah, you know, probably,
Lord, don't put that in there. Please don't put that in there
about me getting drunk. Please, Lord. He might have thought
that, but the Lord did. The Word of God is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The Word of God, the
eye of the Lord, the Word of God is sharp as a two-edged sword,
pierces the sun. The Word of God reveals all things.
All things are naked and open before the eyes of Him with whom
we have to do. What eyes? Right here. This exposes everybody
and everything. God's Word exposes everyone. Every thought, every so-called
knowledge and wisdom and so forth that men have, this Word will
reveal whether or not it's true or not. The holiness of it, the truthfulness
of it, the complexity of it, the mystery of it. The marvel of it. This is God's
Word. It's as relevant today in 2006
A.D. as it was 2006 B.C. It's just
as relevant. If you love God's Word, you'll
love what I'm saying right now about it. This Word transcends
time, culture, class, age. It meets the needs of lawyers
and laborers. It meets the needs of doctors
and dishwashers. It meets the needs of the high
and the low, the rich and the poor, the old and the young,
male and female. It meets all their needs. It
doesn't matter where they are, where they're from, who they
are, how old or whatever, it meets their needs. This is God's
Word. Amazing, marvelous, miraculous,
glorious Word of the living God. But as I said, I can't prove
that to you. God must reveal it to you. One
day He must open your ears to hear His Word. This is His voice
and He said He breaks the cedars and causes the hens to calve
and so on and so forth. How do I know it's God's Word?
Because I know it's God's Word. Because He's spoken to me. Not
out loud, but right here. We hope in God's Word. We expect
to see We expect to experience exactly what God has promised,
what God has written. We expect, I expect, this is
my desire, one thing have I desired of the Lord, and that's what
I'll seek after, and that's exactly what I expect to get. Why? Because
God that promised it cannot lie. Thus saith the Lord. And that's
where I'm just building my hope. Look at Psalm 33 that we read
a while ago. What do we hope? What is our
hope built on? Psalm 33. Did you catch it with
me? If you need it, you did. Psalm
33, look at it. One thing we know for sure from
God's Word, and we wouldn't know this if God hadn't revealed it
from His Word, is that, and we know it from experience too,
that this world we know is a sinful place full of sinful people,
and God's wrath is clearly revealed from heaven against all of it,
and we see very clearly. We see it all around us. God's
people do. Saints do. Clearly see all the judgments
and so forth. The wrath of God is clearly revealed
from heaven against all unrighteousness. Men receive the just recompense
of their sin. We see it happening. And we see
this thing drawn to a close. Those who have their eyes open,
their heart open, by the Word of God, see very clearly that
God is drawing this thing to a rapid end, a rapid close. There's no doubt in my mind whatsoever. Where do you know? How do you
know? Well, not just these things, but God's Word. You see, these things, these
scriptures say it. God said that they fulfilled
the things that God wrote. They condemned themselves by
fulfilling them. God is going to destroy
this planet. Even modern man believes that
there's going to be some kind of, what is it, I've already
lost track, global warming. Even modern man just believes
it's going to end somehow. Atomic bomb, global warming or
something. Why do they think that? Written on the heart. God said
that. Even the Gentiles who had not
the law or a law unto themselves had it written on their heart.
God convicts them through their heart. What's right and what's
wrong. They fear it somewhat. Don't fear God, but fear them. But God, and God's going to destroy
this world full of, to Him, wicked inhabitants. This place is a vile place to
God Almighty. Yes, it is. But God is merciful. God has spared many down through
time. God has promised to spare a multitude
more of guilty sinners, just like Adam, just like Lot, Jacob,
David, Lefebvre, on and on, Mary Magdalene, Simon, thief on the
cross. God has spared many. Every one
of them asks God for mercy. Every one of them. I'm here to
tell you tonight that every human being that's ever asked God for
mercy because of their sin has received it. Now God's going to destroy this
place because it's vile. But God is rich in mercy, and
every single human being that's asked God for mercy has received
it. And once they received it, endures forever. And those in
heaven right now, both of those, which no man can number, are
glorifying God for His mercy. And while they lived on this
earth, what they hoped in, their whole hope of being with God
in heaven someday, was in His mercy. This gospel, this good news is
for sinners. Guilty, hell-deserving sinners. Rotten, no-good sinners. Those
who are filled with a loathsome disease. Guilty! Who do not excuse
themselves, who do not justify themselves, who condemn themselves
and justify God in doing so. And they all ask God for mercy
against them. And every one of them received
it. What's my hope? The mercy of
God. Look at Psalm 33, verse 18. It
says, The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him. How
do I know it's the last days? There's no fear of God before
their eyes, especially in religion. It's worse. Robbing religion
is worse than the ungodly out there. They're blaspheming God
to His face. They don't fear Him. They use
His name like, oof. But God's mercy is upon them. The eye of the Lord is upon them
that fear Him. upon them that hope in His mercy. The eye of the Lord. What's the
eye? The eye of love. The eye of providence. The eye
of kindness. The eye of pity. The eye of compassion. The eye of mercy. It says, upon
them that hope in His mercy to deliver their soul. Are you reading
that with me? From death. Keep them alive in
famine. Oh, he says down in verse 22,
Let thy mercy, O Lord, be upon us according as we hope. Indeed. A merciful God. And we hope in
God's grace. God's grace. His mercy and His
grace. We've already looked at grace.
What is grace? Well, you're saved by it. One
hundred percent. Grace is a gift. Salvation is
a gift bestowed upon these unworthy, ungodly, helpless, hopeless sinners. It's a gift. It's a revelation. It's a gift. Lot found grace.
Lot found grace, says the Lord. Lot lingered, but says that the
Lord being merciful to him, took hold of him and pulled him out.
Pulled him out of Sodom. See, I hope in God's mercy He'll
pull me out someday. I'm lingering. He'll pull me
out. That's my hope. He'll pull me
out. Noah found grace. Noah found
grace. You know he's full of doubts
and fear. Jacob found grace. By grace, do you see? Grace.
My, my, I had so much on this. God is gracious. God of all grace. He giveth more grace. We have
a, Scripture says, we have a good hope through grace. Say it's by faith, by grace,
and that through faith that promise might be sure to all to see. Let me tell you, just like all
who have asked God for mercy, no matter how guilty they were,
they've received it, and it endures forever. And everyone who needs
grace, everyone who's asked God to save them by His grace, they've
received grace. They've been saved by His grace.
Everyone. But there's something more. Does
that scare you? You see, our hope is not just
in a book. Stay with me now, this is the
climax. This is to sum it all up. Everything I just said is
going to be summed up in one thing. Our hope is not just in a book.
I don't hope in this book. Our hope is not in a belief.
in a doctrine. Doctrines of grace. My hope is
not in the doctrines of grace. Our hope is in a living person. There's all the difference, not
in the world, but all the difference in salvation. Our hope is in
a living person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our hope is in Him. He is our
hope, the God-man. That that One who came down here
2,000 years ago was none other than God. Isn't that what Isaiah
said in Isaiah 25? Our God, He'll save us. This
is our God. We've waited on Him. The God-man, our Lord and Savior,
is our hope, the one who came from God and told us all things.
Isn't that what that woman at the well said? She said, when
the Messiah has come, He'll tell us all things. You see, it's
a revelation. And the Lord, the person, His
Word, He said to that woman at the well, He said, I am. The One who came from God told
us all things, revealed all things to us, fulfilled all things for
us. The One who came from God, Scripture calls Him the hope
of Israel. Hope of earth. We sing that song. Hope of earth
and joy of heaven. It's our hope. He is our hope
right now. He is our hope. What's my hope?
That Christ right now is in heaven. My Savior, my Lord, my Master,
my Intercessor, my High Priest. He's my hope. It's not a book,
it's a person. And how I know that this is God's
book, God's Word, is because it told me all about Him. And
I see Him in it. See, He is the Word of God. You
said we hope in the Word of God. He is the Word of God. The Word
was made flesh and dwelled among us, and we beheld His glory as
the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. I'm not going to hug up to this
book when I go to my deathbed. I'm going to have to be under
some everlasting spiritual harm. Somebody is going to have to
hug me. And He promised. He said, He that liveth and believeth
in Me shall never die. It's not a taste of death. It
won't even taste like death. I don't know where we get these
old songs, you know, the cold river of death or the lonesome
valley and all that. The Scriptures don't say that.
Christ doesn't say that. His Word doesn't say that, Sherry.
It doesn't say we're going to have to go through this cold,
horrible thing at the end of our days. Not at all. He giveth
His beloved sleep. It's going to be like falling
asleep in His arms. Those babies do not dread falling
asleep in their mother's arms. It's just absolute joy and peace
to them. And so will we. He's promised.
He's promised. That one, he's the hope of Israel,
the hope of earth, the joy of heaven, the hope of earth, of
those on earth right now. The saint and the faithful in
Christ is right now the joy of heaven. He's not their hope.
He's not their hope. He's not Ellen's hope. He's her experience. I hope to
see she does. I hope to hear his audible. I
want to hear him actually speak to me. She does. I want to see His face. She does. I want to feel His arm around
me. She does. I want to hear Him say unto me,
I am thy salvation. She does. I hope, you see, my hope is in
Him. The One who came to this earth
miraculously without seed, The one who lives without sin as
my law keeper. There's a lot of people who hope
to get to heaven by keeping the law. That's sad, isn't it? A
lot of people. That's not my hope. My hope is
in the person who did it for me. All my hope is in Him, that
He kept it. See, by His knowledge, you're
my righteous servant just about. Isn't that your hope? I told you about going through
that town one time and speeding, and I never did see a sign. And
they caught me for speeding and said, I was speeding. I said,
well, I didn't see the sign. Well, it's right back there. I didn't see it.
That doesn't matter. You're guilty. And we've broken every law in
it, even the ones we don't know about. He knows. He wrote it. And he kept it.
The one who came, the one who died, Everybody's going to die. Unbelievers,
sinners are going to die because of their sins. They're going
to be separated from God someday because of their sins. Not me. How can you say such a thing?
Christ died. Is that your hope? It's not in
the doctrine. My hope's not in the doctrine
of particular redemption. It's in a particular redeemer.
It's in a person who died. But now, it wouldn't do me any
good if he just died. Mohammed died. Confucius died. Buddha died of obesity. It's cholesterol. Something. Our Lord died. He laid down His
life. He didn't have to. Nothing killed
Him. He laid down His own life. But here's my hope. He rose from
the dead. You know, the whole story, the
whole preaching, all the preaching throughout the book of Acts,
every time the Apostle Paul stood up to preach, this is what he
preached. There's a man risen from the dead and seated on the
throne of glory right now. That's that Jesus He crucified.
He's risen. And he quoted psalm after psalm
to say he didn't leave his Holy One to suffer corruption, but
he's right now seated. This is the message that convicted
3,000 souls at Pentecost. That one you killed, that Jesus,
imagine you saw him. Killed. Blood, all the blood
out of his body. Taken down from the grave and
put in a grave. In three days, laid in that grave. He's not
dead. He walked out of that grave. How does that give me hope? It proves that everything he
said is so. He kept saying this over and
over again, and he kept saying it, didn't he, to his disciples,
they're going to take me and they're going to kill me, but they're going
to do what God determined to be done, and they're going to
kill me, but three days I'm going to rise again. And they were
afraid to ask him. And every one of them, Stan,
every one of them said, we saw Him, we handled Him, we touched
Him with the life. He didn't die. He did die, but He didn't
die. And this is what he says in Revelation. He says, I am
He. He that was dead, but know I live. See, Jeanette, our hope
is in the living. That's why it's called the living
God, the true God. That's why we don't worship some
figure or some Jesus hanging on a cross. We worship a living
Lord. The one who died as my lamb,
my sin offering, my substitute, but now is risen, proving that
he's who he said he was, who scripture says he was. Proving
he, and he went back to glory and entered into the holy place,
the veil, not without blood. Just like the Old Testament says
he did. He went into that holy of holies, not without blood. And the only priest, Brother
Dan Park's priest on this, down on the island, he's the only
priest that ever sat down. I'm going to have him up here
and I'm going to let him preach that message, have him preach that message.
I'm going to order him. He sat down, the right hand, and where
he ever lives, where he sits, like intercession for those who
come to God by him. He rose, he ascended to heaven,
sat down on the throne, and he said, but he said, now he said
to his disciples right before he went to the cross, he said,
I go to prepare a place for you. You believe in God. Believe also
in me. I am God. And I'm going to prepare
a place for you. And the way he had to go was
through the cross, through his blood. We wouldn't get there
except through his blood. He had to take his blood to that
mercy seat, didn't he? You know, there's no real mercy seat there.
He didn't pour his blood on any mercy seat. He is the mercy seat. You see, it's the person. We
use those figures because we're just ignorant. I mean, that's
the only way we can describe it. He is the mercy seat. He doesn't have to go through
some transaction with God. He is. Because he lived. Christ said, because I live,
you live. God does not look at the righteousness of Christ to
see if I'm one of His. You listen there. He looks at
Christ, my righteousness. God does not look at a legal
transaction to see if I'm one of His. God looks at a person. God doesn't have to look through
a book to see if my name's there. That's all for us ignorant people.
He's got our names written on His heart in the palm of His
hand. This is no legal transaction. This is a person with people. Like the high priest of old had
names on his shoulder and on his breastplate, Christ has His
people on His shoulder and in His heart. You don't have to
look them up. You don't have to look at a book
to see if, oh no, that's just for the sake of indoctrinating
us. God looks at His Son, and as
He is, so are we. The One who is coming again to
receive us unto Himself. Our hope. You've got to look
at this in closing, okay? Hebrews 6. We're going to have a little
get-together in a minute. But this is our fellowship, isn't
it? Truly, our fellowship is with
the Father and with His Son. This is it. This bread is a lot
better than what you're going to eat downstairs. That's going
to go out in the draft. This is going to stay with you unto
eternal life. Hebrews 6. Our hope is a person,
the living Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Hebrews 6. Look
at this. Verse 11. Say it. We desire that
every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance
of hope unto the end. Now, you think I have just full
assurance, don't you? I mean, you do. You think I've
got just a strong hope, don't you? Don't you? Do I act like
it? Do I preach like I believe this? Or him, believe him? Do I? I hope it's the same as yours. I don't have a better hope than
you do. I got it from the same place you did. I don't have any
more assurance. I'm not going to be more saved
than you are. I want you all to have the same,
the full assurance of this hope unto the end. Full assurance.
You can have full assurance if all your assurance is in Christ. See, I don't believe I know enough.
Then you've missed it. Do you know that Christ is your
hope? That's it. That's it. We're not saved by what we know.
We're saved by who knows us. We're saved by who knows us. He's going to claim us. Peter
denied him, didn't he, Kelly? The Lord came to deny himself.
See, that's my hope. He's my hope. See that? I may
get Alzheimer's when I'm 80 years old and forget everything I ever
learned. Brother Gerald Stoniker, your
granddad, he doesn't know anybody. You could say something to him
about the Bible. What do you know what the Bible is? What's
his hope? that there's somebody that's
going to remember Him. He doesn't remember anything,
but there's somebody that can't forget Him. You see that? The smallest child that hopes
in Jesus Christ is just as saved as the strongest adult. And we've
got a good hope. And I desire that every one of
you show the same hope, a full assurance of hope under the hand.
Don't leave this gospel with your only hope. That's what Colossians
said, don't leave it. Man, oh man, you are without
hope if you do. Look at verse 18 through 20,
and it's about two immutable things. We've already looked
at this. Which is impossible for God to lie. We have a strong
consolation who fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set
before it. Lay hold upon what? We're not
going to go up and lay hold on a book or a doctor. We're going
to lay hold on a person. What was Mephibosheth's hope?
None of what is in that merciful man on that throne that knew
him. that made a covenant with his daddy concerning him. And
before Mephibosheth could say a word, he spoke his name. Didn't
he, John? Mephibosheth. And from then on,
Mephibosheth thought, things are looking up. I've got a little
hope. And the more he knew David, the
more hope he had. Mr. Arnold laid hold on a person,
which hope, look at this, which hope we have as an anchor of
the soul, both sure and steadfast. What
is this hope? Which hope? What is it? Well,
it entered into the veil. It is him, that's what John said,
it, that, holy thing. He, the forerunner for us has
entered, even Jesus, our high priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek. He's our hope. I couldn't have
preached a better message than you. I really couldn't. A message
full of... See, what things were written
were written for our learning that we, through patience and
comfort of the Scripture, might have hope. And God, we hope for
eternal life, that God promised before, God who cannot lie, promised
before the world began. And what He promised was that
all would come unto Him by Jesus Christ. We'll be saved. My hope, the Word of God. My hope, I hope in God's mercy,
God's grace. My hope, I hope in God's love. Whoever God loves is forever.
He loves them to the end. He saves them. My hope is in
Jesus Christ, crucified, risen, Seated, coming again, eternally
glorified. We're going to go downstairs
now and have a little get together. I failed to put it in the bulletin
Sunday, but everybody stay and go down there with us. Do you know what this is all
about? I can't believe we did it. Sarah, this is for you. This
gathering. One of our daughters. Our daughters. Can we say that, Jenny? We are
your family. We love you. We've seen you since
you first came here. And love you dearly. And I think
we can all say this without sinning. We're proud of it. And we just
want to show you our love and concern for you, and wish you
well, and wish you weren't leaving, wish you were going to Ferrum,
but you're going to the best university in all the world. The happy hunting ground. The
land of Kentucky. But we wish you well. And you've
got to keep in touch. We know you will. And our hope
and prayer is for you that you'll do well and God will prosper
you both spiritually and materially. And I want you to do me a favor
while you're there. I want you to ride Stan Anderson every chance
you get and fill him in on the Kentucky Wildcats. He's a big
fan. He wants to know all about it.
Get all their autographs. Send it to him. Right, Stan? No, seriously, Sarah, we hate
to see you go. You're the apple of our eye.
And you represent this church well. That's who you represent.
This is your family. And we love you. And may God
go with you. All right, let's stand. I'll
ask God's blessings upon the food and His Word. Our Lord,
thank You, thank You, thank You for Your Word which You've caused
us to hope in. Lord, reveal it more fully to
us. Operate upon us with it. Lord,
thank You for Your mercy which endureth forever. Your grace,
oh, our God of all grace. You've been so gracious, and
You give more grace. And Lord, of Your love, Your
kindness to us through Christ our Lord, and it's Him whom we
give thanks for most of all. All these things are found in
Him. We know this, not as we should, but we do know. And You've
revealed these things unto us. You've revealed Him unto us,
in us. Christ in us is our hope of glory. We ask that You cause us to grow
in grace in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord,
we thank you for this church again. We ask your blessings
upon it, each one, each member of it. As we bid our daughter
and our sister Goodbye. We ask that You would be with
her and watch over her and keep her, Lord. Keep her safe. Keep her seeking Thy face wherever
she goes, whatever she does. We pray. We commit her into Thy
hands because we know that's where she is. We thank You for
her in the testimony You've given her. And ask Your mercy and Your
grace to be upon her all her days. And it's in Christ's name
we've met here this evening. Amen. You're dismissed.