you you you Aum. Om. Om. Aum. Well, good evening. It's good
to be here. I want you to open your Bibles
for a verse that I want to give you and go right back to the
book of Lamentations, if you would, and right back to chapter
3. And I want to show you a verse. This is a wonderful, wonderful
book. And I have, actually I've never
preached from the whole book of Lamentations, but I've been
reading it here the last few days and it has definitely kind
of whetted my appetite. It is such a bountiful portion
of scripture. But I want to go back to the
third chapter. I'll give you two verses. Verses 37 and 38. And here the prophet of God says,
Who is he that saith, And it cometh to pass, When the Lord
commandeth it not? That is, you know, men say, women
say, we all say, well, I'm going to do thus and so tomorrow. Well, only if the Lord has commanded
it will you do it. And this shows the government
of our God over all things. Men do indeed propose what they're
going to do in the next coming days, or weeks, or years. Well, it'll only be done if God
commands it. And then watch this 38th verse. Out of the mouth of the Most
High proceedeth not evil and good. Now you got to keep this
together with what he's just asked in the previous verse.
God he commands evil and he commands good. In fact that's exactly
what Job said to his wife when she, after she had experienced
the, she and Job had experienced the loss of all ten of their
children, and then Job lost his good health, and she advised
him, just curse God and die. And he said, what? Shall we receive
good at the hands of God? and not evil also? Shall we receive
only the things that we like and not also receive and acknowledge
the wisdom of God in giving to us those things that we don't
care for? All things do indeed proceed
from our God. And we are of such a feeble-mindedness
and lack of spirituality and lack of understanding the Godhead
that the ways of God are, well, Paul says in Romans 11, they're
past finding out. And there's got to come a point
in the life of a child of God when you perceive the things
that are happening, and though it's not the way you would have
them to be, yet you've got to acknowledge this is the way God
would have things to be, to fulfill His hidden purpose. And so I bow to His will. And
that's the attitude all of us as the people of God have got
to have. He gives both good and evil. And that which men, that which they say they're going
to do, they'll only do it if God commands it. If God hasn't
commanded it, He just keeps it from ever happening. If you really
want to have your mind totally boggled, can you ever possibly
imagine how many things our God has stopped from happening? Men have proposed to do something
and our God says no. No. No. I'm so thankful God reigns. This is a soft pillow upon which
to lay my weary head at night. Oh, the blessedness of the promises
of God. Well, let's have our scripture
reading. Brother Joe's going to read to
us, and he's going to read the of the second chapter of the
book of 2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians, chapter 2. Now we beseech you, brethren,
by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, by our gathering together
unto him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, be troubled,
neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as
that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you
by any means, for that day shall not come, except there come a
falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son
of perdition, who opposes and exalted himself above all that
is called God, or that is worshiped. so that he, as God sitting in
the temple of God, showing himself that he is God, remember ye not
that when I was with you, I told you these things, and now ye
know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth
already work, only he who now let it will let, until he be
taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be
revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his
mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming,
even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all
power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness in them that perish, because they receive
not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for
this cause, God shall send them strong delusions that they should
believe a lie, that they all might be damned who believe not
the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness. But we are
bound to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God had from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth, whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren,
stand fast and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether
by word or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself
and God, even our Father, which had loved us and had given us
everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your
hearts, establish you in every good word and work. Our Father, we do approach thy
throne this evening, pleading only the blood and the righteousness
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we confess that we're
sinners, that there's nothing good in us, from the tops of
our heads to the soles of our feet, wounds and bruises and
putrefying sores. There's nothing that would cause
you to look favorable upon us, in ourselves. But we do look
to that one that is holy and pure and righteous, our Lord
Jesus Christ. Father, we do ask this evening
to be with our pastor as he comes and opens this book one more
time and shows us Christ in the scriptures and shows us the good
news, the gospel in our Lord Jesus Christ. For he is the good
news. He is the only place that we
can find this good news. It's only in him. Father, we
do pray for all your preachers this day that stand and proclaim
your word to your people wherever they are. Father, we do ask for
the sick and afflicted, it be thy will to raise them up to
come and hear this grand and glorious gospel one more time.
Father, we do give you thanks for all things, for all things
are of your hand. For these things we ask in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, for his sake and his honor and
his glory we ask, amen. Thank you, Joe. This morning, just before I left
the house to come to the building, I knew that a dear friend of mine
was preaching, was going to be preaching this morning, and I
sent him a text. My goal was to encourage him
as he stood before a few people and expounded the word of God
and said before them the gospel of the grace of God in Christ
Jesus. And I said, whenever I step before
people, there are three things I try to always be conscious
of. First of all, I always want to
seek God's glory. The scripture says, whatever
you do in word or deed, do all for the glory of God. We met
this morning, have a few of us here this evening to meet, and
we're certainly thankful for those who are joining us by way
of the internet, and then there'll be people who listen to these
CDs or watch the DVDs later on. I want you to be very much aware
that that which we seek to do in everything, in this building,
is honor God. That's what we're seeking to
do. It's the reason we stay with
His Word. The second thing I told him that I always try to be conscious
of, and that is to exalt the person and work of our Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, there is no gospel unless
we preach Christ and Him crucified, unless we set forth the Lamb
of God. And I encouraged him to do that. You know, when we read in 1 Corinthians
1 where Paul said, we preach Christ It doesn't mean that he
just dropped his name every once in a while. That isn't what it
means. Because there are people in false
religion who frequently use the name of Jesus, but they really
don't preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Our Lord Jesus
and His work of redemption, that is not the theme of our ministry. That is our ministry. That's
our message. He's our message. Somebody. And
we need to always remember that. We meet to honor somebody and
what that somebody did. And I'm always conscious of that.
I'm always very much aware of that. And to be honest with you,
when I listen to somebody speak, that's what I'm listening for. Because I want them to talk about
the one that saved me, the one who died for me, the one who
laid down his life to save this poor center. That's what I'm
listening for. And a man can say a lot of other
things that could be beneficial to a hearer. But ultimately,
no real spiritual benefit is going to come to anybody unless
we exalt and magnify that glorious person. and his sacrificial work
of redemption, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I said, you've got
to do that. Be consciously very much aware
that you're doing that. And really, those of us who have
preached a while, It ought to come to us, I hope
you understand this, naturally. It's just, that's what we do.
But I always want to make sure I'm doing it. And then the third
thing I told him that I want him to be conscious of, because
I am. And I have a little bit of experience
in this. What I'm conscious of is I want
to help people. I want to help you. You're making
your pilgrimage to the land of promise. You're making a journey and you're
in the wilderness. I sure had best be giving to
you the bread of life and the water of life. I want to help
you. It's always my goal. If we're
not helping people, it really isn't much use in being here.
We've got to exalt God, we've got to magnify Christ Jesus,
and we've got to help people. People want to be ministered
to. Say something, preacher, that'll be of some help to me. when I leave here tonight, something
I can sink my teeth into, something I can lay hold of as being beneficial
to me. That's what we've always got
to do. And I have confidence in the
fellow. I believe he set that forth as
his goal this morning. I hope he did. I'm sure that
he did. That's my goal tonight. and we'll
ask God to enable us to meet those goals, to do what we seek
to do for His glory, to magnify His Son in His work, and then
to help you. Let's pray. Thank you, dear Father,
for the word of God, the word of the gospel of grace that you
have given to us. And oh, how we do seek to exalt
your glorious name. Your name, you have said, is
holy and reverend. Oh, God, we bow before you. We
recognize your greatness. We recognize all of your wonderful
attributes, all those things that make you to be God over
all, blessed forever. And we gather together to exalt
and magnify your only begotten Son, our Savior, and rejoice
in his finished work of redemption. Rejoice in his work as the great
mediator. We rejoice in his great work
as our advocate. We're sinful people. We need
him, oh God, to represent us before you, to take the prayers
that we pray, the worship that we offer, And the thanksgiving
that we present to you, we need the Savior to bathe them in His
blood. And then to anoint them with
the very fragrance of His own perfection. And then present
them, Father, unto You. We thank You that we have such
a glorious Savior. And we had best always do what
we're commanded to do in Hebrews 3, consider our great high priest,
Christ Jesus. And then, Lord, help us to be
a faithful messenger, a guide, a teacher, and an encourager
of your people. Lord, there's not a one of your
Dear saints who don't need some encouragement in this old world. Things happen, things going on
around us. Wickedness abounds. False religion
grows. Those who lie on you, Father,
are so numerous. Help us to always remember that
though there's much evil in this world, there's much sinfulness
in this world, yet our God governs, our God reigns. Would you forgive
us for our doubts, forgive us for our worrying, forgive us
for being filled with anxiety, We ought to be the most peaceful
and peaceable people on earth, for our God reigns. We rejoice
in you. We thank you, Father, for the
revelation of your grace to our hearts, for revealing to us the
beauties of your Son, and that the work of redemption he set
out to do from old eternity, that he's finished it. He's finished
it to your satisfaction. And our acceptance before you
is never based on how we feel, never based on our faithfulness. It's always based upon the finished
work of our dear Redeemer. Oh God, how we thank you for
Him. Help us to bless His name and honor Him
tonight. And if we do that, it will be
a help to your children. So bless, we ask, for Jesus'
sake. Amen. You're here in 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. I have a question that I want
to put to you this evening. Is your hope a good hope? Is your hope a good hope? The word hope, we've defined
it, we did this morning as an expectation of future goodness
and joy and glory. It's a confidence looking toward
eternity that things will work out just exactly like God says
it's going to work out. And we find here that this glorious
apostle, he writes to the people of God in Thessalonica, and he
says to them, and he says to us, here in chapter two, verses
16 and 17, now our Lord Jesus, our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which
hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and
good hope through grace, may he comfort your hearts and establish
you in every good word and work. Most people in religion And I
think probably most people in general have some kind of hope
of heaven. They have some kind of hope of
everlasting life. Some kind of hope of entering
into a blissful realm when they die. They have a hope. They have a hope. If you ask
them, are you a Christian? They may answer, I hope so. Are you going to heaven when
you die? Well, I sure hope so. Will God welcome you into his
glorious paradise? Well, I hope so. Most people
have some sort of hope of getting to heaven. Now, we know that
this matter of salvation is much more than just going to heaven. It's being saved from our sins. But the man of the world, he
views things in the ways that I just expressed. And most people have some kind
of hope of getting to heaven. And I have a hope of getting
to heaven. Make no mistake about it, I have
a hope, I anticipate when I die, I told Nancy today, I said, you
know, we've had a good run. We've been together over 51 years.
Now one of these days that's gone in. And when it ends for me, when
my life ends, I fully anticipate, I have a great confidence, it
isn't presumption, I have a great assurance that when I close my
eyes here, that I'm going to see the Savior
just like that. When I die, just immediately,
There is no soul sleeping. There is no floating around in
no man's land till sometime way off in the future. Why, the Savior
said to the believing thief, today, right now, You'll be with
me in paradise. I have that hope. I believe I'm
going to be with Him in paradise. I fully, hey, I stake my life
on it. I'm going to be with Him. And that is a hope, that's a
good hope, because it's a good hope based on the grace of God. And based on the faithfulness
of my Savior, who was my representative when He came into this world.
Now, I don't have hope that I'm going to be all right in the
future based on anything I've ever done. And if your hope is
based upon some work you've done or some duty that you've abided
by, some law that you've kept, or some decision you've made,
you don't have a good hope. The only good hope anybody can
have is, as this says, a good hope through grace. That's the only way you can have
a good hope. And I sure enough don't want
to go through this life thinking that I have a good hope and then
die and find out too late I didn't have a good hope, I had a bad
hope. People in every denomination,
they have a hope that they're going to see the Lord one day,
going to be with Him someday. There's some people in Matthew
chapter 7, that's one of the saddest portions of Scripture
in the Word of God. Many will say to me, in that
day, Lord, Lord, hadn't we done all these things for you? We
did it in your name, in your name, in your name, in your name. Three, the number of orthodoxy. And then to hear him say, I don't
know you. You thought you had good hope?
You had bad hope. You didn't have any hope at all.
And I want you, I want each of you, you who are watching, and
I'm doing the same thing myself, I want to examine my hope. Is your hope a good hope? You
say, Jim, I have heard this before. You guys preach the same old
message all the time. You're always preaching this.
And we always will. We're warning people. We're cautioning
people. You see, the Word of God, God
in His book, He sets forth many wonderful promises. And we love
those. But he also sets forth many,
many threats. And he'll say things like, beware
lest there be found in any of you an evil heart of unbelief
in leaving the living God. He always hedges us in lest we
get too comfortable. They say, I believed on the Lord
Jesus years ago. Faith is not a one-time thing. Faith is not an isolated instance. This is what's wrong with people
who say, I know I'm saved because I remember 25 years ago. I still remember the song they're
singing and the pew I was sitting in. And I had gripped that pew
until I think I left my fingerprints on the back of the pew in front
of me. And then I just let go. And I let God save me. I know
I'm saved and you can't talk me out of it. I know that's the
problem. I can't talk you out of it, but
maybe God will force it out of you. Because faith is not an
isolated thing. Now wait a minute preacher, I've
been baptized. When I was little I was christened. Now you don't mean to tell me
that meant nothing, do you? That meant something to your
mom and dad. And obviously it means something
to you. It means nothing to God. You understand? It means nothing
to God. The only thing that matters to
God is His Son and His Son's death. That's all that matters
to God. He is the Savior God appointed. He's the Savior God chose. God chose Him first and then
chose the people in Him. He's the one who matters. And
I'll tell you when you're getting real close to the truth. When
He matters to you. When the Savior matters to you.
And that work of redemption He accomplished. I don't want to
go through life with a false hope and then go off into eternity
and people around my bed Maybe somebody be crying and said,
we don't want you to leave. Hey, don't worry about me. I'm
fine. And then I go out into eternity
and I find out I'm not fine. I had a false hope. I'll tell you what Job says.
Job said in Job 8 and verse 13, the hypocrite's hope shall perish. He isn't worth anything. Worth nothing. Listen, your hope,
you anticipating being received and welcomed into heaven, is
totally dependent upon our God, and His faithfulness and His
salvation and His grace and His Word is totally dependent upon
Jesus Christ and His substitutionary death. It isn't everyone who
says, Lord, Lord, that's going to enter in. It's He that doeth
the will of God. What is the will of God? This
is the will of God. Our Lord said this in John chapter
6. that you believe on Him whom
He sent. God sent His darling Son into
this world and all the religious world just turned thumbs down
on Him. What about you? How does your heart respond to Jesus
Christ? and His death upon the cross
of Calvary. And as honestly as I can tell
you, my heart responds this way. This is the Savior I need. The one who laid down His life
for the sheep. The one who successfully endured
all the wrath of God that I should have endured forever. He endured
it for me. He satisfied justice for me. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? That's the issue of the ages.
I know how. Through His Son. And His Son's
glorious atonement. And if you look to Him, if you
believe Him, you have a good hope through
grace. But if you lean on anything you've
ever done, you're not going to come to a
good end. Why is this hope that Paul talks
about here. Why is it called a good hope
through grace? Let me give you, I'll give you
briefly seven things. It's a good hope because it's
a hope that comes from a good God. A good hope, it's a good
hope because it's a hope that comes from a good God. Listen
to this, Romans 15 verse 13. Now the God of hope, See, he's
the source of hope. He's the giver of hope. Now the
God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that
you may abound in hope. That's what I want to abound
in hope. I want to have a good hope and
I want to abound in it. I want to have lots of it. But I have my bad spells just
like you do. Honest. Honest. Somebody tells me, well I've
never doubted. I've never been troubled about
it ever since I came to the Lord Jesus. I've never doubted one
minute. I'd question either their honesty
or their memory. Because we struggle. Don't you
struggle? That's what I'm talking about,
I want to help people. Preachers, some preachers, they
just preach down to people, like, what do you mean you have a doubt? You shouldn't do that. Well,
no, we shouldn't, but let's just be honest with people. Wasn't
it Barnard said, honest people don't wind up in hell? Let's
just be honest. We do doubt. We have our fears. And I'm sorry, it's not good,
it's sinful. It's sinful. But I have a good God who gave
me a good hope through grace. He gave me hope. And I know sometimes
I have my struggles like you do. but I know whom I have believed.
And I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. Here's the second thing. It's
a good hope because it's based on the fulfillment of the promises
of God. Look with me in Acts chapter
26. Look at Acts chapter 26. Here Paul is before Agrippa. And let me just read you a few
verses here. Acts 26 verse 1. Then Agrippa
said unto Paul, Acts 26 verse 1. Then Agrippa said unto Paul,
Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched
forth his hand, He answered for himself, I think myself happy,
King Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before
thee touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews,
especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and
questions which are among the Jews. Wherefore I beseech thee
to hear me patiently. My matter of life from my youth,
which was at the first among my known nation at Jerusalem,
know all the Jews, all these people know me, know how I was
raised, which knew me from the beginning if they would testify
that after the most strictest sect of our religion, I lived
a Pharisee. And now I stand and am judged
for the hope of the promise made of God unto our hearts." The
hope of the promise of God. What was the hope of the promise
of God? Now remember, all of the Word
of God they had then was what? The Old Testament. That's all
they had. And all of the saints of God in the Old Testament,
they had a good hope through grace. And their hope was in,
they fully expected that one day the seed of the woman was
coming. Let me show you, look back with
me in the book of Jeremiah chapter 14. Jeremiah chapter 14. Look at verse seven. And here's a man who's honest
before God. His name's Jeremiah. Look at verse seven. Oh Lord,
Jeremiah 14, seven. Oh Lord, though our iniquities
testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake. Show us
mercy, show us grace. For our backslidings are many,
we've sinned against thee. Oh, the hope of Israel. Oh, the hope of Israel, the Savior. You see, the hope of God's true
Israel is somebody. All of the people of God in the
Old Testament, they all look for the hope of Israel. The hope
of God's true Israel. And the hope of God's true Israel
is somebody. And they anticipated His coming. They didn't know when He was
going to come, but they believed that He was going to come. They
waited for His coming. There were some people on earth
who were waiting for His coming and actually saw Him, like Simeon
in the temple, and Anna in the temple, and other saints of God. Now watch this, O the hope of
Israel, the Savior thereof in time of
trouble, why shouldst thou be as a stranger in the land? and
as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night?"
Here's what the prophet of God is saying. We want you to come. We want you to come and we want
you to stay. And you know, those of us who
know God, who love the Gospel, we can say this today by His
Spirit, O hope of Israel, the Savior thereof in time of trouble,
why would you be a stranger? We don't want you to be a stranger
in this land as a wayfaring man who just turns aside to stay
for a night and then moves on. We don't want you to be like
that. We want you to come and stay. That's what I want for
our church family. I want Him to come and stay with
us by His Spirit. Look at verse 9. Why shouldst
thou be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? Yet thou, O Lord, art in the
midst of us, and we are called by thy name. Leave us not. I love this language. Lord, don't
be as a wayfaring man. Come and stay with us here at
13th Street Baptist Church. Abide with us. Don't be like
a wayfaring man. Lord, stay with us. And we know
you are in the midst of us. And we're called by thy name.
But we're not presumptive. Don't leave us. Don't you love
that honesty? Don't leave us. You see, this
is a good hope because it's based on the fulfillment of God. And
all of these saints of God waited and looked for Him. And lo, one
day, the hope of Israel, He came. O joyous day, He came. I know most people had no use
for him, but there were some people who were thankful he came.
And ever since he came, there have been many people who blessed
the name of God that he came, and we got some of them here
tonight. So I thank you, Lord, for sending your Son. You see, what is the hope of
the promise of God unto the fathers? that he would send his son. And then here's the third thing.
It's a good hope because it's built on a good
foundation. Other foundation can no man lay
than that which is laid, laid by God, which is Christ Jesus. And we love that passage of scripture
over there in Matthew chapter 7. The wise man built his house
upon the rock. Foolish man built his house on
the sand. Everybody in religion is building
some kind of house in which you think you'll be safe forever. Oh God, help us to build all
of our hopes on Christ crucified. I tell you, God accepts people
for Christ's sake. And He forgives people for Christ's
sake. And He loves people in Christ
Jesus. He forgives people. He pardons
people. He makes people righteous in
Christ Jesus, who is the Lord our righteousness. But if you
miss his son, you miss every good thing that God has. It's a good hope because it's
built on a good foundation. And then fourthly, it's a good
hope because it deals with good things. It deals with good things. Good
things like forgiveness. Good things like righteousness.
Good things like peace. Good things like everlasting
life. Good things like acceptance by
a holy God. Good things like eternity in
glory with Christ Jesus. Good things. It's a good hope
through grace because it deals with good things. And it's a good hope because
it deals with good things. And even in this life, and you
read it this morning, He'll make all things in your life to work
together for what? You're good. You're good. You've heard that promise hundreds
of times, some of you. And hundreds of times it goes
in one ear and out the other. That's the way we are. But it's still the truth. It's good because it deals with
good things of someday being with Christ Jesus and like Christ
Jesus. It deals with this good thing.
Oh, one of these days I'll be done with sin. My biggest problem is not the
world. My biggest problem is me. See, that's where the doubts
come from, the fears, the thoughts, the wrong motives, all that evil. What's got to happen? Well, you
got to die. And then, that's it for sin. No wonder Bunyan said, don't
weep for me. standing around his bedside and
is all crying. His kids, what he had about eight
kids I guess it was, one of them a little blind girl, all of them
crying. He said, don't weep for me. I'll go yonder to glory. Weep
for yourselves. You got to stay here. Tell you
what, the day of a child of God's death, It is for them a glorious
day. Glorious. And then it's a good hope because
it is all of grace. It's all of the electing grace.
There's a remnant according to the election of grace. That makes
me happy. Not going to get any quarrel
out of me. I know if he hadn't chosen me,
I wouldn't have any interest in the gospel. If you know anything
about your own depravity, you wouldn't have either. People who get all upset over
the doctrine of election, they just hadn't seen what they are
by nature. If God ever shows you what you are, you'll say,
I'm sure glad you chose me. You didn't leave me to myself.
You didn't leave me to my silly free will. I'm glad you interrupted
my fatal plunge toward hell. I'm glad you got in the way.
I'm glad you violated my free will, as they say. I say even
now, Lord, violate my will still! Not my will! Thy will be done. Justification justified freely
by His grace. Freely, another word we love,
without a cause in us. It's all by grace. He died for
me, oh what grace. that someone so glorious would
take the place and die the death of someone who was so wicked. It's all of grace because He
opens the heart like the Lord did for Lydia, whose heart the
Lord opened. Oh, bless the name of God He
opened our hearts. Our hearts were barred against
the truth, no interest in the truth. And then one came in and
made a welcome for himself. That's what he did. He made us
willing in the day of his power. Oh, it's a good hope, and it's
a good hope because it consists of Christ in you, the hope of
glory. Colossians chapter 1 verses 27
and 28 says that. You see, He's not only with you
by His Spirit. He said, I'll never leave you
and I'll never forsake you. But He's in you. And you're in Him. We've always
been in Him. We've always been one with Christ
Jesus. I can't perish. He'd have to
perish in order for me to perish, because I'm in Him. That's our
eternal union. It's a good hope because it consists
of Christ in you, and lastly, it's a good hope because the
person who has this good hope has the hope of righteousness.
Look at Galatians chapter 5, and we'll get out of here. Galatians
chapter 5 Look at verse 5 Galatians 5 5 for we through
the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith We
wait for the hope for the anticipation of righteousness by faith, when we shall be righteous inside
and outside, thoroughly, body and soul. What is our anticipation? What is our expectation? To be
received by God for Christ's sake because He is our righteousness. He established righteousness
for us by His obedience unto death, even the death of the
cross. And I do believe, God, that it will be just as He has
promised, don't you? God said, He that hath the Son
of God hath life. I think I'll just cling to that. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath everlasting life. I'm just going to grab hold of
that. You can believe God's Word. It's better to trust in the Lord
than to put confidence in men. It's better to trust in the Lord
than to put confidence in princes, or presidents, or prime ministers. But you sure can believe Him.
And if you believe His Son, you've got everlasting life. Isn't that
something? Even you. So I don't know a whole
lot about the Bible. It's not how much you know, it's
who you know. It's knowing Him. Knowing Him who is the way, the
truth, and the life. And no man comes to the Father
except by Him. Do you have a good hope? Do you have a good hope? Lord,
send us away thinking about and meditating
on the things that have been heard tonight and this morning. Lord, if we haven't had a good
hope before, oh God, give us a good hope right now. Give us
a faith look at Christ Jesus. Give us a look that will always
look to Him. Give us a faith, a confidence
in the Son of God who loved sinners and gave Himself for sinners.
Oh Lord, here we are. We're just a group of sinners.
And we struggle through this life. We have doubts and fears. Lord, you know because we can't
hide anything from you. But you also know that deep down
in our souls you have created life. That spiritual life. And you've given us the gift
of faith. You've given us the gift of hope. and you've given us the gift
of love. And one of these days we'll see
the dear Savior and faith will be exchanged for sight and a
hope, well, that will be exchanged for reality. And love, it'll
just be perfected. And we'll love the Savior like
He's deserving to be loved and we'll worship Him and adore Him
forever and ever and ever. Oh, blessed day. Oh, God, may
that blessed hope come to pass soon when the Lord Jesus shall
come in glory and every eye shall see Him and then we shall be
perfected, body and soul. We shall see Him as He is and
we'll be with Him forever and ever. Hasten the day, O Lord,
and until then, abide with us. Don't be as a wayfaring man,
not just to visit with us and then leave, but, O God, by Your
Spirit, stay with us. Stay with all of Your people,
all of Your congregations, all of the assemblies of the righteous.
Lord, stay with us. O Thou Hope of Israel, our Savior. We bless your name and thank
you for all things for Christ's sake. Amen. Yeah. you you