My message this evening is hope. God's people are hopers. We are
hopers. We are hopers. Paul, he said
here in these first six verses, 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. Grace
be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. We give thanks to God and the
Father, 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, which is come unto you as it is in all the
world, and bringeth forth fruit, as it doeth also in you, since
to-day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth." Hope. There's three graces in these
verses that characterize every believer. Every child of God
has these three graces. He said in verse four, since
we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, every child of God has
faith in Christ Jesus. Not faith in their faith. Not
faith in their church. Faith in Christ. Faith in the
person. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's a grace. It's a gift. And this faith governs
our life. We live by faith. Faith is a
blessed gift, and we live by it every moment of every day.
We live by it. And so that's the first one.
Look at the second one. And then in that verse four,
and of the love which you have to all saints. Not only does
every believer have faith, but he also has love. And who does
he have it to? To all the saints. You know how
many times have you met believers, and the first time you've met
them, you felt like you knew them all your life? Being able to
go to a place you've never been before, and you just fit right
in. That's one of the mysteries of
the gospel. That God puts such a love in
our hearts that we can go and be with the Lord's people wherever
they are. And that's why He said, Love to all the saints. That's
what our Lord Jesus Christ says, By this shall all men know you're
my disciples, because you'll have love one towards another.
And it's not just in word, but it's indeed. We enjoy one another's
company, enjoy doing for one another, enjoy praying for one
another, enjoy being with one another. So faith and love to
all the saints. And the third one, He's looked
there in verse 5, "...for the hope which is laid up for you
in heaven." And you heard of this hope in the truth of the
gospel. So we have faith in Christ Jesus,
love to all the saints, and hope laid up for you in heaven. Every
believer's got faith, he's got love, and he's got hope. And
this hope is laid up for him in heaven. God's got us a hope
laid up up there. So hope is like faith, it's outside
of ourselves. Hope is someplace, and we'll
get to that in a minute, and that's why Peter says, let every
man be ready always to give a reason of the hope that's within you,
and give an answer with all meekness. Now let me give you some hope,
what this word hope is. We're hopers. First of all, we
have a saving hope. What our hope is, or what our
hopes are. But look over in Romans chapter
8, verse 24. You know, our first hope, talking
about hope. We're hopers. We're saved by
hope. Here's one of the hopes. Here's a blessed hope that we
have. You know, the world's hope is in what you can see. You take
away what they can see and they have no hope. Take away their
wealth, their fame, their long life, their prosperity, their
peace, and their hope's gone. Their hope is made in this world.
But our hope is beloved beyond this world. And Peter, or Paul
said here in Romans 8, 24, for we are saved by hope. I thought
we were saved by faith. We're all saved by hope. Now
why does he talking about hope? Hope has to do with the thing,
faith receives the promise. We receive, the faith says yes,
God said it, we believe it. But hope, God said that he had
a hope laid up for us in heaven, and so hope looks for that and
expects that. It looks outside, and it has
an expectation of things not seen. But what hope that is seen
is not hope. If you see it, well, I hope it,
then it's not hope anymore. For what the man seeth, why doeth
he not hope for it? But if we hope for that that
we see not, And we've not seen that eternal glory. We've not
seen that eternal... We've not rested on that blessed
oath. We've not been resurrected from the dead. We've not went
to glory yet. And that's what he's talking
about. Then we will, with patience, wait for it. You see, faith is
the evidence. Faith gives us evidence of the
blood of Christ. Faith gives us evidence of the
righteousness of Christ. Faith gives us evidence of the
righteousness of Christ. But hope looks to the things out there in the future, expecting. Faith looks at the present. We're
saved right now, but hope looks into the future in hope of eternal
life. Faith looks at today. Hope looks
at tomorrow. And so we're saved by hope. But,
beloved, a hope that we seek, and I'll tell you something about
hope. Hope in the Scriptures always, always has to do with
the future, the resurrection, and our eternal life that we
have in Christ. It always has to do with that. It's not like
I hope that tomorrow will be better. It's not that. When we
talk about hope, it's like that. When our Lord Jesus Christ told
that thief at the cross, today thou shalt be with me in paradise.
Why did he say that? First of all, because the man,
God gave him faith, and he said, Lord, he told that mother feller,
your cousin of him said, this man's done nothing amiss. He's
here, and he hasn't done anything wrong. We're here justly. And
then again, he said, Lord, when you come into your kingdom, remember
me. So he had faith. He believed back then and there.
But he says, when you come into your kingdom, that was his hope.
Remember me. Faith believed back then. Hope
was looking for what was going to be after this life. And that's
what hope is. We're saved by hope. If we didn't
have this blessed hope in Christ, what would we do? Faith believes,
but hope expects. Faith has evidence of things
that you don't even see, but hope looks ahead of us, looks
beyond this veil, looks beyond this flame, looks beyond these
tears, looks beyond these trials. It looks beyond all of them.
And Bill, let me show you something else over here. Let me show you
another hope. In Titus chapter 2, we preached on this here a
few weeks ago. Oh, not only do we have a saving hope, a saving
hope, believers hope beyond what we can see with the eye. Oh my! I tell you, you get to
talking about this blessed hope that we have, and you know, you
get happy about this. Look here in Titus 2.11. For
the grace of God that bringeth salvation, and that's the only
way salvation is brought, by grace. God brings it to us. There's a psalm, I don't remember
where it's at, but God said, the speaker said, He commanded
their salvation. There was that, and God commanded
for us to be saved. And He commanded that to be done.
And then He said here, for the grace of God that brings salvation.
Grace brings salvation. We don't find it. We don't bump
into it. We don't find it. Grace finds us. Grace finds us
lost. Grace finds us sinful. Grace
finds us in darkness. And then teaching us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly and righteously
and godly in this pleasant world. Now look here. Looking for that
blessed hope. The blessed hope. You know what
it is? It's not an id. It's a person. This is the blessed
hope we have. And the glorious appearing of
the great God in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Huh? That's why we're looking for
Christ to come. We're looking for the Lord Jesus
to come. That's the blessed hope we have. And now whether He comes
and gets us once at a time, or comes and gets us all at the
same time. But it's a blessed hope. Wouldn't it be awful to
not have a hope in this world? And we're looking for that glorious
appearance. When our Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples, He
said, Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God,
believe also in Me, for in My Father's house are many mansions.
If it were not so, I'd have told you. But I go to prepare a place
for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come
again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may
be also. And that's why I said, don't
let you, I'm coming again. I'm coming to get you. I'm not
going to leave. Who's coming to get us? The great
God and Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ. And look what I said
about it. And this is what our host is based on, who gave himself
for us. gave Himself, gave His soul in
offering for sin, gave His body a sacrifice on the tree, gave
His heart and His soul for us, and gave Himself for us that
He might save us from all of our debt, from all of our iniquity,
and to purify Himself of peculiar people. And that's why Paul says,
you know, our conversation, our manner of life is in heaven. Our citizenship's in another
place. He says, oh, listen, our conversation's in heaven, for
which we look for the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ. And
listen to that. When He appears, He'll change
this vile body. He'll change it. And He'll Worked
by subduing all things and working all things and subduing unto
himself. And that beloved, he gonna change his Bible. And that's
what a blessed hope it is. And I tell you, we're looking
for the Lord Jesus Christ. And this blessed hope, we won't
give it up. We can't give up this hope. Give
up Christ. The Lord appearing in glory.
The Lord appearing in majesty. The Lord appearing and coming
and taking us to be with Himself. He first come as a sacrifice. He first come as a substitute.
He first came as a sin offering. He came to be one to put away
our sins and redeem us and to satisfy justice. When He comes
a second time, whether He comes for us one at a time or all of
us at the same time, He'll come in majesty. He'll come in glory. And we'll be able to say, bless
His holy name. Oh, beloved, faith believes the
promise of His coming, but hope looks forward to it. Oh, looks forward to His coming.
Oh, my. Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus. See, not only do we have a saving
hope, a blessing hope, that's why I say we're hopers, you see.
We live by hope. And then we have a purifying
hope. 1 John 3 says this, he that has
this hope in him, in Christ, purifies himself even as he is
pure. Now, how in the world can we
purify ourselves as Christ is pure? Now, how can we do that?
Well, I know it has nothing... I mean, you know, we can't purify
this flesh. That's why Paul said, I know that in me groweth no
good thing. He cried out, you know, in my flesh, with my flesh
I serve the Lord, and with my mind I serve the Lord God. He
said, what I wouldn't do, I do, and what I wouldn't do, I don't.
So then I see this law in my members' words. So when he talks
about a purifying hope, what does this mean? I believe it
has something to do with our heart and our mind and our soul.
I believe it has something to do with our character, our nature.
I believe it has something to do with our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the character, and the nature, and the gentleness, and the goodness,
and the love, and the meekness, and the humbleness, and the obedience,
and the submission to the will of God. You know, it has something
to do with our spirit. It has something to do with our
nature. If we can have a pure love, If we could have a pure
submission, and I know we're purifying ourselves. Oh God,
please set us, enable us to submit to you, enable us to believe
you, enable us to love you, enable us to be like our Master in the
sense that we say, not I will be done, but I'll be done. Oh God, help us to do that. And
then look over in Ephesians chapter 1. I'll show you another cause. Oh, what a hope we have. Faith,
love, and hope. Oh, what our hopes are. What
our blessed hopes are. A saving hope. God says, you
know that, I'll give my son Abraham, believe the promise. Twenty-five
years went by. Faith received that promise the
day that God gave it to him. And he waited twenty-five years.
As he expected, he had a hope. that God's going to fulfill that
promise. He had the evidence, the Word of God, but he expected
something he'd never seen before, his own child from his own wife's
womb. And then look what is there,
the hope of his calling. Look here in Ephesians 1.18.
The eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that ye may know what is the
hope of his calling. It was the riches of the glory
of His inheritance in the same. The hope of His calling. You
know, to be called of God, look over in Ephesians 4.4. Yeah, 4.4. You know, there is
one body, one spirit, even as you're called in one hope of
your calling. The hope of His calling. And
what we're talking about when we talk about the hope of the
calling, the hope that this call brings us to. You see, beloved,
it's the hope of God's call towards us. God calls, oh, God calls
us in the blessed hope that God has called us and the hope that
it brings with us by him calling us. You see, we're called to
Christ. We're called to Christ. You know,
and the sinners, and I'll tell you something else about this.
You know, the only people that he ever calls. sinners. I've not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. And to be called of God, to have
this hope of His calling, and this hope of His calling has
to do that He didn't call the wise, He didn't call the mighty,
but He chose the weak, He chose the foolish, to confound all
of them. He chose nobodies. He chose people
that could not do anything for themselves. And this calling
goes through this blessed gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
so it's a sinners only are called. And it's a call to our Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's why it's a hope of
a calling. That I've been called to Christ. Been called by God
Himself. You know, how many times have
you hollered at one of your children or hollered at somebody and called
them and they didn't answer? Called them and called them and
they wouldn't pay any attention? Well, when God calls you, you
call Him. You go here. You go here. And that's a hope. If He called
us, then that gave with that calling, with a hope. A hope
for my future. A hope for eternity. A hope for
ever trying. A hope, beloved, that goes beyond
what this eye can see. And He comes with this blessed
calling. And what is it? It's a call from darkness. Oh,
He calls us from darkness to light. Here He was in our darkness. God, who commands the light to
shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts. And He calls us
from this darkness. The spirit of darkness, the kingdom
of darkness, the kingdom of Satan. And He brings us over here and
calls us and puts us in this light. How do you know you've
been called? Because you're in darkness, now
you're in light. And you're called to the fellowship
of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Call to fellowship with
Him, commune with Him, enjoy His company, be able to call
on Him, be able to trust Him, to be able to pour out your heart
to Him. And if you have the hope of His calling, it was predestinated. It was predestinated. Do you
know, our Lord Jesus, where Paul said in Romans chapter 8, he
said, For whom He did foreknow, Then he also did predestinate.
And then he did predestinate. What's the first thing he said
about him? Then he also called. Then he also called. You know,
if you've been called, it's because God predestinated to call you.
What does predestinate mean? Well, what do you reckon it means?
It means that there was a destination predetermined. And people predetermined
before the world ever began that God said, I'm going to call them.
I know them and I'm going to call them. And with that calling,
they'll get my son. They'll get my spirit. They'll
get eternal life. They'll get the gospel. They'll
get faith. They'll get love. They'll get hope. They'll get
humility. They'll get everything they need
in this world. And I'll give them a hope. I'll
give him hope with this calling, a hope that this world don't
know nothing about, a hope that has nothing to do with flesh,
a hope that has nothing to do with time, a hope that has nothing
to do with our reason. Mary told me the other morning,
I'll tell you this, you know, and this is, I was talking to
somebody the other day and told him, she got up the other morning
and she's having a rough morning and she said, I have neither
faith nor reason right now. I don't have either one. I don't
have faith, and I don't have reason. Now, what would you do if you
didn't have Christ to be your blessed hope? She didn't have faith at that
particular moment, but I did. I did. And this calling, let
me tell you something about this calling. It's forever. If it's
over with this calling, yes, God said, well, I'll call them
today, and if they don't live right, I'll just put them away.
No, if He calls us, He calls us forever. We are forever His.
We'll be His. We was His before the world ever
began, chosen in Christ for the foundation of the world. And
being beloved when He calls us, He calls us the gifts and calling
of God are without repentance. He's not going to change his
mind about us. Do you reckon when Mary said that the other
morning, God said, well, I'm sorry. Ain't nothing I can do
for you. Do you reckon God? No. That's one of her select. That's
what he called. That's what he gave faith, love
and hope to. And because her faith fails,
his Christ's faith don't fail, faithless don't fail. If she don't have the ability
to see right then and there what she has in Christ, does that
mean Christ don't see her and what he has for her? That's why
I'm talking about this hope. It's beyond anything that we
can lay our hands on, touch, taste, or tell in this world
of life. And that's why even when our loved ones go on, we
have such a hope for them, and that we will one day go to be
with them. We'll take our last step here
and we'll step right into the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ.
What a blessed hope that is. We stand in the face of death
and sorrow and heartache and pain and weakness and inability. But, oh beloved, our hope is
not in anything in this flesh or body. Oh beloved, look over
in Galatians chapter 5. Back to your lesson in Galatians
chapter 5. We're in Ephesians. Look in Galatians 5. And all
this calling is for everything. Then look here. Saved by hope. Blessed hope of our great and
glorious God and Savior appearing. Oh, He's going to appear. He's
the one that loved us and gave Himself for us. Redeemed us.
So He's going to come again. Get us. And then look here what
He says in verse 5 of Galatians 5. For we feel the Spirit wait
for the hope of righteousness by faith." What does he mean,
the hope of righteousness? Well, I think what he means is
that we will finally, finally be conformed, finally to a state
of righteousness. Now, here in this world, we have
two things. We have our state and we have
our standards. Now, our state, I mean, it varies. Right now, I mean, it varies
from one moment to the next. The state of our mind, the state
of our heart, the state of our feelings, the state of our health,
all those things change all the time. But one thing never changes,
and that's our standing with God. Our standing with God never
changes. We have Christ as our righteousness,
Christ died for us, and what Paul is saying here is that while
we live yet in this world, We have a conflict with this flesh,
the spirit lusts against the flesh, and the flesh against
the spirit, and you cannot do the things that you would. But
finally, one of these days, we're going to be not just flesh, we'll
be conformed to that righteousness without anything to stand in
its way. And that's why the apostle asked
this, for you want to be made like Christ, and that's what
this means here. We're going to be conformed finally to a
state of righteousness. I won't be no more righteous
there, but I won't have this to deal with anymore. Do you
want to be made like Christ? That's what he's talking about.
Do you want to be finally conformed to that image? Conformed to that
righteousness that we have here and go there where our righteousness
never ever has to be doubted or worried about or struggled?
That's what he's talking about. That's why Paul said, I want
to be found in him, not having my own righteousness, but his. I want to win him. I want to
be found in him. I want to know him. And then
let me show you this. I'll tell you, I'll show you
another one over in Hebrews chapter six. Oh, these blessed folks.
We're hopers. Hebrews chapter six. Not only
a hope of righteousness, a hope of being conformed. finally to
that state of righteousness. Oh, our state in this world's
up and down. Sometimes we're just overjoyed,
other times we're just, our joy is gone. Sometimes we have a
blessed peace, other times our peace is gone. Sometimes we feel
like we've done flew away. Sometimes we wish, you know,
we've bumped the ground pretty hard, you know. So we have all
these different states, but our standing is always the same.
And we wait for that day when we'll be finally fully conformed
to that state of righteousness that God has given us in our
Lord Jesus Christ. And then look what he said here
in Hebrews 6 and verse 18. talking about the hope, a sure
hope, that by two immutable things
in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong
consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope
set before us. Lay hold on it. Which hope we
have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which
entereth into that within the veil, where the forerunner's
force entered even Jesus. May the high priest forever,
after the order of Melchizedek." Now, he talked about we have
laid hold on this refuge. Christ is our refuge. Christ
is our hope. And we have laid hold on that
hope. And this hope is the anchor of our soul. I mean, beloved,
it holds us steadfast in this world. It holds us steadfast
on Christ. It holds us steadfast looking
at eternity. It holds us steadfast looking
for what we have in our Lord Jesus Christ, and that is to
come. I mean, beloved, that anchor is behind the veil. Can anybody
go up there and move it? Can anybody ever take it away? It's our anchor. It keeps us in this world. And
then Paul says, And Thessalonians 2.16, that we have a good hope. How did you get that good hope?
Through grace. Through grace. Grace gave us
such a good hope. Such a good hope. And let me
tell you something. Look over here at Timothy with
me. 1 Timothy. And you know, where or who are
the believers' hopes anchored in? We talked about anchored.
Anchored within the veil. know, and Christ is our hope. Christ is our hope. Well, I sent first Timothy. It
might be second Timothy. Let me look right quick. Yeah. I must be missing it, but
I know it's First Paul, an apostle by the commandment of unto sin
and the unbidden. Well, there it is, verse 1. Paul, an apostle
of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus
Christ, which is our hope. The Lord Jesus Christ, which
is our hope. That's where our hopes are anchored.
He is our hope. It's Christ in you, that's the
hope of God. We're one with Him, being in
Him, being with Him, and one of these days we'll be just like
Him. And that's why the Apostle says we are hopers. The characteristics
of a believer has to do with the Lord Jesus Christ and His
resurrection from the dead. You know, Paul said, if we in
this life only have hope in Christ, We're of all men most miserable."
He said, but now is Christ risen from the dead. Now, if all that
we had was a hope for this life, and Christ hadn't risen from
the dead, we'd be no different than the Buddhists or the people
believing reincarnation. That's why Paul said we of all
men would be most miserable. He means that, that we'd be in
a miserable state of dissension. We've been in a miserable state
of hopelessness, to be honest about it. And he says, now, but
we are hopers, you know, what has to do with the resurrection
of our Lord Jesus Christ? Now, if you take the Lord Jesus
away from believers, what do you have left? You take the Lord Jesus and what
he's done for us, and our hopes that we have in him, what do
we have? What do we have for ourselves? What do we have for
them that we love? What do we have for our children?
You see, He's the source of all of our future happiness and all
our future hopes. He's the source of all of our
present happiness and all of our present hope. Without Him,
we're still in our sins. Without Him, we're still under
the curse of the law. Without Him, we're without God
in this world and without hope. But now is Christ risen from
the dead, and Christ is our hope. And look over here in Romans
chapter 15, verse 13, just a moment. Romans chapter 15, verse 13.
Talk about the God of hope. Oh, the Lord Jesus Christ
is our hope, and God is the God of hope. Romans 15, 13. Now, the God of hope. The God
of hope. You know, he has several types.
God of peace. God of hope. God of comfort. Father of mercies. He gives himself
a lot of descriptions about himself. And here's the one he gives about
himself. Now, the God of hope, who brings you hope, gives you
hope, fills you with hope, fills you with all joy and peace in
believing. that you may abound in hope.
You know you ever been in a situation where it seemed hopeless? Absolutely
hopeless. I mean, there ain't no good news
that said everything's hopeless. God said, no! I'm going to fill
you with joy and peace and believing and you can abound in hope. Well,
you can't do it in your flesh through the power of the Holy
Ghost. So no matter what anybody says, you've always got the God
of hope who fills you with hope and through the power of the
Holy Ghost, abound in hope. Oh my, bless His holy name, abound
in it. Paul, when they had him before
Griffin, he stood there and said, you know, he said, I'm standing
here today judged in the hope. That my forefathers looked for
the resurrection of Jesus. You're judging me for the hope
that I have. But I ain't going to give up
my hopes. Go ahead and keep me in prison. I ain't giving it
up. And, oh beloved, Christ in you. Colossians 127 says, Christ
in you, the hope of glory. What is our hope of glory? Well,
we're going to have glorified bodies. That's one hope of glory
we have. We're going to see glorious sights. We're going to be in glorious
company. We're going to have a glorious
reward. And then we're going to have
a glorious rest. We'll sit down with Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, and have the company of spirits of just men
made perfect. Everything about Christ is going
to have glory. And where in the world did we
get this hope through? Look back over in Colossians, and I'll
try to line this up. Where did we get this hope? In
Colossians. Look with me again in Colossians.
That's where we started at. Where did we get this hope? Look in verse 5 here, chapter
1. For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, Christ
is our hope. Our hope is laid up in heaven.
It's beyond this world. Whereof you heard before in the
word of the truth of the gospel. That's how you got this hope,
through the gospel. The gospel brought you this hope.
The gospel brought us this truth. The gospel brought us faith.
The gospel brought us love. The gospel brought us hope. It's
through the gospel. That's why our hope has an anchor
to it. That's why our hope is saving.
That's why our hope is blessed. That's why our hope is sure.
It's because it came to us through the gospel. Look down at verse
23 here of chapter 1. If you continue in the faith,
grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel which you heard, and we've preached to you. Now,
you move away from Christ, you move away from the gospel, you're
moving away from the only hope there is. So the gospel brought
us hope. Paul called it the hope of the
blessed gospel. You know, Paul said, we're bound
to give thanks to God for you, brethren, for God hath from the
beginning chosen you unto salvation through sanctification and spirit
of belief of the truth, whereunto he called you to this electing
grace, this sanctification, called you by our gospel. And it's by
the gospel we have a fullness of hope. The gospel brought us
this hope, and that's why we rejoice in the gospel. That's
why we need the gospel. That's why we got to have the
gospel, because the gospel does something for us that nothing
else does. You come in here so empty, and
it'll feed you. You come on here discouraged,
and it'll encourage you. You come in here with a problem
on your heart or mind, and God will always meet that problem,
always answer that question. Has He ever failed you yet? And
so you come here with a hope. But look over here with me in
1 Thessalonians chapter 4. I'm going to show you something
here. That there are those who have
no hope. Look what he says in verse 13. There are those who
have no hope. Those who lose their hope. what he says in verse 13, 1 Thessalonians
4. But I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, those
that are resting in Christ, asleep in Christ, that ye saw not, even
as others which have no hope." There are people that have no
hope. I'm not one of those people. You're not one of those people.
We're not without hope. Job says the hope of the hypocrite
shall perish, whose hope shall be cast off, and whose trust
shall be a spider's web. Oh, no hope? Job said in chapter
27, verse 8, what's the hope of the hypocrite? Though he has
gain, when God takes away his soul. And let me close with Job
31. Let's look at this together.
Job chapter 31. But you see, beloved, there are
those who have no hope. I'm not that way. You're not
that way. You're not that way. Right now,
none of my children have any hope. They have no hope. I mentioned
to you the other day that Lenny said, I won't be able to go with
you and be where you and Danny are with our mama. No, you won't.
She will now go. That's an awful state to be in.
But we're not without hope. Not without hope, no matter what
happens in this world, we're not without hope. And look what
Job said here in Job 31, in verse 24. If I have made gold my hope,
or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence. If I
rejoice because my wealth was great, and because my hand had
gotten much, If I beheld the sun, and when it shined to the
moon, walking in brightness, and my heart hath been secretly
enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand, this also was an iniquity,
to be punished by the judge. For I should have denied the
God that is above." Job said, if I made anything in this world
my hope, anything, he said, I've denied God. and deserve to be
punished." Huh? If a man's hope and trust is
not in the Lord Jesus Christ, if the promises of God in him
that the gospel presents, and his hope and trust is not in
Christ, he has no hope. No hope. But beloved, Paul said
here to the Colossians, he said, there's a hope laid up for you
in heaven. A hope laid up for you in heaven. What's that hope?
Well, our Lord Jesus Christ said, you know, you sit down, meet
with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And it's laid up for you. You
reckon they might get it for us? This hope is secure because
it's laid up. God got it laid up for us. And
it's for you, this hope, for those who have faith in Christ
Jesus. And it's laid up in heaven, it's out of the side of this
world, that's not out of the side of the believer. I can see
it. If this world can't see it, I'll
see it up yonder. I'll see that hope. I'll see
that hope laid up for me, for you. It's laid up for us, up
yonder in heaven, where Christ sits at the right hand of God.
That hope that I promised to come and get you. That hope that
I called you. That hope that I gave you. That
hope that's anchored in the soul. That hope that I shed my blood
for you. That hope that I'm coming again. I got to let it up up
there for you. And when you get it, you won't
need it anymore. Oh my. Well, I hope that's a
blessing to you. Just done the best I could. My
hope is, I hope is a blessing to you. We have a, oh what a
hope. Thank God for this. We're hopers. Hopers. You're
a hoper, James? I'm a hoper.