Okay, open your Bibles if you
would to 1st Timothy. 1st Timothy chapter 1. 1st Timothy chapter 1, we're
going to read the first four verses. But the words that I'd
like us to look at tonight are found in verse 1. It is believed
that God the Holy Spirit moved Paul to write this epistle to
Timothy around 55 AD. Timothy was a young man. He was
already a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ when Paul met
him. And at the time of this writing, he had been in Paul's
evangelistic team, if you want to call it that, because he would
go around all over preaching the gospel for about 12 years. And Paul counted him like a son.
They were so close. Counted him like a son. And he
wrote this epistle and the second epistle to this young preacher
who was meeting with the saints at Ephesus. And Paul had left Timothy at
Ephesus to stop the mouths of the heretics and to correct any
spiritual errors that might creep into the church concerning the
one true gospel of God's sovereign grace. See, again, like the other
books we've read and studied, False teachers had crept in.
Paul had told the Ephesians in Acts, he said, gravious wolves
are going to come in. Gravious wolves are going to
come in. And oh my. So he left Timothy there to preach
the gospel and to correct any spiritual errors concerning,
again, the true gospel of God's sovereign grace. As one commentator
put it, he said, to preserve the discipline of God's house.
And this is the charge that Paul laid on Timothy. This is the
design of this epistle. If you read the epistle later
on, that's the design of the epistle. The epistle is addressed to Timothy,
but it's written for our benefit as well, and for the benefit
of all the saints who have read it since its writing. It's given
instructions. It's pointed us to Christ, because
this is a letter inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, written
to the saints of God, written to Timothy. So may our Lord Jesus
Christ be pleased to apply this wonderful
truth of this text we'll look at tonight. It's wonderful. Wonderful. We'll look at one verse. We're
going to read it in context first. The verse we're going to look
at is verse one. But we're going to read it in context. And there's
a statement in verse one that I'll key on near the end of the
message. And that's the key of the whole message. So let's read
verses 1 to 4 of 1 Timothy chapter 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus
Christ, by the commandment of God, our Savior, and the Lord
Jesus Christ, which is our hope. Unto Timothy, my own son in the
faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and from
the Lord Jesus Christ. and from Jesus Christ our Lord,
I'm sorry. As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when
I went into Macedonia, that thou mayest charge some that teach
no other doctrine. So we see why he's left in Ephesus
to charge the preachers at Ephesus to preach no other doctrine,
to preach no other gospel than that which Paul preached. Look
there again. That the Almighty has charged
some that they teach no other doctrine. Neither give heed to
fables and endless genealogies which minister questions, rather
than godly edifying which is in the face, so do. So there's
the charge to him. There's the charge to him. Now
let me ask all who will listen to this message some questions. What is your hope for eternity? We're all going to die. We're all going to step into
eternity. What is your hope? What is your hope? Everyone has some kind of hope
and dream while they're upon this earth. But have you ever considered
what comes after this life? Have you ever contemplated eternity? Some in this world hope in themselves,
hope in their works, but that's a false hope for eternity. Some hope in their religious
sect, that being a Catholic or a Jew
will save them, but that's a false hope for eternity. Some hope
in Allah or Buddha or the Hindu gods of their imagination, which
is exactly what they are. They're just gods of people's
imaginations. Some bow down to carved or made
up idols, but those are all false hopes. All false hopes for eternity. Let's read verse one of this
wonderful book written by Paul to Timothy, and we will see that
Paul, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, brings forth the only
true hope for sinners who die and go into eternity. the only
hope for sinners. Some will die and go into a Christless
eternity based upon holding their false refuges of hope. But some,
some, by the mercy and grace of God, by the mercy and grace of God,
by God-given faith, will lay a hold upon Christ, who is the
only hope, the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate in the flesh, who
is the only hope for sinners. And those whom God shows mercy
to, by giving them faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is our hope, right, brothers and sisters? He's our hope. They
will spend eternity in glory. And this is who Paul's writing
to. He's writing to one of those saints. One of those ones who's
received mercy, who's received grace. We don't seek it out.
It's not merited. And we receive it, though, by
faith. It's given to us. For by grace
he is saved through faith and not of yourselves. It's a gift
of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. It's a gift. And God-given faith has one object
of hope, and his name is the Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate
in the flesh. Let's read verse one again. Paul,
an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God, our Savior,
and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope. We see in this first verse that
Paul introduces himself as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ,
which was the highest office of authority that one could have
in the early church. And our Lord Jesus Christ endowed
his apostles with power to raise the dead, heal the sick, speak
in different languages, not gibberish, knowing languages, tongues is
a knowing language, to prove that he had sent these men and
to confirm that what they were preaching was from God and God
alone. The gift of healing and speaking
in tongues began to fade away when the apostles departed this
life and went to glory. Those gifts were no longer needed,
beloved. When our Lord's New Testament
church was firmly established and the holy inspired writings
were compiled into what we call the New Testament, those signed
gifts were no longer needed. Do we need anything more than
this book? Nothing. We don't need anything
more than this book. We don't need signs and wonders. No, we don't need tongues. No. Does God still do miracles? Yeah. People get healed. You're sitting
there, there's no other explanation for it, but God put their hand
upon them. But does he do it all the time? No. Does he do
it on command? No. He does it according to his
will and purpose. And when a friend of ours, or
a family member of ours, or one of our church families is going
through something, we pray the Lord would lay his hand upon
them, don't we? If it be his will. But sometimes
he's pleased just to take that loved one home, where they spend an eternity
with him, if they're in Christ. My, oh my. In this first verse, Paul tells
us here that he was an apostle of Jesus Christ. How? Look at that. Look at this. Paul,
an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God. Isn't that amazing? By the commandment
of God. The word there, commandment,
means an injunction or decree in the Greek. an injunction or
decree. Paul was decreed to be an apostle. We were decreed to be saints
of God. Isn't that amazing? Otherwise we wouldn't be saints
of God. If God hadn't chosen us in Christ before time ever
was in eternity, we would never be believers. Oh my. But think of this, before
time began, our great triune God, by his sovereign authority,
decreed that Paul would be one of his apostles in the New Testament
church. In this commandment, this sovereign
decree applies to all of God's Old Testament prophets, all of
God's New Testament apostles, and all of God's ordained, sent
preachers, all the way down to the very elect. who are chosen by God in eternity
in Christ. According to what, brother? According
to his will and decree, right? It's marvelous. Matter of fact,
again, this sovereign decree applies to all men and women
who have ever been or will be also in any position of authority.
Let us think of that, too. The powers that be are ordained
of the Lord. God put whatever president's
in power, he put him in power. Not just for America, but for
all around the world. My oh my, you know even the policeman
that you see upholding our laws is ordained by God to be a police
officer? Isn't that amazing? All kings and leaders, under
the reign and every generation, every president of the United
States, those in their cabinet, all local government officials
right here in Elmont even, in every country of every state,
are there by the decree of God. Even the pastors, the elders,
the deacons, and all the saints in all the churches around the
world, all the members of the body of Christ are ordained by
God. That's incredible, isn't it,
brother? That's incredible. Hard for us to imagine, it is.
But we believe it. The word says it, we believe
it. We don't always understand it, do we? Now, most of the time
we don't. But we bow our knee to it, don't
we? Oh, by the grace and mercy of God. Listen to Romans 13.1. Let every soul be subject unto
the higher powers. For there is no power but of
God. The powers that be are ordained of the Lord. Kind of will stop us mumbling
about certain things, won't it? He put them there. Someone says, what, but I don't
agree with that. Well, then you're arguing with God's word. Don't
get mad at the preacher. We're just a messenger, aren't
we? Let every soul, again, I'm gonna read it again, Romans 13,
one. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there
is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained
of God. My, oh, my. People, they ask
me, are you all worried about the election? I said, nope. Because
God's going to put in power whomever he will. Now, I believe in people's,
to do your civic duty and vote, and it's important. But ultimately,
God's going to put in power whom he will, won't he? And that's
not being a fatalist. That's just believing in the
absolute sovereignty of God. Because I said, you still cast
your vote. It's important. My dad used to say, if you don't
vote, you can't complain. I like that. I can't complain
because I'm a Canadian citizen still. I can't vote. But that verse in Romans 13,
1 zips my mouth, too, though. Oh, my. My, oh my, when that
wicked, think of this, when that wicked Roman governor, remember
Pontius Pilate? He spoke these words to the Lord. He said, speakest thou not unto
me? Knowest thou that I have power to crucify thee and I have
power to release thee? Oh, he's a big man on campus,
isn't he? I've got power over you, he says.
And our master God incarnate in the flesh. And after the Lord
said this, he sought a way to release him after this. Oh my,
our Lord said, thou couldest have no power at all against
me, except it were given thee from above. That means our God's sovereign. That means he ordains these things. And marvel, I want us to leave
here rejoicing. He's ordained that we would be
saved in Christ Jesus our Lord. I'll tell you what, the more
I think about that, I can't grasp it all. It's so vast. But it's true, praise his mighty
name. Oh, it's wonderful. So this scripture,
even this scripture in 1 Timothy clearly shows us that all powers
are ordained by God, because it was decreed by God that Paul
would be an apostle. Listen to these words again.
These are written for our learning. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the commandment of God our Savior. It was the Lord Jesus
Christ that ordained Paul. to be an apostle within his body, within the church. Now these words, as we've just
seen, they have a much deeper meaning than one might receive
from just a casual reading, eh? There's a whole lot there. You
know, casually reading, we would just read by that and go, Oh,
Paul, by the commandment, God commanded him to be, he decreed
it. He decreed it, beloved. My. That's why, that's why in 2 Timothy,
Paul wrote this. This is why we're not just to
fly by stuff, because Paul wrote this, study to show thyself approved
unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing
the word of truth. Oh my, be a-breein', beloved,
be a-breein'. Even with what I say, be a Berean,
search the scriptures. And God's ordained preachers,
Sunday school teachers, even godly parents who teach their
children all have an awesome responsibility. Because God has
entrusted us with his gospel. All believers too were entrusted
with his gospel. My oh my. It's absolutely incredible. And our text clearly states another
glorious truth that's revealed to every born-again, blood-washed
child of God, that is an eternal, that Christ, Jesus Christ, is
the eternal Son of God, and that he is God Almighty, equal with
God the Father. Let's read this again. First
Timothy 1.1, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment
of God, our Savior. And the Lord Jesus Christ, which
is our hope. Our Lord Jesus Christ isn't just
our hope, he's our Savior. And we see in this verse, he's
not a mere man. He's God incarnate in the flesh. Let's read that again. Paul,
an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior
and the Lord Jesus Christ. We see in this wonderful text
here, beloved, that Jesus Christ is God our Savior. Now think of this, too. He didn't make his people savable. Did he, Brother Zane? Because
if he made us savable, we'd be in a heap of trouble, wouldn't
we? Because we can't save ourselves. He didn't make his people savable.
He saved us from our sins. My, oh, my. He was named Jesus. And Jesus means savior. Looked
it up in the Greek, it means savior, beloved. It means Jehovah, Jehovah is
our salvation. What did he do? He saved us from
our sins. Completely, perfectly. His people,
amen. Not the whole world, his people. Oh, he didn't just make his people
redeemable. No, we'd be in a heap of trouble
then too, wouldn't we? Can we redeem ourselves, Brother
Zane? We can't redeem ourselves, can we? He redeemed our eternal
souls with his own precious blood. Shed his blood to redeem our
souls, beloved. In the scripture, I love this,
I say it almost every message, he obtained eternal salvation
for us by the shedding of his precious blood. He obtained it. He alone is worthy to give eternal
life because he shed his precious blood. And who does he give eternal
life to? Those who the Father gave him.
Called the elect of God. Someone says, well, I don't like
that. Well, take it up with God. Can't tell you how many people
say, I don't like that. Well, it's not up to our liking
it or not. It's truth. Now, I'll tell you
what, if God really saves you, you're going to love it. You're
going to spend the rest of your life in awe and wonder that you're
one of his people. My, oh my. I'll tell you what. He didn't make his people redeemable. He redeemed us with his own precious
blood. He attained a return of redemption
for all his elect. So rejoice, beloved of God. Our
Savior, Jesus Christ, is our sovereign Lord, and he is Lord
over all. God incarnate in the flesh. That's who he is. We're saved
by God. We're not saved by some mere
man, we're saved by God himself. God incarnated in the flesh.
Listen to this. Oh, this is in the, actually
let's turn over there. Chapter three, chapter three,
look at this. I'll tell you what. Look at this, look at this. Verse
16, I'll tell you. This just nails it shut right
here. Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
God, God was manifest in the flesh. What's his name? The Lord Jesus Christ, justified
in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed
on in the world, and received up into glory. Great is the mystery
of godliness, that God would become a man to save his people
from their sins. Jesus Christ is our sovereign
creator. John 1.3 says, all things were
made by him. And without him was not anything
made that was made. Nothing. He made it all. Psalm 100 verse three says, know
ye that the Lord, he is our God, it is he that hath made us and
not we ourselves. We are his people. And the sheep of his pasture. Praise is my name. Let's read
verse 1 again. 1 Timothy 1, verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the commandment of God our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ,
which is our hope. Oh, beloved Jesus Christ, our
Savior, is the resurrected Christ. He's the resurrected Messiah
of God. He is the glorified God-man. And God our Father put all things
under his feet, everything. Everything is subject to the
Lord, visible and invisible. It's all subject to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Everything. You mean even those
people shake their fist at God? Yep. Yep. You mean even the smallest
thing that we can't even see with the naked eye but it's in
the microscope? Yep. Even the things you can't see
in the microscope. My oh my. You mean all those
little creatures in the earth that we can't even see that all
work together for God's good? Yep. They're all under his control. My oh my. People freaked out
about this eclipse. saying it was the coming of the
apocalypse. Did you see the four horsemen brothers saying? No,
I didn't either. No, I didn't either. No. They said, well, it's going to
pass through Jonah, city of Jonah. Then it's going to pass through
three cities in Nineveh. It's the coming of the apocalypse.
You know what I knew as soon as I heard that? I knew that
it was not true. Because no man knows the hour of the day. It
was an eclipse. But I'll tell you what, when
God comes, when Christ comes, he can come as a thief in the
night. We're ready and waiting. We're
looking for his return. We say, even so, come quickly,
Lord. Take us out of this world, Lord. Oh, my. We don't have to get all tied
up in knots about things in this world. We're just passing through,
Brother Zane. We're just strangers and pilgrims,
aren't we? And we seek a better country.
We're ambassadors. We speak about our King. We tell
people how wonderful He is. We tell people He's the only
Savior of sinners. And He saves sinners like you
and I. My, redeemed by His precious blood. And He'll save everyone
who comes to Him, won't He, Brother Zane? Amen. Oh, my. Oh my, it's wonderful. I'll tell you why. Now some in
this world are bowing down to God of their own imagination.
They bow down to a God that don't even exist. They call him God,
but he's weak. He can't do nothing unless you
let him. That's a God of a people's imagination,
beloved, as we see here. Our God decrees things from eternity. Our God chose the people in Christ
from eternity. My oh my. You know what's funny? People don't have a problem with
God choosing angels. They don't have a problem with
God being in control of the weather. Right? They don't have a problem
with God choosing Israel. Which is all, again, pictures.
But when you bring it home and say, well, God chooses sinners, Oh, they hate that, brother.
But what do we do as God's people? We love it. Amen. We rejoice. Praise the Lord, you saved my
soul. Hallelujah. What a God. What a Savior. It's
Jesus Christ. What a God that He decreed our
salvation. We never would have come to Him unless He made us
well in the day of His power. And praise God, He did. What
a Savior. Whatever deemers Jesus Christ
our Lord. My oh my. And God's preachers,
we are to declare that Jesus Christ is God Almighty, that
he is a sovereign Lord over all. That's what the heart of our
teaching and preaching is to be. Christ came to save sinners
of whom I'm chief. I'm just one sinner declaring
to other sinners, there's the Savior. Look to Him and live. There's my hope for eternity. I can't see Him visibly, but
my eye of faith sees Him upon His throne, ruling and reigning
with His nail-print hands and His nail-printed feet and a wound
in His side. And He's the Lamb of God. And
all the saints of God are saying, worthy is the Lamb! Worthy is He! He's the one who's
redeemed us by His precious, precious blood. That's our hope,
isn't it, brothers and sisters? That's our hope. My, oh, my. Listen to this. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall, shall, shall be saved. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? Romans chapter 10 verses 13 to
15. Do you notice the shalls in there? My, oh, my. I like this part
too, though, especially. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. The Lord, sovereign, the king,
the ruler. And you know what? We don't know
he's that until the Holy Spirit starts drawing us to Christ by
his irresistible grace. And he shows us the most wonderful,
wonderful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, through the preaching
of his word, through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
this truth concerning the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ is what
God used to prick The hearts of 3,000 men under Peter's preaching
on the day of Pentecost, we went through that in our study in
the book of Acts. Peter said this, let all the
house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this, that
same Jesus whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ, Lord and
Messiah. He's proclaiming him right there
as the Messiah. They were pricked in the hearts
and said, what shall we do? Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved." Well, Peter said, repent and
be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for
the remissions of sins. That was his answer. My, oh,
my. And God's people are given faith
and repentance to trust Christ, faith to trust Christ, and repentance
before God, who we sinned against. Oh my. My oh my. I'll tell you what. There's only
one hope for this hell-deserving sinner right here and for all
the other hell-deserving sinners the Lord saved, because that's
what we are, right? We're hell-deserving sinners. There's only one hope
for us. Amen, brother. That's the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's the only hope. He's our
one and only hope. And marvel at what a hope he
is. Marvel at what a hope he is. His blood was shed not just
to redeem my soul and yours, Zane, but redeem a number that
no man can number. No man can even number it. The
amount of people God's redeemed in Christ with his precious,
precious blood. And you know what? Our hope in
Christ is a sure hope. It's a sure hope. It's sure as
what? God himself. You ever think of
that? It's sure as God himself. God
himself has saved us. Oh my. Our hope, our hope in
Christ is a steadfast hope. It's unchanging. It won't change. Our hope is Christ, period. There's
no other hope. And he doesn't change. Now, we
go all over the board. He doesn't change, though. He
doesn't change. And our hope in Christ is a firm
hope and a stable hope. Think of this. Our wonderful
God has placed our spiritual feet on Christ, the solid rock. who is the only, the one and
only sure foundation, brother. God's done that. God's put our
feet on the foundation of Christ. And we give him all the glory,
don't we? Don't we, sisters? We give him all the glory, all
the honor, all the praise for what he's done. My oh my. Listen to what the songwriter,
how he put it. My hope is built on nothing less. In Jesus' blood
and righteousness, I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but
wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand,
while other ground is sinking sand. Our hope on Christ is based upon,
now think of this, let us soak this in. Our hope in Christ is
based upon the eternal covenant of God. the eternal covenant
of God's sovereign grace, which includes the promise of the father
to his son, giving him a people. It's also based, it includes
the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ in redeeming our
eternal souls by his precious, precious blood. And it also includes
the promise of God to all his promised children,
and the promise of Christ in sending the Holy Spirit to teach
us, to guide us into all truth. We know he regenerates us, doesn't
he? We're born again by his power. And the Lord said, this is how
important, you must be born again to see the kingdom of heaven.
You must be. Oh my. And we read these words
of blessed assurance from God himself in Hebrews. Listen to
these words in Hebrews chapter six. These are wonderful. Verses 17 to 20, wherein God
willing more abundantly show him to the heirs of promise,
that's his people, his elect, the immutability of his counsel
confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things in which
it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation. Now consolation in the Greek
there is comfort. a strong comfort, who have fled
for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. Who is the
hope set before us? Amen. He's set forth every time
a gospel message is preached, isn't it, brother? Christ is
set forth as the hope set before us. And we need, you know why
we need this hope set before us all the time? Because we've
got wandering eyes, right? We start to look at things around
us. We start to look at different things. We can even look at finances.
We can look at family. We can look at all different
directions. But we keep our eyes on Christ
and the gospel. This is why it's so important
for us to be under the hearing of the gospel. Oh my. And to be in his word like we
talk about Brother Zane. Because that just sets Christ
before us. My, we might have strong comfort
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us. See, God's people, by the grace and mercy of God, have
laid hold upon Christ. But you know what's more important?
He laid a hold on us. Isn't that wonderful? And he's
got us in his grip. He won't let us go. He said,
I'm not going to lose one of my sheep. No one's going to take
them from me or from my father. Oh, it's wonderful, isn't it?
Oh, which hope we have is an anchor of the soul. Now, I remember
talking to someone who used to be on a ship, big old ships,
those great big ships. They said they'd drop that anchor
and that ship, there'd be rough waves and that ship'd just rock
around in those waves and not move. Either not move from that
spot, to spin around that anchor even, but not move from where
that anchor held. It'd go right down to the ocean
floor and clump right into the ocean floor. My, oh my. You know where our anchor is?
He's in heaven. He's on the throne. We have a
sure anchor, don't we? We have a sure hope, beloved,
in his name is the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my, which hope we
have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, in which
entereth into that within the veil. As you said, brother, he's
already in glory. Whether the forerunner is for
us, even Jesus, made a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
Wonderful. Wonderful. Our hope, our hope
is sure and steadfast, not based upon how much we hope, because
our hope is, whoa, right? We can get rocky and, but he's
our hope. If Christ is our hope, he's sure.
What faith is a grain of mustard seed, right? Just lay a hold
of Christ. Just lay it, but you know what?
We're laying a hold of Christ, but he's already got a hold of
us. He's already got us. Oh, isn't it wonderful? When
we're not faithful, he's faithful. He's always faithful, brother.
Amen! It's so wonderful! I'll just
bless my soul, I'll tell you what. Blesses our soul, doesn't
it? My, oh my. And all those who
were chosen in Christ by God the Father, all who were purchased
by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, are heirs of the promise
of God. Every one of them. And we just
don't know this until God the Holy Spirit performs in us the
miracle of the new birth. We didn't know that before we
were saved. We had no clue. I was talking to a friend of
mine the other day, and I said, Jim, I said, if you had met me before
I was saved, you probably, because my buddy here, he's sitting there
writing off somebody he saw because they had a ring in their nose.
And he's saying, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I said, you know
what? That could be one of God's elect. And you have no clue. But you've already wrote the
person off. I said, if you had seen me before the Lord saved
me, you would have said, no way. Is that not true of every one
of us? And here we are, saved by the mercy and grace of God. I told them, I said, heaven's
full of sinners, and even though we're former sinners in heaven,
right, because we're gonna be redeemed and in glory, but I'll
tell you what, it's full of people who were sinners, saved by grace,
and that's it. Now, on this earth, we're sinners
to the core, from the top of our head to the bottom of our
feet. People say, oh, you're getting more holy as you grow.
I sure don't feel more holy. I know more now that I'm a sinner
than I ever had before. And I'm so prone to sin. Are
you, brother? I'm just so prone, man. It's so easy to be beset
by sin. My. But praise God, he's got a grip
on us. He'll never let us go. What a hope. What a hope. And
under the preaching of the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
and him crucified, God, the Holy Spirit, regenerates his sheep. They're born again by his almighty
power. And what does he do? He reveals Christ and his glorious
gospel truths to us. Oh, it's wonderful. And that's
all according to God's will. And scripture says he's willing
more abundantly to show unto the heirs a promise, the immutability
of his counsel, and he confirmed it by an oath. If God's will cannot be thwarted,
which it cannot be, then it's absolutely impossible for God
to break his oath. God, what a hope we have seen.
Oh my. We can leave here kicking our
heels, can't we? If we could, we'd be leaping
and jumping like that man at the gate called Beautiful, wouldn't
we? Oh, this is wonderful news for sinners. This is wonderful. And now God our Father purposed
the salvation of his elect and confirmed their salvation by
an oath. Now I have no clue who they are, I just preached the
gospel. And God does the saving, he does the revealing, doesn't
he? Oh my. And think of this, brother. He
confirmed it with an oath and he could swear by no greater.
So he swore by himself. Oh my. Cannot lie. And he promised a particular
people to his son. He gave a certain people to his
son, a people of his choosing. And he trusted the Lord Jesus
Christ to fulfill all the conditions of the eternal covenant for their
salvation. And that's why Christ is our
hope. Because he did it all. It is
finished. My, our Lord Jesus Christ, he
did just that, right? Do you know there was nothing
left? Do you know that, Brother Zane? There was nothing left
undone. Now this is gonna bless your
heart. It blessed my heart when I was
putting it together. There is nothing left undone for the salvation
of our souls. Nothing. Nothing. And there's nothing by us that's
dependent upon the salvation of our souls. What a Savior,
what a Redeemer is Jesus Christ our Lord. And like you said earlier,
God cannot lie. He cannot lie. He cannot break
his promise to his Son. He cannot. And that's one of the reasons
why our Lord Jesus Christ said, all that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me Amen, brother. I will on no wise
cast out. What a promise! What a promise! What a hope! What a hope we have,
brother! What a hope we have! God our Father promises eternal
life to all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as he's clearly
set forth in scriptures. He's God. He's not trying to
save anybody. He saved his people from their
sins. My It's wonderful. To make sure that His promise
will not fail, our gracious, wonderful God gives us faith
to believe Him, to believe what He says, to believe the Lord
Jesus Christ and believe upon Him and trust in His finished
work, all according to God's amazing grace. And He keeps us. He gives us
faith and then He keeps us. He preserves us to the end. So
He's the author. And a finisher of our faith,
isn't he? Oh my, I'll tell you why. What a wonderful God. What
an awesome God Jehovah is. He's the one true living God. The one true living God. And
Jesus Christ who is our hope, as Zane said earlier, he's entered
into heaven. That's where he is right now.
He's entered into heaven. He's already seated at the right
hand of God. He's entered into heaven himself.
Why? To appear in the presence of
God for us. Oh, he's our advocate. He's our
mediator, isn't he? And there's only one mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. There's no other
one. Oh, and what an advocate we have.
What an advocate. We have a perfect advocate. Oh,
my. Satan, who's the accuser of the
brother, he can accuse us of all kinds of things. And Christ
just says, Father, Forgive them, look at the blood. They're under
the blood. I've redeemed them, they're mine,
they're mine! Oh my, so that no one can bring
a charge to God's elect. Perfect redemption, perfect salvation,
obtained by the perfect man, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
who knew no sin in thought, word, or deed. Perfect, the perfect
spotless Lamb of God. My, and God our Father, he has
accepted the supreme sacrifice that Christ made for the sins
of his people. And you know what's proof positive
of that? Amen, brother, the resurrection. That's proof, people used to
say proof positive. That's proof positive right there. Oh my,
the resurrection. Yeah, he shall see the travail
of his soul and shall be satisfied, Isaiah says, in Isaiah 53, the
latter end of Isaiah 53. God saw that travail of Christ
for the sins of his people and is satisfied. And if God's satisfied
with the sacrifice of Christ, then he's surely satisfied with
all who are in Christ, right? Oh my. It's getting better and
better, isn't it, brother? It's wonderful, it's wonderful. And when our Heavenly Father
accepted Jesus Christ, he also accepted all those who were in
Christ. So rejoice, beloved of God. God
himself has made us accepted in the beloved, and that beloved
one is Christ. We're accepted in the perfect
man. Imperfect sinners, accepted by God the Father, who is holy
and righteous, cannot look upon sin. Accepted, made righteous
by the perfect man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, it's wonderful. I'll tell you. And Jesus Christ
is our great high priest. And he's seated on the throne
of glory right now, interceding for us. And he's our blessed
charity. My. I found out, talking to Jake,
who does contracting for the Air Force, that sureties are
ones who guarantee the payment. We couldn't pay our price for
our sins. Christ guaranteed it with his
precious blood. Paid it all, beloved. Isn't that
wonderful? And because he continues forever,
he's the same yesterday, today, and forever, then his priesthood
is an unchangeable priesthood. Says he is also able to save
them to the uttermost that come to God by him. Listen to that.
Oh, sinner friend, we as saved sinners say flee to Christ. He's able to save to the uttermost.
Some preachers just say the gutter most, right? You're in the gutter
of life. That's where he found all of
us. He's able to save them to the
uttermost that come to God unto Him. He is able to save them
to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever lived
to make intercession for them. Brother, He's ever living to
make intercession for you and I, and for our dear sisters. This is amazing. Like I said earlier, there's
only one hope for hell-deserving sinners. Only one hope for hell-deserving
sinners, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is
the only hope of born-again, blood-washed believers, who are
nothing but sinners saved by grace and saved by the mercy
of God in Christ, and have one hope, and his name is the Lord
Jesus Christ. So let's read this verse one
more time. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment
of God our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope. Beloved of God, Beloved of God,
if God has sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, we
know this to be true, don't we? That He is our only hope. He
is our only hope. So I ask again, anyone who listens
to this, what is your hope for eternity? For the believer, we
say, our hope is Christ. He is the only Savior of sinners.
And every person breathing on this earth is going to step into
eternity. It's going to either be a Christless eternity, or
it's going to be an eternity in glory with the Lord. Oh my,
remember, He's able to save them to the uttermost that come unto
God by Him, that being the Lord Jesus Christ, seeing He ever
liveth to make intercession for them. And God has made known
to us as believers this great mystery of His riches, of His
glory, which is Christ in us. the hope
of glory. What a Savior. What a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ our Lord. And all we can say is amen and
amen.