Tonight's message is called Hope
for the Hopeless. Tonight I would like us to consider
what you are hoping in for eternity. Now many in this world hope their
good works will merit their entrance into heaven. As we've often heard
it said of one who dies, well, they were a good person. Although
scriptures, the Holy Bible, declares this in contradiction to that
statement. In Romans chapter 3 verses 10
to 12, the scriptures declare this, As it is written, there
is none righteous, no, not one. So what that means is that there's
none who are righteous in the sight of God in their natural
state. There's no one fit to be in the
presence of God in their natural state. Then in Romans 3.11 it
says, there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after
God. So man in their natural state
does not understand the things of God and they don't seek after
God. That's what the scripture is
very plainly proclaiming here. And then it says in Romans 3.12,
they are all gone out of the way, they are all together become
unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. So there's not one of us that
do good in the sight of God, because we're born sinners. We
are sinners in birth, in nature, and in choice. So we see then
that man's works to gain heaven is a false hope. Again, the scriptures
clearly declare that salvation is all of grace. It says, for
by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.
It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians
chapter two verses eight to nine. So it's not yourself. It's not
of anything you do mentally or physically or anything at all.
And it's not of works. It's not of any of our works
at all. Why? Well, lest any man should
boast, because we as humans like to boast about the things that
we do. For by grace are you saved through faith. Well, one might
say, well, faith in who? Well, faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the the one object of true God given faith. So I
ask you, what is your hope for eternity? Hoping in anyone else
or anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ is a false hope.
And if you breathe your last breath hoping in anything or
anyone other than Christ, you will go into a Christless eternity
and you will spend eternity in hell. Now God's saints were sinners
who have been saved by the grace and mercy of God. And being a
saved sinner, we've been taught that we by birth, nature, and
choice were born sinners justly condemned by the holy law of
God. So the law of God The justice of God had a rightful claim upon
us because we're born sinners. So, therefore, anyone who comes
into this world are born sinners. And we have a desperate need
because we have no hope. Let's turn to Psalm 79. We'll
read verses 8 and 9. Now, we humans have a need for
hope. We have need for a sure hope. We cannot save ourselves. Think upon this. As a drowning
man, I cry help. Why? Well, because I need to
be rescued. I need hope. But to whom shall
I cry? If I go to the preacher or priest,
I find no help, or hope, or health, as neither can save me. Well,
let's try a church, then, maybe. Well, I find out a church has
a rope that's too short to save me, as a drowning man. And grasp
as I might, I can't find any help, because it cannot save
a drowning man who's drowning in their sins. Maybe I could
do some good deeds. We saw earlier that there's no
hope there, and how could good work save a drowning man? Also,
what good deeds can a drowning man do? The rope won't reach,
so what a desperate situation. No help, no hope. Where can I
find help as a sinner who's drowning in my own sins? Well, listen
to Psalm 79, verses 8 and 9. Oh, remember not against us former
iniquities. Let thy tender mercies speedily
prevent us, for we are bought very low. Help us, O God. of
our salvation, for the glory of thy name, and deliver us,
and purge away our sins, for thy name's sake. Psalm 79 there
says, Help us, O God, of our salvation, for the glory of thy
name, and deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name's
sake. Now, a drowned man can't help
themselves. So, we who are born dead in trespasses
and sins, we can do nothing to save ourselves. We're like the
drowned man. or the drowning woman, we're in desperate need
of help. We're in desperate need of being rescued. Well, we as
sinners, we're in desperate need of being rescued from our sins,
and we're in desperate need of being rescued from the law of
God, and we're in desperate need to be rescued from the justice
of God, and we're in desperate need to be rescued from the wrath
of God. And man can't help himself in
this task of saving our souls, but God can, and he will. Notice
the word in verse 9 of Psalm 79, purge. This is a clearing
away of defilement to make free of impurity in the Hebrew. And
purging of sins is a monumental work, and it's above and beyond
the ability of man. Someone else must do it. Who
is that, you may ask? Who can save us from our sins? Well, Hebrews chapter 1 verses
1 to 3 brings forth that only Christ Jesus our Lord can purge
a sinner. Only Christ by himself can purge
our sins. Listen to Hebrews chapter 1 verses
1 to 3. God, who at sundry times and
in diverse manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made
the worlds, who, being the brightness of his glory in the express image
of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his
power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on
the right hand of the Majesty on high." Notice the text here
in Hebrews 1, 3. clearly brings forth that this
is a work of Christ and Christ alone. The scriptures declare
that by himself he purged our sins. He purged the sins of his
people by himself, by himself. He didn't ask for help. There
was no help asked for and he needed no help. This was his
work. No other man or woman or child,
no church, no preacher, none of all creation can offer any
assistance to and the purging of our sins. It's a work of Christ
and Christ alone. Help us, O God, of our salvation.
Purge away our sins. You know, only one element can
purge a sinner, and that is the precious, precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 9.22 says this, And almost
all things are by the law purged with blood. And without shedding
of blood is no remission. So there's no remission of sins
without the shedding of blood. And the Lord Jesus Christ put
away the sins of his people. The only way that God the Father
would accept, says in Hebrews 9 26, For then, must he often
have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now, once in
the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin, how?
By the sacrifice of himself. The crimson flow that purges
a sinner is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ in him alone.
Do I hear a cry for help? Someone throws a life preserver
in the circles of the poor drowning sinner. And written on it is,
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. The
justice of God cries, blood for blood, punishment for every sin. And the scripture declares that
the Lord will by no means clear the guilty. And the sinner feels
within his heart that his judgment is just. If God does not damn
me, he would not be just. Oh my, and he would be just to
damn every sinner to hell. But praise be to God, the blood
of Jesus Christ cleanses his people from all sins. All the elect of all the ages
are cleansed by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And one may say, I don't know if I'm one of God's elect. What
shall I do? I say, flee to Christ. Flee to Christ. Only God knows
who the elect are. Flee to Christ. He alone is the
sinner's only hope. And if you do, it's because God
made you willing in the day of His power. It's because you're
one of His people that He redeemed at Calvary's cross. So the believer
in Christ's only hope is the Lord Jesus Christ. And we own
our condemnation in our natural state in the sight of God. And
we rejoice that God himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, has provided
a perfect spotless righteousness for all his people. We who are
the people of God know that there must be an atonement made before
God. God's justice must be satisfied
before we can be pardoned. And we in our regenerated state,
born again by the Holy Spirit of God, Look to the only one
who can satisfy infinite justice. And think of this, only an infinite
one can satisfy the infinite. And Jesus Christ is God incarnate
in the flesh, fully God and yet fully man. And there he goes
to Calvary's cross. to bleed and die and suffer in
the place of his people, to redeem them with his precious, precious
blood. Angels or man cannot help in
our salvation. Where then shall we find forgiveness?
Oh, it's hidden in the secret counsels of the Most High, beloved.
I do not know where it is until from the very throne of God I
hear these words, I am the substitute. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And looking there, I see sitting on the throne God and yet a man.
A man who was once slain, I see his scarred hands and his pierced
side, but he is also God and smiling. He says, I have forgiveness,
I have pardon, I purchased it with my heart's blood. I had
to die, the just for the unjust. I had to suffer for your sake,
and now I have help for you. And who is this that speaks?
None other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Savior of sinners. the one who came to save his
people from their sins, the one who finished the work of salvation
by himself, by himself, for God's people, for God's elect, so that
we might be justified before God and so that the law of God
would be fully satisfied. by the sinner's substitute, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Look to Him. Look to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look to the perfect Lamb of God
without spot and without blemish. Look to the sinner's only substitute,
because only in Him is eternal life. Only in Him is hope of
eternal life. Now let's turn to Psalm 42, and
we'll read verses one to five, and we're seeing verse five,
that there is a hope for the hopeless. Oh, there's a hope
for the hopeless. Psalm 42 verse 1, As the heart
panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee,
O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. When
shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my meat,
day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me. For
I had gone with a multitude, I went with them into the house
of God. with the voice of joy and praise,
with a multitude that kept holy day. Why art thou cast down,
O my soul, and why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God, hope
in Elohim, the Mighty One, for I shall yet praise Him for the
help of His countenance. Oh, beloved God, there is only
hope in God. As we look to eternity, there
is only hope in Christ. There is only hope in He who
is called Elohim, the Mighty One. We see in our text the psalmist
is telling his soul to trust in Elohim. Now this is a plural
word in the Hebrew which has reference to God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the Great Three in One.
Now think upon how pitiful a hopeless man is. Remember Job proclaimed
these words in Job chapter 7. He said, clothed with worms and
clods of dust. My skin is broken and become
loathsome. My days are swifter than a weaver's
shuttle and are spent without hope. Oh, remember that my life
is wind. My eye shall no more see good. And that's Job chapter 7 verses
5 to 7. Listen to verse 6 again. My days
are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and are spent without hope. That's
a state of natural man, isn't it? That's what natural medicine. That's what we as believers say
when we get looking to ourselves and looking around the world.
Oh, keep your eyes on Christ. Keep focused on Christ because
listen to the words that Job proclaims as he gets his eyes
off himself and looks to only the Redeemer of sinners, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He says this in Job 19, verses
25 to 27, for I know that my Redeemer liveth. that he shall
stand at the latter day upon the earth, and though after my
skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. I'm going to see Elohim. I'm
going to see the Mighty One. whom I shall see for myself,
and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins
be consumed within me." Now by God-given faith, Job saw a Redeemer,
and to be redeemed is our only hope. Since we are bound in the
slave market of sin, we are chained up in the slave market of sin.
So the only way that we can be purchased out of that is by the
precious, precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He sets us
free from the prison house of sin. Only one element can purge
a sinner from all their sins. Only one element can redeem a
sinner and that is the same. It's the same element can purge
a sinner from all their sins, and the same element can redeem
a sinner, and that is the precious, precious blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Listen to these words in 1 Peter
1, verses 18 to 21. For as much as you know that
you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, from
your vain conversations received by tradition from your fathers,
but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish
and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation
of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,
for God's people, who by Him do believe in God. He gives us
faith. God gives us faith to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
See, true God-given faith has one object, and that's Christ
and Christ alone, who by Him do believe that raised Him up
from the dead and gave Him glory, that your faith and hope might
be in God. All our faith and hope is in
God and God alone, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, is God incarnate
in the flesh. Praise His mighty name. So what
a hope the believer has in Christ. He's our eternal hope. He's our
eternal hope. Think of natural man and woman.
Their hope is in this world. But the things of this world
will pass away. And yet if a man or woman are not redeemed by
Christ, what other hope do they have? Well, they have a false
hope, don't they? They have a refuge of lives.
They live a few years. They eat, drink, enjoy the things
of this world. They get older. And then the
time comes, when even the delight of good things fades away, and
that which is dust returns to dust. And where are you? Well,
those who trust and rest in Christ shall go into glory and be with
the Lord forever, because they were purchased by his precious
blood. But those who have no hope in Christ, they will go
off into a Christless eternity in hell. where there's weeping
and gnashing of teeth in utter darkness. Well, some people say,
well, you know, I just want to be happy in life. Well, there's
no hope just being happy, not true hope, because the hope of
this world fades away. Happiness is not putting your
trust in anything in this life. If you are seeking happiness
through anything in this life, it's fleeting. It's fleeting.
It's going to get old. It's going to fade away. So flee
from any hope other than the Lord Jesus Christ. He's an eternal
hope. He's the one true eternal hope.
He's God. May God give you grace to flee to Christ, to look to
Him and live. Listen to what Psalm 146 verses 3 to 5 says. It says, put not your trust in
princes. Don't put your trust in the leaders
of this world, nor in the Son of Man. Don't put your trust
in one another. We're just sinful human beings
in whom there is no help and no eternal help in one another.
Not at all. No eternal help in anything we
do. No eternal help in any other human being. We're all drowned
in sin. Says this, his breath goeth forth,
he returneth to the earth. In that very day his thoughts
perish. Now listen to this in Psalm 146 verse 5. Happy is he that hath the God
of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God. See my hope in Christ is a hope
in God because Christ is God and true happiness is only found
in the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. So put your hope in
the redeeming blood of God's dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's the only ransom for sinners that God will accept. Think of
this, go to Gethsemane and see the bloody clots on the ground
as the Lord Jesus Christ prays. Then go to the place of judgment
and see the Savior with his beard plucked out and his holy cheeks
with spittle running down because they spit in his face and his
back lacerated from the whips and he is so in agony and tormented. Then stand at Calvary and see
him dying, the just one for the unjust. And remember those bitter
torments were small compared to his inner soul anguish. And
come away and surely you would say, there is my hope, the Christ
of God. He by himself has purchased me
with his own precious, precious blood. Now let's go back to Psalm
42. We'll read verses 6 to 11 of
Psalm 42. Psalm 42, verse 6, O my God,
my soul is cast down within me. Therefore will I remember thee
from the land of Jordan, of the Hermonites, from the hill of
Mizar. Deep calleth unto deep, at the
noise of thy waterspouts. All thy waves and all thy billows
are gone o'er me. Yet the Lord will command his
lovingkindness in the daytime. In the night his song shall be
with me. In my prayer unto the God of
my life, I will say unto God my rock, why hast thou forgotten
me? Why go I mourning? because of
the oppression of the enemy. Sometimes things can be happening
in our lives where we feel like the Lord's left us, but you know
what? The Lord will never leave you. If you're one of his people,
he's ever with you. He'll never leave you. You may feel like
he has, but he's never left you. His eyes are fixed upon you.
His thoughts are fixed upon his people, beloved. It's absolutely
wondrous. And look at verse 10. As with
a sword in my bones, mine enemies reproach me, while they say daily
unto me, where is thy God? So the enemies of God hound the
people of God. Say, where is thy God? And then
it says in Psalm 42, 11, Why art thou cast down, O my soul?
And why art thou disquieted with the enemy? Hope thou in God,
for I shall yet praise him who is the health of my countenance
and my God. Notice in verse 11, the scriptures
declare that our God, our great God is the health of our countenance.
Notice the words health of my countenance and my God. When
does health come? When healing occurs, doesn't
it? If you do not believe this human race is sick unto death,
look around and how can anyone say that We are not sick unto
death. Now there's a pandemic currently
going through and around this world, but you know, there's
been a pandemic of sin, which has been happening for 6,000
years since Adam's fall in the garden. And who has the cure
for the great pandemic of sin? The scriptures declare this,
that the wages of sin is death. So every one of us is eventually
going to die. You can't stop it because of
sin. But who has a cure for this? Who has a cure for the pandemic
of sin? Churches may say, well, we have
it. Come and do all these religious things. You've got to do this
and you've got to do that. All these religious requirements
and you'll be all right. That's a false refuge. Because
we saw earlier that there's none good. No, it's not one. There's
none to understand it. is none that seeketh after God
are none good. And many men and women fall for
this fake cure for sin, finding a false refuge for sin, and a
false hope for eternal life, and they look to their own works
to find that false refuge. deceiving false prophets say
come and I'll heal that cancer in your body and you'll have
perfect health. But the pandemic of sin still
rages. This sin sickness is not a body
sickness but a soul sickness. So who has the cure for sin sickness? Who has the cure for this great
pandemic called sin? Well 1st Peter chapter 2 verses
21 to 25 the scriptures declare this. For even here unto where
you called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an
example that he should follow his steps. Who did no sin. See, Christ is a sinless, spotless
lamb of God. Says, neither was guile found
in his mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When
he suffered, he threatened not. but committed himself to him
that judges righteously. He committed himself to the Father. He was here to do the Father's
will, beloved. Who his own self bear our sins
in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should
live unto righteousness, by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye
were as sheep going astray, but are now returned unto the shepherd
and bishop of your souls. But look at this, it says in
1 Peter 2.24, who his own self bear our sins. Remember we saw
earlier that he purged our sins by himself, who his own self
bear our sins in his own body on the tree. So the sins of God's
elect were imputed to Christ, that we being dead to sin should
live under righteousness. And his spotless righteousness
is imputed to us. And then it says this, by whose
stripes you were healed. Now, as I said earlier, there's
only one element that can purge a sinner. and only one element
that can redeem a sinner, and that's the precious, precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So there's only one element that
can give health. It's his stripes, beloved. His
awful suffering and death brings health to the soul who is sick
unto death with the pandemic of sin. His blood that flowed
freely brings health for the sin-sick soul, the forgiveness
of all our sins. That's what we need to be cured
from. That's what we need to be rescued
from, our sins. We need to be rescued from the
wrath and justice of God. And Christ himself has redeemed
his people. Listen to this. Surely he hath
borne our griefs and carried our souls. Yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded
for our transgressions. He's the sinless, spotless lamb
of God. He's wounded for my sins as a believer. As one of the
elect of God, he's wounded for my sins. And if you're one of
his people, he was wounded for your sins, for your transgressions
as well. But he was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. With his stripes, we are healed.
Oh my. So we who are the people of God
believe that if Christ stood as our substitute, it was an
actual, real, effectual atonement. And that we are positively delivered
by that atonement. We're delivered from our sins,
we're delivered from the wrath of God, we're delivered from
the justice of God, we're delivered from the law of God because it's
all been satisfied in the great sacrifice of the great substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Think of this, if our sin was
imputed to Christ, it cannot be imputed to us. Heaven or hell
cannot accuse the sons of God of any sin, even though we're
still sinners while we're here on this earth, but we're clothed,
we who are the people of God are clothed in the perfect spotless
righteousness of Christ. And if God has justified us,
and if Christ has died in our place, then no man, no one can
lay anything to the charge of God's elect. Do you need help?
The blood of Christ purges the sinner from all their sins. Do
you need hope? The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
redeems us, purchases the souls of His people, oh, and gives
them a hope. and eternal which is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Do you need health? Do you need
to be cured from the pandemic of sin? Do you need to be washed
clean from all your sins? Do you need health? The blood
of Jesus Christ heals from the pandemic of sin. Praise his mighty
name. Amen and amen.