Over in the book of Colossians,
in the epistle to Thessalonians, these two texts of Scripture,
one is found over in Colossians, just one verse, Colossians chapter
1 verse 23, and then in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Colossians 1, verse 23. Paul said, continue in the faith,
grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven. Continue in the faith
of the gospel, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the
hope of that gospel. Now over in 2 Thessalonians chapter
2, and let's read verse 13 through the remainder of that chapter.
2 Thessalonians chapter 2, beginning in verse 13. We are bound to
give thanks always to God for you, Brethren, beloved of the
Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth,
were unto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast
and hold the traditions which ye have been taught whether by
word or our epistle. Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself
and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given
us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort
your hearts and establish you in every good word and work."
Hope. Hope. And I like this because
even in this life, all of us can relate to hope.
I was talking with my dear neighbor just last week, one of my older
neighbors, and she talked about what an awful winter we were
having. And she said, I'm hoping for spring. I'm hoping for spring. You and I have a lot of things
that we hope for, that we can identify with. Everybody can
identify with hope. If you're without a job, you
hope to find a job, John. That's hope, ain't it? If you
got a business, Bob and Carl has a business. They have hope
that their business will be better established, earn more, someday
maybe provide them with retirement. We all can identify with hope. If you're sick, what do you hope
for? You hope to get well. Hope. And we can identify not only
with this whole aspect of hope, but the effects of hope. Why
do we hope? This would be a sad world to
live in if we had to live it without any hope. even in the
things of this world. I asked another one of my old
neighbors the other day, I said, how are you doing? And she said,
I'm going to put out a garden this spring. I think she's 85
years old. Been putting out a garden all
of her adult life. I said, you're going to try to put out a garden
this year again? And she said, you know, this would be a sad
life if you didn't have something to hope for. So that's the effects
of hope in it. It cheers us. It gives us something
to look forward to. We rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. Whatever you and I hope for,
if we're serious about it, we try to bring it to pass. We do
what we can to realize that hope. But after we've done what we
can, sometimes our hope fails. And sometimes, as Solomon said,
hope deferred maketh the heart sick. When we don't realize what
we hope for, it almost just gets us down. But you know there's
a lot of things that we hope for in this life that we may
never obtain, and yet we can live without. Because it's just
about this life. Making a garden in the spring.
Temporal things. But when the Bible speaks of
hope, it speaks of eternal things. It speaks of everlasting blessings.
It speaks of everlasting life. And it speaks of heaven. It speaks
of a world to come. Life beyond the grave. Let me give you these three things
about our hope. This is a gospel hope. And the
reason it's called a gospel hope, you don't find it anyplace else.
You don't find it in any other book but the Bible. You don't
find it in any other religions except Christianity. And you
won't find it in any other person but the Lord Jesus Christ. Three
things that we hope for. When we come to die and we've
breathed our last breath, we have hope to go to heaven. You talk about a comfort and
you talk about a blessing and a joy when you consider the alternative. I want to go to heaven. And I
just don't want to go to heaven when I consider the alternative.
We have a hope that when we've breathed out our last breath,
that we won't be rejected, we won't be refused, we won't be
cast out. But we'll go to heaven and be
there in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, I have a desire to
depart and to be with Christ, which is far better. To be absent
from this body is to be present with the Lord. What did Christ
tell that thief? What did he tell him? This day.
This day you're going to die, they're going to break your legs,
and you're going to suffer. And before this day is over,
you're going to lay this body down, and they're going to put
it in a grave somewhere. And they're going to cast some
dirt upon it. But you will be with me in paradise. Now that's
the scriptural hope. That's the hope that the gospel
sets forward. The wicked is driven away in
his wickedness, but the righteous have hope. even in his death. Death. But we're talking about
what's beyond death. What's beyond the grave. Hope
to be in the presence of Christ in heaven. And secondly is this. We have hope of being with Jesus
Christ when He comes again to judge this world. to being in
His presence when He comes again to judge this world. You and
I talk a lot about heaven, and a lot about the judgment to come,
and about how this world is going to be burned up, and it's going
to be changed, and so many questions in our mind. How will these things
be? What will it be like? What will
it be like? And many of these things we can't
answer. It leads to our satisfaction.
But I tell you the most important thing about our hope is this.
We're going to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. However things
happen, whatever comes to pass, however judgment will be there,
that's all secondary. First and foremost, we will be
in His presence. And brothers and sisters, if
you're in His presence, what else matters? Nothing else matters. And Paul said, My hope of you. What is my hope of you, he said?
It's this. You in the presence of the Lord
Jesus Christ at His coming. When He comes to judge the world,
and He says to you, Come here in my presence. Come here at
my right hand. You're blessed of my Father."
Now that's a gospel hope, and you won't find it anywhere else
but the gospel. And thirdly is this. This is
our hope. We hope for a resurrection, both of the just and the unjust.
We hope for a resurrection of the body. The Lord Himself shall
descend from heaven with a shout. with the voice of the archangel,
with the trumped of God, and the dead in Christ, those who
have died, their bodies have decayed, they've been burned
with ashes and the ashes have been scattered, they're dead. But those who are dead in Christ
shall be raised incorruptible. They shall be made like Christ's
glorious body. They shall live. Now that's the
hope. And those who are alive and remain
shall be changed. He'll change the vile body and
fashion it like unto His glorious body. Now that's a gospel hope. And when you lay this old body,
this old flesh down, you can lay it down the same way the
Lord Jesus laid His down. You can say with a master, my
flesh shall rest in hope. My flesh shall rest in hope. Beloved, it does not yet appear
what we shall be, but we know this, that when He shall appear,
we shall be like Him. For we shall see Him as He is. And this is our hope. This is
our hope. And it's the gospel hope. And
it conquers us. Conquers you one another with
these words. And we shall forever be with
the Lord. That's our hope. Now there's two things about
such a hope that the gospel gives. And it seems that God has set
these two things over against each other. Number one is this. The believer's hope is amazing. It's amazing. The hope of the
gospel is amazing for this reason. It's so foreign to us. What we
hope for and the hope that it gives is so contrary to everything
we know by our very natures. And it's sure beyond our ability
to not only grasp it, but to accomplish that hope in and of
ourselves. You and I are earthlings. We're
confined to this earth, and not only are we confined to this
earth, but one little tiny location upon this earth. Right where
I stand right now is what I'm confined to. And to think someday that you will leave this world
and go above the starry heavens, and be there in the third heaven,
that you'll rise and go through the outer space. You can't rise
five foot off the ground now by yourself. We're so limited,
we're so powerless to fulfill such a hope. It's so contrary
to us, and yet that's the hope that we have. I'm going to heaven
when I die. What a hope. What a hope. And to consider this about our
hope, to consider you and I some of the most vile things that
ever walked upon this earth, the greatest wretches that this
world has ever known. Sometimes we wonder why earth
holds us up and supports us in our wretchedness. And to think
that I and to think that you could not only rise above the
stars, but be welcomed in the presence of such a glorious Lord
and feel at home there. Ain't that amazing to you? And to have this body that's
decayed and eaten by skin worms To be raised in power and glory
and beauty and never again be subject to
any infirmities. No sicknesses, no sorrows, no
disease, no tears, no pains. Not ever even to think about
these former things. to so be delivered from them
that they never come to your mind again. In this life we cannot
go a moment without escaping our infirmities. But to think
that we'll arise to a world where we'll never once again have to
endure one single infirmity. That's not natural, is it? We
don't know such a thing, and yet that's our hope. and to have for our company glorified
saints and holy angels and God and Christ, and to see Him glean
and to worship Him as we never were able to in this world. Without
looking through a glass darkly, without searching for Him in
His Word, without pleading and begging Him, but with undimmed
eyes to look upon the Lord Jesus Christ and worship Him as you
long to in this world. I can't relate to that, but that's
the hope. That's the hope. It's foreign
to us now. It's not natural to us now. But
that's the hope. That's the hope. I know why Abraham,
it was said, of him who against hope believed in hope. What that
man hoped for was against hope. He was 100 years old, and Sarah
was 90. And yet the Lord said, you're
going to have a child, and out of that child are going to come
nations and kings. And Abraham never put his trust
in his abilities or his powers to accomplish such a hope. He
was fully persuaded that what God had promised, he was able
to perform. And there's the way you and I
are with this hope. We can't look to our abilities.
It's impossible with man. But we believe God's Word. And
here's what he says about this hope, and he sets this over against
what we know naturally. He says this in his Word, which
hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. That's what God says about this
hope. You and I look at it in ourselves and of ourselves. We
say, there's no way that I can realize such a hope. Look at
me. Look at me. But when God speaks
to us of this hope, it's so certain He says this about it. It's sure
and it's steadfast. And Job got a hold of this one
day, and here's what he said. Though the skin worms devour
this flesh, yet in my body I shall see my God. I shall see my Redeemer. Now that's our hope, brothers
and sisters. That's our hope. And we against hope, we believe
in hope. And I'm telling you this morning,
if you've got this hope, you're a happy person. You're a happy
person. And to live without this hope,
I tell you, I'd rather not have been born. I never wish I'd breathed the
breath than to live and die without a gospel hope. If you live without a gospel
hope and you die without a gospel hope, you'll perish without a
gospel hope. And one of the things that's so dreadful about that,
if we'll consider this, that once a man dies hopeless, There's
no opportunity for recovery. This house fell, and the master
said, great was the fall of it, because there was no recovery
of it. To live without hope, therefore, and to die without
hope is enough even to think about. To break your heart, isn't
it? Clutch your despair without hope,
wouldn't you? Let me give you these five false
hopes. Five false hopes. There's a few people in this
world, and used to I didn't quite believe this, but after reading
some Scripture, I imagine this is true. There are a few people
that live in this world who have no faith at all, no natural faith
at all in God. Asap talked about them, their
strength. Even in their death, he said,
their strength is firm. They're not in trouble like other
men are. They laugh at death. When they think about sin, whatever
apprehension they have, it doesn't bother them. They think about
eternity, it don't bother them. Because in their heart they say,
there's no God. The fool has said in his heart,
there is no God. And that's his hope, you see.
He lives in this world hoping there is no God. But you know
something about that hope? It's a false hope. It's a false
hope. And it will only comfort a man
in this lifetime. The second false hope is this. Procrastinators have a false
hope. And they're those people who
say, well, I don't have a hope now. But I hope someday to have
a hope. I intend to have a hope. I really
do. I intend someday to seek the Lord, just not right now.
You know that's a false hope. It's just a person's heart telling
them, you've got plenty of time. Give yourself to this life for
a while and you've got things that you want to do. You've got
things that you're concerned about. And there's coming a day
when you can seek the Lord. You can get right with the Lord.
But you know that's a person's heart telling them that. And
you know what the heart is? It's deceitful above all things.
Go your way for now. There's a false hope. When I
have a more convenient season, I've got some other things I
want to do, and I don't intend never to hear you again, Paul.
I'll hear you someday, but just not now. Just not now. That's why the Lord told that
rich man that night, that said, I've got many goods laid up for
many years. That's why the Lord said, you're
a fool. You're a fool. You don't even have tomorrow.
You don't have tomorrow. Whatever you have right now is
what you're going to die with. Procrastination. How shall we
escape if we just neglect? Not rebel against, not refuse
to hear, just neglect. How shall we escape? Thirdly,
a hypocrite has a false hope. He has a false hope. How many
people, and I've often thought of this because it's happened
to every one of us, if you've been converted very long and
you've tried to get someone to come here and hear the gospel. Or they quit going to some other
place of worship. And one of the reasons that they
used was this. There's hypocrites over there.
I ain't going over there anymore. There's hypocrites. And you know
something? Might as well admit it. That's
probably so. We've got them everywhere, aren't
we? Sometimes I feel like, Do you ever have to repent of that? Sometimes we're pretenders, aren't
we? Sometimes we're actors. But we've got them everywhere.
And here's what Job said about them. The hope of the hypocrite
shall perish. Whatever he's gained, it won't
profit him, he says, when God takes away his hope. It's a false
hope. And fourthly is this, those who
hope in their wealth, they have a false hope. Asap said they
have more than their hearts can desire. And you know they have
the means to buy just about anything they want. And they can go just
about anywhere they want to go. They can do that. There are people
in this world who is what we call filthy rich. They're wealthy. They're famous people. But there's
one thing wealth and fame can't buy you. And that's a gospel
hope. If a man owned the world and
he piled it all up together and brought it in a huge bag and
laid it down before God and said, I want to purchase a good hope,
he would be altogether abominable. You can't buy hope. And your
fame will not earn it for you. A false hope. A false hope. Job
said they make gold their hope. And they say to find gold. They
talk to their wealth. They talk to it. They say to
find gold. You're my confidence. You're
my confidence. But we're not redeemed with corruptible
things. There's silver and gold. And
wealth won't profit us. when we get ready to leave this
world. Hope. And fifthly, that's a false
hope which trusts in its religious works. And boy, here's a false
hope. And here's where many, here's
where many on the dead judgment. The Master said this. He told
us about the dead judgment. And he said, in that day of judgment
when he sat there on the throne and he brought all the nations
before him, he said, let me tell you what many, many people are
going to say to me in the day of judgment. They're going to
say, Lord, have we not preached in your name? Have we not cast
out devils in your name? Have we not done many wonderful
works in your name? And that's their hope. Boy, when
push comes to shove, you'll run to your hope, won't you? And
there they stood without anything else to hope in. And the Lord
was ready to tell them, Depart from Me. And they ran and got
a hold of this hope with both hands and wouldn't let go of
it. And here's what it was. We've
done a lot of good things for you. And the Lord said, Depart
from Me, you workers of iniquity. That's a false hope. A false
hope. I was reading, I don't know if
it was the obituary or not, But what was the very famous Catholic
lady's name that was there in the... What was her name? Mother Teresa. And they made the statement to
the effect that they'd never known anybody in our day that
was willing to go into some of those leprosy camps. and risk
contracting leprosy, and who cured more of those people and
denied herself in this life than Mother Teresa. And she was praised by this world. And maybe in a natural sense,
that's fine. But boy, if that's her hope when
she stood before the Lord, If she had to stand there and begin
to tell him everything that she had done while she was in this
life. Many wonderful words. That's a false hope. False hope. Okay, now look at my text and
let me give you a good hope. Here's a good hope. Look at it
here in 2 Thessalonians. This is the gospel hope. What
is a good hope? It's a gospel hope. Well, how
do we know we have a gospel hope? Well, look at verse 16 again
with me. 2 Thessalonians, verse 16. Here is a good hope. Now our
Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God, even our Father, which hath
loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation, everlasting comfort,
and good hope through grace. What is a good hope? The first
thing about a good hope, and here's the way you know you've
got it. It begins with God. It's nothing you've done for
God. It's nothing that you've given to God. But it's something
that God has given to you. It's not saying, Lord, Lord,
have we not? But it's saying, God, have you
not? Hope. You weren't born with it. You didn't earn it. There was
a time you didn't have it. And God gave it to you. Out of
His great love, out of His great goodness, He gave it to you. I made the statement the other
night, and I'm often making this statement when I talk to people.
Because I've had people ask me, how do you know that you're a
believer? How do you know that you've got eternal life? And
one of the ways I answer them is this, I know I'm a believer
now because there's a time I didn't believe. And I know I'm alive
now because there's a time I was dead. And I know I've got a good
hope now because there's a time I had a false hope. We weren't
born with this hope, brothers and sisters. God gave it to us. God gave it to us. Not what we
do for Him. but what He's done for us. And
notice this about this good hope. It's through grace. He hath given
us a good hope through grace. You can't earn such a hope. You
can't buy it. He won't give it to you because
you're famous for what you've done for Him. But it's through
His grace. Unmerited favor. He gives it to you. Lord, Lord,
have we not? No, no. Lord, have you not? Have you not? That's a good way
to plead, ain't it? It's what He's given us. And
here in verse 13, look at this. Look at this. When you and I
come down to face death, and boy, you just about know,
the old tempter's going to be there. He's going to be there
and He's going to face you with all kinds of things that you've
done and what you are and unbelieve. And if you can say this and have
God to bear witness to it, it's what He's given me. It's what
He's done for me through grace. Boy, that'll sustain you when
you come across the river of death. And look here where He began
with us. Look in verse 13. We are bound
to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord. Look at this. Because God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation. See that? Well, now what the Lord Jesus
told His disciples? You've not chosen me. You've not chosen me. It's the
other way around. I've chosen you. You don't even
know me, he said, until I made myself real to you. You didn't even follow me until
I come by and called you. You were fishers. You were cleaning
your nets. And I said, follow me. You didn't
love me until you found out I loved you. You didn't even know why
I came into this world. You tried to keep me from going
to the cross. You didn't know me. You didn't believe me. You
didn't love me. And you only do it now because
I've caused you to. It's not that you knew me. It's
that I knew you. It's not that you chose me. It's
that I chose you. That's the way it is, ain't it? T'was not that I did choose thee.
Lord, that could not be. It can't be that way. This heart
would still refuse thee. but Thou hast chosen me." And
when our hearts are filled with thanksgiving to God, and we ascribe
all the glory to Him for our salvation, we know then we've
got a good hope. That's where it began with, and
that's where it'll end with. God hath given you a good hope. Salvation is of the Lord. And
I tell you, if your salvation is of the Lord, you've got a
good hope. Lord, Lord, have we not? No, no. You've done everything. You've done everything. All we've
done is just received everything we've got. Just received everything. Just
reached out our empty hands and received Him in His fullness.
Grace. You that are longing to see His
face, will you this moment His grace receive? Grace. And look what He said in the
last portion of verse 13. God hath chosen you to salvation,
everlasting salvation. It begins in this lifetime. It
will be fully realized in the life that's to come, at the resurrection,
when the saints will be with Christ. And notice here what
he says about this salvation. In the last portion of verse
13, look what he says. He's chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. That's the way God saves a man. Now, election is not salvation.
When we talk about election, that's not salvation. Election
isn't to salvation. Election took place before the
world ever was. That's settled. Salvation takes
place right now, in this lifetime. And how does the Lord save a
sinner? And this word, sanctification, that used to scare me to death.
Because when I first started reading the Bible, I talked with
some people that talked about sanctification, and their view
of sanctification was that they had some kind of experience,
and there this old bitter root of sin was torn completely out
of them, and it was gone, and they never sinned anymore. And
they said, I'm sanctified. And that scared me to death every
time I read about sanctification. You know what sanctified means.
You know what that means. It means set aside. That's all
it means. Those vessels in the temples,
they were sanctified. They were set aside for God's
use, for God's glory, for God's purpose. And here's the way He
saves a sinner. He sanctifies him. He sets him
apart. You were just going along one
day with a crowd, hiding out in the crowd, and here comes
the Holy Spirit to your thoughts. He comes to your heart. And he
says, I'm going to set you aside for God's glory, according to
God's purpose in Christ. I'm going to teach you something.
I'm going to bring you to the knowledge and faith of something. I'm going to do a work in your
heart that nobody but me can do. And it's never been done
before. What are you going to do, Holy Spirit? I'm going to
bring you to the knowledge and faith of the truth." Ain't that
what he said? Through sanctification of the
truth. That's the way God saves a sinner, by bringing him to
the knowledge and faith of the truth. Brother Glenn says this
so often. This is probably where I got
this. I've heard Brother Glenn say
so often that the Lord brings us to the knowledge of these
three things. The knowledge of God. The knowledge of God. I've heard church say, I don't
know how often, if whatever you think of God in your natural
heart, your opinion of God naturally, you can just bet on this, it's
wrong. If you have a thought of God, and it's not a thought
that the Holy Spirit has worked that you have, it's probably
wrong. Because we by nature just don't
know God, do we? So what does the Spirit do? He
brings us to the truth that God is holy. He's holy. He's not a little puny weakling
that's trying to do something and can't. He's going to save
somebody if they just let Him. He's up there praying and wringing
His hands just hoping. Oh, my soul. When the Holy Spirit
comes and begins to open our hearts and give us thought of
God, what do we say? We say with Isaiah, holy, holy,
holy. And our beauty and our comeliness
is turned to corruption. Woe is me, I abhor myself. Why? Because I've seen God and
He's holy. He's holy. And He brings us to the truth
about ourselves. We're sinners. We're sinners. Everything we do and everything
we are, we're sin. And yet we don't know it. Until the Spirit of God opens
our hearts and lets us see what's there. And then you'll never
forget it. And you'll never deny it and nobody will ever talk
you out of it. If men whom the Lord saves are
not sinners any more, then I am not saved, because there is never
a day goes by I am not convinced of my sin. Do you feel that way?
Oh, wretched man that I am! What has changed our opinion
of ourselves? What has changed our opinion
of our sins? We thought we used to be able
to hide them, sweep them on the rug, God won't see them. Go ahead
and do it, He will forgive you later. Why did we come to understand
that our sins were vile and abominable, and we either must be forgiven
of them or perish because of them? What brought us to the
knowledge and faith of that truth? The Holy Spirit did. If you still
have a high opinion of yourself, dear soul, and you still trust
in your silly free will and the power of it, I assure you this
much, the Holy Spirit has never taken any hand to teach you one
solitary thing. If you can finish your day and
you don't get on your face of the night and say, oh, wretched
man that I am, wash me, Lord, wash me, I'm vile. And you don't ever mourn over
your sins and your wretchedness, you may have some reason to believe
He's never taught you. Because when He begins to work
in your heart, He's going to bow your head in shame that you
ever thought anything good about yourself. And we've all been
there, haven't we? We've all been there. And by
His mercy, He's taught us better. And thirdly, He teaches us the
truth about the Lord Jesus Christ. He came down from heaven on a
mission. And He came down here and pleased
His Father on our behalf. I never get tired of saying that.
Jesus Christ was a public figure. He never done anything for Himself.
Everything He done, He was born for somebody else. He lived for
somebody else. He died for somebody else, not
Himself. He took our sins, Glenn. He made
them His own. And upon His cross of blood,
He reconciled us to God. He made peace with God on our
behalf. And the evidence that He's done
it, where is He now? He's sitting there at the right
hand of the Majesty on high. And the Father is head over heels
in love with Him. The Father says, My son, I'm
pleased in you. Everything you put your hand
to glorified Me. You set here until I make your
enemies your footstool. And everybody that puts their
whole trust and all their hope in Jesus Christ the Lord. He
says to them, because I live, you've got a good hope. You're
going to live too. And you believe in me and you
live in me, you shall never, ever die. Now brothers and sisters,
that's a gospel hope. And that's a good hope. It's
what God's given you. Not what you've earned, but what
He's given you through His grace. It began with God. Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, who is very God, purchased everything on your
behalf. And now, He tells us in verse
14, look at this. And we'll close with this verse.
Look what He tells us. Now, He's called you. by our
gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not any glory that we have.
We can't glory in anything. The glory He's called us to is
to share in the glory of somebody else, the Lord Jesus Christ. Not His essential glory. My goodness,
His essential glory. That's His eternal glory. And
He won't share that with anybody. But there is a glory that Jesus
Christ has that He's going to share with His people. And that's
the glory of the gospel. If our gospel be hid, it's hid
to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath blinded
the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God should shine through unto them." What is that
glory? It's the glory that Jesus Christ
has earned Himself, has accomplished Himself. Can you imagine the
glory that somebody has that can forgive you of your sins? That can come up to you and say
to you, I forgive you all that you've ever thought wrong towards
God. Everything that you've said,
everything that you've done, I forgive it all. Now, buddy,
somebody can do that and have it to stick. He's got some glory
that he's entitled to, doesn't he? Oh, you know what Jesus Christ
said? The Son of Man hath power to forgive sins. All manner of
sins and blasphemies shall be forgiven the sons of men. And
they'll never have to answer for them. Not in this life or
in the life to come. And who is it that forgives those
sins? Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God. Woman, where are your accusers?
Where are those who condemn you? Nobody left to bring charges
against you? No man, Lord. Neither do I condemn
you. Now you think anybody is going
to hold anything against her? You think anybody's going to
bring anything against her to charge her? To damn her? Not when Jesus Christ says, neither
do I condemn you. That's the glory attached to
Him. And that's the glory He shares with us. He's called you
to the obtaining of the glory of somebody else. And listen
to this. Who has the power and the grace
and the love to save a sinner? Who has that kind of power and
grace? I'm not talking about, listen
to me now, listen to me. I'm not talking about saving
you from smoking. I'm not talking about saving
you from drinking a glass of wine. That ain't what we're talking
about, is it? We're talking about somebody
that's able to save you from the wrath of God. That's a powerful
thing. We're talking about somebody
that's able to save us from the curse of the law. That's a powerful
thing. From the power of darkness. From
the sting of death. From hell. Whoever is able to
save somebody from these mighty things, I tell you, he must be
glorious. And Jesus Christ has that glory.
And He says, you're called You call to the obtaining of this
glory. You don't buy it. You can't earn
it. He gives it to you. He shares it with you. Who can give life to a spiritually
dead sinner? Who has the power and the means
to reach down and wash a filthy soul? Who has a garment that
can close the shame of a naked sinner? A garment that is so
holy that when it covers you, you can stand flawless and blameless
before eyes of an all-searching God? Who has such a garment?
Jesus Christ. He's loved us and washed us from
our sins. He has clothed us in the garments
of salvation. God hath made Christ to be sin
for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. I tell you, He's got some glory attached
to Him. And the Holy Spirit calls us not to brag on us. He calls
us and He humbles us. And He makes us feel our shame.
And then He points us to Christ and says, look here what I'm
giving you. Look here what He's sharing with you. His glory. What is a good hope? It's Jesus
Christ Himself. A good hope is not based upon
Christ. A good hope is Christ. It is
Christ. He's the sum and the substance
of it. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, hope in Christ, Our hope is within the veil,
whether the forerunner is for us entered. That's our hope. He's already there. Our hope
is seated there. Christ in you, the hope of glory. If Christ is in you, soul, it's
impossible for you to perish. You'll never be punished for
your sins again. Christ in you has already suffered
for your sins. You'll never be separated from
the Father in heaven because Christ in you was already separated
one time on your behalf. If you perish with Christ in
you, then He'll perish with you. And that's impossible. Oh, what
a good hope then. What a good hope. And don't you
praise Him for it. Bless His holy name. Let's pray.