I'm going to go to another place
to bring my message. But there it says in verse 5
here of Colossians chapter 1, for the hope which is laid up
for you in heaven. Where do you hear about this
hope? In the Word. In the Word of the truth of the
Gospel. Now, turn over to Timothy, 1
Timothy with me. 1 Timothy. Last Sunday I talked about Christ
made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.
Today I'm going to talk about Christ, our hope. Christ, our
hope. And what a blessed, glorious,
Hope it is. Laid up for us in heaven. We
heard about it. This is not cunningly devised
fables. This is not something men made up. Not something the
church decided, well, we need to give somebody some hope. No,
this is laid up for us in heaven. We heard it before in the truth
of the gospel. Word of truth. And before we
heard that, we didn't have one. But look what he says here in
verse 1. Paul. an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.
One and the same. God our Savior and the Lord Jesus
Christ. The same person. Now watch this. Our hope. Our hope. Our hope. Oh, my. I rejoice in hope. Don't you?
Paul talked about rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. Rejoice
in hope of the glory of God that God has revealed to us, given
to us in our Lord Jesus Christ. Hope is one thing that people
cannot live without. Take hope away from them. They're
going to die. They're going to wither away.
They're going to commit suicide. They're going to just be miserable.
They're going to stay at home. They're not going to do anything.
Take hope away. The Scripture says, Hope deferred maketh the
heart sick. Whenever you have this hope,
You have this hope, you just, oh, this thing's going to be
alright. It's going to come out alright. You have this hope,
this confident expectation, and then that hope doesn't come to
pass the way you've got such a, it's so strong. When it don't come to pass, then
it makes your heart sick. You say, oh, just get heart sick
about it. Just get heart sick about it. Well, I know this about believers.
They've got a hope that'll never be deferred, that'll never make
their heart sink. Whatever else may happen in this
world. That's why we don't put our eggs but in one basket. The
same place God put all His, in His blessed Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know, if you ask believers
what is the hope that they have, give a reason for your hope,
and we have one word, Christ. Christ. And I was telling Gary
and Mary the other day that Scott told me about a woman in the
hospital fixing to die. And an Armenian preacher went
in and was going to talk to her, you know. She is a believer. Believed in the grace of God.
And this Armenian preacher went in to witness to her and talk
to her, you know, making his rounds. And asked her, you know,
is she ready to go? She said, yeah, I'm ready to
go. Yeah. Well, what's your hope? She said, Christ. He said, is
that enough? She said, if He's all you got,
He's enough. If He's all you got, He's enough.
He's enough. And oh beloved, what is Christ
to the believer? What is Christ to us? He's our
hope. He's our rest. He's our head. He's our foundation. He's our
clothing. We're clothed with His righteousness.
We're joined to Him. We have our life from Him. Everything
about Him is ours. And our whole life exists and
consists because of Him. And that's why, you know, when
I read that He's our head, you know, without the head, you can't
live. And if anything's wrong with
the head, it's going to affect the whole body. Well, our head
is God Himself. Our head is Christ the Lord.
The head of His body is God Almighty. The Creator and Sustainer of
this universe. And we are joined to Him who is the head. And our
whole life comes from Him who is the head. And beloved, He
is our hope. Let me tell you about two hopes
in the scripture. Christ our hope. There's the
grace of hope. There's the grace of hope. Let
me show you that over here in Romans chapter 5. Let me show
you what I mean by that. There's the grace of hope. This
is what God gives us. God gives us His hope. It's a
grace. It's like faith that He gives us, repentance He gives
us, justification He gives. He gives us hope. We're saved
by hope. And hope that is seen is not
hope. And it's a confident expectation
based upon some good thing to come. And look what here it says
in Romans 5.1. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
So we've got peace. And through Christ by whom also
we have access by faith into this grace. We're standing in
grace and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only
rejoice in hope of the glory of God, but not only that, but
we glory in our tribulations, trials we have, knowing that
our tribulations and our trials and our heartaches works patience.
And our patience works experience and experience hope. Now watch
this. And hope maketh not ashamed. Why? Because the love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given
unto us. God spread this hope in our hearts.
God spread it abroad in our hearts. That's why we're not ashamed
in our trials. That's why we're not ashamed
in our tribulation. A lot of people get mad at God
when they ask Him, and they're looking for some good thing,
and it don't come down to suit Him, and they just quit. Say,
I was expecting this from God, and He didn't give it, so they
just quit. But we're not ashamed. I'm not
ashamed of a trial or you. I'm not ashamed of heartaches
that God sends my way. Do you reckon Job was ashamed
when God sent him on the ash heap and destroyed everything
he had? And he was scraping the balls
on his body with a potsherd? Job, are you ashamed? I know
this. Don't he kill me. Slay me. I'm going to trust him. That's the grace of hope I'm
talking about that God puts in our heart. that God puts in our
hearts so this grace of hope now let me tell you something
the second hope I'm going to talk about is the object of our
hope and that object of our hope is the Lord Jesus Christ Christ
who is our hope Paul said the Lord Jesus our hope that's what
I just read to you here now if you've got the grace of hope
how can I tell that I've got the grace of hope that God put
this hope in my heart that I'm saved by this hope That I'm not
ashamed of this hope. How can I tell that I've got
the grace of hope? Is Christ the object of your
hope? If you've got the grace of hope, Christ's the object
of your hope. If Christ's the object of your hope, it's because
God's put grace in your heart to have Him as your hope. Ain't
that right? Oh, the object of our hope is the Lord Jesus Himself.
And what I mean by that is that everything we look for in this
world, Everything, all the good we look for, we look for only
from, by, and through, and because of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the only hope I have. All the good that I look for
in this world. The world ain't going to treat me good. My flesh
is not going to treat me good. The devil's not going to treat
me good. But I look for nothing but good from the Lord Jesus
Christ. I look for nothing but good by
Him, through Him, and because of Him. Now other people can
make what they want to be their hope, but us as believers, the
Lord Jesus Christ alone is the object of our hope. He's the
one we look to for everything. So what are the things we hope
for by our Lord Jesus, from our Lord Jesus, through our Lord
Jesus? Now there's two ways in which we have our hope. Through
our Lord Jesus Christ. We have hope through Him for
the life we live right now. We're living right now. We lived
yesterday, and we're living today, and if God lets us live, we'll
live tomorrow. What's going to be our hope for this world right
here? What's going to be our hope? Huh? For our life that
we live in this world. With all the things that attends
this life. What is our hope? Whether we
have a heart attack? Whether we go to the doctor and
he tells us we've got cancer? Whether we find out we've got
a brain tumor? Whether we've got to have a hip replaced? What is our hope? I'm talking
about the life right now. Oh my. Our temporal life. Our outward life. Our body. What's
the hope for our bodies right now and the things we go through?
I know this. We don't look to any creature.
We don't look to any creature. We don't look to any man. We
don't look to the doctor. We don't look to the lawyer.
We don't look to the flesh. I don't look to you, and you
don't look to me. We don't look to any creature. We don't look
to the second causes. Christ alone is our hope. He
alone is our hope. Look with me in Psalm 146. I told you the other day I was
talking to a doctor that performs surgery all day long, Psalm 146,
on Wednesdays. And he says his mother prays
for him on that day. His mother is 92 years old. She
is from Spain. And she said, my mother prays
for me all day while I'm in surgery. And I said, you know, that's
the way believers do. I said, if they know somebody that's
got to go to a doctor or go to a surgeon, something's wrong
with them. We don't pray for the person. We actually pray
for the doctor. Give them wisdom. God that knife. Give them, teach
them, help them to know what to do. Help them to know what
to do. Because I know if that child
of God don't come out of that operating room, you know where
they're going to go? It's like Charlie Payne said when he went to the
hospital his last time, he said, I'm going to either get well
or really well. And he got really well. He said,
one way or another, I'm going to be made well. Whether the
surgeon through operating on me or God coming and getting
me, I'm going to be made well. And that's what he meant. And
that's why we don't look to second causes and don't look to creatures.
And look here at Psalm 146 in verse 3. Put not your trust in
princes. Put not your trust in princes.
Don't put your trust in presidents, kings, mighty men of the earth,
people who seem to be something. Don't put your trust in princes.
Sure don't put it in a son of man. Son of any man. in whom there is no help. What
are they going to do for you? Watch it now. You know what happens
to him? His breath goes forth. One time
he draws his last breath and leaves his body and he don't
take another. What's that? And he returns to the earth.
He come out of the dust. He's going to go back. And that
very day, even the thoughts that he had perished. But now listen
to it. Happy, blessed is he that hath
the God of Jacob for his help. Watch it. Whose hope Yes it is,
and the Lord is God. Oh my, what a hope, what a hope
we have. Alright beloved, in all our wants,
in all our wants, I look to the Lord Jesus. In all our necessities,
things we absolutely got to have, I look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
We look to Him, He's our hope for what we have in this world.
We look to Him, beloved, whether it's fair weather or foul, whether
we're doing good in business or whether we ain't, whether
we got health or got bad health. We're still looking to Him. He's
our hope. And when we're in pain, we look
to Him to ease our pain. He alone must be our help. David
said, The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. And in our dangers, And oh, how
many dangers comes our way that we don't know anything about,
and in our troubles, and you hang around, and you're going
to be in trouble. You're either in trouble, coming
out of trouble, or going into trouble. That's the nature of
a believer in this world. God needs it that way to wean
us from this world. We're going to have trouble.
But after God said this, cast your care upon me, and I shall
sustain thee. Yea, the righteous has many afflictions,
yet the Lord delivers him out of them all. And we have dangers,
and we have troubles. Oh, sometimes we have so many
troubles, just like, you know, we just come from every direction. Trouble, trouble, trouble, worries,
anxieties, and oh, troubles, they come. Bad trouble from the
doctor. Bad trouble from your kids. Bad
trouble from your grandchildren. Bad trouble on your job. Trouble,
trouble, trouble. Well, who are we going to look
to to get us out of this trouble, sustain us in this trouble? Preserve
us in these troubles. Uphold us in these troubles.
Get us through these troubles until the sun shines again. And
we can see it. The Lord Jesus Christ. That's
all we do. Oftentimes we'll say, Lord, just
have mercy. Don't ask for nothing but mercy.
Just strength for my day. Strength for my hour. Strength
for what I'm going through now. Why did Paul tell that bunch
on that ship when he was fixing to wreck? He says, God's going
to save everybody on this ship, but we're going to lose the ship.
I'll tell you, we may lose a ship, but God's going to keep us. The
ship may go down, but everybody on that ship is going to be saved.
That's what Paul said. The ship, we're going to lose
it. Everything on the ship is going to go down, but God's going
to save every one of you. And our little old ship may be
torn to all the pieces, but God's going to get us on the shore.
Going to get us on the shore. And oh, beloved, what about who
do we look to for hope for our children? And I'm talking about
in this life, concerning our children. What's our hope for
our children? What's the hope for our grandchildren?
Who do we call on for our children and our grandchildren? Who do
we look to? Who do we pray for? What do we
do? We say, well, I'm just going
to leave them alone. I'm just going to let them go
their own way. I'm just going to quit worrying about them.
I'm not going to be concerned about them anymore. No, we don't
do that. Why don't we say, Oh Lord, there's
no hope for them to part from You. There's no hope for them
to spend eternity. There's no hope for them in this
world. No hope for them in the world to come if You don't do
something for them. So He's our hope even for our
children. For now and after we're gone,
after we're gone, we do not know what our children will be. We
don't know how long they'll live, we don't know what they're going
to end up, what their life's going to be, what's going to
happen with our grandchildren. But when we're gone, the same
hope we had for them in this world will be the same hope,
and we'll have to leave them in their hands, in His hands.
Ain't that right? I commend them to you, Lord.
When we leave this world, I commend them to you, Lord, if you don't
save them. We tell them with our dying breath, the only hope
you have is Christ. Please come to Christ. Go hear
the gospel and believe on Christ. There's not a mother, there's
not a father, there's not a grandpa, there's not a soul in this world,
a grandmother, that's hope for their children. is not in Christ
for them. And they'll never quit praying
and hoping and trusting. And, oh, beloved, Christ is our
hope for this world. He's our hope for the resurrection
of this old body. Huh? Oh, my. Oh, my. It's our children. Now, let me tell you this. Not
only is He our hope for now, Right now, for this life we're
living in now. And we give Him thanks for every
day that goes over our head that He's gave us hope for that day
and got us through that day. Some days are just full of joy
and peace and hope and laughter and rejoicing and other days
are just the opposite. You just barely seem like you're
going to get through it. But those are God's days that
He gives us. But now let's talk about the not life to come. He's
our hope for this life. But He is our hope for the world
to come too. Oh, hope for things that concern
the life to come. Spiritual things, eternal things.
You see, and these things, our hope must be in Christ alone.
People are going to live in this world. They're going to get by
in this world. But oh my, if they don't have Christ, they're
certainly not going to live in the world to come. Paul says, you know, over in
Colossians 3.11, Christ is our all and end all. We are complete
in Him who is the head of all principalities and powers. And
he says that He hath begotten us again unto a living hope.
So Christ is our spiritual hope. And that's what Paul's talking
about here. Our spiritual hope. The Lord Jesus, our hope. Our
hope for eternity. And oh, you see, beloved, He's
the one who made us holy. He's the one who sanctified us.
He's the one who makes us acceptable. We're accepted in the beloved.
God will not accept us outside of Christ. He won't hear us pray
outside of Christ. He won't have anything to do
with us outside of Christ. He has made of us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification. Sanctification is our holiness.
I cannot be... I want to talk about this sanctification
again. Let me tell you this. I'll say
it again and again. Holiness. is a state of being. God is never more holy at one
time than he is another. And us in Christ are never more
holy at one time than we are another. No more than righteousness. Righteousness cannot be more
righteous than it is. Either you're righteous or you
ain't. God is righteous and we have the righteousness of Christ.
Now sanctification, some people say that sanctification is progressive.
That you can get holier and more better and that in this world.
But let me tell you about sanctification. You can grow in grace, but you
can't grow in sanctification. You can grow in the knowledge
of Christ, but you can't grow in sanctification. And this is
the reason that God sends us trials, is to wean us off of
this world. He's gonna see that we live by
faith, and as we grow more aware of Christ, more aware of this
flesh, more aware of this world, and more aware of our own inabilities,
and that, that, beloved, is weighing us more and more and more from
the world. And makes us trust to Christ.
And the closer we get to the end, the more we trust Him and
look to Him and trust Him and make Him the object of our hope.
Now, people call that what they want to. But I do know this,
that God will... He's like trying to wean a baby
off of a bottle. It's a hard thing to get a baby
off of a bottle. It's a harder thing to get a
baby off of the mother's breast. They want it. They live by it. And what God does is because
of this flesh, because of the propensity of our fallen nature,
what God does is He has to jerk that baking pot out of our mouth.
And we'll reach again and again, He's got to break our fingers
if He has to, but He's going to wean us off of this world.
Wean us from trusting the flesh. Ain't that right? Now, oh, but
He's the author. That's why he's our hope. He's
the author of our faith. Where do we get our faith? He's
the author of it. Who's going to complete it? Who's
going to finish it? He is. Oh, where do we get the forgiveness
of our sins? He forgave us, cleansed us from
all our sins with his own blood. who justified our persons in
the sight of God. Christ our Lord is our justification. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that aware in Christ we have peace with God through
Christ. In our services, my preaching,
your praying, our witnessing, our trying to be a help to one
another, all the services, all the sacrifices, all our prayers,
even our tears, everything we do are only made acceptable for
His sake. Look over here in 1 Peter 2. This is what people, where they
really, really miss it, is they think that they are going to
get on the good side of God and get blessings by the things that
they do. But they don't understand that
all of our blessings are in Christ. That's what makes Him our hope. Any service we do is made acceptable
by Him. It's He that works in us both
to will and to do of our good pleasure. And if we do anything
right, it's because He made us do it. If we have a good thought,
He's the one that put it there. Let Him leave you in your own
mind for just a little while. Let it run wild. And you'll say,
oh God, please keep me from them thoughts. But oh, look here,
in our sacrifices, all of them are spiritual. You can't bring
a sacrifice and lay it up here and give it to God. You can't
give a sacrifice with your hands to God. What in the world would
you give to God to sacrifice to Him? To get a blessing from
Him, would you give money? Cattle on a thousand hills, all
the gold is. If you give your body to be burned
at the stake, that ain't going to do you no good if the love
of Christ ain't in you. And look what it says here in 1 Peter
2.5. He also, as living stones, lively
stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood, watch
this now, to offer up spiritual sacrifices to Jesus Christ. And for prayer we pray. Everything
we do, our service, everything this morning, is a spiritual
thing that we do. Our worship is spiritual, our
prayers are spiritual. Everything that we give, it's
a spiritual sacrifice. Look in Hebrews, back to your
left, just a little bit. Hebrews 13.15. I'm sorry for people who want
to bring their works. He said, present your bodies
a living sacrifice. We just give ourselves away.
As old Barnard said, get out your paint pen, get out your
pencil every morning and just sign your life away to the Lord
Jesus Christ one more day. Get up and say, Lord, I'm yours
for another day. I'm giving myself to you for
another day. I want to live to your glory for another day. I
want this day to be your day. I'm going to give myself, I'm
going to sign my life away one more time to Christ my Lord. And look what it says here in
Hebrews 13, 15. By Him. Therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise. Praise is called. God says it's
a sacrifice. To God. Continue. That is the
fruit of our lips. Oh, this is coming out of your
lips. Oh, bless His holy name. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Oh, God,
thank you for that sweet savor of Christ. Blessed be His name. Let our sacrifice of praise to
God continue the fruit of our lives, giving thanks to His name. Oh, it's spiritual. And they're
made acceptable only for His sake and by Him. And oh, that's
why it's our hope. It's by Him that we live. Because
I live, you live also, our Lord said. He said, apart from Me,
you can do nothing. Without me, you can do nothing.
He didn't say, without me, you can do a few things. He didn't say, you know, I'll
help you do some things, you know, that you can do it, but
I'll just need my help occasionally. He says, no, without me, you
can do nothing. And you know what nothing is?
You ever seen nothing? You can't see nothing. If there was nothing in this
building, it would be me. But you know nothing. God took
nothing and made the world. And that nothing, what is nothing? He said, without me, you can
do nothing. And you know what? This is why
we know Christ is the object of our hope, because we wouldn't
want to do anything without Him. Oh my, and we have spiritual
enemies. We have corruptions in our own
heart and soul. We have temptations. We have
the devil come and speak to us and deal with us. We have the
world that bombards us. We have this flesh to deal with.
How in the world are we going to have victory over these things?
We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. That means
that not only do we win and overcome them and have the victory, but
we're there for everything that we go through. We come out better
on the other side. That's why Job said, though He
slay me, I'm going to trust Him. I'm going to trust Him. And oh,
the Holy Spirit being our comforter, our Lord says, you know, I'm
not leaving you comfortless. The Holy Spirit will come and
He'll comfort you. He'll comfort you. I'll not leave
you by yourself. I'll send the Holy Spirit and
He'll be your comforter. He comes to take the place of
Christ in our lives. So we have His presence and His
power. Persevering grace. Look over here in Jude. Jude,
the last little book before you get to Revelation. One chapter. Persevering grace comes from
Him. We're kept by His power. Kept
by the power of God through faith in Christ. Father, I pray that
you keep them through thy name. Keep them. And you know, here's
the thing about it. We know that God's going to keep
us. But he puts it in our hearts that we want to be kept. It's not just that we sit back
in the chair and twiddle our thumbs and say, well, it don't
make no difference what goes on. God's going to keep me. No,
no. You know one way you know that
He's keeping you? You want to be kept, and because you want
to be kept, you keep yourself from certain things. Because
you want to be kept. We keep ourselves from idols.
Why? Because we want to be kept. Look here in Jude verse 24. Persevered grace is from Him. Now unto Him that is able, To
keep you from falling. Oh my, to keep you from falling.
And to present you. Not only keep you from falling,
but also, He's going to keep you from falling all the way
through this life. But when you get to the end, He's going to
present you faultless. Where at? Before the presence
of His glory and with exceeding joy. He's going to be the one
with exceeding joy presenting you faultless. What a blessed hope we have,
that our beloved, and not only this, when I was dealing with
this the other day, I just almost just wept, but He'll bear us
off to the next world. Not only keep us from falling,
but He's going to bear us off to the next world. He's going
to come and get us and take us to the next. He says, the Lord
is... Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil. For thou art
with me, thou art with me, I fear no evil. He said he'll send his
angels and gather his elect from the four corners of the earth.
And when we get there, you know what we're going to say? Unto
him that loved us, redeemed us with his own precious blood.
And then he'll give us that kingdom prepared for us from the foundation
of the world. And the resurrection of our bodies
at the last day is because of him. This whole body that's going
to go to the grave, and we tell it goodbye, and we put it in
the ground, and they put all that dirt back over it. That
body's going to come up out of there, and it's going to be resurrection
to go be with Christ. He said, He is the resurrection.
And what kind of body is it going to be? You know, you see an acorn. There's a few acorns around.
And when you look at an acorn, that's a certain kind of a seed.
But you look at an acorn, you put an acorn in the ground, and
a tree comes out of that acorn. You put a yellow piece of corn
in the ground and a green stalk comes up out of it. Put a pink
piece of corn in the ground and a green stalk comes up out of
it. Put a white bean in the ground and something green comes up
out of it. Now how can that be? That's why Paul says there's
different bodies. One kind is sown but a different
comes forth. Now what kind of body are we
going to sow? A corruptible body. When we put in the ground, we're
putting in a corruptible body. What kind of God is going to
bring up out of the ground? He's going to sow it and corrupt it,
but it's going to be raised incorruptible. We're going to sow it, it's going
to be sown in weakness, but it's going to be raised in power. This body here is not the same
one that's coming out. This body here is weak and it's
corruptible, but that's not the body he's going to bring out.
And, O beloved, the people of God are people of great, great
hopes. And all the things that I've
mentioned, they look for all this. They look for every bit
of it. And what do they look for? A hope laid out for them
in heaven. What is that hope? The Lord Jesus
Christ in Him alone. The Lord Jesus is a great Savior.
Oh, what a great Savior. And He can answer all our hopes,
meet all of our hopes. You know why? Because He's got
the wherewithal to give it. He is able to do exceedingly
above whatever we can ask or even think. He's able. And I
do know this, that men are fools. Men are fools who don't make
Christ their hope. I do know that. But why do we
make the Lord Jesus Christ our hope for the life that now is
and the hope to come? And the life to come. Why do
we make Him our hope right now? And if we live tomorrow, tomorrow.
And if He lets us live next year, He'll still be our hope. Why?
Be a more precious hope. And for the life to come. Because
of who He is. Who He is. He's the Lord of Glory. He's a God our Savior. He's God
our Redeemer. He's God who came and identified
Himself with us and became one with us to bear our sins away.
You see, Paul said, we know whom we've trusted. We know who we
have believed. I know whom I believe. Somebody
don't have to tell me who, but I know who I believe. And we
know with whom we've hoped. We know that. Look over at Hebrews
6 with me just a moment. We've looked at this many times
over the years. Look at it again. Hebrews 6, in verse 18. We know whom we've hoped. Paul says here in verse 18 of
Hebrews 6 that by two immutable things. What immutable things?
The immutability of God's will. That's one thing that's immutable.
And his oath as the second immutable thing. God's will cannot be changed. And God's promises cannot never
be altered. So he confirmed it by an oath. So by these two immutable things,
it was impossible for God to lie. We have a strong consolation. Now watch this, "...who has fled
for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before." Where do we
hear this hope in the word and truth of the gospel? We run to
it. We run to it. We fled to it. We hide in this
hope. Now watch this. Which hope we
have is an anchor of our soul. Our soul needs an anchor. Well,
it's got one. And a hope is compared to an
anchor. And an anchor, beloved, is to keep the ship steady in
storms. You know, drop the anchor. You've
got to have an anchor according to the size of the ship. You've got to have one big enough
to hold the ship. to keep it from going here, yonder,
and everywhere. And drop that anchor. If you
drop that anchor, that ship's going to stay there. It may need
wind and rain, but it's going to stay there. And that's why
He said, which anchor we have as a soul. Christ is our anchor. Our soul's got a strong anchor.
It's been dropped. It's in Christ. And it's sure. And it's steadfast. How do you
know? It's behind the veil. That's
got my soul anchored. My soul is anchored in heaven
itself. I've got an anchor in glory,
sitting on the throne of God, sitting at the right hand of
God. Huh? Oh, that's our anchor. Where's
your anchor at? You know, when an anchor's dropped,
you can't see it. And I recognize the veil. Oh,
what an anchor. Oh, you say, well, that's not.
No, no, no. That anchor's going to hold.
It's sure and it's steadfast. Why? Because it's Christ. It
fastens on Christ. And let me give you this and
take me just four or five minutes. Three things we have in Him to
lay our hope upon. Three things that cause us to
lay our hope on Him. And lay it on him. Grab him.
The price he paid to purchase us. Oh, that's why. Oh, he redeemed us with his own
precious blood. As a lamb without spot, without...
He paid for our sins. He gave God the Father the price
of our redemption. The price of our sins. The price
of our freedom was his own blood. And he paid the full value. God
accepted his price. He entered once into the holy
place and there, beloved, he attained eternal redemption.
He paid for our sins with his own blood. Oh, that's why we rejoice in
hope. And then the promise, not only the price he paid, but the
promise he has made to those who come to him. Come to me and I'll give you rest. Come
to me and you'll find rest. Come unto me and I'll give you
life. I'll be the water to you. I'll be your bread. I'll be your
comforter. I'll be your dressing. I'll be
the health of your soul. I'll be your great physician
to heal your diseases. I'll be everything to you. And
He's made that promise. Can we trust Him? Is He faithful? Will He deceive us? No, no, no. If we had as many souls as we
have the hairs on our head, we could venture every one of them
on His very Word because we have His oath. And the third thing why we have
in Him to lay our hopes upon, not only the price He paid to
purchase our souls and to purchase soul and body, the promise He's
made to those who come to Him. And I've come. If you come, I'm
coming now. Now here's intercession for us.
Oh, He pleads for us. To see that we have all that
He bought for us. He bought redemption for us.
He don't give it to us. He brought faith for us. He don't
give it to us. He don't sustain it. Everything
that He bought for us and everything He promised, He ever lives to
see that we get it. He ever lives to make intercession
for us. Right now, He's pleading for
His children in glory. I'm going to write a newspaper
article, why would you go to a saint when you can go to Christ?
Why would you go to Mary when you can go to Christ? Why would
you go to a priest when you can go to Christ? Why would you join a church when
you can be joined to Christ? Why would you have your hope
in a church and not have it in Christ? It don't make sense to
us. Why would I go to you and not
go to Christ? Our Lord exists to ensure that
His will is done for all whom He died for. He's going to guarantee
this is going to happen. And what a blessed, glorious
hope we have. So why shouldn't we make Him
our hope? Why shouldn't we make Him our
hope? Why shouldn't we? And I know this, that if you
have this hope, it will never make you ashamed. Won't make
you ashamed of him in this world. If you're laying dying and folks
say, well, where's your God at now? Like they asked David. Our
God's in the heavens. That's where he's at. They asked
Henry Mayhead after his son got killed in Vietnam. 1969. Henry's a young man. Son
got killed at a priest's funeral. Brought his body back. Pastor
Mahan knows exactly what his message was. People all over
knew what he preached. Where's your God now, Henry?
Pastor Mahan, where's your God, Henry Mahan? When your son died. You know what Henry said? Same
place he was when his son died. He was on his throne. He was
in his glory. That's why we make Christ our
hope. That don't make you ashamed. Let men say what they will. We're
not ashamed. We're not ashamed. Whatever comes
our way. Let the world make fun of you
and say, Oh, I thought you God done this. I thought you God
done that. Huh? We'll never be ashamed in this
world. And when we face God, bless His holy name, we won't
be ashamed there either. Let me tell you this. If you're
Christless, If you're Christless, you're hopeless. Our Father, our gracious God,
thank you for allowing us this blessed, blessed time to meet
with the children of God, to speak about our dear, dear Savior,
our Redeemer, oh, the very lover of our souls. He that loved us,
washed us, cleansed us with his own blood. The one that makes us acceptable. We're accepted. Thank you, Father,
for making us acceptable in Christ. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for all
you've done and all you're doing. That's why we look to you. That's
why you're our hope. And thank you for making us putting
in our hearts this blessed, blessed hope, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank you. Save your people. Open hearts. Enable souls to trust. Enable
them to confess you. We ask these in Christ's name.
Amen. Let's turn to 272. Stand with
me. We'll sing. Sing this.