Paul has finally arrived at Rome. And we know that he spent two
years in prison there in his own rented out house. Verses
30 and 31, and Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired
house. The Bible doesn't tell us what
happened to him after those two years, but church tradition has
it that he was beheaded. after those two years. We're
not sure, but that seems likely. And he tells these people, verse
16, when we were come to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners
to the captain of the guard, but Paul was suffered to dwell
by himself with a soldier that kept him. He didn't have to go
into the prison cell with the other prisoners. And it came
to pass that after three days, Paul called the chief of the
Jews together, and when they were come together, he said unto
them, men and brethren, though I have committed nothing against
the people, speaking of the Jews, or customs of our fathers, yet
was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem into the hands of the
Romans, who, when they had examined me, would have let me go. Because
there was no cause of death in me. But when the Jews spake against
it, him being let go, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar. Remember,
he was a Roman citizen and he was able to appeal to Caesar. Someone that was not a Roman
citizen would not be allowed to do that. But he and the Lord's
good providence was a Roman citizen. And so he appealed to Caesar. Not that I had ought to accuse
my nation of, I wasn't accusing them of anything. For this cause,
therefore, have I called you to see you and to speak to you. Here is why I am arrested. Here is why I'm bound with this
chain. For the hope of Israel. I am bound with this chain. I've entitled this message, The
Hope of Israel. Now who's he talking about when
he's talking about Israel? Is he talking about physical
Israel? Is he talking about that nation in the Middle East? No. He's talking about spiritual
Israel. He's talking about the elect
of God. He's talking about all of those who believe. Now, you're
looking right now at an Israelite. I'm a true Jew. Turn with me
for a moment to Romans chapter two. You know, it's almost unbelievable the way people
make God having two programs, one for the Jews and one for
Christians. And that is ridiculous. That's all you can call it. Ridiculous. Look what Paul says in Romans
chapter two, beginning in verse 28. For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision,
which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew, which is one
inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of
men, but of God. Now that is the Israelite he's
talking about. Look in Romans chapter nine. Verse six, not as though the
word of God has taken none effect, for they are not all Israel,
which are of Israel, Neither, because they are the seed of
Abraham, physical Jews, are they all children, but in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. That is they, which are the children
of the flesh. What's that say? These are not the children of
God. Got that? These are not the children
of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. One other scripture, turn to
Philippians chapter three, verse three, for we are the circumcision.
We are the true Jews. We are the people who have undergone
that circumcision made without hands. We are the circumcision,
which worship God in the spirit. Now understand, that doesn't
mean worshiping God in a very simple manner, a spiritual manner,
and not having all the props of religion, although that's
certainly included. What that means is I worship
God in the Holy Spirit. It is only by the Spirit of God
that a man can worship God. If you worship God tonight, it's
because the Spirit of God caused you to. That's why, and I've
said this on numerous occasions, I don't say, come worship with
us. I just don't say that. I don't know whether you can
or not. If God enables you to, you can. If He gives you a new
nature, you can. If you're born in the Spirit,
you can. But I'm not going to say to a natural man, come worship
with us. I'm going to say, come hear the gospel. You're welcome.
We want you here. We want you to hear. But I'm
not going to say, come worship with us. It is only those who
worship who worship by the Spirit of God. You can't worship unless
you're born in the Spirit. You can't worship unless you're
born again. It's the new man, the new creature in Christ Jesus
that worships. Well, what does that look like
when someone worships in the Spirit? They rejoice, they glory
is the word in Christ Jesus. That is spiritual worship. to glory in Christ Jesus. Paul put it this way, God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. If I worship in the spirit, that
means I look to Christ only. Only. What happens when somebody
does that? Look what he says next. No confidence
in the flesh. Now here's when someone rejoices
only in Christ Jesus when they have no confidence in the flesh. You know how much confidence
I have in my flesh? Zilch. Zero. It's no good. All I have confidence in is Christ
Jesus. Now that is spiritual worship. And Paul says for the hope of
Israel, That's the Israel he's talking about. All of God's elect. All of God's people. Just forget
that notion of something, you know, they talk about the holy
land. It ain't holy. It ain't, it's
land. That's it. It's not holy. It's dirty. There's bad stuff
that happens there, but don't call it the holy land. Christ
Jesus is the holy land. Back to our text. Acts chapter 28. For the hope of Israel. I am bound with this chain. Hope. Now I'm going to be for
just a moment. give something of an experience
I've had. The worst experience I've ever
had in my life. Bet that interests you. I hope. The worst experience I've ever
had in my life was in 1990. I was on chemotherapy at that
time. I was on chemotherapy for a whole
year. I had nine months of it and it stretched out for a year
because there were three months where my white blood count was,
I couldn't take it, I'd have to wait. But during this time,
I was on all kinds of medications. And I don't know what led me
to do this, but I decided to change some of my medications.
Without asking the doctor, I just did it. And somebody says, that's
stupid. I agree. But I did it. And I found myself just getting
down, getting down, getting down. And I actually went into a state
of depression. And I'm not talking about feeling
the blues. I'm talking about feeling absolutely hopeless. The worst feeling I've ever had. Hopeless. It's not gonna get
better. I remember I felt suicidal. I told Lynn, don't let me drive
because I'm afraid if I drive, I'll just drive the car into
the telephone pole. I was that depressed and hopeless. And I was even trying to preach
like that. I was questioning the existence of God, and I was
thinking, if there is a God, I don't know him. And I knew
this, if I was saved, he would be in spite of me. You know,
it could be that's the purest my faith ever was. If I was saved, he would be in
spite of me. It would simply be because of,
but that feeling of hopelessness, when people, it used to be when
people would go into depression, I'd think, believe God, man.
Straighten up, believe God. There's no excuse for this kind
of unbelief. But once it happened to me, I'll
never feel that way again. I understand what it is to feel
hopeless. Without hope, things aren't gonna
become better. Now, I went to the doctor, because
that's not real typical with me. I'm not a super positive
guy, I don't guess. I'm probably, some people would
even accuse me of being pessimistic. I call it realistic. It's not
pessimistic, it's realistic. But I was not that type of person,
and I went to the doctor, and the first thing he said to me,
have you changed anything? I said, yeah, I have. And he
said, well, stop this and do that. And next day I started
broadening up. But the point is, the Lord used
that to teach me something about hopelessness. I got one chemical
out of whack and every one of us are one chemical out of whack
turning into basket cases. Every one of us are. And that
happened to me and I understood this thing of being hopeless. Hope, what is hope? Hope is a
confident expectation. I don't mean you think it'll
rain tomorrow, hope not, or do you think the sun will shine
tomorrow, hope so. I'm not talking about that kind
of hope. I'm talking about you think the sun will rise tomorrow?
I've got a confident expectation it will. If the Lord doesn't
come back today, yes, it will for sure. That's what scriptural
hope is. It's a confident expectation
with regard to the future. Now I have a hope that on Judgment Day, when my
name is called, Jesus Christ will answer for me. And I have a hope that my life
will be scrutinized by the law of God and the holiness of God,
and my life is going to be perfect. No sin. He never did anything wrong.
He always did that which is perfect and right. That's a hope, isn't it? And
this isn't pie-in-the-sky hope. This is gospel hope. You see, the reason I have this
hope is because my Lord, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, stood
as my surety before time began and said, everything you require
of Him, you look to me for. And the Father did. And all my
sin was put away. It is non-existent. It is no
more. And Jesus Christ's righteousness
is my personal righteousness before God. And I also have a
hope that everything between now and then is working together
for my good. no matter what it is. I've seen
painful things, I've seen difficult things. Many of you have seen
more painful things and more difficult things. I feel like
I have had relatively, I've been relatively trial-free other than
a few health problems, and some of you have gone through much
more severe things than I have. But you have the same hope. Your
hope, if you're a believer, is that when you stand before God,
you're gonna be without sin. perfect in Christ Jesus, and
that everything between now and then, God is working together
for your good and for His glory. God is called in Romans chapter
15, verse 13, the God of hope. I love His name, the God of hope. Christ is called in 1 Timothy
1.1, Christ our hope. My hope is Christ Jesus. And
then in Romans 8, 24, we read, we're saved by hope. Now that
doesn't mean we're saved by our ability to hope. We're saved
by him who is our hope. I'm not saved because I have
hope. I'm saved because Christ died for me. I'm saved because
Christ stands as my intercessor. It's not my act of hoping that
saves me. Sometimes I would wonder where
hope is. Sometimes I'd wonder where peace
is, as far as my own experience goes, the way I'm thinking, the
way I'm feeling. But my hope is Christ Jesus, the Lord, and
I'm saved by him. Peter said in 1 Peter 3, 15,
to always be ready to give an answer to every man that asks
you a reason for the hope that's in you. Can you give somebody a scriptural
reason for the hope that's in you? And you know something that
could be implied by this passage of scripture, you know we ought
to conduct ourselves in such a way as people ask us. We ought to. What's the reason for your hope?
How is it that you are the way you are? And we ought to be able to give
a reason from the scriptures for that hope. Paul said in 2
Corinthians 3, 12, seeing that we have such hope, we use great
plainness, boldness, a speech. Well, what do you talk about
such hope? Here's the hope I have. If Jesus Christ died for me,
my salvation is actually historical, already accomplished. When he
said it is finished, My salvation was finished. Now that's my hope.
It's nothing that has anything to do with anything I've done.
It's when Christ Jesus said, it is finished. My salvation was finished. Such hope. And don't forget where Paul said
in Romans 8.25, Hope that is seen is not hope. Think about him saying that.
Hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth
he yet hope for it? But if we hope for that which
we see not, then do we with patience wait for it? Now, this thing
of hope, if you look and see some reason in you, to give you
that hope. Well, it's not a good hope. Hope that's seen is not hope. You hope in that which you cannot
see. I cannot see my state of sinlessness
before God. I can't see that right now. No
way. Something I don't see, but I
hope for it. In Christ Jesus, the Lord. Paul said in Ephesians chapter
four, verse five, there's one hope. Every believer has this
one singular hope. Our hope's the same. I mean,
if we're believers, we have the exact same hope. I've heard of people, they say,
well, yeah, there's different experiences. Well, you know,
not really. Not really. You see that you're
nothing but sin, and that the only hope you have is Christ
Jesus. Now, what's different? How's that different? That's
the same in every believer. That is their hope. Here's an
expression of our hope in Hebrews 7, verse 19. Listen to this scripture. The law made nothing perfect,
but the bringing in of a better hope did. The law makes nothing
perfect. The law doesn't do anything but
expose sin. No one who was ever placed under
law, it never produced love. All it produces is resentment.
If I put you under law, you're just gonna resent me and you're
gonna resent especially God because somehow you won't love him out
of that. You'll resent him. The law made
nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did and what
is that better? Hope That all God requires of me he
looks to Christ for The law put salvation in some way dependent
upon me Something I need to do and if you tell me there's anything
I need to do to complete my salvation It ain't gonna get done it won't
with you either. I Here's the better hope. The better hope is that everything
God requires of me, Jesus Christ did as my substitute, and he
is my savior. Living, he loved me. Dying, he
saved me. Buried, he carried my sins far
away. Rising, he justified freely forever. One day he's coming, oh, glorious
day. Paul spoke in 2 Thessalonians
2.16 of a good hope through grace. Now for a hope to be a good hope,
you know, there are people that have some kind of hope. They
think it's going to be all right with them when they die. They
think that when they die, they're going to go to heaven, but it's
not a good hope because it's not a good hope through grace. Salvation is not all of grace
from the beginning to the end. It's not a good hope. Jeremiah
put it this way, this I call in mine, therefore I have hope. It's of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed. That's why I have hope. It's of the Lord's
mercies that we're not consumed. Great is thy faithfulness. Grace. Grace elected me. Grace
redeemed me. Listen, this isn't just doctrine
I ascribe to. This is life. Grace justified
me. Grace regenerated me. Grace preserves
me. Oh, to grace, how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be. Scares me to death when I hear
people even talking about the doctrines of grace. It's the
doctrine of grace. It's grace. It's who God is. It's how he saves. It's our only
hope. Paul spoke in Galatians 5.5 of
the hope of righteousness, which is what justification is. I've
got a hope that right now I'm righteous. And I'm talking about
what God calls righteous. I'm righteous. That's the hope
of justification. That's why. David said in Psalm
119, 43, I hope in my judgments, uh, here's my hope of righteousness.
Then it's a perfectly righteous, just thing that God accomplished
on Calvary street and his judgments. My sin was punished and righteousness
really is mine. The hope of righteousness. Can
I see it? No. Do I believe it? Absolutely. David. Spoken Psalm 31 24 of
hoping in the Lord Now all of our hope is in the Lord He hath
made us accepted in the beloved Blessed be the God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who had blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ according as he has
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. Paul put it this
way in 1 Corinthians 1.30, of him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. Three times in the book of Acts,
Paul spoke of the hope of the resurrection. Now listen to this.
All of my hope is found in that empty tomb. I love the simplicity of that.
Christ Jesus, the Lord, bore my sins. He went into that tomb, put him
away. There's nothing there. I stand
before God in the hope of the resurrection. When Christ was
raised from the dead, I was too. In Colossians 127, Paul said,
Christ in you, the hope of glory, and what an incredible hope that
Jesus Christ is in me. Paul put it this way, I live
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. You know what that means? I believe it's him in me that
causes it. It didn't come from me. I love. I myself love. It's not by proxy. I love him. And I know why. Him and me. Every aspect of salvation. I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me, and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live
by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me. I want you to look at this scripture
with me. First John chapter three. Verse two, beloved, now are we the sons of God. And it does not yet appear what
we shall be. I'm so thankful for that verse
of scripture. John speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. How could you be more inspired
than that? Speaking, actually writing scripture.
under the power of the Holy Spirit. I mean, here on earth, I guess
that's the best. What does he say? We have no
idea what it's gonna be like to be without sin. We have no
idea what it's like to be holy, to be sinless. We don't get it. That's John speaking. But we know that when he shall
appear, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. You know, one glimpse of him
as he is, is so powerful. It's going to make you just like
him. Boop. There it is, just like him. Verse
three, and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself,
even as he is pure. Now somebody's thinking, what
in the world does that mean? How do you go about purifying
yourself? Turn to 1 Peter chapter 1. This helped me so much. It says everybody that has this
hope in him purifies himself. I want to be one of those people,
don't you? Well, how do you go about doing that? Verse 22, seeing you have purified
your souls, in obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned
love of the brethren. See that you love one another
with a pure heart, fervently being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. How do you purify yourself? By
believing the gospel. That's what that means. by obeying
the truth, by believing the gospel that is said to purify our souls. How does it end up? An unfeigned,
an unfaked love for the brethren. Don't, let me ask you, don't
you love everybody who loves Jesus Christ? You do. Somebody that loves Jesus
Christ, you love that person. It's the result of this new nature. Now, with regard to this hope,
let me wrap this up with regard to this hope, that confident
expectation with regard to the future. The writer to the Hebrew says,
let us hold fast, hold tight. Don't let go. The confidence and the rejoicing
of the hope. Firm unto the end. What is the confidence and the
rejoicing of the hope? Well, here's what I have confidence
in Christ. I don't have any confidence in the flesh. Have confidence
in him. What's the rejoicing of that
hope? Same thing. That makes me happy. It makes
me rejoice to know that in Christ I am complete. Turn to Colossians
chapter one. This is very similar. Colossians
chapter one. Verse 21, and you that were sometimes
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to
present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. Now, listen to me. If you're
a believer, you are holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight. And let me remind you, how he
sees things are the way they are. The way you see them, the
way I see them, But the way he sees, that's the way it really
is. And every believer in his sight
is holy, unblameable, and unapprovable. This salvation's real. What Christ
did is real. That describes every believer. Verse 23, if. Don't miss that. If. If. You continue in the faith, grounded
and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel. Now, this is true with regard
to me and you, holy and unblameable and unapprovable in the sight
of God if we continue in the faith. God's people persevere, looking
only to Christ. Now understand this about perseverance.
That doesn't mean you persevere being religious. A lot of people
do that. It means you persevere in looking
to Christ only as all you have at all times. And you look nowhere
else. You're not moved from the hope
of the gospel. One last scripture, turn to Hebrews
chapter six. Verse 17, where in God, willing
more abundantly to show to the heirs of the promise, 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 strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an
anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. which entereth into that within
the veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus
made an high priest for after the order of Melchizedek. Now
this hope, the writer of the Hebrew says, is an anchor for
the soul. What good does an anchor do that
you can see? They're in the boat, it's gonna
float, gonna wander around, it's gonna end up wrecked. It's gonna
run into something, it's gonna be destroyed. The only good anchor as far as
security is an anchor you can't see. And this anchor is within
the veil. You can't see within the veil,
can you? But you have an anchor for your soul, both sure and
steadfast. Now, if you're looking, how many
times in a day, in a week, do I look to myself in some way? I couldn't even begin to give a numerical account of how
many times, but you look within yourself and you think. How can
I be saved? Well, that anchor in the boat
ain't doing you any good, is it? You look at the anchor in
the boat, and it's not doing you any good at all. The anchor
that is sure and steadfast, he's already within the veil. A high
priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now here is how
certain the believer's hope is. Is Jesus Christ in God's presence
right now? Me too. In Him. That's how secure every believer
is. That's the hope of Israel. What
a glorious hope He is. And I hope, I hope that I'm always
hoping in my hope. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that your
son, our anchor, is in your very presence representing us. And Lord, we are relying 100%
on that. We look nowhere else. Give us the grace to hold fast
the confidence, and the rejoicing of the hope, firm unto the end. In Christ's name we pray, amen.