[0:00] Welcome to our service this morning. A special welcome to anyone who may be visiting with us. As we come together to worship God, we pray to Him to bless our time together under His Word.
[0:18] We're going to begin by singing from Psalm 73. Psalm 73 and at verse 23. Psalm 73 and at verse 23.
[0:34] Nevertheless, continually, O Lord, I am with Thee. Thou dost me hold by my right hand and still upholdest me. Thou with Thy counsels while I live, wilt me conduct and guide, and to Thy glory afterward receive me to abide.
[0:52] Whom have I in the heavens high but Thee, O Lord, alone, and in the earth whom I desire besides Thee, there is none. My flesh and heart doth faint and fail, but God doth fail me never.
[1:07] For of my heart God is the strength and portion forever. For lo, they that are far from Thee, forever perish and, them that are hurrying from the go, thou hast destroyed all.
[1:22] But surely it is good for me that I draw near to God. In God I trust that all Thy works I may declare abroad.
[1:33] These verses of Psalm 73 from verse 23. Nevertheless, continually, O Lord, I am with Thee. O Lord, I am with Thee.
[1:59] O Lord, I am with Thee.
[2:29] O Lord, I am with Thee. O Lord, I am with Thee.
[2:59] O Lord, I am with Thee. O Lord, I am with Thee.
[3:29] God hath failed me never.
[3:42] For of thy heart all is a strength and portion forever.
[4:00] For low may thy heart fall from thee, for ever perish thou.
[4:19] Then thy thy holy kingdom hath lost his glory.
[4:37] But surely it is good for me that thy God near to God.
[4:55] In God I trust that all thy works are iniquity with God.
[5:11] Let us join together in prayer. Let's pray. Ever blessed God, as we come to worship this morning hour, we give thanks that we can call upon your name and that your name means something to us, that you are not a God who is a stranger in our midst.
[5:41] There were those that met on occasion and they professed to worship God and yet that God was an entity that they could not describe or could not sustain a meaningful relationship with.
[6:07] There were others who met, gathered in the presence of a countless number of supposed deities and erected in their midst and erected in their midst was a statue that spoke of the unknown God.
[6:34] And the apostle of old brought to their attention that the one that they sought to worship was indeed a God who was before them and in their presence even though they were not able to recognize him as such.
[6:59] Allow us to recognize you as the God who is God over all. The God who is God from everlasting to everlasting.
[7:10] The God who was worshipped by our parents or grandparents or forefathers even following a distinct line back to the patriarchs of old.
[7:28] Our first parents even are described as created in your image for the purpose of glorifying and enjoying you.
[7:38] and we follow in their footsteps and in part follow their example. Thankful that you have made provision for us even though our first parents departed from their created condition in their perfection possessing your image they departed by reason of sin and therefore were not able to enjoy that fellowship that you gave them privy to.
[8:15] You cast them out of the garden that was their place of abode and where they delighted in seeing your face daily regularly we pray for wisdom to understand the havoc that was wrought by sin and that we see evidence of that even to this day every day that we open our eyes we are reminded that we are on mercy's ground because the world in which we live is lying in sin and iniquity and it is only of your mercy that we are not consumed so enable us to appreciate the reality of the privileges that we enjoy even as your people pour out your spirit upon us as we are made together under the sound of the gospel we give thanks that while our number may be relatively few that we also are aware of cities and towns that have vast numbers in them and yet there are so few gathered out of that number who would worship God even though the opportunity is afforded then to come together there are places of worship that are open to them and yet they do not avail themselves of that privilege and the day will come when that will be brought to their attention and they will be reminded of the remission that is there they will be brought to answer for every every wavered step and every forgetful inclination that did not take account of the presence of God in this world open our eyes even as we read your word as we sing these words that speak to us of God and your worthiness to receive from us all our praise bless our congregation bless the homes and families represented we pray for those needs that are brought before us in this place your people may have varying needs some are dealing with illness some are dealing with frailties of the body and the mind some are dealing with loved ones who are going through hard times by reason of illness some confined to their homes some to hospitals some to places appointed for taking care of the elderly and some in the hospitals we pray for them that they would know the comfort and privilege of having the arm of the almighty
[11:32] God encircling them we also remember those who have experienced sorrows and sadnesses in recent days when death has intruded into the fellowship of your people here and indeed the community at large when you take away from out midst one that was a fellow sojourner someone that was well known and much loved within the community and when that happens it leaves a mark upon all our lives and we pray for those who are sad and sorrowful today especially for grieving families we ask that you would sanctify such visitations to us reminding us that while we may be in the senate of our strength and that death is the last thing on our mind that we are but a short pace behind those who have gone before us and the longer lived we are the slower our pace will become and the more certain our journey will be towards that destiny that awaits us and we pray that you would ensure that each one of us would make our peace with
[12:54] God while we have that opportunity through Christ Jesus the Lord bless the preaching of the word to that end remember the congregations of our island the various towns and villages that mark out our communities from the Bud to Barra we pray that where Christ is lifted up in the gospel that that word would draw men to hear and to listen and to apply the truth we remember before you the congregations that are devoid of a pastor at the present may you in mercy fill these vacancies in your own time we pray for the places that are met together today to remember the death of Jesus Christ until he come in the sacrament and we ask that you would truly bless that commemoration that the eye of faith would dwell upon Christ and that he would restore the failing graces and the fragile graces that you endow us with graces are powerful no doubt because they are God given but the world in which we live in is something that frustrates grace and does impact upon the way we live trusting in
[14:27] Christ as our saviour so preserve faith encourage your people to live on looking unto Jesus as the author and finisher of it hear us on behalf of our nation that is wayward and negligent pour out your spirit upon us as a generation that we might hear what God the Lord is speaking when we see the fragility that marks out many communities this peace is something that is never too far from the heart of these communities there is a clear desire to overthrow the regulation and the laws even of man let alone the laws of God and we pray for those who are entrusted for keeping the peace for our police forces our armed services those who are called upon to go into situations where their very lives are put at risk we remember them to you and pray for families in this community who have loved ones serving in the forces and they are perhaps in very fragile situations of the present where they are called to serve when we live in a world that is so troubled and so much embroiled in war in various quarters so we pray for your peace that you would magnify your name through your own dealings with us draw us into the folds of the love of Christ that we may look unto him always as the one who brings lasting peace hear our prayers and petitions cleansed from sin we pray in
[16:22] Jesus name Amen I'm going to sing from Psalm 85 Psalm 85 and we're singing from verse 6 to the end of the Psalm Psalm 85 from verse 6 to the end that in thee may thy people joy would thou not us revive show us thy mercy Lord to us do thy salvation give I'll hear what God the Lord will speak to his folk he'll speak peace and to his saints but let them not return to foolishness to them that fear him surely near his salvation that glory in our land may have her habitation truth met with mercy righteousness and peace kissed mutually truth springs from earth and righteousness looks down from heaven high yea what is good the Lord shall give our land shall yield increase justice to set us in his steps shall go before his face we'll sing these verses
[17:43] Psalm 85 5 from verse 6 to the end that in thee may thy people die when the waters alive show what thy mercy are to us to us shall give shall give I'll hear what God the Lord will speak to his hope he'll speak peace and to his saints but let them come return to foolishness to them not fear their surely in him this salvation but glory and around may have her habitation truth met with mercy in righteousness and peace to journey truth bling from earth and righteousness which start from heaven high if what is good the
[19:55] Lord heart shall give our heart shall yield increase just as the strength of the saints have said shall go before his face will hear god's word as we find it in Paul's epistle to the ephesians chapter 2 chapter and you have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins where in time past he walked according to the times past in times past in the life of the mind and were by nature the children of wrath even as others but
[21:27] God who is rich he is saved and has raised us together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus for by grace is the gift of God for we are his God to God has before ordained that we should walk in him wherefore remember that ye being in time past
[22:28] Gentiles in the flesh the people of the people of the people of the people of the Hello in yeah neither He has taken himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
[23:33] For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an only temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
[24:16] And may the Lord add his blessing to our reading of this word. I'm going to sing now from Psalm 21. Psalm 21.
[24:31] And we're singing from the beginning to verse 6. The King and thy great strength, O Lord, shall very joyful be.
[24:45] In thy salvation rejoice, how vehemently shall he. Thou hast bestowed upon him all that his heart would have, and thou from him didst not withhold whate'er his lips did crave.
[25:00] For thou with blessings him preventst, of goodness manifold, and thou hast set upon his head a crown of purest gold. When he desired life of the Lord.
[25:11] When he desired life of thee, thou life to him didst give, even such a length of days that he forevermore should live.
[25:22] In that salvation brought by thee his glory is made great. Honor and comely majesty thou hast upon him set. Because that thou forevermore most blessed hast him made, and thou hast with thy countenance made him exceeding glad.
[25:42] And so on. These verses, Psalm 21, 1 to 6. The King and thy great strength, O Lord, shall very joyful be. A King and thy great strength, O Lord, shall have his hope for thee.
[26:06] In thy salvation rejoice, O Lord, shall be.
[26:21] Thou hast bestowed upon him, O Lord, shall be.
[26:51] Thou hast bestowed upon him, O Lord, shall be.
[27:21] Thou hast bestowed upon him, O Lord, shall be.
[27:51] Thou hast of Christ, O Lord, shall be. Thou hast of strength, O Lord, shall be. Thou hast of strength, O Lord, shall be. In that salvation brought by thee, his glory is with me.
[28:13] Honor and comely majesty The hearts upon themselves Because of the Lord For evermore Most blessed haste me And thou hast with thy countenance Made him exceeding glad We're going to turn to the passage that we were reading together Paul's epistle to Ephesians chapter 2 And we can read at verse 10
[29:16] Ephesians 2, reading at verse 10 For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus Unto good works Which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh Who are called uncircumcision By that which is called the circumcision in the flesh Made by hands That at that time you were without Christ Being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel And strangers from the covenants of promise Having no hope And without God In the world But now in Christ Jesus Ye who sometimes were far off Are made nigh By the blood of Christ And so on We're going to Focus our thoughts on the verse
[30:18] Mark 12 And particularly that thought That describes The state of the unbeliever As being without hope Having no hope And without God In the world Having no hope I was recently Reminded Of the Grace of hope Powered functions In the life Of a believer How Important it is I believe it's important At every stage Of The Christian's life But There are times When it comes Into its own There are times When that grace Functions
[31:19] In a way that It may not Appear to function At other times In many ways I would Suggest That While we Understand That All God's Graces Are important And Every Christian As they Identify The things That God Has given To them Which are Identifiably His grace To them That The grace Of hope May not Feature us Prominently In the way That they think I might Be wrong I might Be completely Off Of Beam In that Only you Can Answer As to How You Yourself Are If you Possess These Graces Of God
[32:19] Which we Believe Are saving Graces But if we Think Just as an Example Of The Apostle Paul He Describes To us In 1 Corinthians 13 The Primary Graces Or Principal Graces Of Love And Faith And Hope And In Paul's Epistle And at The end Of that Chapter He says Now Abideth Faith Hope And Charity Or Love But The Greatest Of These Is Love Now You Would Think When You Read That That Paul Was In Some Respects Disparaging The Other Two Graces But We Would Be Wrong I Don't Think He Is Doing That At All But In His Estimation
[33:20] At That Particular Moment And In Process Of Discussing What He Is Discussing He Is Seeing The Place That The Love Of God Has In The Life Of The Believer Because His Focus Is On The Passion Of The Lord Jesus Christ Every Grace Is Linked Together There Is No Stand Alone Grace None They All Coexist They All Cohabit They All Function In A Supportive Way Within The Life Of A Believer And We See For Example Paul Writing His Epistle To The Romans And He Sometimes Provides Us With What You Would Call Chains That Are Linked Together And You
[34:21] Can See How Logically What He Is Describing Follows Just As An Example We Read In Romans Chapter 5 Therefore Being Justified By Faith We Have Peace With God Through Our Lord Jesus Christ By Whom Also We Have Access By Faith Into This Grace Wherein We Stand And Rejoice In Hope Of The Glory Of God And Not Only So But We Glory In Tribulations Also Knowing That Tribulation Worketh Patience And Patience Experience And Experience Hope And Hope Maketh Not Ashamed Because The Love Of God Is Shed Abroad In Our Hearts By The Holy Ghost Which Is Given To Us For When We Were Yet Without Strength In Due Time Christ Died For The Ungodly And So On So You See In The In
[35:21] The Linking Together Of These Graces He Is Emphasizing For Us How These Graces Are Interdependent They Naturally Function Together And They Are Not Meant To Stand Alone The Renowned American Theologian Jonathan Edwards Most Of His Labour Were Carried Out In America And Although His Writings Come Down To Us As A Generation But He Writes The Following Again The Same Logical Progression As Seen In His Understanding Of How The Grace Of God Works He Says Faith Begets Hope For
[36:22] Faith Sees And Trusts In God's Sufficiency To Bestow Blessings And In His Faithfulness To His Promises That He Will Do All That He Has Said All Gracious Hope Is Hope Resting On Faith And Hope Encourages And Draws For Acts Of Faith And So Love Goes To Hope For The Spirit Of Love Is The Spirit Of A Child And The More Anyone Feels In Himself The Spirit Towards God The More Natural It Will Be To Him To Look To God And Go To God As His Father And So On So You See The Argument That Edwards Is Making There Is Expanded On But His Thesis I suppose If we Can Call it That Look Looked To The Way God Strengthens
[37:24] The Faith Of His People By Bestowing Upon Them The Accompanying Graces That Are Part Of The Life Of Faith Now What I Want To Highlight From The Words Of Our Text Really Is This That What Has By Right The The Claim To Be The Christian Hope What What we Can Only Describe As The Christian Hope Must Come From God And Take Us To God And The Text That We Are Looking At Here Is A Text That Describes The The Situation
[38:24] That Applies To A Person Who Is Not A Christian And Who Because Of Them Not Being Christian That They Must Be Considered To Be Without Hope And While We're Looking At What Is A Very Negative Description Nevertheless The Negativity Of The Description Reminds Us Of The Positive Nature Of Hope In Its Reality In Its Fullness As Possessed By A Believer So What I Want To Do Is Just Look At This Passage In A Sense Reminding Ourselves Of Where This Thought Comes From And Reminding Ourselves That The Natural Condition Of Mankind Is
[39:25] To Be Without Hope That's The Way We Are By Nature That's What Paul Says That You Were Without Christ Being Aliens From The Common With Of Israel And Strangers From The Coverns Of Promise Having No Help And Without God In The World So Whatever Else Was True And There Are Things There That Are True About A Person Who Is Christless Godless Alienated That One Thing That Is Clear Is That They Are Without Hope And That Needs To Be Understood In The Terms That Paul Means To Understand That Secondly The Passage Itself Suggests To Us That The The Fact That There Is
[40:26] In The World Hope That Is Not The Hope Of God's People Needs To Be Placed In Contrast Needs To Be Shown For What It Is Because I Can't Believe That Any Person Who Is In Church Today Who May Not Lay Claim To Being A Christian Considers Themselves To Be Nature
[41:29] As Hope But Clearly Not The Hope Of The Gospel And Alongside That We Can Put What Is It What Is It That The Hope Of The Gospel Is What What Do We Think It Is What Differentiates A Christian From A Person Who Is Not A Christian And First Of All The What We We Are Made Aware Of Here By The Apostle Is That This Is How He Considered Himself Before He Met With Christ In A Saving Way This Is Not Just A Theologian Declaring To Us His Expertise As A Theologian And Describing To Us What The Bible Would Have
[42:30] And Believe But He Also Has The Background As A Jewish Theologian Who Is Now A Christian Theologian Who Experientially Lived The Life Of Someone Who Was Without The Christian's Hope And He Is Able To Make This Differentiation Between What The Hope Of The Christian Is And What He Had Without Having Christ And As You'll See From The Words Of The Passage Here He Says That At Time You Were Without Christ Being Aliens From The Commonwealth Of Israel Strangers From The Covenants Of Promise Having No Hope And Without God In The World That These Three Things That Are Mentioned By Him Alongside Without Hope That They Are Without Christ
[43:30] That They Are Without God That They Are Aliens That They Are Aliens From The Covenant Of Promise And Therefore They Are Without Hope That All Of These Things Are Themselves Significant Things But What We're Focusing On Is The Hope That They Could Have Had But Did Not They Could Not Have A Genuine Hope Because Hope As We Shall See Is Something That Rests Upon The Promises Of God It Rests Upon What God Has Declared Will Be Fulfilled In The Experience Of Those Who Have The Christian Hope And Because They Are Without Christ And Because They Are Without God And
[44:30] Because They Are Strangers To The Covenant Of The From The Commonwealth Of Israel Which Is Strangers To The Covenant Which Really Is The Promised Declaration Of God Concerning His Own People What Would Be True For Them In Them And What Awaits Them And These Promises Are All Bound Up In The Passion Of Jesus Christ The Passion That They Don't Know The God That They Can't Trust In Because The Only Way That They Can Trust In God Or Look To God Is By Way Of Jesus Christ As We Read In Romans 5 There Is The Way Of Access To God It's By Faith That We Come To God Through Christ And Without That Being Two Of Us We Cannot Have A Functioning Hope Christ Is The Only
[45:30] Way Of Access To God And Without Christ They Are Without God They Are Separated From God Estranged From God A Promise Is Something By Its Very Nature Depends On A Future Fulfillment You Can't Promise In Retrospectively I Don't Know If That Makes Sense I Can Promise That I Will Behave Better Yesterday Doesn't Make Sense I Can Promise To Behave Better Tomorrow And That Prospect Of Realization Is There The Promise Depends On A Future And A Future Realization And The Hope Of The Believer Rests
[46:31] Upon The Promises Of God And All The Promises Of God We Are Told Are Yea And Amen In Christ Jesus What It Can't Be Is Resting On Something And Nothing Something That Is So Nebulous In Character And Yet Non Specific It It It's A Vake A Vake Thing Something That You're Saying Possibly May Come To Pass But You're Not Quite Sure What Or You May Be Very Distinct Or Very Specific About What The Promised Expectation You Hold Is That Bolsters Your Hope Upon Which Your Hope Is Founded But Again Whatever That Hope Is Whatever
[47:31] That Hope Entails It Is Not The Hope Of The Gospel Because It Does Not Have Christ In It Let Me Quote To You The Words Of Charles Hodge One Of The Commentators The Promise Of God Is The Only Foundation Of Hope And Therefore To Those Who Have No Promise They Have No Hope And Having No Hope Of Redemption The Great Blessing Promised They Were In The Widest Sense Of The Word Hope Bless And That Is The Way Paul Describes Himself Before He Came To A Saving Knowledge Is That Was What Was True Of Him He He Could Interpret His Past By Examining What Needs To
[48:31] Be True And His Considered Opinion Was That He Was Without Hope Hope Now if We Understand How Hope Functions And What Hope Does While it Sustains People It's Like a Boy Holding Up A Life Jacket Holding The Head Of The Weir Above The Water If They Cast Adrift On The Ocean Hope Is Seem To Function Like That Sustain A Person When They Are In Difficulty When They Are Tried And Tested There Is Something In Them That Allows Them To Cling To A Better Prospect If They Are In The Water And They Cast Adrift Their Hope Is That Something Or Someone Will Come
[49:31] Along That Will Deliver Them To Safety That Is Of The Nature Of Hope So If This Verse Here Tells Us That We Are By Nature Without Hope And Without That Hope Being The Hope Of The Gospel Then Our Hopelessness Is Is Is Clear How Then If A Person Is In A Hopeless Situation Do They Survive How Do They Exist I Don't Believe A Person Can Exist Without Hope I Don't Think A Person Can Survive Without Some Hope Hope But We Make A Mistake If We Think That Every Hope Is The Hope Of The Gospel Because Clearly It
[50:32] Isn't Now I'm Not Contradicting What Paul Is Saying Here What Paul Is Describing To Us Is What Was True Of Him Before He Came To Faith He Is Speaking To Those Who Have Come To Faith He Is Describing What They Once Were Before Faith Was Their Common Experience Before Christ Was Their Saviour Before They Experienced Redemption But Now He Said Those Who Were Strangers To God Those Who Were Not In Christ Those Who Were Out Of God Those Who Were Aliens To The Covenant Of Promise And Without Hope You Are Now In Christ Jesus You Were Once Far Off He Says But Now You Are Brought Nigh And You Have Experienced Peace But Does Paul Mean There That The Person To Which She Is Speaking Lived Their
[51:32] Life In A Hopeless State Yes As Far As It In Christ But No Not As Far As They Held Out Some Hope Which They Look To And Depended Upon And Trusted In In Order For Them To Survive In Order For Them Not To Fall Into Despair What Is It That Exists In Place Of The Gospel Hope That Seems To Belive What Paul Is Saying Here Well The Bible Sometimes Speaks To Us About False Hope It Speaks To Us About The Vain Hope Or The Hope Of The Wicked And What All
[52:32] Of Them Consistently Bring To Our Attention Is That It Functions In The Way Hope Should Function But What It Builds Upon And What It Rests On Is Spurious It It Is It Is Not Capable Of Sustaining What is Being built Upon It Do you see what the Bible is saying?
[53:03] You read the book of Job And in the book of Job Job had some wonderful friends And I wouldn't like them to be anywhere near me If I was in a bad way spiritually But one of them was called Build up the Shulwite And his theology was partially right I suppose you could argue that what he had to say was Had some reference to God's word And his conclusion was that looking at the way Job's life was And how God had clearly judged Job And how things were Had gone so badly wrong For Job He'd lost his family He'd lost his fortune He was affected by disease And It could only possibly be That Job Had done something to offend God
[54:05] And God That's his conclusion And that's the way he sought to help Job Yes my friend You have to Get this right And you have to You're wrong And God is punishing you for that But what Build up He says Also refers to The hope that he believes Job to have Because Even though his His consideration of how things are Between God and Job Or Job and God Is a wrong Understanding of it And sometimes this is difficult for us to To understand that Even though a person Is wrong In their conclusion So wrong in some of what they say It doesn't mean that Everything they say is wrong And what he identified As Spurious hope He compared it To the
[55:06] Web of a spider He says This is what your hope is like Because you're failing to To To believe That you're in the wrong Job And your hope is based On something like The The web of a spider That's what you're building on Or your Your hope is like That Plant The papyrus That depends on Growing in Marshy ground And When it's taken away From that source of water It just dries up And it's It's just A A useless Thing And he says That's what your hope Is like Job Now He was right as far as He was Describing a false hope Was concerned But he was wrong In attributing that False hope to Job But The description Is very
[56:06] Apt For the way Some people Have this hope Which they Look to To sustain them And to uphold them As they live their life In this world And yet When it is Tested Really When it needs To be tested It will not Support them It will not It will not Be something That they can Really Trust in How many people For example Are under The preaching Of the Word of God And because They are under The preaching Of the word of God They know all about The prospect Of death Being followed By judgment The Bible Tells them that And they've heard The Bible As you have Often enough To know That that's what The Bible teaches That After death
[57:06] There is the judgment That does not That does not Include Christ That does not Involve trust In Christ There is There is Something In neediness That would Grasp for Something That is little Better than A spider's web Because we Don't believe The gospel We don't Trust the gospel We don't Trust the Interpretation Of the gospel Even though We know What the gospel Is saying Even though We know The words We understand The language We do not Fully Wish to go Along with the Teaching that
[58:07] It brings to Our attention And when we Don't do that Then we must Put something In its place We replace The truth of God with Our own Notion of Truth Or we Dismiss it As not Being relevant As truth I'll give you Some examples Of the way The mind Of some People work The judge Of which The bible Speaks Cannot Possibly Know Everything That there Is to be Known About me In order To judge Me Competently In order To judge Me To the Extent That that Judgment Needs to Take place When you Are saying That you Are displacing What the bible Says About god God who Is all Seeing All knowing The god Who is The one
[59:08] Who has Committed Judgment To his Son As the god Who has That knowledge Of all Our lives From beginning To end All our Thoughts Are far To him Are known Nothing Is hidden From his All seeing Eye And yet When it Comes to Judgment The judgment That I Must Confront I am Saying I can Go to That Without Christ I can Go to That because I believe That what You are Saying about God is Exaggerated Or maybe Your hope Is That at Some point Somewhere At some Indistinct Future Point Something Will happen That will Change how You are To allow You to have A prospect That is more Positive And more More Certain And yet
[60:09] You have Lived your Whole life In town Now And that Hasn't Changed But you Still hold Out this Hope for Yourself That you Are going To change At a Suitable Moment And your Whole attitude To God Will Transform What you Are and Who you Are Well that's What needs To happen There is no Doubt about it That's what Needs to Happen You need To change You need To be Changed You need To trust In Christ Which you Are not Doing But your Hope is Based on This happening At some Point But you Know not When Or maybe It's even More brutal Than that You're saying God's word Is Is Barbaric It belongs To a Society That was Barbaric And the Truths That are There Show us A God That is
[61:09] Barbaric His laws Are barbaric His justice Is barbaric The brutality That we find In the Bible We can't Count on Today Because We're much More civilized And what Our civilization Is teaching Us Is that We're better Than that I wouldn't Go too Far With that Thought But what I Would emphasize Is this That somewhere Somehow Many Or all Of these May be Your hope But they Are all Going to Prove False hopes If they Are not The hope That God Has provided By Presenting To our Our Senses Sanctified By his Grace
[62:10] The person Of the Lord Jesus Christ Why must It be Like that Because The genuine Hope of The gospel Is a hope That is Real If you Know God Then you Know That you Can only Approach God Through his Son Jesus Christ You understand That you Are If you Are estranged From God Then you Must be Someone who Has yet to Come to Put your Trust in Christ Because Christ is The only Ground of Hope The only Ground of True hope Matthew Henry put It as Simply as This When it Comes to Describing What the Christian Hope is He says Christ In the World Is the Hope of The Believer
[63:10] But the Evidence Of that Hope of The Believer Is seen In Christ In the Heart And you Might say That's the Same Thing Well One is The Evidence Of what Is the Reality In its Very Nature Hope Anticipates The Future A Future Outcome So Promises Have to Be Fully Realised And Totally Accepted For the Certainty Of the Outcome Because you Have the Promise And you Believe The Promise And you Expect the Promise To be Fulfilled What are The Hope Or what Is the Hope Of the Christian Where does It find Expression Well for Example The Hope of
[64:15] The Believer Sometimes But not Always Focuses On an Unrealised Future But their Knowledge Of the Promises Of God Make them Perfectly Content To believe That these Promises Will be Fulfilled For example When it Comes to Death And Judgment They know That because They have Trusted in Christ That Christ Is someone Who will Save them From the Consequences Of death And Judgment If Christ Be Preached Says Paul That he Rose From the Dead How Says Some Among You That there Is no Resurrection Of the Dead But if There is No Resurrection Of the Dead Then is Christ Not Risen And if Christ Be Not Risen Then is Our Preaching Vain And your Faith Is also Vain Here we Have Found False Witnesses Of God Because
[65:15] We Have Testified Of God That he Raised Up Christ Whom He Raised That the Dead Rise Not For if The Dead Rise Not Then is Not Christ Raised And if Christ Be Not Raised Your Faith Is Vain You Are Yet In Your Sins Then They Also Which Are Fallen Asleep In Christ Are Perished But then He Says If In This Life Only We Have Hope In Christ We Are Of All Men Most Miserable But Now Is Christ Risen From The Dead And Become So The Hope Of The Believer For A Future Resurrection Is Entirely Based On The Promises Of God As They Are Contained In Christ Jesus That He Died For Our Sins And That He Rose From The Dead And Everything That Follows On From That That Is The Hope Of The Believer There
[66:16] Is The Hope Of Future Glory In This Very Epistle Paul Speaks Of It The First Chapter That In The Dispensation Of The Fullness Of Times He Might Gather Together In One All Things In Christ Both Which Are In Heaven And Which Are On Earth Even In Him In Whom Also We Obtained An Inheritance Being Predestinated According To The Purpose Of Him Who Worketh All Things After The Council Of His Will That We Should Be To The Praise Of His Glory Who First Trusted In Christ In Whom He Also Trusted After That You Heard The Word Of Truth The Gospel Of Your Salvation In Whom Also After That You Believed You Were Sealed With That Holy Spirit Of Promise Which Is The Ernest Of Our Inheritance Until The Redemption Of The Purchased Possession Into The Praise Of His Glory And So On The Believer Is A
[67:18] Foretaste Of What Awaits They Have Already Tasted In A Small Measure Of What It Means To To Be Bathed In The Glory Of Christ Jesus The Word Ernest There Is A Foretaste A Pre Glory Experience Of What Glory Involves And All Belief That Is Shared And All Belief Of The People Of God Every One Of Them Have A Measure Of Longing For What Will Be Their Experience When Christ Returns There Is The Excitement There Is The Anticipation Of The Saints To Be With Christ To Be Like Christ To Be In Possession
[68:18] Of God's Glory That's The Prospect That's The Promise And That Is What They Possess As Their Hope And The Hope That They Possess Will Not Put Them To Shame David Jackman Writes The Following And It's Just A Word Of Encouragement To God's People Keep Persevering Keep Trusting Keep Believing This Christ And Keep Soldiering On In This World Whatever The Frustrations We Hope For What We Do Not Yet Have Whatever The Frustrations And That Is Part Of It That When Your Head Goes Down And When The Waves Are Lapping Around Your Mouth And Your Nose You Have Still Something That Keeps Your Head Above
[69:18] The Water And Even Though The Waters Are Turbulent There Is This Hope Because It Rests Upon A Future That Is Certain Far More Certain Than Any Other Element In Your Future Every One Of Us Here Has Prospects In Store We Have Plans We Have We Have Maybe Not Written Them Down But In Our Mind We Are Going To Do All Kinds Of Things Tomorrow Or The Day After And None Of These Things Can We Really Be Sure Of Them Coming To Frition Because They Are Not Contained Within The Promise Of God For Us But The Things That Are Whatever They May Be None Of These
[70:18] Things Will We Be Deprived Of None Of These Things Will Be Kept From Us And The Hope That Is The Hope Of God Ensures That So The Question For You Is A Simple One I Don't Believe That There Is Any Individual Here Who Is A Hopeless Case In The Sense That You Are Without Hope Even Though I May Fear That Your Hope Is A False One I May Fear That What You Are Hoping Will Happen Is More Akin To Someone Who Is Just Waiting For Something To Take Place And Hoping That That Something Will Be To Their Advantage Without Necessarily Striving For It Without Necessarily Looking Beyond Whatever
[71:20] The Day Will Bring Your Hope Must Be The Hope Of Gospel Must Be The Hope That Rests Upon The Passion Of Jesus Christ What He Has Done And Intends To Do And What He Has Promised Will Become The Possession Of His Own People Well May That Be Us As Well Let Us Pray O Lord Of God We We We Claim That The Word Of Truth Might Speak To Us Reminding Us That There Is A Great Error Made If We Rest Upon Hopes That Are False May Our Hope Be Genuine May It Be Resting Upon Christ In His Finished Work What He Has Yet To Do For His People May We See It Done Cleanse Us In His Blood We Pray We Ask All In His Name Amen
[72:20] I'm Going To Sing From Psalm 102 From The First Version Of The Psalm Psalm 102 From The First Version Verse 25 To The End The Filling Foundation Of The Earth Of All Time Thou Hast Laid The Heavens Also Are The Work Which Thine Own Hands Have Made Thou Shalt Forever More Endure But They Shall Perish All Yea Every One Of Them Walk Sold Like To A Garment Shall Thou As A Vesture Shalt Them Change And They Shall Change But Thou Are The Same But Thou The Same Art And Thy Years Are To Eternity The Children Of Thy Servants Shall Continually Endure And In Thy Sight O Lord Their Seed Shall Be Established To These Verses And Psalm 102 The First Version Of The Psalm From
[73:21] Verse 25 To The Firm Foundation Of The Earth Of Old Time That Has Laid The Firm Foundation Of The Earth Of Your Time rifn Spent The Heavens ....
[73:47] Town Soft tone I Bl Edgar Firm Foote Veterans Dame Gymôix All Ven Da Glanою The glory and truth A day shall perish all In every world Of them are sold Like to a gardener show For us a pleasure Shall play A day shall change
[74:48] And be But not the same Or come by years Are to eternity The children All thy servants Shall continually endure Come with thy son Oh Lord Господ You Christ Now May my Amen.