Address—Jim Hyland
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We'll start the meeting this afternoon with him number 85. I'll read verse 2. But oh, the hope of being forever with the Lord. The joyful hope of seeing that face for us so marred. It fills our heart with comfort. It fills our lips with praise, so that amid our sorrow A joyful song, we raise hymn #85. If someone could please start it.
To bear our sin and say.
I am.
Still waiting. Why, Saints? Why he put the bread with the dreams are so hard on the head. In your head Every night snitches with me.
All the time.
To introduce what's on my heart this afternoon, I'd like to read 3 portions of the word of God.
The first one is in the book of Ephesians.
Ephesians chapter 2.
Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 11.
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, and then in one Timothy chapter one.
First Timothy chapter one and verse one.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior.
And Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope. One more portion for now in Romans chapter 8.
Romans chapter 8 and verse 24.
For we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why did he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we, with patience, wait for it? In these meetings that we have been enjoying together, we've had a great deal of exhortation and encouragement in connection with the path of faith collectively going on together with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart, the privilege of being gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus.
00:05:12
We've had exhortations in connection with going on as individuals as well. Because this has often been commented, and I think it bears repeating, there's full and abundant provision for us to go on until the Lord Jesus comes. As we said at the end of the Reading meeting yesterday, God never asked us to do anything in which he isn't going to provide a scriptural basis on which to do it and all the resources that are needed to continue on until the end.
But what I'd like to do for a few moments this afternoon is to lift our eyes above this world, beyond this life, and to speak a little bit of our hope, particularly our hope and connection with the hope of the Lords coming. Hope is a vast subject in the word of God, in fact.
Even in just in the Apostle Paul's ministry, he speaks of various aspects of hope over 40 times.
And so it's a very important subject. You have it in the Old Testament as well. David often spoke of hope. And so we're going to speak of it in connection, as I say, particularly with the coming of the Lord Jesus, and to see how our hope is presented to us in the New Testament in various ways. But I thought it might be good to begin here in Ephesians chapter 2, because here these verses remind us that there was a time when we were without hope.
You know, I suppose there's no sadder word in the English language than the word hopeless or hopelessness. You go to the doctor and he reviews your case and maybe he calls you in for a consultation and he shakes his head and he says, well, to be quite honest, your case is terminal. It's hopeless as far as this life is concerned. That's an awful message I'm sure to receive from a doctor. I say there's nothing worse than a hopeless situation.
Someone has said that hope is an indispensable quality of life. The story is often told of the S4 submarine many years ago who went down that went down off the coast of Massachusetts, and they sent divers down to see if there was any hope of rescue. And as one of those divers put his ear to the wall of that submarine, he heard tapped out in Morris code. Is there any hope? And so we find here that.
The Apostle Paul in writing to these Ephesians, they were saved. Now they had were Gentiles by birth, but they'd been saved and they were once without hope. Now if we were to read the context here, we would find that as Gentiles there were two reasons why they had once been without hope. One is they were Gentiles because you remember in the Old Testament, other than a select few of the individuals that were brought in by grace.
Like Rahab the Harlot and Ruth the Moabite us and a few others, it God was dealing with the Jewish nation.
The nation of Israel. And they were God's chosen people, a peculiar people to Jehovah.
And you were either inside the circle of blessing or you were outside. But there was another reason why these Ephesians had once been without hope.
And that is because they've been without God. They were sinners, and everyone of us born into this world, whether Jew or Gentile, were initially without hope, apart from something else, brought in by God on the grounds of grace and the basis of the work of Calvary. We were without hope because.
We work not only sinners by practice, but sinners by nature. You know, before anyone ever sins, The minute they're born into this world, they're sinners. They have a sinful, fallen nature. And so these Ephesians had once been without hope, but we read the context here. We find that now they had been brought in to the most blessed relationship that man had ever known with God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a thrill it must have been to these Ephesian believers.
To have this precious truth brought before them, and I trust it thrills our hearts every time.
We hear the gospel every time we're reminded of what we were, what we've been brought into, and all that is ahead for us and prepared for us in that coming day of glory. I noticed on the schedule that this meeting is scheduled as a young people's address.
And I suppose when we're younger, we don't so much think perhaps of the Lord's coming and what's ahead. Oh, it's a doctrine that is presented to us from Scripture and in the meetings, perhaps by our parents. But you know, those of us who are getting a little further along in life, the Lord's coming is more of a reality than it used to be. And as we have experienced, a few aches and pains and little extra hardware like glasses and hearing aids and things.
00:10:25
The change is looking better all the all the time. I know it's not the purest motive for wanting the Lord to come, but it does say in Jude looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life, and so it will be a mercy to be gone. But before we speak of that, we read in First Timothy chapter one, because here we find the Apostle Paul writing to this young man Timothy, a young man who had been saved no doubt under the ministry of the Apostle Paul.
Who labored with the Apostle Paul, And who Paul felt confident that he could pass on the truth to and that he would pass it on again to faithful men who would be able to teach others also? And here we find he speaks of the Lord Jesus as our hope, because the Lord Jesus is the only hope for man, whether it's the Jew or the Gentile, both are lost in sin. The Jew was a specimen of humanity placed in the best of circumstances.
To show what all humanity was hopeless without something brought in by grace. And so it's the Lord Jesus that is our hope. Now, I don't want to go too far with applications and illustrations, but I find this is a very unique way in which Paul begins his epistle.
And why is it to the to Timothy that he begins this epistle with the Lord Jesus as our hope? Well, I make this little suggestion at least an application. We find in Timothy combined Jew and Gentile. Because when he's introduced to us in the book of the Acts, we find that his mother was a Jew and his father was a Greek or a Gentile. But now Timothy had been brought in to blessing. He'd been saved.
He was brought into the Church of God and he had this wonderful heavenly calling.
And and this hope, and so I say again, the hope that we're going to speak of this afternoon is not to some particular race or nationality of people. Because when we get to heaven, we're going to sing of those redeemed out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation.
And then I read in Romans chapter 8, and if we were to read the verses that precede here, we would find that we have our present state contrasted with the coming glory. And oh what a tremendous lift it gives my soul to read this. There are so many difficulties in life and you know, it just seems to me that every individual, every family, every assembly is going through some real trial and difficulty today.
Not just little things, but it just seems as we get closer to the Lord's coming. There are real tests and trials in the path of faith. And I have no doubt there's even young people here this afternoon whose hearts are burdened and maybe even overwhelmed by what you're facing and what you know you're going to have to face when you leave these meetings and go back to school, to work and to everyday life? But isn't it wonderful that we have the coming glory before us?
And young people and all of us. I believe that's what's going to encourage us to go on. What is going to give us the spiritual energy and fortitude to press on amidst the difficulties of life? Well, it says in Proverbs 29, where there is no vision, the people perish. If we lose sight of of heaven, if we lose sight of the glory before us, we're going to get discouraged. It's often been said that a young person maybe goes off to college or university.
And they live in a small room. Or they bored with somebody and they don't go out with their friends when they'd like to on the weekend because they stay in to study. Maybe they drive an old car. It's not exactly what they like, but it's an old car that they keep going. Why do they do that? They give up present advantage because they have an eye to the future. You say to that young person, why do you eat in the school cafeteria when there's a nice steakhouse down the road? Oh, they say I'm saving up to get through school because when I get my degree.
Then things are going to be better. I'll hopefully get a good job and maybe we can have steak once in a while and I can have a little better quarters, maybe get married or whatever it might be. He does that, he or she does that because they have an eye to the future, they have vision and brethren, We will never give up present advantage in this world and live for Christ and for God's glory unless we keep focused on what is ahead.
00:15:26
You know, when Lot lifted up his eyes back in the book of Genesis, he lifted them up only as high as the horizons of this sad world.
He lifted them up as to the when saw the well watered plains of Jordan, he chose that which was for present advantage. And we see we know the sad end of lot. We know he pitched his tent towards Sodom. He built a house and saw him. He sat in the gate of Sodom, which was the area, the place where the politics and wranglings of the city went on in those days. In those days he lost his family because of it and he lost everything.
He saw everything that he had built for come under the judgment of God, because everything in this world that we build for in a temporal way is reserved under fire. I don't mean that we shouldn't value the mercies and the temporal things that God has given us, and He's given us plenty. In a country like this and the country that I come from to the north. We don't want to despise those things. We can use them for God's glory. We can make friends of the righteous Mammon, so to speak.
But we want to keep it in the proper perspective. Abraham, on that occasion, lifted up his eyes too.
But he lifted them up to heaven, and it tells us later he looked for a city and it wasn't Sodom.
It was a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. And so we find here in Romans. It tells us we are saved by hope. Because you and I understand this if as long as there's hope, no matter how difficult the situation is, we can get through life today if there's hope that things are going to get better tomorrow. I went through some pain I had never experienced before in the last few months.
And every day there was always hope that things would ease a little bit tomorrow and that the pain medication would kick in and the things would get better. And so you get through a present circumstance with with hope, with an eye to the future. We're saved by hope. And that's why we need to keep our hope, the Christian hope, before us. And he says that, that.
For for we are saved by hope. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why does he yet hope for?
I would just say this, that the hope we speak of in connection with Christ is in no way uncertainty. Hope connected with this life and the first man is uncertainty at best. You know, we sit in these chairs and we've enjoyed these meetings. But suppose we said that beyond a shadow of a doubt, we were going to return to our homes after this weekend and the meetings were over. Why you'd say, Jim, that's presumptuous there things can interfere.
Often in our travel plans, things come in to frustrate, and where we hope to be and when we hope to be there doesn't always pan out the way we had thought it would, or had hoped it would. It would. No hope. Connected with this life is uncertainty at best, but as we go on to look at some other scriptures, we're going to see that hope in Christ is in no way uncertainty. It is only hope in the sense that we're not in the full good of it yet.
Let me illustrate it this way. There are some children here, and perhaps they will be able to grasp this a little bit. But we'll suppose that mom and dad promise you something on your birthday, something that you had really hoped for, something that you had asked for. And so they tell you, yes, the item has been purchased and it's put away in a safe place, and when your birthday comes, it's going to be brought out and presented to you. You don't have it yet.
Living in the anticipation of it, and I remember long ago though it was, I remember what it was to be a boy and live in the anticipation of something that my parents had promised they would get me or we would do. And so you live in that anticipation every day. You're still, in a sense, hoping for it, even though you know it's been secured for you. But on your birthday, when the gift is brought out and placed in your hand, you no longer hope for it, because now you have it. And so we hope for the Lord's coming in that sense.
00:20:00
Now abide his faith, hope and love. But there's a day coming when we will no longer need faith and hope, because it will become a glad reality and fruition. So he says. But if we hope for that, we see not, then do we, with patience, wait for it. And I would just say before we pass on that, well, I trust every believer here, young and old, is looking for the Lord Jesus to come this afternoon. We do, in a sense, need to, with patience, wait for it.
In Thessalonians, it speaks of the patience of the Christ. The Lord Jesus is the man of patience. He was the man of sorrows in this world when he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He'll be the man of joy in a coming day when he has his own around himself, and he'll joy over us with singing and so on. But at this present moment he's the man of patience. What is he patiently waiting for? He's patiently waiting from for a word from his father.
And then it says He that will come, shall come, and will not tarry. Well, with this in mind, then I want to go to several scriptures.
That, as I say, bring before us this hope, the hope of the Lord's coming in various aspects. We'll start in First Peter, Chapter one.
First Peter chapter one.
And verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively or a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled.
And that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
Ready to be revealed in the last time. Just to get the context of this, we know that the Apostle Peter was writing now to those who had been saved from the background of Judaism. In Ephesians, Paul was writing to Gentile believers. Here the Apostle Peter is writing to those who'd been saved from a Jewish background. And if we were to read the context of this, we would find that these ones who had turned from Judaism to receive the Lord Jesus as their savior, they were suffering persecution.
In a way that I'm not sure any of us in this room have ever felt. In fact, Peter refers to it as fiery trials. They had been driven from their homes. They had lost everything, and they might have wondered what's happened. Because remember, under the old order of things, a Jew was promised material blessing and an establishment in his material inheritance in the land of Canaan, if he was faithful to his to his God.
And here these believers had sought to be faithful to the Lord Jesus, and they had lost everything, and they might have wondered what's happened now. And so the apostle Peter writes to them to encourage them that no, they haven't lost out, they've gained, they've gained far, far more than they could ever have imagined, far more than they had ever lost as far as materially. And so he speaks of it here, first of all, as a living hope.
Because as we stressed in the gospel last evening, every blessing is based not only on the death of Christ, but the resurrection of Christ. Because if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain and ye are still in your sins. But thank God he was raised again for our justification. And not only was he raised from the dead, but he God has seated him at his own right hand and given him a name which is above every name, And these Jewish believers were now associated.
With the Lord Jesus not as a man walking here in this world, not as the lowly man of grace, but they were associated now with the man in glory. They were reassociated with Christ as the exalted, ascended man.
And Christianity does that. Christianity really detaches the believer from this world in every sense except the fact that we're still physically in it. We're not connected with this world. Our hopes and goals and aspirations are not like the Jews. No, we are connected with heaven and a heavenly portion. And we find here and if we were to go to other scriptures, we would find that the inheritance has two aspects in Christianity.
00:25:02
If we were to go to Ephesians, chapter one, where he contrasts our spiritual blessings with the inheritance, they're the inheritance is all created things. And there we're waiting for the day when Christ is going to take his inheritance. He's going to come back and he's going to rule in righteousness in this world. He's going to have his rightful place on planet Earth where they despised him, spit in his face, cast him out, said we won't have this man, he's going to come back and he's not going to come back without us.
He's we're going to share in it. We're going to be Co heirs, joint heirs with Christ. And what a wonderful day that's going to be. But if we were to go to Colossians one, we would find there's a heavenly side to the inheritance as well. And this I believe is what the apostle Peter was seeking to bring before the Saints here, because you notice it's an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fades not away, reserved in heaven. There's a heavenly side to the inheritance.
It's all that we have in Christ. It's the unsearchable riches of Christ, and this must have thrilled the hearts of these brothers. They'd lost everything materially, and the inheritance as far as the earthly side was set aside for the time. It wasn't to be. The king was in rejection, the Lord Jesus had gone back to heaven, and so he brings before them the heavenly side of it, an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, that fades not away.
The earthly inheritance had faded away, but you and I have an inheritance that will never fade away. And notice what it says, who are kept by the power of God through faith. Well, first of all, in the end of verse four, it's reserved in heaven for you. Let me use a little illustration. You know, someone might tell you that they're going to leave you an inheritance when they die, that there's going to be a nice sum of money, some real estate, and so on.
You're going to get a nice little inheritance when they pass away. But perhaps that person in later life needed assisted care, living or something like that. And when they died, the inheritance was gone. There was nothing left. The inheritance wasn't reserved. But brethren, we have an inheritance we can't lose. Not only that, even if you haven't get an inheritance, every time you go down to the bank and draw on that inheritance, the inheritance becomes less. But we can go down to the Bank of heaven and we can draw on our inheritance every moment of every day, and it'll never get less.
Because, I say again, it's the unsearchable riches of Christ. But let's go back to the illustration of the person who promises to leave you an inheritance.
Maybe you predeceased the person and you weren't preserved for the inheritance, but here we're kept. Not only is the inheritance reserved for us, but we're kept for the inheritance. And so you you predeceased the person and somebody else gets the inheritance. In the end it goes to somebody else. But brethren, either. Either way, we can't lose. Oh, what a hope we have. Again, it's for our present enjoyment. You get that more that side, more in Colossians 1.
But here, it's something that we're going to enjoy fully in a coming day. Because as I say, we can draw on that inheritance now, day after day, year after year. But oh, to think there's a day coming when we're going to no longer know in part and prophecy in part, that day when we see the Lord Jesus face to face. And there we're going to enjoy both the earthly and the heavenly side of things without hinders, if that doesn't thrill our souls and give us the spiritual energy.
And desire to live for God's glory now and to live for Christ then. I don't know what goes on within our hearts. Oh, I say, the more this gets ahold of our souls, the more it will motivate us to press on. So first of all, it's a living hope. But now let's go for a little different aspect. The second Thessalonians.
2nd Thessalonians.
Chapter 2.
And verse 16 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself.
And God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and Good Hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word, and work. Well here we have it as a Good Hope, and it is a Good Hope. Now again we understand this, but we'll go over it just very briefly. In these two epistles written to the Thessalonians, our hope is brought before us in various ways.
00:30:06
The Thessalonians had been idolatrous worshippers. There was very little hope, if any, in idolatry. Some of us have been to countries where idolatry is prevalent. It's a very, very sad thing to see people bow down and pray and put confidence and hope in something that can neither see nor speak or answer them or help them in any way. But these Thessalonians had turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.
And to wait for his Son from heaven. They didn't understand all about it, how it was all going to play out. And the apostle Paul writes these two epistles to explain how it's all going to come about to fruition and how God has a plan and a purpose that will be never hindered or frustrated. And so here he speaks of this Good Hope through grace. All we want to stress that, you know, we've been stressing in these reading meetings.
That the position we've been brought into in any aspect of our lives, it's only through grace. We want to stress that, brethren, you and I have a wonderful hope. Young people, we have the hope of being with the Lord Jesus. It's a Good Hope, is it? Because there was something good in us, some little spark of divinity in US. I know that we're taught today in the schools of men that there's this little spark of divinity within every one of us, and if it's placed in the proper environment and fanned in the proper way, it's going to flame up into something wonderful.
That is not true. As we have had before us, we are dead in trespasses and sins.
But through grace we have this Good Hope. When I think of this little expression, Good Hope, I think of something we learned from social studies. When I was a boy in school, I was always interested in history and social studies, and we learned about the early explorers in the 1400s who were trying to find a sea route to the Far East, to the Orient, so that they could safely bring, or more safely bring, the spices and the silks and the teas.
To add to the comfort of European culture, there was an overland route called the Silk Road, but it was very dangerous and there were bandits along there, and often those who sought to carry those goods were robbed and even murdered. And history tells us that the first European on record to round the southern tip of Africa and to find a trade route to the Orient was a man by the name of Bartholomew Diaz.
And in 1488 he rounded the southern tip of Africa under such adverse circumstances that he aptly named it the Cape of Storms. But when he returned to Portugal and reported to King John the Second, under whose auspices he had sailed, King John the Second of Portugal decided that was not a very good name for the southern tip of Africa, and that it would not encourage further exploration, and so he renamed it the Cape of Good Hope.
And if you look on a map, it bears that name until this day. And yet it was quite a few years later. It was until 1497 that another European attempted to round the Cape. His name was Vasco da Gama. And Vasco da Gama found that route and it opened up a trade route so that they could bring those precious things and as I say, to add to the nicety of Western European culture.
But was it really the Good Hope that the Europeans expected? Oh, for a time it gave some comfort to that. To them, it gave them prestige to be able to purchase those things, especially for the wealthy and influential. But when it speaks of our hope, the hope of the Lords coming as a Good Hope, that is exactly what it is. In fact, I don't suppose any of us have any inkling of what a Good Hope it really is.
And what it will be like to hear that shout and to be called away, to be with the Lord Jesus?
You know, I often think of the Apostle Paul when he spoke of departing to be with Christ, and I realized he was speaking there, particularly going through the article of death. But when he said to depart and be with Christ is far better, you know that is more than if Peter or James or John or any other New Testament writer had penned those words, you say Why? Because Paul knew exactly what he was talking about. He'd been caught up to the 3rd heaven.
He'd been in the presence of Christ in the eternal dwelling place of God when he said it was far better. He knew exactly what he was talking about, In fact, so wonderful was it and so beyond human description that he didn't even talk about it for 14 years. And when he did, he was forced by divine inspiration to write of it to the Corinthians, who were questioning his authority as an apostle and his ministry as an apostle.
00:35:29
And when he does write about it, he writes about it in the third person, and he says he heard unspeakable words. He doesn't even mention what he saw that that was, that was so far beyond anything. He just says he heard unspeakable words that it was not lawful for a man to utter. And so when the Lord Jesus comes and the dead in Christ rise 1St, and we which are alive and remain are caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air, oh, we're going to realize just the import of this little expression. A Good Hope through grace. But notice what he says here.
Comfort your hearts and establish you.
In every good word and work. If we were to go back to the 4th chapter of the first epistle, we would find there that after spelling out very clearly how this is all going to take place, he then concludes by saying, wherefore comfort one another with these words?
And, brethren, what comfort would we have today if it wasn't for the hope of the Lord's coming? There's not much comfort when you look at the circumstances of this world. We're seeing the breakdown of everything, the breakdown in the home, the breakdown in government. Every level of society is crumbling today. What? What consolation, What comfort would we have if we didn't look on to something far better? And some of us have had the privilege and opportunity of standing.
At the bedside of those who are about to pass out of this life into the presence of the Lord. What comfort would you have was for somebody if you couldn't speak of what was ahead? I remember one time it was with several brothers and we went to the hospital on a Lords day afternoon to visit a brother who was nearing the end of this life. And everything concerning this life had faded from his memory and as we stood around his bed.
I began to quote a verse of a hymn in connection with the Lord's coming.
And he opened his eyes, and his face lit up, and he started to quote a verse of a hymn about the Lord's coming.
And we burst into song. It was so real. I thought the Lord was going to come before we left that hospital room. But just to see the reality, that's all he had. It didn't matter about what he'd done in this life, didn't matter about what he'd accumulated. But he was looking on to the coming of the Lord, Jesus and all young people. I desire this for your heart as well. What's going to give you the proper value and perspective on things as you begin life, as you get through school, as you get a job?
As you perhaps pray about natural relationships and so on, and those things are all necessary and good in their place, but they need to be kept in the proper perspective. You know, it's interesting when you go back to the Old Testament that when the children of Israel entered the Land of promise and took possession of their inheritance, what placed the proper value on the things that they bought and sold was the nearness of the Year of Jubilee. Why?
Because when the year of Jubilee came, everything had to be returned to its original owner. In other words, if a man bought a field in the 49th year, he obviously didn't pay very much for it, because in one year he had to return it to its original owner. And our Jubilee is just about to break. I believe with all my heart that we're just on the eve of the Lord's return. I can't tell you exactly when the Lord is coming, but I know one thing. As we sit in these chairs this afternoon, we are closer to the Lord's coming than we've ever been before.
The Lord Jesus is about to come. And are we watching and waiting for that return? Well, it's Good Hope. It's to comfort your hearts but one other thing, and establish you in every good word and work. What I'm going to say now, I want to say ever so carefully, but I have observed that those who understand from Scripture the truth of the Lord's coming in the way that it is presented to us, they are those that are.
Established in as it says here, in every good word and work.
And I have found those who through Miss Teaching, don't understand the truth of the Lord's coming and the difference between His coming for us at any moment is coming back to reign over this world in a coming day. They are often very unstable in many aspects of their spiritual and practical life. It is the understanding and appreciation of this doctrine of the Lord's coming, and the reality of it in our souls, that I believe is going to give us stability.
00:40:21
And if there isn't that stability, we become like a ship without a rudder. And a ship without a rudder turns into the wind and drifts. And we're going to leave ourselves open to every wind of doctrine if we don't open this book and establish in our souls the truth that we are Speaking of this afternoon. Now let's go to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews Chapter 6.
Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 18.
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, and which entereth into that within the veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered. Even Jesus made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
Well, here we have our hope brought before us as a sure and a steadfast hope. We've already commented on this aspect of things. It is the only hope that we have that is sure and steadfast. As I said earlier, every other hope that we have is uncertainty at best. But we can speak of the Lord's coming and what is ahead for the believer with absolute certainty. Someone has put it this way, and it's certainly not original. It's been repeated many times.
Our hope, the hope of the Lord's coming, is simply delayed certainty.
Again, it hasn't happened yet, But is there any doubt in our minds, brethren? I'm convinced in my own soul.
That this truth is a reality, and that it is going to happen at any moment. And I trust from the word of God and by the power of the spirit of God, you are convinced in your own soul as well. And so we find here that it's a sure and a steadfast hope. And then he tells us why it's a sure and a steadfast hope. And that is because the forerunner is already there. The forerunner is the Lord Jesus himself, because the resurrection.
The ascension of Christ and his full glorification is God's. Amen to the work of Calvary. The fact that God has received him back to his right hand is the proof that God is satisfied with the work of his Son. The Lord Jesus spoke of it with confidence even before he went to the cross. It said the hour was come that he should depart out of the world under the Father. He was going back to the Father, and he was going back having glorified God on the earth.
And finish the work that he was given him to do. And if you ever doubt your salvation or your acceptance there.
Just look up and see the acceptance that the Lord Jesus has. Again, I want to say this ever so carefully, but if God were to refuse me entrance into heaven, having availed myself of the work of Calvary, he would have to refuse his own dear Son, and that is absolutely impossible. That is the security in which my hope is firmly planted in my own soul. But here we find there's the forerunner. Now I believe this is an illusion.
To something that these brethren would have understood in their day in connection with sailing in and around the Greek harbors. Because history tells us that many of the Greek harbors in that day were inaccessible at low tide, for various reasons. Sometimes because of rocks and Shoals and sandbars at the mouth of those harbors. Sometimes too, because in those days they would load the ships so heavy that they could only make the mouth of the harbor at high tide.
And So what they had on those ships was what was called the Forerunner. It was a small row boat or skiff like vessel. And what would happen is when the boat, the ship would approach the harbor, if it couldn't access the harbor because it was low tide, they would put the anchor of the ship firmly tied to the ship in the Forerunner and it would be rode across the mouth of the harbor and the Forerunner would drop the anchor.
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Safe inside the harbor and that I anchors dropped safe inside the harbor by the Forerunner was the assurance to the crew on that ship that at the right moment they too were going to make the harbor. So you would step up to on the deck of one of those ships that was waiting and you would say to the captain or the crew, Are you sure you're going to make the harbor? Oh, they say you see that rope tied to the bow of the boat. On the other end of that rope there's an anchor that the Forerunner has.
Safely dropped inside the harbor and that's the assurance that at the right moment.
We too are going to make the harbor, and our forerunner is there. A forerunner would denote the fact that there's after runners. And who are the after runners? That's you and me. By the grace of God, It's Christ. The first fruits afterward, they that are Christ at his coming. Oh, brethren, what a thrill this is to realize that the Lord Jesus is there, the guarantee, the forerunner, and he's there waiting for that moment when he'll have us with himself. The anchor in classical writing was always used as a symbol of hope.
And that's the way it's used here, and the only other time you have it in Scripture, and that is in the 27th chapter of the Book of Acts. And you remember when they threw the anchor out of the boat, they drifted. It caused shipwreck in the end. Because if we give up our hope, as I said earlier, we're going to turn into the wind and drift. We're going to make shipwreck. Oh, we must hold this hope dear to our souls and have it ever before us. Now let's turn to the Book of Titus.
Titus, Chapter 2.
And verse 11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.
Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.
Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Before we comment on this blessed hope that's brought before us to notice, the context, I believe is very significant. We've spoken of grace in these meetings, and here we find grace brought before us as a teacher. It's grace that teaches us how to live in this world, and not just in this world, but in this present world or this present age.
Because His grace is sufficient even for the day in which we live.
I say that because I think sometimes when we speak about living for God's glory, living for Christ in the day in which we live, walking uprightly and so on, sometimes the argument is raised. Well, that was okay back in the days of Titus, or the apostle Paul. That was okay back in the days of the early brethren, or our grandfathers, our fathers. But this is a difficult day. You got to give a little bit here and a little bit there. You got to adjust to the times. No grace is sufficient to preserve us.
Right down at this present time where we are.
In fact, brethren, if the day ever gets so dark that there isn't sufficient grace to preserve us in the path of faith and service, then the Lord will take us home.
But until that moment His grace is sufficient. Do we need more grace? He giveth more grace. Does He give it to all of all we received of His fullness and grace upon grace. And so it teaches us to live, to deny that which is unholy, ungodly, and then to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world of this present age. It also teaches us something else to be looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing. Now it's very interesting that the two things are connected here.
The the blessed hope is what we've been Speaking of, that the momentary return of the Lord Jesus, what's going to take place perhaps even before this meeting or this day is completed. We're going to hear that shout and we're going to be called away to meet the Lord Jesus in the air and ever be with the Lord. But there's the glorious appearing. The appearing in scripture is always in connection with his appearing back in this world. When he comes to reign in righteousness, every eye is going to see him and and so on.
Now we often say that the hope of the Lord's coming for us, that's the rapture, is our proper hope. That's true, but it's not the whole truth. The two things are connected here. They're both part of our blessed hope. We're looking for the Lord to come at any moment. And the glorious appearing, Paul said at the end of his life to Timothy and all those that love his appearing. Why are we to love his appearing? Because it's a day coming when the Lord Jesus is going to have his proper place on planet Earth, not just in heaven. He has that today.
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He's crowned with a crown of glory and honor. He's been given the highest place in heaven.
But not on earth yet. And the Lord Jesus, seated at the right hand of God this afternoon, is sitting there thinking about that time He seated at the right hand of God. It tells us in Hebrews 10 henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool, He's anticipating that day of his vindication, and we ought to be anticipating it too. Not only that, but I don't believe the heart of God will ever truly be satisfied until his his Son.
His beloved Son is vindicated here on planet Earth and has his rightful place. And so we're to be looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing. How much is that true? We're waiting for the Lord to come. That's true. We have no choice. We've got to wait. And I trust we're waiting with patience as well as anticipation. But are we really looking? The Lord said, Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching.
I heard of a young man and he had on his bathroom mirror those two little words we often see on a little motto, perhaps today.
I thought that was very good because he wanted to be reminded every day when he got up and prepared for the day. He wanted to be reminded that this might be the day of the Lord's return. I heard of another young brother and he had on his desk at work 2 little words, Lord Jesus come, because as he did his work, he wanted to be reminded that during that work day it might be the time when the Lord Jesus comes. Are we really watching for the Lord Jesus?
Do we look up during the day and anticipate his return? He not only wants us to be waiting, but he wants us to be looking for that blessed hope. Now, the word blessed here is translated different ways in the English, but here it's the thought of happy. And isn't it a happy thing again? Doesn't it rejoice our hearts? What happiness do we really have lasting happiness in this world? Oh, I don't mean there aren't those things that we can enjoy in a natural way. And so on. I'm not mean. I don't mean that.
And we've had a nice day of activity, perhaps, and we're happy with the way things have went. But true, lasting happiness is a result of the fact that we have a happy hope that we have something beyond the fun and activities of this world. Though there's nothing wrong with having some fun, some relaxation, and some activity in a in a natural way looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the Great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
Let's go now for one more aspect of First John Chapter 3.
One John Chapter 3 and verse 2. Beloved, now are we the sons of God?
And it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. You know, if we were to go back to the Lord's own words in John chapter 14, where the Lord Jesus sowed the seeds of this promise for the comfort and encouragement of his disciples before he left them to go to the cross and then return to heaven.
He simply said, There I will come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also but the apostle John himself, who recorded those words of the Lord Jesus for us. He gives another little detail here that is very significant and special.
Not only are we going to be with Christ, we're going to be like Christ because as we have in other places, we're going to receive bodies of glory like unto his body of glory. Now again, I know perhaps the younger people here don't relate to this so much, but there's some of us who have sat in these meetings and been a little uncomfortable because of some physical maladies. Phil's had his foot up on a footstool. Some of us have squirmed a little bit with a bat with our bad backs and.
Maybe some have had a little headache and other little things that come in that distract and we wish weren't just the way they are. But brethren, when we sit down in the Father's house with the Lord Jesus in the midst, and I know that's going to be what's paramount, to have the Lord Jesus in the midst. But we will have nothing to bother us, nothing about our surroundings that we wish were different, nothing from within. The sinful flesh will be gone. Our bodies will undergo A tremendous change.
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I say they will be bodies of glory like unto his body of glory. Oh, what a meeting in the air.
That is going to be. And so it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him, For we shall see him not as he was, but as he is, as he was was the lowly man of grace, sitting weary with his journey on sight. Carswell, as he was, was trying to get a few moments rest on a borrowed pillow in the back of a borrowed boat, as he was was hanging in his shame on a Roman cross crowned with a crown of thorns. But when we see him another day, we're going to see him as he is.
Going to see him as the glorified man. And I believe when we get one glimpse of his lovely face that's going to eclipse everything else, All there's going to no doubt be interaction with one another. Conversation will speak of his deceased that he accomplished at Jerusalem. Going to be aware of all the wonderful things that are going to make up the Father's house, but that's not what's going to occupy us. It's going to be the person that gave his life for us.
I say when we get one glimpse of his face, everything else is going to be pushed into the background and eclipsed. I would like to close by going to the last page of God's word.
Revelation Chapter 22, verse 7 Behold, I come quickly.
Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book. Verse 12. Behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be verse 20. He which testifieth these things sayeth, surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so come Lord Jesus, the grace of our Lord Jesus. Christ be with you all. Amen. Before the Canon of Scripture is closed, three blessed confirmations from the Lord Jesus himself.
Behold, I come quickly. He says it in the seventh verse and there it's in connection with, shall I say, reaction or responsibility. Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of this book. In verse 12 he repeats it in connection with reward, because if there is any faithfulness to his word or to him, he's going to reward in the coming day. And then the third time it's in connection with response and he never has to repeat it. Once there's the response of the heart. That's it. But I want to focus just for a moment.
On these last phrases of the word of God, he which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly.
Do you realize these are the last recorded words of the Lord Jesus in Scripture? The last recorded words of the Lord Jesus are this blessed promise. Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus. These are the last recorded words of the people of God in Scripture. And I trust that at the end of this meeting that is the response, the true response of your heart and mind because he wants us longing for his coming out of a heart that is so attracted to himself.
That we want nothing less to be physically, unhinderedly in His presence. If I can just back up, he surely I come quickly. That's the last promise of Scripture. Amen. Even so. Come Lord Jesus. That's the last prayer, and he closes the book. Not quite. There's the last provision, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. If he leaves us here another few moments, His grace, as we said earlier, is sufficient. May this blessed hope, then young and old thrill our souls, and may we be anticipating it every moment of every day.