Isaiah 44:6 “Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and His redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside Me there is no God.”
He is God from everlasting, and will be to everlasting.
If He had not created…..nothing would every have been;
And if He did not uphold….all would soon be nothing again.
He is all-sufficient and therefore….
…..His people need not to hope in any other.
Hebrews 6:18-19 “That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a 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,…”
Our anchor is in the Word of our Lord to us…..whether through the Bible, a message, a teaching……for that is what hope is:
It is the confident expectation that God will do what He says.
Psalm 71:5 “For Thou art my hope, O Lord God: Thou art my trust from my youth.”
Psalm 130 “Out of the depths have I cried unto Thee, O Lord.
Lord, hear my voice:….
If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared.
I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in His Word do I hope.
My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning:….
Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy and with Him is plenteous redemption…..”
Hope is produced by the Holy Spirit within us, as we hear God’s Word to us.
Hope then anchor’s us….though we have to wait for the fulfillment of that Word….or there are storms surrounding us….or there is opposition (when God says something….then the devil tries to prove that Word wrong.)
Hope is from the Holy Spirit….but it comes and is strengthened through experience with God.
Romans 5:4-5 “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 unto us.”
Hope says, like the children’s song…..
“If He said it, I believe it….for His Word it can not lie.
If it’s written in the Bible,….I’ll believe it till I die.
Though the mountains be removed…and cast into the sea…
God’s Word shall live forever…throughout eternity.”
We began this, with…..”Thus saith the Lord…”
And to each of us there is His Word for instruction…..His promises to reach out for….His commands for obedience to exercise and strengthen us in faith…….His word of exhortation to awaken us….His words of comfort to enfold us in His love and care…
….but to each of us there is His Word to us…..personally…that we need to hold on to…in hope….and obtain.
We should all say:
Psalm 146:5 “Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God.”
God’s hope anchors us in the ocean of God’s Will and love….amid the storms of our lives.
Preaching, Teaching, and Notes 