Would someone like to open in prayer that God will help
us to understand His Word?
… Girl
Prays
Amen
Today I am going to be doing kind of the second part of
what we were talking about last week. Do you remember what we talked about last
week. It starts with an “f”.
Faith!
Faith, that’s right. And do you remember what was faith?
What does the Bible say that faith is?
Believing
that Jesus is our Savior.
Yes, it is having the assurance of things that we hope
for and the strong belief in the things that we cannot see. And we remember
that faith is a gift. It is something that God gives us. It is not something
that we can choose to do without God helping us believe in Him. It is a gift of
grace. If we truly have faith it affects the way we live. Remember we talked
about the hammock example. If we believe that the tree is strong we tie our
hammock to it. So if we believe that Jesus is Savior, that He died and rose
again, that He is the Lord and the God of all mankind, we will tie our lives to
Him. We are banking our life on Him, we are trusting Him with our souls and we
are giving up everything to follow him. And we have faith that He is God. Today
we are going to talk about something very similar to faith and that is hope. We
are going to talk about hope.
What is hope? If you say that you are hoping that you
can see your grandmother this weekend, what do you mean by that.
Girl
Answers: Um, that you might see her but there is a chance that you won’t
You are hoping, but there is a chance it will or will
not happen. But when you see the word hope in the Bible, it is a very special
kind of hope, because our hope is in something that cannot fail. It is in the
promises of God. So when we put our hope in God, we are eagerly looking forward
to the things of God. It is a hope that accompanies a faith that God has given
us. And remember that faith is the assurance of things hoped for. So if you are
a Christian and you have hope in things to come in Christ, you are looking
forward to it, but it is not as though there is a chance that it may not
happen. In fact, because of the faith that God has given you, you are assured
of those things that you look forward to. You are certain that in mind that
what you are looking forward to is surely going to come to pass. That is why
this is a blessed hope that we have. It is a different than anything else that
you girls may be looking forward to. Because the things we hope for in Christ
will surely happen. If you have your Bibles please open them to Colossians
chapter 1. Colossians is in the New Testament. It is before the book of Hebrews
that we looked at last week.
Okay, we are going to begin reading with verse 23.
26 that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested
to His [ak]saints, Col
1
So this mystery that was hidden to the past generations
is the mystery of Christ coming as the Messiah and living a perfect life, dying
for our sins, rising to life after satisfying His Father’s justice. In the Old
Testament people knew the truth of God. They had faith that God would send a
Savior to save them from their sins. And the faith they had was credited to
them as righteousness and they were saved by the faith that they had in the
coming Messiah. But they did not understand as well as we do now. Because now
that Christ has come and fulfilled the work for which He came to do, we
understand all about Jesus. We know that His Name is Jesus. We know that exactly
how He lived and what He said when He was alive and all the miracles that He
did. And we know that He is alive today and that He has been crucified by
sinful men for us and this mystery of God reconciling the world to Himself not
only His chosen people the Israelites, but also people from every nation under
heaven, um, God has saved them all and this is a mystery now that is revealed
to us. In the Old Testament times the people knew this in part, but now that it
is finished, the mystery of the Gospel for all people of the world is made
known to us who believe in Christ.
Verse 27
27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the
Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Col 1
So, this
verse is very very special because it is telling us as God’s children that God
desires to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery us. And this
verse tells us exactly what that mystery is. This mystery is Christ in you, the
hope of glory. So, the mystery of God from the beginning of time till the end
of time, girls, is Christ in you who is the hope of glory. So if you have
trusted in Christ, Christ is in you through the Holy Spirit and He Himself is
your hope. And will Jesus ever fail? Is there a chance that He will die someday?
No, right. So this hope that we have is Christ. And He is the hope the glory.
Girls, glory is something that I have understood recently in the past few
years. I did not understand it most of my life. It is really really cool what
glory is. Have you all heard of the word “holy”. You memorized the verse in
your book: Let them praise Your great and awesome Name for He is holy. I think
it is in Jeremiah. Well, the word “holy” means to cut-off or separate.
Preethi draws on board: box to represent world,
writes “God” above the world box as cut off from the world and separated by
infinity symbol and a line to represent the veil
Say this
is all of us, the world, and all the people in the world. When we say that God
is holy, it is as though He is cut off and He is cut-off so high this is an
infinity sign and He is way up here. And He is cut off from the rest of us. He
is set-apart much higher than us because He is righteous and He is good. And
apart from Him we are not. And you see, we do not deserve to see God’s
holiness. In fact, in our sin if we saw God’s holiness, if we came to God and
saw God’s holiness we would die. In the Bible, when the men of God who were
covered in Christ when they saw the holiness of God, even though they were
saved and had the faith that was righteousness for them, when they saw the
holiness of God you know what they did? They fell flat down on their faces. If
you saw even the tiniest bit of the holiness of God, you would be so overwhelmed
and in awe of Him and it would just cause you to cause to run to him and to
flee from everything else in the world. And the word “glory” is when. Okay. So,
when we are in our sins, the holiness of God is not visible to us. We are blind
to the goodness of God. It says there is this veil that separates us from God
and because of this veil we cannot see the holiness of God. So before we were
converted, before we trusted in Christ, we could not see the holiness of God.
We could not see it. If you saw it you would die. But when you come to Christ,
this veil is taken away and now we can see God’s holiness and when we can see
God’s holiness, that is called seeing His glory. And that is a special gift of
God to us that we do not deserve, but because of what Christ did on the cross,
God’s justice was satisfied and we have the gift of having the veil removed from
our eyes so we can see the holiness of God. And when God reveals Himself to
people who are covered in Christ, that is called glory. So Christ in us is the hope
of glory. And as we continue in our walk with Christ, He will show us more and
more of His glory His gift of grace. And when we finally see Him as He is, we
will see His full glory. So the thing we look forward to as Christians is to
see the glory of God in Christ; to know Christ. To see the riches of Christ. To
see all of the love of Christ. It is the only thing that we look forward to.
Our heart has been changed such that Christ in us is our hope of glory. And
that is something that every true believer has their hope in. They are looking forward
to it. In fact, let me ask you a question and think of the answer to this question
in your own minds. You do not have to answer me.
Are you
looking forward to heaven, to seeing Christ Face to face?
You might
eagerly nod your head yes because you are supposed to but think about it hard,
does your heart truly look forward to Christ or are you looking forward to
something else? To be honest with you, there are times in my life, the times
when I am not walking with Christ properly, that I am not actively looking
forward to heaven. And because I am a Christian God will bring me back to
Christ, the hope of glory. And if we are true Christians, our hope in in
Christ. Our hope is not in anything else in this world. We are not necessarily
looking forward to having a good life, or even good health and prosperity, or
to have people like us, or to have fun, or to go to some special place, or to
get together with nice people. But instead of all of that, our hope is in
Christ. Someone who has Christ in them, Christ is for them their hope of glory.
They are looking forward to Him. So now please turn to Matt chapter 7 verse 13.
13 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is
wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who
enter through it.14 For
the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few
who find it. Matt7
Okay
girls there are only two paths in this world, only two. And you are right now
this very moment, all of you girls are on one of these paths. There is a path
that has a broad gate, that means a very wide gate. Many people can get through
at the same time. And the road beyond it is a broad road. And there is also a
small gate and there is a really really narrow way and only a few people are on
this path. And Jesus is telling us that the gate is small and the way is narrow
that leads to life and few are those who find it. So you girls probably, um,
you girls probably know that if you have trusted in Christ, which of these
paths are you on?
The narrow path.
You are
on the narrow path and girls, there are only a few people on the narrow path.
That is what Jesus told us. It is not what I am saying, but Jesus told us that
many people are on the broad path, but only a few people are on the narrow
path. And it is not only a narrow door but a narrow path. Please turn to Luke
chapter 13 verse 23
23 And
someone said to Him, “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?” Luke 13
So someone came to Jesus and said are there only a few
people in this world who are going to be saved. You might have that question, right?
How many people are going to be saved? Are all the people going to be saved, or
are half the people going to be saved or is no one going to be saved? So just like
you might ask, these people were asking this question. And here is Jesus’s
answer.
And
He said to them, 24 “Strive
to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and
will not be able. 25 Once
the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand
outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ then He will
answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ 26 Then you will begin
to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our
streets’; 27 and
He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart
from Me, all you evildoers.’ 28 In
that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves
being thrown out.
So Jesus’s answer to us how many people are going to
saved is that…He is telling us that we need to strive to enter through the
narrow door because many will try to enter through the narrow door and will not
be able to. So girls, in this world a lot of people just do not try to seek
God, right? They just live their lives how they want to. They may not believe
in God. They might not really care about God. But this verse is not even
talking about those people. This verse is talking about those who strive who
enter through the narrow door and they are not able to. They are not able to.
And that is something is very very significant because of all the people who
try to enter the narrow door, only a few are given the gift of faith. And girls
there is a very great hope we have. Open you Bibles to John chapter 6. I’ll
just read it actually because it looks like we are running out of time. I am
starting in verse 23.
53 So
Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh
of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in
yourselves. 54 He
who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise
him up on the last day. 55 For
My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. 56 He who eats My flesh and
drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. 57 As the living
Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also
will live because of Me. 58 This
is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate
and died; he who eats this bread will live forever.”
59 These
things He said in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.
60 Therefore
many of His disciples, when they heard this said, “This is a difficult statement; who can listen
to it?”John 6
Okay so Jesus is essentially saying that apart from Him
we cannot live and only by eating His flesh and drinking His blood in a
Spiritual sense we are able to live. So He is here saying that He is God
because He is saying that apart from Him we cannot live. And that is
essentially saying that He is God. And many people who were following Him
before, when they heard this, they stopped following Him. They could not accept
Christ’s teaching that He alone is eternal Life. They could not accept that
Christ is eternal Life. So they turned away from Him.
61 But
Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to
them, “Does this cause you to stumble? 62 What then
if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? John 6
He is asking them “what
if you saw Me go up to heaven then would you believe that I am eternal life”.
“What if you saw Me go up in the clouds,
then would you believe in Me?”
63 It is the Spirit who
gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you
are spirit and are life. 64 But
there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the
beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that
would [j]betray Him.65 And He was
saying, “For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to
Me unless it has been granted him from the Father.” John 6
You see girls, on our own we cannot come to Christ. We
cannot. That is why the people, let’s say you witness to someone, you tell them
the Gospel and they say, “I want to live
my life how I want to and on my death bed I will trust in Christ so I can go to
heaven.” The thing is, it does not work that way because we cannot decide
to have faith nor can we decide when to have faith. Faith is a gift from God.
Jesus is saying here that no one can come to Him unless it has been granted to
him from the Father. And before He said that it is the Spirit who gives Life.
Girls, the only reason you could believe in Christ is because the Spirit
enables you to believe that Jesus alone is the Way. And of all the people who
strive to enter the small gate and narrow way, only a few are able to because
the Father has chosen to give those people the gift of faith. And Jesus said
girls that I will not drive away anyone who comes to Me. So when you are faced
with these truths, you might wonder in your souls, will God enable me to come
to Him? If it is He who gives me the gift of faith, then how can I come to Him?
God said that I will not turn anyone who comes to Me and He said that if you
seek Me with all your heart, I will be found by you, I will let Myself be found
by you. So girls, what this means for us is that if you do not know that you
are saved you have got to seek Him. And seek Christ because girls the reason
why many people try to enter through the small gate and cannot is because they
refuse to come to Christ. They refuse to believe that He is who He says He is.
They want to get to heaven by the goodness of their own or they are more
interested in the things of the world, their hope is in the things of the world
and not in Christ. You must set your hope entirely on Christ and know that
there is no good thing apart from Him. King David said that he has no good
thing on earth besides God. His heart and flesh may fail but God is the
strength of his heart and his portion forever. Is God your portion? Is He your
only portion? Is it true of yourself that you could say that you have no good
thing besides Christ, that He is your only hope? Because for all those who have
entered through the small gate, Christ is our hope. He is the Way. He is the
narrow Way. And He will take us into glory. He will rescue us from every evil
attack and bring us safely to His heavenly Kingdom. So girls, remember that our
faith and our repentance is a gift from God and salvation is a not just a free
ticket to heaven as I said last week. But it is the gift of eternal life, of
being released from the power of sin, the blood of Christ cleanses our consciences
from the acts, the sinful acts that lead to death. So salvation means a new
life of being set free from sin so that you may bear fruit to God. So if anyone
says that salvation is just a free ticket to heaven but not necessarily living
a life for Christ, it is a false salvation girls. Because Jesus, the Name of
Jesus was given to Him because He will save His people from their sins, not
just from hell, but from their sins. You see girls, you have power over sin in
His Name and you are dead to sin. You are alive to God in Christ Jesus. If the
Spirit of God dwells in you, He will help you to obey God. He will give you a
greater desire for Christ that your sin. So when you obey god and resist sin,
it is not like you are pushing down a desire inside of you to sin, but rather
God has given you a desire for Christ that is so much greater than your desire
for sin. You just do not want to sin anymore because you want Christ. Christ is
your hope of glory. He is your only hope.
A
girl explains that her friend tries to tempt her to disobey her mom and asks
Preethi if her friend is a Christian.
See that is the thing we have been talking about:
Christians sin sometimes, but it not like a life’s practice. When you look at
your whole life as a Christian, you see the bearing of good fruit. So I encourage
you to first of all tell your friend the Gospel because maybe she has never
heard the true Gospel. And if she has believes in Christ and claims that Christ
is her Savior, then tell her in love and grace that what you are doing is not
right to tempt me like this, And God-willing she will understand and in God’s
time she will come back to Christ if she is a Christian. We need to abide in
this Book. It is our life. There is so much more to know about God from His
Word and you need to be filled with the Spirit because these kind of
situations…I cannot tell you if your friend is a Christian or not, but God knows
what you need to do and that is why with every situation that you are faced
with, you need the Spirit of God and the Word of God to guide and lead you and
give you wisdom to know how to react. That is such a blessed thing that you
love your friend and care for her soul. Keep praying for her and for God to
give you boldness to say the right words based on where she is at spiritually.
I will close in prayer and pray for your friend.
Dear Heavenly Father,
I praise You that You are our hope of glory and You are
the only certain thing that we have in this world. Your Words in the Holy
Scriptures are precious to us, they are dear to us. And we hold fast to Them.
They are more certain to us than anything else in this world. And I pray for
Ally’s friend that if she is not saved that you would give her the gift of
faith and that the Father would enable her to come to Christ to come to Christ
and come to the narrow way. Give Ally the wisdom to say the right words to her
friend. I pray for all these girls. Remove all the obstacles that keep them
from putting their full hope in you. Grant them the gift of faith and repentance
and help Your Word to grow and grow in their hearts and help us all to know You
and to have fellowship with you and one another. Help the Christians all over
the world to unite. And help all the Christians who are persecuted not to deny
You but to have great joy in Your Name. And bless Your Jewish people who are hardened
that they will trust in Christ as well because we know that do not give up on
Your people, the nation of Israel. Help us to stay on the narrow path, and You
are powerful to help us do that.
In Jesus Name we pray, Amen
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