The Lord Is Our Only Hope

Question: What do you put your trust in as your only hope?  Is it your money, your parents or a close friend, how about your popularity or maybe you are a TV actor or a movie star or a sports star?  It might be the business you have started or the President or a dozen other things.  All these things will fade and be gone in time, but the Lord God has always existed and will forever.  His reign has no beginning, nor does it have an end.  He has always been trustworthy, honest, fair and just, and gracious and loving, kind and merciful and long suffering.  He is not overly harsh, but always willing to forgive a true repentant heart.  He has always been in the business of restoration and deliverance and healing.

There are archaeological finds that match up with what the Word of God says, look them up and see for yourself.  The fact that we live in the end times is unmistakable.  Please read Matthew chapter 24.  Whether you know the signs of the end times or not, the things that the Bible says about the end times, point to what I am talking about.  When God decides it is time, He will send his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, back for his people that are still here, and we will be with him forever and ever.  But, all that rejected Him will be separated from Him for ever and ever and that will be a very sad and a devastating day.  

The good news is that no one needs to be separated from him and if you are, it will be by your own choice.  Please read John 3:16-17, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”   Whosoever includes you and everyone else who believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only begotten Son.  

This is very important, please read John 6:43-45, “Jesus therefore answered and said to them, ‘Do not murmur among yourselves. No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.’”     

I keep stressing this because people are powerless to receive the new birth called, being born-again.  It is by God’s grace and nothing that anyone can do outside of being broken and truly repenting, turning from your sins and turning to God for His mercy and grace through faith.  Please read Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

Only when God draws you to Jesus and the Holy Spirit convicts you of your sins, can you respond by making the right or wrong choice, receiving or rejecting the offer given you.  

You cannot come to the Lord by your own righteousness, the Word of God says this in Romans 3:9-20, “What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. As it is written: There is none righteous, no, not one; there is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one. Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips; whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”

Please read how God accepts us in Romans 3:21-31, “But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”

He definitely doesn’t accept us on our own merit, for sure, but only on His grace, mercy and love and by the redemptive work that Jesus did on the cross when He became the sacrificial Lamb of God, laying down his life and shedding His blood for the sins of mankind, the only sacrifice that God would accept.  Praise be to God, the Father, and praise be to Jesus, his beloved Son, our precious Savior, if we are born-again and we cannot praise you both enough.  

Enough said may the good Lord bless you all and may all of you have a super, blessed day!!  If you haven’t yet today, give them both a shout out of thanksgiving and praise!!