Gospel Hope in Christ Alone

The pastor discusses the concept of hope in relation to salvation and faith in Christ. He emphasizes that our hope in Christ is not wishful thinking or based on our own efforts, but rather grounded in the finished work of Jesus. He refutes the idea that salvation can be lost through sin or lack of perfection, highlighting that our righteousness comes from God, not ourselves. He encourages believers to look to Christ as their hope and not rely on their own works. The following message is brought to you by the people of Redeemer Church of Piketon, Ohio. For more information, please visit RedeemerPiketon.org. And now here's Pastor Jason Booth with the message. Gospel hope in Christ alone. Gospel hope in Christ alone. And we will consider as our scripture lesson two verses of scripture found in Ephesians 1, 11, and 12. The Word of the Living God. In Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. And we trust the Lord will add His own blessings to the public reading of His Word this morning. Amen. Gospel hope in Christ alone. Paul describes salvation as his hope in Christ. As I was considering these verses, the word hope caught my eye in a special way, in a unique way, as I was reading. And in Paul's world, and hopefully in your world, salvation and hope are synonymous. Our hope is in Christ. What a beautiful way to understand the finished work of the Lord Jesus. He is our hope. We don't hope in our work. We don't trust in our efforts. We don't trust in our church membership. We don't trust in our ability to be good, moral people. Good little boys and girls. No, we trust in Christ and His finished work. For His work alone atones for sin. So the hope we have in Christ is not mere wishful thinking. Many times people think that faith is just something you hope is true, even though you somehow know it's not. Well, that's not the definition of faith. That's the definition of wishful thinking. You know, they were giving away a pickup truck in Ashland, Kentucky last night at one of the event centers there in town. And it was all over the place, all of the flyers hanging up everywhere. And people were talking about what they would do if they were to win that pickup truck. And of course, 99.99999% of them stood no chance at all of ever winning that pickup truck. But they all talked and joked about what it would be like to win that automobile. And beloved, that's the very textbook definition of wishful thinking. Young ladies might look in a mirror and think to themselves, if only I could grow another eight inches or a foot. Men might look and see a punch and think, if only I could lose 50 pounds by tomorrow. Wishful thinking. But our faith has to be more than wishful thinking if it's to be genuine. Now, you might think, Pastor, are you putting the onus on us to drum up faith? And I'm telling you, no. Faith that is genuine is a gift from God. The Word of the Lord is clear. I don't care what you've devised, because a man deviseth his ways. But it is the Lord who directs his steps. Faith must come from God. If it is to be genuine, it must come from God. It's God's gift to His elect people. But wishful thinking is just that. It's fleeting. It's a hope not based on the evidence. Oh, I hope I win a million dollars. I hope, I hope, I hope. That's not the kind of hope that the Christian is afforded in Christ. Our hope in Christ is steadfast. It's more than just wishful thinking. After all, what lasting good would hope be if it were not fully grounded and secure? Do you know there are churches that preach to their congregations that they can lose their salvation? Now, that shouldn't shock any of you in the congregation this morning. But perhaps you're watching online. Perhaps you're learning about the gospel for the first time. There are church groups or so-called church groups that preach that you can, through some action or inaction of your own, lose that for which Christ bled and died to purchase for you. You can lose your salvation by committing certain sins, by not doing this or doing that, by not following these rules or these other guidelines. And when you corner people that believe this false teaching and ask them, exactly what must I do to lose my salvation? You're going to get a different answer from each and every one of them. Some will say, the hardliners will say, if you sin even one time, you've lost your salvation, and you must return again and be re-saved. Someone else might say, no, it must be a conscious lifestyle decision to continually live in certain sins. And I want to remind each of you today that if our salvation is conditioned on our ability to be perfect in our own flesh, in our own strength, then we are all doomed. You sin in word, thought, and deed each and every day. Now, we are not to celebrate sin. We're to confess our sins. We're to be honest about our sins. And we are to fight against the baser nature of this fallen flesh each and every day. We are called to do the right and shun the wrong. We are called to call out that which is wrong and to extol that which is good. But do not ever think that because you belong to the Lord, that you are now somehow immune to the weaknesses of this flesh. You're still in the old fleshly body that you were born into. And you're going to be battling sin until the day you die. But I want you to understand that the battling of sin is not the righteousness. There are people who say, well, as long as you keep trying, Jimmy Swaggart and his entire TV network preach this conditional security by saying, as long as you keep trying, God won't quit you if you don't quit God. And so I'm thinking to myself as I'm flipping through the channel and I see that and I think, so there you have it. Jimmy, crack the code. Give me a break. The righteousness that will obtain eternal life is your goodwill efforts at trying really super-duper hard. No, it's not, beloved. What kind of hope would you have if you could only hope in the goodness that you yourself could drum up? Let me answer the question for you. You'd have no hope. Because you know what you are. I know what I am. We're prone to wonder. You ever wonder why the Lord called us His sheep in the Word? Because we're stupid and stubborn. And we do our own thing. Oh, you think you're doing right. Oh, I'm going to church this morning. Well, the very act of going to church for some of us is an act of pride. We take pride in our churchiness. You see, sin is on every corner. Our ability to find sin is better than a hunting dog's ability to track prey. We are good at finding new and creative ways of sinning. Why? Because we're in this fallen world and this sin-cursed flesh. So we better have a hope that goes farther than the tip of our nose if we're going to have a hope that's going to endure. And that hope can't be from something within us. It can't be by, look at what I've done. I can't be hoping in my church membership or in my own baptism or in my Bible study habits or in my so-called prayer life. I love that term. Oh, I pray so many times a day. Well, so didn't all of the Pharisees. So don't a good third of the world trapped in false religion. They pray three or seven times a day. And get out a compass and aim at the right direction so they know they're getting the full service antenna reception, right? All the religiousness of this world doesn't amount to a hill of beans when it comes to the righteous requirements that God requires. So we've got to have a hope. A real hope. A hope that make us not ashamed, the Bible says. So what is this hope? Hope conditioned on the works of man? Would be no more than the wishful thinking built on sinking sand. It would be like you go to the beach. We've all done this as children. If you haven't done this, then, you know, maybe you made mud pies in a mud hole somewhere. But we all built little houses out of mud or sand. On the beach, the one time your mom doesn't care if you get out and get dirty in the sand because everybody's getting dirty in the sand. So all the kids grabbing their shovels and their buckets and they start digging away and building and you get a pile of wet sand in a bucket and you turn it up and flip it upside down and you've got a mold of a little house and you can dig in there with a stick and you're building all of these things, right? And it's gorgeous and you think you've done something and you run to mom and you say, Mom, look what I made! And just then, the tide rolls in and the salt water foam sweeps over your beautiful village that you created with your own hands. And in a moment, a little spray of water destroys your entire effort. Why? Because you didn't just build on sinking sand, you built with sinking sand. This is a wonderful metaphor and a fitting metaphor for the works that we do in this life. If you count on your works as righteousness before God, you've essentially built yourself a sand castle in a rainstorm. And how well do you think that's going to hold up? So when people begin to throw out the typical terms of why they know they're okay with God, well, God knows that my grandma was a real faithful servant of God. God knows that my grandpa was a deacon. And God knows that I went to Sunday school each and every Sunday as a child. And then you look at them and say, is this what you're counting on as your righteousness before God? That's not righteousness. You can go to church all you want and not have the righteousness of Christ imputed. So what is it? You've got to have a hope. Well, this preacher keeps going back to hope. What is our hope? If it's not in all the things that we can do, then where does true hope come from? Well, we're going to get to it. Believers are the very trophies of Christ's finished Gospel work. Now, the first thing I want you to do is as you begin to look for hope, I want you to quit looking within. I want you to stop looking toward yourself for anything good and virtuous in the Kingdom of God. You don't bring anything good to the table. The goodness must come from God. God's standard is absolute righteousness and the goodness must come from someone other than you. So, Christ saves us. We don't go around saying, oh, I chose Jesus. No, Christ saved us. One day soon, Christ our hope will come again to judge the living and the dead. Titus 2 and 13 says this, looking for that blessed hope, again, hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. One day, He will split the clouds open and our hope will appear in the clouds. He is my peace. He is my hope of righteousness. He is the hope of glory. Christ in me. Notice it's not of me, but Christ in me is my hope of glory. Hallelujah. So when He does appear, His people will rise to meet Him in the air. And at this point, faith will end in sight. And so shall God's people ever be with the Lord. I'm excited for the day when hope will appear. I'm excited for the day when faith will end in sight. The old hymn resounds in my mind. Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings all mine and ten thousand beside. Great is Thy faithfulness. Great is Thy faithfulness. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah to God for giving us Jesus, our sure and steadfast hope of righteousness. Our Friend who remains closer than a brother. Our Lord, our Savior, our surety, our holiness before God. Christ is our hope. And any hope that we possess must be rooted firmly in Christ. Do you trust in yourself? Then you're not saved. Salvation comes from Christ and trusting in Christ alone. So I hope to speak to at least three points this morning before we close. First of all, gospel hope is rooted in the sovereign grace of God. Secondly, gospel hope is the anchor of Christian assurance in Christ alone. And finally, gospel hope is our comfort from God in life and in death. A full-orbed assurance. That's what our hope affords us. So the Scripture says, in Him we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. Number one. And we're going to skip over the inheritance part just for a moment. And we're going to begin with the part of the verse that says, having been predestined. So my first point is, gospel hope is rooted in the sovereign grace of God. Rooted in the sovereign grace of God. What does this mean? If salvation were conditioned upon me making a decision for God, if that is what salvation is conditioned upon, then Christ finished nothing on the cross. He either saved His people, finishing the work, or He simply made us savable. And beloved, there is a difference. There is a vast chasm that cannot be crossed between Christ making it possible to save someone and Christ actually saving His people from their sin. They are different gospels. One is the truth and one is a lie. And so the Scripture teaches us that our gospel hope is rooted in the sovereignty of God. 1 Peter 1, 3-5 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, listen now, according to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again. I'm going to read that again. According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Why do I have hope? Is it because I've done this or that? No, it's because Jesus lives. He rose again on that third day. And because of His resurrection, the Bible says, that I have been caused to be born again to a living hope. His sacrifice was perfect. His resurrection is a historical fact. And it's because of all these things, His great mercy, His great love, that we say, Blessed be God the Father. Blessed be the Son. Thank You for Your mercy that caused us to be born again. Born again into what? Verse 4 in 1 Peter says, To an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you. Verse 5, Who by God's power. Whose power? God's power. Who caused us to be saved? He did. Whose mercy is involved in this? His mercy. Who bled and died on Calvary's tree to drink damnation dry? Jesus did. Who rose from the grave on that third day? Jesus did. Whoever lives to make intercession for us? Jesus Christ the righteous. Who is our hope? Who is our peace? Who has preserved for us in heaven an imperishable, undefiled, unfading inheritance? Jesus Christ the righteous. And we, verse 5 says, Who by God's power are being guarded through faith. So, who guards us? Who guards our souls? Who keeps us in the palm of His hands? Who won't let us go? Who is greater than all and no one shall be able to snatch them out of the Father's hands? The Father! We have a hope that makes us not ashamed. A hope that says, every time I fall, and I have fallen many a time, every time I have fallen short, His hand of mercy has not failed to reach me. Every time I have seen this world crumble under my feet, He has been the sure and steadfast foundation. Every time things look like there's no way out, He provides a way of escape. When everything is destroyed, He comes in and restores that which the moth and the rust have corrupted. He is our hope. He is our peace. Hallelujah forevermore. Romans 5, 2-6 Through Him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace by which we stand. Through who? The Scripture says through Him. So, is this of our making? Is this of our choosing? Is this of our doing? Or did the Holy Ghost of God come on into your life through conviction and change your mind concerning Christ in the preaching of the Gospel? You know, when I go to heaven one day, I can't imagine I'm going to walk around God's kingdom and say, man, what a good choice I made. I'm so glad I let Jesus be Lord. Look at all I did. I did this. Oh, Jesus just died for everybody and you had to choose Him to get in and I made the best choice and look at all that I've obtained by the good choices I've made. I made proper use of that gift of faith and look at all I have for it now. Praise me! Isn't that awful? And that's what's passing as Gospel preaching in about every church in this community. Oh, won't you choose Him, sinner? Won't you let Jesus be the Lord? Let God! The Maker of heaven and earth needs your permission to save you. He knitted your very atoms together from nothing and He needs your permission. Well, the first thing that the Gospel does is it puts our pride in the dust. Because when the Lord changes our mind concerning about the true nature of where righteousness comes from, we realize that we couldn't make a good decision if it was thrown at our feet in a bow and wrapping paper. If there was one piece of the puzzle to put in to finish the puzzle of grace, we wouldn't figure it out. You kidding me? We'd turn that puzzle piece over which way and probably at the end just sort of eat it and then wonder why it didn't work. Because we're undone. Why? We're stubborn sheep. And we're dead in our trespasses and sins. And we need grace. We need mercy. And that's why the Bible says in Romans 5-2, through Him we have obtained access by faith. Into this grace in which we stand. What do we stand? We stand in grace. And the Bible says we rejoice in... here's that word, hope. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And so, the hope that makes us unashamed before God. The hope that lets us stand before God in a way that Adam and Eve, once they fell, could not stand before God. Think about this. When they fell, when they took of the forbidden fruit, and the Lord called them, and what did they do? They went and they hid in shame. And the Lord in His mercy, even then His sovereign grace was at work, He went and put them together, clothing to shield their nakedness. He went their way even then, in sovereign grace and mercy. And yet, here we are. The first Adam brought us death. But the second Adam brought life. And life abundantly. We rejoice in our sufferings, the Bible says, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. Character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Hope does not put to shame. Hope maketh not ashamed. If you have gospel hope, it's not in the works you do. You fail God every day. It's not in the places you go or the places you don't go. It's not in the food you eat or don't eat. Think about this world. We have people starving to death all over the world. And they're literally walking down the street with cattle that they worship. People are starving to death, worshiping food. We can't do it right. We can't get it right. Someone would hand you a squirt gun and a hammer and then say, alright, one of these is for building houses and the other one is for having fun in the front yard. And I guarantee you, many of us will start running after our neighbor with the hammer. We can't get it right. We're undone. But hope doesn't put us to shame. Our hope isn't in our worth or in our efforts. Our hope is in the finished work of Christ. This is how you have assurance. Otherwise, you'll never have assurance of your faith. You'll always be thinking, am I saved? Am I saved today? Or have I lost my salvation? If you can lose it, then the Lord's a failure and your salvation was never much of anything to begin with. What good was His atoning death if you could just lose it? He knew what you are. He knew what you are. He made you. He knows what you're going to do. He's decreed everything that's going to happen. Oh, but I've got to do this and that or this or that or I'm going to lose it all. Well, in that case, you're already toast. But true gospel hope is saying, I know that I failed God, but I also know that He has never failed me. He will not fail. He cannot fail. Why? Because He cannot deny His own name. And where, beloved, has He written our names in the very palms of His hands? Verse 5, hope does not put us to shame. Oh! So the hope we have in Christ is the same hope that doesn't allow us to be put to shame. How is it that we can't be put to shame? It's because we belong to Him now. He is our Father. The Lord Jesus is our Savior. And the Bible says, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Notice the interchange of the Trinity here. The Bible says, God's love has been poured into our hearts. How has God demonstrated His love toward us? In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And the Bible says that it is into our hearts that this hope has been poured in through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. So the Lord calls. He loves His people with everlasting love. He sends God the Son, Jesus Christ, to die in the place of sinners, those who would be saved. And the Spirit of God then comes and testifies to the reality of what Christ has accomplished on the cross in the preaching of the Gospel. When this preacher tells you about the Gospel, it might not do a thing for you. You might simply be sitting there thinking, well, what's for dinner this afternoon? I'm getting hungry. Or I wish you would be quiet. I want to leave. And it's the Holy Spirit that makes these words real in your heart by quickening your old sinner's heart. Now all of a sudden, you're not dealing with just this old sinner up here preaching at you. The only difference between me and you is I'm standing up and you're sitting down. That's it. We're all sinners. But what happens when God gets a hold of your heart? You hear these words and they land on you like nuclear missiles. Because now you're not just dealing with this old preacher. Anybody can tell me to go lay down. What am I? Just another man, right? But when the Lord speaks to your heart through this word, you can't so easily dismiss Him. No one can resist His will. The Scripture says this, for while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Jesus died for your worst. And you're always at your worst apart from Jesus. You always will be. Without Him, you can do nothing. But through Christ, you can do all things. So we have a hope. We have a hope in God. We have a hope in God the Son. We have a hope in God the Holy Spirit. We have a hope that won't make us ashamed. We have a hope that will carry us into glory one day. A hope that says nothing will separate us from His love. And why do you think we call it gospel? The word gospel means good news. This news wouldn't be good if you could lose it at every hand. What good news would I have for you if all I could tell you was, do your best and hope you die doing the right. Well, you're out of luck. There's an old adage that talks about being up a certain kind of creek without a paddle. Hmm. Yeah, that's you believing a false gospel. Well, don't look at me so stunned. The Apostle Paul said that he counts his life as manure. Everything about his life is manure except for the excellency of God's grace in Christ. In other words, you don't have a whole lot to offer God apart from Jesus. You're toast. But with Him, my, my, you have everything you'll ever need and more. Secondly, gospel hope is the anchor of Christian assurance. And we've already delved into this just a little bit. But the Bible says, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. Who gets all the praise for you being a Christian? You? You get to go around saying, I made this choice and look at me. I got baptized, so look at me. No! Christ gets the glory. As a matter of fact, it says, those who are the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory. So we are the trophies of God's grace. Philippians 1 and 6 says, and I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. Uh-oh, what about people that say you're going to lose your soul and you can be a true Christian and then no longer be a true Christian? The Bible says, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. So that means if one person who's truly saved loses their salvation, then Jesus here, by inspiration, is a liar. Because He says, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. What's it say? Might bring it to completion? No, it says will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. So go ahead and call Jesus a liar. That's not the kind of gospel I'm going to believe. There's no good news in that. If this thing is counting on me to do it, then we may as well quit now because I know I will fail. But I also know that He cannot fail. He cannot lie. And He will not lose His people. Galatians 6, 14 and 15 says it like this, But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Here the Apostle is dealing with the fact that you can't point to the things you do or don't do. In his day, the argument was men who follow Jesus should be circumcised. Just like the Jews. And there was this whole contention between those who weren't circumcised and those who were. And some of the folks who believe you should be circumcised were telling the uncircumcised folks, you need to have this procedure done if you're going to be a Christian. And Paul says no. None of that matters. The only thing that matters is being a new creation. And this means our boasting is in the cross. Not in what we do or don't do. Hebrews 6, 19 and 20 says, we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. A hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain. This is speaking about Christ and His high priestly work. Verse 20, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, who was a mysterious priest in the Old Testament, who didn't have a lineage and he sort of showed up and then went away. And the Bible says that Christ is a high priest just like Melchizedek. He goes our way into the inner sanctum, the holy of holies. He provides the sacrifice, which is Himself. And now He ever lives to intercede for us, which means my sin is forgiven for Christ's sake. All my sins, because His sacrifice will always be sufficient. Always. He has put away sin. He is the high priest that cannot fail. And so our anchor of hope is Jesus Christ. The Bible says He's a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. Again, our gospel hope is not about us. It's about Him. Thirdly, gospel hope is our comfort in life and death. The Bible now, remember the very first thing we read in Ephesians said, in Him we have obtained an inheritance. How could I look at you and say you've obtained an inheritance if I'm also going to say certain restrictions may apply? Please see store for details. You're going to heaven, Vivian. Maybe. Jim, you're going to heaven. Maybe. Greg, nah. You see how stupid this sounds? We tell people, oh, you're a Christian. So long as you toe the line. How can I look you in the face and tell you about eternal life if life isn't eternal, but instead conditioned upon what you, the sinner, needs to still do because Jesus' blood wasn't sufficient? And if you're honest with yourself in the nighttime, as your mind begins to wander and ponder about the deeper things of the world, you'll never have assurance if you're constantly living in fear that you're going to lose your soul. Is your righteousness Christ alone? Or is your righteousness something your grandma told you or something your daddy told you that isn't righteousness at all? It's just wishful thinking. The wishful thinking part is that you can actually be good enough for God. That's not hope. I don't know what that is. I guess I know what that is. That's deception. That's deception. And this world loves good religious deception. Oh, right now, somebody's telling someone else, oh, if you just toe the line, don't wear jewelry, ladies, don't cut your hair. There I saw a preacher on what was a TikTok talking about beards and how men shouldn't have them. And I'm thinking, well, God shouldn't grow them. I mean, what are we wasting our time talking about? Jewelry and makeup and hair. Do you see? Men love to find ways of building a phony religiosity. They love to say, well, I don't eat meat. And then someone else says, well, I only eat organic sprouts. And someone else says, well, I only eat meat that is humanely slaughtered. Or I don't eat this. Or I don't say these magic words because those seven words will send you straight to hell. Darn it. I don't curse. I pay Hollywood actors to do my cursing for me at the movie theater. Do you see how stupid this is? We know what we are. Why don't we just be honest? We're sinners. We're all sinners. And it's not that the preacher's somehow looking down on you, pointing his finger in your face. He's telling you it's just the truth of what we are. It's why Jesus had to come in the first place. We are lost and undone. But through Him, we have fellowship with God restored. The Lord of glory is our Father in heaven. That's why we can pray our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. So He is our comfort in life and death, thirdly. Why? Because He's given us an inheritance. If I've given you an inheritance, it's a legal claim to something that is surely yours. John 16.33 I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, says the Lord. I have overcome the world. Did you overcome the world? No. I didn't either. But He did. How did He do it? He walked all the way up Golgotha. He walked all the way up Calvary. And He bore the sins of His people in His very flesh. He took that death warrant that you and I rightly deserve. And He bore it. For He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. And by His stripes, we are healed. Hallelujah. Romans 5.1-2 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. I don't hope in my work or my worth. I am lost and undone. In my flesh, I know that no good thing dwells. But my hope and rejoicing is in the glory of God revealed how we see His beauty in the face of Jesus. Let's conclude. The only conclusion of the matter commanded by the realities of Christ's great Gospel work is hope. That's the end. What is all this about? Did you come here because you thought I was such a good preacher? No. Hopefully you came here because the Lord has done a work in your heart. You want to learn from His Word. But ultimately, why do we do any of this? It's because He has called us to life eternal. And now we have a hope that when we die, we will live. And so the whole thing better conclude with hope. Otherwise, what are we doing? I have a hope in Jesus. Do you know Him today? Do you know Him today? Now, I'm not asking you if you've joined a church. I'm not asking you if you've committed religious rituals like communion or baptism or confirmation or any of that stuff. I'm asking you, is your hope firmly placed in Jesus Christ alone? Do you know that what He did, He did for you and that that work of Him dying on the cross is what covers your sin debt in full? Do you know that in your heart? If you do, flesh and blood hasn't revealed that to you. Only the Spirit of God has. If you believe, it's only because the Lord has done a work of faith in your heart. He's given you a gift. You're not saved because you believe. You believe because you're saved. Steadfast hope in Christ is a sure and steady anchor for the soul. His redeeming work guarantees His children full access as sons and daughters to the very throne room of God Almighty. And we trust that the Lord will add His own blessings to the word today. Gospel hope is in Christ. So if you're hoping in anything else, you're not hoping in the gospel. You're hoping in wishful thinking. And my friends, while there's a pulse, there's hope that the Lord will be pleased to make it right in your heart. Straighten you up a little bit. Well, what do you mean, preacher? I mean, straighten up your beliefs. Straighten up what you think is righteousness. That's what repentance is all about. People say, repentance means to quit sinning. Well, I wish it did. I really wish it did. Repentance is turning and changing your mind concerning where righteousness comes from. Do you really think that you're doing this and doing that is where God's going, oh boy, he's really saved a day. Look at how good he's living. No, you've got to repent of that kind of self-righteous baloney. You've got to say, no, no, no, Jesus is my righteousness. And then that's evidence there that you've got biblical faith because that's what biblical repentance is, having our minds change concerning where righteousness truly comes from. And if you have biblical repentance, you will also have biblical hope. And that hope is the confidence that he'll never leave you or forsake you. You have just heard a message from Pastor Jason Booth of Redeemer Church of Piketon, Ohio. To learn more about the good news of Jesus, please visit RedeemerPiketon.org.