0:01 I'd like us to turn to a verse in Galatians chapter 5. Our theme for the conference this 0:24 conference is that God has provided something better for you. God has provided something better for us. Not only has he planned it, but he's also already provided it. It's there. And it's there for you to take it if you 0:42 want. It's already set out. It's kind of like if early this afternoon at some point if you said, "Hey, I didn't get lunch." They would have said, "It's provided already. It's there. It's already. All you had to go was go there and pick it 0:58 up. It was provided for you. I hope in every situation that you face in life, dear brothers, dear sisters, dear children, you will know that there's a feast that God has prepared and provided for you. It's for you. You simply have to go and collect it. 1:17 And [clears throat] I believe that the regret in eternity, I personally believe that there will be people in heaven with regret. There will certainly be people in hell with regret. The regret will be this that God had a way out of every 1:36 situation I was facing. I just didn't trust him. Whatever it was, that will be the regret. God had provided a way out of every situation I had ever faced or ever possibly could face. 1:55 I read often of people who have taken their lives, suicide, and I think about what those people will think. What I could tell them if it was their last moment before they're about to end it all. I would say, don't give up. 2:14 You might feel like it's the end. There's no way out of this. I'm telling you, there is. Now you know the there'll be many people who didn't take their lives but they lived with a hopelessness in their lives and ended their lives in hopelessness 2:32 just kind of thinking yeah there's no hope and the regret in eternity will be there was hope. There was always hope in Jesus Christ. You didn't have to give up. If you had held on and continued to trust him, he would have proved 2:49 faithful. Galatians 5:5 we read, "For we through the spirit by faith are waiting for the hope of 3:09 righteousness." God has provided a righteousness for you brother sister and you can have a hope of that that you will be righteous like Jesus as righteous as Jesus. So let's read that verse carefully 3:28 again. We through the spirit if you're not filled with the Holy Spirit you live a hopeless life. We through [snorts] the spirit by faith means I don't have to have seen it. We'll dig through this a little bit in this session hopefully. 3:46 We through the spirit by faith are waiting for the hope of righteousness. It's a very simple verse. I hope you'll memorize it. Somebody ask you what's your goal in life? You maybe you can make this your verse 4:01 your life goal. You can say I full of the Holy Spirit by faith I'm waiting for the hope of righteousness. One day I will be like Christ. When I see him I shall be like him. We through the spirit are waiting for the hope of 4:19 righteousness. And I I'd like to present this to you for us to think about this in reverse. So if I through the spirit by faith am waiting for the hope of righteousness in a sense where it begins is the hope of righteousness. It starts 4:36 there and I pray that your eyes will be opened through the Holy Spirit to see the hope of righteousness that God has provided for you. Dear brothers and sisters, God has already provided for you righteousness in Jesus Christ. You don't have to manufacture 4:56 it. You don't have to figure it out. God has already provided for you the righteousness that he's going to give you, the righteousness of Christ. I think of it like this. Sometimes when I drive through a wooded area or through a 5:11 mountainous area, I see a road, a smooth road that I can drive 55, 60 m an hour. And sometimes I'll see that it's like the mountains come up on this side and the mountains come up on this side. And I know in fact in some cases you can clearly see where 5:28 they had to cut the mountain, blow it up with dynamite perhaps and you go right through the middle of it. Once upon a time there wasn't a road there. It was mountain. The whole thing was mountain. And they said, "Well, we 5:42 got to make a way to get from Denver to Salt Lake City. We got to go through the Rocky Mountains, and it's too much to go up and down and up and down. Let's blast our way through this." Sometimes you go up and down, but sometimes you just 5:57 blast your way through that. And I'm sure you've seen that. Sometimes you go through a wooded area and they make a clearing of trees so that the road can go and on either side is thick forest. And I think about the jungle through 6:15 uh the world and through sin and through the flesh that was there. And the Old Testament law says you have to get to the other side without getting eaten by the wild animals. And and I'm and through the Old Testament they're 6:33 trying to find their way through this jungle and getting lost and making a mess here, making a mess there. And Jesus comes and paves a way. We're told in Hebrews chapter 10, let's look at this verse. God has provided righteousness already 6:59 for you. He's made the destination and he's made the way. He's already done it. Hebrews 10:1 19. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 7:15 by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh. So Jesus made this way for the first time. If you feel like you're navigating through life and you don't know which 7:34 way to turn and you're getting lost and it feels like you're going through a jungle or you're not able to get past that mountain, remember this. God has already provided the way. Imagine if you're driving, I use Denver to Salt 7:49 Lake City as an example because you have to go over the Rockies or through the Rockies for that. But imagine if somebody was telling you, "Hey, I'm trying to get from Denver to Salt Lake City and I keep having to go up the 7:59 mountain and then this way and that way." You would tell them, "No, there is I I7, I 80 goes right through it. They built the road already. You don't have to walk. You don't have to bushwack through it. Get in your car and drive. 8:14 If you can find the highway, they made a way already for it." This brings much comfort to my heart that I'm not having to navigate my own way through life [snorts] through battling against sin and against my flesh. Jesus has already made the 8:30 way. He inaugurated it. Nobody else had ever made a way. But I thought about what it must have been like for these pioneers back in the day to build that highway. They had to, you know, some of them probably lost their lives 8:44 making this way. Today you can just drive smoothly through it. And every time I go through a mountain region like that, I picture Jesus suffering in the flesh for my sake and denying himself, making a way where there was no way. Like we just sang, he 9:03 made the way already and now he just calls you to follow. He has already made the way. And so it begins with that, going back to Galatians 5:5, that hope of righteousness that we must hold on to. 9:21 Don't lose sight of that, dear brothers and sisters, the hope of righteousness that God has already provided for you. and you're holding on to that hope of righteousness, waiting for that hope of righteousness through the power of the 9:39 Holy Spirit and by faith. So, I'd like to talk about those three things that God has provided for us. A hope which we don't want to be shaken. A faith that helps us to walk on that journey through to that hope and the Holy Spirit through 9:55 the power of the Holy Spirit that makes this possible. Let's turn to G uh Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6 we read in verse 11. Okay, let's read verse 9. Actually, this 10:14 the same word similar words to what we read what the theme of the conference is. Well, first of all, I I should set the context. In the first eight verses of Hebrews 6, the writer of Hebrews talks about people who fall away. 10:31 um people who um verse four who have been once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift. This goes against every Calvinist doctrine that says you can never lose your salvation. 10:49 Um, in the case of those who have, this is Hebrews 6:4, who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come and then 11:07 have fallen away. It is impossible to renew them again to repentance since they again crucify to themselves the son of God and put him to open shame. Clearly one of the clearest verses that says that these were people who tasted and lighted or tasted made 11:27 partakers of the Holy Spirit tasted the good word of God and tasted the powers of the age to come and still fell away. But verse 9, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you. You don't have to live like that. I think 11:44 there was a question which I didn't get to answer which somebody asked is how do I know that I haven't blasphemed the Holy Spirit? Jesus talked about the unforgivable sin. The one sin that cannot be forgiven is the blasphemy of 11:56 the Holy Spirit. And often I'm asked about that. How do I know that I haven't committed that sin where now it's what's the point anyway? You're going to you've already blasphemed the Holy Spirit. It's you'll never be able to come back. It's 12:11 too late for you. My simple answer to that is if you have a desire to come back right now, forget what you might have done in the past. Maybe you even cursed at the Holy Spirit or whatever. You should never do that. But today if you have a 12:26 desire to come back and to repent, remember that that desire is itself of the Holy Spirit. It's the Holy Spirit who brings conviction of sin. So it's the very Holy Spirit who does that even you. And if you have that desire in you, 12:43 you know you haven't blasphemed the Holy Spirit. He hasn't left you. So don't spend time worrying about have I committed the unforgivable sin? Is that why I'm still defeated and all that? Do you have a desire today to repent and to 12:58 come back to God as far away as you may have gone from him? Brother, sister, young person, child, that is of the Holy Spirit. Don't despise that. And so if you have a desire today to now, if you say here, Santo, I could care less. I I 13:15 couldn't care less. I'm not interested in anything you have to say. Once upon a time I used to, but I don't want to have anything to what you what you have to say. Then maybe it's so far gone that you God you can't come back to 13:29 repentance or you'll never will. I don't know. But if you have a desire, which I think is true about 100% of the people here, I think every one of you, no matter how wretched your life might have been, even up to this very moment, how 13:42 deeply you might have fallen into sin, how much how good it used to be and how bad it is now. Despite all of that, I believe every one of you wants to repent and really wants to follow Christ. You struggle. You seem incapable of it. 13:58 You fall back into old habits and you can't seem to give up that bad habit and you weep over it in secret and you're hiding it from your wife and you're hiding it from your husband. You're hiding it from your parents. You're 14:08 hiding it from the brothers and sisters in the church. But deep down God sees your hungering. You want to be set free. Don't you brother, sister, child? I know you want to be free and Christ can set you free. You don't have 14:25 to remain bound in that any longer. But don't if that's the case that you want to be free then you haven't committed the unforgivable sin. The devil wants you to get fixated. Oh, you must have committed the unforgivable sin. That's 14:39 why it's been 20 years. You still addicted pornography. You still secretly drink alcohol. You secretly do this. There must be the unforgivable sin. Don't let the devil hold you in bondage over that. God wants to set you free. 14:53 Sin is serious. I said that in the afternoon session. Sin will destroy your life. You might be able to hide it from the others in the church and go on and on and on for but one day your sin will find you out. Numbers 32:23 is the verse 15:05 I quoted. Be sure your sin will funday catch up to you. Don't play with sin. There are people who played with sin who are in hell today. But if you really want to be set free, you must have hope brother sister that God you put your 15:21 name there. See, I I don't want to speak in general terms a hope of righteousness that in the future like okay for a group of people. No, God wrote your name as being righteous like Jesus. That must be so fixed in your heart, so sure of it 15:40 that you never lose sight of that. That's where it must begin. I pray that the Holy Spirit, who's a spirit of hope, will speak hope into your heart today. somebody who's here today who's discouraged, who's who's feeling beat down, that 15:56 there's no hope for me. It's too late and it's too long. I've been defeated by the same thing. I hope that your eyes will be open. I can't do it. It's a it's a spiritual work. I can invite you to cry out to the Holy Spirit to open your 16:09 eyes so that through the spirit by faith, you will see the hope of righteousness with your name written on it. Let's turn to uh I come back to Hebrews 6. I want to just mention this otherwise I will probably forget. 1 John chapter 16:25 3. This verse has transformed my life almost like no other verse in the Bible has this these two verses here and it's it's really encouraged me and I hope it'll encourage you. Dear friends, you must leave this meeting encouraged. 16:44 You must leave this meeting with hope. If you've been sitting in in churches and listening to messages and leaving yet still feeling hopeless, let this be the last day. Let this be the day where you get hope and you never 16:59 lose sight of that. You're going to hold on to that until the end. You won't be let down. In 1 John 3, it says, "See how great a love the Father is bestowed on us that we would be called children of God, and such we are. If you've entered 17:15 through the narrow gate, you are a child of God. That that is it. Now, on the other side of this narrow gate, and that's you are you are a child of God. You can know it. You can have an assurance that you're a child of God. 17:27 That you're born again. It's right there. 1 John 3:1. Such we are. Such I am. I am not proud in saying that I am a child of God and I know it. That's no different than my daughter Catalina saying, "I know I'm a daughter of 17:43 Santos." That's not pride. It's just fact. And it's not proud of you to say that you're a child of God if you're really born again. Because God said it. He said, "Such we are. Such am I." Okay, that's great. But it doesn't stop 17:58 there. No. For this reason, the world does not know us because it did not know him. But verse two and three, beloved, now we are children of God. And there he says it again. I am a child of God, John is saying, but it has not appeared as 18:14 yet what we will be. This is the hope of righteousness now that we're talking about. I am a child of God. That's changed. I've come through the gate. I'm born again. I've received Jesus Christ as my savior. I've been cleansed of all my 18:28 sin. I'm born again. I've entered through the gate. But Jesus talked about a narrow gate and a narrow way. And having gone through the narrow gate, some end up on the Broadway and end up in death. See, there's two ways to end 18:42 up in death. I don't have time to show you all of this, but you read Matthew chapter 7:3 onwards carefully. Write it down if you want to go back and look at it. Jesus said, "Strive to enter through the narrow gate. If you don't enter 18:55 through the narrow gate, it will lead to death." Not entering through the narrow gate will lead to death. But when you go through the narrow gate, there's now two options. Before that was the option of enter the gate or not enter the gate. 19:08 Enter the gate you could lead to life. Not enter the gate guaranteed death. So now you've entered through the gate. But now you still have two options. The narrow way or the broadway. The broadway also leads to death having 19:25 gone through the gate. That's why you see in the Bible of people who have once upon a time received the work of salvation like we read in Hebrews 6, but still end up falling away because having gone through the gate, they then chose 19:38 the broad way. Jesus said the broad way also leads to death. The narrow way alone leads to life. And so here we see we are children of God. Verse two, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be, but we know, and I like to make this personal. 19:56 I know that when Jesus appears, I will be like him. Five of my favorite words in the Bible. I will be like him. Why do I say favorite words? It has brought such a 20:13 rock solid foundation in my life. when I failed, when I messed up, I immediately get up and says, "Oh, it has not yet appeared. I know I'm a child of God. Yes, I fell. I fell. I did that thing I shouldn't have done. I hate it. I don't 20:28 want to do it." I get back up. I ask for forgiveness from God. I ask for forgiveness from whoever I've hurt because of what I did. But I get up and say, "Oh, I'm going to look at the hope. I will be like Jesus. I will be like him. 20:47 because I will see him just as he is. And verse three, everyone who has this hope, this is the hope. Fixed on him, fixed on Jesus purifies himself just as he is pure. So you see what this narrow way looks like. First of all, I've seen 21:05 my hope, the hope of righteousness. When I see him, I will be like him. When I see Jesus, it will be complete. Right now, I'm not like him. Right. Right now, I just was confronted by the sin still that that's still there in my flesh and 21:21 I fell into it again. Okay. But I get back up. I don't lay down there and wallow in discouragement and self- condemnation. I get up and say, "Okay, I'm sorry, Lord. Forgive me. Cleanse me completely. I hate that. But now I'm 21:35 fixing my eyes aresh on the hope of righteousness. I will be like Jesus." And that hope because I have that hope fixed on Jesus, I purify myself. I say, "Lord, I help me, Lord. I don't know why I went back to that. Why I spoke in that 21:52 rude way to my wife or why did I have that attitude or why did I hold on to that unforgiveness or bitterness for so long? I purify myself as Jesus is pure, not losing sight of the hope of righteousness that when I see him, I 22:08 shall be like him." And some years ago I the Lord gave me this picture that I you see it says in Psalm 139 that he's written our days in a book. Each of us has a book written every day. Psalm 139 I think verse 16 it says every day of my 22:25 life was written in your book. Even before the first of them God wrote that whole book. He's not writing your story right now. It's like oh it's not a live journal who okay oh he did this okay write it down. No, God before you were 22:41 born, while you were still in your mother's womb, wrote out every day of your life in his book, Psalm 139:16. And on the last page, he wrote, "Made like Jesus." That's my book. I've seen it. Have you 23:00 seen your book, brother, sister? If you read 1 John 3:3 and believe it with all of your heart, you turn to the last page. made Santosh conformed into the image of Jesus. I see it and every time something happens in life, some 23:15 circumstance, some trial, some failure, even some sin and I hate it and I I just the first thing I do, I send I I I I do as soon as I get get back is like, "Is it still there, Lord? Are you still committed to making me like Jesus?" He 23:32 says, "Yes, I am, son." I says, "Okay, Lord." Then I get up and I keep going. I'm not going to sit here and be discouraged. Nothing has changed from the final destination point of view. That hasn't changed. Yes, I didn't want 23:47 to sin. I didn't want to fall into that. I I hate that. I didn't want to do that. That changed from what I had hoped how my life would be. But nothing has changed from the final destination that when I see him, I will be like him. This 24:00 is the hope of righteousness. Brothers and sisters and children, this is what God has provided. He's already provided the last page of your book. So now when you're going through this through life, you're you see it in real time. In real 24:19 time, it looks like, "Oh, I messed up." And I think, "Well, this is the end." No, no, no. Turn the page. Okay. Okay. Now he you you got back up and you kept going and you looked up and lifted up straightened up and lifted up your head 24:30 and saw the hope of righteousness. Okay, Lord, I going to start. Today is another day. Tomorrow is another day. I keep going. Okay, I messed up again. All right, but turn the page, brother. Keep going. Because the last page is fixed. 24:43 That I know of. I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know what's on the last page of my book, conformed into the image of Jesus. And if you realize that all of the meanderings in life that God allows you to go through, the 25:00 disappointments, the frustrations, the wishing it would have been this way but it was that way, all of that is all factored in. The sin that you committed, that's factored in because on the last page of your book is written made like Jesus. 25:17 Romans 8. Verse 29. Those whom he forneew, that's you and I. And anyone who is willing to trust him, 25:35 he fornowsled. Those whom he forneew, he also predestined. He wrote, or to use the example that I just said, he wrote on the last page of their life. predestined. That's what predestined means. He made the destination beforehand before you were born. When 25:54 does this is happening? Didn't this didn't happen when you said the prayer and saying, "Lord Jesus, come into my heart." Oh, okay. Sure. I'll write on the last page of your book. Now, Psalm 139:16 says that the paid the book was 26:08 written before I was even born. Before you were born, brother, sister, child. Maybe you wish you were born into a different family or in a different culture or something different. No, that doesn't matter. Irrespective of life's circumstances and 26:23 how you were born, what abilities or disabilities or inabilities you had, for every one of us, he wrote conformed into the image of Jesus. Now, if you don't believe it, then it's not there in your book. It's one of those things that with God, it's there 26:38 if you believe it. It's not there if you don't believe it. That's just simple. According to your faith, be it unto you. So somebody will say no Santos I don't believe that on the last page of my book is written conformed in the image of 26:51 Jesus then God will say yeah on your on your on the last page of your book it's not written but Santos believed and said yes I believe Lord according to your word you said conformed into the image of Jesus I just believed it okay it's 27:05 written which group will you be in today brother sister for years perhaps you've allowed the devil to convince you that it wasn't true for you that he did that for me. You know, you know, the home I grew up in and despite that, having heard the 27:22 truth, the glorious truth from the childhood from my childhood, I still somehow thought I'm the black sheep. People told me I was the black sheep. So, probably reinforced the idea says, "Yeah, not for you. Everybody else will 27:34 get it, but you won't get it." And I I bought into that lie. I lived lived a defeated life at times and didn't struggled with this, struggled with that, lacked victory in some areas. And I just thought, Lord, no hope for me. I must be one of the bad 27:51 apples until I I said, "Devil, you're not going to fool me anymore. Lord, open the eyes of my heart. Let me see the last page of the book of my life." And he showed me. And brothers, sisters, I've not lost lost sight of that. I still fall from 28:05 time to time. I still fail. I still commit sin every now and then. I I don't I'm not aware of any known sin at this time in my life. I say that simply because the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed me and I'm not walking in 28:16 constant conscious sin. But whenever I do fall or if I make a mistake or sin in some way, one of the first things I do is in in in my heart, I open I say, "Lord, open my eyes. Show me the book again, Lord. Turn to the last page. Is 28:30 it there? Is it still written?" He says, "Yes, it is." I say, "Okay, Lord. Now, I'm going to get up and keep going." Romans 8:29, for those whom he forneew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son. 28:48 And that verse begins with the word because, which means if you go back to the previous word, previous verse, God causes all things to work together for good. So brother, sister, in whatever you're going through in life right now, 29:02 the uncertainties and the ups and downs and oh, I wish I could have gone back and done it differently this time. Oh, I wish I could have done that differently. He says, okay, don't look back, forgetting what lies behind, looking 29:14 forward to what lies ahead. Press on for the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, the hope of righteousness. Press forward, brother. Look ahead. Don't look back anymore. You've been looking back long enough. Now look forward. Look 29:27 ahead. see the hope of righteousness. Let's go back to Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews 6 29:55 verse 11. We we read verse 9. We are convinced of better things concerning you and things that accompany salvation. Though we are speaking in this way, verse 11, we desire that each one of you show the same diligence 30:11 so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end. You've seen the hope. Now, keep on it, brother. Don't give up. You You were running well. Don't give up. Don't lose sight of that hope. The devil's going to try everything. He's going to throw 30:26 everything at you to get you away from looking at that hope. I'm sure all of you have had times in your life where you've seen the hope and you're like, "Okay, I'm I'm pressing on, but something has come along and and dis dis 30:39 um discouraged you and jaded you and you're kind of like, uh, I don't know if I want to keep going and you're sluggish." And I'm here by the leading of the Holy Spirit to show you what the Holy Spirit is saying, not what I'm saying. simply 30:54 to show you in his word that our desire is that each one of you Hebrews 6:1 be diligent, brother. If you've slacked off, if you've gotten lazy a little bit, if you've backslid in a little bit, get back to where you once were. Return to 31:09 your first love. Use this conference. Use tonight as the time when you will come back and show that same diligence and give it all you've got. Even though maybe you did that before and you felt like it ended up in frustration, come 31:22 back and give it all you got. We desire that every one of you, I can join the writer of Hebrews in saying I desire that every single person sitting here and every person listening to this message will show the same diligence 31:38 to realize the full assurance of hope. Everything fully made like Jesus. Not just, oh, my sins are forgiven. the full assurance of hope until the end so that you will not be sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and patience 31:57 inherited the promises they did become like Jesus. Do you believe that 1 John 3:3 was true? I believe it's true about Paul. That's why he said in Tim first 2 Timothy 4, I finished the race. I've I finished the fight. I've run the race. I finished the 32:14 course. I've been I in a few hours or days I will be like Jesus. And he is like Jesus now. John the Apostle who wrote first John, he's there. He finished the course. He was made like Jesus. Now what about you? 32:33 Will you say, "Well, I don't know." So being imitators of those who through faith and patience inherited the promises and now 32:51 um he goes on to say we'll skip down I don't have time to read you all these promises and he but this begins with this hope this hope of righteousness and God was so eager for us to see this hope he's so eager for us to know this hope 33:05 and to to have that hope fixed for us that He is the only time you see God swearing as far as I know. You know, we teach our children you should never swear you because Jesus himself said, "Let your yes be yes and your no by no 33:19 be no." You should never have to swear. But when God swears, he really wants you to know it. That's kind of how I look at it now. He's using earthly language. Back then it was okay. You you as long as you didn't tell a lie when you were 33:33 swearing, you could tell a lie at the other time. At the other times, it was permitted. And Jesus said, "No, even that's not permitted. You always tell the truth." But here he, the writer of Hebrews, uses that picture, that earthly 33:45 language, saying Hebrews 6 verse 17. In the same way, God was so eager, God desiring even more to show to Santo, put your name there, the heirs of the promise. God was so eager that Santos 34:04 would have the hope of righteousness fixed in front of him. God was so eager that Put your name there would see the hope of righteousness fixed there and be sure of it that the desiring even more to show to the heirs 34:21 of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose that that hope of righteousness that righteousness was never going to change. You messed up. You did it again for the thousandth time. For the millionth time, you fell into the same sin. Maybe that's not how 34:36 you expected your Christian life to be. But the hope has not changed. The destination has not changed. The unchangeableness of his purpose. And he wanted you and I to be so sure of it that he interposed with an oath. He said as 34:55 it were, I'm not going to say it, but he swore. He said, "I want you to be absolutely sure. So, I'm going to swear like not not swear like use a foul language, foul word, but yes, I I'm I'm telling you, I promise God who never 35:11 lies. Verse 18, so that by two unchangeable things, the two unchangeable things are this. First of all, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong 35:28 encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. What is he saying here? He's saying God set a hope before us. That hope that you and I would be like Jesus. No matter what your past was like, no matter how old you were when 35:42 you came to know Jesus and all of that. No matter how much of a failure the past has been, he wanted you to be so sure of this hope that he said, "There's two things I'm going to give you. First of all, I'm going to promise it. I'm a God 35:55 who never lies." It says, "The God who never lies said, "I promise it." That should be enough, right? God never lies. So, if he says it, it's definitely going to be. But he knew that the devil would still come and bring doubt and said, 36:11 "Yeah, you know, but maybe this is the one time that he lied. It's not true for you. He meant it for all those other people." So the second thing is he swore. The God who never lies swore so that we would take courage. So that 36:27 we would never again allow the devil to come and convince us that it wasn't going to be for us. All I don't think I'm communicating effectively enough. The simplicity of this truth, I can't use words to explain it clearly enough. 36:43 I believe it's something that the Holy Spirit must do. Will you cry out in your heart and say, "Holy Spirit, will you come and open my eyes to see this two-fold guarantee that I have of the hope of righteousness? Not generally, 36:57 but specifically for you, dear brother, dear sister, dear children. There is a living way that Jesus has opened for you with your name on it. And at the end of that path is a righteousness that has your name on it. The righteousness of 37:14 Jesus with your name on it. That's yours. This is what God has provided. Something better. Maybe you thought you had to find your way and God, yes, he saved you, but you have to find your way and navigate through this. No, God has 37:28 something better for you than the life you've been living that you thought was the new covenant life. This is the real new covenant life, a new and living way which he inaugurated and he has made it all the way through. Let's keep reading 37:42 verse 19. The this hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us having become a high priest forever according to the priesthood of 38:00 Melkisedc. It's a long sentence but essentially what is this? What is he saying here? It's an anchor. This hope is an anchor. I'm holding on to the anchor. See what's an anchor? If you've ever been on a ship or a boat, you drop 38:14 anchor, you know, the boat can come and sit in the bay and when it drops anchor, this big steel chain and a hook, a metal object at the end of it, they lower it down into the ocean and goes all the way down to the bottom of the under where at 38:31 the bottom of the sea and hooks onto land. See, sea will toss you about and and and and you know, you'll sway in in the sea, but once once you hook into land, then you're fixed. And now, sure, the boat might sway. Have you ever seen 38:46 boats that are docked in a pier or a bay? Yeah, you see them kind of gently moving around and maybe, but they won't go very far. They won't get dashed on the rocks. They won't suffer shipwreck because they're anchored. They can only 39:00 go so far. They're anchored into the ocean. And so once you're anchored, then you know, okay, maybe the trials will come and you'll get sifted and shaken a little bit here and there, but you're not going to be destroyed. Your life's 39:14 not going to be destroyed. Do you have this hope as an anchor that even if the trials of life are shaking you this way and that and today was a bad day or yesterday was a bad day or last week was bad, last month was bad, this whole year 39:26 you feel like you've been wandering, okay? But don't lose sight of the hope. Hold on to that hope. Let that hope be like an anchor which is where where is the rock for your anchor within the veil where Jesus Christ is seated at the 39:43 right hand of God. That's better than any uh bar ocean floor. Jesus Christ is my rock. He's where my anchor is cast. That's where my anchor is fixed. And as we sing in that one song, while in heaven he stands, no tongue can bid me 40:02 then depart. Um that wonderful hymn. What's the how does the first line go? What's that? >> Before the throne of God above. While in heaven he stands, no tongue can bid me then depart. That means I am 40:19 guaranteed that I will be righteous like Jesus as long as Jesus is there. Not of it has nothing to do with me. This hope has nothing to do with me because if it had to do with me, I would be hopeless. I am I mean capable of I I can never put 40:35 trust in myself because I know what a failure I am. But the reason I have hope today is because Jesus is there at the right hand of the father. And as long as he's there, I will always have hope. Dear brother, dear sister, if you're 40:46 feeling hopeless today, I have one question for you. Dear child, if you're feeling hopeless today, I have one question for you. Is Jesus standing at the right hand of the father? The answer is of course he is. Yes, he is. 41:01 And I'm going to be there, too. That's my guarantee. My guarantee has nothing to do with, well, but I still struggle with this or I still struggle with that. Fix your eyes on him. He if he's there, YOU'RE GOING TO BE THERE, TOO, BECAUSE 41:14 you've got this anchor now. Now, I can I can urge you. I can raise my voice. That can get you excited, but you must do something if you have never done that before. And that is you go before God and say, "Lord, brother Santos showed me 41:26 from scripture, but now you got to make it personal. You got to seal this in my heart. You got to open the eyes of my heart to see that anchor cast that hope cast and allow me to never lose sight of it." This anchor is cast 41:44 and that's hope. So what is faith then? I thought of faith like this. Faith is I'm holding on to this anchor. It's wonderful that Jesus is there. That's great. But as we read in Hebrews chapter 7, now we go into chapter 7. Let's skip 41:59 down to verse 23. This Jesus who inaugurated this new and living way and went through every trial that I went through. And the reason and and he's he's there at the right hand of the father and he's that's fixed. 42:17 He's not a Jesus that lived and died and rose again once upon a time. Yes, that's true. But that's not it. There's more to it than that. Listen to this. Hebrews 7:23. The former priests on the one hand existed in great numbers 42:32 because they were prevented by death from continuing. Verse 24. But Jesus on the other hand because he continues forever holds his priesthood permanently. Therefore, he is able also to save forever 42:51 those who draw near to God through him since he always lives. Ah, there's a beautiful word there. Jesus always lives to make intercession for them, for me. Yes, I know. You know that Jesus died on the cross. You know that Jesus came from 43:08 heaven and was born in a m and was laid in a manger after he was born and then he lived on this earth and then he died on the cross and then he rose from the dead and he ascended up to heaven. They have even confessions, so-called 43:21 Christian confessions that testify to all of this. I've never heard a confession that says, "But he always lives." Why is that more powerful? Because it's easy for Jesus to become this person who lived 2,000 years ago and did a whole 43:36 bunch of good things for me, but here I am in 2025 and that's meaningless for me. Do you know that Jesus is alive today here in our midst 2025? Or is he a Jesus who lived 2,000 years ago? Is he always alive? He ever lives. 43:53 It says he ever lives. He's always alive. And that's faith. So if the anchor is hope, if the anchor is hope, what is faith then? Faith is as I'm holding on to this anchor. I realize that I'm not holding on to this alone. 44:13 I'm not left all by myself. Oh, I better hang on to the anchor. Yes, I know it's good over there, but what about me over here? As I look down at this anchor, I see Jesus fingerprints on the anchor. And I see that once upon a time, he too was a 44:27 man like me. He too was a human being like me, like we are. And he too held on to his father in faith. He too lived by faith. Even though he was God, because he was man, he too had to live by faith, trusting in his father, saying in John 44:43 5, I can do nothing on my own initiative. I'm helpless. I'm useless except that the father helped me, except that the father gives me. And he held on in faith to his father. And as I look down on this anchor, I see Jesus 44:58 fingerprints. And that's faith. Simply putting my fingerprints where Jesus put his. I say, as long as I'm holding on where Jesus held on, and I follow that step by step, one day I know it will lead me to where he is. He has gone this 45:12 way, brother, sister. He's gone this way ahead of you. He's not a distant Jesus who lives far away up in heaven even unable to relate to your circumstance. He is somebody that you ought to be able to relate to right now. Right now, what 45:29 you're going through right at this very moment, you see a need in your life. Lord, I need purity. Lord, I need control over my tongue. Lord, I need forgiveness for that person. Lord, I need this. And you see Jesus alive today 45:41 in your very circumstance. This is faith. And the last thing we read in Galatians 5 was that through the spirit by faith we are waiting for the hope of the hope of righteousness is through the spirit. Through the Holy Spirit. You see why the devil doesn't 46:01 want you to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He'd rather you think that you got enough of the spirit back when you were born again and you don't get anymore. That's a complete lie of the devil. And it's no wonder that you live 46:13 a defeated life where you don't you're not that spirit of faith is not growing within you. It's the Holy Spirit who speaks faith into our heart. You know how faith comes. Romans chapter 10. Romans 10:17 says, "Faith, this faith, 46:40 you say, "Oh, yes, Santos, I want to see Jesus footprint sounds great and all that, but how do how do I make that practical? What does that look like? I mean, what's my anchor? Where's this rope?" And all that stuff you're talking 46:50 about faith comes by hearing. It's it's faith. You get this faith which comes by from hearing the voice of Christ. The word of Christ and that word of Christ is spoken to us today as you read in Revelation 2 and 3 over and over again. Hear what the 47:05 spirit is saying. The spirit is speaking the word of Christ today. The we have the word of Christ in the word. Yes. But the spirit is the one making it alive. He's the one that when I read a scripture makes it applicable to me in 47:18 my circumstance. So seek to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And faith is faith is more than just agreeing. You know a lot of people say okay agree Santosh with it. But faith must be more 47:36 than that. Faith is power. Whenever you read about faith you you read about living by faith, walking by faith, seeing there's an action to faith. And so act out on that faith. But I'll close with this and I I want to end as I did 47:51 even my previous session by urging you brothers and sisters and children to cry out for the Lord to fill you with the Holy Spirit. John 14 verse 15. We have a hope of righteousness. 48:09 He promises faith that comes from hearing the word of Christ in our everyday circumstances so that we will be holy. so that we will keep. This is what holiness is. This is what righteousness is. To keep his commandments and he says in John 14:15, 48:25 if you love me, you will keep my commandments. I'm sure you've all heard that before. You know that the Christian life, the life of righteousness is keeping the commandments of God. And you say, Santosh, I try. I try. I don't seem to be able to. He 48:41 says, "Okay, verse 16, I ask the father and he will give you another helper that he may be with you forever." The Holy Spirit who will be with you forever. You see why he has promised the Holy Spirit as a helper. Have you heard 48:59 this? Have you Have you listened to this now this evening? And you say, "Yes, Santosh, I want that. I want to have my eyes open to see the hope of righteousness. I want faith to walk and put my fingerprints. Just walk exactly 49:13 where Jesus walked, not some new place. I'm not paving a new way through the forest or through the mountains. It's the way is already made. I simply just have to know not to get off the exit and go off into the wilderness again to stay 49:24 on that path that Jesus has already inaugurated. He's promised the Holy Spirit. This is why he sent the Holy Spirit. Most people who believe and teach about the baptism of the Holy Spirit are so taken up with all the other things, 49:39 speaking in tongues and healing and miracles and all of that. If you haven't done it before, today seek God. Say, "Lord, I want to obey every one of your commandments, which is that new and living way. Step by step, trusting and 49:54 obeying, trusting and obeying, trusting and obeying, trusting and obeying." that when I just walk that next step that's ahead of me and obey you and obey you with my eyes fixed on the hope of my all hope of righteousness one day you'll get 50:09 me there and if I fall I get back up immediately and get keep going keep going keep going he's given the Holy Spirit to help you will you cry out to him this may be the day that you need to come back dear friend if you wandered 50:24 from the holy from God from the father I think often Um what the the son, the youngest son, when he finally came back home after years of staying away from his father and things getting 50:40 bad to worse after he saw the feast that the father threw for him as he was sitting there. I imagine him looking around, you know, he's got his belly full of food and he's he's probably a little bit tired, but he's just so thankful and the tears are 50:56 streaming down his face. I feel like the one thought that came to his mind was, "Why didn't I come back sooner? Why did I wait so long? I was afraid of this father. I thought he was going to be angry at me. I know him as a holy God 51:11 and all that, but I know he's a loving father. Why didn't I come back sooner?" Perhaps you needed to hear that today, friend. It's time to come home. Renew your sight on the hope of righteousness that he has given you. God 51:27 has something better prepared for you than the defeated life you've been living. Come back. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that you'll open our eyes, my eyes, and every one of us. Lord, I can't do that. No preacher can 51:38 do that. But your Holy Spirit is now going through the room, the rows of this building, searching for those who are longing for this, who are reaching out to you in faith. Will you pray with me? Dear friends, dear family, dear brothers, 51:53 sisters, children, you also, you can pause what you're doing for a moment and close your eyes and pray with me. You pray to your heavenly father. The Holy Spirit is listening. Jesus is listening. Jesus said, "I will ask the father if 52:06 you really have a desire to love him and to keep his commandments and you want to see the hope. You've lost sight of it perhaps and you want to have faith to follow in his footsteps every day. You pray to God in your own heart right now 52:20 and say, "Heavenly Father, I want to know this. Will you pour out your spirit in me? I open my mouth wide, Lord, and I I pray you'll cleanse me of all sin. Remove all unrighteousness from me, Lord, and open the eyes of my heart to 52:35 see this hope that you you said is there. Help me to see the last page of my book, dear Father, where you wrote that I am made like Jesus also me, sinful, wretched me. Amazing grace, how can it be? It is. And 52:54 thank you, Lord. And I pray you'll open the eyes of everyone, even from the youngest to the oldest here, to see that hope of righteousness to walk by faith and to be filled with the Holy Spirit every day. We cry out to you, Lord, and believe that you're here 53:10 moving through the rows of this room, seeking those who are longing to be filled, those whose hearts are fully yours, that you may strongly support us and help us. Draw near to God. He will draw near to you. Draw near to God now. 53:26 Draw. He will draw near to you. Thank you, Lord. You long to draw near to us and you will. I praise you. I pray that the words you have spoken to us, not my words, but the words that your Holy Spirit has spoken will be planted deep 53:38 in the hearts of every one of us. We won't forget it. we won't rush on past this into whatever is ahead the rest of today and tomorrow, but that it'll we'll pause and let your Holy Spirit plant those words, those seeds deep into our 53:53 humble hearts, our honest hearts. Thank you in Jesus name. Amen.
