You have no hope.
Because he's without Christ.
There is no more damnable word then hopelessness.
Because all over and all around...
and every place in hell.
That's what it is folks.
That's what it is.
When people fall off into the pit, that's it.
Hopelessness is everywhere!
Eternal hopelessness.
There is no hope!
And I'll tell you why there's no hope.
Because your out there clanging on that rock, and you've got your eyes peeled,
"Oh if there could just be something! If I could just find something to satisfy me!"
"If I could just find some hope! Something I could accomplish!"
"Something I could do. Someway I could be good enough."
And you see a little dark spot on the horizon, you keep your eyes peeled, but...
it doesn't come to anything.
All it is, is some distant storm of God's wrath.
Some of you, you feel it, you're out there on that rock.
You've no hope.
You have no fountain of blood,
to wash away sin.
You have no high priest,
that's my hope, I have hope there's one at the right hand of God - He's interceding for me, you don't have that hope.
It's not there.
You have no Lord of righteousness,
that earned it and worked it out to give you a perfect covering.
To make you totally acceptable with God. You've none of that!
Without Christ you're hopeless.
You're like a miserable orphan.
No one to care for them. No one to love them.
No one to have their good constantly in mind.
Nobody to come along and wipe away the tears.
There's no paradise.
No hope!
You're without Christ, wandering in the sea of hopelessness.
And I'll tell you, it really hits us.
Hopelessness!
They have no hope.
You let those words echo in your ears, to be in a place were you look at your life.
There's no hope.
No hope.
A total ocean of hopelessness.
Wrecked and destitute.
His soul is thirsty.
You can't drink that water.
That water can't satisfy.
The more you drink that water the more hopeless and thirsty you become.
It has a strong taste.
It doesn't satisfy, there's no ability to quench thirst with it.
As the years pass by, you know what happens to that ocean?
It get's deeper.
And deeper.
You're all alone on that little rock, and you've got your hammer.
And trying to...'clang, clang.'
You're trying to work it out.
"I'm going to be a good guy."
And you beat it out, but you look out and all that ocean does is an ocean of despair and hopelessness,
It gets deeper, and it gets deeper.
And you keep your eyes peeled on those horizons,
and just when you might think you see hope, but you're hopes are always dashed.
There's no help.
You look up!
What do you find!?
The face of an angry God starring back at you.
His wrath hovers over your head.
All is hopeless!
'Clang.'
You just go on working.
You work and you work and you beat on that rock, and you beat on that rock.
And you only get thirstier.
And thirstier.
Every fleeting hope in this world comes back screaming -
"Hopeless!!"
Have you ever been in a place...
were you set your hope on something in this world and it comes and the emptiness just deepens.
And you know, and you felt it.
And the ocean just goes deeper and the hopelessness...
And you keep your eyes on the horizon, but there's no hope.
There's no hope.
And the sinner goes off...
I saw it, I saw it first hand in my step-dad with three months to live.
And I saw the look in his eyes.
And just the empty stares.
Yes, I told you before, he would be reading the paper, he'd be doing strange things.
But when you'd look at him and you'd look at him in the eye,
you can see, folks you can see it, that haunting look in the eyes.
It's hopeless.
And I'll tell you what, some of you may be here, you may have hopes,
You may have hope, "I'm going to go to college."
You may have hope, "I'm going to get married."
You may hope "I'm going to have children."
"I'm going to make money, and I'm going to have a house."
But I tell you what, everybody that's been down that road,
whether it's the hope for fame, the hope for glitz and glory in this world,
you get it and suddenly that ocean around you,
you're beating on that rock, and it just, it's ringing out.
And your conscience is ringing out, and open gulfs just yawning over you.
Because I'll tell you what's out there,
like a hell hound coming across that ocean of despair
is death...
And it's coming at you, swift as the wind,
and it's bearing down on you, and men can't get away from it.
You want to know why the 50 year old, 60 year old muslim,
suddenly starts to get serious, because he's been clanging, he's out there, he's clanging on that rock.
And he's feeling it, the more every-time he hits it.
He just looks up and God's not getting happier with him.
God's frown is only deepening because the measure of his sin is building up.
And there's no hope!
Because he's without Christ.
And some of you are right there.
And there is no hope.
And I'll tell you, it's...
There's no more damnable word then hopelessness.
Folks, you don't harden yourself, you hear His voice,
and you come.
And you follow Him.
Folks, we do have a hope!
We have a hope!
Because I'll tell you this:
I may not be what I one day will be,
but I'll tell you this:
I'm not what I used to be.
And though I cannot explain exactly how it all happened, I know this for certain,
Right from the very beginning I knew this, and I know this 19 years later.
Jesus Christ did it!
And so no matter whatever the world says, and no matter whatever they want to mock.
You know what Christ said when you drink the living waters?
He said you're not going to thirst anymore.
You know what I found?
Let the world mock all it wants.
I've tried this.
I've tried that.
I've tried that sin.
That sin.
I've tried Christ and I said "Nope, I don't need anything else."
And every true Christian knows that's true.
And the world can laugh, the world can mock,
but we have found something satisfying in Him, that we are not trading him for, for anything else.
Let them say what they will.
Let them do what they want.
He satisfied us.
God's laws are no longer grievous to us. (1 John 5:3)
The thing is, we don't just believe that Jesus Christ is a real person.
We do believe that, but that's not all we believe.
We find our hearts burn with love for Him.
We find Him altogether lovely.
We find Him precious above all things!
We've come to believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead.
And gone up to His Father's side.
And we believe and we have a hope that He's one day coming for us.
We have a super natural confidence.
That we never had before!
And God says He gives faith.
This is a work of the Spirit. (Romans 8:16)
We have confidence!
We have assurance!
And He gives us that assurance, and He testifies to us.
Brethren, you're here, you're a professing Christian, do you have that hope?
Do you have a hope built on the confidence of the guarantee of the Spirit of the Living God given to you.
Where that Spirit is, I'll tell you what, He makes His presence known.
He makes it known in a number of ways.
Do you have a confidence folks?
Are you able to rejoice in hope!?
Jesus Christ said something, that if you'll let it grip you.
Jesus Christ said your hope is so big,
there is such a wealth of glory,
and treasure,
and reward to be had.
"Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven."
And He said again in Luke 6:23 -
"Rejoice in that day and
LEAP!
Leap for joy."
What He is saying is, "Listen, if you realized what weight of glory is awaiting you,
what hope there is in heaven for you,
you would leap, you would come out of your shoes,
jumping, exceedingly, gladly, bouncing around."
Brethren I don't think we really get it,
what's waiting for us.
There is a hope here that is very remarkable.
Brethren the believer has a hope!
Because there hope is in Christ.
We have a hope to be saved by Christ.
To be with Christ.
To enjoy Christ forever, forever, forever.
When a sinner sees themselves for what they really are,
they look at Christ,
"There is a hope there."
"If I can only get to Him."
He is one who will reach out and touch the most unclean.
Come on, if that doesn't encourage somebody to do something for Christ,
I don't know what can.
Well, you're dismissed.