Transcription
Let's open to Matthew 24 this morning. We're looking at what marvelous power the hope that is implanted within us at salvation. In fact, Jesus says, "The primary evidence of salvation is the hope that endures to the end in the hearts of those who are born again."
In fact, you're going to see as we go through Matthew 24, we're going to be in verse 29 in just a moment. We're going to be walking through the end of the end. Uh the tribulation hour is the last uh time period that life is uh normal human history. God intervenes in the tribulation, totally disrupts everything uh on the planet and brings in the time of his troubles upon Jacob, upon Israel, and he brings Israel to faith. And then we go into Christ's literal rule. uh he was promised at his birth to be the the sitting on the throne of his father. Remember we sing that day ahead, you know, uh in the Christmas carols, but we don't really think what that means. A lot of times when we sing about Christmas, we don't think that Jesus came to sit on the throne of David. That means to be king of Israel. When has he ever done that? He hasn't. He's going to he's going to actually sit and reign as king on the earth in the millennium. He is going to be ruling with a rod of iron. So there's a lot more happening on earth. But just before that time of his rule, he shows himself mighty and powerful in Matthew 24.
In fact, Jesus is the one. We wouldn't have even known any of this has happened if he hadn't told us. But we're going to look at the very end of the end when everything is falling apart and we're going to see that what happens to each of us the instant of our salvation that hope of God that comes into us. In fact, if you're from a reformed tradition, it's called the perseverance of the saints. You ever heard of that? That's the P of the TU Li P. Okay? The perseverance of the saints is the enduring hope that never dies. That those who come to Christ never stop believing and never stop clinging to him and they persevere in hope for the one they've never seen yet they believe in and love and long for to the very end. And what's amazing is if this hope works, and it does, we'll see right here in Matthew 24. It works when the sky is falling. That's what we're going to look at this morning.
Did you know it's going to be an awful thing to be living on the earth when objects are falling from the sky that everyone sees and they're crashing to the earth and you realize that there's no place you can go that's safe. And even when that's happening, the hope that Christ offers to us today, see this, we aren't going to go through the tribulation, but a lot of people go through tribulation. Did you know every person that dies of a lingering illness is going through a tribulation? It's like they have nowhere to turn and this death is just staring them in the face and they have a choice to either trust in the one who said, "I will be with you to the end and I'll walk you through the valley or to despair." And believers don't despair because we have a living hope.
But let's look at it in verse 29 because we're looking at a prophetic passage. And prophecy is the most encouraging and affirming study we can do in God's word. Because prophecy is where we see the promises God made at one point actually occurring. And it strengthens our faith that whatever he tells us he's going to do, he can do and he does do. Prophecy has inspired believers since the very first recorded teaching on prophecy in the earliest days of Christ's church. In fact, the very first epistle Paul wrote was a prophetic epistle telling the people Jesus was coming at any moment and they should live like that. That's called first Thessalonians. And so those believers were inspired to face their troubles, their afflictions, and their wearing persecutions by that hope, that prophetic enduring hope. And so in Matthew 24, note how Jesus weaves into the darkest hours of mankind's earthly journey. Notice how Jesus weaves into that hope. And by the way, the hope that works then in the darkest hour, we're not in the darkest hour. We're not even near it. The hope that works then works now in far less difficult times. That's the lesson this morning.
In Matthew 24:29, Jesus describes what I consider one of the most fascinating events during Earth's final days. His words mark the crescendo, the finale, the very last act before the dramatic entrance of Jesus Christ back onto the stage. In Matthew 24, I want you to especially notice six words that I'm going to emphasize in verse 29 because maybe you've never thought about this before. And this morning, I hope that as you capture what Jesus saw happening, he saw not something that was going to happen. He saw happening. That's that's what prophecy is. You actually are seeing the event as it happens. As God says, "This is what is according to my changeless plan going to happen." There are six words in there that a lot of times our eyes skip right over. And once you feel the weight of what it's going to be like to literally have the sky falling down, by the way, I was in a building uh about seven times larger than this auditorium. It it seated 7,500 people. It was a church service and there was a man up there that was about 75 years old. He was preaching his heart out and that was in the 70s before they had all the early warning things and a tornado actually came right across that town and the tornado ripped right during the sermon. By the way, he was preaching about Satan and uh the I I was sitting in the balcony. 7,500 of us, 6,000 downstairs, 1500 in the balcony. And I was right over there. And that corner went right to the sky. And everywhere else the 4x4 acoustic tiles started falling like this, you know, like frisbes all over the place. And that speaker was right, you know, it was Baptist. Boom. You know, he was yelling like this. And all of a sudden, everyone thought, "Wow, what an illustration." And and I mean everyone was just electrified until the ceiling tiles started falling. Then people started screaming and yelling because they thought the whole building was collapsing. By the way, we survived and it didn't. But I was thinking about that as as I as I still remember all that stuff falling. What's it going to be like to be on earth when the sky is falling? Do you have hope? that hope that come at salvation that no matter what happens, we never stop clinging in triumphant hope to Christ.
Well, Matthew 24:29, uh, Matthew 24, I'll start reading in verse 29. "Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened. That's going to be amazing. The moon will not give its light. That's going to be amazing. But look at these six words. the stars will fall from heaven." Now for most of us, we're so scientifically arudite. We know that a star cannot fall from heaven because a star is, you know, a million times, some of them larger than the earth. And so we immediately dismiss this and we say figurative of something. Figurative of what? See, this is going to be one of the most amazing events when objects from space start falling and crashing on the earth. That's what Jesus is talking about. "And the powers of the heavens will be shaken." Verse 30. "Then the sign of the son of man will appear in heaven. Then all the tribes of the earth will mourn and they will see the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together his elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other." Now learn this parable from the fig tree. When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know summer is near. So Jesus repeats, "When you see these things begin to happen, they're close." Wow.
Let's bow for a word of prayer. Father in heaven, I pray that we would know not just academically, not just a fact, but that we would know by faith the hope that salvation brings that can endure anything that can endure this moment, the heavens crashing to the earth, and can also endure our worlds having crashes [snorts] of our health, of our jobs, of our dreams, of our families, of our marriages, of our emotions, of our mental acuity, of our finances. It doesn't matter what it is that's crashing in around us. We never give up clinging in hope to you. And I pray that that triumphant hope would be strengthened today as we look at how powerful it is, as it assists the believers at the very end of time. And we'll thank you as we ask for you to to stir up our hearts and our minds that we might embrace your hope today and live like it. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
Let's turn to the enlarged and unabridged edition of this event which is Revelation. Okay. Revelation is the enlargement of Jesus Matthew 24 sermon. And if you get to Revelation, go to chapter 8 because the same event is expounded on. Uh each word of Matthew 24 is enlarged in Revelation. And and this huge long 22 chapter book is an enlargement basically of Christ's sermon in Matthew 24. And what we are talking about in Revelation 8 are those six words. And I call it an event that has an impact that's felt around the world. What happens during the tribulation is stars. In other words, what the ancients looked up and there were two kinds of stars in the sky. There were normal stars and wandering stars. And the wandering stars they called planetase. And we get the English word planets. A planetase in the first century and before was a star that moved. That's how they found the planets. They were stars, glowing things up there that moved. They wandered. Planace means to wander. So there were wandering stars and there were fixed stars. But anything up there, and by the way, then there was the sun and the moon. So they had very simple astronomical ideas. There was the night shining thing. There was the day shining thing. Then there were the other little night shining things. Some moved and some didn't. And they called those things stars. So, we're not getting into astrophysics here. Whether we're talking about a red giant, a yellow or a brown dwarf or a, you know, blue, white, whatever. We're talking about, remember the words in the Bible, the people, it was written to normal common people. And what they understood were there were glowing things up there at night. Some moved and some didn't. And some of those glowing things were going to hit the ground. That's basically what they're talking about. And so as we head to the end of the Bible, think about who God's word is for. Revelation 8 and Matthew 24 just isn't for merely us. You know, we're so myopic. We're so self-centered. When we read the Bible, we only think about what it means to us. Do you realize this book has been encouraging people for 3,500 years since Moses wrote the first five books down 15 centuries before Christ? It's encouraging us as it has the church for 2,000 years. But guess what? It's not just them and us. There's someone coming in the future that is going to still encourage. Did you know that Matthew 24 is written for those people in Revelation 8 who are actually going to be experiencing these things? For us, they're just cute stories. Some of them are in the past, some are in the future. None of them really are happening now, but they're going to. And if you think about it, this book is about hope for those who are alive at the end. And in Revelation 8, we see how powerful the hope God offers can be because it works when the stars are falling. And again, for most of us, uh we don't even think uh what that could possibly mean. But basically it means God's hope can energize people to go on even when life looks absolutely hopeless. Now for us it could be you know financial or health but for them it's going to be stuff falling to the earth.
Let me explain what I mean. Look at verse eight of Revelation 8. The Apostle John is observing and describing something like a a something like a mountain or a rock or something burning like a torch and falling to the earth. And he says in verse 8, "Then the third angel sounded and a great star fell from heaven burning like a torch and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water and the name of the star is wormwood and a third of the waters became wormwood and many died from the water because it was made bitter." Now that's an interesting passage. Jesus talked about the stars falling from the heavens and and John here sees a great star fall from heaven burning like a torch and and he also talks in in another one of these judgments of a great burning mountain falling to the earth. But after a lifetime of studying the book of revelation and reading every book I have and every commentary I have 120 on revelation did my doctor doctrate on it. I'm still not sure whether the words of this prophecy are a first century inspired man's description of something to do with an atomic blast or something that would be glowing. I mean, I I have no idea what he's seeing or if it's some super powerful demonic creatures attack or if it's just a cometed asteroid or a meteorite. I don't know. The only thing we know is it's something that's bright in the sky and then it gets brighter and brighter and brighter and it crashes to the earth and the net effect is it poisons a third of all the people. So something happens. But what we do know is God allowed John to see an event as it was happening in the future. Remember how Revelation comes around? God takes John from the aisle of Patmas, brings him up before his throne, and allows an angel to take him. And all of a sudden, he starts seeing the future happening. And he gets to write down certain parts of it. So John isn't seeing something that that was possible. He was seeing something that was happening and he wrote it down. So he's actually writing down what is going to happen in the future. Not possibly. It will happen. and he saw it. And so that's that's what he's writing down. He's actually seeing an event in the future as it happens. And as John is watching the earth, an object very near the end of the world falls from the sky and devastates the earth. And even in that situation, God offers hope that can help and keep believers from giving up. The hope God gives is more powerful than anything we'll ever face. That's that's the bottom line of all this Revelation 8 stuff. The believers, what Jesus called the elect from the four winds, the believers that are living through the tribulation, cling to the same hope that you and I have, and it sustains them in the darkest of times. So whatever this falling object is in verse 8, 9, 10, and 11, God allows it to poison a third of the earth's fresh water. Now, we saw last week that's diminishing to start with. Can you imagine with the limited resources? It's interesting. The National Geographic, if you get that or read that or go to Barnes & Noble and read the free one and drink a cup of their expensive coffee while you're reading the free one that they have there, which that's what they earn their money on. Um, if you go there, the most recent edition is on water and it shows places in the world where hundreds of people are standing around little holes in the ground waiting in line with their buckets hoping to get water. Can you imagine when even the limited supplies are poisoned? That's what happens. But there's interesting some have predicted that or or um used uh science to say that the chapter 8:es 8-11 is nuclear and it's radiation fallout that spreads all over the earth and poisons the water. That's a possibility. But there's another interesting possibility of what's going on here and and that is what scientists call Neos near Earth objects. Now for most of us taxpayers, we don't really know everything our taxes go for. We just know that they're spending a lot of money these days. Well, six years ago, the government started spending some of our money. And I'll just read you the report. uh the US government began funding a brand new branch of the government of astrophysics called the N the near earth object survey. It was the NEOS. It's just another division of of our defense, you know, surveying the skies. The original allocation 6 years ago was $40 million. They paid a bunch of universities $40 million to survey every object they could find out there beyond the Earth's atmosphere that was more than 100 ft wide. And they paid them if they would just start using their telescopes to systematically comb the skies and look for movement and find these near earth objects. So they funded all these universities with telescopes and other uh you know devices to to look for those objects for the first 12 months. They started that in January actually December and January of 2004 is when the funding began. By May of 2004, just after this project started, a University of Hawaii astronomer, you realize this just started in the the 21st century. And a University of Hawaii astronomer that was being paid, saw something, a near-Earth object, a space rock, and he took pictures of it until some storm clouds moved in and then he lost it. So that went around the buzzing, the community, the forum. 6 months after that Thanksgiving in '04, the Australian astronomers that were also being paid found the same object and they named it. They name all these 2004 NM4 was the name of that one and they found it at Thanksgiving. Well, after a month of calculations, uh, the astronomers announced to the world on Christmas Eve, if you remember this, of 2004, that this asteroid was on a direct hit trajectory with the earth and it was the first object from the near earth object survey that was reported to the public and it caused a panic for about 2 weeks, you know, because what they said is this this object is definitely going to hit the earth. They found it and they calculated, they watched the the the uh way it was coming around our our orbit. It was coming out and as the earth revolves around the sun, it was on a trajectory to intersect us. Of course, it wasn't until 2029 and and I don't know if Bruce Willis will still be alive so he can go up there with his team, you know, like they did in the movies and drill a hole and put a bomb in, but uh whatever. Uh it it just scared people for a couple of weeks. And here's what the newspaper said. I still have this. It was reprinted in the Popular Mechanics in December of that year. Scientists have calculated with all available data that the asteroid that they found 2004 NM4 will impact the Earth on Friday the 13th of April of 2029. What they have concluded is that this asteroid 2004 NM4 was a regional hazard. It was only enough to flatten Texas or a couple of small European countries with an impact equivalent to, listen to this, 10,000 megat tons of dynamite, which is more than all nuclear weapons in the world combined. That's just one of these little things that we didn't even know were close to us until 2004. And they're close to us all the time. In fact, these things hit the Earth regularly. So, one thing became certain at the end of 2004. The scientific world now has instruments on hand to detect and track space rocks that were so small, we didn't even pay attention to them before. And now all of a sudden we know they're out there. And all of a sudden, Revelation 8, this flaming burning thing like a star or like a mountain in verse 8 is wow. There really are things out there like that that really could hit the earth. In fact, they've got one targeting us right now. And when we think about it, what would it be like? Remember, we're looking at the hope that people that this is happening to can go through. What What would you face if one of those things flattened Texas? What would you face if one of those things flattened Chicago? What about if one of those things hit in the Great Lakes? What would it do? Well, think of a flaming object crashing to Earth, something from space, a comet, a meteor, something else. We don't know what revelation is, but it hits the earth and it poisons a third of the drinking water. And the result is many people die from this. Well, let's just for a second think about what about all the times in the past that objects, great meteors and asteroids, have already struck the earth. And astronomers have concluded that a giant space rock strikes the Earth and leaves a huge crater about every 150 years. In fact, here in the US, we have a national monument out of one. In fact, Bonnie and I this month, at the beginning of the month, we're flying from here to Los Angeles, and as I was I leaned out over Bonnie's window seat, and I watched the Meteor Crater National Monument go by underneath. You can see it very clearly from airplanes. It's a mile wide and 600 ft deep. And people pay money to go up to the rim and look inside. And we know that one is pretty recent because the flood of Noah did not cover it up. There are many others around the earth that are unburied underneath a mile of sediment, but that one is less than 5,000 years old because it's still just there. And so are a lot of others that are around. But what kind of space rock would it take to scoop a hole like the one in Arizona, a mile wide and 600 ft deep, into the Earth? Well, that one the scientists calculate was only about 60 ft wide. I mean, it was for these objects, it was much smaller than we even have the technology to detect. In other words, we don't see them unless they're at least 100. The the mile wide crater was 60 ft wide and it made that hole. Well, what if a rock the size of what struck Arizona would hit Newark, New Jersey, which is 10 miles from New York City. Let's say that that a little 66 foot wide one hit there. uh not much damage other than New York would be, you know, on fire or something and people killed, but other than that, it would only produce about a 4.7 magnitude earthquake, which wouldn't bother New York City at all. They would just feel a little rumbling, and the wind would increase by about 4 miles an hour across the city. So, don't worry about 60 foot wide ones. They just cause a little small problem wherever they hit. But what if it's as big as Revelation 8? What if it's so big that it flames across the sky and and the world can see it coming burning and it's like a mountain? We're talking about not 60 ft wide but bigger. Well, the the one that the evolutionists think killed the dinosaurs, you know, that one, you've all heard the dinosaur killer asteroid. They calculate that one was 9 miles wide. the one that hit I think they think it hit in Mexico or Yucatan or something and it changed the whole atmosphere and killed all the dinosaurs. Let's say that that thing hit America instead of the Yucatan. Let's say a a asteroid 9 mile wide hit hit San Francisco. Okay, we're in Michigan. So everybody put on your minds. I want you to think about this because I'm going to read to you what they published in 2004. This is actually the the article that that was from that Popular Mechanics that I read to you about what would happen if one of these objects hit. Let's say it hits San Francisco. Well, if it hit San Francisco, the Bay Area wouldn't do so well. The crater would be 113 miles wide. In other words, all of San Francisco, Oakland, the whole Bay Area would disappear if one of those rocks hit. The entire metropolis would vanish faster, this article says. And you can say where you left your heart. What isn't consumed is knocked over in an earthquake of a magnitude of 10.2, bigger than any recorded earthquake in the history of the planet. But it's not over yet. The scorching fireball would turn much of the state of California and parts of other outlying states into toast. Now, this is just one object hitting. The quick death experienced in the Bay Area would turn out to be a blessing compared to the slow, searing, suffocating death Los Angeles would get. Los Angeles, do you know how far it is? It's 8 hours by car from the Bay Area to the LA area. That's when death gets inescapable. 10 seconds after San Francisco disappeared, the fireball would sear Southern California. It would ignite not only the clothing people were wearing, it would turn plywood on the sides of buildings instantly igniting it. That's how hot the blast would be. In 10 seconds from San Francisco, your clothing, your hair would just [snorts] start on fire. Within 2 minutes, the ground under Hollywood would shake, structures would crumble, and complete destruction of all buildings would be from that 10.2 earthquake. But then things would get nasty. I guess burning hair and clothes aren't nasty. 6 minutes after the impact, the Earth, the 113m wide crater that used to be under San Francisco soared into the atmosphere and would begin to fall on California. Just about everywhere else. Also, a blanket of ejected material 18 ft deep would settle in a matter of an hour or two across all of Southern California, 18 ft deep. Where would you go? I mean, wow. Think about that much dirt just coming on top of everything. Well, within a half hour after the initial impact, uh the the huge tornado wind would scrape across Los Angeles, knocking whoever was left. And New York City residents, who by the way were sitting comfortably watching all this on TV, and to the extent any video feed still left, would feel an earthquake 13 minutes later that would actually rattle the windows of New York City. 21 minutes later after the largest new crater on the planet uh starts to deposit an half an inch of dust across the city of New York and 3 and 1/2 hours later a windstorm would come across New York. So, so that's what would happen. That would be the incalculable loss of physical property and the unimaginable loss of millions of people.
Now, turn back with me to Matthew 24 because I want you to see what Jesus says. just before he describes this hit. Um, which is going to happen. Something like this is going to happen. It's not going to hit the Bay Area or whatever and only affect them. It's going to affect a third of all the people on the earth, which is a couple of billion that are going to be poisoned. Doesn't mean they all die, but it means that it's going to be a horrible after effect. But in Matthew 24, look at verse 13. I want to show you something amazing. Jesus says something will characterize those who are really his children when all this happens. No matter what happens before or during the tribulation, his true children never stop clinging to him. "But he who, and here's this word, endures to the end." Perseverance, remember the perseverance of the saints. Actually, the word is enduring to the end. Those who endure to the end are the ones who are saved. The word endure is the Greek word hoopo. It's a very interesting word. We find it in the New Testament. It always describes the response of a believing person to Christ. So, so what Jesus is saying in prophecy, the whole world is going to go through these convulsions and there's going to be people on the earth. And the way you're going to know the people that are really saved are verse 13. They have this hoopo, this word for enduring hope to the very end.
Now, what kind of hope is that? Let's look at the same word. Look at re or Romans chapter 12 because the same word Jesus used he inspires through his spirit the other biblical writers to use describing saved people. Look at Romans 12 and verse 12. Right in the middle of talking about the church. The apostle Paul is writing about those believers who are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. And in Romans 12, you know, 1 and two, they're already consecrated and giving themselves back. But look at verse 12. "They rejoice in hope. And look at this. The next word patient is the same word from Matthew 24:13. This the next little phrase there patient in tribulation is hoopo monet or hoopo meno in tribulation. In other words, they don't give up when they're in tribulation. So that's what tells us that the same hope that is good in revelation chapter 8 when when space rocks neos near earth objects are smashing and destroying and vaporizing and people's clothes are starting on fire 8 hours drive away in other words it's inescapable death that this this type of enduring hope works but it works today it works in the church Romans 12:12 we can rejoice in hope and be hoopo meno. Be patient in tribulation and continue steadfastly.
Now keep going to 1 Corinthians the next book. Go to the right 1 Corinthians 13 and look at verse 7. Same word again. "Bears all we're talking about love. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things. Here's the same word. Endures all things." Did you know that every truly born again believer has planted within us at the instant of salvation at the moment we call upon the name of the Lord that the moment we confess our need of Christ forgiving us and and taking away our burden of sin and coming to live within us at that instant he plants into us look at 1 Corinthians 13:7 the the power to endure all things see that was what made the church so powerful they could take them. If if you ever go to Rome, you can go to the uh Circus Maximus area and there's a little archaeological plaque right by that place where so many Christians were. It It's not the coliseum, the Roman coliseum. It's a even bigger thing. It was the Circus Maximus where they used to do chariot races and then they do all kinds of Christian killing. There's a plaque there and it shows one of the people being killed in the arena, a Christian and the Christian it it calls him a cresian. You know, someone is following Christos Christ. He's bowing down and who he's bowing down to is a donkey on a throne. So they were mocking and saying, "You Christians worshiped this donkey, Jesus Christ, because that's what Romans thought of Christ because he was crucified. You never crucified a citizen." And so he was a nothing. He was a slave. Jesus was a slave. He was crucified. So he's a donkey. And and that little plaque has a historic archive in the Roman archives. You can read it in Latin. And it says that this guy that was killed in the arena, he was brought in and it gives his name and and he was accused of one thing after another. And you know what he said? "I am a slave of Jesus Christ. I am a slave of Jesus Christ." They said, "Did you do this?" He said, "I am a slave of Jesus Christ." And finally, that's all he said. I'm a slave of Jesus Christ. They just killed him in the arena. Look at verse 7 of 1 Corinthians 13. Salvation causes us to have the ability that is divine to endure anything. Now, some of us don't choose to allow God to do that through us, but that's the extent of the power he has given us.
Keep going in your Bibles. Look at 2 Timothy. You go first Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, u Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1, 2 Thessalonians, 1. Now look at 2 Timothy. That's where we're going. Chapter 2. 2 Timothy 2. Here is the same word and it's a personal testimony. Paul says in 2 Timothy 2, same word, "Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect that they may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory." So that's verse 10. Look at verse 12. "If we, and there's the same word, endure. This is the persevering of the saints. If we endure, we shall reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny us." In other words, what he's saying is true believers never stop believing no matter how bad the world gets, no matter how bad their lives get.
Keep going to the right to Hebrews. So go by second Timothy into Titus Phileiman in Hebrews 12 and look at the same word describing Jesus Christ, our savior and lord, he endured also. It says in Hebrews 12:2, "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, here's the same word, you can circle it in your Bible, endured the cross." You see, Jesus showed us you can face anything in the power of God. Truly born again people have this unconquerable hope that they can face anything with the joy of the Lord. Not with happiness and giddiness and saying I don't feel anything. It's with true anchored hope that never gets moved away from Christ. Endured such hostil or verse three the same word shows up again. "For consider him who endured same word Jesus endured hoopo monet such hostility from sinners against himself lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls." Wow. Look at verse 7. "If same chapter if you endure chastening, God deals with you as sons." By the way, chastening. Did you know believers are expected to obey God? And if we don't obey God, if we don't keep what he has promised us, this is what Jesus said, "He that has my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me." If we have his commandments and don't keep them, then he chastens us. And if we look at Hebrews 12:7, if we endure chastening, in other words, if we say, "Lord, you're right. I'm wrong. I need to repent and forsake that sin." If we go through the process, then we are sons. That's part of the perseverance of the saints. True Christians, when they are in sin, God chasens them and they repent of it. That's why if someone lives to the very end of their life unrepentant of their sin, you know they're not a true son, which is also in Hebrews chapter 12.
One more verse. Look at James chapter 1. I want you to see this word one more time. "Blessed is the man who endures temptation." There's the same word, hoopo. It's the same word from Matthew 24. Same word from all these other passages I've shown you. Blessed is a man who hoop uh who endures temptation. For when he's been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised those that love him. In other words, those who love Christ can endure anything. That's what James says.
Now to close, look back at at the word in James 1:12. "He who endures." Okay? Now for a second, I want you to think about something. What kind of Bible did Jesus have? If Jesus went to family Christian stores, Zanderan or wherever you buy your Christian books, what kind of Bible would he buy? What did he carry? Have you ever thought about that? Do you know? We know because we have his words captured and we can see what he quoted from the Old Testament. Jesus nine times out of 10 whenever Jesus quotes a verse talking to the devil and the temptation talking to his adversaries, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. When he quotes a verse, do you know what version of the Bible he quotes from? 90% of the time it's probably his personal favorite Bible. It was called the Septuagent, the LXX. You might see it abbreviated that way. The Septuagent. The Septuagent was the Bible that Jesus used. In fact, it's the Bible that the apostles used. It's the Bible they studied, they memorized, they used, and they quoted, and they read from most of their time. We know that because when Paul and Peter and John and James quote the Old Testament, they aren't quoting the Hebrew. They're quoting the Greek translation of the Hebrew into the Greek language of their day. So Jesus and the apostles use the Septuagen. And so quite naturally the early Christians use the Septuagent in their meetings and in their personal readings. So if the Bible you were holding today had the New Testament like we have it and you had a Septuagent Old Testament that would mean that your Old Testament and New Testament were both in the Greek language in the first century because the Bible the New Testament was translate or was inspired to be written in Greek and the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into Greek and that's what they used. Why am I telling you all this? We'll look back down at James 1 and verse 12. In the Greek manuscript of the book of James, in James 1:12, it would say, uh, "Blessed is the man, hoopo meno." So that Greek word would be in your New Testament. But if you were flipping through your Old Testament that was formerly in Hebrew but had been translated into Greek, you would find that same word from the New Testament scattered all the way through the Old Testament. The same Greek word that is in the the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. So let me show you the place it is most and that's where we began 3 weeks ago. Lamentations 3. We're going to end there cuz I told you uh 3 weeks ago that this is the most hopefilled chapter of the Bible. And if you don't know where Lamentations is, find the middle. Psalms, go to the right. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song, and Psalm, Isaiah, Jeremiah. It's right after Jeremiah. Jeremiah has 52 chapters and it's huge. And Lamentations has five chapters and it's little, but find it or look in the index. And uh get to Lamentations 3 with me. And I want to show you from the Bible. Jesus used the same word. And what I want to show you is, and I'm going to close with this, a prescription. How can we experience this hope that Jesus said works in the last darkest hours of Earth? When the sky is falling, when space near Earth objects are blowing up the Bay Area and blanketing us with dirt or whoever is on the earth when that happens, how do you live? We'll look at Lamentations 3 starting in verse 21. "This I recall to mind. Therefore, I have hope." That word hope in verse 21, the last word is the same word we've been looking at all this time from Matthew 24, Mark 13:13, all the way through uh James 1:12. It's the very same word that we're looking at. We're doing a word study. Therefore, I have hope. Hoop. Verse 22. "Through the Lord's mercies were not consumed because his compassions fail not. They're new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore, I hope in him." Verse 25. "The Lord is good to those who, same word in your septuagent there, who wait." Now, by the way, hope in verse 21, hoopo meno is the very same word in verse 25, wait. Isn't that fascinating that they translate it in one verse with one English word and the next verse with a different English word and it's the same word underlying it in the original manuscript. Well, therefore the Lord is good verse 25 to those who wait for him to the soul who seeks him. This passage reminds us that our hope can endure and triumph through anything. So if we step back starting in verse 22, we can get a prescription because this chapter is talking about this hope and it's about how to triumph in hope in everyday life. Let me show you what I mean. Number one, look at verse 22. This hope that God promises all of us who believe in him can come to us whenever we fail. Verse 22. "Through the Lord's mercies, we're not consumed because his compassions fail not." See, what this verse says is God never fails even when we fail. And we aren't consumed when we fail. In other words, Jeremiah says, "I'm not perfect. I just know I'm weak." Remember what we read three weeks ago? Jeremiah was, if you look at chapter 3, he felt horrible. He felt crushed. He felt distant from God. He felt like nobody was listening to him. He felt like no one cared for him. He even felt God didn't care for him. He was failing. And you know what hope does? Hope comes to us when we fail because God always offers unfailing love. That's what verse 22 says. His compassions never fail. Next time you fail as a husband, as a wife, as a parent, as a child, as a friend, you fail or as a believer, you fail the Lord and we sin against him and don't do what he wants us to do. Remember, when we fail, he doesn't. He doesn't fail. He doesn't change. He isn't like us. He's not capricious. He doesn't say, "One too many times I don't love you anymore." He says, "I love you with an everlasting love." Number one, our great physician says this, "My hope comes to you when you fail because I offer you unfailing love."
Look at verse 23. "They are new every morning." His hope comes when our lives are monotonous. Have you ever come to a point where you feel your life is monotonous? I grew up in a monotonous work home. My dad worked in the same building for the same company in the same plant for almost a half a century. He worked at plant 3 in die try out at Ozenville General Motors in Lancing for 46 and a half years. Same building. Do you know what? My dad never thought it was monotonous. Did you know every day I grew up as a little tiny guy all the way through watching my mother packing my dad's lunch pail he called it. This was this metal box he carried into the shop that had his thermos and his food in it. and and she would get it all done, but she'd leave it open. And my dad would come running out because he had to be driven. We only had one car. And when we got the car, we would drive him. And he would always stuff into his lunchbox these dirty, greasy, dogeeared, worn out books because my dad turned every coffee break and every lunch break into a time of Bible study. He says, "You know, the union makes us have a break every I don't know how many minutes." They took a I don't know how many minute break. He loved it. There was just all these breaks all day long and you know at the UAW which he was a you know member of at General Motors and he he taught himself Greek and Hebrew and theology and was a Sunday school teacher and just serve the Lord because he said, "I can't believe I get these breaks and I'm going to pack in my lunchbox." Look at verse 23. The freshness, they're new every morning. God's word. He says, "My life isn't monotonous." He says, "I get a fresh dose of the Lord every day." And and us kids grew up watching him stuffing his study materials and squeezing his fried egg sandwich uh that he used to love. uh you know the can you imagine a cold fried egg sandwich but he was stuffed as books as squash his fried egg on white bread sandwich into that lunch pale because God refreshed him and God's his his closeness to my dad was new every day to my dad's death at 92 he was always even even laying there with all the things and you know in his nose and the little one here and all the tubes and everything. He says, "You I was just thinking about a verse I memorized. Have you thought about this?" I thought, "No, I'm thinking about how are you making it, you know, with all that stuff coming out those tubes." And he says, "Oh, that's not what I'm thinking about." Did you know that's what the Lord offers to us? He offers us when when our lives seem monotonous. He promises daily freshness. Lamentations 3:23, they're new every morning. God is always faithful.
Look at verse 24. He says, "The Lord is my portion." His hope comes to us in our weakness. God gives us a personal dose of whatever we need. You know, one of the byproducts of having eight children, we've had to feed them. You know, you you when when you're at a restaurant, either we were around before there was baby food that was that was easily accessible. We used to mash. We had this masher in this mill and we would put whatever we were eating and go like this and it'd come out this horrible gooey mess. And then we had this little spoon we took with us. And we would, depending on the size of our children, we would get a spoonful that would be just right for them. And we do the open up, you know, take a bite. Do you know what that was? Their portion. I didn't take a tablespoon. I didn't take a serving spoon. I didn't take a ladle. I took just the size they needed. Look what it says. "The Lord is my portion." You know what the Lord says? He says, "If if you fail me, I'm faithful." If if you feel life is monotonous and you're in a rut, he says, "I will make every day fresh for you. And if you are facing something that you don't know how you're going to face it, verse 24, the Lord says, I will be your portion." Now, this works when rocks are falling out of the sky and incinerating a third of the earth. It also works today when you have a flat tire. when you go home and your freezer, you didn't know the power was off and everything's rotted inside. It works when you go to work and they say, "Well, you know, we promised you this, but we can't." It works when you do all of your work and you don't get the degree you wanted because you missed one requirement. It works all the time because our God says when you get saved, you have an enduring hope that causes you to get from me the portion you need to make it through anything.
Let's bow together. Father in heaven, I pray that we would have this hope that you, Lord Jesus, said characterizes true believers. What has kept the church going through all the centuries, never giving up, always overcoming in hope, and that will keep those saints when the world is coming to an end. I pray that we would live with the daily freshness of your word and that we would accept you as our portion every day. In the name of Jesus, we ask this. And all God's people said, "Amen."