There is hope

Reading Ephesians just for a few minutes. Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2 and we'll just read verse number 5 down to number 8. In fact, just for sake of time, we'll just read verse number 8. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God. And then verse 9. Not of works lest any man should boast.

For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should boast. Very briefly, I just want to leave with you the thought of hope.

Hope. Before I left home, there was an incident happened just a few minutes from where I live. There was a mother and father and their little family in a market and the mother was reaching forward to the stall and as she let go of her little girl's hand to reach something and hand it to the stall owner, she reached back to get her little girl.

She was gone. She looked up and down. The little girl was gone.

She was only three-year-old. With the stall owners and different people, they ran through the market to try and find the little girl. The mother with tears running down her cheek did not know where to turn.

But they met a man with a Bible and she stepped with him. And she said, that man gave me hope. He said he would pray for the little girl that they would find her.

And in less than ten minutes they found the little girl. She was crouching behind the car, traumatized, distressed, but she was safe. Some man had come and took her by the hand just in a split second.

I want to leave you with the thought of hope. There's hope for those that they're not saved. There's hope for those who are not sure.

There's hope for those who are not steadfast. I leave that with you like this. Brethren and sisters, we're all here today and I'm sure that every one of us have some loved one, some family member, some relative, some neighbor, some friend that we know, some work colleague and we are close to and we long to see them saved.

I want to say there is hope for those who are not saved. For by grace are you saved. And we've been reading in Ephesians about the grace of God that bring us salvation within the reach of all men.

It has appeared. And I want you to understand this. There's a God in heaven and he desires the salvation of all.

And you might have a loved one, a son or a daughter, and they're away on the mountains wild and bare and they've almost given up hope. I want to tell you, don't give up because there's hope that they can be saved. There's an old brother used to be in Ballyclere Assembly.

He used to sit beside him. His siblings, they went, cycled 14 miles to meetings and back for night after night. Three of them got saved.

One went to England. They're all in their teens. When he was 90 year old, he sent home for a Bible.

And before the year was out, he was saved. They had prayed for him for almost 80 years. Sometimes we hear the phrase, brethren, salvations of the Lord.

And we use it as an excuse. If you look at the context of that phrase, you will see it's within a context where God wants to, he wants to reach out. And there's a disobedient servant because the one that, the people that he's reaching out to are enemies.

They're wicked. They're merciless. They're relentless.

They're fierce. They're violent. They're cruel.

And he doesn't want God's message to get to them. For he believes that the God of heaven would save them. And God has to deal with a disobedient servant.

And at last, he has to give in and say, salvations of the Lord. There's a God, there's a Lord who reigns and he wants to save all. And he sends them with a message.

And what happens? The people repent and they get saved. There's hope for all. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Your loved one can be saved. Remember that. And I'll just leave that.

There's hope for those that are not sure. Look at this. When we come to this chapter, there are three problems.

There's definitely two, but there's three. And there's an answer. There's a problem for death.

Christ is the answer. There's a problem for division. Christ is the answer.

Debt and trespasses and sins, Christ's the answer. The division between Jew and Gentile, Christ's the answer. But maybe there's someone here and you're not stabilized, you're not established in the faith.

And maybe you're here today and you're having doubts. Christ's the answer. Look what it says in verse number five.

It says, you are, you are. Look what it says in verse number eight. Saved, saved.

You are presently in a state of salvation, having been in the past once and for all, completely saved. By grace, are you saved in a past time completely with the result that you're now in a state of salvation, which persists right from a past time, right to a present time, and then go on to a future time. Something that took place in the past, it was completed in the past.

It has resulted to continue the present and will go on forever and ever and ever. It's an act of God. For by grace, you are having been saved.

It's God who saves us. Nothing can reverse an act of God. Whether it be creation.

Creation is born. Creation is no longer a curse, but creation is here. It exists.

It's with us. We're part of creation. You can't reverse an act of God.

Salvation's an act of God. And no foe, and no fiend, and no failure in the individual can reverse an act of God. Oh, let me say it again.

For by grace, you are having been saved. It couldn't have been put in stronger language. Away with this idea that you could be saved and lost.

There is hope for those that are not sure. Get down to the book. Get down to the Bible.

Get down to the scriptures. Get down to the Word of God. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that you might know that you have eternal life.

Is there a soul here? Maybe because you're nervous. Maybe because the enemy's attacking you. Maybe because of problems and circumstances that you're going through and you're having doubts.

I want to tell you, Christ's the answer to death. Christ is the answer to division. And Christ is the answer to doubt.

And he's God's answer. You cannot reverse an act of God. I was going to say, maybe I'll just say it and finish.

Christ is the answer for those who are not steadfast. There's hope for those who are not steadfast. You know, when we go to Acts chapter 2, we all love Acts chapter 2. And there's a man called Peter.

And he stands up with the eleven. And he talks about the spirit coming. And he talks about signs giving.

And he talks about salvation offered. And he talks about a seat that a man sat down in. Christ took a seat in heaven.

We were thinking yesterday about a Christ who is seated. And a Christ who is supreme. And a Christ to whom all is subject.

Well, Christ took a seat at the right hand of God. And he preaches Christ. He said, this same Jesus whom you crucify is both Lord and Christ.

And these men say, brethren, what shall we do? And the answer is repent. And they believe his word. And they receive his word.

And they're saved. And they're added to the assembly. And they continue steadfastly.

They're steadfast. And they're steadfast in the apostle's doctrine. And they're steadfast in the fellowship.

And they're steadfast in the breaking of bread. And they're steadfast in the prayers. We need men and women that are steadfast.

And we love, and every preacher wants to see people saved and added to the assembly and become steadfast. Every parent has a child saved. They want them to be steadfast.

Every elder in God's assembly, and they see people added and brought in, they want them to be steadfast. But you know, we have to be honest, sadly, not everybody's steadfast. And for one reason or another, whether it's because of sin, whether it's because they're mistreated, whether it's because of the wind of doctrine, false doctrine has taken them away.

Whether, whatever reason it might be, there are those who are no longer in the assembly. Once there were, once there were, and they gathered with us. But now they're in Bypath Meadow, and they no longer meet with the saints.

Whatever reason it is, I want to say, brethren, there is hope for those that are not steadfast. And you lay hold in God about them. And the elders, you visit them.

And you read with them. And you pray with them. And you encourage them.

Now, Brother Sammy Mears, known to some here, him and I were having meetings. And we asked the saints, is there anybody that we could visit? They gave us names of sinners, and we visited them. Is there any, is there any saints that we could visit? And they gave us the name of a man and his wife, Alfie and Annie.

You could maybe visit this man. He used to be the man that opened the Bible reading. He used to be the man that did the ministry.

He used to be the man that preached the gospel. He used to be the man that visited the saints. He used to be the man that went door to door and brought people in to hear the gospel.

But he was mistreated. He was mishandled. He was misjudged.

And he threw the head up, and he left the assembly. I said, how long ago was this? Twenty-five years. And he's never gone anywhere else.

Twenty-five years sitting at home. And so we called with them. They brought us in, delighted to see us.

We called again, same thing. His wife still had her long hair. He still had his Bible sitting open beside his chair that he read every day.

We visited him, and we visited him. Then one day going before we were just about to leave, he opened up, and he told us the whole sad story. Twenty-five years away from God's assembly.

And I said this to him, Alpha, was it worth it? Was it worth it? He never answered me. That night they were at the meeting. They came again to the meeting.

They came again. They're starting to get warmed with the gospel. Then they started to sit behind.

And again the next Lord's Day, they sat behind. And our meetings went over. But we heard just two weeks after the meetings finished, Alpha and Anna were received back into God's assembly.

And again they became steadfast at all the meetings. Prayer meeting, Bible reading, gospel meeting, breaking of bread, ministry meeting. He began to worship.

Once or twice again he would get up and minister. It was like the old days. And then 18 months later, God took him home to heaven.

Took him home from the assembly to glory. Wasn't it good of God? Brethren, there is hope for those that are not steadfast. There's hope for those who have wandered and they're away from God's assembly.

Have you a heart for them? There is hope, not just from a man with a Bible, but from the man in the Bible. The only man that we can point anyone to, the man Christ Jesus. There's hope for those that are not safe because Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

There's hope for those that are not sure because he says, I give unto my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish. There's hope for those that are not steadfast. Why? Because the Lord is my shepherd and he restoreth my soul.

There is hope. Hope for those that are not safe. Don't give up.

Hope for those that are not sure. Get down to the word. Hope for those that are not steadfast.

Go out after them and perhaps God and his mercy will recover them. May God bless us all.