Peter Brandon emphasizes the Christian's blessed hope, rooted in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which provides a living hope and assurance of eternal life. He contrasts worldly hopes, which are often uncertain, with the certainty of hope found in Christ, who serves as our forerunner and anchor. Brandon discusses the various aspects of this hope, including the promise of a transformed body, the reunion with loved ones, and the ultimate joy of seeing the Lord. He encourages believers to live in anticipation of Christ's return, reminding them that this hope is both comforting and purifying. The sermon concludes with a call to reflect on one's life in light of this hope, urging believers to share the gospel and live righteously.

The Christian's Blessed Hope. Now can we read just a few verses from 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 1. And I shall quote a number of scriptures but I shall turn you to others because I believe it's far better if we read the scriptures together than sometimes just quoting. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 1. Peter an apostle of Jesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again unto a lively or living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. To inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time and the Lord will bless to us the reading of his word. One of the main ingredients to living is hope. If we haven't got hope then the life that we live is full of uncertainty. A little boy has a hope for Christmas. It may be a bank, maybe a book, maybe a game. He hopes to get it. A student sitting an examination hopes to pass. Two young people getting married hope to be happy. A businessman selling his wares hopes to be successful and even in the realm of science an astronaut hopes to return with his capsule when he moves into the realm of space. So you can see by these citations that hope is essential to living but quite frankly all that I have stated is merely a hope for the little boy may not get the thing he wants for Christmas. The student may not pass his examination. The businessman may not sell his wares and go bankrupt. The marriage can be very unhappy and the capsule can burst in space. But when we talk about hope in the New Testament praise the Lord it's entirely different. There are those people that have no hope without Christ and without hope. What a dreadful thing to live in the 20th century with pollution all around us and the world seething with trouble and to have no hope and to be without God. What a suicidal existence. If there's someone like that this afternoon I trust you may be able to sing before you leave this meeting on Christ the solid rock I stand all other ground sinking sand. Then there are those people that have a fourth hope. I was only speaking to a man in Ireland and he was a Presbyterian been an elder for 45 years he was dying and I gripped his hand and I said what's your hope? He said I've lived a good life I've attended church I think I might be ready. Now that's a fourth hope and thank God that dear man got his hope in the precious blood of Christ and quite frankly there's only one hope and that is through the blood of Christ through the sealing of the spirit and we shall see in a few moments there's no power in the universe that can break that seal when God has sealed you with the Holy Spirit and you're born of God that's the kind of hope. But for the Lord's people who are in the church of God isn't it wonderful in these days when all around us we can see society crumbling that there's going to be a hope very shortly fulfilled and that the coming of the Lord Jesus. Every time I'm walking through this world I'm telling myself Peter it's under judgment and the judgment is coming very shortly. The world in which we live as far as it's society and system is concerned was judged at the cross now is the judgment of this world now shall the prince of this world be cast out and I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men under me therefore already it's been judged and that is why we Christians we are just pilgrims and strangers we don't have foundations down here we just have our pigs in the you see our hope is in heaven and as we see the middle east beginning to boil we know that the coming of the Lord is near and isn't it wonderful brothers and sisters to have a blessed hope a hope that's full of certainty. Now how are we going to discuss this subject now first of all I want to talk to you about the certainty of the hope and I mean that the certainty of the hope. Then after we have dealt with that subject I want to speak of the earnest or the guarantee of the hope. You see not just having heaven above us but having a little bit of heaven in us right now. Then I want to talk about the seven objectives of the hope then I want to show you the marvelous extent of the hope it's not just the hope of the Lord's coming there's more in it than that and then right at the end we're going to look at the scriptures and we're going to see the effects of the hope and if I can get all that in by half past five then I shall be very happy and I shall know that the Lord has helped me. Now first of all the certainty of the hope and Peter gives us that he says blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively or living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Now there is an old question that people put to us that's genuine over and over again people have said to me you have no right to speak about life after death nor about the second coming of Christ until someone has been into death that's reliable and come out of death and when someone has come back from the dead then you have the authority to speak about it and quite frankly the question is correct you see we had no right to speak about India no right to speak about America until two great geographers went there and when they went there they had the right to speak about it we had no right to speak about the moon or Mars until a man got there and this is the strange thing all the theories about the moon were totally wrong professor jeans told us that there was atmosphere on the moon and the vegetation on Mars but when there was a breakthrough and only when there was a breakthrough then they had some certainty what the moon was like and what Mars was like but it took a breakthrough now has there been a breakthrough into death yes Jesus Christ was the only prophet that told us in detail what happened after death he was the only person that ever told us of a soul in hell and a soul in heaven in fact he spoke more of hell than of heaven now we know from the word of God that he died we know that he was buried that the Bible said he was raised again the third day now is there evidence in his resurrection emphatically yes what kind of evidence now note this first of all there is textual evidence 16 prophecies in the old testament concerning the resurrection then there is reliable historical evidence then there is critical evidence then there is legal evidence then there is experimental evidence in fact we have even been told by an infidel a brilliant French historian that one of the most reliable facts in history is the resurrection of Jesus Christ so you can see my dear friends when God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead he brought a man back from the death who knew all about it for when he was seen by John the scripture says I am he that lives and became dead and behold I am alive forevermore and have the keys of death and hell therefore the samples of afterlife are in his hands but when the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead he was raised from the dead in a different way in which all other people were raised from the dead for instance when the Lord Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead he said two things take away the stone secondly he called him to come out of the grave and then when he came out of the grave he looked a horrible sight he was all bound up with grave clothes why if a man like Lazarus walked in here with grave clothes there wouldn't be one of us sitting in the building it would be a horrible sight so the Lord said loose him and let him go he raised him from the dead but they had to take away the stone and they had to remove the grave clothes now note the difference when the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead he came out of the sepulcher without the stone being removed that was new moreover he came through the grave clothes without the grave clothes being disturbed and therefore when the door was rolled away by the earthquake it wasn't to let the Lord Jesus out but it was to let the disciples in you see they sealed it but the mighty power of God even broke the Roman seal and that seal was broken not to let the Savior out but to let the disciples in to see the empty tomb and therefore Paul calls the resurrection the first fruits now that needs a very careful explanation if you were a Israelite in the time of Moses and Joshua and if you had a good harvest especially in the time of the later end of Joshua you would go to your harvest and you would say now where's the best wheat or the best corn or the best barley and supposing you're looking now at the wheat and you would say right there's the best wheat and you would cut a beautiful sheaf of wheat and then you would look at the ears and they would be profuse and would be fat and full and you would give that sheaf to the priest and in a very beautiful way he would wave it before the Lord and when he waved it before the Lord the best of the man's wheat had been given to God and when the priest looked at the wheat he would examine it very carefully he would look at the number of ears and he would look at the fullness of the ears and he would say to the giver now you're going to have a great harvest look at the ears of that wheat now when the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead praise the Lord he was the first one to be raised from the dead never to die again and when God looked upon him he must have said my there's going to be a wonderful harvest because just as the Lord Jesus was raised from the dead all those that have died in Christ are going to be raised like him and all those that are living will be changed like him he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied and therefore that is the certainty of our hope already in miniature it's been done and when the Lord raised when God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead with his mighty power it was a guarantee to every member of the church of God that we were going to be raised with the same power and have the same body as the Lord Jesus but there's something more than that turn with me now to Hebrews Hebrews chapter 4 Hebrews 4 reading from verse 14 seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens now note that little expression passed in or through the heavens Jesus the son of God now please note those two words Jesus refers to his humanity and saviourhood the son of God refers to his divinity let us hold fast to our profession for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities not liabilities please note not liabilities not our sins but our infirmities now I cannot go into the details of this otherwise I won't finish the subject but infirmities are the sinless consequences of sin tiredness weariness lacking memory uncontrolled sometimes emotion not sinful in themselves but the results of sin that we find in our body all right let's go on but what in all points tempted as we are yet without sin meaning sin apart let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may find help in time of need now please remember that now would you come with me to the sixth chapter verse 18 that by two immutable things can I repeat that please bear that in mind but by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie that's one we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us which hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast and which entereth into that within the veil whether the forerunner for us entered even Jesus made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek now the two great immutable things in regard to our hope are as follows one is the word of God meaning God cannot lie now when God makes a promise brothers and sisters he cannot break it he cannot break it therefore when he says I will come again he will come again and nothing in the universe will stop him so that's the first thing the second is is that the Lord Jesus has become first of all our forerunner and then he has become our anchor now notice we are talking about the certainty and the first certainty of our hope is seen in the resurrection the second certainty is seen in Jesus Christ being our forerunner now what does that mean when John the Baptist was on the scene it was evident that Christ was going to come can I repeat that when John the Baptist was on the scene it was evident that Jesus Christ was somewhere around he was coming or he had come now why because John was a forerunner prophesied in the Old Testament on three occasions and now those prophecies were fulfilled and God's forerunner was here and if Israel had known exactly what John was they would have known that the Messiah was around because why the forerunner was there what was the job of the forerunner to build up all the valleys to bring down all the mountains to make the crooked path straight so that there would be a coming in of the king and when John had fulfilled his ministry in a very remarkable way the Lord took him to glory and gave him the martyr's crown that's wonderful don't grumble because John the Baptist was beheaded God conferred upon him the greatest honor that's possible and when we see John he'll have the martyr's crown a wonderful reward in heaven and he'll be praising God for eternity that he was martyred for the cause of his precious Savior so when John was around it was a sure sign that the Lord Jesus was here now who is the church's forerunner? John the Baptist? No! John the Baptist was subject to sin John the Baptist was subject to failure maybe he was a subject to a little depression but our forerunner is the Lord Jesus and therefore he has gone into heaven and how did he go into heaven first of all he went through principalities and powers gloriously heaven was delighted when hell shook when Jesus Christ went through principalities and powers going back to his home the whole of the demon world must have been totally shaken when he came near to the gates of heaven he lifted up his voice with the ascension song lift up your heads so you gates be lifted up the everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come in and he went in in wonderful triumph and therefore the father said my son sit on my right hand until i make all thine enemies thy footstool now beloved because he has gone in it's a guarantee that we're going in and we're going to follow him in the same way in which he went in that's why we're going to be caught up together to meet him where in the air in the very domain of the devil and the devil will see the completion of the church in all its glory and not one will be lost why because that's the way the forerunner went but then what about the anger I'm so glad and I want to say this with holy reverence that the Lord Jesus is in heaven and the Holy Spirit on earth I'm always thanking God for an absent Christ aren't you wonderful to see him by faith we've only got a few seconds to see him by faith we've got eternity to see his face so we must make the most of it you've got the whole of eternity we shall see in a few moments to live in your glorified body you've only got a few seconds to live in the body of humiliation and so we should all be praising God that we're down here with the Holy Spirit but aren't you glad that the Holy Spirit hasn't got the anchor down here why this is a changing world you see the world in which we live is ripe for judgment the world in which we live according to the old testament is going to be overturned and overturned and overturned and overturned in the great tribulation and just imagine having your anchor in an overturned world but where is the anchor it's in the glory and there's no power in the universe that can move it an inch and that's where our hope is and thank God we are the little ships and we've got our anchor in the midst of the storm right in the rocks of glory and nothing can move it so can you now see beloved the certainty of our hope seen in the resurrection seen in the forerunner seen in the anchor now what about the earnest of the hope just turn to one verse that's in Colossians 1 verse 27 or perhaps to get a better reading verse 26 even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations but now is made manifest to his saints to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory now when we became Christians the Holy Spirit came to us in order to do two things number one to reveal the Lord Jesus as a person to us in power so the whole work of the Holy Spirit is to take that Christ who is seated at God's right hand and make him a living vital person to you there are two ways in which we can learn of Christ if we've got a good mind we can study typology and we can study prophecy and we can study Christology and we can imagine our brains a massive amount of knowledge concerning the Lord Jesus now that's good but that doesn't mean to say you know him oh no that's knowing about him but it's only the Holy Spirit that can make that Christ a living vital person to you that's why in revelation he stands at the door knocking they knew all about Christ but they had a very little intimate understanding of the Lord Jesus secondly the Holy Spirit wants to come to you in power so that he wants to invade the whole of your personality so that the whole of your personality is invaded with the beauty and the loveliness of the Lord Jesus and Paul put it beautifully that Christ may be magnified in my body now as Christ is being revealed to us as Christ is invading the whole of our personality so that the beauty and the loveliness of the Lord is seen in us then the hope grows you see if you had gone to the Apostle Paul just before he died and you went into that prison you would have seen an old withered man quite frankly he was probably in one of the worst prisons that Nero could have put him in so the historians tell us it would be rat infested probably two inches of water there and there would be two soldiers by his side and he would be chained to these two soldiers but if you got talking to the Apostle and said to him what makes you happy in a dungeon like this do you know what he would say Christ in me the hope of glory you see and even in a dungeon the glory of the Lord Jesus can become real that's why when Paul and Silas were in prison beloved they weren't singing here we suffer grief and pain in the other prisons they're just the same they were singing praises and glory to the Lord Jesus why Christ in you the hope of glory so that's the first guarantee the second guarantee perhaps I can quote is found in Romans hope makes not ashamed two things in Romans that do not make us ashamed or disappointing one is our hope and the other is our faith faith is mentioned in Romans 10 hope is mentioned in Romans 5 hope makes not ashamed why because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost now that word shed abroad is a little deeper than Christ in you the hope of glory it's the idea of an overflowing effulgence I remember on one occasion the first time we went to Niagara the whole of the river was in full spate and we saw the falls in all their glory and quite frankly I was so spellbound I was silent for 10 minutes and then I looked at myself and quite frankly I thought someone had thrown a bucket of water over me I was absolutely soaked with the spray then I noticed some people there they had more money than me and they were able to get into little boats with protecting clothing and they went right near to the falls and they got more spray then I noticed that there were others that had a little more money and they went underneath the falls and they got more spray but all they got was the spray they didn't get the force of the Niagara now the meaning of this word is delightful it's not getting the spray of God's love and therefore the Holy Spirit takes the seed form of Calvary's love and he sows it right into our hearts so that the love of God is shed abroad into our hearts so whilst we are waiting for this hope we have the guarantee of Christ being in us and we have the guarantee of love being in us that's why as we shall see tonight when we stand before the Beamer none of us will have an excuse for bitterness because the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost and that's the earnest of our hope and therefore the more we are filled with Christ the greater the hope will be the more the love of Christ fills us the greater we shall long for him because heaven is a place of love there be the lover the Lord Jesus and the whole of the environment will be of perfect love now what about the objectives of the home now I must rush through this quickly first of all a Christian shouldn't look for death he should look for the coming of the Lord and the moment we look for death we've missed the hope therefore every person no matter if you're 99 you should look for the coming and who knows this may be our last weekend on earth before a week goes we may be in the presence of the Lord with all the redeemed but Paul makes it quite clear if we have to do the dying he will help us in our dying just as he helped us in our living when we come to the point of death we sleep through Jesus in the authorised it's sleep in Jesus that's beautiful let me explain what that basically means I saw a child and this particular child has lost its mother and all the old mums were trying to comfort it but the child wouldn't be comforted then a big burly policeman came up and lifted the child and of course she screamed more and he was in a state of panic I've never seen a policeman in such a state of a panic and a little child did it goodness knows what would happen if he saw a robber you see and then some modern mums came up and they were all trying to give the child something and I was watching and I thought well what are they going to do and then all of a sudden up came the mother and she picked up her little child and the moment the mother moment the child felt the grip of the mother it went to sleep just like that when it comes to death don't worry he'll give you power to live and when you have to through your dying he'll be with you it will be sweet and you'll sleep in the arms of the Lord Jesus as far as your body is concerned but the moment you are out of the body you're at home with the Lord and that is indescribable bliss now have no doubt about that if there's the slightest fear ask God to remove it why because already he's tasted your death he tasted it on the cross and therefore you'll never taste it we shall see in a few moments he's going to do something with death that's wonderful but already your death has been tasted by the Lord Jesus you may have to go through the article that you're never tasted and when you're out of the body you'll be at home with the Lord and you'll be among the spirits note this just men made perfect isn't that wonderful what a hope even with those loved ones that have gone before but then the second feature of the hope is the completeness of our salvation Paul makes it quite clear in Philippians 1 that when he begins a good work in us he will complete it and if you read Genesis 1 it only took him six days to create the earth and when he started by calling the light he was determined to finish it and my dear friends creation is not his masterpiece his great masterpiece is the conversion of his people it's called the workmanship of Christ Jesus and when he has started a work he will complete it and you trust him to do it and he will complete the work in you and you told us a lovely thing now unto him that is able to keep us from falling and to present you faultless before the throne of glory with exceeding joy now I know there's young people here and perhaps you look ahead and you say well if we have to live another 20 years how are we going to live the Christian life the one who started the work will complete it and he'll never take his hands from you now that's the second aspect of the hope the third aspect of the hope is to have a changed body now I'm in my 66th year been preaching for 45 years and I'm getting a bit tired I've been on the go now for eight weeks and sometimes I get mentally tired why it's the body you see the mind begins to slow up a little doesn't it now you don't mind me being a little rude I'm looking at you and you're looking at me and probably you're saying yes he's getting older and I'm looking at you saying yes I see they're getting older of course because it's the body you see the body unless the Lord comes has to die and thank God we don't live forever in this body we look after the body because it's the temple of the Holy Ghost but what is our hope to have a body like unto his glorious body and what kind of body will that be well we've seen it is a body that came through grave clothes that will never happen to us but it was a body that came out of the sepulchre that will never happen to us but it was a body that got through a door without the door being open a body that went through gravity without the power of rocketry it was a body that had no limitation and what a day it will be when we have a body like that forever where there's not one tinge of death and in that day when we see the blessed Lord he's going to swallow up death in victory now please note the word on the cross he tasted it when he comes the second time he's going to swallow up death in victory now that's a different word now it's not the idea of swallowing water well there's no water here in order to demonstrate it but you know what i mean when you swallow or when you eat something it does not disappear and i'm sure everyone will agree with that but that word swallow was taken from the idea of a sailing boat that was going across the sea and strangely it sank and it disappeared and when the rescuing mariners came they couldn't see a speck of the original boat on the surface it had mysteriously disappeared and when he comes he's going to swallow up death in victory so that death will never never never be seen again and we can all say quietly can't we hallelujah what a savior now these are my thoughts i have one or two inferences but no direct scriptures but i was looking up at the stars and as you know even in the milky way there are 100,000 suns bigger than our sun just in one galaxy suns not so much stars and we are told that there are galaxies upon galaxies upon galaxies upon galaxies of stars in fact they cannot find the edge to space they thought three months ago they found the edge but they found more galaxies of stars what are they there for i believe in the eternal state we shall have bodies that will able to move into all these glorious realm when heaven and earth will be synchronized now think of it brother the lord saved you he sanctified you not for this earth but for the eternal glory we should be praising him forever and ever and we're going to reign with him and then the hope stretches to the reunion of loved ones you say will we recognize them of course we will but where's your scripture many scriptures but will we see our loved ones as husbands and wives and children of course not that would be related to the earth but we shall see them in their personalities with their new bodies and we shall see them in all their glory but will we recognize them yes there's a preview of glory given in Matthew 17 and Peter unfortunately with the other two were asleep when the lord was being transfigured and when he woke up he saw three men and he had never seen Elijah before he'd never seen Moses but immediately he saw them he identified them that's a preview of glory again Matthew 27 there was a mighty earthquake after the death of the Lord Jesus and many bodies of the saints which slept arose and went into the holy city now note the word and appeared and that's the same word as the epiphany the appearing of the Lord Jesus now his appearing is going to be real and their appearing was real and they were recognized again the rich man was able to recognize Lazarus in Abraham's bosom and I'm quite sure the Christians will be able to recognize one another in heaven and what a lovely thing that will be to see our loved one there can I speak to a sister or a brother and you've lost a loved one probably a son's lost a mother probably a daughter's lost a mother a father and it's taking you a long while to get over it now let this cheer your heart you're going to see in all the loveliness of a glorified body and that's a part of that and then the renewing of loved ones and then the completion of the church you know that should constantly be our theme we should be even in these days of division all standing on our toes looking above sectarianism and seeing that the church is one brothers and sisters never become sectarian do you remember that godly man Elijah even although Israel was in a state of appalling apostasy he stood on his toes and when he built his altar he didn't build it with two and a half stones he didn't build it with nine and a half stones he built it with twelve stones he saw that the original intentions of God he saw the twelve tribes as it were all gathered around the tabernacle now ever see the body of Christ and as you see the body of Christ then when the Lord comes all the labels will drop off we will not go up as Baptists and Methodists and the Uniting Church and Brethren, Clothed Brethren and all the other labels they'll all drop off every single one of them and we shall be gathered around the Lord Jesus and we shall be presented to him without spot without wrinkle without a blemish and that reveals to us the aspect of the bride now think of that a spot to a Greek was symptomatic of ugliness we shall have perfect beauty a blemish to a Hebrew was symptomatic of disease we shall have perfect eternal health a wrinkle is symptomatic of old age in that day we shall have eternal youth and can I prove it when the church has been in the presence of God for a thousand years she's seen coming out of heaven not only as the Lamb's wife but the bride now sister you were a bride one day and if you've been married for 50 years you're a wife you're not a bride unless you marry again of course but that would be foolish at that age wouldn't it but you see the point and this is what I want to bring to your attention after the church has been in the presence of God for a thousand years she's still the bride there's not a wrinkle on her and that should be the hope of God's people and then lastly the greatest feature of all seeing the Lord Jesus now if you can right now just switch off from me and say something like this Lord I've never seen thee I see thee by faith but I long to see thee and imagine now the Lord coming at this moment now what would the coming of the Lord Jesus be the matter of meeting our loved ones no what will it be seeing him and that's the meaning of the word parasia it means seeing the Lord and knowing his presence forever and think of the joy of seeing our beloved Lord Jesus doesn't it brilliant oh as I say it now brethren my heart goes out to him in praise and worship the exquisite joy of seeing our beloved master what a man now the extent of the hope and with this I close I'll have to leave the effects first of all the removal of the church it will be a tremendous day when we hear the shout we hear the voice of the archangel we hear the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air what a moment now that's the first aspect the second aspect of the hope is this that we're all going to be rewarded for our service and therefore tonight it will be quite thrilling we're going to have a foretaste of the judgment seat of Christ what will happen when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ and each Christian will stand individually before the Lord and he will give and she will get an account of him or herself to the Lord of course at that moment there will be no sex and then I want you to note that there will come upon this earth as the church is standing before the great the judgment seat of Christ the period of the great tribulation now I wish I could share that with you that period of the great tribulation will last approximately three and a half years and in that three and a half years there will be the seal judgments there will be the trumpet judgments and there will be the vial judgment the seal judgments are because of man's mismanagement of this earth the trumpet judgments will be primarily because of God's judgment upon the beast and his wicked last world empire and the vials and the bows will be God's judgment universally upon the whole earth because it's appalling witness but it will be God's rescue plan for this world now note this and this is ever so important the millennium will not come in through revival it will come in through tribulation now can I repeat that it won't come in through revival it will come in through tribulation and as the tribulation closes in its intensity the Lord will appear with all his saints and he will destroy the beast and the false prophet and Satan himself will be cast into the bottomless pit and so that is the extent of the hope but even more immediately the evil one has been destroyed or cast into the lake of fire or perhaps we should say the bottomless pit then the Lord Jesus will sit upon the throne of David and he will reign for a thousand years and as we shall see tonight initially there will not be one unborn or perhaps I should use better language there will not be one born again person that will enter into that new kingdom the goats will be put on one side for judgment and those who have accepted the messianic message of the kingdom will go into the millennial kingdom of God and it will be one thousand years of utopia wouldn't it be lovely if we could speak about that millennial reign and then Satan will be loosed for a little season to show that man still has a sinful nature and there will be judgment and then there will be the eternal state when we shall reign with Christ forever think of the extent of that hope and the world tells us that we are narrow-minded narrow-minded when you've got a hope like that the hope is a blessed hope that means a happy hope I was speaking on the second coming to people who were not familiar with this subject and two old ladies were going out of the tent they were both saved that they knew very little about the second coming and one said to the other Mabel isn't it wonderful that Jesus is going to come and you know what she said don't be so morbid don't be so morbid now it's not a morbid hope it's a happy and a blessed hope you know dear friends as we see it getting nearer we should all be full of holy joy isn't it wonderful shortly we're going home and then it's a comforting hope those of you who have lost your loved ones and I know the bitterness sometimes comes back I know the wound hope opens but he says comfort one another with these sayings and lastly John tells us in the third chapter it's a purifying hope everyone that has this hope purifies himself now I want to ask a question I'm glad if the Lord came shall we say tonight and that's possible would you have some regrets I hope you would what about all those people they're unsaved all going through the tribulation what about some of your sons and daughters there should be some regrets and that should spur us on now to do something for the Lord if the Lord came tonight would you go to heaven bankrupt you've been building your palaces down here and you've never let a soul to cry if the Lord came tonight would there be a moral sin in your life that you've not confessed if the Lord came tonight is there a bitterness that you've not put right may it be when he comes we shall say even so come Lord Jesus amen