The Bible Doctrine of Hope, Part 2

Greetings friends and welcome to The Sound of Faith. I'm Sharon Knotts thanking you for joining us today because we know faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today's message by my father, Brother Hardy, is a word of encouragement to all who may feel you're in a waiting period of your faith, during which time you can feel unsure your prayers are being answered. Here I'm an evangelist, just starting out, and hardly can get a meeting, and I'm going to get an automobile, when I can just about put food on the table to pay the rent of things hoped for. How many say amen?

Our modern-day English. And she said, you know what? Does not really give. You're suffering from the heat. The full meeting of the Greek word for hope.

You walked up that street and you're on the verge of having a heat stroke. And she went out and it needs a project. You know those projects. All they like to do is hang over the fence.

They are the three aspects and rubberneck and gossip of the Greek word. And if they do something new they'll make it up. In our English, how many say amen? Of our modern-day, hope has come down. And she went through the whole project saying, you know what? That crazy religious husband of mine is saying now, he's hearing voices that he's got to it. That's understood by desire or wish. I hope they do it at that religious or I hope My ship comes in, you know, a lot of people are hoping for those ships. Well, I still stayed in hope English saying that patiently, confidently, expecting not one thing you need and you'll live happily ever after. Oh, it was a pretty car.

But the Greek word is a powerful word. I'll tell you how old I am by the time you look on the car. It was a Kaiser Manhattan. Most of you have never heard of it. It was a patient expectation But it looked like a Cadillac of the thing, but it was a lot cheaper, but it was a big bug. Has believed God for it.

It was suburban brown. It was the second stage of faith. It had an assimilated alligator dashboard with tassels hanging down. You can cast away your faith and not have your prayers answered.

Now they're a $50,000 car. In fact, the Christian experience is an experience of where I'm going to drive my new car first. We are in the stage of hope.

Of course I was going to drive it in that project. We've already believed God for our salvation and our souls. We've repented of our sins. The Holy Spirit accepted the hope. I was in the greatest cleansing agent of the world. I was confident Jesus has cleansed us from our sins.

And I was patient. And that wasn't one of my best virtues. Usually, if God said he was going to give it to me, and we give it to me then, he was in trouble. Of God right now.

I'd almost die fretting over it. And we are... That's why I couldn't tell you a lot of things because I was impatient. But somehow God blessed me with hope. And in our main aspiration of patience of the dead and changing of a living, I knew God's voice. I knew God's voice. I know God's voice.

Into eternal life. I got down and trained the Word of God to the capital city of the universe to pray. I knew that God heard me because God hears his Word.

We are in the stage of hope. And I knew that the Bible said that if I can get him to hear me, what would be so evident in me? When I ask, I know I have the patience. I know it was mine. I didn't have to see it.

How did he say amen? The car didn't have to visualize that. The Word of God told me that a God that cannot lie and fail was going to honor his Word and give me that car. And I was going to patiently wait on it. I'm expecting him today. I am confident that he brought a car. Well, I was walking up that same road. I was going to be patient. I'm expecting him today. But somebody else was walking with me.

I'm confident that he's going to come. And we were both surprised. And the Word of God lets me know it's got to be soon. And we come by that yard and there was my car. And today, that's all right.

I almost said that car. I am not going to cancel away my faith. I'm not going to get worried about doing.

I'm not going to make my hands up and quit. I'm just going to be patient because I am confident that it was my car. Oh, he is going to be my car.

And the reason why I'm confident that he's in one of God's ones is Jesus led his disciples to the man of ascension after his resurrection. He said, look at that nice car for sale there. So I believe God wants you to have that car. I said, you know it too. And that they would go and preach the gospel.

And then a few more steps. I believe God wants me to buy that car for you. And I grabbed the car and I said, you know it too. Hallelujah. And that he was giving them power over all the power of the enemy and the devil. And that he was the one with all power in heaven would be energizing them. Take somebody up the hot road when you walk.

Make sure they got money though. And while they were standing there gazing, a crowd came. You see, God not only gave me that car because faith was based on his promises and hope was based on faith that was based on his promises. And a God that cannot lie or fail appeared and said, ye men of Galilee, my patience rewarded me for what I was assured of this King and expecting King.

In God's time. And not only did they ride the car, but they paid the taxes, put the tax on, and paid for the insurance. See, I don't believe in cars. You know, I believe in cars you ride, now look at them. See, some people go buy a Cadillac and they don't have no money to pay for the taxes and taxes and gas.

And every day they go out and look at it. I don't want to look at cars. I want a car I can ride.

I want a car that's got gas in it, tags on it, insurance on it. The signs that say, amen, are all over the world. I'm expecting my patient, confident expectation in faith. I'm not going to get weary of believing in God's word. I'm not going to throw my hat off in God's time.

And here I had my car. I'm not going to cast away my confidence, my faith in God's word. I'm still going on doing what He said, believing, and expecting Him. And I believe that one day He will come. And then He'll say, amen.

And then He'll say, amen. That was 40 years ago. And I made it turn into the project. Real slow. Go real slow. Confidence.

Make sure all the gossippers and leathernecks and rubbernecks are looking. And accidentally I hit the horn, beep, beep, so they would make sure they looked. The short definition of hope is this. The power, confidence, expectation, the power, the fulfillment of that, and then I kind of eased into the back of our apartment where there's a small narrow little street.

And I took my time, you know, about five miles an hour. Hope is the patient, confident, accidentally beeping the horn for the fulfillment. And when I pulled in a behind-my-house implant, I got a listen. I told you God was going to give me that car! Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! You see, because I switched out of faith into hope. Hope had to have something to be based on. And according to Hebrews 11-1, the basis of hope is faith. Now faith is the basis of things hopeful. And faith had to have something to be based upon. And the thing that faith should be based upon is the Word of God. You don't put it in man's saying.

You don't put it in your bank account. You don't put it in your ability and basis to gain wealth. You don't put it in sense, knowledge, and feelings. You put it in the unfailing Word of a God that cannot be found is faith. God said, have I said it?

Should I not bring it to pass? Hope is based on faith, but faith must have a basis and a foundation. You've got to shift into hope.

You see, that's where we are. We're in hope now. We're in that patient, confident expectation that Jesus is going to come. Hallelujah! And when he comes, we're in that patient, confident expectation that he's going to change our vile body and fashion it like an undies. His glorious body is the Word of God. We are in patient, confident expectation that we should see him as he is. Hallelujah! He shall be right here, and he shall take us out of this judgment-bound generation unto our place in heaven, in our Father's house. And no matter what sense knowledge says, or what comes across my path, I will not let anything shake my confidence in faith whose confidence is in the Word of God and in God Almighty.

Hallelujah! I am not going to get weary in well-doing. Be not weary in well-doing. If you don't shift into hope, you're going to get weary in well-doing.

Maybe I need an automobile. I can take my own ministry 40 years ago. God promised and showed me things that I would do. And for almost those 40 years, it was one test after another test.

I'd get out of one test and go in a more severe test. And the devil was preaching to me, it's never going to come to pass. And then as I got older, and my body wasn't as strong as it used to be, because when I was a young boy, I thought I could rip the world.

It was me against the world. How many say amen? In fact, probably that's why God delayed it, so that I would depend on the actual reality of my life. But on the arm of Almighty God and His Word. You should know when I was first saved and just early in the ministry.

But even though it looked that way, I still maintained hope. That does not like today where everybody has an automobile. In fact, if you don't have two or three, and the devil said, you done got old, now you're going to die. God's going to have to resurrect me, because He is going to have to fulfill His promises, because He cannot, He will not, and He does not lie. Three quarters they had back in my day.

Taxi cab. In fact, I know in the Bible where God fulfilled His Word after the prophet was dead. How many ever read Elijah and Elisha?

How many say amen? And Elijah was one miracle short of the double portion. For Elijah was fifteen while he lived, and Elisha did twenty-nine, and there was one short of the double portion. But after he was dead, they had a funeral, and as they come by there, he was buried.

The enemy attacked, and they threw that dead man into the cave, where Elisha was buried. And when that man's body alighted on the bones of Elisha, the power of God was still in there, the measure of that spirit was still in there, and he raised up from the dead, and God fulfilled His Word even after he was dead. And the Spirit of God spoke to my heart and said, Son, when you go home, Hallelujah, I'm going to pray and ask you to hold that automobile, and I'm going to base my hope on faith.

So I had finished my walk home. Hallelujah, I am going to base my hope on what faith has believed, for in God's Word, and I'm going to keep my faith in the Word of a God that cannot fail, and it cannot lie. Come on, raise your hands and praise God. I guess the greatest Bible example of all... And the Spirit of the Lord spoke to me again and said, Son, didn't I tell you when you get home? And I believe you will find the story not only in the 18th, 19th, and 20th chapters of Genesis, but the New Testament account of it in Romans, the fourth chapter, posted a few notes of the story, and I'll rehearse it a little bit.

God could not depend on man in total to worship Him and keep His truth, so He searched down a man called Abram to prove every word would keep His truth and teach His posterity, the ways of God and His Hebrew moral scriptures. And He appeared on the hill, and made a covenant and gave Him a palace, gave Him a word, and said, Abraham, count the stars, count the sand. You can count them, you'll be able to count your seed. It's impossible to count the stars. Every time we think we've got them counted, they find a new galaxy with millions and billions of stars. I'd like for you to go down on our shores here in Maryland and start counting the grains of sand full at a time, and if you'd ever count all the sand that's around Maryland, then go to Virginia, then go down to Carolinas and Florida, and if you ever get one in America, then go to Europe, how many say amen?

You'll never be able to count the grains of sand. And at the time, Abraham was 76 years old and Sarah was 66, and the foundation of my faith was the word of God, the God that cannot lie and the word that cannot fail. And then I went into the second stage of faith, which is hope. I was confident that I was going to receive, and then, with faith, he switched into hope.

But Sarah didn't. And I learned to put the second aspect of hope into operation patience. She tried to help the word of God alone. You can't help the word of God alone. That's where a lot of Christians fail. You're just leaving in God, God's time.

If their requests are materialized right away, they begin to get fearful. When God is saying, just have hope. And the devil sees that, and he begins to feed it and say, God didn't hear your prayer, and at my time, it will materialize. God's not going to move. You know the story she gave Abraham, the wife, as an unbelief, her maiden, her trifecta, and that's why her children are having trouble now, because she didn't switch into hope. How many say amen?

Some things he can do right now are still fighting because of that. Maybe you've got a lost loved one, but then 24 years, three years later, I haven't heard from my son, I haven't heard from my daughter, Abraham again. And he said, Abraham, bring him back to me. I gave you that promise 24 years ago. You've had to struggle with your hope. The prayer has been impatient, but nevertheless, next year at this time, you will have a son.

It's my time. Now if it looked hopeless when Abraham was 76, and Sarah was 66, and then that black woman was blamed in her home, so you've got to shift into hope. And the word of God, Father, states that it ceased to be with Sarah as the time of women, or in other words, that God is going to fulfill your prayer of faith.

And then you've got to shift into that man as far as sense of patience. It was a scientifically impossible philosophy for Sarah to have children. You could have took her to all the clinics and renowned hospitals in the world and the greatest doctors and they would have said, it's impossible. Or I'd have to have a little bit of faith because the Bible said, if I had faith as a grain of mustard seed, the smallest measure I could say to this mountain and Jesus pointed to that mountain there, but the promise was given to Abraham, and if I were not dead in my heart, I'd have whatever I'll say. How many say I'm in? How many say I'm in?

How many's out there? When God said, Abraham, about this time you're going to have a son and circles in the other part of the camp, the section of the women, the Bible said she laughed in her heart. God said, Sarah, why did you doubt?

You see, unbelief, sin begets sin, and unbelief is sin. You know, I can hear a message from God, and she lied on me, I get stirred up to receive the promise of God. Then he asked a question and he said, God, promise me. I, in front of my prayer closet, come too hard for the Lord. Child of God, is there any promise I ask too hard for the Lord? Is there any need in your life too hard for God to perform and do since the Lord sent me to be in my hands?

I'm going to answer for him and say, no, there's nothing too hard for God. No, we usually say, well, I'll be patient just for God. And whatever God's word has promised, he is also able to perform. And what you've got to be is fully replying doubt that he is able to do that when he has promised to do.

Everything goes opposite to our prayer. And Abraham finally shifted into hope and rested there, and he was fully persuaded that what God had promised he was able to perform. And God put it down on his account as righteousness, and he shifted into hope, and he was patient and confident.

And after you've done the little reward, you've got to do something else. He expected it to happen. He was confident it was going to happen. His confidence was in the word of God. His confidence was in his faith, and his faith was in the word and the God of the word, and the God that could not fail, and the God that has not failed, and the God that will never fail.

And let him say amen. You see, you prayed, and he patiently waited on it. Then he shifted into hope, and if you won't apply the same principle, then your life, you will have all your needs supplied.

Your life will be beautiful. You will not be in a state of agitation all the time. The devil will not have ground to show doubt and unbelief. You won't be shook up because you have shifted into hope, and hope has a foundation which is faith, and faith has a foundation which is the word of God, and hope believes faith that believes God's word, and he knows that God cannot lie, will not lie, and God's word will not fail. And what he has accomplished, he has not only shifted in, but he is going to do it and wait patiently for it.

I have shifted into hope. I am confident that what faith has believed God's word for, I am going to receive because God cannot lie. He cannot fail. His word cannot fail.

Not one shot nor tittle, and I'm just going to be patiently waiting for it. I don't care if Jesus doesn't come today. The devil will come tomorrow. Hallelujah! And if I live tomorrow and he doesn't come tomorrow, he'll come the next day. Hallelujah!

And if he doesn't come this year, he'll come next year. But one thing I am confident of, and one thing I am waiting for, he will come. Hallelujah!

Hallelujah! Jesus over death and hell and the grave, he is the one that has come back to the Father and sent the promise of the Holy Ghost. He is the one through the Holy Ghost energizing the church to reap the harvest of the world.

And he is the one that said, I will return. Yes, he is the one that the angel said, I'm going to get it, who you see go up to heaven, shall come into my eyes. He is the same one that shall shine.

I'm as lucky out of what I feel or don't feel. I come quickly, and my Lord is with me to give to every man according as his works shall be. You are in hope. If you're saved in a child of God, you are living in hope. You are confident, and confident Jesus is going to come.

I get up and I shift my light into hope. That if you're dead, he's going to raise you from the dead. Confident.

Expectation. That if you're alive, when he comes, he's going to change your body. I am going to receive it. He will materialize at any time. Heaven is confident that he is going to take you up and receive you under himself. He is going to personally lead you to Almighty God, our Father. And that God, our Father, will meet us at the gate and wipe every tear from our lives. Heaven is confident and waiting patiently. And the only thing that will stop him from coming is to take us to our place in our faith. For in our Father's house, to live in hope of this, he shuts up the culture, and I tell you what it is, and I go to prepare a place for you. And if I do, I will come again, and I will receive you under my ship.

And where I am, there you may be also. Heaven is confident that he spoke the truth. Heaven is confident that he's coming back. Heaven is patiently waiting for him. Heaven is not going to cast away your confidence.

Heaven is not going to get weary in well-doing and give up. But you're expecting him today. Jesus, I expect you today. And if you do not come, and you let me live, I am confident that one day you will come. And I am going to be patient, for maybe tomorrow will be the day. And any say of him, I am not going to go weary in well-doing.

I am not going to faint in the Greek word means to give up and quit. And any say of him, as a coward does in a battle, I am going to maintain my confidence in my faith. My faith is going to maintain the car.

But I was assured that I was going to get it. In the promises of God. And my hope that are forever set in his faith, from a God that cannot lie, from a God that's able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that I can ask you to think. I care not what sense knowledge tells me. But I look not at the things which are seen with the natural eye. Because Paul said the things which are seen with the natural are temporary, temporal, transcendent. But I look to the things which are not seen. I look with the spiritual eye at the promises of God. And in the promises of God, I find a God that cannot lie and fail. Therefore, I look in the word of God with the spiritual eye.

And I see the fulfillment of the promises of God that I have put my hope and my faith in. And I'm expecting it day by day, moment by moment, minute by minute, it's going to come. I know it's going to come. I know he's going to come.

You see, they are like the Athenians. You've got to be in hell something new. And if it's nothing new, you're going to make it up. How many say amen? And he went through the whole project saying, you know what that crazy religious husband of mine is saying now?

He's hearing voices that he's got to him. And our Lord Jesus Christ, he said he heard God say, God was going to be in my car. I am not going to let the world come for me.

And when I would step out of the project, they'd all look out the window. I'm not going to be influenced by sense knowledge. But I am going to stay in hope, confident in my faith, patiently, confidently, in God's Word. And in God. And I am going to rejoice with it. I'm going to rejoice in hope. No matter how hard it gets. How unlikely it seems it's going to come to pass.

You couldn't have been in it anymore. Severe condition in Abraham, ninety-nine. If it was possible for him, it was totally, naturally and physically impossible for Sarah, eighty-nine, and past Calvary time. But it's never impossible for God, for when man comes to his place of impossibility, that's where God starts.

Can any say amen? When man comes to his end, that's the beginning of God. And God is God. For he that cometh from God must believe that he is, that he is sovereign, that he is omnipotent, that he is omnipotent, that what he has promised, that he is also able to perform. And you've got to fully persuade yourself that God is evil. And not only that God is able, God is going to do what you are hoping and believing in God. And you just wait for him.

And you just praise him. I knew that I heard God. I know God's voice. I know God's voice. I got down and prayed the Word of God, describes and prescribes to pray. I knew that God heard me because God hears his Word. And I knew that the Bible said that if I can get him to hear me, whatsoever I ask, I know I have the petition.

I know it was my materialization. I didn't have to see it. I will not accept anything. But what I have prayed for, God told me that a God that cannot lie and fail was going out of his Word and give me that car.

And I was going to patiently wait on it. God cannot lie. That's the whole basis of God. If his Word is not valid, then he is not fit to rule the world. God has proved that he cannot lie. He will not lie because he is the embodiment of truth. And Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and I am the light. How many say amen? Hallelujah.

And his Word is forever settled in heaven and not one jot nor tittle shall fail. And I am going to maintain my hope. If it doesn't come today, I'm assured it will come.

And I'm going to be patient and I'm going to expect it. I'm looking for it today. I'm looking for him today. It's a good day for him to come. He said, behold, I come of clouds. He said, I wonder which cloud is going to come on.

How many say amen? I'm expecting him to come. I'm expecting my prayer to be answered. I'm expecting my automobile. I'm expecting my worship. I'm expecting my refrigerator. I'm expecting my healing. I'm expecting my miracle. I'm expecting my deliverance. I'm expecting God to fulfill his Word because he cannot lie. He cannot fail.

How many say amen? I am patient in hope. I am confident in hope. I'm expecting in hope.

I'm rejoicing in hope. I am living in hope for he is the God of all expectation and hope and he will not fail. My God, praise him. Praise him.

Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.

Amen. What an encouraging word by God's servant, Brother Hardy, for us all. The Bible doctrine of hope. Hope is such a positive word and yet in the English language, it is often used anemically, more like a wish.

I hope my package comes today. This is far beneath the New Testament definition of hope, which is comprised of three indispensable elements, patience, confidence, and expectation. And the reason hope is so powerful is it is grounded in faith, which is founded on the Word of God. It is actually the second stage of faith. Praying the prayer of faith begins the process once you have laid claim to a promise in the Word of God. You know when you've prayed the prayer of faith, when you've come boldly to the throne of grace in the name of Jesus, nothing doubting. But when there is a delay, as there often is, you can cast away your confidence and fail to receive the reward of your faith.

This is where hope comes into play, that patient, confident expectation of the fulfillment of God's Word for which you have believed. These are richly illustrated in Brother Hardy's message, The Bible Doctrine of Hope, available on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Please request 173. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or you can order online at soundoffaith.org. That's soundoffaith.org. Or you can also order on MP3. But to order by mail, send a minimum love gift of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Request offer 173 for The Bible Doctrine of Hope. Until next time, this is Sharon Ott saying, maranatha.