Hold on to Hope, Part 2

Greetings, friends and new listeners.

Welcome to this program of the Archie Hardy Ministries. I'm Sharon Knotts, and I'm so glad you joined us today because we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And I'll be bringing you today's message, Hold on to Hope. Personal experience has taught me that there is no lower pit than the pit of despair and hopelessness. Now, technically and literally, Christians are never without hope, but we can allow severe circumstances to rob us of hope and plunge us into this desperate pit.

This message today will tell you why and how to hold on to hope. Don't get around those folks and tell you what God can't do. Get around those folks and tell you what God can do, what He will do, what He is doing. Get away from the doubters and the naysayers and the negativists.

You need to get in church where you hear the Word of God. But some people, they do the dumbest thing of all when they're in a test. They stay home, and you haven't seen them now for three weeks, and you call up and say, Where you been? I've been in a test. Well, don't you think it might have been a good idea to come to church where you could get a testimony to help you out of your test? And then when you heard somebody else's testimony and you believed it, you could get your own testimony. You've got to get around somebody that's going to expound to you the Scriptures.

I mean, if you've got to take a tape recorder on your job and wear earplugs and listen to tapes all day because anybody, all the people on your job are a bunch of devils and they're just going to beat you up some more, you've got to do what you've got to do to build yourself up. Amen? So they said, Abide with us. Jesus, he was going to go on.

He was just going to go on his way. But they said, No, you're coming in with us. And Jesus said in the book of Revelation, I'm standing at the door and I'm knocking. And if you'll just open up and say, Come on, abide with me, I'll come in, my Father will come in, we'll abide with you, we'll sit down and eat with you.

But you've got to take the initiative. So as they prepared to go in, they grabbed Jesus and said, Come on in verse 30. And it came to pass as he sat at meet with them, he took bread and blessed it, and break and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened. And they knew him. And he vanished out of their sight.

And they said one to another now they got a whole new message going here. Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us on the way and while he did what? He opened up to us the scriptures.

Amen. When they got Jesus in on the inside, and he sat down at the table, and he took that bread like the rabbi would have done, and lifted it up and would have said the blessing. He would have said, Baruch Hashem Adonai Eloheinu, and he would have went on and said the blessing that would have went over the bread. All of a sudden they got a flashback. Aha, I've been here before. I've seen this before.

I've heard this before. All of a sudden their eyes opened. And they said, Jesus.

And he vanished out of their sight. My God, their fire got lit. They said, didn't our hearts burn within us? All our hope was gone.

Our hope was dead. Hallelujah. But when he began to expound to us the scriptures, we began to feel that flame. He fanned the flames with the word of God. Hallelujah.

And our hearts are burning within us. And now they had hope again. Now, you know, by this time it was time to go to bed. And they had already walked seven miles, so you know they were tired. And they probably hadn't slept real good for three days. So I imagine they just went and got their nightcap on and went to bed, don't you?

Well, let's see if that's what they did. Verse 33. And they rose up the same hour.

Somebody say the same hour. They rose up the same hour and what? Returned to Jerusalem and found the eleven gathered together and them that were with them saying the Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.

So let's stop for just a moment. So here Jesus is gone and all of a sudden they got a revelation. They realize all this time. Can you imagine for one split second they probably the devil for one little nanosecond probably came and brought condemnation.

Yeah, all that time when I'm seven miles, Jesus was with you. And remember you said this and you said that. And oh my God, I said this and I said that. But honey, they didn't listen to the devil for very long. They said, shut up, devil. We've been listening to you for three days.

Your time is up. We got a fire burning in our hearts. We got a fire, a flame of hope burning in our soul. And they got up and after having walked seven miles to get there and by now it's dark. And you know, they didn't have any streetlights like we got out here on Patapsco Avenue, but didn't matter.

Didn't matter. They had their own light. They had a fire burning in their soul. Amen. And they turned around and in the dark of night they turned around. I bet you they got there a whole lot faster than they got coming.

Amen. My God, this time they had a spring in their step. This time all the way they were talking, they were rehearsing, they were going, joy bells were ringing. Their souls were beginning to rejoice. Oh, they remember the songs they used to sing when they used to sit out on the side of the mountain at the Mount of Olives and they began to sing and rejoice.

And before they knew it, they had walked seven miles. And there they were back at Jerusalem. And when they got there, here they are smiling from ear to ear.

And there's the 11 hiding in the room, discouraged, despondent, just like they had been just a few hours earlier. But they were so encouraged and they were so bubbling over. They had the joy of the Lord. They had that fire burning in this inside of them. So there they got there and they told, guess what? I know we didn't believe the women. I'm sure they probably didn't.

He didn't put that part in here. Ladies, I'm really sorry I didn't believe you when you said that you went there and you saw Jesus alive and you said you saw angels. And we said, oh, them hysterical women.

Would you accept my apology? Luke forgot to put that part in there. Amen. Oh, the ladies saw angels. But now, listen, we saw the Lord. We saw the Lord. It's all right just so you see him. Just so you get your eyes open.

Early, late, get them open before it's too late. So they got there and they told them, we saw the Lord. Hallelujah. And while they were given their story, they got an illustrated sermon. I don't know how much they got to tell them about everything that happened because in the middle of it all, verse 36 says, and as they thus spake while they were still talking, Jesus who?

Himself. The same one that came on the road of Emmaus, Jesus himself that met up with Luke and Cleopas, Jesus himself now came and stood in the midst and said unto them, Shalom Shalom. Peace be with you. Hallelujah.

Because that's what they really say. They say Shalom Shalom. That means complete peace. That means peace in every part of your body, soul and spirit. It means peace in your whole life.

Everything about you. And you know for one little nanosecond, they started to get afraid and thought it was a ghost. But then they remembered, hey, things aren't like they used to be. Jesus has risen.

How many say amen? And so he stood in the midst and he began to, I won't read it all, but he let them feel his hands, his side. He said, come on, touch me.

See, I'm not a ghost. I'm I see, I got flesh. I had bone. And then he said, I'll tell you what, give me some fish.

You got anything to eat? They had bread, they had fish, they had honeycomb. And he sat there and ate with them. And so after they were all happy and all gleeful and all, all the doubts going now and all the unbelief, Jesus wasn't finished. This was too crucial a point because he realized that after 40 days he was going to go and he wasn't coming back for a long, long time.

And they were going to have to know that they knew for themselves out of the word of God. It couldn't be because an angel came every two weeks and gave him a new word. It couldn't be because somebody gave him a new prophecy every month.

It couldn't be because he had a new vision and a new dream. And I am not discounting those things because we live in the days when the Bible says in the last day, saith the Lord, I'll pour out much. Yes, you will dream dreams and see visions. You will prophesy.

So don't think I'm poo poo in that. What I'm saying is you can't become dependent on that exclusive of the word of God because the devil will talk you out of those things and say you just had too much pizza before you went to bed. But the word of God, but the scriptures that talk about Jesus that are forever settled in heaven and heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.

So let's drop down to verse 44. So now they've all had something to eat. They're sitting back and relaxed.

You know, they got their guard down a little bit. They're really, it's like, it's like it used to be Jesus. It's like it used to be. No, it's not like it used to be. It's never going to be like that.

It used to be. This is a new day. While I was in the world, I was the light of the world, but now you're going to be the lights of the world and your light needs some help.

You need a little igniting on your light right now. How many say amen? Verse 44 and he said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you for three and a half years. He gave them the word of God over and over and over again, which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. And then he did what? He opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures and he said unto them, thus it is written.

What? It is written. The devil understands when you say it is written and when he comes sitting on your shoulder and pouring a whole bunch of doubt and unbelief on you, you've got to have something to counteract that and you better be able to say it is written. And Jesus said, thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ or the Messiah to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. So what Jesus did, he did the same thing with these 11 and the women that were there and others that may have been there. He did the same thing with them that he had done just a few hours earlier on the road to Emmaus with Luke and Cleopas.

He opened up the scriptures starting from the prophet Moses going all the way through the prophets and the Psalms and all the prophets and expounded to them the scriptures. He said that the Christ because he wanted them to see. I want you to go back and everywhere we say Christ, they would have said Messiah.

Go back there and see everything that's written about Messiah. And when you do, you'll find out that what you've been doing is overlooking the sufferings and jumping to the glory. And therefore when the sufferings came and you didn't expect sufferings, you got shook up and you lost your faith and you lost your hope. But if you'll go back and read the word of God, you'll find out that Christ was to suffer. And so what you and I have got to do when the devil comes is we've got to remind him, well, if God loved you, why are you in this test? Well, if you're such a good Christian and God's really watching over you, why did that happen to you? How come this is going on in your life? Of course, I can tell that the devil's never said that to anybody here.

One person. Only one's going to fess up. Amen. So when the devil comes dumping his stuff on us, we've got to tell him, we've got to get the scriptures out that he talks about all they that live in Godly in Christ, Jesus shall suffer persecution for as much as you were called to suffer with Christ. In fact, rejoice and get happy that you're counted worthy because devils and demons and hypocrites don't get to suffer for Christ.

They're going to suffer in hell fire eternally, but you and I suffer now that we might reign then. So we had to open up the scriptures to them, just like he did Luke and Cleopas. He did the same thing with them. And then he went on and we won't read the rest of the chapter. He went on and he blessed them and he gave them the promise of the Holy Ghost. He gave them, he said, now I know you're struggling right now.

I understand that, but it's going to get better. If you'll hang in there, if I'm not going to tell you when, because if he would have told them when probably all 500 would have hung in. But since they didn't know day by day, they all began to fall out and fall out and they didn't know when the Holy Ghost was going to come. But he said, I know you're struggling, but if you'll hang in there, you shall be in dude with power from on high.

And when you get this Holy Ghost power, it's going to turn your candle power, fire up a whole lot brighter. How many same men and the devil won't be able to put it out so easily with doubt and unbelief. But how many know he's already come? How many know he's already come? Have you met him? Do you know him?

Have you received him? We'll give the Lord a clap off for him. So here's the point. The very way that Jesus dealt with their doubt and unbelief, it was the blackest time. I think it's safe to say it was the blackest three days of their life.

Amen. I think it's safe to say that because they had thought after three and a half years that Jesus was the one. And when he somehow or another, they just missed it. And when he was put in that tomb, their hopes was gone. They were dashed.

They were hit the bottom. And here comes Jesus. And how did he remedy the situation?

He did not do it with supernatural goosebumps. He did it with the word of God. And so many Christians today, they want somebody else to do it for them and give it to them. But you've got to get in the scriptures yourself. Because when you're at midnight and you're all alone and there's nobody else there, please don't call me at midnight.

Amen. You're going to get the answer machine. And it's going to give you the number for the church.

And you're going to call up here and get another answer machine. But I tell you what, if you call J-E-S-U-S, you've opened this word. Let's turn one more scripture I'm going to read to you. Romans 15 four, one of my favorites. The problem with this scripture is it's so good.

It just automatically leads into another one which leads into another one, which we could be here for a long time. But I promise we're only going to read verse four. Romans 15 four, for whatsoever things were written of for time were written for our learning that we, who's we, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have, might have, where you're going to get your hope, where you're going to get your comfort, when you have a time in your life when you've hit the bottom, where you're going to find your hope, when you feel like there's nowhere else to turn to and all that doubt is coming down on you like a black cloud from the scriptures. They were written for a purpose.

They were written that we may learn them, of course you've got to read them to learn them, and that through patience we might find comfort and hope. Now that word comfort is the word paraklesis, paraklesis. And what does it mean literally in the Greek? It means para, along, klesis, come along. Come along, para, your side. You know how we say something is parallel, it's side by side.

Okay? So paraklesis, come alongside. So when you get in the scriptures, comfort, hope comes alongside.

I got a flashback. There's these two guys walking down the road of Emmaus. They're sad. They're downcast. They're full of doubt.

They're full of fear. And all of a sudden somebody comes alongside and begins to preach to them and begins to comfort them and begins to give them hope. And if you and I, when we're in that place, we'll get in the scriptures, all of a sudden while we're walking down that long, blue, lonely road that leads where we don't know but it doesn't look good, we're sure the bridge is out if we get down there. But here comes alongside hope and comfort, and it's all in the scriptures. Amen? How many love the word of God?

Give the Lord a clap often for the word. Now I closed my Bible, but I'm not done. I'm going to end with a story, a true story that I just heard recently and the Lord really put it on my heart and I just feel like it fits in with what I'm talking about here tonight. And some of you may have noticed I've had this box sitting up here, this pretty little box. What's in this box relates to the story that I'm about to tell you.

At first you might think, I don't get it, but I think you will later. And perhaps it might even inspire you to get one for yourself. And actually what's in this box is something you've already got at home. We all have this, what's in this box, every one of us has it in our homes.

I guarantee you, we all have it. And I guarantee you, we not only all have it in our homes, we all use it every day. And it's not expensive and it illustrates the story I'm about to tell you. Would someone like to guess what's in the box? Soap. That's a good guess. That's a good one. Any more suggestions? Navkins, tissue, air, water, a Bible.

Do you really think everybody here uses it every day? You aren't listening to the clues. Lord, forgive me. These are your precious people.

I'm just being realistic. I like all those. Those are all good. So air, napkins, tissue, the light bulb.

I mean, they're all very good. Who would like to open up and see what's in it? I should have known. Come on, Charles. I really think that honestly, I think this is best for gentlemen to do toilet paper roll.

Not just a toilet paper roll, but an empty toilet paper roll. How many want to know the story now? Because I told you you'd probably want to get one for yourself, didn't I?

So you're trying to figure that out why you should want to do that, but you'll see it's a true story. And I heard it on the radio not too long ago by a gentleman named Ravi Zacharias. Some of you may have heard of him. He was born in India. He's been converted to Christianity and he's a Christian apologist. He goes to universities and he defends Christianity. He debates with Muslims and Hindus and he's just, the man is brilliant. And whenever I can catch him, I just hang onto every word. Of course, half the things he's saying I know is really good.

I just don't understand. I have to hear it over and over again. I mean, he's just, he's in a league by himself, but God needs people like that to go to Harvard and Yale and places like that and stand up for the gospel. So this was on his radio program.

If you ever want to listen to him at 10 o'clock on Saturday mornings on WRBS. So I heard this story the other day and I think it fits in with our message about hope and the word of God. It illustrates in a modern way what we just read in the Bible brings into our modern world when you are absolutely at the most hopeless situation.

You've actually given up how the word of God can pull you out. He told this story about his friend who served in Vietnam. He was taken prisoner and he was put in a prisoner of war camp, a horrible place where the living conditions were terrible. He was tortured daily to deny his faith in Christ, to deny that he believed in God, but he would not. Even though the torturing went on and on and they did everything in an effort to get him to denounce his faith in God, but he steadfastly refused and he continued to endure this horrible torture day after day. The weary torture days turned into weeks, turned into months before he knew it, a year had gone by and it continued. The torture, the horrific living conditions day and night after weary, endless day and night struggling to survive. A second year came and he said, I've had it. I can't take it anymore. And he came to the point that he finally at this point, after two years of going through this day in and day out, night in and night out, he said, I will no longer believe in God. I will denounce my faith and I will deny there is a God. He had come to the place where he had no hope, no hope.

The next morning when he awakened for the first time in years, he didn't pray. He was called by the commanding officer and he was given the job that day, that particular day he was given this despicable job of cleaning the camp latrines. How many know what a latrine is?

It's a huge outhouse. And so that was the job he was given. And remember, we're talking about jungle, Vietnam, hot, sticky, nasty jungle. So there he is cleaning this filthy putrid latrines and he's got to empty the wastebasket where they discard their used toilet paper. I know this is not very something I'm trying to be, I'm telling you the story.

It's true, but it's how it is trying to do it nicely. But the filth and the stench were so horrible. It was nauseating to him.

He said he almost could not stand up on his feet from the smell and the stench. But as he was trying to empty this paper that was covered in fecal matter, his eye caught a piece of paper with English writing on it. And because he hadn't seen anything written in English for over two years, he just thought, Oh my, I want to see, you know, just read something in English. So we looked around cautiously to make sure nobody was looking and he grabbed the piece of paper, cleaned off the fecal matter as best as he could and stuck it in his pocket and went on and did his job that night when everybody else had gone to sleep and he sat in his bed under cover of darkness and he pulled the covers over his head and he got out his little flashlight and he pulled that smeared paper out of his pocket and he best as he could, he began to wipe away any strain to read and to his astonishment, it was a page out of the New Testament. It was Romans the eighth chapter and he began to read and we know that all things work together for good to them that are called to God who loved God or to call according to his purpose. The tears began to run down his face and he began to wipe the tears away and he read on what shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Shall tribulation or persecution or distress or famine or nakedness or peril or sword as it is written all the day long we are killed, we are counted as sheep before the slaughter but I am persuaded that neither life nor death nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord and he began to weep and he began to cry and he began to repent and he began to say forgive me God, forgive me God that I lost hope, forgive me God that I gave up, forgive me God that I was going to deny you, forgive me Lord and he wept and he cried all night long and the next day he went, he said I'd like to volunteer, I'd like to clean the latrines today, okay sure enough when he got to the wastebasket he began to look and he saw it, a piece of paper, English writing on it, he looked around, was anybody looking? No, he wiped off the feces, he stuck it in his pocket and every day he volunteered day after day and day after day page by page by page he collected almost the whole New Testament and every night he sat there all alone reading the word of God with the tears falling down his face and the light of hope was burning brighter and brighter and brighter. He found out later someone had given that command, that camp commanding officer an English New Testament and he was using the paper, the pages for toilet paper but it saved his life and with new hope in his heart he began to think I'm getting out of this place, I ain't dying in this place, I'm getting out of here and he began to plan, I don't know the details but to devise the plan to escape. One day some of the guards came and got him, took him and said are you planning to escape from Vietnam? Fearing for his life, no, no I'm not planning on escaping, they let him go, he went back, he felt really bad about it. Sure enough the next day they came and got him, roughed him up a little bit, come on tell us aren't you planning on escaping Vietnam? Again the fear, the fear came on him and fearing for his life he said no, no I'm not planning on escaping, let him go back, he went back, he began to weep, he began to cry, he repented, he was ashamed, he said God if they ask me again I'm going to tell them the truth no matter what the cost. Sure enough they got him a third time, the guards, they grabbed a hold of him, they said come on tell us, aren't you planning on escaping from Vietnam? He looked at him boldly, he said yes I am, are you going to kill me now?

They said no, we want to go with you, and not long after that they all escaped by boat to Thailand and today that man is living in California, a Christian businessman because when all hope was gone he found comfort in the scriptures. Will God let you get that low? Yes, but he'll never let you be tempted above that which you're able, tell me the very day, tell me about it. I have been thinking about that ever since I heard it, it's been a week, maybe a month ago, two things it says to us tonight and I'm done, the obvious, shame on us, we got Greek bibles, Hebrew bibles, lexicon bibles, women's bibles, men's bibles, married couples bibles, teenager bibles, comic book bibles, we've got bibles all over the place, we don't read them, and here that man is smearing somebody's fecal matter off so he can read the bible.

I don't want to stand next to him when I go to heaven. I read my bible every day and I'm not saying that to brag on myself but I don't read it enough. Some people say I believe the bible from cover to cover and they've never read it from cover to cover.

Well I believe the bible from cover to maps and I've read them all and that's not to brag but that's to say shame on us, how shall we escape if we neglect the greatest salvation? So my suggestion, why I said you might want to get one of these for two reasons, the second thing it leaves you with is the whole point of the message. When you run out of hope, this is your answer. So you might want to get one of these and I don't know, you might want to put a little bow on it, decorate it up a little bit, maybe write some scriptures on there, put it next to your bible to remind you why you're reading that bible. Maybe you want to put it on your coffee table. Somebody say why do you have a toilet paper thing on your coffee table?

Well I'll tell you why. Give you good sermon material or maybe you want to take it and cut it and flatten it out and color it and put some bows on it or something to make a bookmark for your bible. So when you go open up that bible you remember how precious it is to have a bible and the privilege and the freedom to be able to read it. Amen. Aren't you glad for the word of God tonight? Stand on your feet and thank him for his word.

Hallelujah. I thank God for the word tonight and if you're in this place and you want the Lord to anoint you afresh and anew and give you a love for the word. If you find yourself reading every book about the bible and not the bible, that's not good enough. I have a problem with reading books. I read them all the time. I'm an avid reader but you can't substitute anything for the word of God.

You can supplement but you can't substitute. So if you want the Lord to give you a hunger for his word and not only a hunger but what did Jesus give them? I like what it said both Luke, Cleopas and all the rest. He opened up their understanding. You don't want to just be reading and yawning and I'm reading this because I'm under condemnation if I don't and I'm going to be guilty and I remember that toilet paper roll when I got to read.

That's not going to help you out any. You want to understand what you're reading and God wants to open your understanding tonight. So I'm going to ask if you make a vow, if God will help you that you're going to get in the word. It might be a slow start and the devil's going to fight you. Hey, turn around and tell somebody the devil's going to fight you. But you're going to hang in there because this is your hope.

H-O-P-E. Hold on, patiently expect. Hold on, patiently expect and God will come through.

Amen. I trust you are being inspired and uplifted by this illuminating message, hold on to hope. Two disciples of Jesus on a seven mile journey of doubt and despair were becoming more hopeless with every step until a stranger joined them.

Why are you so sad, he asked. He listened to their woeful words about Jesus' death three days earlier. He knew, of course, but he wanted them to face their doubts head on and they mourned about their dead Messiah.

We had hoped that it had been him who should have redeemed Israel and now he's dead. The stranger did not immediately reveal himself, but he spoke from the Old Testament scriptures that clearly told of Messiah's sufferings and death and of his subsequent glory. The remedy for all doubt, despair, discouragement and hopelessness is God's word. Before Jesus manifested himself to them, he wanted to prove by the scriptures, the revelation, the faith and the hope that was theirs from the word of God.

And this is our answer as well. If God were just to give us a physical sign or an audible word, the devil could talk us out of it later. Jesus preached a seven mile sermon and by the time they reached the town, they were filled with faith and they begged him to abide with them. They wanted to hear more of God's word and as they ate supper together, their eyes were opened and Jesus was known to them. They had so much hope, they left and walked the seven miles back to Jerusalem in the dark to tell the other disciples Jesus had appeared to them and they said, didn't our hearts burn within us when he talked with us by the way. If you were filled with doubt and at times even hopeless, the word of God ministered to you will cause your heart to burn with new hope and victory.

I know I've walked this road before and God has brought me out and he will bring you out too. So I strongly urge you to order, hold onto hope, offer SK 131 on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry, mail to RG Hardy ministries, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203 or shop online at RGHardy.org. Again to order hold onto hope, request offer SK 131, mail to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Until next time, this is Sharon Notz saying Maranatha.