Phil 2 JSC, Hope con't

This episode originally delivered Sept 8, 1991.  Unfortunately, the ending of this recording was not recoverable.

Transcript

First Corinthians chapter 15. And let us read just verse 19. First Corinthians 15 and verse 19. If only for this life we have hope in Christ. We are to be pitied more than all men. Read it again, if only for this life we have hope in Christ. We are to be pitied more than all men. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, as we now approach the study of your word together as a group of believers in Jesus Christ. It's our desire that what is supposed to happen on the first day of the week, when the saints gather through the preaching of the word would happen, and that is, our minds would be renewed. For some, there would be great encouragement for those that need it. There would be rebuke not not from me, but from the Holy Spirit through the word. That there would be a hope that would be built in our life. As we get a biblical perspective and view of this world in which we live. We would better understand you, better understand ourselves and be more the type of stable, upright, godly, consistent people that your Word calls us to be. We need your help. We we want to learn. And now we open ourselves up and say, help us as we study your word. In Jesus name, Amen. How's this for an epitaph on your on your tombstone? How would you like to have this? I was not. I was. I am not. I care not. Then that just inspire you to think about it? I was not, I was, I am not, I care not. A few years ago there was a film, and then one of those short little film awards that won the film of the year for a film two minutes or less. And you'll never believe what the film was about. This is true. The film was it started off and you you just got. You saw it. You weren't sure what you were seeing. A dark stage was being filmed. You couldn't see what it was. And then all of a sudden you hear a little baby, just a newborn baby. Just just seconds born crying. When after the doctor first slaps it, you hear that crying. And then all of a sudden that stops. And then the stage slowly gets brighter and brighter and brighter and brighter. And what you begin to see over a long period of time is just a heap of trash just sitting there. And then the stage starts to get dimmer and dimmer and dimmer, and then you hear the death rattle and an old person in intensive care ward someplace, and then you hear the final choking of life, and it was over. Now, the reason that won the award is philosophically, that was supposed to show you what life is all about. In other words, the world in which we live is hopeless. There's no purpose. There's no reason it's hopeless. He who has the most toys when he dies. Wins. Have you read that bumper sticker? You haven't read that bumper sticker. You start reading bumper stickers. You need to stay up with what's going on in the world. Without Christ Jesus and without the Bema Seat, without the realization that there's a future judgment and that the next life is going to be drastically affected by the way we live this life. We lose hope. A Harvard professor actually said this. Listen, he said, and I quote, we have got to get the notion out of these incoming freshman's heads that life has any meaning to it, that great. Consider the contrast. I want you between the world's view of hope and the biblical view of hope. Cicero said this while there's life, there's hope. But Paul wrote, get this, but Paul wrote, if only for this life we have opened Christ. We are to be pitied more than all men. The very opposite of what the world says. The world says this as long as there's life, there's hope. No, no. The Bible says, if that's all we have is hope in this life, then we're to be pitied. Because we're the hope is the idea of the future life of heaven. Another Harvard philosopher, Alfred North Whitehead, once asked a friend, listen to what he said. As for Christian theology, can you imagine anything more appallingly idiotic than the Christian idea of heaven? So you can listen to Alfred North Whitehead, or you can listen to Jesus Christ who said this? Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you with me. You may be where I am. Joseph Wood Krutch, a nature writer, said this. Listen, there is no reason to suppose that man's own life has any more meaning than the life of the humblest insect that crawls from one annihilation to another. You take that philosophy of not having any hope. There's no reason to live. We're here by some evolutionary process, and we're going to go to just to annihilation. We might as well just. Forget life. What the reason is there to live? Camus said this is it. If all this is right that there's no future for man, the logical thing to do is to commit suicide because there's no reason to live. There's no purpose in what we're doing. But you know what? When Jesus Christ faced death, guess what he said? What would you said when you were getting ready to go to the cross? He said this. The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. What a way to look at death. Did you hear that? The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified, not the Son of Man to be annihilated. Now for the Son of Man has ceased to exist, but the Son of Man is now going to be annihilated. After studying hope for the last couple of weeks. And let me remind you, by the way, that what we've been talking about and this is our final week on the bema, and that is this the great judgment, physical death, the Bema Seat and the Great White Throne. The Bema Seat is for believers. It has to do with reward or loss of reward. Heaven will not be the same for everyone. The Great White Throne is for unbelievers and will have to do with degrees of punishment in hell. Now that's an important concept to understand. Many people don't even understand that. But. But think about this. What hope should there be? But the hope that when life doesn't make sense now, when you face struggles and difficulties and you don't quite understand, how could this be happening? To know this. Hey, what is important is that the reason we have hope is there's more to life than just this life. And that is there is a wonderful heaven that we are to be anticipating. And as I said, after considering what the Bible says about hope and having just a wonderful, delightful rejoicing study in going over the scriptures on hope, I came across a quote, quite a lengthy one by C.S. Lewis, and C.S. Lewis nails this down on our head, and I want to read it with you. And if I read it, sort of funny, it's because from the angle that I try to read these overheads, there's a on this new, this old overhead that we have, there's a beam of light that shines right in my eye and I can hardly see it. So let's work through this and pay attention to each word here. Don't let it escape you. Okay, listen. Hope is one of the theological virtues. This means that a continual looking forward to the eternal world, not, as some modern people think, a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. It does not mean that we are to leave the present world as it is now. This is part of the quote that I read to you before. Let's pick up on this. If you read history, you will find that Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next. The apostles themselves, who set foot on the conversion of the Roman Empire. The great men who built up the Middle Ages, the English Evangelicals who abolished the slave trade, all left their mark on earth precisely because their minds were occupied with heaven. It is since, to get this, it is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world, that they have become so ineffective in this aim in heaven, and you'll get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you'll get neither. Now that's something to remember, that you can take that one home with you. It seems a strange rule, but something like it can be seen at work or in other matters. Health is a great blessing, but the moment you make health one of your main direct objects, you start becoming a crank and imagining there is something wrong with you. Do you ever know somebody like that? You are only likely to get health provided you want other things more food, games, work, fun, open air. In the same way, we shall never save civilization as long as civilization is our main object. We must learn to want something else more. Now here's the last page of this quote. And boy, it's very helpful. Look at it. Most of us find it very difficult to want heaven at all, except insofar as heaven means meaning. Again, our friends who have died. One reason for this difficulty is that we have not been trained. Our whole education tends to fix our minds on this world. Now that is the truth. Think about it. Every advertisement. Our whole educational system is this world, this world, this world. Remember, by the way, Colossians three says, if you then be risen with Christ, set your affections on things above, where Christ is seated on the right hand of God. Okay. Another reason is that when the real want for heaven is present in us, we do not recognize it. Most people, if they really looked into their own hearts, would know that they do want and want acutely something that cannot be had in this world. Now, please pay attention, because this may offer the solution to a great gaping hole in your heart that you've had for a long time. And that is this. You're not going to find it all in this world. You never were meant to be. We're sojourners according to the Book of First Peter. Okay. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise. The longings which arise in us when we first fall in love. Or first think of some foreign country, or first take up some subject that excites us our longings, which no marriage, no travel, no learning can really satisfy. I am not now speaking of what would ordinarily be called unsuccessful marriages or holidays or learned careers, I am speaking of the best possible ones. There was something we grasped at in that first moment of longing which just fades away in reality. I think everyone knows what I mean. The wife may be a good wife, and hotels and scenery may have been excellent and chemistry, may be a very interesting job, but something has evaded us. Isn't that interesting? Now, let me just add a word from the scriptures on this point right now. And that is this God says in his word Ecclesiastes 311 that he hath set eternity in the hearts of man. And there is a sense that there has got to be something more. Several of you have told me that what brought you to Christ was a realization that there's got to be something more than this. There's got to be something more. I've often noticed with carnal Christians that there is very little interest in talking about the bema. You will hear people that aren't living for the Lord now, and no wonder if you're not living for the Lord now, why would you want to look forward to the next world? Well, one of the things which I really think is crucial to our understanding of hope is Paul said, if we only have hope in this life, we're to be pitied more than everybody else. One of the key things to understand why hope is so crucial. Remember, it's one of the great the three great words hope, faith and love in the scriptures is to be a major impact in our life, our hope, the thoughts of heaven, the thoughts of eternity, the thoughts that though we don't understand everything that's happened in this world. Yet one day there will be a perfect world in which we live in. Remember, this hope comes from God. Hope comes from the character of God. Hope comes from the promises of God. You take away God and His promises and His word. We will have no hope in our lives, but hope comes as we understand who God is. And remember, Satan's first attack upon the human race was to attack God's word and to attack God's character. And I cannot begin to say this. I think that some of you are sitting here right now and you're thinking, yeah, a message of hope. We're supposed to think about heaven and this. Great. But I really think that one of the reasons so many people have so little hope in their life is because, number one, Satan, we're not ignorant of his devices, has done the exact same thing to us that he did to Eve. You won't die if you eat that. In other words, God's word really isn't relevant. It really, truly won't matter. You don't need to follow it. You can somehow get by. There's an exception. Look how much you sin before nothing happens. You didn't get zapped from heaven. See? Everything's fine. Or this. And this is even a bigger one than what I just said. He tacked then God's character. God knows the day that you eat of that you are going to be like him. In other words, God doesn't want what's best for you. Come on. I had that in my mind as a teenager, and I'm sure many of you did too. And sometimes I still have it in my mind. Now, as an adult who's supposed to be a mature Christian. You know what it is. Somehow, if I follow God and give him my. It's not. It won't be the best. Somehow I'll miss out on something. Heaven and the idea of heaven was the most boring thought I could have imagined as a kid sitting around in white robes with a bunch of old ladies, you know, singing songs of, you know, when the roll was called up yonder and things like that. I mean, it just bored me to death to think about it instead of understanding how wonderfully. Well, what does that really come back to? An attack on God's character. A misconception. One of the reasons is this we all have the tendency to have Pharisee ism grow up in our hearts. We all become Pharisees. We all become more interested in a in a in a view of God that that we become interested in ourselves rather than a view of God that is biblical. I'll tell you, this has caused more damage to your Christian life than probably anything else. You know what? It is a wrong view of God. Remember what Tozer said. The God of the Pharisees was not an easy God to live with. The God of the Pharisees was a God that was stern and harsh and mean and cruel. Who wants to serve that kind of God? Who wants to go to his heaven because he's, oh, he's always impossible to please? And he went on to write from a failure to properly understand God. Listen comes a world of unhappiness among good Christians even today. The Christian life is thought to be glum, unrelieved, cross caring under the eye of a stern father who expects much and excuses nothing. The truth is that God is the most winsome of all beings, and his service is one of unspeakable pleasure. He loves us for ourselves and values our love more than galaxies of new, created worlds. If we understood how wonderful and good God is. Instead, we keep running around all the time with concepts of God that I'm sure the devil is quite pleased with. As Martin Luther said, if there's one thing the devil wants to do is get you to doubt and not be able to clearly see God's love for you. And if he can get us down. Guess what it's going to do. My point is this he is going to strip us of our hope. If our view of God is corrupt. Unfortunately, he says, many Christians cannot get free from their perverted notions of God, and these notions poison their hearts and destroy their inward freedom. These friends serve God grimly as the elder brother, doing what is right, but with no enthusiasm and no joy. God is somehow some mean guy, hard to please. No way I can get along with him. And here's my point, friends. There is no hope. If you're serving a God that you don't like. There's no hope if your view of God is that you can't respect him, or somehow he's unfair or unjust or mean, or if you can't have a growing appreciation and and gratefulness that you'd be exuberant, just bursting forth from our life as we appreciate him more and more as we understand him more. I'll tell you, one of the greatest concerns we have is this we keep thinking this what can I do to get prayers answered? What can I do to be a successful father? What can I do to be a successful mother? What can I do to be successful at work? What can I do besides, you know what? You know what you need more than any of that. And the books sell how to be successful, how to do this, how to think this. That's what everybody wants. But you know what you need more than that. You know what you need 10,000 times more than that. A proper view of God. If we could get a proper view of God, if we could understand who he was. As I mentioned before, if we turn all the lights off in this room and just crack the door in a bright, sunny day, and the gleam that just starts to come in, if we could taste that much of who he is, suddenly our whole approach and outlook would be different. And we would say like Isaiah, Lord, I'll go, send me here am I? I want to serve you. You're so great. You're so awesome. Thank you so much for what you've done. I want you as we can just taste a little bit of this holiness, taste a little bit of his goodness, taste a little bit of his love. My people, Hosea says, are destroyed because they lack knowledge of me. And I think we think we know God. And I think we think we're pretty comfortable with who God is. And yeah, he fits in our box right there. And he's Baptist. You know, he's a thorough Baptist through and through. There he is. We've got him. He's right there with us. Instead of understanding clearly who he is. Now, I say that because if God is not good, then we have no hope. And some of the things which we considered in the past, I'm just going to whiz through these because this is from last week. Hope described. There's four adjectives. It's described as good hope as a blessed hope as a better hope than what the Old Testament people had, and as a living hope. Now, I love that phrase, living hope because you know what that you describe that should describe the Christian today. You should be walking around this morning with a living hope. There should be in you this understanding that you are no longer under the wrath of God, that you're no longer condemned to hell, that you are now one of his beloved children. You stand justified before him, and there is this hope that God's promises are true, something else which we considered, which I find significant. And that is this. Where does hope come from? Well, hope comes from the scriptures. They were written. The Old Testament was written that you might have hope. This comes from God, from the Holy Spirit, from the gospel, from Christ in you, from Jesus Christ. Return to life from the turn of Christ. We cover this last week, but I found something else out this week. See this one here? First Thessalonians two 1920 it says, who is our joy? Who is our crown? Who? What is our hope and glory at the coming of Christ? Is it not you? And you know what it is. People get this. Now. This could really, honestly be a whole message in and of itself, but I think we better get back to Philippians someday or we'll just continually be on this. But one message that could just continually go on is this part of the bema will be this people that you ministered to. If you read Second Corinthians chapter one, verse 14, Paul says this. You know what? As Christ comes back, one of the glorious things will be us. You will be our glory, and we will be your glory. And the point is, the Apostle, as he ministered to the Corinthians and the way they grew, that would be something that as he stood before God, he could present these people to God. I heard a man one time say this to me, and I didn't quite understand what he was saying because I was so naive, probably to this truth. But a man said to me one time, Kim, my goal in ministry, he was a minister. He says, my goal in ministry is this is very simple. I have one goal and that is this. When I stand before God, I would like to present to him many people that I have led to Christ, or many people that maybe were Christians but were immature, that helped, that grew up in Christ and that matured and developed and live their life so that they were found pleased at the bema. And I would like to present to him these people. And I sort of thought, that sounds sort of corny. I mean, what are we going to make this presentation? You know, here's Tim Masango. I'd like to give it to you. Lord, you know, that kind of thing. It didn't make sense. But now that I start to see this, one of the things that's going to happen at the Bema is this the people that you minister to, the people that you sacrificed for, the people that you supported? Listen, it really is true. When you support missionaries, we sacrificially give to help missionaries around the world. Guess what? At the Bema, the work that they did, it'll be part of the ministry. People that you ministered to. Anyway, I can't get off on that because we have too much more to cover, but that is something. Hope comes from the scriptures, by the way. Hope doesn't come for anywhere else. He doesn't come from good circumstances. It doesn't come from anything. It comes from these things. And we must remember very clearly where hope comes from. But now I want us to consider something else. And that is this. What are we supposed to do with your hope? What should you do with your hope? I want you to look with me to some scriptures. Go with me to Romans five two, would you? And I want you to see what you are to do with your hope. Hope is to be a dominating thought in our life. And what should we do in it? Do with it? Well, number one, we should rejoice in it. Now, this is really greater than you may imagine. Here. This is a great truth here. Don't go to Romans five. Are you there with me? Look what it says. We'll be in Romans for the next couple of them, I think. Next two anyway, says this. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Many of you memorized that. Didn't you use that in the Romans road of witnessing, right? Wow, what a powerful verse. But now look at what it says. Through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. The point here is this we are to rejoice in the fact that we have hope in the glory of God. What is that? Well, the the salvation of God, that it will also be a future salvation. It's a present salvation. We now stand justified. We right now have it justified. We have been. The King James used to translate. Romans five one didn't used to. It still does. And it's a it butchers the text terribly. It says, therefore, being justified by faith, we aren't being justified by faith. We have been justified by faith as the new American standard and the NIV say. And the thing is, since we have been justified by faith, we now have presently peace with God. But we are also to joy in the hope of the glory of God. Now you want to know how you can see in this context how that hope is referring to the future into heaven, and we are to rejoice in the hope of heaven. In other words, we're going to go to heaven. We're not going to go to hell. On down to verse nine, it says this since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved? There it is the future. How much more shall we be saved, by the way? If there's two verses of Scripture that ever cleared up this point of eternal security, if for me it's these verses here, and the point of these verses nine and ten are this if listen, he says this if when you are an enemy of God, if when you were far away from God, if when you were hostile to God is all of what Romans says, if at that point he justified you, now that you're his, now that you're his child and the the the emphasis is like this, how much more? And the point is, it's ridiculous to compare if while you were an enemy, he justified you, now that you're his child, now that you stand justified, how much more can you be assured that you'll be in heaven? Look at verses nine and ten. It says, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him? Four verse ten. If while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life? Man, that ought to just make you leap for joy. Those of you that are saying, I wonder if I've done enough. I wonder if I've done enough to keep my salvation. Ooh, I got to make sure I've done enough. You know what did what did you do to get your salvation? You just believed. And the fact is, if God gave you his grace while you were a sinner and where actually his enemy. And see, you have to appreciate all of what Romans is talking about to get up to chapter five to really understand this. But if you understand that now that you're one of his, now that you're justified, how much work that ought to cause you to rejoice. I mentioned last week you talk to people that are down in discouraged, and I'm one of them. And I tell you, I hate this about myself. I do, but that is, there are times when I get like a laser beam on that jet airplane, like you saw in the in the Gulf War. And they get they get on that next plane. And no matter where that plane goes, they can missle that thing and press that button and boom, that missile hits them. That's the way I get towards my problems. I focus in to where you could actually say, Kim, aren't you saved? Yeah. Aren't you going to heaven? Yeah. Are your sins forgiven? Yeah. Big deal, I got problems, you see, we have we have completely forgot how wonderful it is to have been cleansed from our sins, that there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. How we should leap for joy. Did I tell you that the devil is going to try to destroy the root problem? He's going to try to get it the real problem, I mean, and you know what it is appreciation of our salvation. We should rejoice in our salvation. Well, notice what else. Go to Romans 12 and look what it says. We should be rejoicing it in our hope. Who we should also over to Romans chapter 12 and verse 12, we should. As it says, be joyful in hope. Notice these three little phrases here. Pretty interesting. Be joyful in hope. Patient in affliction. Faithful in prayer. Now that is a nice little trinity of ideas. Be joyful in hope. What does that mean? As the sufferings. As the troubles is the trials of the difficulties. Come. Hey! Be joyful in hope. What does that mean? Never lose sight of the fact that we're going to go to heaven. Don't allow that to get away from us. How about this? First Thessalonians five eight. We're going to start going through these a little bit faster. But but I want you to see this. It says this put on the hope of salvation as a helmet. Do you know what that's talking about? Why a helmet? Why are we supposed to put the hope on as a helmet? You know why? Because it says this faith and love as a breastplate. And then it says this. But hope as a helmet. You know why? What should guard your mind? What should intimidate your thinking? What should be something that should captivate your thoughts? You know what it should be? Hope. And that's why we were to put on hope as the helmet of salvation. Hey, how about that? How about tomorrow morning when you get up, you actually do this? You get out of bed and you say, all right, here goes. And just pretend. Just do this with me one time, okay? Okay. Here goes. I'm putting this helmet on. You ever put on a helmet? You know. Stick on that helmet. Pull down over your face. What do you. What do your wife says to you? What in the world are you doing? I'm putting on my home, my helmet of hope. Here it comes. Put it on. Think you're crazy? Okay, obviously. You know, I'm not talking just literally externally. The point is, let that be a reminder. Hey, I am not going to hell. I am one of God's children. I will be in heaven one day. I'm not sure about you, but ever since I've done the beam, I read the Indiana Baptist Bulletin that they send us. I read about a pastor of 38 years now. He died of lymphoma. I read about somebody else. I turned to the right after the sports page, which is important for all good Christians to read. Right after that, I turn and there's the obituary. And you know what? In the obituary pages, if you notice that in the star there, right after the sports page, I always happen to be looking at that last article on the sports page, and there's the obituaries and I'll always look and I read through some of them. And you know what? Since this series On the beam, it's always said this to me, I'm not going to always be here. I'm going to be gone. This body, this the movements, the things, the smells, the things I see, what I hear, it will someday cease to exist in the sense of the realm that I now know it. But there's a next life, and God will judge me in that next life for how I've lived. Now that gives me hope that there's purpose. When you're mopping the floor, there's purpose. When you're changing a diaper, there's purpose. There's purpose because there's hope. And we are to put on that hope as a hope of salvation is to be a helmet, is to guard our minds, is to be something that we are to think about on a regular basis. Look down here, Hebrews three six and for the sake of time, we got to see this. Go over to Hebrews, go over to Hebrews and look, because Hebrews is full of this idea of hope. It's a it's one of the major thoughts. And by the way, isn't that interesting? Here are some people that were discouraged. I'm going to give up. And whoever wrote Hebrews wrote to them, and he writes to them and says, hey, remember hope. Hope is to be an important part of your life. Hebrews chapter three and verse six, it says, But Christ is faithful as a sun over God's house. He's better than Moses, by the way. Christ is faithful as a son over God's house, and we are his house. If we hold on to the courage and hope to which we boast, if we hold on to it. By the way, you may wonder, what do you mean, hold on to it? How do you hold on to hope? Well, let's go right back up here. You put it on as a helmet to guard your thoughts. You don't give in. When the world says go for the gusto. You don't give in business, man. When the Bible says. And when the world says, hey, if you would just do this little bit of a cheating deal, you would get all this money and no one would really know. And actually, it's sort of honest. Everybody else does it. No one's going to really get you. But you think, no, I'll have to answer to God. You put it on as a hope and that how do you hold on to it? You say this even though, like Moses, even though he he could have been having a great grand old time in Pharaoh's house, he wouldn't do that. Instead, he would suffer with God's people because he looks forward to his reward. I'll keep hope on as a as a motivation and a value system to my life. I'll hold on to it. I'll hold on to it. Well, what does it mean there? You study the word. Hold on to it. Hold fast. You know what it means. It means hold on or hold fast. That's what it means. You don't. Don't let go of the hope. Don't let the thoughts that. Oh, yeah. See? Do you know what I mean, don't you, friends? Doesn't it seem that we become so familiar with our salvation, we become so apathetic with it? Oh, yeah. I'm saved, you know, big deal. No, we got to hold on to it. Look what else it says. Hebrews 611. Go turn over a few chapters and look at what it says there in Hebrews 611, starting with verse ten. Actually, I want you to see this. It says, God is not unjust. He will not forget your work and the love you have shown him, as you have helped his people and continue to help them, he's not going to forget it. There you are, sacrificing, slaving away to help people in the mission field or ministry or whatever it is. Look at verse 11. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end in order to make your hope. Sure to make your hope sure. Show the same diligence to the very end. Don't give, don't burn out. Don't give up. Don't stop saying I did my time when I was young, I was someone. Let someone else do it. Don't say that. Hold your diligence to your end. By the way, do you want to know how to hold on to something? You want to know how to be diligent another way? Well, look at verse 12. We do not want you to be lazy. That's all. Don't be lazy in the Christian life. Don't be lazy in your efforts to serve the Lord. Don't give up. I'm just going to take it easy. Don't be lazy, but to imitate those who, through faith and patience, inherit what has been promised. So be diligent to the very end. Notice one more. Hebrews 1023. Flip over and see that one. Hold unswervingly to it. All three of these references in Hebrews have to do with human responsibility, our responsibility. Look what it says. By the way, this is great. Look at this. Hebrews 1023. Look what it says. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess. And by the way, didn't I tell you that hope is based upon the character and the promise of God? Well, look at it. He who promised is faithful. Hold on to it. Hold on to your hope. Don't get. Don't swerve away. Don't make the thoughts of the bema. And the thoughts of the next life. Become something of indifference in your life. Hold on to him. He who promised his faithful. All right. How can I hold on to something? How can I be diligent? How can I hold unswervingly to it? Well, the answer is right there again in verse 24. Look what it says. And let us consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds. Or verse 25. Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are in the habit of. Let us not give up the meat. I'm sorry. I'm reading the NIV and quoting the King James as I read it says this. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing. But let us encourage one another all the more, as you say, the day approaching. Hey, here is a way that you can hold unswervingly to the hope. Guess what it is? Be around people that build into your life. Character. Be around people that build into your life. The promises of God. Be around people that are not mockers. That disdain the Word of God. That are half the. That are all the time walking around griping and complaining how they haven't had a fair shake. No. Be around people that are going to strengthen you. Be around people that believe God's Word. I tell you. I tell you this. I thank God so much for men in this church that have come along my side. Time after time after time, when I've had my head in my eyes, down where they shouldn't be, looking upon things, where they shouldn't be griping and complaining about life. And they've come alongside and they maybe have rebuked me, but they've rebuked me. And I knew they loved me. And as they did that, they'd come along and guess what it did? It spurred me on towards love and good deeds. Let me tell you something before you go around flapping your mouth at somebody criticizing them, you stop and think what has helped you the most. When someone comes along and disgruntled, criticizes you, or when someone comes along and loves you and spurs you on with kindness and love. Because that's what verse 24 says. Let us consider how we may spur one another on. In other words, listen, you need each other to hold unswervingly. You need each other. Keep meeting together in Christian fellowship. That's what's going to help you. That's what's going to help you hold unswervingly. And I'll say this now you're going to think here he goes into his legalism and all that kind of stuff. If you think that, that's fine. But I'll tell you, you just show me people that start to stop going to church, and I'm going to show you people that lose perspective of the hope of eternal life. You just mark it down. You show me people, the word church all of a sudden business or or activity or vacation. I think I told you, the person that said not too long ago that God told them that he wanted them on their boat every Sunday, all summer long you'd be on that boat and that's what you're really going to. Don't go in with these, by the way. Whenever you hear people start to disdain your church, you notice what they say. Every other Christian that goes to church is somehow out of touch. They're they really don't have real Christianity. Okay, anyway, I'm getting off again. Here we go. Look at this. Go to first. Peter, look what it says. Set your hope fully on the grace that is to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. How about this use of your mind? Having hope done. How about you set your hope fully? What does that mean? Hey, be thinking about the fact that when Jesus Christ comes back, that's when life will be worth it. For those that have been faithful and working hard and diligent in doing the things that were right according to the Word of God. Set your hope fully on that. And by the way, it even says in first Peter 315. Be ready to give an answer for anyone that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you. Listen according to these verses. First Peter 113. First Peter 315. The prime motivation in life now is to be hope of future heaven. You know what he says in the first chapter of First Peter? Are you in first Peter? Just go over to chapter one and verse three. Look what this with me. It says, praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In his great mercy he has given us new birth unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead into an inheritance that can never perish. Spoiler fade kept in heaven for you who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. What's he talking about? Hey! The hope, the living hope we have is this promised reservation of eternal life that we have in heaven. That ought to motivate us. How about this verse Peter 315. Be ready to give an answer for it. Obvious question is why do you suffer as you do for what you believe in? You give an answer for it. You give an answer because I have this wonderful hope about my Savior, Jesus Christ. Okay. Look at this. This is the best of all. This, honestly could be a sermon all in itself. And I'll give it to you in five minutes. But get this. What does hope do for you? Let's go through these rather quickly. Romans five five. It does not disappoint. You know what he's talking about there. Listen, when it says, it does not disappoint. he's talking about the fact that when you're suffering, there is never because of the hope that we have. It says hope does not disappoint. You see, hope assures us that we're not suffering in vain. Our present suffering is an investment in future glory. The one that believeth in him will never be ashamed. You cannot listen. You cannot ever sacrifice the slightest bit for the cause of Christ and never be disappointed. Never, ever in a million years. But you do what is right. And you say, even though people may ridicule you, even though people may not like you, even though you may, no one else may even know that you're doing it. You stay steadfastly to doing what is right. You will never, ever be disappointed. By the way, what hope does to or for you. Isn't this interesting? Because most people take hope as the realm of in the sweet, by and by and people that are just looking to heaven. And a lot of people say, oh, he's so heavenly minded that he's no earthly good. And you hear statements like that, but I want you to see that hope. Hope has relevance right now. In other words, when you suffer, it shows you that you're not disappointed, that you will not be disappointed. You believe it, that there's a purpose in all that happens. It's easy if you're sitting here today, comfortable, your pocket full of money, you don't have any trouble, but all of a sudden one of your children gets sick. All of a sudden you lose your job. All of a sudden, there's some kind of trial comes into your life and some various form, and all of a sudden you need some hope. And hope comes to us. It does not disappoint us. Look at this. Second Corinthians 3:12. It makes us very bold. He was talking about. It's talking about again the ministry of Moses and the Old Testament, and how it was veiled compared to the ministry that we have in the New Testament. And the idea is, it's not like Moses where he had to put a veil over his face because the radiance was fading away. But ours is an ever increasing glory, and so it makes us bold. We ought to have confidence, you know, the most confident people in the world. It always saddens me when there are so many Christians, and they're so insecure and they're so defeated and so intimidated by everybody else. And when I say this, it's partly my fault, too. But I mean, I'm this way too at times. But there are people I know that they're absolutely intimidated by worldly people. Look at the money. Look at the way they party. Look at the way they dress. Look at the way they do this. Do you know what we ought to? We ought to have such security in who we are in Christ, in such a hope in our hearts that we are bold in what we believe in. We've got a bunch of pansies, passive little flakey jakes walking around just absolutely, you know, half hearted in what they believe and why they believe in it and ashamed. And, you know, you know, in the restaurant, I hope no one notices me when I pray. You know, the prayer of a of a mature Christian. The Lord thank you for this food and all. Anyone see me as I'm praying now at this restaurant? That kind of stuff. Instead of we need to be bold. Notice something else? It gives us great endurance. Now, because of time. You could write these down and look at them later. But I love first first Thessalonians one three. It says this. The endurance inspired by hope. Do you know what gives us endurance in the long run? Hope. Hope that God's promises are true. Now you're in first, Peter, but I want you to go back to Hebrews six and see something with me quickly. Go back to Hebrews six, because this is the biggie that I really want you to see in Hebrews chapter six. We've just got two more and we'll be done. But notice this it doesn't disappoint us. It makes us very bold. It gives us endurance. And notice this. It should greatly encourage us. Listen, you know, if there was ever a message that you should leave here in courage, it ought to be on this one. You ought to leave here and courage today. Hebrews six says, start starting with verse 18. It says this the certainty of God's promise. And he's talking about how he made promises to Abraham, how he made promises to others. And please note this. It says in verse 18, God did this so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. Oh, what a great verse. The Scripture doesn't talk about death for the believer as something rotten. It talks about it asleep or it talks about it as departure. The scriptures talk about the fact that this hope is so blessed that. Listen to what it says. Revelation 1413. Blessed are they who die in the Lord. They will rest from their labor, and their deeds will follow them. How blessed it is to die in the Lord. One of the frequent Christian symbols found in the catacombs is guess what a fish, a cross? No. An anchor. An anchor is one of the symbols found in the catacombs. It's a symbol of hope. We have a hope as an anchor for the soul. And we've put our hope in the person and work of Jesus Christ and. And ought to greatly encourage us because of his certainty. Listen, it says it's impossible for God to lie. And he's offered us those who have fled. Isn't that interesting? A great word to interpret repentance. We fled from our sins, and we flee to Jesus Christ, our refuge. And we have a hope that is an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. Wow, what a thought to know that our sins have been forgiven and our hope is in him. I've told you in the past of being in in severe trials, the kind of trials I never thought I would get out of, the kind I thought was going to completely detour the destiny of my life. And you know the one thing that I couldn't give up? Now I did. I gave up everything except one thing. I couldn't give up my savior. I couldn't give up Jesus Christ. And he is my hope. He is my security. He's my anchor. He's the one. I don't trust myself. I don't trust myself more than I can do a cartwheel down the aisle. I mean, I couldn't. I trust Jesus, he's my whole, my whole. Everything is putting him as the song we sing. My hope is in the Lord, who gave himself for me and paid the price for all my sins on Calvary. You know we dare not trust the sweetest frame, but holy lean on Jesus name. We have this hope. That's anchor, that's secure. And boy, I tell you, it ought to greatly encourage us. There ought to be people that rejoice. Christians. Listen, I just mark it down. So many Christians are not rejoicing. So many Christians are not enduring. So many Christians are not very bold. So many Christians are are very disappointed in their trials. And I'll tell you one reason why we have not thought enough about the next life. We've not thought enough about heaven. We've not thought about the purpose of why we are living all that out of God's grace. You know what the last one talks about? Practicality. First John three three. You know what it says. He that hath this hope in him purifies himself. Isn't that interesting? You want to have it? You want to live a holy life? Do you want to be a godly person? Listen, if I were to say this to you, here's a good test as to whether or not you're a Christian. Are you ready? Wouldn't you love to be the holiest person that's ever lived on the earth as far as your practical behavior? If all of you are sitting there and going, oh man, that's sort of disappointing. I like the doubt of whether or not you're a Christian, but if I say that and you're going, oh, I would like to be holy more than anything else. Well guess what? Here's how you can be holy. Have this hope in you. What hope? That it's just not this life that matters. It's the next life. Here we gotta live in the light of next life. We gotta make decisions in light of the next life. We gotta do what we have to do. In light of the next life. It doesn't matter what people think of me as a pastor, it's easy for me to say this now. It's nothing for me to practice it. It does not matter what people think of me. It is. What does God going to say to me at that great day? You go to church growth conferences and they'll tell you all these things to do to get your church to grow. There's only one thing that we're forgetting. Will God be pleased with the church that grew with those kind of circumstances? It's very important that we understand that hope will purify us. It will cause us to be godly. It will cause us to be holy. As we consider the fact that Jesus Christ is coming back again. Now, Malcolm Muggeridge said, the God who is great enough to contain the oceans of the world with a ribbon of sand. If this is all there is just this life. And in other words, if there's no more than just this life. As we read the Harvard professors in the introduction to this message, if that's all there is, then listen. It's like building a huge dome stadium for a game of tiddlywinks. Or an ornate opera house for a mouth organ recital. God has created this wonderful world because we need to have the hope of heaven. You know, listen, what would you think if the next wedding that we had. We've got a couple three more weddings or so coming up this fall. But what would you have done when. Let's just use, for instance. I just use the somebody that got married this summer. Let's use Rob and Cheryl. And there you were. If you went to Rob and Cheryl wedding, and there was Rob standing there, and the men came out, and there they are standing, and here comes the bride. And. And what would you do if all of a sudden, when the music started, you know, how's that music go? Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. All of a sudden you started hearing, no, I don't want to go down the aisle. No, please I don't. Don't make me marry him. What would you thought? All of a sudden, everyone would have turned around because it was time for the bride to come, and Cheryl's clinging on to the back pew. I don't want to go. You would have thought. Maybe she shouldn't get married, right? Now I'm going to say this. Listen, how is that for a Christian not wanting to go to heaven when we're supposed to go to the marriage supper of the lamb? We're supposed to go to see our our our groom, and we're the bride of Christ. How would it be for Christians to be so involved in this world that we're saying, this man, Lord, just don't come back and tell me, let me finish my business. Let me let me have this. Come on. I don't want to go. Come on. You don't have hope. We are so entangled in this world that we have lost it. And listen, as long as you're going to hold on to the things of this world, you will not be able to enjoy the benefits of hope that we talked about today. It has got to be where you will say nothing in my hand I cling. Everything else is going to be that I must seek first the Kingdom of God. Remember in Luke chapter ten, the disciples were sent out and they come back and they're going, Lord, we can't believe it! They were so pumped. You know what they said? They said, the demons submit. People are healed. Miracles are happening. Everything is fantastic. And you know what Jesus Christ says to them after they had this fantastic ministry? Listen to this. Jesus cried this. Jesus Christ said this. Don't rejoice that the demons submit to you, but do rejoice that your names are written in heaven. The eye have not seen, neither has the ear heard. Neither has entered into the mind of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love him. All my friends, we ought to love the thought. We ought to look at the trials in our life and say with Paul, I reckon that the present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that shall be revealed in us. We ought to have wonderful joy bursting forth in our life, because we really have our minds there. But I'm afraid some of you are going to just stay right where you are, because you're going to say, I am so comfortable in this life. Don't ask me to make any sacrificial changes. Well, listen, if you are one who wants to live in light of the bema and live with this hope in your heart, guess what? I got the best news for you to all to conclude...