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Let us continue in worship by giving attention to the reading of God's Word as it is recorded in the book of Hebrews, the sixth chapter. I begin the reading at the verse numbered 10. For God is not so unjust as to overlook your work, and the love which you showed for his

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sake in serving the saints as you still do. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness in realizing the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

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For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, "Surely I will bless you and multiply you." And thus Abraham, having patiently endured, obtained the promise. Men indeed swear by a greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final

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for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he interposed with an oath, so that through two unchangeable things in which it is impossible that God should prove false, we who have fled for refuge

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might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a High Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

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And may God bless to us and to our understanding this reading from his word. Pray with me. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and in memory of my beloved Uncle Bob.

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Amen. The Apostle Paul was the greatest Christian who ever lived, and he gives other Christians advice as to what armor is needed for the living of the Christian life. He says first that we should put on the girdle of truth, that is, that we should rely upon

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the power and the promises of God's word written. He says we should put on the breastplate of righteousness, which is not our glory, but is Christ's glory, which not only saves us from our past, but empowers us as Christ grows in us.

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He says we should put on the sandals of the gospel of peace, that is, to be quick and mobile as well as well-protected through the application of wisdom to our discipleship. He says that we are to take up the shield of faith, that is, to build a resolute Christian character.

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And today we have this word from him. We are to take the helmet of salvation. Paul spells this out in greater detail in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 where he says, "And for a helmet, put on the hope of salvation."

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Now there's great power in hope. One of our famous track stars of the past was Ivory Crockett. And Crockett's great goal was to run the 100-yard dash in less than nine seconds. And in the race where he was attempting to do this, when the race was done, one of the

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field judges said that the race had been run in nine seconds flat. And the second field judge, looking at his timepiece, said that it had been run in 9.1 seconds flat. And this was very distressing and disappointing to Crockett because his goal and his hope

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was to run it in less than nine seconds. And then the report from the electronic timer, the most accurate timepiece being used, came in and it said that he had run the race in 8.9 seconds. And Crockett began to cry tears of great joy and he bent down and he took off his track

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shoe and reached into the shoe and brought out a small slip of paper. And on that slip of paper, he had written 8.9 seconds. Here was a man, you see, with a goal and with a hope that was so great that he wrote out that hope and put it on that piece of paper in the shoes he would wear in the running

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of the race. And it brought him the victory that he sought. There's great motivating power and hope. I saw on television last week a police officer from New York City.

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A year ago, he was shot three times while carrying out his duty. And I saw him on television at that time. He was paralyzed from the neck down, could not speak, had to rely upon artificial means for breathing.

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Well, just this last week, they had him on one year later, one year after the tragedy of his being shot. He was controlling and directing his own wheelchair. He spoke just as fluently as you or I would speak.

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And he was weaning himself away from artificial breathing supports so that he could now stay off the machine for as long as three hours at a time. And when he was interviewed and asked how it was that he was able to accomplish this in the face of the terrible burdens which were his, he said, "I have never given up

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hope." That's the power of hope. Researchers invent and explorers explore and medical researchers undertake research and artists paint or write because they're motivated, you see, by hope.

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It's hope that gives them patience. It's hope that gives them discipline. It's hope that gives them drive. William Cullen Bryant wrote Thanatopsis 100 times, hoping each time that it might be better

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before he published it for the world. He ran 1,500 experiments before discovering what ingredients were necessary for the electric light bulb. And he was motivated, you see, by his hope of finding the answer.

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William Carey worked for seven years in India. And Adoniram Judson worked for seven years in China. And David Livingston worked for 14 years in Africa before making a single convert but kept on keeping on because of hope.

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There's tremendous power in hope. The converse is equally true. I was reading an article in Discovery Magazine this last week and it concerned the hex. You know, in primitive societies there are occasions on which a witch doctor will put

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a hex or a curse on someone and the person will die. And research has been interested in this for quite some time. Is there some power here, some psychological mechanism, some demonic strength about which we know nothing?

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How is it that the hex can be given and the person die? Well, Dr. Stanford Cohen of the Boston University School of Medicine had up the research team on this and they discovered that there's no power in the hex, there's no power in the curse unless the person who has it put upon them believes that there is power in it.

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When someone who believes that you can be cursed is cursed, then that person feels trapped, that person gives up, that person loses hope and oftentimes wills his or her own death. Perhaps you have known, as I have known, individuals who were told that they had a terminal illness. They were also told that they might live three or four years longer and yet within a matter

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of a few weeks they're gone. Why? Because they were told that they're terminally ill, they give up hope and where there is no hope there is no power and where there is no power there is death.

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Now Paul says that we need hope and he was himself a marvelously hopeful person. I don't believe that you can find 100 pages in all literature from all places in all times that are more filled with hope than the letters of the Apostle Paul. He was radiant with hope, whether he was in jail or free, whether he was in Jerusalem

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or Antioch or Rome, whether he was alone or with friends, he was hopeful. You ever had the experience of walking along the seashore at night on a moonlit night? You know that no matter where you walk there is between the moon and yourself a kind of silver pathway across the water.

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Now those waters may be very restless, they may be very storm-tossed, but no matter where you stand that scintillating pathway of silver comes directly from the moon to you, a kind of thoroughfare of glory if you will. That's the thoroughfare on which the Apostle Paul walked, the thoroughfare of hope, the

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scintillating pathway of hope. He says to us, "Put on the helmet of the hope of salvation." Now when he speaks of the hope of salvation, he does not mean that we are to hope to be saved.

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Remember, Paul was writing these words to the Christians who lived in Laodicea and to the Christians who lived in Thessalonica. He was writing to those who already were saved. They were already part of the company of the committed.

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They already were united with God, peace having been won for them through Jesus Christ. So Paul is not saying that we are to hope that we will be saved. The Christian already has that hope. But what he is saying is this, that when you are of the company of the committed, when

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you are of the fellowship that is saved, when you know that you belong to God and he belongs to you, when you do that, there are three unique hopes which enter into your life. The first of these is having been purified in the past, you experience a new power in the living of each one of your days.

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When you come to know Christ as Savior, there is a hopefulness that enters in with that which transforms, it ennobles, it inspires every day that comes thereafter. A saved person is a changed person. The second hope that he is talking about is that as you live this life, Jesus Christ becomes

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more and more a part of your experience and as he enters in and as you are more transformed, there is a unique hope that comes because of his indwelling presence. And the third thing that Paul is saying is that when you are Christ woman or Christ man, you look forward to that hope of salvation in the kingdom of heaven which will be yours

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when life here is done. Now, let's look at each one of these hopes for a moment. First, there is the hope which comes with the knowledge that you are saved. This last week I went out and bought my 1988 desk calendar.

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It's divided into columns and each column is a separate day. And I will fill in those columns, the name and the date of each day is above it and I will fill in those columns for 1988 with appointments and meetings and times of responsibility and times of pleasure and sermons and things of that kind.

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And those columns will constitute the episodes of 1988 for me. And I will move through those columns one at a time and I will move from one to another through a kind of invisible door. I have noticed the older I get that the shorter these columns seem to become.

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But there are columns there and I will move from one to another until sometime in the future there will be a last or a terminal column. There will be a day which will be the last day for me here. I don't know when that day will be.

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Now about that day, that terminal day, some people when they enter that day will discover it to be the one day, the one segment, the one column of their life which has no door. There will be no way out. They will find themselves crushed at that place by the weight of everything that has

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been a part of the misfortune and tragedy of their lives before. That is, they will be suffocated by all of their sins and their weaknesses, by their defeats, by their errors, by their ingratitudes, these things will be vomited upon them there. And in that last day without a door, they'll die as an animal dies.

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Other people, when they come to that last segment, that last column, that last day, they will enter in and they will discover that that day has no doors. But the reason it has no doors is because it has no walls. That is, they will move into a greater freedom than they ever knew before.

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They will move into an openness and a joy. They will move into an experience of life beyond anything that they have previously encountered. In that last column then, there are two possibilities.

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There's the possibility of death and the possibility of life. There's the possibility of imprisonment and there's the possibility of freedom. There's the possibility of despair and there's the possibility of life eternal. Now as Christians, we know that when we enter into that last column because of Jesus Christ,

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we will know glory. We will know that freedom. We will know that victory. We are the company of the saved.

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And if anyone asks when we were saved, we can answer them, we were saved on Good Friday afternoon on a hill outside of Jerusalem between 9 a.m. in the morning and 3 o'clock in the afternoon. And the reality of our being saved at whatever time that experience became real to us will

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not only thrill us then, but it will thrill us in every other day of our lives. Purified of our past, we are filled, you see, with a new hope for every day that is ours until in that last day we will move on to final triumph. There's a story which comes out of the Middle Ages.

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I don't know whether it's true or not, about a duke in Germany who had as part of his royal court a jester, a clown, what they commonly called a fool in those days. This man's name was Wamba. And the duke valued Wamba's services very much and so as a reward he gave him a long

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trip, a long journey covering all of his expenses. And he also gave Wamba, as Wamba set out, a golden wand. And he said, "Sir fool, if you find anyone more foolish than yourself, give to them this gift of gold."

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And the jester went off on his journey. When he returned sometime later, the duke was grievously ill. He had moved into that last column, that last segment. And he said to his beloved jester, "I'm glad you're here, for I'm about to set out on a

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journey myself much longer than the journey which you have taken." And the jester said, "Sire, surely you have prepared for this journey." And the duke said, "Alas, I have made no preparations whatever." Whereupon the jester handed him the golden wand.

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"You, sire, are a greater fool than I. It is the height of folly to come to the last column of your life and not know that freedom which is yours through Jesus Christ. It is the height of folly not to come to know him now so that that freedom is yours now

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and enlivens and illumines and makes effervescent every day that you will live until that time when you are united with him forever." This is one of the hopes of which Paul speaks. Then he also speaks of that hope which grows in our lives as Jesus Christ becomes more

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real in our hearts. First that past hope, now this present hope. Theologically, we would call one redemption and the other sanctification. Many of us have pets, and we love those pets very much.

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But no matter how much we love our pet cat or our pet dog, that dog will still be a dog and that cat will still be a cat. But Jesus loves us, and we are changed by his love. Because you see, he enters into us.

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Now we do not all grow at the same rate. We do not all develop spiritually at the same speed. That is because we come out of different backgrounds. We face different vicissitudes and difficulties.

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But as he takes up residence in our heart, at whatever rate that is, our aims change, our standards change, our likes change, our dislikes change, our possibilities change until we say like Paul, "It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me." This last week I was visited by a young man and his wife and his two children.

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I met this young man just as he was going into college about 12 years ago. He was already a Christian. I met him at the New Wilmington Missionary Conference. Now when he came to see me this last week, he and his wife and his children are just

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preparing to go overseas to begin mission service with the Wycliffe Bible Translators in Jakarta, Indonesia. And he came by to say goodbye. And as I sat and talked to him, I was amazed at the depths which were in him now.

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There was a stillness at his center. There was a calmness in his soul. There was a maturity about his faith. Not having seen him for many years, I had the opportunity to see how this had developed.

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And it wasn't just because he was older, and it wasn't just because he had taken to himself a wife and brought children into the world. It was because he was growing through the presence of Christ, growing in him. And as I hugged each one of them, and as they were leaving, he turned to me and said, "Pray

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that I will become more and more Christ's man." You see, once it is Christ living in you, it's very much like climbing mountains. You climb one mountain, you get to the top of it, and what do you see? You see a more wonderful range of mountains before you.

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So you set out in pursuit of that range of mountains. And what happens there when you get to the top? A more splendid, a more beautiful vista than you had seen before is open to you. So you go on, you see, from experience to experience in Christ, an ever greater hope.

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You have been saved. But by this growing experience of Jesus, you are also being saved. And then Paul says, "There's also that future hope, that hope that when we die, we will be forever with the Lord."

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That's the hope of glory, redemption, sanctification, glorification. The New Testament talks about this again and again. Take for example in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, where Paul writes to the Corinthians, "Our hearts are being enlightened by Christ."

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But that doesn't make life any easier. We are going to be troubled, and we are going to be distressed, and we are going to be cast down. But what we must remember at such times is that we will be raised with Christ.

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Outward circumstances may be different, but inwardly it may be difficult. But inwardly, we are growing in Christ, and we will have, he says, the eternal weight of glory. Or in that passage from Hebrews 6, which I shared with you just a few minutes ago, the

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writer of Hebrews says we are to persevere in our faith. We are to bring energy to our believing. And he says, "Why?" Because we have a refuge in our hope.

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And then he goes on to say, "Christ has gained glory. He has already passed within the veil. He is the anchor of our hope. He is the anchor of our souls."

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And it's to that hope and to that anchor that we cling. The whole book of Revelation is about this. It's about Christians who have tough times as the powers of the world are brought to bear upon them.

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But then there comes that rider on the white horse whose name is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And in his triumph, we will know our triumph. In the last 72 hours, I've been thinking a lot about heaven and the victory that belongs

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to Christians there. And I've been reviewing to myself some of the promises that are made with regard to heaven. We have hope there of being filled with the glory of God.

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We have hope there of being presented spotless, without blemish and wrinkle, before the throne of God. We have hope there of being with our loved ones who have already been made glorious. That takes your breath away when you think about it.

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To be translucent with the grace of God. To be beautiful as He is beauty. To be truthful as He is truth. To be holy as He is holy.

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To be gracious as He is gracious. To be perfect with His perfection. To move from glory unto glory till we are filled, the scriptures say, filled, mind you, with the fullness of God.

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Most people who go to see the Grand Canyon come at it from the southwest and stay along the south rim. I prefer the north rim myself. And on several occasions I've had the privilege of going out while it was still night and

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sitting there in that north rim and looking eastward. At first there's nothing but blackness. But then there's a grayness above the mountains. And then the sun swings into its place of majesty and as it does the tops of the mountains

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are touched with golden glory. That's the promise that is ours after we are saved. Now the canyon at your feet is still quite dark. It's formless and desolate and chaotic and deep.

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But now the light begins to spill over the edge and it moves down into that black and formless place and makes it wildly resplendent. And dead gorges which were filled with nothing but shrouded mist are suddenly transformed into shimmering cascades of light.

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And deeper and deeper the splendor spreads until all the scars are cleansed away as the sun caresses all the rocky crags and shape is brought out of shadow and order is brought out of chaos and beauty is brought out of ugliness. That's what Christ does as he grows and develops in us.

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And finally all that canyon is flooded with light except for one gaping wound at its very deepest valley. That's the last frontier of darkness. That is death.

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And then it too yields and the light, the light plunges down into it with a single stroke so that the evil veil of darkness is rent and the whole scene sparkles with a scintillating splendor that comes from the sun. And that is what it will be for us when we move into glory.

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We will be filled with the glory of God. We will be presented spotless before his throne and we will be perfect and perfect as he is perfect and perfect forever. So in this world we will have tough times.

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Paul says we will become weary with well doing. But Jesus says do not faint. Let the joy that is in me be in you. And the way we know that joy is by putting on the helmet of the hope of salvation.

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We must put it on every day of our lives. We must remind ourselves that we are saved. We must reach out in the hope of glory. We must look forward to the life eternal deliberately, prayerfully, joyfully and purposefully.

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We must put on that helmet of salvation and stand up for Jesus. Strife will not be long. This day the noise of battle but the next the victor's song. And to those that overcome a crown of life shall be.

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And they, we, with the king of glory shall reign eternally. Let us pray. Oh father, oh son, oh spirit that thou shouldst give us such a hope. A hope which cleanses our past and thrills our present and promises us glory in the future.

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That thou shouldst give us such a hope. Thanks be unto thee for this unspeakable gift. Amen. Amen.

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Amen.