Sermon
The Doctrine of the Kingdom of God - Part 8
The Battle Gear of the Kingdom - Part 5
March 20, 2004
Pastor Donald Sheley

I'm going to ask you to take your notes. It's nice having new people with us tonight, and because of that I'll take just a moment to introduce our subject. You'll notice at the top of our notes the sermon series is entitled 'The Doctrine of the Kingdom of God'. Some months ago, in fact, after returning from our vacation last summer we were going to go back to a series that we've been doing on the gospel of John, but my heart felt impressed to spend time talking about the great doctrines of our Christian faith. So we spent all during the fall season and covered a great number of subjects, but after the Christmas vacation I thought to myself there is one subject that very seldom is covered in most pulpits; it's a subject so vast that I'm sure that's the reason why pastors don't approach the subject, but it's the subject of the Kingdom of God. And the reason why it's so vast is we've learned that the whole theme of the Bible is the coming of the Kingdom of God, and when you get into the New Testament, into the gospels, in the four gospels alone there are over 130 verses that refer to the Kingdom of God.

We went through the gospel of Matthew, took out all of the verses that related to the Kingdom of God, and we found that the variety of thought and the immensity of truth that's contained in just the book of Matthew alone would keep us a long, long time. One of the things that really fascinated me, and I've been preaching now for 53 years, to realize that I never have done a series on the parables. And so I went back and reread the parables, not that I haven't preached from the parables, but to do a series and come to find out that most of the parables begin with this phrase 'The Kingdom of God is like onto'. So in the next few weeks we want to take some of the great lessons that come to us as Christians from the parables.

So we've been going through the various text and we've come across the text that's found in Ephesians. It's in your notes there and I have written it for you out in the Amplified text, the reason being is that what we have learned about the Kingdom of God is that it's a spiritual kingdom; it's Christ's rule within the human heart and life. It ultimately will end in a physical consummation of a kingdom, but Christ commenced His kingdom 2000 years ago, and His kingdom was started and is in the hearts and lives of men and women.

When asked by the Pharisees about His kingdom, Jesus said it doesn't come with observation. In other words, it's not material, it's not physical; the Kingdom of God is within you. And thus in that it's a spiritual matter, Paul then defines the kingdom in Romans 14:17. He says, the kingdom of God is not meat nor drink, but righteousness and joy in the Holy Ghost. So he gives it the spiritual dimensions of peace and righteousness and joy in the Holy Ghost.

Now because the Kingdom of God is within us and we are living in a world that the Bible very clearly tells us is governed by the prince of the darkness, by Satan himself, there's going to be conflict and there's going to be struggled because we're in enemy territory, and Paul talks about this spiritual struggle in this passage of Scripture that we're going to read now.

Just for introduction, the Amplified text of the Bible is a very beautiful study of the Bible. It's not, again, used too frequently in the pulpit because you'll notice it has a lot of parentheses so you have to read it just a little different than you would your regular text. But the reason for the Amplified text is because of the richness of the Greek language. It's hard for us to take some of the great truths of the Greek language and put them into a single word in the English. And I think I've explained it to you that we in our vocabulary as English-speaking people, if we have a fairly good education, we're going to have about 30,000 words to our vocabulary, but if you're an educated Greek person you're going to have over 200,000 words to express yourself in the Greek language. So the Amplified text magnifies and expands the meaning of the original text of the Scriptures, and so that's the reason why we put it here.

Paul takes this whole matter of the spiritual struggle that every Christian has living in a world that's surrounded by values that we don't live by or should not live by as Christians, and we're going to be faced constantly and daily with a spiritual conflict. All of us will agree to that. So here's Paul's description of it. Let me read it for you and you follow along.

"In conclusion, be strong in the Lord [be empowered through your union with Him]; draw your strength from Him [that strength which His boundless might provides]. Put on God's whole armor [the armor of a heavy-armed soldier which God supplies], that you may be able successfully to stand up against [all] the strategies and the deceits of the devil. For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere. Therefore put on God's complete armor, that you may be able to resist and stand your ground on the evil day [of danger], and having done all [the crisis demands], to stand [firmly in your place].

Stand therefore [hold your ground], having tightened the belt of truth around your loins and having put on the breastplate of integrity and of moral rectitude and right standing with God. And having shod your feet in preparation [to face the enemy with the firm-footed stability, the promptness, and the readiness produced by the good news] of the Gospel of peace. Lift up over all the [covering] shield of saving faith, upon which you can quench all the flaming missiles of the wicked [one]. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword that the Spirit wields, which is the Word of God. Pray at all times (on every occasion, in every season) in the Spirit, with all manner of prayer and entreaty. To that end keep alert and watch with strong purpose and perseverance, interceding in behalf of all the saints (God's consecrated people)."

Now I'll read along in the notes and make comments as we do. The Kingdom of God is our subject, and what an exciting subject. It is the theme of the entire Bible in fact. Jesus had so much, so much to say about the Kingdom of God. We're going to get to the helmet of this armor tonight, but we're taking a number of verses that relate to the subject of the kingdom so that each lesson you become more and more acquainted with the scripture verses that refer to the kingdom.

Here's one found in Mark 1:14-l5: "Now after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel."" The unsurpassable future of God has begun. The divinely decreed time of waiting has come to an end. The decisive manifestation of the saving God, promised in the prophets, must therefore be taking place. The general thrust of Jesus' teaching on the kingdom of God, implies that in His word and in His work there is an initiation of the sovereign action of God that brings salvation and is to end in a transformed universe.

With that proclamation what I'm saying is that Jesus Christ commenced a work that the prophets had talked about throughout all of the Old Testament; it was the initiation of the work of God in a very wonderful way in the hearts and lives of men and women, and it will ultimately end in a transformed universe.

Peter writes about that, he says: "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

And again, Jesus spoke about the kingdom in these words: "But when he was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable. And He said to them, "To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables."

Now the word MYSTERY as it was used here by Jesus, has in Greek a technical meaning. It does not mean something which is complicated or mysterious in our sense of the term. It means something which is quite unintelligible to the person who has not been initiated into its meaning, but is perfectly plain to the person who has been initiated. In other words, it's a truth known by a mind that has been made to understand.

Now here's the way Paul says it. Look at how Paul talks about it: "However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory."

"But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him." But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man"...when it speaks of the natural man, that's a person that is not a Christian. The sinner man or..."the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" or understood.

Here's what Paul is saying: it takes the Spirit of God to understand the things of God and the Scriptures, and the only way that the Spirit of God can come within our lives is by invitation. When we receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior he places his Holy Spirit within us, and by the presence of his Holy Spirit within us, it causes us to understand spiritual things. You know it is an amazing thing and I've watched this over the years as people come to a saving knowledge of Christ. They'll have a Bible and off times it's very seldom touched if never because they simply say, Pastor, all it was was ink on paper and the words I did not grasp, but as soon as I opened my heart and said Lord Jesus I invite you to be my personal Savior and my God, and I invite you by your spirit to come and live within me, as soon as that moment takes place in your life which is referred to as the new birth or the born-again experience, once that takes place the Spirit of God makes the text of Scripture absolutely come alive.

I have watched new converts and when you give them a Bible usually the first three or four weeks it's pretty well worn because all of a sudden things they never understood they could not grasp those truths before, all of a sudden the Spirit of God within them makes them to know the mysteries of God, the mysteries of spiritual truth.

I'm in the middle of page 3. When the New Testament talks of the MYSTERY OF THE KINGDOM, it does not mean that the Kingdom is remote and abstruse and hard to understand; but it does mean that it is quite unintelligible to the man who has not given his heart to Jesus, and that only the man who has taken Jesus as Master and Lord can understand what the Kingdom of God means.

Now all that Jesus says and does in relation to the kingdom of God is an enigma to those whose eyes have not been opened to the significance of His mission.
Paul writes: "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:" and here's the mystery..."God was manifested in the flesh," that's His incarnation... "justified in the Spirit," that was the Spirit of God at His baptism..."seen angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory. " That's the mystery, the mystery of His coming, and His mission.

And then again, Paul writes: "To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord."

So Paul is simply saying the mystery, the sharing of the mystery, the telling of the great truths of God is the challenge and the assignment of the church. Now there's one more observation that I'd like for us to make with regards to Jesus in His reference to the kingdom of God. It's found in the passage -- I'm at the top of page 4 -- containing many parables, and you and I know that to be Matthew 13; the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, and here is what it says: "Another parable He put forth to them, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner came and said to him. "Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares? He said to them, "An enemy has done this." The servants said to him, "Do you want us then to go and gather them up?" But he said, "No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, "First, gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn."

Then Jesus explains this parable a little later as His disciples ask Him for an explanation. And here's how He explains the parable: "Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And His disciples came to Him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the tares of the field." He answered and said to them: "He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the good seeds are the Sons of the Kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil, the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Therefore as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth."

Now the purpose of this parable is to point to the fact that along with the new thing that has come, namely the Kingdom of God, evil is also at work among men, an enemy opposing the work of God. And this parable emphasizes the fact that the function of the divine sovereignty in this time is to save men, not to judge them. God's sovereignty certainly manifests itself in judgment as well, but judgment will be reserved in God's time, until then, the responsibility of the faithful is to share the attitude of the Lord of the Kingdom toward the impenitent and in the spirit of divine grace show them the power of redeeming love. Jesus was making the point that while His coming signaled the arrival of the Kingdom, its consummation would be delayed. The Children of God and the children of Satan would grow together until the harvest; then God would judge and separate His children from Satan's children (the children of the evil one.") Until that eternal harvest takes place, we as believers in Christ and members of His Kingdom, will be involved in a spiritual battle that Paul described in the Ephesian church.

Let me stop there for a moment. You know, a number preachers and a number of theologians often take the planting of the tares amongst the wheat and they say that is the church; it's the good people and the bad people in the church. Well that's taking the teaching of Jesus out of the context. Jesus said, no, what I'm trying to say is this: There are going to be in this world people who are children of the Kingdom of God, but we're going to live our lives amongst the children of the evil one. And while we're here it's not our responsibility to judge, but it's our responsibility to share the love and the grace of Jesus Christ.

In God's eternal time He'll take care of the judging, and therefore let's be about our business sharing the love of Christ, telling men about His kingdom and His mercy and His grace, and leave judgment up to God. O if we Christians would really listen to this parable and live it out, we'd probably have a much more fruitful effect in the world in which we live. We are too condemning at times. Leave that to God. Jesus says just let the wheat grow amongst the tares and when it comes time for judgment He'll take care of the tares. Okay?

Let's go on with our notes. We come to the verse that we started our lesson with: "For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere." So Paul has admonished us that we are to arm ourselves for this spiritual battle. It's interesting that he chose the armor of a soldier, but you must remember that Paul spent a long time with those soldiers. He was chained to a few of them over his journey from Palestine over to Rome, and for two years he had them in his house as he awaited his day of trial. And so Paul would probably sit there and look at those soldiers, those Roman soldiers, and he would see that breastplate and he would see that helmet and he noticed the sword and he noticed the way they shod their feet, and what he started doing is thinking of that in spiritual terms. So he associates those pieces of armor with spiritual truths, that if we are armed with those spiritual characteristics and those truths we can be a winner in this battle.

Now we are to have on the belt of truth; we talked about that. Protected by the breastplate of righteousness; we covered that. Our feet shod with the gospel of peace, and covering ourselves with the shield of faith; that we talked about last week. This week, Paul's next piece of armor is the helmet of salvation. Now Paul mentions this piece of armor in 1 Thessalonians 5:5-11. Let's read it: "You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love" -- Remember in our text he called it the breastplate of righteousness, here, he identifies it as faith and love -- "and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing."

Now the defense of the head was a matter of supreme importance in the ancient warfare. The helmets worn by the Romans were made either of leather or metal, and the helmet included plates to protect the cheeks, a band for the forehead, and a collar-like projection to protect the back of the neck. Such a helmet, when closed, showed little besides the eyes, the nose and the mouth. And Paul borrows this idea out of the prophet Isaiah who wrote: "For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head." So Paul picks this idea out of the Old Testament, the writings of Isaiah, and in the Isaiah passage, though, Jehovah wears the helmet, but in the Thessalonian passage, the believers are called upon to receive it and to wear it.

The Apostle identified the helmet with the hope of salvation. Salvation is both a present possession and an inheritance not yet fully acquired in this life; hence, the object of firmly anchored hope. Were it not for the fact that in the midst of hardship and persecution the assurance of salvation both present and future dwells in his heart he might easily give up the fight. It is exactly this precious treasure that fortifies him with strength to continue the fight, for as he himself he knows that what God has begun in him will be carried out to completion.

And then a number of verses: "Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me; You will stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me. The Lord will perfect (or complete) that which concerns me; Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever."

And then from the Philippians passage: "I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident (here's the hope) of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ."

What Paul is talking about when he talks about the helmet, he's talking about the promises of God to preserve us and to keep us even amidst the battle until that eternal day when He completes His work within us. That's a promise. When God starts something, He finishes it. And Paul said you've got to keep that mindset in the midst of your spiritual battle, God is on your side. He's promised never to leave you nor forsake you. That's true! The flowers will wither and the grass will fade away, but God's words stands forever. And Paul said your helmet of hope is the knowledge that what God is doing in your life, He will complete it in that eternal day.

Look at the next verse. "Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek."

The writer of Hebrews is saying our hope, the promises of God are eternal, is anchored to the very throne of God itself and it will not move. That's the assurance that we have in our wonderful God.

Here's another verse. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." That's our hope. Because Christ came out of that tomb we have a living hope. It will never corrupt. It will never be defiled. It will never lessen. It will never fade away because He's made a promise. He started something in our lives and no matter how severe the battle may get, and at times maybe we feel so defeated, God has started something and I put on that helmet of hope and know He'll finish it on that eternal day.

I'm at the top of Page 7. There are times in spiritual battle that we become discouraged and weary and tired, and often there is a sense of hopelessness that begins to fill our souls and minds. We feel much like David. "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say to me, where is your God? Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance. O my God, my soul is cast down within me;...Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God."

Now this is the kind of problem that is dealt with in a well-known poem by Arthur Hugh Clough. Here's the way the little poem goes, "Say not the struggle naught availeth, the labour and the wounds are vain, The enemy faints not, nor faileth, and as things have been they remain." Now this poem deals with the condition in which man begins to feel that the fight is in vain, 'Naught availeth, the labour and the wounds are vain.' He says to himself, "I have been in the campaign for a long time, I am wounded, and striving, I am struggling; but what is the point of it all, I am the one who is tending to faint, "and as things have been they remain." Have I gained an inch of ground, have I done anything at all?

The Apostle Paul deals with that same problem when he writes to the Galatians in these words, Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we will not faint. The Christian becomes weary in well doing, simply through feeling the heat and the burden of the day. The battle is constant, the warfare is tiring, and often one desires to give up. That is when we put on the helmet of salvation and remind ourselves of the hope that's promised to us.

The devil succeeds at times in persuading us to become so preoccupied with the details of the Christian life that we forget the grand truth covering the whole of our faith. Let me pause. There come times, and I went through it this week just so that you know I wrote it here from experience, we all have weeks just like I had this week. I stood and made a very strong declaration last Sunday of where we stood as men of God and men of the Word. As a result, every time I know when I take a strong stand Satan will say, all right, I'll get you Sheley. I'll get you. Monday morning the first thing...we walk into a situation that was almost so contentious that it seemed almost that we were going to have to bring in the police to take care of it.

Now when you have 900-1000 children and you've got an equal number, a couple thousand parents coming and growing all day long, and you've got 150 people here that are ministering and working amongst the children, and then you've got a scene were you've got to bring something under control its very, very stressful. Then something of similar nature happened on Tuesday. Thank God we won. Then on Wednesday morning one of our employees had his car parked up on the street and it was stolen. Then on Thursday out in the middle of the parking lot at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, someone decides he's going to steal a lady's purse. And so he comes in and she gets into the car and throws the purse in, he goes in after it, and finally we get him out and somebody helps put him down on the ground, and he gets away and starts running up -- thank God we had an off-duty policeman and he chases him up the street and catches him.

And then something happened on Friday and I thought to myself...I mean, it's been a battle, but I'll tell you what...I put on the helmet of salvation this week, the hope, and knowing that I'm going to win because God's going to win. I already know what the end of the story is and I've read the last page in the book. And you and I know what our hope is; our hope is fastened securely in the promises of God to His very throne. When I finished Friday evening I said to my wife, well honey, we had some bad ones but we won every one of them. You see that's a good thing. They come, but you see yourself through. And I often say to the folks, they say, Pastor, how's your day going? I say thank God I'm one day closer to heaven than I was yesterday.

If you keep the focus, if you keep the hope, you know the little things of life don't really matter. And that's what Paul is saying. Listen, we as Christians if we'll put on the helmet of hope realizing the battle has already been won, Satan is defeated, and we're going to win. And we may have the struggles and the little skirmishes day after day, but if we keep our focus and keep the helmet of hope on knowing that our God has done something for us and soon we're going to be with Him. It's going to be interesting to say, and I got upset about all that down there. When we reach that glorious land of promise and we have the fulfillment of our salvation eternally, our hope, we'll realize that we let too many things disturb us down here...when you've got the hope.

It's like running a race. If you don't have hope it's like running a race without a finish line. Every day becomes hum drum. But when you live with a purpose... I had a funeral this afternoon for a lovely man that 34 years ago he was sitting in his leather shop down in Half Moon Bay terribly disturbed by a habit that was tearing his family and him apart, and I led him to Christ, and after 82 years of age you went to be with Jesus is last week. But I selected as my theme the words from Paul to Timothy where he said, I fought a good fight. The time of my departure is at hand. I've kept the faith, henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness. That's the hope.

And it's interesting when Paul says the time of my departure is at hand. He uses a beautiful Greek word that has fascinating imagery before it. It was used in four different ways. When he said the time for my departure... It was a word that was used to explain when the farmer had finished using his oxen plowing all day long -- now he's home, it's getting dark, and he's unhitching the oxen from the plow, and the unhitching of the oxen lets them roam back to the barn. Paul is saying, look at, my work is finished and I'm being unhitched.

But there's another meaning to it and that is, it's like the taking down of the tent. You've had your week with the family out camping and you start taking down camp, and it's the taking the ropes away from the poles. It's taking down camp. And what Paul is saying, my departure, I'm taking down the tent that I have used, this body, and I'm getting ready for it's heavenly residence. He uses the word "my departure" to define taking down the tent.

And then there's a third one, and that is, the release of the ropes. The ship is sitting in dock and now you take away the ropes for the mooring because it's getting ready for it's big voyage. And Paul said, listen, my departure, I'm going to take the ropes away from the mooring and my journey is set. I'm sailing to a new land.

You see what helped Paul go through those struggles...You remember, thrice was I've beaten with rods, I spent a night in the deep, I've gone hungry, and he goes on and on and on, but he always got through it because he always had on the helmet of hope and he knew the day would come when he would take down his tent, be unhitched from life's trials and its work, and he would set sail for his eternal home.

You see ladies and gentlemen, if we don't have hope, if we don't live with that vibrant knowledge within us -- Lord Jesus, this may be the last day. I said to someone, they said, Pastor, how are you doing? I said I'm fine. I'm on my way to heaven and I've got it in overdrive. What I'm trying to say is I'm not going to lose the focus and when He calls me, I'm ready. But it's that focus that carries us through all of these little things in life that get us all upset. So Paul said if you're going to win in the spiritual battle make sure you keep hope ever alive.

Those verse: Behold beloved what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God. One of these days we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. He that hath this hope within Him purifieth himself. Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am there you may be also.

I mean there are many, many verses on this hope, and when life gets a little difficult and tiresome, and you're saying to yourself like David, why are you cast down O my soul? And David is smart enough to answer his own questions. He said hope in God and that hope will carry you through. So the lesson this evening is part of our spiritual armor to be victorious. Never let the hope die. Keep it vibrantly alive in our soul, in our minds and in our hearts, and one of these days just like Paul we'll say the day of our departure is at hand.

But it's interesting; he went on to say I have fought a good fight. Do you know what that says in the original? I've put up a good show. What he simply is saying is during all of those struggles I gave evidence that the peace of God, which passes all understanding, will keep your heart and mind through Jesus Christ. And people could look up...Paul said if you have any questions about how to live just watch me. Now that's quite something. But when he said I have fought a good fight, he said I have put on a good show. And he meant that sincerely.

May that be said of us when we come to that day; they lived their life as godly persons and their Christianity was very, very real. But that phrase also meant something else. When he said I've kept the faith it means I have lived by the rules of the game. And that's interesting. His hope was vibrant because he lived by the rules of the game.

You say, what are they? Micah 6:8 says love mercy and peace and walk humbly with your God. What doth the Lord require of thee? and then it lists those three things; justice, mercy, and humility.

Paul said I kept the rules of the game, and when you keep the rules of the game of hope this always vibrantly alive. I pray that all of us don't let the little issues of life, the struggles down here, ever take the focus off the goal. Amen? And when we don't, we keep the focus right where going to win. We're going to be there someday. We'll be around the throne and we'll bow before Him in worship. Let's pray

Father and heaven, it's often true we get encumbered with all of the little things that happen in life and Satan uses these to take the focus off the goal and then hope fades and then we get frustrated, discouraged, and in that discouragement we often lose spiritual victories that we could have won if we had kept our eyes fixed on the goal. Thank you for the helmet of hope, the knowledge that one of these days because You did start something in our lives, You're going to finish it, and we're going to be with You forever. Thank you Lord Jesus for the hope we have as Christians. And everybody said, amen. God bless you folks.