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Unshakable hope. You know, that's one thing we need right now as Christians, wherever we are in the world, we need an unshakeable hope. And the beautiful thing is the word of God promises that to us and how we can come to and have and hold an unshakable hope in our hearts and in our lives. And that's what I want to share with you. So if you have your Bibles, I want you to open up to the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is towards the end of the New Testament, after all of St. Paul's letters, you have the Epistle to the Hebrews. And we're going to start in chapter six, verse 11. And I'm going to start with this section just to give you a quick Reader's Digest version of the Epistle to the Hebrews. This comes at the end of Paul's Epistles, but it's not signed by Paul. It doesn't say Paul at the beginning like it does to all the other letters. And there's a lot of question, even in the church fathers and even among scholars today, who is the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, because it was anonymous. Now, my personal opinion is that it was St. Paul, and in fact, it mentions Timothy at the end as his companion. And of course, we know that Timothy traveled Paul. My personal perspective, and I know this is debated, is that Paul writes the letter to the Hebrews after he's arrested in Jerusalem, taken up by the Romans up to Caesarea Maritima to be secure there. And there was a riot, of course, when Jesus, when Paul brings this collection to Jerusalem, he's eager to get there. He goes to the temple and a riot breaks out, and he gets arrested by the Romans, who have to save him from being killed by this mob. And then he gets taken up to Caesarea Maritima, where he's held prisoner there for a year. And then he appeals to Caesar. You know that story. But after Paul, who is so eager to get to Jerusalem and to support the church there, he gets arrested immediately and taken out. And so he writes this letter because he had so much he wanted and intended and prepared to teach the Jewish community in Jerusalem, because we know from Romans 9 that he loved his Jewish kinsmen and he loved the small Christian community there. And that's why he spent over a year collecting money in Greece and in Europe to bring back to support the church there that was suffering persecution. And so he's writing to them. And I think that context fits perfectly because the content to the Epistle to the Hebrews is trying to encourage Jewish Christians to keep the faith under persecution. And in the midst of a lot of difficulties, the community is suffering persecution and setbacks. Some of them are losing their property, some of them are losing their good name. They're suffering. And so what the author to the Hebrews, whether it's Paul or not, is at pains to show them is that they have to have hope and why they should hope and how they have to hold on to their faith in the midst of a wider culture that seeks to undermine their faith in Jesus Christ, that seeks to stop them from believing. And so it's perfect, I think, for Christians living in the modern world today, where modern culture tends to be hostile to Christianity, and it's easy to kind of give up. And so this is all about how do we sustain our faith and hope. And so I want to jump us into the midst of the argument in the Epistle to Hebrews, because I want to focus on the theme of hope. And in chapter six, verse 11, the author says that their deepest desire is to build hope in the reader. Right? And so the main objective of this letter is to build hope and faith. And so here's what the author says in chapter six of Hebrews, verse 11. And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness and to have the full assurance of hope. To have the full assurance of hope until the end. Perseverance. Later on, I'll talk about running a race. So there's a race that we have to persevere in, and then it goes on. So that you may not be sluggish, but be imitators of those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promise. It takes faith and patient perseverance to inherit the promise. Well, what's the promise you're going to see? We're going to talk about the promise here in a little bit. But promise and hope go hand in hand in this letter and really throughout all of scripture. God is the God throughout the Bible who's making promises. Of course, he's going to make great promises to Abraham that we're going to hear about in a minute. And when God gives promises, we receive those promises with hope. Because God's promise is a promise that we can trust, and it gives us hope. Without God's promises, we don't have hope. So think about promise and hope. Our. Our hope will be anchored in God's promises. That's going to be the key for us. Now let's look at the next verse in this next section. I want to walk us through the rest of chapter six because it's going to open up this theme of hope in a big way for when God made a promise to Abraham. So now it's going back to the idea of promise and going all the way back to Abraham as the root of our promises and our hope. So 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. Now, in the Old Testament, oaths or covenants were made with swearing an oath, and you swore an oath by swearing to God. In other words, every human being who had to swear an oath to confirm their word had to swear by God. In other words, they had to swear by something bigger than themselves because they basically, I tell the truth, so help me God. For that's an oath formula. So help me God. In other words, if I'm not telling the truth, you may not know, but God does. And may God curse me if I'm not telling the truth. So when you swear an oath, like a juror who swears and puts their hand on a Bible and raises their right hand, which is an ancient oath formula that we find in the Bible goes back to biblical times, we're swearing an oath and we're swearing by God that he may give me the strength to tell the truth and that my word may be trustworthy. So here's the point. God is making a promise to Abraham. And God wants Abraham to know that this is not just any kind of promise, that this is a sure and certain promise that God will make sure that he comes true and he fulfills his promise. So God's going to swear on oath. But the problem is, is there a God bigger than God? No, there's no one bigger than God. So God has to swear this oath by his own name, by himself. So God swears this oath by himself because he is God. It's the only problem that God has. Everybody else has God to swear by, but God doesn't have God to swear by, so he swears by himself who is God. So that's Paul's point here, or at least the author to the Hebrews. I'm going to keep calling him Paul. Can't help it. I'm convinced it's Paul. And he says, surely I will multiply this. This is a promise that now becomes an oath to Abraham. And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. Now, what did Abraham patiently wait for? A son who would be an heir, Isaac. So he patiently waits for that for people swear by something greater than themselves and in all their disputes, an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of, of the promise, the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath. Now here, Paul is now referring back to Genesis, chapter 22, verse 16 and following where in Genesis 22, God calls Abraham to offer up his son Isaac. So Abraham takes Isaac up in the mountain. He's about to sacrifice his son. And God says, you know, sends the angel. And the angel says, stop, Spare your son, for God knows that you've been obedient. And then God, because you are willing to sacrifice your son, God swears by himself to bless all the nations through your seed. So in other words, through your descendants, through the descendants of Isaac, God will bless the entire world. God will bless the entire world through the heir and descendant of Isaac. And of course, that will be important. Of course, we know the great heir of Isaac, a descendant of Isaac, will be Jesus Christ, who will be the source of blessing for all the world, right? Even as far as people in California, right. That it's going to be global everywhere. So that by. And then notice Paul says this, and a lot of commentators have a hard time understanding what he says next. And I want to try to give you my interpretation. I think I know what Paul means by this in verse 19. So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. What are these two unchangeable things? One is the oath he swore to Abraham that's unchangeable. When God swears an oath, he always speaks the truth. And you can't change an oath, that's one thing. But earlier, back in chapter three, he talked about this, that Jesus would be a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. And he's going to come back to that in the next chapter, in chapter seven. And he's going to quote from Psalm 110, which says in Psalm 110, four, I swear that you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. And it's God swearing an oath that this person would be a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. So you have the two times where God swears an oath, Genesis 22, which just was alluded to, and Psalm 110, the promise that there would be a priest according to the order of Melchizedek, and of Course, Paul is going to relate both those promises as fulfilled in Jesus Christ. So that'll be. That'll be key. So let's look at what he says here. It'll be a strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. And then he says this hope. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor. In other words, like an unshakable anchor, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. We have this. What do we have as a sure and steadfast anchor? God's oath that he would bless the whole world through a descendant of Isaac and Abraham, and that he would make that descendant a priest according to the order of Melchizedek, a priest who would make sacrifices and atone for our sins, which is another way he will bring about blessing for the whole world. So that's going to be those two things. That is, those two unchangeable things are the two oaths God swears that will bring about global blessing. The oath to Abraham and the oath that he swears to David in Psalm 110, that he will have a descendant who will be a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. And of course, Jesus will be a descendant of Abraham and David fulfilling both those oaths. And so then we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor. And then the next line, the translators play with the translation here a bit. They say, we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. And then most English translations add the word hope again, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. So there's the idea of Jesus being a priest according to Melchizedek. So what does it mean to go into the inner place behind the curtain? Well, that's a reference to the holy of holies in the temple, the that was separated by a great curtain. And behind that curtain was the holy of holies, where the ark of the Covenant and the presence of God dwelt. And only the high priest could enter into that curtain once a year on the day of atonement. And so what Paul is saying is that we have this as a hope. And as I said, it doesn't mention hope a second time. It says, if I read verse 19, according to the Greek, I would translate it. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul that enters into the inner place behind the curtain. What enters into the inner place behind the curtain. The anchor. The anchor of hope. Well, that's odd. An anchor entering in behind a curtain that enters into the holy of holies. Well, where does this anchor really go? Well, Paul will be clear that he's not talking about the earthly temple in Jerusalem. He's talking about the heavenly temple, which the earthly temple is modeled on the heavenly temple. And so the idea is that we have this as a sure anchor. That is God's word promises us salvation, forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ. And this is an anchor for our soul. And where is that anchor placed? That anchor is dropped not down in the bottom of the ocean, but the anchor goes the opposite direction. That anchor goes all the way up to heaven and to the inner sanctuary of the temple where Jesus is. And then the rest, the next three chapters of the epistle to Hebrews is going to talk about how Jesus enters into that inner place as a high priest, not with the blood of goats and bulls, but his own blood to make atonement for us and therefore saving us forever. And so here's. Let me step back and look at this big picture. Why the metaphor of anchor? I just want to focus on this idea of the metaphor of an anchor. What does that mean, an anchor? Well, how was an anchor used in the ancient times? I know from my own experience. I was just fishing last weekend with my father, and we are on a boat and you find a hot spot where the crappie are, and you want to stay there, but the wind keeps blowing us and drifting us away. And you want to get over that hole where the crappie are gathered. And so one of the things that fishermen do is you drop anchor. And then what that anchor does is it. It gives you stability against the wind. Now that's exactly what happened in St. Paul's life. So, for example, in the Acts of the apostles, chapter 27, verse 26 and following, but especially verse 29 of Acts, chapter 27, Paul is in a ship and that ship navigated. And to help us understand the importance of an anchor for someone like St. Paul, the way people navigated ships, especially in the Mediterranean ocean in the time of St. Paul, is that they wouldn't just cut across the ocean because that would be dangerous, because there'd be big storms. And so what they like to do is stay near the coastline. So if you're going to navigate up, you know, from basically say, Jerusalem up to Antioch and present day Turkey, you would hug the coastline, you would go up along the coast, and then what happened is as you're going along the coast, You. You would sail and you keep a good distance from the coast, but then what would you do during nightfall? You didn't have radar in the ancient world. So when it got dark, and if it got very dark, what you would typically do as a ship is you would drop anchor. Because if you were in the darkness, you couldn't see the shoals and the rocks and the coastline, and it would be easy for you to be shipwrecked. So in the darkness of the night, you would drop anchor and you would wait for daylight and then you would sail again. So anchors were very, very, very important. It wasn't just the leisure of fishing, like my dad and I fishing for crappie. It was about survival. It was about safety and security. And so what you would typically do then is drop anchor. And this is exactly the story we get in Acts chapter 27, verse 29. They are going, and it's getting dark and it's getting at night. And so the sailors, to see how deep it is, and it's 20 fathoms. And. And they go a little bit further and they measure the distance down to the sea floor, and it's 15 fathoms. And so they start panicking. They know they're getting close to shore and they can't see. So what do they do? They drop anchor. But not just one anchor. That ship had four anchors to make sure it was going to be stable in the wind and in the storms and in the darkness, it was going to drop anchor. And so this idea that the hope that we have in Jesus Christ is an anchor for our soul, what does that mean? What does that metaphor mean for the author? Well, I believe that metaphor means for ancient people, the idea of life is a journey. And in that journey, we have to drop anchor when the storms and the wind will take us off course. In fact, on Paul's journey, they don't listen to Paul at one point, and they end up not being anchored at one point, and the ship gets blown out into the midst of the Mediterranean, and. And it ends up becoming shipwrecked because they didn't listen to St. Paul. So it's easy for the storm and the wind and the darkness to make us go shipwreck. And so what do we do for our soul in the midst of the storms? We're anchored in the promise that God gives and that promise he makes by an oath. And what is that promise? It's twofold. It's the promise to Abraham that he is going to bless the whole world by one of his descendants. And of course, that descendant will be Jesus Christ. And then there's a promise that God makes to David that he's going to take one of his heirs, one of David's heirs, and make him a priest according to the order of Melchizedek, a priest who will atone for sin. And of course, that will be fulfilled in Jesus as well. So we have those two promises that God makes to deal with sin and to. And to bless the whole world through a descendant who will be Jesus. And that promise is going to be the anchor for the soul. But then the idea of an anchor is it's got to be tied to a rope to ground and to ground the ship, right? If you drop an anchor, you have to have a rope. And that rope tethers the ship to the sea floor to keep it from being blown by the wind and lost in the darkness. But here, Paul uses this anchor in the opposite direction than we would anticipate. Our hope in God's promise. And God's word is an anchor that sets us and connects us to the heavenly temple in the heavenly Jerusalem, to the inner place of that temple where God dwells. And Jesus is at the end of that rope. He's at the end of that anchor. And that promise, that word that God gives us connects us to God the Father in the heavenly place. Now we'll see how I'm going to highlight a few other passages here. Quickly going through a number of passages in the Epistle to Hebrews to show how this is a thread of hope that runs throughout the tapestry of the next several chapters. So chapter seven continues this idea of Jesus as a priest according to the order of Melchizedek. And then it's going to talk about how he's a priest according to Melchizedek, which is a better priesthood than the Levitical priesthood, because the Levitical priests offer up animals. But the priest, according to the order of Melchizedek, will have a better sacrifice. And so it quotes, for example, in chapter 7, verse 17, that he swears with an oath, you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. And then he goes on and he says in verse 18, for on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness, for the law made nothing perfect, that is the law of Moses. And it's setting aside the old priesthood of Levi. And it says, for a better hope, always look for that word better. In the Epistle to Hebrews, there's something we have a better hope. Now we have, and so it says here a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God. And how do we draw near to God? God's in the holy of holies. And we draw near by that rope that's anchored in hope, which draws us to the inner sanctuary. And then it goes on in verse 20. And it was not without an oath, for those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath. But this one was made a priest by an oath, by the one who said, the Lord has sworn and he will not change his mind. You are a priest forever. According to the order of Melchizedek. This makes Jesus the guarantee of a better covenant. So notice they saying that this new priesthood is is given by an oath by God, whereas the priesthood of Levi and the Levitical priesthood was not given with an oath. And so he's showing that it's a firmer priesthood, one that lasts because it's built on an oath. And then in chapter eight, verse six, it talks about, but as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old covenant he mediates, because as the I'm sorry, but as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, because this new covenant is enacted on better promises. So what's the better promises? In the old covenant, Israel was promised the promised land, the holy land. But in the new covenant, we're promised a new new land, a heavenly Jerusalem, not an earthly Jerusalem. We are promised heaven, not just a piece of property on earth called Israel. And so this is better promises and a better covenant and a better priesthood. And so this theme of better keeps being a drumbeat as we go through the Epistle to the Hebrews. And then in chapter nine, it talks about better sacrifices, the blood of Christ. And so he makes this sacrifice for us. And then in verse 15, it says, Therefore Jesus is a mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance. And what is the promised eternal inheritance? Salvation in heaven forever. Much better than getting allotment of land in Israel, right? The promised eternal inheritance. That's the promise of the new covenant. And then in chapter 10, he's going to talk about how Christ sacrifices once and for all he deals with sin. And because he deals with sin, we can be reconciled with God and we can draw close to God and we can have the hope versus the fear of God. In the old covenant, there was a fear of God that kept a distance from the people of God in the New covenant. Hope is the substitute for fear. And that hope draws us close to God. And so now he goes on and says, for example, in verse 22, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Allusion to baptism. And let us hold fast the confession of our hope. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For he who promised is faithful. Why do we not need to waver in our hope? Because of not us, but because of God. God is the one who's made the promise. And God's promise and word is true. And God's character is such that we can trust it. And so we don't need to waver in our hope because of the One. The One who promised is faithful. And then at the end of chapter 10, it talks about some of the persecution in the Christian community there that I wanted to highlight in verse 34. For you had compassion on those who were in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had better possessions. Notice that the Epistle of Hebrew keeps talking about better. There's a better covenant, there's a better hope, there's a better priesthood. And he's reminding those who are losing or at risk of losing their earthly possessions that there's a better possession you are promised in Christ. So don't let the loss of earthly goods discourage or dispirit you, but hold fast to the hope of what's promised to us in heaven. So he says, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one, therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has great reward, for you have need of endurance. And that word for endurance means patient endurance. And that's what we have to persevere to the end. We need that patient endurance that will be a theme in the Book of Revelation. Jesus gives a reward to those who patiently endure the same word here in the Greek. Have patient endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised. Notice that hope and promise go hand in hand throughout Scripture. Hope and promise go hand in hand. And then he says, for yet in a little while the Coming One will come, and he will not delay. But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul will have no pleasure in him. But we are not those who shrink back and are destroyed, but those who have faith and preserve their souls. And how do we preserve our Souls with the anchor of the soul, which is hope. Right. That'll be key. And then Paul gets into the great chapter that you know very well now. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the substance of things not seen right now. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. Notice, faith and hope go together. I have to believe in God, but I hope in God's promise. My faith is in God's character. My hope is in what he has promised. And so that's going to be crucial for us. And then he goes through this hall of fame of people who had faith throughout salvation history. But I want to jump down to Abraham and focus just on him as the example for us, because he talked about Abraham and God's promise to Abraham in chapter six, where he talked about the anchor of the soul and the promise of God. So in verse eight, by faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And of course, we have an inheritance, which is heaven. So that's the analogy. And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith, he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him to the same promise, and that is heirs to the promised land. But that was a type of a bigger promise, that is heaven. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. By faith, Sarah received power to conceive even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful, who had promised therefore from one man and him as good as dead, were born descendants, as many as the stars of heaven and as many and as numerable as the grains of sand at the seashore. So the idea that Abraham and Sarah trusted God's word and they have a son. But then he's going to go back to Abraham. In verse 17, and he says, by faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom he said, through Isaac, shall your descendants be named. He considered. Now here's the point. Abraham receives the promise of Isaac. He's got Isaac. God promised him Isaac and descendants. And now God says, offer up Isaac. But wait a minute. If Abraham offers up Isaac, then the promise is null and void. Isaac dies. That's it. So what kind of faith and hope did Abraham have to have to be willing to offer up Isaac? Well, here the author says it right here, he says he considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead. From which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back by faith. And then it goes on. So what's the point? Abraham believed that God promised him that through Isaac he would have descendants. But God says, sacrifice Isaac. So then Abraham reasons, well, God is able to raise the dead. So Abraham believes that God can raise the dead, and so he's willing to sacrifice his son Isaac. And the author is saying here, what's our faith? Our faith is that God raises the dead and that he's done that with his own son, Jesus Christ. And by having faith that Jesus raises, that Jesus has been raised from the dead, we believe that God will likewise raise us from the dead. And therefore we don't fear suffering, we don't fear persecution, we don't fear death. As Christians, we've been liberated because of the promise of God in Christ Jesus. And we have this as an anchor. And we already hold by hope an anchor line that will take us to heaven and to the inner sanctuary of the temple in heaven, where God the Father dwells and where Jesus intercedes for us. There's one last scripture passage that I want to cover in light of what we've gone through in the Epistle to the Hebrews. And you know, I've spoken about the fact that I believe that. That St. Paul wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews. Well, whether or not he did, there's a great connection with everything we've covered about faith and hope in the Epistle to Hebrews with what St. Paul writes to the Romans. And I want you to see these connections because he brings with greater clarity if we read these two passages together. And I want to take us to the Epistle to The Romans, chapter 4, verse 16, where he's going to talk about Abraham, faith and hope and resurrection from the dead, all the themes that we just saw that the whole Epistle of the Hebrews builds up towards. And so in chapter four of Romans, verse 16, it says, that is why it depends on faith. In order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring. Not only to the adherents of the law, but also to the ones who share the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made you the Father of many nations in the presence of God, in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that do not exist. So God is the one who creates out of nothing. And because he can create ex nihilo, he can also therefore raise the dead. And then he goes on in hope. Notice the theme of faith and hope intertwined here in in hope, Abraham believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, so shall your offspring be. He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead since he was about 100 years old, or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. So notice Abraham and Sarah are past childbearing age, so their bodies are as good as dead. And yet God's going to take their bodies being dead, in terms of fruitfulness and productivity. He's going to make fruitful. And then he goes on and says, and no unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God. Doxa, you're going to hear that theme in the Next talk by Dr. Mark Isczyk we're going to get to in a minute. But how did he give glory to God? What is he referring to here? I believe that at first he's referring to Abraham having faith that God can grant he and his wife a child in their old age. That's the first miracle. But the second one is exactly the one we just heard about in the Epistle to Hebrews. When Abraham is tested and he has to take his son, the son of the promise, and sacrifice him. And then Abraham has to strengthen in faith and believe that not only can God create out of nothing, but he can raise the dead and give them new life. And he believes that Isaac will be raised from the dead. And so this is what he says, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That, my friends, is our model for how we have hope, by being fully convinced that God will be faithful to his promises. If you don't think about God making promises and you don't think about God's character of being faithful to his promises, you will not have strong hope. Our hope rests on the character of God and his promises. And then he goes on and says, that is why his faith was counted to him as righteousness. But the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. And it will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord. So in other words, just as Abraham believed that Isaac would be raised from the dead by God, we believe that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead. And that's why we share the same faith of Abraham. Because at the heart of Abraham's faith is the belief in the resurrection of the dead. And in the heart of our faith is the belief that the Father has raised his beloved son, Jesus, Jesus Christ, the new Isaac. And so at the heart of Christian faith is the belief in the resurrection of the dead. And then it goes on who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. And that's why the Epistle of Hebrews then goes on and talks about Jesus as a priest, according to the order of Melchizedek to atone for sins. And then chapter five, when there wasn't a chapter division. Let me end here with the first few verses of chapter five. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into his grace, in which we stand now in the Epistle to the Hebrews, we obtain access. Access to what? Access to God's presence in the temple. The whole Epistle of the Hebrews is working on how do we have access into the temple? By the blood of Christ and by the mediation of the new high priest, Jesus Christ. And here he's talking about how we have access into the grace in which we stand, by what? By faith in Jesus, who was risen from the dead. And then it goes on and says, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We have the hope that we too will be raised from the dead and have access to the presence of God, just as Jesus does. And so that is the basis of our hope. And then he goes on and says, not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance. Endurance is that word that we found at the end of chapter 10 of the Hebrews hupomone, patient, endurance in the midst of suffering. So we know then that we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces patient endurance and endurance, that patient endurance produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. So you see how all this goes back to the theme of hope, right? And that the suffering and the affliction that we have builds character, and character produces hope. How does our character produce hope? Because when you grow strong in character, when you have the kind of character that tells the truth, even if telling the truth is difficult and painful, you know what good, strong character is. And as you grow strong in character, you believe and trust in God's character even more. And when you trust God's character, who promised to raise us from the dead in Christ, Jesus Christ, who promised to forgive us our sins, we trust God's character. And that is the basis of our hope. That is the anchor by which we will hold fast in our Christian life. In the midst of the storms and the winds of the world, all the trouble and tribulation that the world has, we will remain steadfast and secure because we're anchored in the hope of knowing who God is and, and what his promise is. And that promise is based, just like Abraham's faith that God raises the dead. Our faith is that God has raised the dead in Jesus Christ and will raise us when we die, and that he will raise all of our loved ones when they die. And that faith gives us hope in the midst of COVID in the midst of the pandemic, when people are afraid of death and when so many people suffer death, we don't, as Christians, suffer like the world. We don't live in slavery to fear because we have an unshakable hope. We have an unshakeable hope. And that unshakeable hope helps us overcome fear. It helps us overcome persecution because we have these promises of God. And that changes everything. You know, a friend of mine just said he got a diagnosis and, you know, he said, my parents taught me that life is about going to heaven eventually and that we shouldn't fear death. And that's how he lives. You know, that's the Christian faith. Because what that man had, even with that difficult diagnosis, he has an anchor for his soul. And that anchor is in the word of God, the promise of eternal life and the promise of forgiveness that we have in Jesus Christ and that has anchored him in the storm he is going through. And it anchors us in the storms that we all go through. And so we have to hold fast to that anchor of hope. So I want you to reflect on God's promises, His promise to forgive you of his sins. That's why Jesus is the priest, according to Melchizedek, and the promise that he raises the dead. Hold onto those promises with a firm hope and it will give us what we find at the very end. And the last line I want to read is from the end of Hebrews, chapter 12, verse 28. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And thus let us offer to God worship, acceptable worship with reverence and awe. When you see this good news that we've been given, you can't but respond to God with worship. It.