Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Hebrews chapter 6 and verse
19. Which hope we have as an anchor
of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that
within the veil. Hebrews 6 and verse 19, and I
want to speak this evening with the Lord's help of hope and anchor
of the song. Apostle Paul, as I believe it
is here, he first speaks to the Hebrews desiring to leave those
first principles and go on to deeper things in the faith. And he speaks first in verse
4 of those that fall away, those that were once enlightened, once
had tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to
come. If they fall away to renew them
again and to repentance, One key as to what actually they
have done in falling away is that they put the Son of God
to an open shame. They are very public, falling
away. They once made a profession,
once found amongst the people of God, once maybe even in an
office in the church, and said every outward resemblance of
being the people of God. They received the Word, they
sung the hymns, they heard the preaching, and yet they were
not the people of God. It didn't last, it didn't endure. And we have the same teaching
with our Lord with the parable of the sower, where the seed
was the same. The seed was the same that fell
on the wayside, on the stony ground, or on the ground that
had thorns and grew thorns, and that which also was on good ground. was all the same, all partook
of the same. And there's a real warning and
an illustration that follows here of a piece of ground. In verses 7 and 8 we have a piece
of ground, it is tilled and it receives the rain from heaven,
it has every blessing that another piece of ground might have, but
on that ground it brings forth thorns and thistles and things
that are only worth burning, that's not any fruit to any honour
at all. And that's the illustration the
Apostle brings here as of those that are not bringing forth fruit. And we must be very clear in
one of our articles and clearly state that God never enlightens
the non-elect to make them capable of receiving grace. Those that
fall away, they were never in the covenant. They did not receive
that grace from heaven. God's Word, His faithfulness
has not failed. It's just that they've heard
in just a natural way. They've been either a wayside
or a stony ground hearer or even one that the seed was sown amongst
thorns. But then the Apostle says that
he is persuaded in verse 9 of better things of you and things
that accompany salvation. He speaks in verse 10 of their
work. God is not unrighteous to forget
your labour, your work and labour of love. Now, one thing that
It's very important to remember, this is in verse 9, the Apostle
says, and things that accompany salvation, not things that are
the cause of salvation, not the works that are meritorious in
gaining us heaven. But they are fruits that accompany
salvation. And so he speaks of that which
they had shown toward his name, and ministered to the saints
of God. And do minister, remember our
Lord said, whosoever giveth a cup of cold water in the name of
a disciple verily shall not lose his reward. And he speaks of
those that, as much as ye have done this unto the least of my
brethren, ye have done it unto me. And so he is encouraging
them to bring forth those fruits that accompany salvation. And
verse 11 and 12, desire that every one of you to show the
same diligence and full assurance of hope unto the end. We might
have those that are very diligent, and their thought is, we're going
to merit heaven. God is going to be pleased with
what we're doing. We'll get heaven. But with God's people, they're
not thinking that. But that doesn't mean to say
that they're careless and indifferent and don't show forth the same
fruits that those that are not in the covenant of grace do.
And so he says, be not slothful, but followers of them who through
faith and patience inherit the promises. And going back again,
he speaks of that they might have that full assurance of hope,
and really the work that God does in us is that which does
give assurance of hope unto the end, give diligence of full assurance
of hope unto the end. So having exhorted them to fruitfulness,
to walking to the honour and glory of God, to show clearly
the difference between those that have cast away, gone away,
and those that remain, then establishes at the end of the chapter what
the real foundation is. As if he does not want to leave
them with just the exhortations to fruitfulness, or things accompanied
by salvation, and leave them with the idea
that, well, this is their hope, their assurance and hope is resting
on what fruits they bring forth. He says, no, the hope is built
on something much, much deeper than that, and is built upon
God's own promise and His oath, God's own counsel. And it is
that hope that we have then as an anchor of the soul, both sure
and steadfast, which entereth into that within the veil. And it is that then that I want
to look at this evening. And we do not forget the practical
exhortations of the Word and actually be encouraged where
We find the Lord is the one that works in you to will and to do
of his own good pleasure. And to note how the Lord makes
that difference between those that are his and those that are
not. By their fruits you shall know them. I want to look at
three points then this evening. Firstly, the hope that we have. Our text says, which hope we
have. And then secondly, what this
hope is to a soul. We have as an anchor of the soul. It is an anchor. And then thirdly,
where the anchor enters and holds, and which, both sure and steadfast,
which entereth into that. within the veil. So firstly,
the hope that we have. Which hope? A hope that is set
before us. If we compare with some of the
other passages, we think of Paul writing to Titus in the first
chapter there in verse two, he says, in hope of eternal life,
which God that cannot lie, promised before the world began. And here
is the apostle saying in the verse of our text that it is
the promise of God, the oath of God, and he's pointing to
a hope that goes before this world. It is in eternity past. Then we have the word that he
writes to the Colossians in his first epistle to the Colossians
in the first chapter and he says there if ye continue in the faith,
grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope
of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made
a minister." That is the hope. And when Paul writes to the Romans,
and with the Romans he really desires their salvation in chapter
10, and he sees them, sees his countrymen, that they are ignorant
of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. In other words, it's a fair comparison
with what he's dealt with in the beginning of Hebrews 6, with
the fruits, but they weren't looking upon them as the fruits,
they were looking at us as their way of salvation, they're hoping
to be saved by that. But he said they were ignorant
of God's righteousness. He said, Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Moses
describeth the righteousness which is of the law, that the
man which doeth those things shall live by them. So the apostle
in chapter 10 of Romans, he is dealing with the hope of the
gospel, what the hope is to be built upon, not of works, but
of grace, of God's work. And then he says, what saith
the word of the gospel? What is the righteousness of
faith? The word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the word of faith which we
preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, with the mouth confession is made. unto
salvation. So when he says to the Colossians
of the hope of the Gospel, it is the hope that is set before
us as priests when the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ is preached and set forth. That is the hope then of the
Gospel, the good news of the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ. And so Paul was dealing with
a righteousness, a righteousness that is ours, a righteousness
that is Christ's, that is imputed to us, imputed to those that
are believers. And the hope then is in that
gospel that was first preached in the Garden of Eden when the
promise was that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's
head. echoed again when Abraham says
to his son, when his son says, where is the lamb for a burnt
offering? God will provide himself a lamb
for a burnt offering. And the Gospel goes right back
before time. We have a beautiful chain in
Romans 8. He whom God did foreknow, then
he also did predestinate. and whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, whom he called, them he also justified,
and whom he justified, them he also glorified. And there's a
beautiful chain, and it goes right back to before the world. Those that are chosen in Christ,
before the foundation of the world, Those that are loved with
an everlasting love, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, and therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee, those of which
the Lord spoke in John 10, thine they were, and thou gavest them
me. I pray for them, I pray not for
the world, but for them whom thou hast given me. I lay down
my life for the sheep, Ye are not of my sheep, he says to the
scribes and Pharisees, because ye hear not my word. I lay down
my life, I have power to take it again, and power to lay it
down, and power to take it again. This commandment have I received
from my Father. And we find a counsel, a purpose,
a plan of salvation from before the foundation of the world that
is being slowly revealed and opened up to man, that God himself
should be the one that provides the answer to the sentence that
was upon man. In the day that thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die. Any salvation Any hope that doesn't
include a hope beyond the grave, that doesn't include a hope of
eternal life, is not a gospel, it is not good news. What we
lost at the fall was eternal life. We came under the sentence
of death, God's sentence. When we sinned we didn't automatically
inherit all what sin has brought on the earth, it has come from
the judgment of God. If someone commits a felony in
our land, if they steal something, if they rob someone, if they
injure someone, they don't automatically do that and then they're straight
into prison. They go to judge and go to the
court and then hopefully the court will say, for what crime
you have done, you go to prison. And so The sentence that they're
under is a sentence of the court. And so with man, with fallen
man, we are under the sentence of God. We are under God's wrath,
under his curse. In the day that thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die. And so it is that we need to
be delivered from that. And the good news of the gospel
is God's provision from that. And the beautiful things that
are provided is that God has said it is allowable that there
should be a substitute. If we were to go to the courts
of our land and we'd say, well, here's a person. I don't want
them to go into jail. I will be a substitute. The judge
would say, that's not allowed in our land. That's not in the
law. You can't do that. But God will say, no, there can
be a substitute. But you won't find a substitute
amongst the fallen sons of Adam. You won't find any substitute
amongst them because they're all fallen. Another thing that
is provided is there will be a redemption. No man can redeem
his own soul, no man can redeem a brother, but there is a provision
in the Gospel that if a suitable person can be found to be able
to provide the redemption, which without the shedding of blood
there is no remission, if that blood can be found that is spotless
and pure and sinless and can be a redemption for the people
of God, then that is accepted. And so in the Lord Jesus Christ
there is plenteous redemption. In the Lord Jesus Christ there
is a near kinsman, a right to redeem. In the Lord Jesus Christ
there is also one that is spotless and pure, who is able to lay
down his life and be a substitute for his people, and is also in
his life, his perfect life and obedience, able to give a righteousness
that His people do not have by nature. The Lord is the righteousness
of the Church of God. He has a righteousness that belongs
to Himself as the Eternal Son of God, as truly God, but He
has a second righteousness. He that had two coats, let Him
give to him that had none. The Lord has two coats. They
said, let us divide His robe. It was without a seam. and is
a beautiful type of the righteousness of Christ. The blood of Christ
is that which puts away the sin of His people. The righteousness
of Christ is what fits and prepares us to stand before God, spotless
and without fault, so it's not in our own works, it's not what
we've done, it's what He has done. He's paid the ransom, He
also has provided the fitness to stand before Him at last. And this hope of the gospel,
what a hope that that is. The sentence that we are under
to the Lord himself was bold. They shall look upon him whom
they have pierced. They shall mourn for him and
be in bitterness for him. Convinced that it was their sins,
our sins that nailed him there, that he was his substitute. What must have Isaac have felt
when he was taken off the altar? And then his father takes the
ram, and he puts the ram on the altar, and the knife slays the
ram, and then the fire burns the ram. And I think, look, that
could have been me. The knife was raised, that was
me. But now it's the ram instead
of me. And this is how we have to look
upon Calvary. I, if I be lifted up above the
earth, will draw all men. And this is the hope, the hope
of the Gospel. What has been provided for is
not a last minute thing. It's not just a contingency thing. It's a glorious plan of salvation
from the very foundation of the world. It's by the promise of
God again and again through the Old Testament. And it is by the
oath of God that the Lord has done this. And really the empty
tomb It seals it, it sets forth. This sacrifice was an accepted
sacrifice. It was that of which is the only
hope. My hope, we've sung it, is built
on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not
trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. And it is this hope that we have. Well, it doesn't just say which
hope. It says which hope we have. How can we personally have this
hope? Well, if we look in verse 18,
we read that we might have a strong consolation. Who is the we that
might have a strong consolation? It is who have fled for refuge
to lay hold upon the hope set before us. That is the ones that
have and can rightly say which hope we have. In Hebrews 11,
We have that long list of those that lived and died by faith,
and the summary in from verse 13 is that these all died in
faith not having received the promises, that is, not having
seen Christ come or received Him in the flesh, but having
seen them afar off, were persuaded of them and embraced them, confess
that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. And so
there's a realization of our sin. It is like those under Levitical
law that had killed a person inadvertently and they were given
three cities of refuge on one side of the Jordan, three cities
the other, and they could flee to those cities so that the slaves
of blood, the relatives that were seeking revenge, they didn't
slay them until they came before the judges and then if they were
guilty of premeditated murder they were put to death, but if
that was accidental then they had to stay in that city of refuge
until the death of the high priest and then they had to go free
then. In other words, they were going
to have a life sentence as long as the priest lived. But in the
time of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord as the refuge has already
died, and yet he lives. So those that flee unto him for
refuge are immediately set free. And he's already paid their debt,
he's already paid their sentence. Here, those that have this hope,
which hope we have, are those that have been brought by grace
to flee for refuge, to lay hold upon the hope set before us. That hope has been set before
us by God himself. The Lord is a schoolmaster unto
Christ, The Apostle says himself in Romans 7 that as a Pharisee
before he was alive without the law once but when the commandment
came sin revived and I died. He says in Romans 3 the law was
given that sin might abound, that all the world might become
guilty before God. The law doesn't give life but
it shows the malady brings the sinner in guilty.
It is like the Philippine jailer who was at the point of taking
his own life in despair, but then Paul says, do thyself no
harm, we're all here. And he cries out, what must I
do to be saved? Paul doesn't bring the law before
him, he brings the gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved and thy house. and the Lord blessed and
saved all his house. Paul knew how he'd been brought
in God's providence to that place, believing that this was God's
work to present before him a way of life, a way of mercy. And we have with Lydia, whose
heart the Lord opened. The Lord deals in different ways
with people, but each one of them are brought to look upon
the Lord Jesus Christ as their hope, their only hope, and is
it fleeing from the law, from the world, from self, from sin,
and brought to have no other hope but in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we may say this, that
when it is we have, that is known by calling. Our election is known
by calling. That beautiful chain I mentioned
in Romans, where we have foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification,
glorification. Calling stands in the centre
of that chain. One way we look back to what
has been the foreknowledge and predestination of God, and the
other way forward to truly being justified and staying faultless
before God and glorified in heaven. And it is the calling that is
vital. He which hath begun a good work
in you. The good work for us was done
at Calvary an eternity past, but a good work in us, that which
was done with Zacchaeus. drawn to see the Lord where he
passed by. Come down, I must dine at thine
house. One of God's appointments, the
woman at the well of Samaria, the Lord had told him, John 3,
the vital necessity of the new birth. So in John 4, he gives
four examples, real life examples of sinners being born again,
and each one of them are different. The woman at the well of Samaria,
centurion, and we have those of the Samaritans, come see a
man that told me all things that ever I did, is not this the Christ? Are those that believe because
of her word? Are those that said afterwards,
now we believe not because of thy word, but because we've heard
him and know in truth that this is the Messiah, this is the Christ
that should come into the world. And the calling of God. is irresistible,
it is certain, it draws a sinner unto Christ, no man can come
unto me except the Father which certainly brought him and I'll
raise him up at the last day. And where we have that evidence
of calling, where as part of that calling we've had a hope
set before us and we've And that as a refuge and run to it, come
to it, that hope now is to be for us as an anchor. It's not a hope that is not used,
it is used, it will be used. And if you think as we look at
this second point, what this hope is to the soul, it is an
anchor. And for the most part, My seaships
sailing are going on. There is the anchor and it's
tucked up under the bow. It's not being used. It's there. But it's there because there
are circumstances where it will be used and it is needed to be
used. And so the Lord has called us
and he's given us a hope in Christ. there will be those times that
we specifically need that hope as an anchor of our soul. I want to think of going from the
illustration here to how it is in a spiritual sense. We think
of the Apostle Paul when he was shipwrecked, when he was going
to Rome. And it was night, they'd been
driven up and down in the Mediterranean, and they thought they came, were
near to land, and so they, they threw four anchors out of the
stern and hoped for the morning. Now you might say, well, aren't
we running the races set before us? Aren't we on a journey? Isn't a ship on a journey in
anchor? There's not much help getting from one place to another.
It's holding it in one place. It's not allowing it to go forward.
But there are those times, like Paul found, that for their safety,
for their good, they needed to stay where they were. They were
safe not to be proceeding, but not going back and not making
shipwreck. They were holding on where they
were. And it's good for us to think,
because sometimes we can think, well, we must always be proceeding. We must always be going on advancing,
maybe in the kingdom. But if we get an idea of that,
especially when there's storms, when there's temptations, when
there's troubles, those anchors, it holds the bow of a ship into
the wind so it doesn't go sideways to the waves. It holds it in
the right way. And that's what we need with
this hope. is a word when we're tried, when
we're tempted, when all around our soul, as the hymn writer
says, gives way, that is when that hope is to hold us fast. I was struck years ago by one
of the brethren from the churches that I thought, well, of all
churches though, ones that would be really evangelizing and seeking
to increase And he said, I think today is a day we need to really
have the anchors in and hold fast, that we do not lose what
we have. The church has been going down
and down and down so much, we need to really hold fast as to
what we have. They're throwing the anchors.
There's another times that the anchors are used when When a
ship is going into port, sometimes there's other ships there, so
they can't go straight into port, so they need to stay in one place
just waiting for their berth to come open. And so sometimes with the people
of God, we're waiting, waiting for the next part, maybe waiting
to be brought home. for the Lord to come and to take
us, and it is then to have that hope that holds us as an anchor
waiting for the Lord to come. Many of my visits to Pilgrim
Home and to Bethesda, I've seen those aged pilgrims and their
whole demeanour has just been like that. They've got a good
home and they were longing for the Lord to come and the Lord
to take them home. And that's what they were waiting
for, as it were, their anchors were holding them there, and
they were just waiting for that time, that they were to be taken
home. Another way, and I think sometimes
I've seen pictures of the Panama Canal, which can only have a
certain amount of ships going through at a time, and you see
the great basins before it, and there might be lots of ships
all at anchor. And they're waiting for their
turn to go through. And there's been many times in
their life that we're like that. We might think, why? Why are
we waiting? Why has Moses got our 40 years
in the wilderness before he leads the children of Israel through?
Why does Abraham need 25 years before Isaac is born? Why does
Joseph need to be sold and then put into prison, falsely accused,
put into prison, and forgotten in prison? But while he was in
prison, was he casting away his faith? Was he going back? No. His anchor, his hope, we
read in Psalm 105, until his time came, the word of the Lord
tried him, but the Lord was with him. held on his way. And there are those times in
the life of the people of God where they are waiting times,
where it seems nothing much has been done in Providence. Sometimes
we have times in their lives when things are happening one
after another, and in others it seems we're just going from
day to day and week to week. But what a pleasant thing then
to have a hope. I think one of the most dangerous
times for Lord's people is when they're waiting. Abraham, he was tempted to put
things in his own hands, and Ishmael comes along, and you
think of King Saul, Samuel hadn't come at the appointed time, so
he offers a sacrifice. I force myself, he says, offer
the sacrifice, which was not the place of a king to offer
a sacrifice at all. Then Samuel came. It's when the
Lord delays and then he can be tempted to go away from his word
or do things not commanded. But then it is to think of this
as an anchor of our souls, to hold us fast and our hope upon
that which we first hoped in and first looked towards. Think
of the letters to the Revelation reproving them because they have
left their first love or gone away from their first hope which
is the Lord Jesus Christ. So this hope is as an anchor,
an illustration, like a ship is held. The people of God are
held on their way. They don't end up doing like
those in the earlier part of the chapter, that they fell away. They crucified to themselves
the Son of God afresh. They needed something else. The
hope given to the people of God right at the beginning will see
them right through to the end of their journey. They don't
need something new. They don't need another hope,
another God. They need that which goes right
back. And that's where we want to come
to the last point, where this anchor enters and holds. If the hope is looking back,
before time, before the foundation of the world, we have the other
illustration here with the anchor as it holds within the veil where
the Lord Jesus Christ is now. And so, none of the hope is based
on time, it's not on us, it's not in our life, it's not on
what we have done, it's what God has done in the past, it's
what Christ is in heaven, interceding for us, making intercession for
us, Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me be with
me where I am, that they may behold my glory. That anchor
is holding there. Another thing with this, when
a ship casts its anchor, can you see it? You can see the anchor
when it's not being used, when it's on the bow of a ship, but
when it's being used, all you can see is the chain, and it
disappears into the sea and it's hidden from sight. It's holding
on to the sand or the rocks or what is right deep down underneath
that ship. And the picture is here. The
anchor for a child of God is not sea. It's out of sight. It's where the Lord is, within
the veil. That is where the anchor is holding
fast on. Hope that is seen is not hope. What a man seeth, why does he
yet hope for? If we hope for that which we
see not, then we, with patience, wait for him. There's a reason
why the Lord ascended up into heaven. He's nowhere on earth.
It is so that our thoughts, our expectations, like the Thessalonians,
they were called to wait for His Son. from heaven and that
hope then directs us there. All the true blessings of God
come from God and they lead us to God. They will bring us to
centre upon Him, our hopes upon Him and where that is so, it
will then bring forth fruit to God's honour and glory. Those fruits that the Apostle
exhorts to early on in this chapter, but won't have us thinking, well,
because we've failed in that, because we've committed this
sin and we've fallen here, our thoughts and affections have
been by sin defiled there, and we're tossed to and fro with
Satan's temptations, you would say, yes, but your hope of heaven
is not on your word. is not on your endeavors, is
not on your fruitfulness. When you see all marred and died
with sin, and when you like Peter that for a time you might deny
your Lord and then be restored, but his hope wasn't in his own
words. David, a man after God's own
heart with his sin and murder, but his hope wasn't upon his
own words. He says, although my house be
not so with God, yet hath he made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things and sure, this is all my salvation and
all my desire, though he make it not to grow." And this is
the picture here. The apostle would not have his
people without bearing fruit, but bearing fruit, but not tossed
to and fro and dismayed when they see and feel in themselves
that dwelleth no good thing, he says of himself, the good
I would I do not, the evil thou would not that I do, O wretched
man that I am. But his hope was in the Lord,
and that's where he is pointing the Hebrews to here, and to us
here, where we have this hope, where that hope is in the gospel,
in our Lord Jesus Christ and his finished work, and the need
of that hope, the use of it, to hold their soul, especially
at times when we're tossed to and fro with winds of temptation
and trials or trouble, and tempted to go back, despair, or listen
to Satan. That's what this hope is for,
which we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast,
that will not move. Christ does not move. and which
entereth into that within the vial. May we know what it is
to have such an anchor and to have it hold us fast and to be
thankful for such a token that the Lord who gave us that hope
will one day change that hope to sight and we shall see him
and know him even as we are known. Which hope we have has an anchor
of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that
within the veil. Amen.