This is the last service, God
willing, this year we shall hold in our chapel or at least through
the means of the internet. I thought I would break away
from our meditation in the epistle of Paul to the Philippians and
tonight just speak from one verse in this sixth chapter of Paul's
epistle to the Hebrews and that is verse 19. So verse 19 in this
sixth chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews. this is what
it reads, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul both
sure and steadfast and which entereth into that within the
veil. The previous verse, verse 18
reads, for by two immutable things in which it was impossible for
God to lie we might have a strong consolation who have fled for
refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. Well, we should
be very thankful that we have such a word before us, a word
which is so positive, emanating from the Lord himself, a word
which you and I can rely upon, especially as we look back through
this past year and are able to recognize God's goodness and
God's mercy which has been toward us in varying ways. This illustration
that we have here of this anchor clearly refers to a ship. And of course, when we're born
really, we leave the port where we were born. And as it were,
we travel on an ocean and we travel towards a port. And indeed, may that port be
the port of glory, the port of heaven that you and I are traveling
towards. Now on a journey naturally on
the sea, it won't remain a calm journey. Sometimes it will be
very tumultuous. Sometimes we'll have to pass
through storms. Sometimes there will be times
of calm. but so it is in our spiritual
way. Now naturally with an anchor,
an anchor is thrown overboard from a ship just like that it
would sink into the ocean and the ship would carry on because
there would be nothing to restrain it and what is needed is a cable
or a rope or a line which fixes the anchor and ties it to the
ship. Well in our spiritual way as
we may cast first of all an anchor cast the anchor out as it were
into the sea and we need a cable and what is that cable in a spiritual
sense it is indeed faith. God gives us faith, and that
faith ties the hope that we have, that hope that God gives us,
that through his grace, through his mercy, through his love,
we will come at last, as the psalmist tells us in the 107th
Psalm, to our desired haven. And truly may heaven, the port
to which we are traveling, may be our desired haven, that we may truly be journeying
to that place. And may we know therefore that
the Lord is with us. And as we cast that anchor of
hope We cast it, as it were, into the sea. And it won't be
satisfactory if this anchor just sinks into the sand, because
it can be easily pulled out. But we need it to be affixed
upon a rock. And then you see, it will hold
us firm. So when we come into these difficult
times in our life, to know, therefore, that this anchor will hold us. And what a blessing to think
really of what that rock is. And that rock is, of course,
none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And then to consider
that that anchor is therefore fixed upon His finished work. What a great blessing that is
for us, as you and I journey through life this word is so
true which hope we have it is a good hope it's not a false
hope it's a hope based upon what Jesus has done without his work
without his finished work we would not have any good hope
any real hope but can we not thank our God today for it and
to believe that we do have this anchor and it's the anchor of
our soul. Our soul is much more valuable
than our body. Our body will perish, our body
fades away, but our soul lives forever. And so what a mercy
then, if on this journey we are directed to our heavenly home
with that good hope, through grace, through the mercy for
the wonderful love of the Savior, that it is well with our soul. Notwithstanding the storms of
life, it is still well with our soul. And our hope and our confidence
is not based on ourselves. And that's why the apostle is
able to tell us which hope we have as an anchor of the soul
both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within
the veil." It's a sure and steadfast. The promises of God do not fail. They are immutable. They are
sure. What a blessing for us today
to have the faith to believe in that great and glorious truth. As we look back in history as
we know there was of course the tabernacle and the temple of
course they had the veil the veil which separated between
the holy place and the holy of holies and you see the high priest
was able to enter in to the holy of holies on the annual occasion
not without blood and the holy of holies sets before us the
glory of heaven. And what was in the Holy of Holies,
the Ark of the Covenant, representing our great and glorious Saviour,
there was then the entering into that within the veil. And that
would have been familiar to the Hebrews, familiar to the Church
of God in those days. And so today, as we look forward
to realise that by the grace of God, we shall enter in to
that holy place within the veil, to glory at last, where the Saviour
is, where the Saviour sits, where the Saviour intercedes for us,
and by His grace to be found at last with Him and the whole
Church of God in glory. what a mercy it is then to realize
that this of course will be our blessed lot throughout eternity
and so hope is sure and steadfast because it is centered upon Christ
his person his blood and his righteousness and because indeed
he is immutable so surely it is something for us to be thankful
for as we look back over this past year to realize we've come
through some stormy scenes there are still stormy scenes but to
realize we have a God who's immutable and may this enable us by his
grace to have this sure and steadfast confidence in our God that we
have this good hope of eternal life. It's not a false hope because
it's based upon God's promises. It's based upon God's truth and
may we truly rejoice in it. And so as we face the coming
year knowing not what the future holds, may we venture forward
trusting in the Lord with our confidence in our God, believing
in those words He who has helped us hitherto will help us all
our journey through, and give us daily cause to raise new Ebenezers
to his praise, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul,
both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within
the veil. Well may the Lord bless his word.