Hebrews chapter 6. Hebrews chapter 6, and the title
of this message is, Hope, an Anchor of the Soul. Paul had, and I say Paul because I believe
Paul wrote Hebrews, He tells us that we have a strong consolation
and that we have an anchor for the soul. You know, life on this earth
is like a ship at sea. That's what he's comparing it
to. It's tossed at times with strong wind and storms. And without
a good anchor, the ship would be lost. It would be lost, destroyed. It would drift away. But a good
anchor that's let down into the deep and it gets a hold of the
rock, it holds in that storm. It may swirl around. It may be
over here for a little bit, be over here for a little bit, but
I tell you what, it's right there holding on to that rock. And
it's only as good as the anchor. The safety of that ship is only
as good as the anchor that's holding it. And so it is with
the believers. In this life, we are tossed to
and fro with temptations, trials, our own sins, doubts. We should never have
a doubt, should we? I don't have a reason under heaven
to ever have a doubt. I don't. God's never failed.
Has God ever failed? He's never failed. But we do. Doubts? Fears? Fears? We have too many fears,
don't we? Because of sin, we have too many
fears. I have nothing to fear. I have nothing to fear. And because of this, we need
a strong consolation, not just consolation or comfort. We need
one that's strong, one that can overcome the toughest of trials. We need a consolation that's
of God that will overcome the strongest trials, the strongest
fears, even death itself when that hour comes. I've never faced
death. You know, I've never faced it.
I've been around those who have been right there and they've
passed away. I've not been there. But this
consolation that we have in Christ has got to be and is a very strong
one. It will overcome all things.
It will overcome all things. And we need a strong anchor to
hold us on our journey home, don't we? We're tossed about
so often. Well, I have good news. We have
a strong consolation and an anchor for the soul in the Lord Jesus
Christ. We have it. I would to God we
could lay hold of Him with both hands with a death grip. Just
hold on. Hold, grip Him. Lay hold, the
Scripture says, of eternal life. Lay hold of it. And when the
Scripture says lay hold of eternal life, it's talking about laying
hold of Jesus Christ who is eternal life. That's what 1 John 1 says.
He is eternal life. Paul says this in verse 18, and
no doubt he's saying this to comfort them after what he said
in the earlier verses about it being impossible for those who
were once enlightened and tasted a good gift, it's impossible
to renew them to repentance. And he's speaking of apostasy
there, that if it's possible, if we could leave Christ, grace,
it would be impossible to renew us again to repentance. And so
he's giving some comfort to them after writing about this, because
he says in verse nine, beloved, we are persuaded better things
of you and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
He said, but I don't feel this way about you. I believe God
has saved you. You've given evidence. You've given evidence that God
has saved you. And one of the evidence, let
me see if I can find the verse. One of the evidence is this,
that you have, In verse 10, for God is not unrighteous to forget
your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward
His name. You've shown your love to Christ in this way. You've
taken care of the saints. You've ministered to the saints.
When we truly, from the heart, take care of one another, look
after one another, we are actually demonstrating our love to the
Lord Jesus Christ. That love that she had brought
in the heart is demonstrated in the way we take care of one
another, the way we look after the saints, God's saints. Not
just in this local assembly, but throughout the world, whenever
it comes to our knowledge. So it says here in verse 18,
He said that 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. Now God
has given us two immutable things. First of all, His counsel, which
is immutable. Or we can say His promises, which
never fail. Lay hold of the promises of God.
God's good for His word. He will fulfill His promise.
One of the very things that kept me going when I first heard the
gospel was what, that scripture, He said, He that cometh to me,
I will in no wise cast out. I took that, I mean, I took that
to heart. Lord, you said, you said, here's
a promise. I tell you, there's no better
way to pray than to take God's own word to Him. to take God's
word, to take God's promises and lay them down as a throne
of grace. Lord, you said, here's a promise. He's never failed
to cash that check. As Spurgeon said, Spurgeon called
them checks. He's never failed to cash it.
It's a promise. And his promises and his immutability
and his oath, God has given his oath, he swore. He swore. And He could swear by no greater,
He swore by Himself. And so He's given us a strong
consolation and He has set it before us. It's set before us.
It's being set before you again this morning. In the Word of
God, in the gospel, the gospel being preached, it's set before
you every time the gospel is preached. The strong consolation
that we have that we are to lay hold of. God sets it before us
continually. In the Gospel, He sets it before
sinners. It's all of grace. Aren't you
glad that salvation is all of grace? The older I get, I'm telling
you the truth, the older I get, the more I appreciate and love
the grace of God. Just the sound of it. I know,
I know, if salvation were not all of grace, I know this one
would never make it. This one would be lost. I know
that. And I know you would too. I know
you would too. And it's all of God. This consolation
is all of God. Now, that being so, apply for
it. Lord, give me this consolation.
Give me this strong consolation so that I won't doubt It's a
shame to doubt. It is a slap in God's face to
doubt Him. I'll never leave you nor forsake
you. When you go through the water, I'll go with you. And
the fire, it will not burn you. So why should we doubt when we
go through it? But we do, we do. But I tell
you this, ask the Lord to give you this strong consolation,
this strong comfort. so that you can honor Him and
not bring shame in our conduct. So He's given us a strong consolation
and it's set before us. It's set before us. We don't
have to go looking for it. You don't have to say, where is it? You
ever hear the old saying that you can't see the forest for
the trees? Sometimes we hear the gospel so often. Now this
is something we have to be careful with. Sometimes if we hear the
gospel so often, we almost just fall asleep under it. We become
very sleepy. You go read the letters to the
churches. Just read the letters to the
churches. They're in Revelation. And you'll see most of them had
just fallen asleep. Spiritual slumber. Remember over
in the song of Solomon's when the Lord came and he knocked
on the door and she said, I've washed my feet, I'm ready to
go to bed, I'm tired. I'm tired. Are you tired of hearing
the gospel? Are you tired of getting up and
coming here? It could happen. Lord, set that strong consolation
before me and enable me to drink of it. Enable me to drink of
it. Now listen, this verse tells
us who it's to. Now listen, those who have fled
for refuge. I'm glad it is not written like
this for those who have strong faith. Aren't you glad it's not
written like that? But here's how it's written for
those who have fled for refuge. Have you fled for refuge? Have
you fled to Christ? Well, this consolation is for
you. Now, this consolation, this strong
consolation is not for anyone else. It's not for anyone else. It is for you who have fled to
the Lord Jesus Christ. You have fled from the curse
of the law. You finally heard the curse.
You woke up one day, the Lord gave you ears to hear, and you
heard the curse of the law. Until then, God's law didn't
mean any more to you than the law of the land, than the traffic
law out there. You and I don't drive the speed
limit. It's not a guideline, but it
is a law. but we don't really pay that
much attention to it. And we don't pay any attention to God's
law until God gives us life. And all of a sudden we realize
we've offended God's law. We broke the law. We're in trouble.
Guilty. Guilty. We have fled from the
curse of the law. We have fled from the power of
sin. We have fled from God's wrath
and we fled to the Lord Jesus Christ. We fled to Him. Now this here
statement, those who have fled for refuge, this has reference
back in the Old Testament. You remember when a man killed
somebody? If he killed somebody by accident, he didn't do it
on purpose, but he killed somebody. There were six cities, and they
were considered cities of refuge. And so he was to flee to the
city of refuge, I can just picture the man standing there, and he
killed this man, and he realizes what he has done. He realizes
that his relatives are going to come after him and kill him.
He realizes this. And he feels the guilt of it
also. He feels the guilt of it. Well, God provided a city for
him to flee to. It's called a city of refuge.
It's interesting, I'm not going to get into it, but I was reading
it this morning. Now each of those cities, the
names, the meaning of their names, how they relate to the Lord Jesus
Christ. We may look at that in a message here shortly. But each of those cities had
a name and the name had a meaning. But they would flee to the city
of refuge. And they would stay there, and
manslayer, the avenger of blood, could not touch them. They couldn't
touch them in the city of refuge. And that man was to stay there
until the high priest died. Then he could leave and go back
home, and nobody could touch him. Isn't that interesting? Our high priest has died. He
has died. And in a little while, you and
I are going to leave this place and go home. going to go to where
he is. That's another message. But anyway,
my mind was cranking this morning when I started reading that Cities
of Refuge. I thought maybe this would be the message this morning,
maybe. But that's what it has reference to. And when a sinner
realizes that he or she has killed or offended God's justice and
put the Son of God to death. We were involved in that. If
we'd have been there, we'd have been just as guilty. We were
there in our representatives, the Gentiles. We were there in
them. And anyway, when we realized
that, we flee to the city of refuge. And in that city of refuge,
we have a strong consolation. We have God's Word, nobody touch
Him. Nobody touches Him. The avenger of blood can't get
me there, in that city of refuge. Now, He gives us here also what
those who have fled have laid hold of. You have fled to the
Lord Jesus Christ, and here's what you have laid hold of. The
hope set before them. We have a strong consolation and we have a hope which gives
us this strong consolation. We have this hope and this hope
is set before us. This hope is a hope of salvation. I hope to be saved. Do you? I hope to be saved when I die.
I pray that I hope that I'm saved now because when I die, if it
don't happen here, it ain't going to happen there. But I hope to
be saved. I hope to stand in God's presence
accepted in the Beloved. I hope to be saved. I hope to
have real rest. Rest from sin. Rest from doubt. rest from temptation, from Satan,
to have real rest in my soul. Undisturbed rest. Undisturbed. Righteousness. To be righteous. And to really
know what that is by experience. To really know what it is to
be righteous. in God's sight, and to experience
righteousness, forgiveness, justification, eternal life. The full experience
of eternal life. We have these things right now,
but we have them in Christ, they're secure, but in our experience,
we only have them in a measure, because of sin. We cannot experience
We can't experience the fullness of eternal life because of sin. The fullness of justification.
The joy of that. The joy of being cleared of all
guilt. The joy of not having guilt. Because you and I have
it. We know what guilt is. Even after
the Lord saves us, we know what guilt is. And this hope here, listen, this
hope is not the act. It doesn't come about by the
act of fleeing. It comes about by the person
of Christ in you. It's Christ in you, the hope
of glory. You see, I don't find hope in
the fact of what I have done. I don't find hope in that I believe.
I find hope in the one I believe. Abraham believed God. Hope is in the one we believe.
That's what Paul says in 1 Timothy, Jesus Christ, our hope. He calls
Him our hope. And Christ being our hope gives
us a strong consolation and is an anchor of the soul. It's an
anchor. Both sure and steadfast, strong. You know, an anchor is only as
good as the material it's made of, isn't it? You drop an anchor
down and it's made of aluminum. Well, when a storm comes up,
that ship's in trouble. That aluminum's going to bend.
It's got to be strong tempered steel. I mean, it's got to be
strong enough to hold that ship that's on top of the storm, up
there on top of the water in the storm. It's got to be strong. Our Lord, listen, our Lord is
the anchor of the soul and it starts here. He's in His deity,
and in His manhood. In His manhood He knew no sin,
and in His deity He's God. That's the anchor of my soul.
It starts with Jesus Christ. It starts with the anchor. This is what makes Him up. His deity and His humanity. I
need both of those, and I have that in Jesus Christ, which is
sure, is strong, It'll hold and steadfast. It doesn't matter
what comes our way. He's steadfast, unmovable, unmovable. Our Lord is unmovable. Now this anchor of the soul is
necessary because it keeps us from drifting off course. I don't think we realize it as
we ought to. I know we don't. We don't realize
as we ought to. But coming here week after week
keeps us on course. You know, I just come in once
in a great while, it's not going to keep you on course. That's
not going to keep you from drifting. It's not going to do it. It's
not going to do it. It keeps us from drifting away.
It keeps us from having shipwreck. Listen to what Paul wrote in
1 Timothy 1.19. Holding faith. Now, when he's
talking about holding faith, he's talking about faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's talking about the object
of faith. You see, Christ is the anchor. Faith is the cable
that's tied to the anchor. So he's saying here that faith,
laying hold of Christ, holding faith in a good conscience, which
some have put away concerning faith, they've turned from Christ,
like the Galatians were doing, they've turned from Christ, having
made shipwreck. Having made shipwreck. I think
of Demas. You know, Paul approved of that
man at one time. He speaks of him in good light. And then one day he writes, and
Demuth has forsaken me, having loved this present world. He even fooled Paul. He's forsaken
me, having loved this present world. The soul needs an anchor, for
it lives in a sin-tossed world. It lives in a sin-tossed body.
We still have this body of sin and death we drag around with
us, don't we? It's like having a dead body, a stinking dead
body, a rotting dead carcass tied to your back. Walking around
with him tied to your back. Everywhere you go, right there's
that smell. Paul said, when I will do good,
evil is present with me. It's tied to my back. And you're
not going to get rid of them until we die. Until we are laid
in the grave. And we need this anchor. We need
this anchor of the soul. Keeps us steady. Keeps us focused. Keeps us looking. Keeps us hoping. Keeps us hoping in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And our Lord, as I said, is this
anchor. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1.30
that God has made Him unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification
and redemption. This is what He is to us, not
just what He gives us, this is what He is to us. Paul wrote in Colossians 2.10,
in Him you are complete. You're complete. And faith lays
hold of this. Faith lays hold of it. In Christ,
I'm complete. Even though in myself, I don't
feel like it. Do you feel complete? Do you
feel real complete? No, you don't. You don't feel
that way. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Well, if you felt complete, you
wouldn't have to ask that, would you? I believe. Help my unbelief. But I want you to notice here
that Christ is the anchor of the soul. And it's in Christ
that we have this hope as an anchor of the soul. It's in Christ
that we have this strong consolation. And our anchor, which is Christ,
he says in verse 19, has entered within the veil. He's entered within the veil,
in the presence of God for us. You see, our anchor is not cast
into the deep in the ocean. It's not cast down
into that deep abyss. Our hope and our anchor is cast
into heaven. It's up. It's not down, it's
up. It's cast into heaven, into the
very presence of God. Our anchor, now listen, this
is important here. Our anchor is not down in the
mire. Our anchor is in God's presence. We are anchored in God's presence. We are anchored at the throne
of God. Our anchor is seated at God's
right hand. That's where our anchor is. It's
seated at God's right hand, within the veil. It's entered within
the veil. Only the high priest could go
there once a year. Our high priest has gone there.
He's gone there. And he's there for us. That's
an anchor for me. He's there for me. He's there
for you. Our forerunner, And this has
reference to a military reconnaissance. You know, they'll send somebody
out, they'll send a person out or a small group out, a reconnaissance
group, and they send them out to spy the land or to see what's
going on. Our Lord, as our forerunner,
has gone into heaven already for us. He said in John 14, I
go and prepare a place for you. Do you know right now To every
one of you who believe, there's a place prepared in God's presence
for you. If we could lay hold of that,
if we could lay hold of that, that will make dying a lot easier
when it comes time to die. It will make dying a lot easier.
When we realize that we're going to a place prepared for us. And
since God prepared it, what a place it ought to be. What a place
it must be. Our forerunner has gone on before
us. He has taken possession of heaven
for us. He's taken possession of it for
us. Even Jesus, That same One that Philip preached
to the eunuch when he preached unto Him Jesus, even Jesus, that
One that was crucified, that One that was despised and rejected
of men, even Jesus, our High Priest, our High Priest. He's gone in the presence of
God for us. Now you've got to see this. Turn
over to Exodus 28. I just want to point out a few
verses. When the high priest, when he would go in and make
atonement, when he would go in behind the veil into the Holy
of Holies, I want you to look in verse 9.
And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the
names of the children of Israel. six of their names on one stone,
and on the other six names of the rest on the other stone,
according to their birth, with the work of an engraver in stone. That's right, our names are engraven. Like the engravings of a signet,
shalt thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children
of Israel. Thou shalt make them to be sent in ounces of gold. And thou shalt put the two stones
upon the shoulders of the Ephod for stones of memorial unto the
children of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names
before the Lord upon his two shoulders." Isn't that beautiful? For memorial. When he went in
there, he didn't just go in with the blood, he went in with the
names of the children of Israel. Our Lord bears on His shoulders,
the government shall be on His shoulder, and on His shoulders,
when He went into the presence of God, were our names." Our
names. Now look, over in verse 21. And the stones shall be with
the names of the children of Israel, twelve according to their
names, like the engravings of the signet, every one with his
name shall they be according to the twelve tribes. And then
over in verse 29, "...and Aaron shall bear the names of the children
of Israel in the breastplate..." See, they were on his shoulders,
now they're on his breasts. "...in the breastplate of judgment
upon his heart." You see, we're upon his shoulders. The responsibility
is upon his shoulders to bring us into the presence of God.
But not only are we on his shoulders, we're in his heart. We are in
his heart. in the breastplate of judgment
upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place for memorial
before the Lord continually. Verse 30, And thou shalt put
in the breastplate of judgment the urim and the thummin, and
they shall be upon Aaron's heart when he goeth in before the Lord.
And Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon
his heart before the Lord continually. Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that
beautiful? It just puts a new light when
you read this. He is entered in within the veil.
Even Jesus, our High Priest, who has the responsibility of
presenting us, and who has us on His heart, when He makes intercession
for us, it's not cold. It's not some cold, dead prayer. He really prays for us from His
heart. We're on His heart. You and I
could not have a stronger consolation or a better anchor for the soul
than Jesus Christ Himself. Have you heard this this morning? My, my, my. What a good day we ought to have
if we actually heard this. I'm going to close with these
questions. Do you have this strong consolation? Do you have this
anchor of the soul? Do you have it? Have you fled
to the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you fled to Him for refuge? Life without Christ is like a
ship without an anchor. It's going to be destroyed. It's
going to be destroyed. Oh, I thank God for His Word,
the immutability of it, His oath. But most of all, I thank Him
for the Lord Jesus Christ, the living Word of God. What a strong consolation and
an anchor for the soul we have in Jesus Christ. If you haven't
fled to Him, I pray God you do so. I pray you do so.