I've been looking here at chapter
6 in the book of Hebrews, and I want to begin reading there
in verse 9. It says, But, beloved, we are persuaded
better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though
with us speak. For God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labor of love which he hath showed toward
his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence
to the full assurance of hope unto the end, that ye be not
slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience
inherit the promises. For when God made promise to
Abraham because he could swear by no greater, He swore by Himself,
saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I
will multiply thee. And so after He had patiently
endured, He obtained the promise. For men barely swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them in the end of all
strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto
the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it
by an oath. 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. Which hope we have is an anchor
of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that
within the veil. Whether the forerunner is for
us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest forever, after
the order of Melchizedek. Now, we have been looking at
this chapter 6 and speaking about those that
fall away. He said it is impossible for
those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly
gift were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, have tasted the good
word of God, the powers of the world to come, if they shall
fall away, to renew them again to repentance, seeing they crucify
to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open
shame. For the earth which drinketh
in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs,
meat for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God. But that which beareth thorns
and briars is rejected, is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to
be burned." Now that's a pretty dire set of circumstances there,
and he's setting that forth to show the seriousness of what
it is to be a follower of Christ. Men are not followers of Christ
because they set out in the journey. Now, there is whole systems of
theology built on that concept that God is trying to gather
up some people here in the earth to serve Him. And if you will
just sign up, all He wants you to do is sign up. I mean, all
you've got to do is just make out like you halfway want to
to sign up and you'll get your ticket, whatever. You'll have
it in your hand. And it'll be yours. And you can
then present that in at the gates of heaven when the time comes.
You can say, well, here, I got my picture. I started off. But
that's not the picture at all that we see in the Scripture
about those who are the followers of Christ. Those who are the
followers of Christ are those who hold the beginning of their
confidence steadfast to the end. There are those who begin, who
walk, and who end up in that way, which he's called them because
the scripture says, Faithful is he that calls you who will
also do it. Now if a man's following of Christ
is a work of the flesh, it will peter out because you will eventually
fall by the wayside. If you begin in the flesh, you'll
end in the flesh. But by the grace of God, when
he works in a man, a desire to come to him by the grace of God,
though that man is fearful that he's going to fall every day,
yet by the same grace that calls him will keep him, and he'll
bring him the way that he would have him to be. And his hope
in the final day will be the same as it was in the first day,
that it is Jesus Christ and Him crucified as the hope of His
salvation, that He has no other hope. And so he said that if
a man, he said it's impossible if a man's enlightened, tasted
the good things, if he's stepped out and he appears to be one
of the children of God, but if he should turn away from the
Lord, if he shall fall, it says there, if they shall fall away,
It's impossible to renew them to repentance. So this is a true
thing. Now, I've heard men preach about
the fact, they say that a man can come to a place of repentance
and follow in the Lord, and then he can fall away. And then next
week, he can come back and start the process over again. Save,
lost, save, lost, just in and out. This says if a man falls
away, the falling away that's spoken about here is a permanent
situation. And what it's talking about is
a falling away that is a falling back from. It's saying that I
am not trusting Christ. I've fallen away from that. I'm
saying I'm not trusting that the blood and righteousness of
Christ is the sufficiency of my salvation. If I do that, what
have I got left? What am I going to have then?
I don't have anything. So you see, it's impossible to
renew them again to repentance. There's no grounds of repentance.
There's no grounds wherein they could possibly stand. before
the Lord because they crucify to themselves the Son of God
afresh, put Him to an open shame. They said, what Christ did is
not enough. And so that's a serious situation.
He said the only thing that such a person in a situation like
that is good for is to be burned like the thorns and the briars
and the dead limbs. They're just cast in the fire
to be burned. But then look what he says. But he said, but beloved,
speaking to the children of God, whom he's writing to, whom he's
giving this exhortation to, he said, but beloved, we are persuaded
better things of you. He said, that's why we're preaching.
If we thought you were the dead wood that was going to be cast
into the fire to be burned, we wouldn't waste our time. The
Lord said, don't cast your pearls before swine. And so there would
be no point in exhorting the dead to follow Christ, is there?
Are we going to go among those who have no thought towards Christ
and say, well, brother, you need to follow Christ? No. They're
not going to follow Christ. They don't have any desire to.
But those who have been stirred up by the Spirit of God and brought
to a place of repentance, their desire is to follow Christ. And
so we are exhorters of them. We are persuaded better things
of you and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak."
Now, what are the things that accompany salvation? A love for
Christ, number one. I mean, a man that is a man who
has salvation who doesn't love Christ is an anomaly. Now, the
religions of the world, they say, well, it's not necessary
to even be a worshipper of Christ, you can be a worshipper of Allah,
or you could be a worshipper of Buddha, or you could be a
worshipper of whoever you wanted to. It wouldn't make a difference
as long as you're sincere, not so according to what the Scripture
says here. Because, you see, the things
that accompany salvation is a knowledge of who Christ is. A knowledge
of who Christ is is that He is the Savior of sinners. Not that
He is a Savior of sinners, but He is the Savior of sinners.
He's the only one. We're not. We've put all our
eggs in one basket. Now, the world in the flesh says,
well, that's not a good idea. You need to play the field. You
need to don't make too much commitment toward that. But you see, that's
what it is to follow Christ, is to make a commitment. It has
to do with what Peter did when he stepped out of the boat. And
even though he began to sink, yet the Lord was the one who
picked him up and saved him out of the midst of that certain
peril. But we are persuaded by the things of you and things
that accompany salvation. The things that are with those
who desire true salvation is to know Christ. For God is not
unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which ye have
shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints,
and do minister." Now, one thing that is a sure thing, and that
is that the Lord is no cheapskate. And He doesn't call people to
serve Him and to give of themselves And then he just laughs at them
in the end. No, if he calls a man and he
gives a man a desire to know the things of God, to walk in
that way, and he gives him a love for the brethren, then it is
a certain thing that these are those things that accompany salvation. Bearing one another's burdens
and so fulfill the law of Christ. Esteeming one another above ourselves. If we love the brethren, then
we are assured in our hearts that we are the sons of God according
to what John said. And the Lord will not forget
your work and labor of love which you have showed toward His name. Now some think that they will
enter into the kingdom of heaven because of the things that they
have done. Now the Lord said Not every one that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
which doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. And he said,
Some would say unto him in that day, Lord, have we not done many
wonderful works in thy name? Now you'll notice that the writer
of Hebrews doesn't say that they've done works. He said that they
have done it. They have showed for His name. Not just done it in His name,
but they have done it for His name. That is, for the glory
of God. Now, a lot of people do religious
works for their own self. You know, they want to build
their self up in the eyes of men. And they're not into it
so much for the glory of God. They want you to know who they
are. See, the man who is preaching Christ for Christ's sake, he
doesn't care if you know who he is or not. If a man is always
desirous of having his name out in front of people, then whose
name is he promoting? You see, we don't need to have
a poster with the preacher's name on it announcing that we're
going to preach the gospel. No, if you're going to preach
the gospel, you're going to be preaching Christ and Christ alone
and not just to exalt and honor our name, but His name that ye
have showed toward His name in that ye have ministered to the
saints and do minister. And we desire that every one
of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope
to the end. There He is indeed, dear brethren, as John said.
and evidence of the work of salvation in those who love the people
of God, and seek their betterment, and seek to build them up, and
seek to help them, and to love them in spite of their many faults. That ye be not slothful, but
followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the
promises. For when God made promise to
Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself,
saying, Surely, blessing, I will bless thee, and multiplying,
I will multiply thee. And so Abraham just received
the blessings. No, he didn't receive the blessings,
did he? He thought the Lord had abandoned him. I mean, the Lord
came to him and said, You're going to have a son? You're going
to have children? There will be a greater number
than the stars of the sky. But for fourteen years, he finally
got to be an old man. He said, man, I don't know if
it's going to happen or not. No, you see, the Lord's promise
and the payoff is not all in the same day, but through patience
They endured and he received the promise. Now did that make
the promise of less effect? No. It actually made the promise
of greater effect because it caused it to be seen in the glory
in which it was because it was not that which was the work of
the flesh. Now that's what Abraham figured.
Well, if this is going to happen, it's going to be up to me. If
it's to be, it's up to me. Have you ever heard that? If
it's to be, it's up to me. I mean, that's the mantra of
the day, is it not? The power of positive thinking.
You can do it. You've just got to believe you
can do it, and brother, you can go out there and do it. I'm not
saying there's not some benefit in that in the flesh, you know,
in a certain way, but it doesn't have any effect or application
at all in what we're talking about here. If it's to be, it's
up to the Lord. It's not up to me. And only by
the grace of God are these things going to come to pass. But Abraham
figured that if he was going to have these heirs that the
Lord promised him, he'd better get busy. And so he went in unto
Hagar. And she had Ishmael, of course. Then when Abraham was a hundred
years old, the Lord appeared to him in the plains of Mamre,
and he said, Next year your wife is going to have a son. And Sarah
was sitting in the tent, and she heard that, and she laughed.
I'm ninety years old! But you see, nothing is too great
for him who promised. And after he had patiently endured, The Lord brought forth the promise,
and the promise was greater than that one which was born in the
flesh. And when God made promise to
Abraham because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself. Now if the Lord comes and He
made a promise, You know, when men swear, they swear on the
Bible. I don't know if they still do
that in the courtrooms or not. I know they used to bring a Bible.
I think now they've kind of done away with that because they're
afraid they might offend somebody, you know, or whatever. And, of
course, I'm not all into all the swearing and stuff anyway.
But nonetheless, we swear by one greater than ourselves. But
God couldn't swear by anybody greater than Himself, so the
Scripture says He swore by Himself. And He told Abraham, He gave
him the promise, but in the time that it pleased Him, He brought
it to pass, not when the time pleased Abraham. And so a lot
of times, you know, when we're going through this world, we
think that things ought to work out better for us than they do.
Y'all don't ever think that way, do you? I mean, you never say,
well, you know, Lord, if you really love me, I wouldn't be
going through all this. I mean, why has things got to
be so hard? Why does things work out backwards? You plan it one way and it works
out the wrong way. You know, I told somebody one
time that I could tell them I was good at picking stocks. And if I wanted to make money
in the stock market, to just watch what I did and I could
teach them how to make money. And I said, just buy the one
that I don't buy. And you can be sure, because
if you want to lose money on one, buy the same one that I
do. God, willing abundantly to show
unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel,
confirmed it by an oath." Now, that's an amazing thing if you
pause and think about it. In fact, the writer goes on to
say that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for
God to lie. Now this is the basis upon which
the promises of God to the people of God stand. Number one, it
is impossible for God to lie. He couldn't swear by greater
than himself. It's impossible for God to lie,
but yet he not only couldn't lie, but he gave it to us by
an oath. So by two things, by the fact
that he can't lie and the fact that he didn't lie, And he gave
it set forth by an oath and said that is the end of confirmation.
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 that is set before us. Now what
is the hope that is set before us? It is that Jesus Christ has
accomplished the thing that we are in desperate need of, that
he has satisfied the claims of God's justice. Now, until a man
is brought to a place where he knows that he needs someone to
satisfy the claims of God's justice, that doesn't mean anything to
him. I mean, the average person running around out here in the
world, they don't have any thought towards that. What do you mean,
the justice of God? You know, I've always tried to
do the right thing. I'm a moral enough right person.
I've done more good than I have evil. I mean, wouldn't most people
say that? Most people would say that. It takes the grace of God
to bring a man down to the place where he says, Lord, I've never
done one good thing in my life. Everything that I've done has
been brought out of the corruption of my own heart. And I'd have
been worse than that except that you have restrained me and kept
me. And so, you see, when a man is
awakened by the grace of God to see who he is and to see who
God is, then this makes sense to him. that we might have strong
consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope
set before us, that Jesus Christ is the satisfier of that broken
law, that He is that One who has stood between us and God. Now, most people think they can
just go talk to God any time they get ready. That's more of the stuff we were
talking about there a while ago. People think they know God. Well,
they just pray to Him whenever they get ready. Well, that's
nothing to do with that. I'll just pray to Him. I pray to Him. I
have people tell me they pray to Him every day. And I can't
say if they do or they don't. I'm not saying who He is and
who isn't. I'm just saying a man, first
off, needs to understand that he can't just go talk to God
any time he gets ready. Now, he may think he's talking
to God. It may sound to him like he's
talking to God, but I'm telling you that the Lord is the one
that comes and meets with men. It's not the other way around.
Men don't arrange the meetings with God. God arranges His own
schedule. See, most people pencil in time
for God. Dear brother, you better hope
He pencils in some time for you. Because you don't have the power
of the pencil in you. You see, you don't control his schedule.
He controls yours. So that's the hope that we have
as an anchor of the soul is Christ. And we cast ourselves on the
mercy of Christ. You know, Fanny Crosby, she had
an understanding of something of grace when she penned that
hymn, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior. hear my humble cry, while on
others thou art calling, do not pass me by." Because she understood
that it was in the hands of the Lord. Now you see, when a man's
brought by grace to see himself for what he is, that is what
he's desiring right there. He's hoping the Lord will hear
him. He's not confident I know one particular fellow, and he's
all the time telling me about all this talking he does to the
Lord and how the Lord, you know, and he's confident of everything
that he says to the Lord, the Lord hears and all of that kind
of stuff. I'm not always certain that the
Lord hears everything I say. But I'm certain of this, that
I don't have one other place. to where I desire to go or to
be found than before His throne. And by grace, hopefully, that
He might hear me. Now, I have some confidence that
He will, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure
and steadfast, which entereth into that which is in the veil.
I believe the promises of God, and sometimes I see them more
clearly than I do with others. But, oh, it's always the same.
Hope is always the same. Refuge is always Christ. Because it can't be anything
else. It can't be that I think somehow I'm going to come into
His presence in my own power. Or that He's right where I left
Him. You see, that was the way the gods... That's why the Lord
said, Thou shalt worship no grave and image. Because you see, In
the mindset of the pagans, they made them out of graven image,
and they put it wherever they wanted it to be, and so they
knew right where it was, didn't they? I mean, whenever they got
ready to worship God, they just went where the image was, and
they fell down and worshiped it. Well, the Lord said, you
know, the most high-dwelling, not in temples, made with hands.
Don't make me any graven image, because I'm not where the image
is. You can't find me where you put me, because you didn't put
me anywhere. You can't put me anywhere. He
says, I'm the high and lofty one that inhabits with eternity,
and I'll be worshipped by those whom I'm pleased to be worshipped
by. But He is our hope, and He is
the one in whom we have confidence. and hoping that He will hear
us and believing. You see, believing that He will
hear us in Jesus' name. He said He would. He said to
come boldly to the throne of grace that we might find grace
to help in time of need. Why did He make that promise?
Because He confirmed it by an oath. He said, I will be to my
people a God and they will be to me a people. And he said,
I will write my laws in their heart. And they shall know man,
and every man will not teach his neighbor, nor the Lord, for
they shall all know me from the least to the greatest. You see,
he said, they will know me. Why? Because I have shown myself
to them. I have brought them out of darkness
and into the light. I have caused them to wait upon
me. which hope we have as an anchor
of the soul, though sure and steadfast. You know, an anchor
is not worth a flip if it's not. What good would an anchor do
if it didn't reach the bottom? I mean, what if you had an anchor
on a boat, but the anchor didn't go all the way to the bottom?
What good would it do? Why? Because it couldn't be steadfast. It couldn't hang on to anything.
But you see, when you have an anchor that's hooked on to a
rock down in the bottom of the water, then the boat can't move
as long as the rope holds or the chain holds. And the Lord
is that anchor which is both sure and steadfast. We're not
afraid that the anchor's going to give way. We're not afraid
that the cord's going to get away because he's the one that's
both the anchor and the cord, and he's the one that tied the
knot on the boat. Now, wouldn't that be a thing?
In fact, I've seen this happen. In fact, we had it one time happen
on a fishing journey I was on one time. We threw the anchor
over, and the rope kept going, and all of a sudden, The anchor was gone, the rope
was too, because somebody forgot to tie the anchor to the boat. Now a lot of people have a good
anchor. They talk to you about an anchor, buddy. I've had them
tell me all about how I need an anchor. But I'm telling you
this, if the Lord hasn't tied the anchor to the boat, it won't
hold you. It won't do you a bit of good.
But by the grace of God, we have an anchor of the soul, both sure
and steadfast. It's an anchor that will hold,
and it's a rope that's tied to the boat, and the rope can't
be broken because it is the cords of God's love which are intertwined,
and a threefold cord is not easily broken. The Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost have made that promise unto us, and it
cannot be taken away. Whether the forerunner is for
us he entered, even Jesus, made an high priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek." You see that? He's bringing them
full circle here. He said, leaving the principles
of the doctrine of Christ, talking about Judaism. He said, those
basic things that you've been taught as a child, he said, leaving
them, not abandoning them, but moving on from them, seeing them
for what they are and moving on from them. And he says now,
he said, here is the place where we're anchored. See, we've left
that and we've come here, even Jesus Christ. A high priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek. Now this is really the theme
of this book. Jesus Christ, the high priest,
forever after the order of Melchizedek. That one who has entered into
that place, that holy place, with the offering without spot
and without blemish, his own self. And he was a priest after
the order of Melchizedek, having neither beginning of days nor
ending of life. When did the purpose of God in
the redemption of His people begin? I can't tell you. I can't tell
you when it began. But I know there's more ancient
than you. There's more ancient than me. is more ancient than
every hill on the face of the earth, more ancient than the
stars, more ancient than the expanses of heaven. You see, this is kind of getting
off the subject, but it popped into my mind, thinking about
this, and you had brought this up a long time back. But the Scripture says that the
Lord made the light. He said, Let there be light.
But it was two days later before we ever created the sun. And men talk about, sometimes
I've had men be ready to fight over the fact that the sun is
the thing that determines the day. No, it's the light. The evening and the morning existed
before the sun and the moon did. Now, if you can explain that,
go ahead. But I'll tell you this, the same
One who's the anchor of the soul is the One who brought back the
past. And to confound the wisdom of the wise, He made the light
before He ever made the source of the light as far as what men
see. Isn't that amazing? A glorious
thing because He is the source and He is the Savior and He is
the refuge of our soul in Christ. There is no failure. That which He set out to do,
He has accomplished. And dear brethren, that's that
upon which we rest. If Christ just tried to save
some folks, we're in a world of trouble. But if He entered
in once into the holy place, not with the blood of bulls and
goats, but with the blood of His own self, His own sacrifice,
Then we have an anchored soul, sure and steadfast. It entereth
into that which was within the veil. May the Lord help us and
give us grace that we might be found to be those who call upon
His name. He said, Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now that's a glorious
thing. For a trembling sinner, For somebody
that knows they ought to be lost, that's some comforting words
right there. Think of that old jailer in that jail cell about
to take his life when Paul and Silas were there. And he said to them, Brethren,
what shall I do? And they said, Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Oh, man. You know, how did he know what
believing on the Lord was? He didn't know what that was,
did he? Did he know? I mean, how did he know? He didn't
know what that meant. He couldn't have written you
out a theological treatise on what it was to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, but the Scripture says he believed. How did he
do it? By the grace of God. Because,
you see, God's the one that gives a man faith. He demands that
a man has faith, and he gives it to him. Oh, that the Lord
would show us, and teach us, and draw us, and give us a hope
that's within the veil.