This message was recorded live
at Grace Chapel Ministries, O'Brien, Florida, on March 23, 2014. Brother
Mike McInnis, Hebrews, Chapter 6, Scripture Reading by Brother
Al Cloud. Hebrews, Chapter 6, Verse 1 Therefore,
leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go
on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance
from dead works and of dead faith toward God. of the doctrine of
baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of
the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit. For it is impossible for those
who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift,
and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the
good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they
shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing
they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him
to an open chain. For the earth which drinketh
in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs
meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God.
But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is
nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned. But, beloved,
we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany
salvation, though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labor of love, which you have shewed 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 patience inherit
the premises. 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 verily swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them an 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 had fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope set before us. which hope we have as 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. And now, Brother Mike. Verse
18 is specifically what I wanted us to, 18 and 19. It says 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 as an
anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth
into that within the veil." Now the hope of God's people is that
which is set before them. That's what he said there. We
have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before
us. Now, faith and hope are very
closely related, but faith and hope are not the same thing.
Faith is something that has an object. Our faith is that which
is Christ Jesus the Lord. He is our faith. Christ who is
our faith. Faith is the gift of God. And
so faith is that which has a basis and it is the Lord Jesus Christ. And if somebody asks us what
it is that we believe, we say we believe Christ. That's what
Paul said. He said, I know whom I have believed
and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed.
Now Paul speaks about faith and he speaks about hope in that
passage of Scripture. He says, I know whom I have believed. Now the man who has fled for
refuge to Christ is that man who has a hope that is caused
by the faith that he has been given. Now, if a man has been
given faith, then he sees the basis upon which all other things
rest. And the reason I bring this up
is that oftentimes today you hear men talk about having faith. Well, brother, you've just got
to have faith. And what do they mean by that? Well, usually when
men talk about having faith, they mean something akin to the
power of positive thinking. Do they not? You've just got
to believe it strong enough. I mean, if you believe it strong
enough, then you'll have it. I mean, they use that passage
of Scripture where the Lord said, if you had faith as a grain of
mustard seed, you would say to this mountain, Be thou removed
to cast into the sea, and it would be done. And so they say,
see there, the Lord said, you've got to have enough faith to do
it. Well, that wasn't what the Lord
was teaching when He taught there. What the Lord taught there was
He said, if you had faith. But He wasn't saying, if you
had enough faith. He said, if you had faith. The
point that He was making was not that they didn't have enough
faith, But they didn't have faith at all. Because you see, He said,
if you had it, you would say, be thou removed and it be done.
And so you see, the basis of our faith is not our faith. Now
this is the place where a lot of people believe that it is. You've got to have faith in your
faith. You've just got to have faith. Well, the problem, the
reason that you're sick is because you don't have enough faith.
Because if you had enough faith, you wouldn't be sick. Well, people
are sick and die every day. I mean, they were sick and died
in the day that the Lord Jesus was walking upon the earth. And
they're going to be sick and die every day from here on out
until the Lord comes back. That's just the nature of man.
That's the way of the flesh, is to fail. We're going to have
diseases, and those diseases are going to invade our bodies.
Now, the Lord may see fit to heal us in a way which cannot
be explained by man's medicinal exercises and whatnot. There
are such things, I believe, as what men would call miraculous
healings. I don't think there's such a
thing as a miraculous healing in the kingdom of God. Because
we know that whether a man is healed or whether he dies, it
is in the will of God and according to his purpose. So it is not
like God suspends time and space and heals somebody and then He
says, well, now I will get back to normal. No. He ordained the
healing as much as He did the dying. We see that with Lazarus. I mean, He ordained Lazarus'
death. Why did He ordain Lazarus' death? so that he might demonstrate
that he had the power of life. And so it is that the Lord causes
all things to occur according to His purpose. But faith is
not in itself. Faith is not an end in itself. We don't have faith in order
to have faith. Now, it is a common thing for
men to talk about the assurance of faith. Well, we want to know
that we are saved. And so consequently, if we can
believe that we believed, then we have confidence. But if you
don't believe that you believed, then you can't have confidence.
So you've got to have something concrete to say, well, I believed,
so you can fill out a coupon. And you can write your name on
it and say, on such and such a date, I believed. And then
if you ever get to doubting it, You can go and get your piece
of paper and read it and say, well, see there, I believed.
Now that will be all right until a rat eats the paper. And then
you won't be able to have that assurance anymore. But you see,
that's a false assurance to start with. Because you don't believe
in your belief. Our faith is Christ. And that's a very present object. Is it not? I mean, we're not
believing that we believe. We're believing that Christ died
on Calvary's cross. You see, that's what faith is.
That is our faith. But then he says something here.
He said, by two immutable things, 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. Paul said,
I know whom I have believed. That is the faith that he is
talking about. But then he speaks about hope,
because he says, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I have committed unto him against that day. You see, faith
is that which rests in Christ, but hope is the expectation that
one would expect or see that he will have as a result of that
which Christ has performed. And Christ is our faith, but
He's also our hope, is He not? He is our hope. That's what He
says here. "...who have fled for refuge
to lay hold, for the hope is set before us, which hope we
have as an anchor of the soul." Now faith is that wherein a man
rests in Christ, but hope is that which causes a man to look
beyond the present moment. You see, faith is that which
surveys what Christ has done and says it's sufficient. It's
that which I'm resting in. We're not looking for something
we're going to perform or something we're going to add to what Christ
did, but we say Christ did it all. When He said it's finished,
we believe that. See, that's where our faith is
resting. But the hope that He speaks about
here is an anchor of the soul, which is at which we look as
a result of what Christ did. And this is the hope. The Scripture speaks about it
in the book of Romans in the 8th chapter. Paul speaks about
the fact that... Let's just read it. Go over here
to the 8th chapter. And he said, For we are saved
by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. Now faith is seen,
is it not? I mean, we know what Christ did.
We know that Christ went to Calvary's cross and He offered up Himself
as an offering for sin. And so we see that. But He said,
Here, hope. We are saved by hope, but hope
that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth. Why doth he
yet hope for it? But if we hope for that, then
we see not, then we do with patience. Wait for it. So you see, faith
is that which causes us to rest in Christ, but hope is that which
causes us to look outside and towards that which we believe
Christ has accomplished in our behalf. It's just like Paul said
this. He said, if in this life we only
have hope, that is, if we believe that that what Christ did just
simply causes us to be able to have a better life as we walk
through this world, we're of all men most miserable. Are we
not? Because this flesh, this fleshly
existence, that's a pretty bleak thing. Well, it's going to wind
up in the grave out there. I mean, well, we had a good life.
We lived life to the fullest. Well, that's it. We won't ever
see you again. We won't ever know anything or
whatever. We're just going to go and be
worm food. That's it. We'd be of all men
most miserable. Why is that? Because you see,
that which we have been given to believe is not simply just
in what we believe Christ has done, but that which we believe
He did it for. See, Christ purchased the redemption
of His people. Is that just something in theory?
No, He purchased the redemption of His people that they might
through the ages to come, according to what He says in the book of
Ephesians, that through the ages to come we might give glory unto
His name. And it is that when our hope
lies that we expect that we shall not be of all men most miserable,
because we believe that Christ did both die and rise again,
and if He rose again, then those also who are dead in Christ shall
He bring with Him. He will not leave them in the
grave, but He will bring them out of that place from which
they are, and that's what He said, which hope we have as an
anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, that entereth
into that within the veil, whether the forerunner is for us entered. Now, the Lord Jesus said to His
disciples, He says, I'm going away. And they were sad, because
they didn't want Him to go away. But He said, I'm telling you,
I'm going away. Old John chapter 14, let's turn
over there and read it. He said, Let not your heart be
troubled. Ye believe, and God believe also
in me. Now they did believe in Him,
did they not? Peter said, Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. But he said, In my Father's house
are many mansions, or many rooms. In other words, there is plenty
of room there. Men think about mansions, and
I think they get off on the wrong track with what the Lord Jesus
Christ was saying there. He wasn't talking about building
great mansions in the sense that men think of worldly and earthly
mansions as I've heard people speak about before. Just build
my mansion next door to Jesus and all that kind of stuff. And
I've got a mansion just over the hilltop. I don't want a cabin. I want a mansion and all of that
kind of stuff. That's not what he means here,
but he says in my Father's house are many rooms. Many dwellings
has planted this place for us, for the people of God. If it
were not so, I would have told you." Now, dear brethren, that
is one of the most comforting passages of Scripture that you
will ever read. The Lord Jesus Christ, the One
who says, I am the way, the truth and the life, He said, if this
was not so, I would have told you. Now, let me tell you something.
A man who has faith in Christ finds a great place of hope in
those words. Now, if you don't believe Christ
told the truth, then you wouldn't have any basis to have any hope
in that, would you? I mean, if I told you, give me
all your money and I'll invest it for you and you don't worry
about a thing and everything will be all right in the end, That would be built on false
premises based on my record. I mean, you wouldn't have any
grounds upon which to have any confidence in that. But based
on who the one is that's saying, here, see, that's where our faith
rests is in Christ. He said, if it's not so, I would
have told you. And I believe him. I believe
he wouldn't mislead his people. I believe he'd tell them the
truth. Why? Because I believe He is the truth.
And there is no truth outside of Him. Amen, sister. If it were
not so, I would have told you. He says, I go to prepare a place
for you. He said, I'm going to do it.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again. And
I will receive you unto Myself that where I am there ye may
be also. Why did Paul say, we'll be of
all men most miserable if the dead rise? Not why. Not simply
because we wouldn't have a place Not simply because we would die
and be in the ground, but we would have been deceived totally because Christ would have told
us something that wasn't so. So you see, those who fled for
refuge to Christ, those who built their hope on Christ, those whose
faith rests in Christ, they must have a hope. And that hope is
built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. And
his righteousness, he said, if it was not so, I would have told
you that where I am there you may be also. And whither I go
you know, and the way you know. And Thomas saith unto him, Lord,
we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way?
And Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man
cometh unto the Father, but by me." Now you see, that's the basis
of our faith, is it not? And it is the ground of our hope
because we look beyond the present time. And I'm here to tell you
today, dear brethren, that outside of the resurrection of Jesus
Christ and the fact that He has triumphed over death, we would
be totally miserable if we had nothing else. But see, we are
not in that state. Because which hope we have as
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. See, He has called us He said,
�Wherever I am, there ye may be.� Well, where is he? He�s
entered into the veil. He�s entered into the holy place.
He�s entered into a place where it was impossible for men to
go, even as our high priest, forever after the order of Melchizedek,
even into the very presence of God. And this is that upon which
we hope. See, we look for Now, men say,
well, all you believe in is a pie in the sky by and by. Well, I'm
glad we have a pie to look forward to. But you see, the pie is not
a pie that the natural man would have any enjoyment in, is it? Now, when men die, They generally spend a lot of
time at the funerals and whatnot, they'll talk about how good a
person this was and all the good things he did and everything. And that's about it. I mean, that's about all they
can say. But that's really of no comfort or help to the people
of God. I'm not interested, dear brethren. In any of that stuff being said,
for me, don't y'all let anybody say that kind of junk. The only thing that is important
to those who have fled for refuge to Christ is that Christ is the
one who said that He would gather that which belongs to Him and
bring it to Himself. And that is our hope. And nothing
in this world has anything whatsoever to do with it. It's passing away. We're passing away. We're moving on. But our hope
will be as real in the Ages to come as it is right now. In fact, it will be realized
because he said, ìHope that is seen is not hope.î Thereís a
day when we wonít have hope anymore. Now, I believe that we will always
have faith because our faith will always
be in the One who did what He said He would do. Our faith is
in Him. Faith will never pass away. But
hope, that will one day be gone, because hope will be realized.
And hope, when it is seen, is no longer hope, because we have
that for which we hoped. But the One in whom all of our
expectation rests, He is going to be the same forever. and we
shall gather around His throne and worship Him, because He is
worthy to be worshipped. He is the one in whom all of
our care is cast, and we believe what He says. Do we not? If we
don't, then what basis? If we don't believe that what
Christ did was our salvation, what do we believe it was? I
mean, is it that we need to be baptized? Is it that we need
to cut our hair a certain way? Is it that we need to join a
certain church? What is it? It is what Christ
did. That is the place where we stand.
We believe that He did and we hope, dear brethren, we have
hope that those things that He accomplished shall yet be ours. May the Lord help us.