So Hebrews chapter 6 and verse
9, the title this morning of the lesson is, Our Anchor Within
the Veil. Our Anchor Within the Veil. When
it begins here in verse 9, the writer says, Beloved, we're persuaded
better things of you. You know, we've been talking
here about those that fall away. Now, the beloved brethren here
had become dull of hearing, no doubt, probably being hindered
somewhat by these that were falling away and going back to where
they had come from. And he said, But we're persuaded
better things of you, things that accompany salvation, though
we thus speak. For God's not unrighteous to
forget your work and labor of love which you've showed toward
His name, in that ye have ministered to the saints and do minister.
We don't have to wonder what these things that accompany salvation
are because they're given to us here in verse 10. Your work
and labor of love, and it was shown first and foremost toward
His name, toward God's name. And the manner in which this
was done was that they ministered to the saints and continued to
minister to them. If you look over at Hebrews 10.32,
you get some idea of what Paul's talking about here. In Hebrews
10.32, it says, call to remembrance the former days in which after
you were illuminated, after the Spirit of God gave you life and
light, you endured a great fight of afflictions. I want to give
you a note here before we go to verse 33. The Hebrew believers
endured afflictions at the hands of their own countrymen who didn't
believe Christ. They rejected Christ. They were
spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, and they didn't receive
Christ. They hated Him. And 1 Thessalonians
2.14 tells us that. It says, You became followers
of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus.
For you also have suffered like things of your own countrymen,
even as they of the Jews." He's talking about even as the Hebrew
brethren suffered things of their countrymen. So, and it says they
killed the Lord Jesus, they killed their own prophets, they persecuted
us, and they pleased not God. They're contrary to all men,
to themselves and to all men. But here in verse 33, it goes
on to tell us why what these great afflictions were. Partly
whilst you were made a gazing stock both by reproaches and
affliction. That was part of it by those
that didn't believe. They couldn't believe that these
Jews would turn from Moses and follow Christ. That they'd turn
from the law and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And then partly
whilst you became companions of them that were so used are
so treated, for you had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully
the spoiling of your goods." This persecution, this affliction,
you've read and you know that when someone was kicked out of
the synagogue, they lost everything, all rights as a citizen, everything. Everything was spoiled, their
houses, their goods, and everything. And not only that, what they
had left over, They gave to Paul when he was in prison and had
compassion on him and helped him. They sent him comforting
letters, sent him gifts. We read in the Philippian letter
about the Philippians sending him gifts while he was in prison. And it says, and you took this
joyfully, knowing in yourself that you have in heaven a better
and enduring substance. They didn't look at these things
They lost their rights as citizens. They lost their houses. They
lost their lands. They were cast out completely,
but they didn't look at those things as being their life. They
said, we've got things that's of more enduring substance than
those things. Those things are going to be
burned up with a fervent heat. We've got something that will
never perish. And he says here in verse 35, So cast not away
therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For you have need of patience,
that after you have done the will of God, you might receive
the promise. After that you've waited, done
His will. for a little while, and he that
shall come will come, and will not tarry, and to just live by
faith. But if any man draw back, my
soul has no pleasure in him. But we're not of them who draw
back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of
the soul. Now, faith, chapter 11, verse
1 says, is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen. Now, Paul mentioned there about
doing the will of God. After that, you've done the will
of God. Now, he says we've got some evidences
here. We see a spirit in you of love
for the brethren in that you minister to the saints and you
do minister. And these are things that accompany salvation. That's
living fruit, the product of the spirit in the believer, which
is contrary to the flesh. The flesh can't bring forth those
things. The Spirit of God brings them forth. The Spirit of God
in them brought forth this fruit. But you know, the fruit of the
Spirit, Scripture says, is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. And against these, there's no
law. Because these are from God. These are good things. And that's
what they exhibit. That was the things that accompanied
salvation. It was called a work and a labor
of love. because it came from a heart
of love. And it was a work. It was a labor. It was not something...
I mean, they didn't just sit passively by and watch Paul in
prison or their brethren in need. They ministered to him. And they
continued to minister to him. And then he comes down to this,
verse 11. He says, And we desire that every
one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope
until the end." In other words, we don't just start this thing
and then after a while get tired and fall off and don't continue
in it. He said, be diligent to the full
assurance of hope until the end. The full assurance of hope. Do
we have full assurance of hope? In the preceding verses, the
writer is given a serious warning against apostasy. And though
the Hebrews are dressed as dull of hearing, they're encouraged
here to be not slothful. Look at verse 12. Don't be slothful. Don't be dull of hearing, but
be diligent. Be followers of them who through
faith and patience inherit the promises. He mentions here this ministering
to the saints and how they continue to do that. But he's saying,
but there's something else that's needful. Because if you stop
looking to Christ and trusting Christ and you become dull of
hearing about Christ, You can keep on ministering all you want
to to the needs of others. But this thing has to come from
a sincere heart of love. It has to come from a heart of
faith, trusting Him, or else it's vanity. It's all just another
dead-letter work. It's of no use whatsoever. And
so that's what He's admonishing them and exhorting them to do.
Be continuing, steadfast. And He gives an example. The
Spirit of God begins to declare the sure promise of God to Abraham. This is the thing, brethren,
that always keeps us continuing. This is the thing that always
keeps us diligent, keeps us believing by faith, keeps us patiently
enduring. Here's the thing. He gives us
an example, verse 13. 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 Abraham
had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. He got exactly what
God promised he would give him. But he got it because he waited.
The natural Jews thought God's promise was obtained by the works
of the law. Those who didn't believe on Christ
tried to turn the Hebrew brethren, our Hebrew brethren here, from
Christ back to the law, back to the traditions and the ceremonies
and these things. And that's how many fell away.
They went back. Paul says, we're not of them
that draw back to perdition. As Judas, we don't betray Christ. But salvation is by It's God's
promise and this promise in Christ is not in the law. It's in Christ
not in the law We patiently endure we wait Abraham preserved in
fact persevered in faith believe in God and see in Christ day
by faith and after Abraham's earthly life was over he obtained
the promise look with me real quick over Galatians 3 15 and
Galatians 3 15 which fixes talk about promise here, and I want
you to see something in Galatians 3 15 before we get into this Three verses here brethren I
speak after the manner of men Though it be but a man's covenant
a man's promise yet if it be confirmed no man disannulls or
adds to it it's between two men. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He saith not unto seeds as of
many, but as of one, to thy seed, which is Christ. In this I say
that the covenant that God made with Christ And then that he
later made with Abraham, that was confirmed beforehand, before
the world began in Christ, the law, which was 430 years after
Abraham. The law at Sinai, given 430 years
after God promised salvation to Abraham, it couldn't disannul
this promise, that it should make the promise of none effect.
For if the inheritance be of the law, it's no more of promise. But God gave it to Abraham by
promise. Now, back over at verse 16 in
our text. There's your promise. Now let's
look at it here and see what scripture tells us about this
promise. For men verily swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Once a man gives his word, his
bond, it's done. No striving over it, it's done.
Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise
the immutability, the unchanging character of his counsel, confirmed
it by an oath. God's counsel here is the counsel
between Father, Son, and Spirit, wherein He purposed to accomplish
salvation for a people for Himself through Christ for His own glory,
to show the world His glory. That's His decree, His counsel.
And His oath mentioned here is the same as His covenant, His
oath, His promise, His covenant He made. To men, this covenant
appeared to be new. The Hebrews here, they thought
this was a new covenant. And it's called a new covenant.
But it's not new in the sense that it's something new. A lot
of men teach this. The Scofield Bible, I know, teaches
this, that the church is a parenthesis. You know, God started doing something
and it didn't work, so then he went to plan B. That's not the
case. It was all determined in the
everlasting covenant. It's new because it's new to
us. It's new because it's always
been new. It's always been everlasting.
It's before the foundation of the world. The old covenant of
works that he gave, that first covenant, that first testament,
He didn't change that old covenant. That's what he said to Moses.
When the law was given, it did not disannul the covenant that
he gave to Abraham, which was confirmed before in Christ. When was it confirmed before?
Before the foundation of the world in Christ. So it didn't change it. God made
this promise to Abraham. He made the same promise to King
David, who's a type of Christ. And that's why when he says,
I'll make a covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David,
it's the sure mercies of Christ. This promise was made first and
foremost with Christ before the world began. God said, I'm going
to save a people. And I'm going to do, I'm going
to, this is my counsel. I'm going to save a people. And
I'm going to make a covenant with my son that if he go and
he redeem this people by his blood and righteousness, he'll
be exalted. He'll be the firstborn among
many brethren. He was, he always has been the
first, but he's going to be exalted to be the Lord and Christ of
my people. And they're going to see him
high and lifted up and they're going to glorify God, the three
in one. And why did he confirm this counsel
by an oath? Verse 18. It was enough, wasn't
it, that God just purposed it? Sure it was. But he confirmed
it with an oath. That by two immutable things,
two unchangeable things, we can't change God's decree, His purpose,
and we can't change God's promise. It can't be changed. Because
it's impossible for God to lie. God's not a man that He should
lie. He don't change. He said, I change not, therefore
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Why do you think this whole world
wasn't consumed at the moment Adam sinned in the garden? Because
God changes not. And He had made a covenant beforehand
to redeem a people. And He confirmed it with an oath
to His Son. And then He comes in time and
He reveals this to you and I. We were clinging to a false refuge. We were looking at something
else. It says, we fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set
before us. We've got strong consolation,
strong comfort. We fled to Him. If you flee to
a refuge, the manslayer in the Old Testament, when he trespassed
and he killed a man, there were some cities of refuge that he
could flee to. and not be executed if he made
it to one of these cities of refuge. And did you know that
every one of those cities of refuge has significance? Their
names have significance to Christ? I can't go through all of them,
but Kiddush signifies holy. Christ is both as God and man. He's sanctification to His people.
He's their refuge. The refuge of holiness is Him.
Shechem, which means shoulder. Christ has not only bore the
sins of His people in His own body on the tree, but He bears
and carries the persons and has the government of them on His
shoulders. There's the right arm of God's
strength. Hebron, it's interpreted fellowship. The saints have not only fellowship
with Christ, but with the Father through Him. He's our refuge
for fellowship. So we could go through all of
them. We might look at these later
sometime. But all of them signify Christ. We fled for refuge to
lay hold on Him. Remember how Abraham, when he
was up there on that mountain with Isaac, and he was about
to slay his son. And he drew back the knife and
he sees a ram caught in the thicket. There's a ram. His head surrounded with a crown
of thorns caught in the thicket. And God said, this is the lamb
that I provide myself, a lamb. And it says they laid hold on
that lamb. I bet they held on to that lamb
with everything they had. If we let go of this lamb, son,
you've got to die. So they held on to that lamb
and he died in Isaac's place. That's Christ. That's what we
do. We flee to Him for refuge and
lay hold on Him and don't let go of Him. That's what Paul is
encouraging us to here in this Scripture. To this place of refuge. Verse 19, it says, We have hope,
which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. I was thinking this morning on
this. Have you ever been to a wave pool at a water park? You ever
seen one of those? Those are man-made waves. They have a thing that's going
back and forth in there and it slopes up so it makes waves just
like the ocean. The reasonings and the philosophy
and the traditions of men where they try to turn men to anything
and everything but Christ are just like that. They're just
man-made waves. But we have an anchor We have
an anchor of the soul, in soul, that won't let us be tossed here
and there by every wind of doctrine and by these false waves of doctrine. We have an anchor. And this anchor,
what do we learn about this anchor? Where is it? Where is the anchor
of the soul? Verse 19 says, "...which entereth
into that within the veil." When we were spiritually dead, you
know where our anchor was? You know where our hope was?
You know where all our confidence was? Right here. Everything we
could think, everything we could imagine, everything we had a
view of how we thought God was, and we did all these things.
But then one day, God made the commandments speak to us. He
made His law alive to us, and when He made His law alive to
us, we died. We realized what we always were,
dead. And all our works were always
fruit unto death. Stillborn children is what that
means. It was dead works. And then our hope went from being
our flesh to Christ. Look here in verse 20. It's in
the veil. Why is it in the veil? Remember
who went into the holiest of holies in the Old Testament?
Who went into the holiest of holies? The high priest alone. He took the blood of a lamb and
he went in alone into that holiest of holies and nobody else could
go in with him. He went in by himself. And he made a sacrifice. He sprinkled the blood on the
mercy seat over the broken law. And sinners are accepted and
God would accept it. But it had to be made every year,
every year, every year. And there had to be new priests
come along because they were constantly dying because they
were sinners. And they had to offer sacrifice
for themselves and for the people because they were sinners. But
it says our hope's in the veil because that's where the forerunner
is for us entered. Even Jesus. He's the forerunner. He's gone in before us. And He's
been made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
A man. Christ Jesus. The Son of God.
He went in there. And He offered His own blood.
Without spotting, without blemish. He offered His own blood. And
God said, I'm satisfied. My people are now righteous.
The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in them. They're
justified from all things where they couldn't justify themselves
by their own words. They're justified. They're dead. Now, send forth my spirit and
give them life that they might see that they now live. And that
they might realize that all their hope that they had before, all
their dullness of hearing, all their turning away and falling
away and tasting but not eating of this great hope, this anchor
of the soul within the veil, was vanity. And now I'm going
to make them willing in the day of my power, and they're going
to behold me. They're going to behold my Son.
And that's where they're going to stay. They're going to drop
anchor right there in the veil. In the veil. In this flesh? No,
no. In a confession? No, no. In a
church? No. In a denomination? No. In the veil. That's where our
hope is. It's in the veil. Nowhere else. Here's the application. If Jesus,
the Son of God, who's the one who took counsel with the three
in one, to whom the promise was made, if He's entered in the
presence of God, then believer, you have the full assurance of
hope of entering in yourself. Are you trusting Him alone? You
have the promise of God, the decree of God, you have the oath
of God, You know God cannot lie. You have His immutable character
to back it up. You fled from all false refuge,
and you lay hold on Christ. You're holding on to Him. You
have Him for your hope, the anchor of your soul. Christ entering
proves His work's complete. It's finished. It's accomplished
on your behalf. You're complete in Him. You're
seated with Him. And you have the priesthood of
Christ, whoever lives, to make intercession for you. God. You have an advocate with the
Father. Now, therein we can have some hope. Therein we can have
some hope. So I encourage you, brethren,
that the Scripture says this, Know
ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which
is in you, which you have of God and ye are not your own,
for ye are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your
body and in your spirit, which are God's." How do we do that? How is it that we do that? How
can I glorify Christ, God, in my body? He bought it. It's His. But as of right now, it's dead. It's going to go back to the
earth and die. He's going to raise it and glorify it, but
it's dead. I can't do anything good. In my flesh dwells no good
thing. I'm alive in the Spirit. He's
given me a new heart, so how can I glorify Him in my body? By laying hold of that hope that's
set before us, that anchor in the veil and looking away from
this flesh. That's how you glorify Him in
your body, by not looking to your body. That's how you glorify
Him in your spirit, by worshiping Him in spirit and in truth. We're
going to look at that later, but Isaiah 45, 22. I want to
end with this. Isaiah 45, 22. Look unto Me. If I look unto Him and I look
unto myself or to anywhere else, I'm going to have to squint.
I can't see. I can only see one thing at a
time. Look unto Him. Look unto Me and
be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there
is none else. I have sworn by myself. There's that promise. The word
has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return. Here's
the word. That unto me every knee shall
bow and every tongue shall swear. Surely, this is a certainty and
assurance. Surely, shall one say in the
Lord have I righteousness and strength. And to him shall men
come, and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be justified and shall glory. You know how we're going
to be saved? All the seed of Israel. All those
that were given to Christ before the foundation of the world.
Spiritual Israel. You know how that race is going
to be saved? You know how that Hebrew nation
is going to be saved? In Him. He said, I've sworn it. It's gone forth out of my mouth.
All those that are incensed against you, all those that are plaguing
you and trying to drag you back to something dead that's worthless. They keep prying you and pricking
you and bothering you and just wish they'd just leave you alone.
Patiently endure, Scripture says. Because one day, they're going
to bow. And they're going to confess.
And they're going to be ashamed. Hopefully it will be in this
life before they come into His presence. Our anchor, the anchor
of our soul is seated at the right hand of God. I hope that
you'll drop anchor right there and stay right there. That's
what Paul's encouraging them. We'll look more at Melchizedek
when we come next time. Thank you.