In Hebrews chapter 6, this will
be our last study tonight in Hebrews chapter 6. I want to begin reading here in
verse 17 and read down through verse 20. Hebrews chapter 6 and
verse 17. Were in 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 as an anchor of the soul, both sure
and steadfast, and which entereth unto that within the veil. Whether the forerunner is for
us entered, even Jesus, made and high priest forever, after
the order of Melchizedek. We just sang the song, My Hope
is Built on Nothing Less than Jesus' Blood and Righteousness.
And that song was written by Edward Mote. He was born in the
late 1900s and died in 1874. And his parents owned a little
pub there in London. And he said when he was a kid
he spent all of his Sundays on the street. He was so ignorant
of God he said, I lived as though there was no God. Ignorant, utterly
ignorant of God. He became an apprentice or a
cabinet maker. And one day he was going to work
and his man that he worked for told him that he wanted him to
go to church with him. He took him to church and he heard the
gospel. And the Lord saved him. He became a good cabinet maker
there in London. But he wrote this song. He said one morning this song
came to him in the chorus. And that afternoon all the four
stanzas came to him. And he went to visit an elderly
sick lady and he didn't know what to talk to her about. And
so he quoted her this song. Every time he quoted a line to
her, he would quote the chorus, On Christ the solid rock I stand. And two years later, he wrote
this song. We have this song published,
and it was published under this title, The Immutable Bases of
a Sinner's Hope. I love that title. And I began
to study this song, and I thought about what Peter said, Be ready
always. to give an answer to every man
that asked you of the reason of the hope that's within you.
And as I was looking over this song, I thought, boy, Mr. Moat gave a good answer to the
reason of the hope that's within him. And he starts out here and
he gives the foundation of his hope. He says, My hope is built
on nothing less. We need a foundation for our
hope, don't we? And he gave his. It's built on what? Nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Nothing more because there is
no more. Nothing less, God will accept no less. Jesus' blood
and righteousness. I dare not trust the Swedish
frame, not the Swedish thought, not the Swedish feeling, not
the Swedish work, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. And then
verse 2, he goes on to the immutability of his hope. He says, When darkness
veils his lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace. That's a good hope, isn't it?
That's that immutable hope that we looked at last year. God's
counsel, God's promise, God's Word, God's love in Christ. It's
unchanging to His people. In every high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil. And then in verse 3, He gives
the strength of His hope. His oath, His covenant, His blood
supports me in the whelming flood, all my afflictions and my trouble,
supports my spirit, supports my heart, my thoughts, supports. When all around my soul gives
way, He then is all my hope and stay. Christ is the strength
of my hope. He is my strength. And then he
goes to the last verse, the object of his hope. And here's the object
of our hope, isn't it? When he shall come with trumpet
sound, O may I then in him be found, dressed in his righteousness
alone, and here it is, faultless to stand before his throne. That's the object of our hope.
That's what we hope for, isn't it? We're never going to be completely
satisfied until we realize that hope. And Jude said unto Him
that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only
wise God be honor and glory and majesty and dominion now and
forevermore. Our hope. Our hope. And these
verses here that I read to you, they're written to give the believer
comfort concerning his hope. That's what the Apostle said
here, that we might have a strong comfort, a strong consolation,
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us. And Paul makes reference here to the cities of refuge. That seems like he was very learned
in in the ceremonial law and the law of God in the Old Testament.
And he seemed to be making reference here to those six cities of refuge. If you killed someone accidentally,
you fled to this city, one of these six cities of refuge. And
you stayed there and you lived there until the death of the
high priest. And when the high priest died,
you could go back to your land and back to your property without
any consequences. Well, you and I, Paul says here,
have fled not to some physical city, but we fled to God in Christ
and we fled from the wrath to come to lay hold upon eternal
life. Listen to Isaiah chapter 32 verses
1 and 2. Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness, and a man shall be for a hiding place from the
wind, a shelter from the tempest. Who is that? That's the God-man,
isn't it? That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's a hiding place. You're dead and your life is
hid with Christ in God. And now we live in the hope of
eternal life in heaven at last and all that that includes, all
that that entails, eternal life in heaven and who can explain
what all that means? Wayne is to be with Christ. It's
to be like Christ without any change for all eternity. And the Bible says we have pled
to lay hold upon that hope of eternal life which God that cannot
lie promised before the world began. Titus chapter 1 verse
2. The promise of eternal life. I want you to hold that and look
back over to your left in 1 Timothy chapter 6. Look how Paul talks
here about laying hold of the hope, and he tells us what that
hope is. In 1 Timothy chapter 6, and look
here in verse 6, he is talking about gain and some supposing
that gain was godliness and how unprofitable temporal gain is. But he says in verse 6, But godliness
with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this
world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. Having food
and raiment, let us be there with content. But they that will
be rich fall into temptation and a snare and to many foolish
and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.
For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while
some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced
themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God,
flee these things, and follow after righteousness and godliness
and faith and love and patience and meekness, fight the good
fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life. And that is what Paul said,
we have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us. And what is that hope? Eternal
life. that hope of eternal life were in thy house was thou also
called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses."
The hope of eternal life. And Paul says the hope of eternal
life in heaven is set before us, didn't he? We have fled to
lay hold upon the hope set before us. Heaven and eternal life is
set right before our eyes. And now he says lay hold upon
it. They hold upon it. Can you imagine
those men that had killed somebody? Maybe they killed their neighbor,
the neighbor's child, or somebody accidentally. And they saw somebody
standing by, reach and get their knife to avenge the death of
that person. And can you imagine the anxiety
that gripped them? Man, I've got to get to the city
of refuge. I've got to get to the city."
And boy, they take off. They take off to enter that city
of refuge, and they can't stop. The slayer is right on their
trail, and they look back and they see him with a knife drawn
out, and he's coming. And they come up over the ridge
and look down there in the valley, 200 yards away, and what do they
see? The city of refuge. And boy,
the lungs are burning, they're paining, their muscles are aching.
But they can't stop, can they? They see the gates of that city
of refuge. And they don't stop. They don't
stop until they lay hold upon the post of those doors. And
then what do they do? Then they sit down. And then
they rest. That's what Paul is saying. That's
what he's saying. We fled for refuge to lay hold
upon the hope that is set before us. And the Scripture says this.
Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, that they may rest
from their labors." That's our aim, isn't it? That's our aim.
Rest, eternal rest, eternal life with the Lord Jesus Christ. And
brethren, here's what makes this so serious. What's the alternative
for eternal rest? Eternal unrest. What's the alternative
for heaven? The alternative is terrible to
think about, isn't it? And that's why we flee to lay
hope upon the hope set before us. Wouldn't your heart break
without hope? Knowing what we know now, our
hearts would break without hope. We need hope, don't we? And we
need a good hope. And we need a good hope through
grace. And listen, we need comfort. for our hope. When God gives
us a good hope, He turns right around here and He comforts us
concerning our hope. And that's what the Apostle Paul
is talking about here. Comfort for our hope. I want
to give you four quick things back here in our text in Hebrews
chapter 6. Four things that comforts us
concerning our hope of eternal life in heaven at last. Back
here in our text again, the first one is this. We have it here
in verse 20, "...whether the forerunner is for us entered,
even Jesus, made an High Priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."
He says here in verse 19, "...we have this hope as an anchor of
the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within
the veil." That's heaven. Christ never entered into the
tabernacle made with hands, but He entered into Heaven. That's
what the veil represented, the presence of God. And He says
here in verse 20 that He's our forerunner. This is what comforts
us as we walk towards Heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ has entered
Heaven and He says you're not for Himself. He was there before
He came here. He's a forerunner for us. For us, you know, this is the
only time in the Bible, New or Old Testament, this word forerunner
is used. I don't know if it's a word some
of the old translators came up with, but it's the only time
in the Bible it's used. But another word we could use for it would
be scout. We know something about scouts,
don't we? When the wagon trains used to go west, they would hire
a scout. He would go ahead of the wagon
train. He knew where you could safely cross the rivers. He knew
the passages through the mountains. He knew where the oases were.
He knew where the holes of water were, where the danger was. And
they followed the Scout. They followed the Scout. And
this is what the Apostle Paul is saying. The way from this
earth to heaven is not only possible, but it's certain for all of those
who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ because He is already
there. He's already there. Now, if I
was going... I drove that west and some of
you have too. I've drove through the plains.
I've drove through the northern plains in the heat of the summer
and I've drove through there in the cold of the winter. And
I cannot imagine being on a wagon train and going... at where those plains begin,
and you can't see the end of them. Can you imagine seeing
that steam rising up over those plains and saying, nobody's ever
been through there before? We don't know if we can even
cross these plains or not. Wouldn't it be wonderful then
when you left the east, if you knew that your scout that was
going to guide you there had already been on the west coast,
He had already seen California. He lived there and he came back
to guide you there. Wouldn't that be wonderful? You
get out there on those plains and he'd say, now listen, listen,
it's so many miles across there. I know because I've walked it.
And when we get across here, when we get to a large row of
mountains that they call the Rockies, there's just one or
two passages across there that we can get across. But I've been
across there. I've been across it. Wouldn't
that be comforting? Well, that's what Paul is saying
about the Lord Jesus Christ. He's done walked this way ahead
of us. He knows where every pitfall
is. He knows where the resting places are, where the watering
holes are. He knows where you can cross
and where you can't. He's already entered heaven and
sat down there, not for himself, Paul said, but on our behalf. He's there on our behalf. Isn't
that comforting? That's comforting, isn't it?
If there's no humanity in heaven, then I'll never get there. But
Christ is there in our humanity. We'd have never known that heaven
was made for humanity, would we? I mean, I can understand
God's throne being there, the Father's house. I can understand
the holy angels being there, but humanity? But Jesus Christ
is there in our humanity. He's taken possession of that
place. And I tell you, that comforts
my hope. That comforts my hope. If He's there for me, I have
a good hope of getting there myself. Secondly, this is comforting
to our hope when we realize this, that Jesus has not only gone
ahead of us as our forerunner, but He's taken away everything
out of the way that would bar us from entering unto that place. We enter the kingdom of heaven,
Paul said, through much tribulation. But I tell you, we could never
enter there at all if the Lord Jesus had not taken the things
out of the way that would bar the door of heaven against us.
And you and I can think of several things, can't we? I tell you,
sin would bar the door, wouldn't it? But what did He do? He offered Himself a sacrifice
for our sins. He purged our sins. He took our
sins away. The wrath of God would hinder
us from entering there. But He bore that wrath in His
own body upon the tree. Death would have hindered us,
wouldn't it? Oh my goodness! Can you imagine facing death?
Trying to get out of the grips of death? But Jesus Christ tasted
death on our behalf. The grave? Well, the grave would
have swatted us up in victory. But Jesus has risen again and
He's gotten victory over the grave. O grave, where is thy
victory? One might say, Bruce, Jesus is
in heaven but He's different from us. He's holy, and He's
harmless, and He's undefiled, and He's separate from sinners.
Yes, He is. But brothers and sisters, none
of us will suffer the difficulty of getting to heaven as He did.
He was the only man that truly worked His way to heaven. And what a time He had in doing
it. You and I will never shed drops of blood. We'll never do
that. But you know something? He did.
We'll never grapple with the things in our humanity that He
grappled with in His. We'll never be forsaken of God,
but He was. We'll never die with our sins
upon us, but He did. Death will never be sweet to
Him, but it will be to us. when Satan comes to your conscience
and he says, how can a sinner like you entertain a good hope
of heaven? There's no way made for somebody
like you to enter heaven. Then tell him this, yes there
is. And Jesus Christ is the way.
And He's already did everything for you and took every obstacle
out of the way for your entering into that place. So tell him
this, I'll hope to the end. I'll hope to the end for heaven
and eternal life at last. Why? On what grounds? Because
of what Jesus Christ, the Son of God, did for me in the days
of His flesh. That's comforting to hope, isn't
it? And the third thing, think about
this, and it's not enough that Christ has entered heaven as
our forerunner. It's not enough that He's removed
all obstacles that would bar us from entering there. It's
necessary also for something else to take place. He must bring
us there. He must bring us there. He must
monitor our travel there. He must track and guard every
step we take through this dangerous and sinful world in order to
bring us to heaven. And when the Apostle Paul says
here that He's entered heaven for us, he doesn't just mean
that Jesus Christ has taken possession of that place and He's sat down
and hoping and praying that we can make it. That's not His meaning. When He says He's entered heaven
for us, look what He says down here in chapter 7 and look in
verse 24. This is what He means. But this
man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood,
Wherefore he is also able to save them to the uttermost, for
evermore that come to God by him, sin he ever liveth to make
intercessions for them." So see what he's doing? He's
living to plead their cause and maintain their cause. to make
intercessions for them. And this is the reason Paul gives
for the believer being saved for evermore. Because Christ
lives to make intercessions for him. It's almost that he does
nothing else while he's up in heaven, but make intercessions
for his children that are upon this earth. When we've sinned
and guilt is so heavy on the conscience we can't take one
more step towards heaven, what does he do? What does he do? He stands up
as our advocate and says, Father, forgive them for my sake, forgive
them. Then we go on our way, don't
we? When we've lost our way in some dark valley, what does He
do? He pleads our cause and sends us light to walk in. When we don't have the strength
to climb the next hill, what does He do? He pleads our cause
and He strengthens us with might by His Spirit in the inner man. He makes intercessions for us.
When we become negligent, what does He do? Well, He sends the
rod upon our back and He corrects us. When the enemy crosses our
path and the battle has become too strong for us, what does
He do? He maintains our cause. He takes up the shield and sword
and He fights the battle for us. And He says, Stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord with you. He knows us perfectly,
doesn't He? He knows our frame. He knows
our difficulties. He knows our circumstances. He
knows the way that we take. All things are naked and open
in the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. And He knows how
to effectually plead our cause and bring us up to heaven at
last. He is able. He is able to save
to the other ones. And that is faith, isn't it,
to believe that? Abraham believed that God who had promised was
able to perform that which He promised. Do you believe He's
able? When you live your life down here and all the things
that you encounter, do you believe He's able to bring you to heaven?
No matter what your need is, that He's able, He knows it and
He's able? That we have such a high priest
in heaven that knows all of that? Do you believe that? Then that's
confidence. That's confident in your hope.
That's a good hope then. That's a hope that is sure and
steadfast that will keep your soul in the midst of storms. And lastly, think about this. And this is something concerning
our hope that would absolutely grieve us to death and worry
us to death if we didn't understand this. If we didn't understand
this next part, then We won't have much comfort for our hope.
But here's a comfort for our hope when we realize this, that
when God gives a good hope, He in turn sends trouble to brighten
that hope. He sends trouble that we may
live in the exercise of that hope. I think it's very telling
here that the Apostle Paul, when he talks about hope, He uses
this analogy of an anchor. He calls hope in an anchor, doesn't
He? And we said last week, when do we need an anchor? In a storm. Sometimes study the travels of
the Apostle Paul in Acts 27 when they were in that typhoon for 14 days, we know of. He said
we've been in this 14 days, none of you have eaten or drank anything
for 14 days. And finally they spotted this
little island. It was Malta. And the storm was
so fierce and the waves so violent it was going to wash them against
the rocks and break the ship to pieces. So they threw out
four anchors in the stern of the ship. And the Bible says
they wished for the day. They sat there and hoped for
the day, throwing their anchors out. That's when an anchor is
good, isn't it? during the storm. Look here in
chapter 10. I think that Pastor Paul gives
a very good example here of what I'm talking about in chapter
10. Look at verse 32. He just got
finished telling these Hebrews, believers to hold fast,
hold fast your confidence and hope. Boy, I tell you what, you better
get a good grip on your hope because God's going to send troubles.
He's going to send troubles. And He tells some of the troubles
He sent to these people here. Verse 32, look at this, "...called
to remembrance the former days, in which after you were illuminated,
the Lord came to you and enlightened your mind and gave you faith
and repentance." Look what's the first thing, "...you endeared
a great fight of afflictions." And here he tells what some of
them were. Partly while you were made a gazing stock. They'd walk down the streets
and people would spit at their feet. Or they'd look at them
and shake their heads. Sorry, bunch of Christians. A
gazing stock. They'd gaze at them, shake their
head, shame them. Both by reproaches. How would
you like to live and be a reproach in your community? Nobody had
anything to do with you. Everybody cast your name out.
Nobody spoke well of you. You were just a reproach. That
is what they were suffering. And He calls it affliction, both
by reproaches and affliction, and partly while you became companions
of them that were so used. For you had compassion of Me
in My bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling, the plundering
of your goods. They confiscated their houses
and took their furniture, their clothing. They spoiled them. But what kind of effect did this
have upon these people? How did God turn this and work
it for their good? Knowing in yourselves that you
have in heaven a better and endearing substance. Isn't that wonderful? When God gives hope, He sends
trouble. to make us live in that hope. We better not get too settled
in our marriages. Do you know that? I used to think
if you had any trouble in your marriages, something must be
wrong. You know, I've changed my mind completely. I've took
a 180 degree turn. If you don't have some trouble
in your marriages, something's wrong. Something's wrong. if you don't have a spouse on
occasion offending the other one. If you ladies never have
your husband to ever say anything or do anything that bothers you,
something's wrong. And you know why God sends that
even in marriages? He will not have us to rest and
be content with our temporal marriages. We'll never be content
with a marriage until we're married to Christ in heaven. We have trouble in our families.
I used to wonder why in the world God never restrained my children?
Why He let them live in open and profane sins and bring shame
and do all kinds of ungodly things? Now I know. I don't have a happy
little family. And what effect has it had upon
me? I long to be with my family in
heaven. It brightened my hope of heaven
and the family of God there. I long to be with this family
where we've got some peace. Sometimes He sends diseases to
His children. He whom thou loveth is sick.
He lets us be afflicted with sickness. And why does He do
that? To make us long for the wholesomeness
of heaven where there is no sickness. Sometimes He doesn't let us become
rich. Sometimes He even sends poverty.
these fellows today that's preaching the health gospel and the wealth
gospel? Brothers and sisters, it's right
opposite. Sometimes God sends affliction. Sometimes He brings
poverty. Why? To make us hope for the
riches, the true and lasting riches that's in heaven with
Jesus Christ. He does these things. He does
these things. Paul was speaking of hope. In
2 Corinthians 4 when He made this statement, our light afflictions
which are but for a moment work for us. Afflictions work for
us. What do they do for us? They
work for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while
we look not at the things which are seen. Why don't we look at
the things which are seen? Well, God has made them somewhat
distasteful to us, hasn't He? He's removed the distractions
from us. We used to take great comfort
in Him. And I'm not saying He's making us miserable in this world,
but I'm telling you what He does do. He makes us miserable enough
to live upon that hope that He's given us. Aren't you becoming
just a little bit sick of this world? We are, aren't we? was showing the Lord Jesus
the temple one day, and he started telling them about how there
wasn't going to be one stone left upon another. And he sat
down there beside the temple, and they came to him and said,
Tell us when these awful things are going to take place, and
what's going to be the end of the world? What's going to be
the end? And he made this statement to
those men. He said, There's going to be distress of nations. There's
going to be all kinds of confusion among the nations. There's going
to be perplexity, danger. The sea and the waves roaring,
and men's hearts fell in them for fear of those things that's
coming on the earth. And the powers of heaven shall
be shaken. There's going to be some dangerous
times coming, aren't there? And you know, I think that's
why God's given us the media today. It wasn't too many years
ago. People didn't know what was going
on all over the world. But you know if somebody stubs
their toe in Madagascar, we can know about it in 30 minutes.
We can watch it on the video. God's given us the media and
what do we see in our media? Something is happening in this
world. I mean perplexity and confusion
is all over this world. Danger and men's hearts are fouling
them for fear. And it's just going to get worse.
But then He said something. He said something. And He said
something especially to those who will be living in those days.
When you see all of these things come to pass, lift up your heads. Somebody is hanging their heads
down, wasn't they? Don't be hanging your head down looking around
saying, man, we can't take this. Lift up your head and look up. Why? Your hope is about ready
to be realized. Your redemption draws nigh. And boy, those who will be living
in those days need to be looking up. And we need to now. We need to now. Let me close
with one passage. Look over in Psalms chapter 71. If we didn't know this, we would
be so grieved when trouble came and afflictions came. But you'll
notice, and it may take you a while to notice this, God is just causing
you to live in your hope. He's causing you
to hope. And the way He causes us to do
that is by making this world unattractive to live in. Look
how David says in verse 2 of Psalm 71, Deliver me in thy righteousness
and cause me to escape. Cause me to escape. I don't know
what he was going through. Incline your ear and hear me
and save me. Verse 4. Deliver me, O God, out of the
hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel
man. Deliver me. It says in verse 9. Cast me not
off in the time of old age. Forsake me not when my strength
fails. For my enemies speak against
me. They that lay wait for my soul take counsel together, saying,
God has forsaken him. Let us persecute and take him.
There is none to deliver him. O God, be not far from me. Make
haste to help me. Let them be confounded and consumed
that are adversaries to my soul. Let them be covered with reproach
and dishonor that seek my hurt. And look in verse 20. Thou which
hast shewed me great and sore troubles shalt quicken me again,
and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth. And
right in the middle of all this trouble, look what he says in
verse 14. But I will hope, continue. What are all these troubles good
for? Make us hope. I tell you, if you get too satisfied
in this world, if this world gets like we want it to be, we
will hope for heaven because we will be continued. God, don't
make this world like I'd love to see it. In spite of everything, all the
trouble that God sends, I will hope continually And what happens
when we live in this hope? I will yet praise you more and
more. Hope. My anchor holds within
the veil. And if that is where your anchor
is at in the Lord Jesus Christ, then God is going to send you
some trouble. And you are going to prove it. And your hope is
just going to get brighter and brighter. And then when it comes
time to face the valley and the shadow of death and the river
of death, You'll say this, I've been hoping for a long time and
I'm going to continue to hope until I realize my hope, until
I'm with the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, hope's a good thing, isn't
it? It's a good thing.