God, Our Anchor of Hope, Part 1

If you have your Bible, turn with me to Hebrews chapter 6 Hebrews chapter 6, you want to pick up where we left off last June That's right, last June And so we want to look at God, our anchor of hope, helping you understand how this loving appeal in verse number 9 down through verse number 12 follows a very severe warning that was given by the writer of Hebrews This severe warning is given so that these listeners who do not know the Lord would not fall back and turn away from Christ, but truly follow those in the assembly who have committed their lives To the Lord

Hebrews 6, verse number 9, reads as follows: It says, But, bel, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation Though we are speaking in this way, for God is not unjust, so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints And we desire that each one of you should show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope Until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises

Beloved, this is how this section begins It begins with those famous Bud of Scripture The Buddholog give us some of the most treasured theological truths in all the Bible They are given to us because they show us the contrast between what was said and what now is going to happen And so he says, but Beloved, there's a transition versus the those of verse number 4 of Hebrew 6 and the you of verse number 9 Of Hebrews 6 There are those who are in danger of falling away, but you, beloved Remember, if he calls them the bel, they are Hebrew people who know the Lord

If he calls them brethren, he addresses them as the Hebrew people in general But when he calls them the bel, he is addressing those in the assembly who really know the Lord Now, we told you last week, right? There are three kinds of people in the pew Three kinds There are the Professors, there are the possessors, and there are the protesters, right? The pos are the contenders for the faith The professors are the pretenders concerning the faith And the protesters are the offenders of the faith Do you get that? Three kinds of people in the pew You're one of the three

You either know the Lord, you possess Him. O you think you know the Lord and you want others to think you do and you're a pretender, or you protest against everything that God says And so the writer of Hebrews knows that, and so as he addresses the nation, the assembly, excuse me, he's addressing them from the standpoint that there are those who are in danger of falling away And he addresses them in such a way in Hebrews 6, verses 4 to 6, which is that third warning passage in the book of Hebrews, which is, for the most part, very controversial in the church today

For most people, believe that this is not referring to unbelievers, but yet I'm convinced it does And when we went through Hebrews. 5 verse number 11 down through Hebrews 6 verse number 8 This third warning, we showed you how we are sure this is unbelievers and not believers he is addressing And some will say, well, it says that those who have once been enlightened, but that doesn't mean you know the Lord John 1: tells us that when Christ came, He enlightened every man that was in the world That doesn't mean that every man is saved

It also says in the book of Matthew that the people who sat Or sit in darkness would see a great light But it doesn't mean that all those who sat in darkness Embrace the light But these people were ones who had been enlightened and they had tasted the heavenly gift But the Bible never refers to salvation as tasting something All right? Remember, we talked to you about the fact that those who tasted Had to eat his flesh, had to drink his blood, had to take all of him, embrace all of that he was They just couldn't taste The gift They had embraced the gift

It also says that they were made partakers of the Holy Spirit Some We'll see They are one with the Holy Spirit No, the word partaker is not the word that we would look at as a possessor of the Holy Spirit It's a word that means to associate alongside of And so they were able to associate with those Alongside of who embraced the Spirit of God because they had seen the work of the Spirit of God That's what goes on to say: they had tasted the good word of the Lord and the powers of the age to come They were able to see the great miraculous powers of the age to come

But those who had been enlightened but not embraced the truth, those who had tasted of the heavenly gift, Those who had seen all these aspects concerning the work of God, none of these terminologies are referred to in scripture elsewhere as marks of salvation. A word like justification is not used, sanctification is not used, reg is not used, transformation is not used, new births not used, none of those words that we would associate with someone in Scripture that knows the Lord Is used here These are used of people who are very close to coming to Christ And then he says this

If you fall away, it's impossible to renew you again to repentance since they again crucified themselves as the Son of God and they put him To open shame These people who had once tasted of the heavenly gift, these people who had been partakers of the Spirit of God Are the ones who agree with the crucifiers? They once again crucify the Christ They put him to open shame They agree with those who hung him on a tree No believer would ever do that, right? But then he says, But, bel, we are persuaded of better things concerning You And he goes on to this long dissertation concerning hope

And so, this week and next week, we're going to cover several aspects concerning that hope We're going to look at the realization of hope Then the exhortation to hope, the illustration he gives of hope, the verification of that hope And the consolation that comes from that hope That will take us down to verse number 20 Okay? But we're going to begin by looking at the realization of hope But he says, but bel But beloved Understand that that phrase beloved is used Sixty times in the New Testament The first nine times it is used, it's in reference to God the Father's love For God the Son

All the rest of the time it's used in Scripture, it's used of the believer And it speaks of those who have been divinely loved It's a beautiful word to talk about our position with Christ We are called the bel In fact, turn back with me if you would to 1 John. 1 John chapter 3 Listen to what John says Remember, John was the disciple whom Jesus loved That's how he refers to himself in John's Gospel He never refers to himself by name in the Gospel of John

He just refers to himself as the disciple whom Jesus loved because he was so overwhelmed with the fact that God would love him, that's how he referred to himself And so when he writes 1 John, he says this: verse 1, chapter 3 Excuse me See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us? That we would be called children of God, and such we are for this reason the world does not know us because it did not know Him Beloved, now we are children of God Wow What manner of love, how great a love Remember, it the word pot of pen that's used two other times in the New Testament

That speaks of something otherworldly, something that's alien to us, completely foreign to us, it's like it's from another dimension He says, How otherworldly kind of love is this that's from another dimension that the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God? So he calls him now the bel, the bel He says over in verse 21, Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God Chapter 4, verse number 1, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits Verse 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God

And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God Verse 11 of chapter 4 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another And then over in 3 John 1, the elder to the bel Gaius, whom I love in truth, bel, I pray That in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers Verse five, bel You are acting faithfully Verse 11: Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good The one who does good is of God, and the one who does evil has not seen God

Jude, verse number 3, Beloved, while I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I felt a necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down To the saints What a beautiful word Beloved So he's referring to these Hebrew people in the assembly Those who are true professors, possessors of the truth, and not professors of the truth, he calls them the bel But bel, he says, I am persuad. I am convinced it's the word that is a legal term It's a word that speaks to the fact that there is no discrepancy

Wouldn it be good for someone to walk into the assembly and say, Beloved, I am con. I am 100 % sure. I am so persuaded of better things concerning you In other words, I know that you had one time tasted of the heavenly gift But having tasted it, you ate all of it You embraced it all. I know that once you had been enlightened But once having been enlightened, you embraced the light

You followed the light. I know that having been a partaker of the Spirit of God, you wanted to give your life to Christ so that you could possess the Spirit of God. I know of better things concerning you. I know of things that are moving way beyond Those who just profess Christ, you actually possess the Christ Now, how did you know that? How did he know that? This is very important. I was talking to somebody this past week, and they were talking about somebody who had just died, and they reminded me

They said to me, you know, Pastor, you've always said that if someone dies and you kind of think they were saved, they probably were never saved Listen, people should not think that maybe you're saved. I think they are What if someone said, What church do you go to? I go to Christ Community Church Well, tell me about your pastor Well, I think my pastor is saved. I mean, who'd want to come here, right? You know, if someone is talking to me about you and I say, well, you know what? I think they know the Lord Listen, the scripture never refers to somebody as how you think they might know the Lord

Either you know them or you don't That's very important By your fruits you shall know them That's why the Lord gave the parable about the sower and the soil, right? Because there's going to be some soil that falls on thorny ground, some that falls on rocky soil, right? And those people are going to jump on the Jesus bandwagon They going to embrace Jesus really quick, right? But when trials come, when adversity comes, when hardship ar, they fall away, right? Same word used in Hebrews 6, speaking of those who apostasize the faith

What does it mean to apostasize the faith? It means you know the truth because you've heard the truth You know about Jesus because you've heard about Jesus But yet you have never really given your life to Christ And you fall away when trials and temptations come your way, when suffering comes, and the seaful of riches come You fall away You turn your back on the Christ and go the other way Just because at one time you professed Christ Doesn't mean you actually possessed Christ, right? And so it's very important that you understand the steadfastness of hope That's why he mentions in the verses

That great triad of Christianity Faith, hope, and love Faith, hope, and love Because he was able to see their faith, see their love, and see their hope Remember, faith is living by the conviction of God's precepts Hope is living in anticipation of God's promises And love is living in the realization as well as the manifestation of God's person That's how you distinguish between the three What is a conviction? What is an anticipation? And one is a realization as well as the manifestation of that because God is love Therefore, I love God and love the brethren

And so he talks about that great triad of Christianity. I know your faith, I know your love, I know your hope, I am persuaded, I am convinced of better things concerning you And that's why, in that parable of the sow in the soil, he gives that four so, that moist soil, that one that receives the word What? It sinks down deep It grows and brings forth fruit Remember, some thirty-f, right? Some sixty-fold, some a hundred-fold And we've told you in the past, why does God use that terminology? Because in Israel, if you bring forth tenfold, you have a bumper crop

But if you bring forth thirty fold, you have a super, super bumper crop He is telling you that when the seed germinates, when the seed sinks down deep and begins to grow, guess what? There is absolutely no question about someone's fruit You're you're not going around and saying, you know, I I wonder uh Mary, you got any you got any fruit underneath there? Picking up the limbs, they're looking for some fruit Ch Jack, you let me let me see Let me see Oh, I'm not sure that it any fruit in there, Jack You don't do that There's just fruit all over them See, we've missed that today

Because someone said a prayer, because someone walked an aisle, because someone signed a card, we just hope they're saved And so we want to believe they're saved Instead of, like the right of Hebrews, I am convinced, I am persuaded Because of your faith, because of your hope, because of your love, I know, beloved, you are possess of the true Christ. I wonder if someone would say that about you today Or would someone say, I think so? I'm not so sure If you think so Probably isn't so And you need to understand the essence of the gospel

And so the writer of Hebrews says very clearly, But, bel, we are convinced of better things concerning you, the things that accompany salvation Though we are speaking in this way, in other words, we've just given you this warning. I understand the warnings here. I know it's severe. I know it caused you to examine your life Remember, we told you last week: Hebrews is written for examination purposes We want you to examine your life Are you one that really has embraced the Christ? Have you given your life to the Lord? Don't be a pretender, be a contender for the truth

And so we are persuaded of better things concerning you. I know we've given you this warning, but bel We know you And he said, This is so great He says, For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name In having ministered and in still ministering to the saints, God is not unjust That's just a beautiful verse

Because you see, remember, we told you last week that the book of Hebrews is about not just examination, but about exaltation, right? And these Hebrew people were doing things not for themselves, not for self-exaltation, but for son-exaltation, the Son of God They wanted to lift up the name of God And so the writer says, God is not unjust God is very faithful God's never going to forget the work that you do In ministry to the saints, because you've done this for his name's sake They didn't do it for their name They didn't do it for their publicity They did it for the sake of God

That's why it's so important to realize that when you live for Christ, you live for Christ You don't live for yourself You're truly exalting to Christ You're not exalting yourself You want to lift up his name, not your name If you're more concerned about your name than his name, you're probably You're probably a professor and not a possessor of Christianity You want to live for Christ. I am crucified with Christ, Paul said

Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. I've died to myself. I've died to my ambition. I've died to my aspirations. I want to live for Christ. I want to honor His name My name is irrelevant God's name is everything That's why I love Psalm 115 Listen to this: Psalm 115 Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory because of your loving kind, because of your truth Not to us Oh Lord, I pray not to us, but to your name be the glory To your name be the honor To your name be the praise It's all about your attributes It's all about your nature

It's all about your character It's all about your prominence, not mine It's all about who you are and what you do It has nothing to do with me and what I do You get the right of Hebrews says, God is not unjust so as to forget your work, your labor of love That you have shown in ministering to the saints, and you still keep doing it, you still keep doing it That's why I love 1 Corinthians 15:5 Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor Same word used in Hebrews 6: your labor, toil to the point of exhaustion Your labor is not in vain In the Lord

That's why Paul said in Galatians 6 that we don't grow weary in doing good Why? Because we will reap a great benefit If we do not faint, that great steadfastness Interest, that Paul would say over in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, verse number 2 We give thanks to God always for you, making mention of you in our prayers, constantly bearing in mind your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father There is a work That is produced because of your faith There is a labor that's prompted because of your love

And there is a steadfastness that is Propelled by your hope Same thing the right of Hebrews says in chapter 6 There's something about your faith, there's something about your love, there's something about your hope That convinces me, that persuades me Remember, Mary told you, it's a legal term Okay? A legal term meaning that there is no doubt About what is true That should be of us, right? That's the way people should see us And the right of Hebrews wants to encourage them He wants to motivate them He wants to understand the great promise of God

Remember 2 Timothy 2:19, the firm foundation of the Lord stands, having this se The Lord knows those who are His And let everybody who names the name of the Lord abstain from iniquity The Lord knows those who are His You know, it's a great promise And then He says this This is so good Because he says he moves from the realization of their hope It's a real hope It's not a fake hope It's a real hope So he moves from the realization of hope to the exhortation to hope Now he says, verse 11, and we desire that each one of you, now he's going back to the those of Hebrews 6 Verses 4 to 6

And we decide that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end So that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises In other words, he says: now look As he talks to them, he says, But bel, I'm persuaded that better things concerning you Now, the rest of you understand this: you need to follow their example You need to understand that those who had once seen what you saw, once tasted what you tasted

What once were partakers of what you partook in have now embraced the truth, have embraced the Messiah because they showed diligence They showed Speed They showed hastin to embrace the Messiah That 's why he says these words: We desire that each one of you show the same Diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end That you not be sluggish That word sluggish, same word used in verse 11 of chapter 5 In reference to being dull of hearing Same word It's a word that means numb It's a word that means thick It's a word that means very, very slow

And that's where the warning began, the third warning began in verse 11 Concerning him we have much to say that is Melchizedek, and it's hard to explain since you have become so dull of hearing, so sluggish, so sluggish Oh, and we told you right then It's a quotation from a phrase used in Isaiah's prophecy In Isaiah chapter 6, it's the same phrase that Christ would use in Matthew 13, right after he talked about the parable of the sore and the soil He would quote it He would say, Matthew 13, these words

The reason I'm speaking to you in parables, he says, is because in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled You will keep on hearing, but will not understand You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive For the heart of this people has become dull, sluggish, sl Unwilling to respond, see? With their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes, otherwise they would see with their eyes and hear with their ears And stand with their heart and return, and I would heal them But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear

He says, For truly I say to you that many prophets of right and righteous men desire to see what you see, did not see it, to hear what you hear, and did not hear it He says, I'm speaking to you in parables because this is a fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, which had two fulfillments: one during the Babylonian captivity, and second, the future when the Messiah would come And so he's quoting Isaiah chapter 6 to show the disciples how it is all these Pharisees, all these Jewish people Saw what they saw because they had been enlightened

Tasted what they tasted because they had seen the Messiah They were able to hear what the disciples heard, but they turned their back Why? Because once there is a will rejection of the truth There comes a judicial re by God concerning you when it comes to the truth Interesting, the Apostle Paul, at the end of his ministry, toward the end of his life in Acts 26 These people were coming to his house He was under house arrest, right? And all these Jews were coming to his house It says, and when they had set a day for Paul, verse 23 of chapter 26. I'm sorry, chapter 28

They came to him at his lodging in large numbers, and he was explaining to them by solemnly testifying about the kingdom of God and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and from the prophets And from morning till evening In other words, he was taking the Old Testament, trying to help these Jews understand who Jesus is, because Jesus is the Messiah Well, Paul knows that So he's going to take the Old Testament and try to persuade them as to who Jesus is, right? Some were being persuaded, verse 24, by these things spoken, but others would not believe

And when they did not agree with one another, they began leaving after Paul had spoken one parting word So here's Paul He's trying to persuade them about who Jesus is Because we told you last week, do you have to believe that Jesus is the Messiah to be saved? Answer: Yes You can say it a little bit more emphatically Do you have to believe that Jesus is the Messiah to be saved? Yes, you do Absolutely Okay, John 20, 30 and 31 So he's trying to persuade them that Jesus is the Messiah And some of them were persuaded, most were not So they get up to leave

So, what do you say to somebody when you're trying to persuade them who Jesus is and they get up to leave? What do you say to them? This is what Paul says to them This is so good. I love this He says, The Holy Spirit right spoke You can see them all getting up, they're all walking away By the way, the Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers

Remember your fathers, the one who went to Babylonian captivity for 70 years? Remember those guys? Saying, Go to this people and say, You will keep on hearing, but you will not understand, and you will keep on seeing, but will not perceive, for the heart of this people has become dull, sluggish Slow, same word the writer of Hebrews uses in Hebrews chapter 5, verse number 11, and with their ears they scarcely hear And they have closed their ears or excuse me, eyes, otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and stand with their heart and re, and I would heal them

Therefore, let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles They will also listen Wow, you may leave So I want to give you the warning that the Holy Spirit gave through the prophet Isaiah about your fathers Because if you will reject today the gospel, having heard it, you put yourself in a very dangerous position For there to be a judicial rejection That is, God comes down and says, that's it Enough is enough You will not hear, you will not see any longer It's over That's how he left them We want to let people leave with these warm, comfy, cozy little words

Paul didn't do that He warned them You reject? It could be over for you forever Wow, how powerful is that? And that's what the writer of Hebrews is saying If you go back to Hebrews chapter 6, he says, And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence, the same haste So, as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises. I want you to imitate these people over here

Because of their faith, their hope, and their love, I want you to follow them because they inherit the promise They've embraced Christ the Messiah He is their anchor of hope They have true hope They have true faith They understand true love. I want you to follow them because they have come to embrace that which you have yet to embrace Grace That's the warning he gives That's the exhortation to hope Exhort you You got to do this Don 't wait any longer Now, today is the day of salvation We have no guarantee of tomorrow None

When those nine individuals boarded that helicopter last Sunday morning, they had no idea The tragedy that would await them And by the time they realized that would happen, they had less than 30 seconds before they went off into eternity Folks, that is a wake-up call to everyone in the world Why is it that people in Los Angeles and all around the world are mourning this tragedy? You know what the real answer is? They are mourning their own mortality That's what they're mourning Because they real the end is coming and you never know when it's going to come That 's why the prophet Isaiah says

Well, the psalmist said, Psal 110, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart, as in the day of provocation in the wilderness Today is the day Of salvation If you're here today and never given your life to Christ, today is your day. I plead with you. I beg with you Do not wait Do not wait Let's pray Father, we thank you for today We truly are grateful for all that you do And I pray, Lord, that everyone in the room would know Christ as Lord and Savior They would surely be a possessor Of the Christ, His Spirit

Our prayer, Father, is that you would take your word and drive it deep into our soul, that we would live that truth day in and day out And day out We pray in Jesus' name Amen.