Hopeology, Part 1

If you have your Bible, Hebrews chapter 6, Hebrews chapter 6, as we look at God, our anchor of hope. The book of Hebrews, as you know, is about the supremacy and the sufficiency of Jesus Christ our Lord. And He is seen as the all-sufficient, the superior, supreme one of the universe, because He is truly the hope of all the world.

We saw last time that those unbelievers were to make sure that they understood the full assurance of hope. That they were to realize that full assurance and with speed embrace the hope of Jesus Christ our Lord. In our texts before us, we are told that we are to take refuge in that hope and to stand strong in that hope.

So it's a passage that deals with hope. And yet we don't speak much about hope in a world that's filled with no hope, although we should. He's already mentioned the great triad of Christian virtues and faith, hope, and love.

And we talk a lot about faith, don't we? But isn't it interesting, the more we talk about faith, the less we understand true faith. People have all kinds of ideas about what faith is, but the Bible tells us about and defines for us the essence of faith. And when we come to Hebrews 11, we'll talk a lot about faith and define it for you and see how it's demonstrated in the lives of people.

Because all true faith is demonstrative, that is, it's seen in those who truly have faith in God. We talk a lot about love, but also, like faith, love is a very misunderstood word today. We don't understand what true love is.

We think that because you love, you should accept me for who I am. But we forget that 1 Corinthians 13 says that love never rejoices in untruth, only in truth. So love can only rejoice in that which is true, it can't rejoice in that which is untrue, because that would be unloving, not loving.

So like faith and like love, we talk a lot about it, but don't understand much concerning faith and love, and we should as believers. And yet hope seems to go begging a little bit. We don't talk a lot about hope.

And so I thought as your pastor, I would spend just a brief moment today and even next Sunday talking to you about hope. Because hope is like walking into a dark room and turning on the light. When the light comes on, everything is clearly seen.

When there's darkness, you don't know exactly what's going to happen next. You don't know if you're going to walk into something, stumble over something, you have no idea because you can't see. But when the light goes on, you see everything clearly.

You know where to walk, you have direction, you have purpose, because you have hope. Hope is that which infuses life in a scene filled with death. You wonder about those families of the 12 victims in Virginia Beach, about their hope.

If they have hope. 12 individuals who go to work one day, believing they will be at home for dinner with their loved ones. Not knowing what was going to happen that day, that there would be a massacre and they would lose their lives.

But for the victims' families, what hope do we give them? What hope is there? And how do you infuse light in their world of darkness? That's important. Because the Bible speaks to us a lot about hope. Hope brings joy.

Hope brings joy to a very sorrowful situation. It says in Psalm 38, David is speaking about his sin. He says these words in Psalm 38, verse number 4, This is King David speaking.

My loved ones, my friends, they stand aloof from my plague. My kinsmen stand afar off. Those who seek my life lay snares for me.

And those who seek to injure me have threatened destruction, and they devise treachery all day long. But I, like a deaf man, do not hear, and am like a mute man who does not open his mouth. Yes, I am like a man who does not hear, and whose mouth are no arguments.

For I hope in you, O Lord, you will answer, O Lord my God. That is just so profound. My family stands afar off.

My friends stand afar off. Those next to me care nothing about me. I'm all alone.

I'm in despair. I am greatly discouraged. I am tremendously disillusioned.

This is King David speaking. So what does he do? He does the only thing anyone can do. And that is to hope in the Lord God of Israel.

Knowing that once he communes with Him and prays to Him, God will answer. David knew where his hope would lie. Life without hope is tremendously bleak.

1 Corinthians 15 tells us that if we hope in this life only, we are of most people the most miserable that there are. And I wonder how many people live in misery today because they have no hope. Oh, you can take your hopes and drown them in a bottle.

You can drown them in drugs. You can drown them in entertainment. You can drown them in sex.

You can drown them in all kinds of things. But once you wake up, you're back to your same misery once again. Because they do not erase the despair and despondency of your soul.

We live in a world that has no hope. But we who have embraced the anchor for our souls, the hope in Jesus Christ our Lord, have the answer. So important for us to realize that.

The Bible says in Hebrews 6, So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast in one which enters within the veil. Our hope is sure, unbendable, unbreakable.

It is steadfast. It's unmovable. And this hope is the anchor for our soul.

Amidst all the stress in life, amidst all the storms in life, amidst all the spiritual dangers that you and I go through, there is an anchor for the soul. And that anchor for your soul and mine is the hope that we have in Jesus Christ our Lord. It's not like the world who's filled with uncertainty.

Hope in a world's perspective is a wishful thinking. I hope the sun comes out this afternoon. That's wishful thinking.

We have no guarantee that's going to happen. Oh, the sun is out. It's just behind the clouds.

Okay, I hope I get my job promotion next week. I hope we can go on vacation this summer. I hope that's just wishful thinking.

There's so much uncertainty in that. There is absolutely no certainty you'll go on vacation. There is no certainty you have tomorrow.

There is no certainty you'll get the pay raise. There is no certainty you will ever get married. There is no certainty you will have another child.

There is no certainty in anything except in what Jesus Christ himself has promised. But we live in a very uncertain world, hoping that things work out for us. That's not biblical hope because biblical hope has a sure, steadfast foundation that's unbending, unmoving, that's unbreakable, that is absolutely certain it's going to happen.

That's the hope that you and I have. See, that's an anchor for our soul that we rest in and that we can be assured of. The Bible says in the book of Job, the eighth chapter, that the hope of the godless will perish.

Why is that? Because they don't have true biblical hope. They have wishful thinking. In Job 27, verse number 8, it says, For what is the hope of the godless when he is cut off, when God requires his life? So what is the hope of the godless man when he stands before the living God? He has no hope because he stands before his maker.

He stands condemned. The Bible says in Job 31, verse number 24, If I have put my hope in gold and called fine gold my trust, if I have gloated because of my wealth was great and because my hand had secured so much, verse 28, that would have been an iniquity calling for judgment, for I would have denied God above. In other words, if I put my trust, if I put my confidence, if I put my hope in my wealth, if I put it in my gold, if I put it in my bank account, if I put it in anything other than the God of the universe, that would have been blasphemous to my God and it would have been condemning because it truly would have been a fact that I would have denied that God ever existed.

The Bible goes on to say these words in Psalm 146, Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. I will praise the Lord while I live.

I will sing praises to my God while I have my being. Isn't that great? I will sing praises while I live. I will sing praises while I have my being.

You know what? Most of us have no idea what it means to praise the Lord except the fact that praising God, rejoicing in God is the most often repeated command in the entire scripture and yet it's the thing that we do the least. Think about that. We are commanded more to praise God, to rejoice in God and to give thanks to God more so than any other command in the scriptures and yet it's the one thing we do the least.

Why is that? Why is that? How can God command something so much and we do it so little? I'll wait till this fall. We open up to you the scriptures in terms of what it means to truly give praise to God. We'll gather every Wednesday night and have a praise meeting.

We don't have praise meetings but when you open up the scriptures and understand what praise is you can't help but give praise to God. So Solomon says, I'm going to praise the Lord. He says, while I live, while I have my being do not trust in princes, in mortal man, in whom there is no salvation.

His spirit departs. He returns to the earth. In that very day his thoughts perish.

How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob whose hope is in the Lord his God. The blessed man has hope or the blessed man is, the man who hopes in God, excuse me is the one who's truly blessed by God because he truly takes God at his word and rests in the fact that he has a sure, steadfast future. Solomon would say these words.

Proverbs 28, verse number 10. I'm sorry, Proverbs 10, verse number 28. The hope of the righteous is gladness.

The hope of the righteous is gladness but the hope of the wicked or the expectation of the wicked perishes. Why is that? Because the hope of the righteous is based on that which is certain and the expectation of the unrighteous or the wicked is based on that which is uncertain. He will perish but we will reap the joy of the hope we say we have.

You can't have hope and live a life with no joy. You can't do that because hope always produces joy. Hope always is that which produces gladness of heart.

So important to understand what the scriptures say. The Bible says in Ephesians 2, these words. Verse 12.

Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel. Strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and with God in the world. In other words, he says before you were saved this is the way you were.

You were strangers to the commonwealth of Israel. You were strangers to even who God was. You had no idea.

But most importantly you were without hope in the world because you were without God. People without God have no hope. They have no hope.

That's why when we gather together at funerals and we read 1 Thessalonians 4. Verse number 13. But we do not want you to be uninformed brethren about those who are asleep so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. See when a loved one dies we grieve, don't we? There is sadness in our soul over the loss of a loved one.

But we don't grieve like the unbeliever grieves because they have no hope. We have hope. And so Paul says I don't want you to grieve like the unbeliever grieves because they don't have hope.

But you do have hope. What's the hope? For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and we do, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. And we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.

And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. Where does our comfort come from? From the word that gives us hope.

What's the hope? There is a resurrection. That when we die it's not over. When we die it's just the beginning of the end.

It's not the end. When we die it's the beginning of the end. Because there is a future.

The dead in Christ will rise first. We who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the air. Paul says, listen, don't die when your loved ones have died.

Don't mourn and grieve like the unbelieving world grieves because your loved one dies. They're already in glory. Not only are they already in glory, they beat you there.

They're going to rise first. They're going to beat you again. They're going to beat you twice.

Those who have died in the faith will beat you twice. Once because they're already in heaven. Two because their resurrected bodies will rise first.

And then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the air. They beat you twice. Don't grieve over them.

They win. See? We have hope that one day we will rise and be together with them in the air forever with the Lord. I'm reminded of the words of Philip Brooks when he penned those words, Oh, little town of Bethlehem.

The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight. Philip Brooks would write that song having gone to Bethlehem in the land of Israel, sat there on one cool evening watching the sunset, realizing that amidst the darkness of the city, there was a light that would rise. And that little town would receive the hope and fears of all the years to be met in Christ that night.

Our hymn writers have talked a lot about hope. In fact, it was Edward Moat's great hymn, The Solid Rock, who said, My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

When darkness seems to veil his face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. His oath, his covenant, and blood support me in the whelming flood.

When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay. He understood, Hebrews 6, that Christ is the anchor of the soul. Life with Christ filled with endless hope.

Life without Christ filled with a hopeless end. How about this? Bernard Clerval wrote, In Jesus the very thought of thee, our hope of every contrite heart. It was Isaac Watts who wrote, Our God and help in ages past, our hope for years to come.

It was Charles Wesley who wrote, Forever here my rest shall be, close to thy bleeding side. This all my hope and all my plea, for me the Savior died. And then, of course, Fanny Crosby, who wrote, Consecrate me now to thy service, Lord, by the power of grace divine.

Let my soul look up with steadfast hope, and my will be lost in thine. I wonder how much of hope we understand. It's a word used 129 times in Scripture, 60 of those times in the New Testament.

There are four different Hebrew words that describe hope. There's one basic Greek word that describes hope. But it's all throughout the Scriptures.

And yet, we truly don't understand hope as we should. In fact, Paul said this in Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8, verse number 23. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grow within, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body, for in hope we have been saved.

But hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see with perseverance, we wait eagerly for it. Paul says our salvation is only the beginning of our hope. A hope yet to be fully realized.

Because there is this great glorification of our bodies, this great resurrection of our lives in which we will totally be glorified. We will see Him as He is, we'll be like Him for we'll see Him as He is. I have not seen nor ear heard, nor is it entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for those who love Him.

First Corinthians 2, verse number 9. Because the salvation of hope, we have been saved, we are being saved, and we will one day be fully saved, that is, fully glorified. Because we will have fulfilled what Paul said in Romans 8. That those whom He called, He justified. Those whom He justified, He will one day glorify.

What's our hope based in? What God has already said. You see, hope is the anticipation, the anticipation, living in anticipation of a God who cannot lie, has already promised. That's hope.

Hope is living in anticipation of what God, who cannot lie, has already promised us. That's why it's certain. That's why it's sure.

That's why it's steadfast. That's why you can count on the anchor to hold your soul. Because truly it is what God Himself has given.

I want to talk to you about hope. I want to give you some biblical understanding so you can grasp hope. And this is all introductory this week and next week to Hebrews 6 verses 11 to 20.

Because you need to understand hope. The first thing I want you to see is that hope is rooted in God. But I think you know that.

Hope is rooted in God. Listen to Romans 15. Now may the God of hope, that's pretty good, huh? The God of hope, fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Now that verse right there is way beyond anything that we can truly comprehend this side of eternity. Now may the God of hope cause you to be filled with joy and peace. You see, if you have hope, you have joy.

If you don't have joy, you probably don't have hope. If you have hope, you have peace. If you don't have peace, you probably have no hope.

So Paul says, I want you to understand the God of hope who fills you with all joy and peace and in believing so that that hope will abound all the more through the power of the Spirit of God. Wow, think about that. Do you have joy? Do you have peace? If you do, it's because you have hope in the true and living God.

The Bible says in 1 Timothy 1.1 that Christ, Jesus, is our hope. So if God is our hope and Christ is our hope, Christ then must be God because hope is rooted in God. Colossians 1.5 says that the gospel of God gives us hope.

The gospel gives us hope. Jeremiah 17.7 says, Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord and whose hope is in the Lord. That's the blessed man.

The Bible says in Psalm 39, verse number 7, And now, Lord, for what do I wait? For my hope is in you. Psalm 42, verse 5, Why are you in despair, O my soul? And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall again praise him for the help of his presence. And then again he says in verse number 11, Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him the help of my countenance and my God.

So he repeats, Why are you in despair, O my soul? Why do you live as if you have no hope when you can hope in the Lord who is the countenance of your joy? Psalm 78. Psalm 78 says this, For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should teach them to their children, that the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born, that they may arise and tell them to their children that they should put their hope in God. So God lays it out, listen, I want the fathers to teach their children, so the children can teach their children, so the children can teach the children yet to be born, how to have hope in God.

Because their hope is built on the promises that God gave. It is an anticipation in the God who cannot lie of all the promises that he has offered to those who love him. So teach your children, that they in turn can experience that great hope.

That's why I love to teach the Old Testament. Why? Because in the Old Testament, do you know what I've come to realize? That the people who love the Old Testament and study the Old Testament have a greater hope than those who don't. Did you know that? Did you know that if you master the Old Testament, your hope only is expedited? It expands beyond anything you can imagine.

Why? Because in the Old Testament are all the promises that God gave to Israel. And the fulfillment of all those promises as they unfold in the New Testament. But if you look at how he promised Israel this, and promised them that, and promised them this, and promised them that, and then challenged them to trust him, challenged them to believe in him, challenged them to have hope in him.

That's why the Old Testament is replete with exhortations to fathers to teach their children. Because in Israel's history is the hope of the world. And if you master the Old Testament, and the promises that God gave to his people, you can see how all that unfolds before them, and your hope just increases all the more.

Because you can trust in the God who does not lie. Oh, it's just so rich, so pure, so true. Hope is rooted in God.

But hope, number two, is only received by grace. It's only received by grace. Listen to what the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 2, where it says, Now may the Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace.

Wow. Comfort comes from hope. Hope comes from grace.

It's a grace gift. Hope is a gift. You don't earn hope.

You can't accomplish hope. Hope is a gift. He says, Hope is not something you earn, it's something that you receive.

It's a gift that God grants to his children. Because it's all centered around the God who is hope. That's why Paul says, Christ in you is the certainty that you will be glorified.

Christ in you is the ironclad assurance that one day your body will be changed into his likeness. Hope is that absolute guarantee that you will see him and be like him, for you'll see him as he is. Christ in you is the hope that one day you will be glorified.

Do you have that hope? Do you believe that? Hope is rooted in God. It's received by grace. And there's so much more I have to tell you.

But you've got to come back next week. Let me pray for you. Father, we thank you, Lord, for today.

A chance to once again look into your word as brief as it is, to know that the hopes and fears of all the years were met in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Thank you that we can celebrate you, the God of hope. Thank you for granting us that hope, that truly we with certainty live in anticipation of all that you've promised.

In Jesus' name, amen.