Bye. I say Hebrews 6, one of my favorite passages in the Bible, but, you know, my favorite passage pretty much changes from week to week. It's whatever passage I've been studying that week ends up becoming a new favorite. But anyway, this is it now. Chapter 6, verses 10 through 20. Let's simply begin by reviewing what the biblical author states. He says here that, God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which ye have shown toward his name, and that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end. You should not be slothful, but followers of them who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself, saying, Surely, blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge, to lay hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil, whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus. made a high priest forever after the order of Mechizedek. The author here says a lot about the topic of faith, and I want us to kind of work through this passage this morning to see what he has to say. But before we actually begin to work through it, would you join me for a brief word of prayer again? Let's pray. Our Father in Heaven, as we turn our attention now to the Word of God, we ask that you would guide and inform our reflections on scripture, enlighten our understanding, and help us see the relevance and the application of these truths in our own lives, that we might live out truth and live in such a way as to bring glory and honor to you. And this petition we submit in the name of His Majesty on High, our Lord and your Son, Jesus the Christ. Amen. We begin our observation with the fact that there are in this passage four key terms that the author uses for faith. It's the cumulative impact of all four terms taken together that give us a real sense, a real understanding and appreciation of what biblical faith really involves, what the Bible means when it speaks of believing in Jesus. We encounter a couple of these terms in verse 12. Notice again the wording of verse 12 in particular. He says that you be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. The first word I draw your attention to in that verse is actually the word faith itself, the term translated as faith. This particular Greek word conveys the idea of depending upon God. It is resting on Him. Our full confidence and weight is put upon Him. Meaning, therefore, that the idea of faith, the idea of believing something in the Bible is not simply giving mental assent to a given truth. It is not merely affirming that something is true. Alas, people often mistake this. I hear many people say, well, I believe in Jesus, therefore I am a Christian. Well, what do they mean when they say they believe in Jesus? They are simply affirming certain facts that Jesus of Nazareth was the son of God, that he died on a cross for the sins of the world, that he rose again. Simply believing that those things are true does not a Christian make. It's not affirming the truth of that that makes somebody a Christian. It is rather when somebody has put his confidence in that truth, when he is resting on it, when he is depending upon it, when he is staking something on it, yea, when he is staking all of eternity, the fate of his eternal soul on those truths. Not merely affirming that they are true therefore, but actually banking on those truths. See, where you actually have some skin in the game. In other words, this actually is going to impact you, whether or not you believe that. So, for example, I may well believe that Napoleon was once a leader of France. I may affirm that to be true, and it is, but it is a truth that makes absolutely no difference in my day-to-day life today. I believe it, but I don't have faith in Napoleon. I believe things about him, but I have no faith or confidence in him. And so one can believe that Jesus died for his sins without being saved. He is saved only if he is resting and trusting in that. So that's the idea of the term faith. Now here in verse 12, then you notice there's another word he mentions after faith. He speaks of faith and patience as the means to which we receive the promises of God. So this word patience, the term here translated patience, it really is conveying the idea of waiting on God to do what he will do in his time, depending upon God to do what only he can do. Patience is really then a practical outworking of faith in our lives. It is a very practical expression of faith. The idea is really of awaiting. This means, for example, then, that a person who is exhibiting true faith in God is not taking matters in his life in his own hands, trying to manipulate people and circumstances to get what he wants. When you show me a person who's living life in that kind of way, where he's always trying to have to angle things and work them around so he can get what he wants, he becomes a people user as he tries to manipulate and manufacture circumstances, what you're seeing then is a person whose life is not expressing faith in God. Because rather than waiting on God to open doors, close doors, move in the hearts of people and so forth, he is trying to do that. He's not exhibiting patience, he's running ahead of God and trying to do it in his own power. And so we see many manifestations of this. One particular example, let's say in a relationship, maybe in a marriage relationship, you might have the one spouse who has learned a bad habit of trying to get what he wants from his spouse by trying to manipulate the spouse. Maybe, for example, throw a temper tantrum, an adult temper tantrum, act all upset, knowing that the other spouse has that kind of temperament. One of those people says, I just don't like conflict. Well, good. Since I know my spouse doesn't like conflict, my spouse will give in because I'll throw a temper tantrum in just to keep the peace. Or trying to put one's spouse on a guilt trip. Oh, poor little me. You should feel so bad. And you see people living their life like that, doing that kind of stuff, that is nothing more than sheer carnality. It is the flesh. It is people who are not exhibiting patience. Rather than truly resting on God and letting God provide, they run ahead of God. Isaiah 40, 31, you recall, says that they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. But it's the people who wait. That's patience. And that really is a form of faith. It's a biblical term for faith. Now, if you look at verse 11, we encounter a couple more terms. Review again verse 11 with me. He says, we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end. Third word I draw your attention to in the text is that word hope there. At the end of the verse, he speaks of hope. hoping until the end. Now the term here translated as hope carries the idea of eager expectation and anticipation. It's you're really looking forward to something that you fully are convinced is going to happen. You're just waiting for the time. In that regard then, You'll remember that the Bible word translated as hope is very different in its meaning than the way that we in modern English use the word hope. Because when we speak in English of hoping for something, that's a very iffy kind of concept. I might say something like, oh yeah, I sure hope it doesn't rain tomorrow. Well, it might or might not, and even the weatherman doesn't really know, right? A 50% chance of rain. What do I do with that? All the best I can do is hope. I'm not saying I'm counting on it, I'm banking on it. If the weatherman says there's a 50% chance of rain, I'm not saying, man, I'm banking, I'm looking forward to what I'm gonna get out and do in that bright, sunny weather tomorrow. The best, I'm hoping that it might be sunny. When the Bible speaks of hope, it's not that iffy kind of thing. It's like, oh, there's no question. There's no question about the outcome. I'm looking forward, I'm expecting. And so we have this kind of hope. And so that word hope then you'll see is accompanied with yet a fourth expression, full assurance. He speaks of the full assurance of hope. Full assurance. Now this, that's two words in English, full assurance, but it's actually one word there in the Greek. It's all one word. And that term is complimentary to the first term we looked at, faith. See, faith is objective. It's focus is outward to the object of our faith, to that upon which we are trusting. What are you depending upon? What are you staking everything on? That's faith. Now the compliment though is full assurance. Full assurance is subjective. the focus rather is inward within our own selves to this issue. What is the degree of confidence within my heart, within myself, that I have in this object of faith? How convinced am I For example, in a salvation context, how convinced am I that when Jesus Christ died upon the cross, He did everything, literally everything that needed to be done to save me? I don't have to add to or supplement that with any kind of good works, trying to be a good person, or some religious ceremony I have to perform, like getting baptized, or some special church I have to join. I don't have to do anything else. I am fully convinced, 100%, He did all that needed to be done. So, full assurance is that idea of how convinced you are. And, well, the answer is, of course, we have complete confidence. We are fully assured, fully convinced. It's not something in this regard then that, by the way, can be worked up. You can't gin that up within yourself. You can't create full assurance within yourself. Rather, full assurance is something that is the result of the Holy Spirit's in-working as we apply ourselves with diligence to Christianity. And this is why in verse 11, the author says, you need to show diligence. You show diligence and as you are applying yourself with diligence to the disciplines of the Christian life, faithful church attendance, reading the scriptures, prayer, practicing evangelism and sharing your faith, you practice the Christian disciplines and as you do that, you find that the Holy Spirit is working internally through these experiences and produces this. So again, we're talking about the difference here between a mere head knowledge versus a true heart faith. True heart faith is something that the Holy Spirit brings within us. Now hold your place here and look, for example, 1 Thessalonians 1, where we find the Apostle Paul using the same expression, the same terminology. And that's 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. The context here is where Paul is reminding the Thessalonians of how he first came to the city of Thessalonica and shared the gospel with them. They were a bunch of pagans, people who didn't believe the gospel, but as he preached the gospel and they heard the truth, they were absolutely convinced. that what Paul was saying was true, that Jesus was the Son of God, that they were sinners who needed to put their faith in Jesus Christ. They got it, they understood it, and bought into it 100%. Now, why? Well, look at 1 Thessalonians 1, verses 5-6. 1 Thessalonians 1, verses 5-6, the apostle says, For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost, and in, here's your word, much assurance. As you know what manner of men we are among you for your sake, and you became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost." This is when the gospel came to you. I came preaching the gospel. It didn't come in word only. Yes, it came by word because I was preaching. I was verbally proclaiming the gospel. So it came in word. But it wasn't word only. It wasn't just me and my preaching. Paul said, it wasn't because I was such an eloquent orator. My rhetoric was so strong and compelling. My presence in the pulpit kind of thing was just so great. And my logic, irrefutable. And so I convinced you and I sold you on the gospel. No, it came in word, but it wasn't word only. It wasn't Paul's genius. It wasn't his proclamation. It wasn't his style. Wasn't his rhetoric. What was it? He says it also came, see, in the Holy Spirit and in power. The Holy Spirit powerfully worked internally as you were listening. He was working internally. And it's the Holy Spirit who brought that assurance. where you were absolutely convinced this is the truth. The Holy Spirit brought some other things along as well. He mentions there at the end of verse six, joy. The Holy Spirit brought joy. Here you were being persecuted for your faith. As new believers, as Christians, you were being persecuted, but that didn't stop you. You unashamedly accepted Christ as Savior and identified yourself as believer, and you did it with joy. But again, that's because the Holy Spirit had so convinced you and had given you his joy that the world could not deter or detract you from that. So that's the idea of a full assurance. So then, here in Hebrews chapter 6, then we've got these four terms here, faith, patience, hope, and full assurance. Now to turn our attention back to Hebrews chapter 6, As we progress in this chapter, we find not only do we know what faith is, but that the author defines for us what should be the object of our faith, and in what do we put our confidence? What are we banking on? What are we counting on? And he identifies three things that are worthy objects of your trust and your confidence, the three great things you can build your life upon. What are they? The first is God's great character. Notice in verse 13. In verse 13 of Hebrews 6 he says, For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself. God made a promise to Abraham. He says, you know what? Abraham banked on that. Abraham put his confidence, one hundred percent, in what God said. And that's an example for us. God also extends to us wonderful promises. The promise of salvation, of adoption to his family, of being citizens in his eternal kingdom, right? And how that kingdom is going to come to earth someday. And so we have these wonderful promises, which we access by faith. But these promises come from a great God. It is the character of God. In fact, as the author says, there's nobody greater than God, nobody greater. And this is why God swore by himself. What else could he swear by? He wanted to swear by the greatest possible thing. So nothing, nothing can keep God from doing what he says he will do for us because there's nothing that is greater than him. Everything else that exists exists by His will. He brought it into being. God is the only eternal self-existent being. Every other thing, every other being all had a beginning and it was God who began them. They are all contingent upon Him for their very existence. They cannot exist apart from God. Nothing, nothing can exist apart from God. As Paul says in Colossians chapter one, he says that Jesus Christ not only made everything, but he sustains and holds it all together by his powerful word. If it were not for the very word of Jesus, everything would literally disintegrate and cease to be. Nothing can exist without God, but of course God can exist without anything, and indeed He did. There was a time when there was no time, but God existed. And so He is great. So of course, why would you ever place your faith or confidence in anything other than this Creator? Now that we've put our confidence in God's great character, But more broadly, this verse comes in the context of the verses 12 through 15 where he identifies God's sure word. This great God has given us his word and it is sure we can absolutely bank on it. And God delivers his word to us in two forms. Two forms which he brings his word to us. Look first of all over here at verses 12 through 15 again. Verses 12 through 15. He says that you be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. 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. And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. You see the repeated reference to the concept of God's promise. God's sure word comes to us through the vehicle of a promise. Again, what is the nature of a promise? Well, a promise is very subjective in so far that for the fulfillment of the promise, for the promise to be kept, well, that depends entirely upon the character of the one who makes the promise. They're all saying a man is only as good as his word or his word is only as good as the man. If the man is a liar, do you place any confidence in his promises? If he's a known liar, has a history of lying, has a history of promising stuff to people and never following through, do you bank on that? Do you count on that? Well, no, because you look at the character of the man who's speaking, who's making the promise. The promise means nothing if his character is no good. This is why we start by observing the great character of God. Yeah, you can bank on his promises. He is all-powerful. Nothing can stop him from keeping his promise, as we have observed. Not only is he all-powerful, he is all-knowing, so we never have to worry about anything unexpected coming up that happens, right, that God didn't foresee. Oh, well, I was gonna do that for you, but I didn't realize such and such was gonna happen. Oh, you know, now we gotta go to plan B. There is no plan B with God. God only has plan A because nothing unexpected ever happens. Nothing ever catches God off guard or by surprise. He knows from beginning to end. So He is all-powerful. He can do anything. He is all-knowing. He knows everything. And He is honest. Down in verse 18, He referenced the fact that it is impossible for God to lie. So when you have a being who is all powerful, nothing can stop him in the way, keep him from doing what he said he would do. He's like, well, I wanted to do it, I would have, but something, you know, nothing can stop him in the way. He's all knowing, nothing catches him off guard or surprises him. And he's absolutely honest, he can't lie. So when this kind of God gives you his word, you can absolutely bank on that. So his promise, his promise is good because his character is good. The word of God is as good as God himself. The psalmist says that God has exalted his word above his name. We live in a day and age when a lot of people downplay the word of God. That's a good book, but I mean, it still has its share of errors and mistakes. We just were reminded this morning in the Sunday school hour how many people in churches that identify as evangelical, how many people identify themselves as evangelical Christians who believe that the accounts, the historical accounts we find in the Old Testament are not really historically true. Those things really didn't happen. They're just ancient myths with good morals attached, but they didn't really happen. How many people believe that you cannot really take seriously the scientific affirmations of God's Word? If you cannot trust this book, you cannot trust God. But you see, God has a great character and His character is reflected in His Word. He does not lie, He does not err, He does not make mistakes. This book is 100% reliable from the very first verse. Period. So we can bank on that. Now, God's promises come to us, not only, or his word comes to us, not only through the vehicle of promises, but he follows this up in verses 16 through 17, a second way in which God conveys his word to us. Look at verses 16 and 17, verses 16 and 17. He says, for men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife, wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs a promise, the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. So God not only gives us promises, he also locks himself in by taking an oath. God actually swears. He takes an oath. Now, whereas a promise is a subjective standard because it's tied to the character of the one making the promise. It all depends on whether or not he's a dependable person. An oath is a good complement to that because it is an objective standard. It is not based on the character of the person, but rather on an external, legally binding standard. An oath is tied to law. And thus God locks himself in. I mean, think of this in a legal context. Somebody who had witnessed a crime, he can say anything he wants about what happened. He can tell you and me, here's what I saw, here's what happened, and he can kind of shade the truth. He can fudge on what happened, if maybe he doesn't want the guy to be convicted for the crime that he knows the guy did. But when you put that man on the witness stand, once he raises his hand, and swears on the Bible to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, he can't say anything he wants now. He is locked in by law to tell what he knows is true. And now if he lies, they can nail him for that. Outside of that, he didn't swear to say anything he wants. He wasn't locked in legally. But when he's on the witness stand under oath, Now he's guilty of perjury if he doesn't tell the truth. So you see, it is that kind of legal standard. And this is what God does. God condescends to our customs and he takes an oath. And by so doing, he locks himself in. So if the character of God alone isn't enough, now you've got the legal binding standard. In this regard, you know, we often hear people say, well, you know, we can't put God in a box. Who am I to say what God might do or might not do in a certain circumstance? Who am I to say? Who am I to speak for God? But you realize that when we make these claims about God that are proclaimed in the Scriptures, we're not putting God in a box. God put Himself in the box. We're not locking him in. He locked himself in. He freely committed to say, here's how I am dealing with people. I'm on the record. Now I do have a promise. I take an oath. This is what he did with Abraham. I am working out a plan of salvation for humanity to bring into existence that seed of the woman. Abraham, he's going to be your seed and I'm locking in all who put their faith and confidence in this promise of your seed, Abraham, I'm committing, will be saved, will have eternal life, whosoever will may believe. This is not me putting God in a box. And God says, and that's the only way is through the seed of the woman, through the seed of Abraham, not apart from Christ. Some people say, well, who am I? I mean, if God wants to save somebody else some other way, maybe through belief in Islam and the Prophet Muhammad, rather than through faith and the atoning sacrifice, who am I to say God won't save him because he was a good Muslim? It's like, that's not me saying it, that's God saying that. God locked himself in and he's committed. So the promise. the promise and the oath. These are the two ways in which God conveys to us his sure word. And what then is the result? Well, in verse 18, in verse 18, he gives the result that by two immutable things, he's talking about his promise and his oath, by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie. In other words, God can't lie when he makes a promise and God won't lie when he takes an oath. He says the two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation. A strong consolation. The word consolation here means the idea of encouragement and incentive. Not just incentive, but a strong incentive, a strong motivation. A strong motivation to do what? Well, if you continue the verse, he said, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. We have a strong incentive to lay hold of the hope set before us. There is hope. There is a sure and certain destiny. And we are motivated to pursue that based on the promise of God and the oath of God. So you see, no person ever has to say, well, I hope, I hope I make it to heaven. What do you mean you hope? In the modern English sense of the word. People say, I hope, I don't know. Well, but you see, you can have assurance. You can pursue it with a sense of certainty, the biblical hope. I'm fully convinced that my destiny is sure. You don't have to hope in the modern sense that you're going to make it to heaven. You can know that you'll make it to heaven. You can know that you are right with God. And so it is, God has done everything he could possibly do to save us from hell. And sometimes people will ask, how can a loving God send anybody to hell? You see, that's not the question. When you say, how can a loving God send anybody to hell, you're asking the wrong question. The question is, rather, how could anybody be so stubborn, so willful, so rebellious, so hateful as to reject God's gracious offer? This is people choosing to go to hell. This is not God sending them to hell against their will. This is God honoring their choice. If you don't want a relationship with God, then you'll get what you have chosen. The only place where God's presence and love is not felt, where there is no joy, where there is nothing good, only pain and misery. In the absence of God, that is what there is. And if one chooses not God, then he has chosen an eternity of pain and misery. But we have good motivation to escape that destiny. We have a good incentive. We had the promise of God and the oath of God, his sure word. So we can put our confidence in that. Now, as we progress, there's a third key object of our faith that is worthy of our faith, and that is God's eternal priest. He mentions this in verse 20. In verse 20, he says, whether the forerunner is for his entered, even Jesus made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. He introduces here Jesus as our high priest. Now, really, there are two things here then that he tells us about Jesus. First of all, that he is our forerunner. He says he's the forerunner. That is, he is the first human being to go to heaven and then open the way for the rest of us. You recall that prior to his death and resurrection, saved people did not go to heaven when they died. Instead, they went to a place of paradise in the heart of the earth. Jesus was the first human being ever actually to ascend to heaven. After his resurrection, he ascended to heaven and he opened the paradise for all of the saved of the prior ages to follow him there. And today, when a person dies, he does go immediately into the presence of God and to heaven. For the way has been opened by the forerunner, Jesus Christ. How did he then open this way for us to go into heaven? Well, by virtue of being that eternal priest. It is the job of a priest to intercede between God and men. Christ is the one who affects that reconciliation between God and us. And how? By fulfilling yet another obligation to priests, to offer sacrifices. And what sacrifice did Jesus offer? The sacrifice of himself upon the cross. He sacrificed himself. And thus it is the ultimate object of our faith is Christ himself and his atonement on our behalf. He is that eternal priest who offered the atoning sacrifice. So in summary, we find here then three key objects of faith, God's great character, God's sure word, and God's eternal priest. Now having defined faith and told us what we should be putting that faith and confidence in, we observe yet further that the author here illustrates what he's trying to say. He gives us two key illustrations of faith, how it plays out. The first illustration he gives us is in verse 18, the city of refuge. Notice again the wording of verse 18. He says that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have, note the wording here, fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hopes that before us. Christians, believers are those who have fled for refuge. And when he uses that expression, he's alluding to the law of Moses. Immediately, see, when a Jew, of course, there's an epistle written to Jews, written to the Hebrews. The Jewish recipients of this epistle, as soon as they hear that terminology, their mind instantly is going back to the law of Moses and the regulations that Moses set forth regarding the city of refuge. For the sake of time, we won't revisit the regulations that he gives there in the book of Numbers about this, but let me basically summarize. A city refuge was a city, a special city designated that would be in the promised land when the Jews went into the land and settled it. There were six of them spread out throughout the land so that no matter where you lived in the Holy Land, there was one within a fairly close proximity that you could flee to if you needed to. Now, when would you need to flee there? Well, you would flee there if you had accidentally, not by deliberate premeditated choice of murder, but accidentally through some kind of stupid or foolish thing you did, you ended up killing somebody. It gives an example. You're out there chopping wood with an axe and the head of the axe is a little loose on the handle. And you go to swing that thing one time and that axe head just goes flying through the air and whacks a guy on the head. Guy dies. You weren't, that's not premeditated murder, you weren't trying to kill somebody, you were just trying to chop down a tree. But, you weren't paying attention to your equipment, you weren't keeping it in good shape. So, this is not first degree murder, it's kind of a, you know, it's kind of a second degree type of thing, but still under the law of Moses, for that kind of neglect, you're liable. Family members of that person have a right to demand vengeance, life for life. You killed our family member through your neglect, now you forfeit your life. What do you do? Well, as an act of mercy and compassion, the law of Moses provided these cities. The person could flee to that city and there he would be safe. Nobody could touch him. Nobody could lay a hand on him. But he had to stay within the confines of that city. He must stay there and live there as long as the current high priest is alive. And as long as he stays in the city, nobody can touch him. Justice can't get to him. So it's a place that you flee for refuge. Now, all of this was an object lesson. Of course, there were actual cities that was a part of the justice system in ancient Israel, but God set it up that way to teach a bigger lesson. He wasn't just doing an act of compassion for the citizens of ancient Israel. Rather, he was teaching the Israelites and all subsequent readers of the scriptures a much bigger lesson. For this is an object lesson. For the truth of the matter is, we are all lawbreakers. We all break God's laws all the time. We are all born with a sin nature that we inherited from our fathers going all the way back to Adam. We're all sinners. We're all depraved. We all break God's laws all the time. Now, we didn't premeditate our sin nature though. I was born a sinner. I had no choice in the matter. I didn't choose to be a sinner. I was born a sinner. You didn't have any choice in the matter either, so you didn't premeditate that. It just is. It just happened. Nonetheless, nonetheless, you're still liable for your sin. Nobody would say, well God, that wasn't my fault, I was born a sinner, so you can't send me to hell. It's like, yeah, try telling that to a guy who through his neglect takes somebody's life. No, we can't have a trial and no penalty. Yeah, I mean, you can be irresponsible. No, I wasn't meaning to kill a person. It doesn't matter. You killed him. You're liable. Nobody will stand before God someday and say, well, God, you can't send me to hell because I didn't choose to be a sinner. I was just born that way. Now, there's a two-fold ramification to this truth that God is illustrating, therefore. First of all, Sometime or other in your life, you must take action because of how you were born. There must be that time when you kind of wake up and you realize the danger you're in. You know, if that guy kills somebody, he doesn't have time to stand around. Again, we're talking about the second degree, not first degree premeditated murder. But something happens, he realized justice is going to catch up with him. You gotta realize the danger you're in, and you better get yourself to that city. And so it is spiritually. We all need to have that kind of wake-up call, a sense of urgency to realize, you know, I'm in trouble. I'm a lawbreaker. I'm in trouble. And then, when you get the wake-up call, you realize the trouble you're in, you must run. You must flee to a place of safety and refuge where the justice of God cannot touch you. or the justice of God will never catch up with you. So the first ramification of that truth is you have to take action. You've got to run. You've got to flee. The second ramification of this truth is that precisely because your sin nature and your depravity was not premeditated, it's precisely because you didn't choose to be a sinner, but nonetheless you are, that God has provided for you in His grace and mercy a place to which you can run and flee for safety and refuge, where His justice will never catch up with you. You see, God has provided a refuge. Now, you can't just flee anywhere you want, right? In the law of Moses, you can't just flee anywhere. Six designated cities. You must go to one of those cities and those cities only. If you think you're safe anywhere else, you're not. And so it is spiritually. You can't just flee anywhere, not just any religion will do. You must flee to Christ. Christ and Christ only is the ultimate city of refuge. God's mercy is found only in Christ. Outside of Christ, outside of Christ, there is no mercy, only justice. Of course, you've often heard me say, you know, I don't want justice. I don't want God to be fair. I want God to be gracious. I don't want fair. If I got what was fair, I'd get an eternity in hell. I don't want fair. I don't want just. I want grace and mercy. I want what I don't deserve. And the good news is, I have that in Christ. I have it in Christ. Not my fault that I chose to, you know, excuse me, not my fault that I was born a sinner, but if I don't flee to the place of refuge, that's my fault. Why would you not flee to the refuge? Psalm 143.9, the psalmist says, I flee unto thee to hide me. And so the question that every one of you need to consider this morning is, when is that time, that place, that circumstance in your life when you had that awakening? You kind of got that wake up call and you realized, I'm in trouble with God. The justice of God is going to catch up with me. What am I doing? Just kind of going through life oblivious to it all. I'm a sinner. I'm a lawbreaker. When did you get the wake-up call? And moreover, then, when did you respond appropriately by running to Christ and Christ alone? So he gives us here this illustration of the city of refuge. The second illustration that he gives us here is that of an anchor. That's in the first part of verse nine. In verse nine he says, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. That hope, that confidence that we have in Christ, that full expectancy, what we're fully expecting lies ahead of us in our future. He says that's what anchors us. I'm firmly anchored in Christ. I'm banking everything on that, and my life is anchored on that. And the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence it was in the early church that the symbol of the anchor became a key symbol of Christianity. There were two key symbols that were very common in the early church. The symbol of a fish, because it was an acronym that affirmed the one's core beliefs about Jesus Christ. And anytime somebody drew a picture of the fish, he was saying, I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and the Savior. And the other symbol was a symbol of an anchor. They would draw an anchor. And whenever those early Christians were drawing a picture of an anchor, they were saying, I am anchored in Christ. All my confidence is in him. Now the result, therefore, he identifies in verse 19 as twofold. Because we have this anchor of the soul, he says we are both sure and steadfast. See, this anchor is sure and steadfast. It anchors us such that we have that surety and that steadfastness. these two terms again complement one another. You see, the author of Hebrews here, he keeps using terms that, you know, he'll use two terms that complement one another. And he's doing it again here when he speaks of being both sure and steadfast. Earlier it was promise and oath. It was faith and full assurance. Words that go together. These two words, sure and steadfast, go together. The idea of surety, that's an idea that is objective. The focus of that means, in other words, that we are safe from all external threats and dangers. There is nothing out there in this world that can threaten my soul. Nothing can transpire out here in this world that can cause me to lose my salvation. Nothing and nobody can take it away from me. Paul words it well in Romans chapter 8 when he says, and all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Nothing. Nothing. So we are sure. Not only do we have surety, we are also steadfast. We have this steadfastness, he says. Now, whereas surety emphasizes the objective, what is out there. The word steadfastness focuses on that which is subjective. That is, inherently, something is firm and unmoving with no tendency to drip. There is nothing, nothing within the believer that will prompt him to walk away from Christ. You know, see, in this regard, people often ask the question, well, but what if a person wants to get unsaved? What if at one point in his life he said he believed in Jesus, but then later he changed his mind and says, you know, I don't believe in Jesus anymore. I don't want to believe in him. That's an entirely hypothetical question. Entirely hypothetical. That would never actually happen. There is no such thing as a truly born-again person, a truly saved person who would ever desire to take his faith out of Jesus. and desire to be unsaved. People who say, I used to believe in Jesus, but I don't anymore, were never saved to begin with. They have been deceived. No, you never believed in Jesus. Not in the biblical sense that you put your faith and confidence in him. They were never born again. For those who have fled to Jesus are steadfast, meaning there's nothing within them. Nothing internal within the believer that would prompt such a choice. There is no tendency to drift from his faith in Christ. And so by being sure and steadfast, by means of this anchor, then there is nothing from without that will push the believer away from Christ, and there is nothing within the believer that will cause him to drift from Christ. He is eternally secure. And so we find Jesus saying what he says in John chapter 10, verse 28 through 29. And I give unto them eternal life, not temporary life. You had it for a while and then you lost it. If you lose it, it's not eternal. By definition, something that is eternal never ceases. I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Occasionally, some will perish. They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them to me is greater, remember the great character of God. My Father who gave them to me is greater than all. No man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. And Jude, the brother of the Lord, And verse 24 then tells us that God is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. You see, when you're anchored to Christ, you are both sure and steadfast. And so we have then these two illustrations of faith, the city of refuge to which we flee, which points to Christ, and the anchor, where you're anchored in Christ. Finally, as we progress in this chapter, one final observation. There is, here in this chapter, one destiny of faith. One place to which faith takes us. Notice again the wording of verse 19. Verse 19 says, which hope we have is an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil. You see, our faith in Christ takes us Beyond the veil, he says. Behind the veil. What veil? Well, the veil that separates the holy place from the holy of holies in the temple. He's not talking about the earthly temple that the Jews once had in Jerusalem. He's talking here about the heavenly temple, the temple in heaven. The Holy of Holies in the temple of heaven represents God's throne room. It's the very place where God himself dwells. So the Holy of Holies. Remember there was a veil that separates the holy place from the Holy of Holies. And what he says is our faith then gets us through that veil into the Holy of Holies, that is, into the throne room of God, into the very presence of God Himself. By faith you come into the presence of God, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, Creator of all, the High and Holy God. And there are two aspects of this. This truth applies in the context of salvation. And then when a person puts his faith in Christ, he is no longer under condemnation, as we have said, the justice of God will never catch up with him, but rather he is reconciled to God. We become rightly related to him, and we now enjoy a relationship with him and a status as his children, and thus we have direct access to God as our Father. But this truth also applies not only in the context of salvation, but also in the context of sanctification. In other words, we must daily avail ourselves of the access that God grants us to Him. We must go regularly into His presence to enjoy and develop our relationship with Him. Notice how the author in Hebrews, over in chapter 10, makes this application of the truth. We've seen here in chapter 6, he makes the point we have access, we can get behind the veil, Well, yeah, you can, but the question is, do you actually do it? So in chapter 10 verses 19 through 22, chapter 10 verse 19 through 22, he says, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which is consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, our bodies washed with pure water." He said, look, we've got this great priest who sacrificed himself that grants us access into the immediate presence of God. We can get through the veil. We can go right into the Holy of Holies, right into the very presence of God himself. So then his exhortation, verse 22 is, let's do it. He says, let us draw near. The term draw near literally means to come into the presence of God himself. Let's do that. And the tense that he uses here in the Greek is a tense that says, that conveys the idea, this is something you should be doing habitually, regularly, all the time. You have access to God, but aren't you availing yourself of it? Well, you should, regularly. You should come into God's presence all the time. Always be coming in to fellowship with God, talk with God. Of course, we do this through the vehicles of prayer and the word. As we pray, we speak with God. As we read his word, he speaks to us. We have a dialogue. This is what it means to draw near. And so in conclusion this morning, we see here in Hebrews chapter 6 that we've got the four terms for faith, three great objects in which to put our faith, two illustrations of faith, and one destiny to which our faith leads us. The one place it leads us is directly to a personal relationship with God. The only question this morning is, are you firmly anchored to the Lord Jesus Christ? is heaven, the holy of holies, your ultimate destiny. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the opportunity we've had to consider your word this morning and the teaching that we encounter on faith here in Hebrews chapter six. Pray that you help each of us to examine our own hearts and lives in light of the truth we've encountered. It's our faith, our confidence in you. It's Christ, our hope. Do we have patience? Do we depend and wait on God to do what only you can do rather than trying to manufacture the blessings of God through our own power and the weakness of the flesh? Lord, help us to live lives of confidence and joy because we know that a holy God does not have us under condemnation but extends to us a warm welcome into his presence because of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. In whose name we pray, amen.