After the sermon, we will sing together Psalter number 159, the stanzas 1 and 2. 159, the stanzas 1 and 2. Dear congregation, I will not ask you whether you have hope, because we all have hope. If there is no hope, you wouldn't be able to live. And if you would take your life, that would be an expression of hope that you're better off not living. Everyone has hope. Some people can feel so hopeless this morning. Others can feel hopeful of hope. But everyone has some element of hope. And so, it's not a question, do you have hope? It's also not simply a question of, do you feel hopeful? Because that's not the most important thing. Some people are very optimistic, and they have a lot of hopes. As they look towards a future of things will go well, and they will get this, and they will go there, they may be very optimistic, also spiritually, that one day they'll be in heaven. The first thing is not whether we feel hopeful, but this, do you and I have a foundation for hope, a foundation that directs us to that object of hope, that directs us in the right way as we go through life, that gives strong consolation in the midst of all the challenges and all the struggles and all the discouragements and all the disappointments of life, a hope that directs us in the right way rather than going aside to ways which would only hurt and would harm? Do we have a hope that can can carry through life and carry even through the face of death and carry into glory. There is such a hope, and it's a hope that is revealed here also in this passage of the Word of God, the end of Hebrews 6, that is so firm, so consoling, so enabling. And the climax of this hope is the Savior that is in heaven. And so this is our theme, a heaven-fixed hope. A heaven-fixed hope. First, as a refuge for the assaulted. Second, as an anchor for the tossed. And third, in a priestly forerunner for the sinful. A heaven-fixed hope as a refuge, an anchor, and in a priestly forerunner. God saw that these Hebrew Christians to whom this epistle was addressed were in great need of hope because he saw that they were wavering, at least some of them, and they needed a hope to enable them to endure in the right way. These Hebrew Christians were being pressured to go back to their old ways of life, go back to also the ceremonies and all the rituals that they had been engaged in as Jews as they went to the synagogues or as they went to the temple in Jerusalem. They were being pressured to again conform to the way that their relatives and their friends and fellow Jews were still worshipping and the ways they were still thinking. And if they would only just go back to their old ways, life would be so much easier. Lowering Christ from his glorious throne and turning from his finished work promised a better life. And so those pressures to go back were because those people offered a hope. Life will be easier. You'll have stronger ties with your family and with those others you used to be close to. You won't be persecuted. You won't be ostracized. You won't be isolated. There were also pressures to go along with the ways of others who were not Christians. Why stand out in society? Why go against the stream? Why not just go with the flow? Why not just join in? And there were promises also on that side of the path, the promises of pleasure, Because after all, the world has so much pleasure to offer, to draw their hope, to get some pleasure in the way of turning away from Christ and going in the ways of sinful pleasure. Conform to the world and you won't suffer so much. You'll enjoy life more. Come on. Haven't you felt those pressures, those temptations in them? What makes those temptations so strong? Again, it's because on either way they offer a hope of enjoyment, of relief from pressures and assaults and pain, also the pain of mortifying sin. They come. They hold out things to hope for. But do you see what's being offered on either side of the way? Is it worth hoping for? To listen to those temptations, to those voices, and to turn away from the Word of God. What will it give you? There may be many hopes, but every hope outside of that one way will be dashed. Just look at those words of Hebrews 6, verse 4 and following, those warnings which are so difficult to understand and yet so serious as they come to us. And God tells us it's impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame. Having come so close to then turn away, to go even in that direction, turning away from Christ is to ask exactly for that, to ask to be left in a place of utter hopelessness forever and ever and ever. There is no reason to be enamored by the promises of the devil. The devil promises so much to try to turn from God, to turn from Christ, to keep from God, to keep from Christ, but all his promises will end in utter hopelessness eternally. Never let what the devil and the world promises stir up hope because it will end in eternal disappointment. Just look also at what verse 8 warns, that ground that soaks in God's gifts and produces thorns is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned. What a fearful condition to be in, to be someone in church who has the rain of God's goods gifts shower upon you, who has the sunshine of God's Word shine upon you, who has God give you so many things and you only produce thorns because you've been bewitched by the promises of pleasure in the way of sin, in the way of ignoring God. to only be barren soil. Is that you? Is that you? Still barren, only the thorns of sin. It says such ground is subject to cursing, subject to being burned. What a shocking discovery to learn that I've been barren soil. I've failed to live unto God. I've just been living my own life and not for God. What a shocking discovery when it pops all those illusionary soap bubble hopes and you realize I'm living without God and therefore without hope in this world. without a foundation for any hope. Maybe there is someone here who feels that, without God, without hope. And maybe you even find it difficult to talk about to others. You look around, and everyone seems to have hope. Everyone seems to be going through life, and maybe everyone seems to be a believer, and you realize, I miss that. without hope, spiritually without God, and you fear, you fear death, you fear judgment, you fear Satan, you fear yourself. Why is God exposing your hopeless condition spiritually? Is it not to drive you out to a true source of hope, a true foundation for hope? Is that not what verse 18 describes, those who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us? The way to have hope is to flee. And someone who flees realizes, I can't remain the way I am. I can't remain where I am because if I continue this way, I perish. And so you flee. You flee away from where you are. because you can't live on the way you are. But then that question comes, where to flee to? Sometimes there's these disasters that strike, there's buildings that collapse, and people run out of that, away from the one danger, and they end up in an even greater danger. You see that in wartime. Where to flee to? It speaks here of a refuge. We have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope that is set before us. Do you remember, Christian, when he was still in the city of destruction, he realized, I can't remain where I am because it's a city of destruction. I'll be destroyed. And then there was that evangelist who pointed him. That's the way. And so he fled. Yes, there was more that happened, but he was pointed. There's the place of safety. congregation, there is this place, there is this hope that is set before us in the gospel. There is a hope set before us all right now this morning. We don't have to travel to Jerusalem to grab hold of the horns of the altar like Joab did to find safety. We don't have to flee to a city of refuge which is far away. No, God comes to us in the gospel and he sets before us hope. It's there in the Word of God. Hope for the hopeless, help for the helpless. Ones who have to sing, all unprotected, low I stand, no friendly guardian at my hand, no place of flight or refuge near, none to whom my soul is dear. Colossians 1 speaks of the hope of the gospel. And that hope is not that you're not so bad after all, and the dangers aren't so great after all, and you don't really have to fear judgment after all, and Satan is not so strong, and sin is not so mighty as you think. No, it's all a thousand times worse than you think. But Christ is infinitely greater than you've ever seen, and that is the hope. That is His salvation is so great. His power, His grace, His wisdom is so great. It's more than enough to deliver you from every danger and everything that threatens you. The gospel proclaims Christ as that refuge who delivers from death, who delivers from judgment, who delivers from sin, who delivers from Satan, and who gives a place of safety with God already in this life and forever. That is the hope that is set before us in the gospel. Whether we're young or old, it's right here so that you'd sing with that same psalmist, O Lord, my Saviour, down to Thee, without a hope besides, I flee to Thee, my shelter from the strife, my portion in the land of life." Was that not one of the great works of God? To convince us that siding with His enemies is most dangerous and fearful. And remaining the way we're born is to be hopelessly lost, and trying to manage on our own only leads to ruin, and trying to shield ourselves from God's anger by our own goodness is a lost cause. But also showing this gospel of what a God of hope He is, that He's there. with a grace, with a salvation so full, so free. And it's faith that flees to this refuge and clings to this hope. This is my only hope, Jesus Christ. And then you say, let nothing pull me out of this refuge. Here in Christ is all my hope. And then if Satan calls and says, come listen to me, your life will be easier if you go along with what I have to say. And if the world says, come join with us, your life will be better. And it promises all these things. You know that they're all refuges of lies, because it's only death and misery. outside of Christ and you say, let me shelter in Christ and let me remain in Christ and you cling to that hope because you know that no one else and nothing in this world and certainly not sin can ever give you what Christ can give you. Do you see what a strong consolation This hope gives. It's a consolation that enables to stand in the midst of all the temptations and all the assaults and all the pressures to give in and to turn away and to go back. It's a hope that strengthens the feeble knees to go Christward and strengthens hands that hang down to cling to this hope set before us in the gospel. Oh, that hope is set before us, corrugation, as it stirred you up to flee for refuge and to cling to that hope and so to be deaf to all those promises which promise hope but give nothing. Promise to cling to it in the midst of all the assaults there may be. but there's not only enemies and temptations. In life there's also storms, there's also waves, but this true hope is not only fixed and firm in the midst of assaults as a refuge, but it's also firm in the midst of all the waves of life, which is our second point. Heaven-fixed hope is fixed in heaven as an anchor for the tossed. When we think of being in a refuge, we can think of a place of quiet. There's a war going on, and they're down deep in that bunker, that shelter, and all the noise and confusion is far away. There's quiet. And we can think if you've fled for refuge and you may shelter in Christ, then there's peace, and then there's quiet, and there's rest. And it's true. And yet dangers are still there, are they not? Storms are still there in the life of God's people. And so the picture shifts here in our text to a ship on the sea. and not some great cargo ship of today with its big diesel motors and it goes through the sea, but one of those little sailing ships of long ago, the days of the Lord Jesus or the apostles. A little ship. And then you think it's nice, it's idyllic. You'd paint a picture of it when there's a gentle breeze filling the sails and carrying that ship to its destination. But when the wind begins to whip up the water and the wind begins to howl and the rain begins to pour down, and when the sea is in commotion and when they cannot see anymore where they are going, when all is dark, and when those waves threaten to wash over that ship ship, then it's a dangerous thing to be in a ship, and especially dangerous if that ship and goes sideways to the waves and is less stable and is open for that wave to come over and to sink that ship. It's a danger also to be in a ship in the midst of a storm if the winds are pushing that ship closer and closer to that rocky coast or some shoal that would cause that ship to be broken into pieces in the midst of such a situation. An anchor is so needed to be thrown out of the front, to keep that ship pointed into the waves so that it would not go sideways and be engulfed in the waves. An anchor is so needed to keep that ship from going all the way to the rocks and being dashed in pieces. You remember how when Paul, there was that storm, they let out those anchors in order to keep exactly from that. And now Hebrews says, we have this hope as an anchor of the soul. Amid what storms? Amid the storms of life, amid the trials, amid the difficulties, amid the pressures, The psalmist speaks more often of waves and storms in his life. We sang from Psalm 42, which speaks of the waves and the billows of going over him. The waves, the storms of trouble thunder. Or you can think of Psalm 107, when it speaks of how he bids the storm wind fly, lifting oceans, waves on high. By the billows, heavenward tossed, down to dreadful depths again. Troubles much, their courage lost. Reeling, they, like drunken men, find their skill and power o'erthrown. None can save but God alone. Can be. in your life situation. Those sudden storms with that message from the doctor, those storms in the midst of the suffering and the pain that you endure physically, the storms that you have as you see a loved one, whether a spouse or a child or a parent or friend, so suffer can be those storms. in the midst of your relations with others, where once it was well and now there are so many storms in life because of others and your relation to others. What storms there can be in life. There can be storms at school, storms at work, storms in the home. There can be storms just in your own mind. Your mind storms. Swirling with confusion. with pain. You don't know how to handle it. It can be in your heart. Oh my soul, why art thou disquieted within me? And all those storms and all those winds can seem to blow you away from God and blow you to those rocks of danger and destruction. Those winds seem to be against you, and they seem to be taking hope away from you. What do you then have?" The Lord Jesus speaks of that stony ground that has the appearance of religion, appearance of faith as joy for a moment, but when the storms come, then that stony ground, it loses hope, and everything shrivels up, and all appearances are gone. If you're only stony ground hearer, and in the midst of the storms, Everything can shrivel up and nothing be left. And you turn away. There have been those in church who have said such nice things at one point in their life, and troubles came in their life, and they've turned away from God. And we see them no more. It's a frightful thing. how we need an anchor, an anchor of hope to keep us pointed into the wind, from keeping from going along and being dashed on the rocks, to keep from turning aside and being swamped, a hope that still faces in the direction from which the wind is blowing, a hope that's still faced in the direction of the harbor where God is and from whom those storm winds come. And that's the remarkable thing, that anchor points into the wind, that anchor points you towards the one who is coming with his wind, to him. You notice that, don't you, with birds? They can be turned all different directions, but when a wind blows, you see them all pointing the same direction. And could it be that that is also why God lets those storms come to show I so need a hope, a hope in Him, a hope that points my face to Him even in the storm? What a hope is this? It's an anchor that's cast into the Word of God, in the face of all the providences of God. The devil can say to young people, look at those people, they're so suffering and they're children of God, do you want to be that? Turn away, go elsewhere. The devil can come to a trite believer and say, it's not fair, the wicked are prospering and you are suffering. God is not there for you, give up, curse God and die. Where's the hope? Hope is an anchor for the soul so sure when it's fixed in that immovable foundation of the Word of God. Because truer than our feelings and truer than our interpretations of God's ways of providence and truer than all the theories and all the nice words of people around us, or the bad words of people around us, is the Word of God, the Word that testifies concerning Himself, the Word in which He promises Such precious promises. In verse 17, he even says, God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. So there's the promise and there's the oath that by two immutable things in which it's impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation. which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast." Oh, and your hope is in His Word, in His Word of promise, which He has given to you, and which He has begun to fulfill in you, and which He will continue, and which He will perfect. It's such a firm foundation because God is not a man that he should lie, neither the Son of Man that he should repent. Hath he spoken and shall he not do it? Or will he not make it good? Therefore, His I-wills He will do." There's not a promise that will fall to the ground for the heirs of promise, as they're called here. Those who have fled for refuge to Him will be safe and will not perish. Come what may, you may be overwhelmed. You may feel underwater. You may fear that you will perish. You may fear those rocks that are right there and about to dash you into pieces. They may come so close, but they will not because in boundless mercy He fulfills His word. He does. The word he spoke to Abraham that we read of here, he speaks to all the heirs of promise. I am thy shield and exceeding great reward. I am the Lord thy God. And Hebrews 10 will remind us again. He is faithful, that promised. His providences will never destroy His promises. His sure word of promise is such a firm ground for the anchor of hope, sure and steadfast. And how can we hope in His word of promise? Do you see where that word is? It says it's within the veil. Hebrews repeatedly speaks of the veil that hung before the holy of holies in the tabernacle in the temple. There's that great veil woven with glorious colors and cherubim woven upon it to remind that God is holy in his temple, in his holy of holies, in his throne room. Remember that in that Holy of Holies there was the Ark as the throne of God. And now the text says this anchor of hope is cast not in the Holy of Holies here below, but into the very heavenly throne room of God. That makes it better than any other anchor of any other ship. Because all other anchors, they go down into the water. And they can hold a ship from drifting away, being driven by the winds and by the water. But a ship that has its anchor down in the sea can still sink. Go down to the bottom of the sea with that anchor. But here's an anchor that's fixed in heaven. And if that anchor is fixed in heaven, and there is that cable, and there is that ship, then that ship can never sink. As long as the anchor is there, and as long as that rope holds, that anchor, that ship, can not sink. It can be tossed. It can suffer, but it can't sink. Is this not a remarkable anchor, an anchor within the veil, a hope sure and steadfast in heaven itself? How can that be? How can you have a sure hope that's fixed in heaven itself? That's our final point. Verse 20 says, "'The anchor entereth into that within the veil. Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.'" And so this firm hope is fixed in heaven in the priestly forerunner for the sinful. your hope can only be in heaven, because Christ is there. Christ ascended within the veil as the one made a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. He's there as a priest, a priest who addresses the greatest hope-destroying problem. Have you discovered what that is? And it's not your circumstances, it's not your condition. It's your sin. Because whatever we obtain, whatever hopes we have, however many hopes we have for this life are realized and we may enjoy, if we still have sin on our record, the day is coming when every hope will be gone forever. If we're still guilty before God, then the end will be death, judgment, and curse, eternal hellfire where there's not a drop of water to hope for. As long as we're guilty, God is against us. And if God is against us, what can be for us? Who can be for us? What hopes can we have? If we're fighting against the Almighty, there can be no hope of ever winning that battle against the Almighty. There is no anchor that can ever keep us safe when He unleashes the storms of His judgments one day. All hope Is this your hope? Jesus made an High Priest forever. Is that your hope? He's the only sure hope of a guilty people exactly because He is the one sent by God Himself He is the one who has satisfied also the justice of God that demands that sin be punished in that place where all hope is gone. He is made, it says here, after not the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 9 tells us that the Levitical priests, they would go within the veil one time a year. On the day of atonement, they'd take the blood of the sacrifice, and they would sprinkle it before the mercy seat, and then they would leave again. But it was never, ever enough, because every year they'd have to go back again, back again, back again, because it could never atone for sin. Christ is not just in the order of the Levitical priesthood, one of many priests in that great line. No, he is after the order of Melchizedek, that unique priest. Christ is that unique priest who has no predecessor and has no successor because he is that only priest who came, who offered up himself as that sacrifice for sin, as that sinless Lamb of God. holy, harmless, undefiled, undeserving of any of God's wrath, any of God's judgment, any of the punishment of sin, because he had no sin of his own, and yet he took that great burden of guilt, and he bore it, and he stood before God with it, and he was condemned for it, and he entered into the greatest suffering that can ever be imagined as he bore the wrath of God. He bore the thing, the worst thing that you can ever fear, and that is hellish agony. He bore it as a substitute in the place of those who deserve it forever so that he may deliver from it and he entered into heaven to be that high priest forever, that high priest today who lives today, so that those who flee for refuge to him, if I'd pardon, find your sins all washed away in his blood and be restored into favor of God. and enjoy the favor and the blessing of God, to have God with you, to have God for you in the storms, among the assaults, to have God as one who will never leave you and never forsake you. Do you see those two little words in verse 20? He is for us entered. That's the amazing thing. If you fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope that is set before us all, you may know that He has entered into heaven for you personally, on your behalf, for your good, presenting His finished work before the Father on your behalf. then God is for you. And if God is for you, who can be against you? You may look to the future and you may have fears and you may have questions and you may have hesitations. Where is the hope? Christ has entered in. He is there. You may wonder, how will I manage and how will I be able to? And I hope I'll be able. Away with all your I hope eyes. anchor of your hope is then higher than yourself and your I wills and I hope I's. It's firm and it's fixed in heaven where Christ is even now. He that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not freely with him give us all things? Romans 8 says that is the hope You look at yourself, and you see your own unworthiness, and your own sin, and you fear, and you think, how can I have hope? Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, that is risen again, who is at the right hand of the Father, who also maketh intercession for us, it says. You look to the future, and your hope is shaken. You wonder what will happen. Do you see up? Do you see that anchor within the veil upon the throne, Jesus Christ, that High Priest forever? Then that question comes, who shall separate us from the love of God if He is there upon the throne? And when you think then even of death, death may be the last enemy. But if you have an anchor within the veil so sure and steadfast, Christ himself, then you have a strong consolation even in the midst of death. For he is not only the high priest, but he is also the forerunner, the one who has gone before all the heirs of promise. And that is what is so beautiful. If he goes ahead, it means all the heirs of promise will follow. He has taken your place in hell to secure your place in heaven. That's the hope. That's what's secured in Christ's ascension. That's why we confess in Lord's Day 18, we have our flesh in heaven as a sure pledge that He as the head will also take up to Himself us, His members. Do you not love that name, forerunner? John 14 is where the Lord Jesus says, "'Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you as that forerunner.' If it were not so, I would have told you." I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am ye may be also, as certainly as the forerunner is there, so certainly." All those who have found refuge in Him here in this life be there." That's His promise. And His priestly work secures it. And all the promises of God are in Him, yea, and in Him. Amen to the glory of God by us. And that promise is confirmed even with an oath. There's a promise and the oath, and these two immutable things give such firm consolation. God has sworn by an oath that Christ is a priest forever in Psalm 110. He swore by Himself, and that means all His honor and His glory, all His integrity and His very character is at stake. If Christ would fail to be the priest, and if Christ would fail in His work, and if Christ would fail to bring those who have fled for refuge to Him to glory, then God would no longer be God. And do you know what this strong consolation does? It strengthens to go in His way, looking unto Him. That's the whole thrust of this chapter. Verse 1 calls to go on to perfection. How can you go on, go forward, when you see there is that hope secured already in heaven in Christ? That's what draws onward towards that hope, what you hope for. And 1 John says, everyone who has this hope of being like Christ in glory purifies himself. The more that hope is alive, the more it fixes you forward to him. It fits with the call of 11 and 12, too, doesn't it? We desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end, that ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. God's grace is so beautiful. On the one hand, it teaches to wait on Him to fulfill His words of promise. It also stirs up to diligence. to go forward in His way and to be deaf to all those voices that say, turn this way, turn that way, this will make life easier and that will be better. No, I have a far greater hope than anything the devil can promise and anything the world can offer. It is a hope of glory, the hope of being with Christ. And when that hope is alive, point you forward on His path. Come what may, be it suffering, be it prosperity, as long as I may be going His way." I began by saying the question is not whether we have a hope or whether we, in the first place, whether we have a strong exercise of hope, but do we have this great object of hope, this great foundation of hope, Jesus Christ, that great forerunner and High Priest? That's what it's about. So that when we miss Him, we would flee for refuge to Him alone, and having Him, we would cling to this hope, come what may. The anchor is fixed. The storms may still toss. The enemies may still be there. The way may still have difficulties. It may. And sometimes you can then feel your grasp is so weak. But think of this picture. That rope is not just about you holding on. Through that union with Christ by His Spirit, that bond is firm. And if He is there, He will keep you safe and bring you home. That's His own word, and He cannot lie. That's the firm, heaven-fixed hope. Amen.