Hebrews 6:17-20 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:… I. Let us first of all note THE ANCHOR. It is necessary to have a very clear idea as to what the Holy Ghost means by this word "hope." Look at the previous verse, and you will see that we have the word "hope" there, "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"; then he adds, "Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul." Now, I believe that the two hopes do not mean precisely the same thing. In the eighteenth verse it is a hope that is set before us; in that verse I bare God's promise. God's promise is the basis of my hope, Christ Himself is the object of my hope. But, then, having that promise, there comes into my heart the grace of hope. That which the apostle means here is something far more than the common notion that we attach to the word "hope." I don't think I shall be going too far when I say that nothing is more adverse to the scriptural idea of the word " hope" than the meaning we generally intend by it. In our ordinary conversation hope is something less than faith, in Scripture it is something more — it is faith developed into a full assurance. So when the apostle speaks of hope it is not of that kind which says, "Well, I hope I may get to heaven, but I don't much think I shall," but it is of the kind which says, "I know that I am safe; I know that my Forerunner has entered within the veil for me; I know that God's promise and God's oath together do ensure my eternal salvation; and this hope is the anchor that is hung at the bows of my ship." Now, the anchor must be made of the right stuff. One writer has said that "anchor-making is very important work." I should imagine it was, and I should say woe to the anchor-smith who tampered with the material of the anchor. Why is it of infinite importance that the anchor should be right in its material? Because there are times when the lives of captain, mates, crew, passengers will all depend upon whether the anchor is made of the right stuff or not. Cast-iron anchors won't do; they must be made of the best material, well wrought and welded; and I think I am correct in saying that in all our naval establishments there is an arrangement for testing every anchor; and when it is proven it receives the Government mark. I know that the anchor of which we are speaking is true, because there is heaven's own brand upon it — "sure and steadfast." Better have no hope at all than have a bad one; better be without hope than place confidence in a false one. Do any of you say, "What should our anchor of hope be made of?" I will tell you. Go and get a whole number of "Thus saith the Lord" and weld them together, for the only anchor that is worth anything is that anchor of hope, the very material of which is " God has said." I believe the best smithy for making an anchor is the empty sepulchre just outside Jerusalem. Go into that sepulchre where once the body of Christ lay; it is empty now; there fashion thy anchor, "begotten unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead." Now, with the anchor goes the chain, and I cannot separate between the two. I know that some have said that hope is the anchor and faith is the cable; well, it may be so, but you cannot really separate between faith and hope. Faith culminates in hope, and if faith does not lead to hope it is not worth anything; and, on the other hand, I cannot imagine a hope that is worth anything that does not come from faith, so I take cable and anchor as one. And I remark here that the anchor must have its cable, and the cable to be worth anything must have an anchor. I think that in my time I have come across some who had a chain, but there was no anchor at the end of it. They did believe — at least they said so; and who are we that we should dare to question their veracity? They do believe, for if they believe nothing else they believe they have some doubts; and I have seen them always paying out the cable, and saying, "I believe, I believe," and yet somehow they have nothing at the end to grip. There is the chain, but it will drag over a hundred promises without laying hold of a solitary one. They have faith, so they say, but somehow or other it is not the faith that ever grips the Word of God sufficiently to bring their vessel round. The Lord save us from that sort of faith which is like a cable without any anchor at the end. But, on the other hand, I don't think the anchor would be very much use unless there was a cable attached to it. What would you think if in time of storm the captain said, "Overboard with the anchor," and overboard it goes; there is an end of it; there is no connection whatever between the anchor and the ship. An anchor thrown overboard without a cable is about as much use as a cable thrown over without an anchor. II. Now I want you to see THE ANCHOR LET GO. Our hope, like other anchors, is of no use as long as we can see it, as long as the anchor is slung at the bows it is doing nothing. You would think that man a lunatic who should say, "I always feel so safe when I see the anchor." You would think that captain an imbecile who should say, "I always think my ship is safe when I have my anchor on deck." The real worth of the anchor begins when it is thrown overboard. The ocean bed holds the anchor, and the anchor holds you. Now you will observe, if you look into the text, my anchor enters into that within the veil. I wish I had the power for a moment to give you a glimpse within the veil and see where the anchor is. If you were to have passed through the veil of the Tabernacle you would have seen an oblong chest — that was all; and on the top of that oblong chest a slab of gold exactly covering it. If you had looked inside that chest you would have found two tables of stone containing the law, written by the finger of God. That was called the mercy-seat. There, you will see, was mercy based on justice; peace reposing on righteousness; a Divine salvation resting on the pedestal of accomplished law — treat was all that was within the veil; and, says Paul in our text, "Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul which entereth" — now, I always find that nine people out of ten quote this text wrongly; they say, "which entereth within the veil," but it is, "which entereth into that within the veil"; in other words, the mercy-seat — God's mercy based on righteousness, or, if you like to put it so, Christ Himself. Now, for a moment note this. Am I not right in saying that the more the ship drags at the cable the more fixed becomes the anchor? Ah! when first my soul trusted Christ and I dropped my anchor, I don't think it had a very firm hold, but every strain on it has driven it deeper. It is always so, for if you look in Romans 5. you will see that experience leads to hope. The more a man trusts God the better he knows God, and the better he knows God the more he trusts Him. He learns to sing, "My heart is fixed to God, my heart is fixed." III. I have tried to show you the anchorage; now look at THE SHIP RIDING AT ANCHOR. One thing I observe is that, though she is anchored, she does not necessarily escape rolling, nor her passengers avoid sickness. There may be considerable discomfort while there is no danger. Many souls as well as ships are anchored in the "downs"! I notice, too, that when a ship is at anchor she always faces the tide. I was travelling recently on the Chatham and Dover Railway, and just as we approached Whitstable we obtained a glimpse of the sea, and I said to a fellow-passenger, "The tide is coming in." "How can you know that?" he asked. "Why," I replied, ,' it's the simplest thing in the world; look at the boats that are anchored there, and see which way they face; anchored craft always face the tide." Ay, and so will it be with you; if you know what it is to have your anchor gripping that which is within the veil you won't be a man who is afraid to look the world in the face. The ship swings round with the tide and seems to say, "I am not to be caught, whichever way you come you will meet my bow." These are the sort of Christians we want at the present time — men who are so anchored on to God, who are so filled with His spirit, and who have so bright a hope within them that they must face the run of the tide of this world. A dying sailor was near his end, and the death sweat stood upon his brow. A friend said, "Well, mate, how is it with you now?" The dying man, with a smile, made answer, "The anchor holds, the anchor holds." God grant that ever one of you may be able to say this, for His name's sake. (A. G. Brown.) Parallel Verses KJV: Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: |
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