In his sermon 'Anchor of the Soul (Part 2)', Steve Hopkins discusses the importance of being a light in the world, as taught by Jesus in Matthew 5. He uses a personal anecdote about a lighted cross to illustrate this point, emphasizing that believers should live their lives as reflections of Christ's light. Hopkins stresses the necessity of consistent spiritual nourishment through scripture, comparing it to steady rain that nourishes plants, as opposed to sporadic downpours. He calls on fathers and husbands to diligently teach and sanctify their families with the Word. The sermon also highlights the value of hospitality in fostering relationships within the church community, citing it as both scriptural and historically significant. Using the example of Abraham, Hopkins illustrates faith and patience, reminding believers that the promises of God are steadfast. He explains that just as Jesus entered the holy place in heaven, believers have a hope anchored beyond the veil, ensuring they will follow Christ into eternal glory. The sermon concludes with a call to trust in God's promises, emphasizing the assurance of salvation and eternal rest due to Christ's intercession and sacrifice.

Good afternoon again. If you would turn with me in your Bibles once again to the book of Hebrews, the sixth chapter, where we will be doing about ten minutes of review from last week and then moving forward to the end of the chapter. But before we stand for the reading of Hebrews, chapter 6, verses 11 through 19, how many remember the lighted cross that used to be on the hill west of Burnett. Anybody ever see that? Anyone here old enough to see it?

Okay. So when I was a boy, it was there, and we moved away for a while, it come back, and I remember when we were coming back down the hill, So we're coming down that hill on 29 and coming into to Burnett and Ryan our oldest son is like two or three years old at that time and we're coming back we're moving back to Burnett and I'm just like wow this is so great that's a shining bright cross on the hill over Burnet. I love that. And then at some point in time, the light on the cross went out. And I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I thought, you know, many times it would be so neat to relight that cross and get it back up there as kind of a reminder up there.

But far more beneficial than that is to remember that we are lights. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5, you are the light of the world. Ye are the light of the world, plural, his people. If you are a believer, you are a light in this world of darkness, reflecting the light of Christ. Think of the moon reflecting the light of the sun.

The grace of God in his people was never meant to be hidden. Jesus goes on, a city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. We need to remember that our lives are under continual observation by the world, by the unbelievers that are around us. Living out the gospel before unbelievers is evidence to them that the things that you've been telling them about Jesus are true. When men light a candle, they don't put it under a basket or cover it with some sort of a covering, but they put it on a candlestick so that it will provide light to everyone in the house.

There is intentionality with regards to our conduct before the world of unbelievers all around us. In everything that we say and do in this dark world, we are to shine as lights that reflect the light of Christ and adorn the gospel by which we were saved with the hope that God might use the witness of our lives in the world to draw others to Christ and that God ultimately might be glorified. Jesus said, let your light so shine before men that what? That they may glorify your Father who is in heaven. I have three things.

Second, you know we've had some torrential downpours here a couple of times in the last month. It isn't the occasional downpour that nourishes the earth, but the steady rain. The steady continual watering and washing and nourishing of our families in the Scriptures day by day is the course that is prescribed by God for the spiritual growth and well-being of our families. Occasional downpours, they're great, right? We like occasional downpours.

But trees and plants tend to wither that are not nourished with a continual supply. An occasional deluge typically only affects the surface of the ground. It's the persistent soaking rain that reaches the roots. Be diligent, Be diligent, be diligent fathers and husbands. We go to Deuteronomy 6, 7 a lot of times, when you rise up, when you lie down, when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, teach the word to your children.

But in Ephesians chapter 5, husbands are commanded to labor for the sanctification of their wives with the washing of water by the Word, the Scripture says. And Jesus said in John chapter 17 of His bride speaking to the Father, sanctify them by Your Word. Your Word is truth. We have an obligation Not only when we have children who are old enough to be able to be taught, but also to our wives. Our families desperately need this washing in the Word.

You've heard me say it so very often. We husbands and fathers, when we're doing what we're supposed to be doing and washing our families and washing our wives and our children of the word, we're getting a bath at the same time. We're getting that bath at the same time. And it isn't the occasional downpour, but the steady rain that's needed. Third and finally and very shortly, hospitality.

Hospitality is one of the things that builds the relationships within a church family. Having families and individuals in our homes and accepting the invitations of other families to fellowship with them in their homes is not only scriptural but historically it's valuable for the church. It's scriptural, 1 Peter 4.9 says, use hospitality without grudging, that means without complaining or grumbling. And historically, hospitality has been a trademark of strong churches. You've heard me say it before where, you know, we grew up in a church where they would say, okay, stand up in between the hymns and say, turn around and say hello and shake hands with the person behind you.

We would do that but I never had a relationship with them. I didn't know who that was. I never knew who that was. They didn't know who I was. They had nothing to do with my life and I had nothing to do with their life.

And the families just dispersed on Sunday and that was it. But we're to be a part of each other's lives And hospitality is the way that that is done. And it's a trademark again of strong churches, churches where the members are more like a family and tend to stay together. It produces some cohesiveness there. People who have the indwelling Spirit, we have that unity of the Spirit, but now you're in each other's homes.

You're fellowshipping one with another, and they're in your homes, and it needs to be happening more and more. Now if it's been a while since you've had a family or the church in your home, don't be nervous. You know how to swim. You've done it before. Just jump back into the water.

Just jump back into the water. Anchor of the soul, part two. Let's stand for the reading of Hebrews chapter six and we'll read together verses 11 through 19. As I say we'll be doing about 10 minutes of review here. Let's read together the word of the Lord beginning with verse 11.

And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end, that you be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patient 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 barely 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 the 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 Melchizedek." Let's pray.

Father, we ask, O God, once again, Almighty God, triune God, God without beginning and without end, who made all things from nothing, we ask, O God, that you might be pleased once again in the assembly of your saints to open your word to us and give us the Spirit, O God, to open our understanding as we open your word. And God, we ask for grace, grace, Lord, to lay hold more firmly on the hope set before us who have fled to Christ for refuge. And we ask it all in Jesus' name, amen. Amen, let's be seated. In our last session I said if you're familiar with Hebrews chapter 6, then you know that the writer of Hebrews is transitioning here.

He's going from this sober warning concerning apostasy by nominal professors of Christ, okay, those in name only, in verses four through eight. And then he's going from there to encouragement for those who are truly converted in verses nine to the end of the chapter. In verses four through seven, what did we learn? We learned that there are a people who mix with the people of God who don't truly know God. There are churchgoers who sit into the preaching of the Word week after week, year after year.

They taste of the good word of God. They're enlightened by the preaching of the word of God to some degree. They seem to have some kind of the same experiences the true people of God have, but though they tasted of the heavenly gift, they never received it. Though they were outward partakers of the Holy Spirit, they were never inward partakers. They joined themselves to the people of God and enjoyed all the outward blessings of the covenant community, but they were never regenerated.

I hope you have your Bibles open. We'll walk through these verses really quickly as we move up to where we left off last week. They were never regenerated, and the writer of Hebrews says it is impossible for these, if they fall away, if they walk away from all of that, if they apostatize from their profession of Christ, having experienced all of that to be brought back to repentance, seeing they crucified themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame. And I said These are our churchgoers, former churchgoers, okay? They openly and publicly display contempt for Christ and His sacrifice, a sacrifice they once openly embraced, effectively joining themselves to those that murdered Christ.

Effectively joining themselves to those who crucified Jesus. And then we move to verse seven, the analogy that the writer of Hebrews gives, the ground that drinks in the rain and brings forth herbs, true believers, who bring forth the good fruit of a life changed by God, and who persevere in faith to the end of their lives, verse eight, into the true believers. While the ground that produces thorns and briars represents the apostate who drinks in the reign of biblical truth. He professes Christ. He embraces Christ for a time.

He's maybe even enlightened by the Word. He's tasted of all these good things that the covenant community tastes of. He's tasted of it. He's never ingested it, but he's tasted it, but afterwards he brings forth the thorns and the briars and the evil fruit of apostasy and contempt for Christ. Remember, this is a mark of it here.

They now show contempt for Christ and for his sacrifice. They prove they were never truly saved and they stand in danger of being cursed and consigned to everlasting fire. But then we read in verse 9, but beloved, the writer of Hebrews now saying talking to true believers, he says beloved we are persuaded of better things concerning you, things that accompany salvation. The kinds of things that are manifested in the lives of true believers, like what? Like love for the people of God.

The true children of God love God's other family members. And he's saying, your love for God's people and your ongoing love for God's people manifested in that you're ministering to them and serving them. This is the kind of thing that is witnessed in the lives, evidenced in the lives of those who truly know Jesus. And he's saying, you're not like those who eventually fall away and thereby reveal that they never truly knew Christ. You from the heart have served the people of God, and you continue to do so.

And he's saying it's evidence that the grace of God has been and is at work in you. When God begins, he continues. And he says God is not unrighteous to forget. So then we came to verse 11 in our session last week where the writer of Hebrews expresses his earnest desire that everyone, that every one of his readers, every true believer in Christ, every one of them would manifest the same kind of earnestness and the same kind of diligence in their lives, leading to the full assurance of their hope of salvation and that to the end of their lives. He wants them to press forward and he wants them to press forward in faith and in love, verse 12.

And he doesn't want them to grow spiritually sluggish. Look at the text before you, you are slothful. But instead with a steadfast faith and with patient endurance, he wants them to imitate the faithful down through the ages, listen, who have already inherited the promises. He wants you to walk in their footsteps. He wants me to walk in their footsteps.

He wants us to walk in their footsteps. And who does he bring in? He brings in Abraham. Abraham has this example who's called the father of all that believe in Romans 411. Abraham believed God.

Abraham patiently endured. Abraham eventually obtained what he hoped for. And the writer of Hebrews is saying, so will we. God who has been faithful in the past will also be faithful in the future. All who are in Christ Jesus will inherit that which God has promised.

Oh, that God would make that pierce our hearts today. That would be such an exciting thing to comprehend and understand. God who has been faithful in the past will also be faithful in the future. We who are in Christ Jesus, we have an inheritance, we're going to inherit that which God has promised, which is life eternal in His presence, which is to be where Jesus is. Where He is, we're going to follow.

Is that exciting to you today? Where Jesus is, we're going to follow. We'll talk more about that in a moment when we talk to the children. We move on to verse 13. When God made promise to Abraham because he could swear by none greater, he swore by himself.

What? Verse 14, surely I will bless you, Abraham, and multiplying I will multiply you. And I said in our last session, here's Abraham and he's 75 years old. I'm gonna be 65 this year, so I say 75 and it's like, wow, that's just way out there, that's just right around the corner. But he's 75 years old, he and his wife are too old to bear children and God says, you and Sarah are gonna have a son and I'm gonna multiply your offspring like the stars of the heaven.

I read it a minute ago, Abraham believed God, right? But Abraham's faith wasn't perfect, was it? He had trust issues as he waited. But though Abraham's faith faltered at times, God was faithful to his promises and brought Abraham through. And he's going to bring you through too, who are of the faith of Abraham.

When all was said and done, Abraham waited for 25 years, living on a hope grounded solely on the promises of God and the oath of God and the faithfulness of God. And verse 15 says, and after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. Now, the writer of Hebrews is saying, this is to be a motivating factor for us to trust God and persevere. Do you see that? Abraham, his example is given as a motivational factor for us to trust God and persevere, no matter what we may face in this life.

Because God has kept his promises in the past, the writer of Hebrews is saying we can have full confidence that our faithful, unchanging God will keep his promises in the future. So Abraham is an example set before us of hope An example to provide inspiration for us to persevere in the hope that is set before us And we came to verse 16 goes through this example You and we We all understand that when human beings take an oath, they're doing it, they're swearing by someone or something greater than themselves, okay? Like in our court systems where you swear on the Bible or swear, so help me God. Well, the author of Hebrews is saying human beings make oaths And when we do, it's intended to end debate, right? We take an oath that's supposed to end all the debate that the matter is settled.

I took an oath. Settles the matter. Okay, well, in verse 17, the writer of Hebrews is saying that because God wanted, so to speak, to settle the matter, at least in our minds from our perspective, to make the unchanging nature of His purpose abundantly clear to the heirs of the promise, He confirmed it with an oath. Verse 18, and this was done so that by two unchangeable things, God's promise and God's oath, two things in which it's impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to Christ for refuge might have strong encouragement, consolation to lay hold of the hope that is set before us, knowing this, that what God has promised, what he's confirmed with an oath, God being incapable of lying, He will also bring to pass. I said, you know notice the writer of Hebrews tells us that this hope is something that we lay hold on we lay hold on this We're told to lay to lay hold on the hope that is set before us Why this life's full of trials?

This life's full of difficulties It is a sea of difficulty and an ocean of trials, as one pastor put it. Christians aren't exempt from the raging waves this life can produce. Many of you know that already. And if you don't know it already, you will know it at some point in your lives. We are not exempt.

We're not exempt from the raging waves this life can produce. But no matter the circumstance we may find ourselves in, we can in any circumstance of life, in every circumstance of life, lay hold on the hope we have anchored within the veil in heaven. Now I want you to just think about this for a moment. I'll be talking to the children in just a minute. At the death of Christ, okay, the veil or curtain of the temple on earth.

Everybody knows what that is, right? The curtain in the temple separating the holy place from the holy of holies, okay? At Christ's death, it's ripped in half from the top to the bottom, right? And laid open to all who put their trust in Jesus. And after Christ was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven, he entered the true temple.

Everyone getting this? He enters the true temple. Oh, George is listening, listening, listening closely. Good girl. And he enters the holy temple, the true temple in heaven, beyond the veil in the true temple, of which the temple and veil on earth was just a copy.

And he goes there to appear in the presence of God for us. What is our opening scripture that we read when we came in? It's also from Hebrews. With His blood to appear in the presence of God for us. And guess what?

Jesus is there now, and He is interceding for us now. And this is where the hope of the Christian is fastened like an anchor, where Christ is. We couldn't anchor our hope in heaven beyond the veil if Christ were not there, but He is there and we can. Where Christ is and where we will also follow one day after all the trials and storms of this life are distant history. Because Christ, our forerunner, has already gone within the veil in the heavenly temple having rent the veil on earth by his death, because Jesus has ascended to heaven and entered the heavenly sanctuary, the true holy of holies, we have a certain hope who have fled to Christ for refuge that we will one day follow.

We're gonna follow. Where He is, we will follow. Sometimes believers struggle with assurance. Jesus said in John 5, 24, truthfully, truthfully I say unto you, he who hears my word and believes on him who sent me has everlasting life, and he will not come into condemnation, but is passed from death into life. Can you rest in that promise?

Can you rest in that promise? Yep, she's shaking her head, yep. Anybody else? Can you rest in that promise? God has promised that all who trust in the name of his son will one day follow him to glory.

Now children, here's my part. Children, all children, look up here. I gotta clap my hands, right? All right? You got your papers out, you got your pictures, you got your words and everything, okay?

Can you rest in that promise? Here's what I want you to understand. God has promised, well let me start with an analogy. Have you ever jumped into like a swimming pool like head first? You ever done that?

Yeah? Some of you done that? Maybe your parents don't let you dive in head first yet, but maybe you've seen your older brothers and sisters dive into the water. Well when you dive into the water, you go up, you dive into the water, your head goes in first, right? But what follows your head?

What follows your head when you jump into the water head first? Your body follows. Your body follows. Where your head goes, your body follows. Well, Jesus is the head of His body, the church.

See, the Bible tells us that Jesus' body is His church, and He is the head of His church. Well, Where the head goes, where Jesus goes, His body is going to follow, right? His body is going to follow. Well, Jesus has already gone on to heaven, and we're going on to heaven to follow Him, who have our trust in Him. Understand that?

Yes. Yeah. Liam understands. Georgia understands. Mandy understands.

You guys understand that? Liam, you understand that? Where the head goes, the body follows. Where Jesus goes, His body, the church is going to follow. Amen.

Now his body is everyone who believes on him. Don't take your attention off of me yet. His body consists of everyone who believes in him, okay? If you believe in Jesus, you're a part of his body and he's the head and where the head goes, you're gonna follow if you believe in Jesus. My question for you today, children, is do you believe in Jesus?

Do you? Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe in him? Is your trust in Jesus? Is your trust in Jesus alone?

Don't wanna leave her out. Is your trust in Jesus alone. Jesus said in John 14, two through three, in my father's house there are many mansions, if it were not so I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare that place for you, I'm gonna come again, and I'm gonna receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also. There it is again. Can you rest in that, brothers and sisters?

In John chapter 17, Jesus prayed to the Father that where He was going, that is where He is right now in heaven, believers would follow. I would, He says, that where I am, there they would be also. Do you think for a moment that Jesus' prayer is not going to be answered? And we will be there. Where the head goes, the body follows.

The writer of Hebrews encourages us to, who have fled to refuge to Christ, till they hold upon the hope that's set before us, which hope we have as an anchor for the soul. And you know, well children listen to me again, one more time, okay? Children can you give me your attention one more time here we go think of this so the world the world is like an ocean think of the world you got that world is like an ocean okay And every believer in Jesus is like a ship on that ocean. And the place where our ship is going is heaven. Christ is the one steering the ship, and hope is our anchor.

Now think about that. You're a ship, you're believing in Jesus, you're a ship, you're on the ocean, okay, and you're headed to heaven, but you're still on earth, and you've got an anchor. You know what an anchor is, right? They throw it out and it's on a big cable and it latches to something to keep the boat from going off course, right? Well, your anchor isn't anchored down in the mud somewhere on earth.

Your anchor is anchored in heaven beyond the veil in heaven of the Holy of Holies where Jesus already is. Do you see that? Do you get that? That's where your anchor is. It's anchored where Jesus is, not down in the mud of the earth.

It's attached there where Jesus has already gone on before us. Jesus, our High Priest, has entered within the veil into the very holy of holies in heaven, and so our anchor, our hope is there now because he is there now where the head goes, the body follows. Calvin, As we close, though we must struggle with continual storms, we are yet beyond the peril of shipwreck. Comforting news, isn't it? Though we must struggle with continual storms in this life, we are beyond the peril of shipwreck.

The anchor, that is this hope, is sure and steadfast, safe and firm. It may be, says Calvin, that by the violence of the waves an anchor, so of a literal boat, might be plucked off, or the cable might be broken, or a ship might be beaten or torn to pieces. This happens at sea, but the power of God to sustain us is wholly different. And so is also the strength of hope and the firmness of his word. Remember the disciples on the Sea of Galilee when they cried out, Lord, we sink.

Did their boat sink? No, and neither were yours who are trusting in Christ, and neither were yours who are trusting in Christ. All whose hope is anchored – they're going to hold an army of little kids to the back – all whose hope is anchored in heaven beyond the veil where Christ is will be brought by God to the safe haven of heaven. I love the hymn, safe into the haven glide, oh receive my soul at last. Don't you love those old hymns?

Brothers and sisters, we have an anchor that keeps the soul, steadfast in sure while the billows roll, fastened to the rock which cannot move, grounded firm in the Savior's love. Now I said I'm closing, But let me give you one more thought here before we close. Our text doesn't guarantee that the Christian's boat, so to speak, is not going to go through turbulent waters. On the contrary, it suggests that just the opposite could be the case. But we have numerous words of comfort from Christ Himself throughout Scripture to assure us that our boat will never be found on the bottom of the ocean floor.

In the world you'll have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world, " Jesus said, John 16, 33. When the storms of fierce temptation beat and furious foes assail, my refuge is the mercy seat, my hope within the veil. Many times we don't understand why some things have happened in our lives that seem at the time to serve no purpose. Lord, what is going on? Why is this happening to me?

Could be some suffering, some sickness, some unfolding of events that may have shaken us to the core of our being and caused us to sit alone and say, Why, Lord? Why, Lord? We were saying these words earlier, When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. Our hope is entered into heaven.

It is anchored beyond the veil where Christ, the object of our hope, has gone before us, and we're assured by both the promise of God and the oath of God who cannot lie that even as He has entered there, this is our ultimate hope, the ultimate hope of the Christian, no matter what happens here, He has entered there, and even as He has entered there and is interceding for us there as our high priest, we also who have fled for refuge to Christ will surely follow, will surely follow. The Christian is Charles Spurgeon, convoyed by grace, provisioned by mercy, steered by heavenly wisdom, propelled by celestial power, and thus underway for the port of glory. Amen. Let's pray. Oh Lord, our Father, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.

We thank you God for the certain hope we have of eternal rest in your presence. Because Christ, our forerunner, has entered the inner sanctuary in heaven before us, having offered the sacrifice that opened the door for us. And our trust, O God, is in you, our unchanging God, and your promises and oath that can never fail. And We trust you, Lord, because you're faithful. Because you fulfilled your word in the past, we know that you will fulfill your word in the future.

We thank you, Lord, for the certain hope that when this life full of troubles and trials is ended, we will be with you forever because Jesus died for our sins and rose again, is ascended to heaven, and will one day usher us into the presence of God forever. So we praise and Thank you.