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I would beg a continued interest in your prayer. Please be prayerful this morning. My mind has continued to run as it was last week. Over at Valley Spring, I tried to talk about hope. The hope that we have. The hope that we live in. And feel the very presence of in our soul. Not because we ask for it or deserve it, but because of grace, the Lord has given us a great hope. That hope is it's not a wish. It's not a best case scenario. But it is a hope that is sure and steadfast as we'll try to look at it. Just to summarize in a quick moment, because I want to get to the to a latter part of this, a more applicable part of hope. The Lord will be my director this morning. You pray. It's one thing to have a subject, it's another thing to be able to deliver it. And it takes the spirit to deliver it to your heart and your soul. So that when you leave here, you'll take something with you and you can glean from it, and that it will be beneficial to you and be prayerful, praising to the Lord. The hope that we have we find it Peter or Titus, it says, in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie, promised before the world began. That is the essence of our hope. Hope is not seen yet. We haven't seen the conclusion to that matter, but we know it is so. That's hope. We know that it is so. We have an earnest expectation that eternal life is real and it is ours because of the work of a triune God who before the world began promised, and a promise of one that cannot lie. Now that promise will become apparently important because I've made a lot of promises, and it is easy to say I promise. It is an entirely different thing to bring it to pass or to keep a promise in the face of overwhelming odds. My promises fail because I don't have the power to keep it sometime. But we're talking about a promise that Paul tells Titus, and I might add one more thing. He tells Titus this from a jail cell in Rome. Titus is going to be the pastor of a little island church of Crete. And Titus would face many obstacles as a preacher of that little island church of Crete. There are a lot of things that I've found about that little thing of Crete. There was even a lot of philosophies. But Paul even dips into their heritage or their ways and the words of their philosophers, where he mentions Christians are always liars. That was a there's actually a uh, and I can't remember right now what it was called, Hermes or something like that, paradox. It was a somebody's paradox, her Hermes or some paradox, in that this this one that it's talking about, he said Christians are always liars. That's who Paul is quoting, is that the paradox was that person was a Christian. So you see the paradox is Christians are always liars, but he says he Christians are always liars, but he's a Christian. So he's lying. So he's telling the truth. So it's kind of that double negative kind of thing. Anyway, Paul even uses some of their language. That just was a just a side note. And Paul even used some of their philosophy. That was on Mars Hill, if you want to go find it. Paul was talking there, I believe, in uh in Acts about around Mars Hill. But he was using that to confound the wise and their idolatry and false work of worship of false gods. But Paul is telling Titus of a God that cannot lie. Cannot lie. I like to just keep that in my mind, is that no matter what we face in this world, no matter how bad it gets, God cannot lie. I can trust what God said because I know he will not lie, but I know he cannot lie. That is saying a lot because I tell you, I can lie. And I do lie. As much as I don't like lying, my tongue will lie. If things get hot enough, I'll lie. But God cannot lie. Our hope is in a God that cannot lie, in hope of eternal life. That's our great focus this morning is eternal life that God promised before the world began, and he cannot lie. He has given eternal life to as many as he chose before the world began. And at the end of time, every single one of them will be with him where he is. And he cannot lie. It will not fail. He will not come up short. His arm, his hand is not shortened, that it cannot save. That's good to know because we get in a lot of situations where man cannot help us. We can't help ourselves, but God's hand is not shortened that it cannot save. I think of those three Chaldeans that were told you either bow down before this golden image or you'll be cast into that fire. And they reached up and they latched on to the one that cannot lie. We don't know if he will deliver us from this fire. But we do know this, O King, He's gonna deliver us from you. He's gonna deliver us. If it's in fire, living through the fire, or whether it be perishing in the fire, nevertheless, God will deliver, he will deliver us from you. They had that kind of hope in a God that cannot lie. My friends, that's strength. That's strengthening to us to know that God cannot lie. And when we understand the love of God, and we feel the love of God, and we understand that we love God because He first loved us. And God cannot lie. And God cannot lie. He loved you with an everlasting love. He loved you with a love that is not only kind and comforting, it's a love that is reassuring, it's a love that is sacrificial on your part. He sacrificed himself for that great love wherewith he loved you. He not only loved me, Paul says he loved me and gave himself for me. My friend, that that was done because God cannot lie. And we'll look at it here in a moment as we read, go to the Hebrew letter and we'll we'll read some of Paul's words to the Hebrew. So we have that hope of eternal life. We also know that Paul says, if in this life only we have hope, we're of all men most miserable. That's a second thought about hope that I want to present to you. This hope that we have is not just a matter to get you through this time world that we live in. There's a lot of philosophies and ideas that that would present to you a dogma that would teach that all the goodness and things of the of the belief system is really just for this time world. And it doesn't go any further. Humanism, my friends, is one of those that would teach that it's uh the good is only in this world and the bad is only in this world, and that's all there is to it. Humanist idea that we live, let us uh eat, drink, and be merry, and that's that's the end of it. My friends, our hope is not just in this life only. It doesn't only pertain to this life. My friend, our hope is that uh that we have a particular type of life that's been given to us, and we're brought into a relationship of life, which is an eternal life in that once one is delivered to this eternal life, it is eternal in nature. It is longevity, no end. We had a beginning, but we have no end. There is an eternalness to that life. But not only the longevity part of life are we talking about. We understand life as a natural life because it's confined in a vein, a vein, a vessel that goes one foot in front of another, one moment to another. It is captured by space and time, and it is corrupt in its nature. It is it is uh it is without any righteousness at all. It has all the um in its whole nature is to seek after its own self and to preserve its own self. That's the natural man life. That's the natural um uh essence of human beings because of the transgression of one man, death passed upon all men. For all have died. My friends, have all died. All men continue to die because of sin that is in our members. And Paul says, when I would do good, evil is present with me. That, my friends, is in this life only. That sin has an end, it has a conclusion to it. When sin is finished, it brings forth death. That is in this life only. Sin can't go any further than the expiration of the body. The moment we give up the ghost, sin is finished. It is concluded, it has killed itself. But yet, if our hope is only in this world only, in this life only, we would be of all men most miserable. It would be a miserable uh a dismal belief that this is all there is. This this if if you were the most richest man in this world, had anything you wanted, could go anywhere you wanted to go, at any moment you wanted to go. You know what? It's in this life only. You can't go any further. A rich man never started before his beginning, and a rich man will never take a uh anything out, will never take anything with it. You know who the most equal man men and women are? Those down here in that cemetery. They're everyone just as equal as they can be because that is the great equalizer of this life only. But our hope is not of this life only. Our hope takes us beyond that pale of death. It takes us into a realm of relationship in Christ Jesus. If in this life only we have hope in Christ were of all men most miserable, if that's as far as it could go, it would be a miserable existence. Even if you're the richest man, you know, Solomon learned. Solomon learned through the living, through the living it, experiencing it, that this life is vanity, vexation of the soul. He uh he he'd come to understand that what's in this life perishes with the using. It's consumed of itself. So he found the conclusion to the whole matter is to fear God and keep his commandments. That's the conclusion from the richest, wisest, and authority man that's ever lived, Solomon. So, yeah, my friends, our hope is not in this life only. Our hope is in the great eternal, the ancient of days. That one that was before the world was. That one, my friends, it spoke life in existence and started the moment of time into existence, and will have the uh the wherewithal and the right to say, time be no more. And God holds that authority to say time be no more. Because he said, I am Alpha and I am Omega. There's nothing outside the boundaries of God, because there is no outside the boundaries with God, He is the first and the last, the great Alpha and Omega. And we, my friends, our hope is in him. So our hope is not of the mind, it's not even of the heart of us. It is the very one Christ Jesus Himself. That is our great hope. Our hope is a person in Jesus Christ of eternal life, in hope of eternal life, in Christ of eternal life, which God cannot lie. If you just substitute it in there, my friends, in Christ we have hope. Why? Because Christ has latched into you. Christ, Paul would say, Christ in you, the hope of glory. He is He is attached into you with a with a connection that cannot be broken. I just want us to keep that little piece in mind, is that we're not talking about a mental hope. We're talking about a person hope. A person of the man Christ Jesus who came into this world, God manifested in the flesh. Our Emmanuel, God with us. And my friends, not just with us around us, not just in our proximity of this world, but God with you, in you, in your being, in your very heart, mind, and soul, my friends, He dwells within you. Christ in you, the hope of glory. And my friends, that is where our hope is. So now let's go. In hope of eternal life. I mean, that's a surety. You can just say, insurety of eternal life. Why? Because Christ is our assurance. Not insurance, but he's our assurance. There's a great difference. I can have insurance and never use it, and it never be a benefit to me. I might have paid for it all my life and never use that insurance. Because it's there in case. But my friends, he's not there just in case. He's there for your case. He's there in your case, in your very being, in your very soul, Christ in you. And you know, my friends, to get to you, they have anyone would have to go and remove him. That's why we've talked about that subject of it is it is nothing can separate you from the love of God, because that means they would have had to extract out Christ from you. And that is not possible. That is not possible. Because, my friends, you were placed in him before the world began, and he gave promise for you before the world began. Now, for the remainder of time, you please pray about this. I want us to see the very beauty of this hope in us, the hope of glory. This very attachment that we have with Christ in our day-to-day lifetime, as long as born again, from the very moment you're born again. I'm gonna tell you, before you're born again, you were just as dead in trespasses and sin as any non-elect will ever be. That's a sobering thought. That is a thought, my friends, that you know there's some people that that I have found over time that did not know that, that did not realize that they were not always born again. There was a point in time, and I can say this unequivocally without any reservations that every soul that is conceived in this world is conceived in death and trespasses and sin. Not a one ever is conceived outside of death and trespasses and sin. We all have that flaw. Now, however, how long it is between that conception and new birth, I can't tell you that. Because that's on the personal level between Christ and you, between the Holy Spirit speaking that life-giving voice. As we've said a lot of times, it can be in the womb as John the Baptist, it can be on a cross at the end of life, or it can be as Paul in the prime of life. Somewhere, just all we can say is there's a timeline of your life, conception and death, that somewhere in that point, if you're chosen before the world begins, God will visit and will speak, live to that soul. That's up to him. That's all in his time and his purpose. You say, well, that's not fair, it's not a matter of fairness. It's a matter of grace. It's a matter of grace. You know, I don't know the man that wrote uh Isaac Newton was Isaac Watts that that wrote Amazing Grace. Anyway, uh anyway, look it up and see. The man that wrote Amazing Grace, I don't know where he was in life as far as time of life. I I suspect probably in the in a prime uh primal life or so. But he came to understand that it was by grace that saved a wretch like me. Do you know the very essence of him writing that? If that was his heart, I could tell you, my friends, something changed him at some point in his life. And he could know then grace is how that saved a wretch like me. And that's all any of us could say. If we love God, it's because he first loved us. But if we love God, we know we pass from death into life because we love the brethren. We have an assurance within us. And it is that love of God within us that moves us in that direction of love. That's not a human development that through human development, the human the natural man, that's not how we learn to love as God has given us love. It is a response back to he that first loved us. Now, let's go and look at this in the fourth chapter of the book of Hebrews. Well, no, let's let's look a little further over. Sixth chapter. Yes, sixth chapter. Let's go up to the 11th verse, 11th verse, and we desire that everyone, uh every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope, the full assurance of hope. We sang that that song, I need thee every hour. That was a good song to end the service. Brother John had a good call. Because it was right in the line. That gave me an extra thought about this text because it when you start talking about I need thee every hour, you're getting to the essence of what this is about. That assurance of one in the time of need of help. And I'm gonna tell you, my friends, throughout our life, you just I just I just say to you, look back through your life and remember the times of need when you really needed comfort, when you really needed assurance, when you thought, I'm at the end of that rope, and there is no way out of this situation. But here you are. But here you are. You were at a destitute moment and in need of help. I'm gonna tell you, you didn't get here. Where you're at right now, you that I'm looking at, you did not get here without that need being met and exceeded. He doesn't just meet our expectation, God exceeds our expectation. He goes over and above, and we could go through example after example in the Old Testament or in the New Testament of those that came to Him with dire need, lepers, blind men, women that lost their loved ones, women in destitute moments and had no options at their disposal, and yet this one came and proved he is an exceeder of expectation. We talk about hope as an expectation, my friend. That's our perspective of that expectation. He sees beyond even that we think or ask. And he can give it, and he does give it, and that's why you're here. Because he's gone through those times with you. He didn't just let you wander through those moments of need. I need thee every hour, dear Lord. I need thee to help me when I'm in the lowest of the pits, when I'm on the top of the mountain, and I begin to feel too big for myself. I need thee even then to bring me back to where I need to be. I need thee every hour. Now, watch this. To the full assurance of hope unto the end. That ye be not slothful nor follower of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. But when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swear by himself. He didn't swear to Abraham, he swore by himself. I'll give you what I give you. I promise to you. And he didn't say, I'll promise to you if you'll keep the promise for me. No, God keeps his promise. Saying, Surely, blessings I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. Did you catch one of the key words there? The key word is endure. Enduring. You're here because you've endured things because he brought you through those moments of need. It wasn't because you were so strong and you're just good at getting out of things. No. He brought you through the things that you endured. And he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. I'm going to tell you, Abraham's life was not a charmed life. He went down into Egypt and pretty quick fell into a situation that he even had to tell kind of a little white lie to save his own hide, saying that his wife was his sister. And God intervened and stopped that, that issue. So yeah, he ran into his problem. He said, For men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation. So there's a promise, and then there's an oath. More in just a moment on that, because this is beautiful. This is where our hope is. This is the strength and the surety, assurance of that hope. We talk about what is the assurance of our hope. Men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Think of a contract that states all the terms that list everything that's going to be in this promise. I promise you this, this, this, this, this. All these promises made. And an oath for signature at the bottom. That signature at the bottom, you know, it's from our from our perspective, it is, well, the signature's there, that makes it binding. Well, the only thing what makes that signature binding is the strength of the one that wrote the signature. The very nature of that one. Is he a liar? You know, people falsely uh falsely make promises and sign the dotted line, then they don't keep the promise. No, this oath for confirmation is signed by the one that cannot lie. So he cannot lie in the document, and he cannot lie in the oath. The oath for confirmation. It confirms I've read it, I understand it, I agree to it, I will keep it. That's what that oath is. I not only promised it, I will also keep it. That's important for this oath. Wherein God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise. So this is to show you what's in this oath, in this confirmation. God willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability. Unchangeableness. That is just so important to friends when we're talking about this hope, is to understand it's a hope of something immutable, unim unimmutable. It cannot be changed. It's not something you have to agree to. You wouldn't ask to sign the document. You weren't part of making the promise, and you didn't sign the document, but you are listed in that document. You're listed in the promises. Let me just give you maybe one term. I will come at the appointed time for put in your name. Put in your name. I will go in their place, in this person's place, put in your name. That's your name there. I will come and die for Van Munn. Or Elton Thought. I will come and do it for them. Sign the document. And this is all before the world began in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began. That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie. Did Paul have a right to say? Well, actually, Paul's writing here too. So Paul had the right to say to Titus about that God that cannot lie. And now he tells the Hebrews in that it was impossible for God to lie. I love that. You know, that is just as definite language as you can get. Cannot lie and impossible to lie. They made comments of each other. You see how the scriptures are a commentary to itself? Peter would say Elach before the foundation of the world. So they were in agreement. That two by two immutable things that it was impossible for God to lie, that we impossible that we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us, to lay hold upon it, to grasp it, to seize it. If you look at that the word for lay hold on, it means to grasp. Not just to grasp at, but to lay hands on and to hold on to it. To get a grip on it. One place is talking about they lay hold upon the neck, and other they lay hold upon the arm. They lay hold upon something to grasp it and not let it go. To grip it firmly. Not to go after it, not just to slap it, but to actually grasp that thing. Lay hold upon that. And my friend, that's where we are this morning, is that we can continue to lay hold upon that hope set before us, to grasp it. Remember, just get a vision. I want you to get a visual in my mind as we let me get on down here. We'll get a little visual. Which hope, this is lay hold upon the hope set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul. As an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil. I want you to think about an anchor. This is an anchor of the soul. It's not an anchor of the boat, but it's an anchor of the soul. But he's giving language here from a man that knew, I would assume, a lot about nautical things, about why you would use an anchor. But that anchor is used to secure the boat, to make it steadfast in one place, to hold it firmly so it's not tossed about to and fro by every wind that might come along. But that anchor, it is dropped and it is secured in a place, latched on to somewhere, and it's not movable, and that's what makes it a benefit to the boat because it's also attached to the boat. It's tied there so it doesn't come loose. So you got a connection between the bottom of the anchor latched on to the root or whatever, and it's latched onto the boat to keep it secure. But I want you to see, my friends, an anchor of the soul that goes upwards, upwards into that veil in heaven, that very secure one that cannot be moved. God, the very throne of his sovereignty, and the very uh the giving of his promise that he has sworn an oath to this confirmation of this promise that he made before the world began. That, my friends, is something that is attached to him and it's attached to you in the very soul of you. It's tied to your soul, it does not move, it is always there. At any moment, at all moments, every night and day. You can't be woke up in the middle of the night and be surprised so much you can't get to it. It's attached to you at all very moments that you are, and you cannot be severed from it. It is anchored to him and to you. But let's get the vision, let us who fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before you. Sometimes, my friends, though the anchor is attached in heaven and attached to you, I'm still told to lay hold on it. You know what laying hold on it means? I need to seize that. I need to bring to mind in those moments of need. I think of Paul and Silas as they had been taken and they'd been cast into a prison, and they were sitting there, and they lay hold upon that hope set before them. They began to sing those hymns. Can you just picture your mind with them in a cell, fast in the stocks, sitting there, and I'll tell you that's a pretty destitute moment. Captured and kept what was appeared to be safe from anyone at Philippi. Foreign land, strangers to this place, a jail keeper right outside the door. And all of a sudden, as they sang those hymns, didn't know another soul in the place, had been introduced, they weren't welcome ministers in, they were captured because they had caused some people loss of their goods. They had delivered a young lady that people were making money off of. But yet, as they lay there in that Philippian jail and they began to sing those hymns, I don't know what they sang. I'm pretty sure it wasn't amazing grace, because it wasn't written yet. Probably one of the Psalms. Might have been the Psalms of Psalms 23. I don't know. That'd be a good one. Lord is my shepherd. I shall not walt. Whatever it was, it was full of the Spirit. Because, my friends, the jailers shackles and the jail cell door, which no doubt was there to keep them fast into that place. Stocks fall off and the doors fly open. Not just of theirs, but of all the other prisoners, too. All of a sudden, now you got a jail. And I'm telling you, you don't have chaos. Because what you have is a deliverance by the hope set before them. See, they reached up and they grabbed hold. And I tell you, there's no firmer place to hold on to. If you need a place, if you need something to hold on to that you can trust, it's going to hold as you lay hold on the hope set before us. That's what the knowledge of the truth can mean to you. That's the assurance of this hope is to lay hold upon that hope set before us. And as they went through this, the jailer awoke and realized everything was open. Everything was in the open. He was now the minority of the place. And was about to kill himself because he knew even if he got out of this, he was his life was not going to be well. What must I do to be saved? He wasn't worried about his eternal salvation. He was worried about his neck and his house, his home, his family. What must I do to be saved? Paul and them so told him, Do yourself no harm. Do yourself no harm. Let us tell you about the hope. Let us tell you about our hope. The anchor of our soul. Let me tell you about my anchor of my soul. My problem is sometimes I don't lay hold on it. I just keep thrashing around in my attempt to get out of my problem of my own self. I get all this self-reliance and this self-dependency. And I thrash around like a fish on a line instead of reaching up and laying hold on the hope set before us. There's times we need to lay hold. We need to grab that line between God and us. And I'll tell you who it is. That line is Christ. There's one man between God and man. And that is the man Christ Jesus lay hold upon him. Peter would tell us, casting all your care upon him. That's how you lay hold upon. You cast all your care upon him. Why? Because he careth for you. I don't care how deep your dungeon is or how pinnacle you have to go upon, my friends, he is the, well, I find him as the lily of the valley, and I find him the rose of Sharon. He's one of the mountain and he's one of the valley. No matter where you find yourself, my friends, lay hold upon him, because he's ever near. And not only that, he is the oath, the confirmer, and the promiser. He made the promise, he kept the promise, and we can lay hold upon that promise. And here is the proof that he is that line, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil. The very that is the throne of God Himself, the very authority of God. That within the veil. Whether the forerunner is for us, entered, even Jesus made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. There's a lot of importance in the fact that he said, after the order of Melchizedek, because Melchizedek was not of the Levitical priesthood. Levitical priesthood made earthly offerings. Melchizedek was after what was considered an endless life. He made spiritual sacrifices. That's what Jesus does for us after that order. Christ makes spiritual sacrifices on our behalf. And the sacrifice that he gives is himself to have you have access to him. That forerunner entered in before us that holds us as that anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. I'll stop with that and we'll stand and sing a song.