Hebrews 6:9-20
April 6, 2026
preached by Pastor Doug Cooper
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Time of Reflection Quotations

“If our hope is anchored in our own experience or efforts, we will never be settled.”

~ Rankin Wilbourne, contemporary pastor and author

“Optimism hopes for the best without any guarantee of its arriving and is often no more than whistling in the dark. Christian hope, by contrast, is faith looking ahead to the fulfillment of the promises of God… Optimism is a wish without warrant; Christian hope is a certainty, guaranteed by God himself. Optimism reflects ignorance as to whether good things will ever actually come. Christian hope expresses knowledge that every day of his life, and every moment beyond it, the believer can say with truth, on the basis of God’s own commitment, that the best is yet to come.”

~ J.I. Packer (1929-2020), British-Canadian theologian & professor

“The church is the church as a creature of God’s Word—a creature that finds its life outside of itself, that does not have faith in faith so much as faith in the God of covenant promise made known in Christ.”

~ J. Todd Billings (1973-present), American professor and writer

“God is a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God. If you have never thought of Him in these terms, then you have not yet begun to think about Him in the way he wants you to. God’s Word describes those covenants, proclaiming Him to be a covenanting God. In a sense, the Bible is the book of His covenant. We even call it that – the Old and the New Covenants [Testaments]!”

“[Faith] is trust in God’s character and obedience to His living voice expressed in His Word. Consequently the object of faith in the Old Testament is the promise of God which awaits its fulfillment in the coming of Christ. Faith looked forward then, just as now it looks backward to its object in Christ.”

~ Sinclair Ferguson (1948-present), Scottish professor, author and minister

Sermon Passage

Hebrews 6:9-20 (CSB)

⁹ Even though we are speaking this way, dearly loved friends, in your case we are confident of things that are better and that pertain to salvation. ¹⁰ For God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you demonstrated for his name by serving the saints — and by continuing to serve them. ¹¹ Now we desire each of you to demonstrate the same diligence for the full assurance of your hope until the end, ¹² so that you won’t become lazy but will be imitators of those who inherit the promises through faith and perseverance.

¹³ For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater to swear by, he swore by himself: ¹⁴ I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply you. ¹⁵ And so, after waiting patiently, Abraham obtained the promise. ¹⁶ For people swear by something greater than themselves, and for them a confirming oath ends every dispute. ¹⁷ Because God wanted to show his unchangeable purpose even more clearly to the heirs of the promise, he guaranteed it with an oath, ¹⁸ so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. ¹⁹ We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. ²⁰ Jesus has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner, because he has become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.