The Anchor of Our Soul

Introduction

Good morning to all. I encourage you this morning to get your New Testament open to the book of Hebrews. In our study each Sunday morning at this hour, we come to Hebrews chapter six, where, as Paul read earlier this morning, verses 17 through 19 particularly speak about the anchor of our soul. Where he says, thus God determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. That by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become high priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek.

I appreciate Cody also for leading us in these songs. We have an anchor, both sure and steadfast. Indeed, our hope is settled on the fact that Jesus Christ is our rock, and indeed it is an anchor. I wonder, though, when we talk about hope itself, if we realize the strength that hope gives us in our lives as children of God.

Something, and it caused you such excitement and joy just to think about when that time would come that you would receive it. This is a time when certainly young people are probably expecting some gift to occur. Maybe, you know, we call it Christmas Eve. I well remember the excitement, you know, leading up to the time when my hope was such that I look forward to it. Maybe even other things much more serious than that. Perhaps you might remember when you became engaged, and you set a date off into the future when you and your bride or groom had planned a date to be married. It was a great time for you. You look forward to it with excitement and really with rejoicing because you were in love.

And when that moment came, what a thrill. It was worth persevering until that point in time. But what if a scenario that is not true? But what if? What if later today you receive word that a very rich uncle has just died and has left you in his will that you’re going to inherit a million dollars? Would that excite you? Oh man, a million dollars. But in this will, while you are to receive that inheritance, it’s based on certain conditions. And you must fulfill those conditions or it would not be granted to you. How would you react to that? Would you say, oh, well, still, hey, whatever it requires, a million dollars, I’ll follow the conditions that he set forth. When we read the text of Hebrews chapter 6, you might know that the writer here has set before us, even up to this point in time, how that there is eternal life awaiting those who faithfully serve the Lord.

1. Warnings: Lest Any of You Fall Away

But in the process, you might understand that there are certain conditions. If they should doubt or forget God’s promise, they may fall away. And that’s why, mixed with the promise of eternal life, are several warnings, and we’ve looked at them earlier. For example, in chapter 3, verses 12 through 14, 15, actually. There the writer says, Beware, brethren, lest any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. Even though we have the inheritance promised, we can lose it. In chapter 4 and in verse 1. Therefore, since a promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear, lest any of you seem to have come short of it. In fact, in our last lesson from chapter 6, in verses 4 through 6, he speaks about some who fall away, and it becomes impossible to renew them again to repentance.

What a sad condition. In fact, prefix that, the last part of chapter 5, Hebrews 5, he’s warned that we not remain as babes in Christ, that we not become stagnant in our spiritual growth. But by reason of time, we ought to grow and be even teachers ourselves of the Word of God. And if we remain stagnant like a babe, we fall into that danger of getting to a point that we fall away from the Lord, and we cannot even be stirred again or be renewed again to repentance. What a sad condition. That there are some, even, you might say, in our generation of time. Do you know of anyone who’s once named the name of Christ, who doesn’t darken the door of a church building, who today was involved with things of this world, but won’t be worshiping God.

2. Confident of Better Things: God Is Not Unjust

But they may have one time been immersed for remission of sins. At one time they were faithful Christians, but they failed to grow. They failed to increase their faith. And over a period of time, things of this world became more attractive to them. And they’ve left the Lord and really become impossible to be renewed unto repentance. But look back in this chapter, chapter 6, verse 9, beginning, where he says, But beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you. What the writer is here saying, yes, there’s the warnings out here, but as he writes to these Christians, these Hebrew Christians who receive this letter, he says, We’re confident. We believe in you that there are going to be better things, really, that are that are of you.

You have not lost sight of the treasures that God has laid up for the faithful. How how sad it is for those who are caught up with this world. You remember Jesus himself in Matthew chapter 16 and verse 26. What does it profit a man? Though he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul. What shall a man give in exchange for a soul? You ever thought about that? Would it be worth a million dollars for you to spend eternity in hell? You know, so we get all caught up with things here now, and sometimes instead of, as Jesus said in Matthew 6, lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rusteth corrupt, where thieves cannot break through and steal. Don’t lay up for yourself just treasures here now.

Think of who you are. Think of where you’re going. And don’t give it up for things that are really of this world. Don’t be like the rich man in the story that Jesus taught of rich man and Lazarus, where Lazarus in this world really was in poverty, but he was blessed upon death. But the rich man who had everything in this life, and people would look around and think, Well, that’s really living. And yet the illustration that Jesus gives to us in that story is that he wasn’t really living. For when he died, the rich man was taken to place of torment. Indeed, even Lazarus couldn’t dip his finger in water and cool his tongue. It was a sad state that Jesus taught about. And therefore, really, when you read Hebrews, remember things like that, that Jesus indeed warns us that we not fall away.

Unfortunately, there are some, as I said earlier, who have one time obeyed the gospel, one time been faithful Christians, but they’ve allowed their lives to become sluggish spiritually. Probably cannot be awakened until the night of sorrow has come. There are those who, well, once maybe we’ve lost our health, and the doctor says, you have a terminal disease. And you have only so many months to live. There are people who then sort of get in a hurry. They want to turn and obey the Lord. Sometimes it’s even too late for them. They’ve lost sight of what it is to return and serve the Lord. But in Hebrews chapter 6 and in verse 10, after saying we’re confident of better things concerning you, yes, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner.

He says in verse 10, for God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you’ve shown toward his name, and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end. That you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promise. God is not unjust to forget your work. Here’s a promise. You do your part, and you have complete confidence God is going to do his part. Be assured that your labor is not in vain if you strive for the things of the now after. If you lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, God will so reward you.

Passages like 1 Corinthians 15 58, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, that you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. That’s really what the Hebrew writer here is saying, that God is just, he’s not unjust. He does remember and he will indeed bless us. And therefore, where he says in verse 11 or 12, be not sluggish. Don’t get to the point that you’re slovenly, that you that you fall behind, that you lose sight of where you’re going. Be not weary and well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. Galatians chapter 6 and in verse 9. But then in verse 13 of Hebrews 6, he says, For when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could not swear by no one greater, he swore by himself.

3. Abraham Patiently Endured and Obtained the Promise

Saying, Surely, blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you. And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. What’s he saying here? Why about Abraham? After having encouraged these Christians to not fall away, to continue faithfully, to remember your destiny, and that God has promised. What’s the example assuring us? That God’s promise will come to pass. Well, then he stops and refers back. You remember Abraham? Look at Abraham, the great man of faith. But it wasn’t always easy for Abraham. In fact, back when God promised that he would multiply, that he would multiply Abraham’s seed, what were the circumstances when that promise was made? You remember back in Genesis chapter 12, when we first read that God told Abraham to go to a land I’ll show you.

And then he said, I’ll make up you a great nation. And thirdly, of your seed I’ll bless all famines of the earth. We refer to that often in saying, you know, there’s the great promises God made to Abraham. You know how old Abraham was when that was made? Scripture tells us he was 75 years old. And he’s then told, get up and you go to a land that I’m going to lead you to. Hebrews 11 says, even Abraham did not know where he was going. He didn’t have a map to look at and say, Well, you know, let’s go check that out and see if we really want to go there. That wasn’t at all. If God said, Do it, Abraham went. And besides that, Abraham has no children, he and Sarah.

And God said, I’m going to multiply your number. Well, the Lord, I believe that, so I’ll get up and I’ll go to the land, and surely, and you know, in another nine months or so we’ll have a son. And but it didn’t happen that way. In fact, it was 25 years later, before Isaac was born. Twenty-five years later, you know, we count time. Surely if God’s promised it, it’ll happen, you know, right away. But it didn’t. But Abraham did not lose faith. Indeed, Isaac was born. And then as Isaac, no doubt became maybe a teenager, God tested him once again. When he says, take Isaac up to Mount Moriah and I offer him as a sacrifice in Genesis 22. Now see if you’d walk in the shoes of Abraham.

Here’s God’s promise. How do you know it’s going to happen? If God said it, you can count on it. Abraham is an illustration of that. He went to the land God directed him to. And as he and Sarah had their son Isaac, even though 25 years later it came to pass like God promised. But then to be tested once again, offer him up as a sacrifice. But Abraham did as God said to him. And so, as verse 14 says, in the words of God, when he said, Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you. And so, verse 15, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute.

4. Two Immutable Things: Impossible for God to Lie

Thus God determined him to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise, the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. Now that might not make much sense if you just pull that verse out of Hebrews chapter 6, and he said, What is he talking about? But when you understand that he’s just referred to the fact that we have a promise. And he said, Don’t be sluggish or slovenly, don’t lose sight of the promise that’s before you. And if you have any doubt that it will come to pass, then let’s look at the example of Abraham. God blessed Abraham, when from a human perspective, it may have looked rather impossible of happening. But how was Abraham assured? First of all, God promised it. But secondly, there was an oath.

It was confirmed by an oath. And the oath really, in this case, as verse 18 says, two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie. We might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. We don’t use the word immutable very much. I noticed in Paul’s reading, his translation said unchangeable, and that’s really the meaning of it. If it’s a something that is immutable, it will not change. If God said it, you can count on it. It is going to happen. It will come to pass. And since there is no one greater than God, he not only made the promise, but he confirmed it by himself, none higher than the Lord. You have a business deal.

You may go and you buy a piece of property, for example, and you may promise. Maybe in days past, we used to say, you know, shake of the hand, word is your bond. But you don’t do that today. You make a promise, I’ll pay you so much for this property, let’s say. How do you have it confirmed? There’s always that notary public somewhere along the way has got to come in there and put that stamp on there, right? You’ve got to have it confirmed before the law. And so, what is in effect being said here, not only is that the promise of God, there’s the confirmation of God, Abraham was certain that what God promised indeed would come to pass. And so with this involved in that background, what does the Hebrew writer now say?

When he says that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge, to lay hold of the hope set before us. Do you have any doubt that God has promised heaven to the faithful and that it will come to pass? Then look at stories like this of Abraham as well as other promises through the Word of God, but we have assurance. We have certainty that God who promised it will bring it to pass. And it’s unchangeable. As Titus chapter 1 and in verse 2 says, in hope of eternal life, which God cannot lie, has promised even before time began. In hope of eternal life, God has promised it. And indeed, even before time began.

5. This Hope We Have as an Anchor of the Soul

But then, therefore, he says that we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of that hope set before us. And this hope we have as an anchor. An anchor of the soul. What is an anchor? It is something that you know you can let down. If you were in a boat, for example, fishing and the wind is strong, we let the anchor drop so our boat won’t move around. And even in time of storm, and as a metaphor here, in time of storms of life, there are times where there are troubles in our lives. As we indeed set sail, the Christian today, we recognize that though we our hope is strong of heaven, it isn’t like heaven on earth without any troubles.

For indeed the devil tests us and puts trials in front of us. And the ship of Zion goes through a sea of temptation, of disappointment, perhaps even doubt, dangers of apostasy. There are times when it may not be easy to be a faithful Christian. There are times when even the devil certainly tempts us, oh, you don’t want to go to worship today. And it’s sure easy sometimes to stay home. And the next week it happens again and again until that’s how some fall away. They just don’t overcome that temptation to not worship the Lord, not to study his word, not to be faithful. The devil makes that sure until indeed there are times where we we need to again drop the anchor. We need to come back and realize, hey, while I am tempted to really go the other way from serving the Lord with my whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, I need to overcome that.

I need to come back to the faith in him, to that anchor that is in him. We need to have clear focus of who we’re serving. We need to be like the Apostle Paul, who shortly before his death in 2 Timothy 1, said, I know in whom I believed. I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which had been promised. He knows in whom he believes.

Conclusion

Earlier, as I started, I asked you, what if? What if you receive word today that a rich uncle had left you in his will, and that you’re going to receive a million dollars? Would that excite you? I’m afraid there’s some people that excite them a whole lot more than to know they have the promise of heaven. Because we tend to live in this world and think about things here now and the treasures we have now, and we might sell our soul for a million dollars. But if you’re not really able to do that, and you wouldn’t do that, no matter even for a million dollars. But what if the conditions that are in that will say that if you’re going to receive this million dollars for the next week, you must walk everywhere you go.

Now let’s take a look. What would be your attitude toward that? I tell you, for some of you, I know where you live. And for you to have gotten here today, you’d have had to start walking yesterday. Right? Well, would you do that? Brother Randy Harshberger, a great friend of mine, has gone to Ethiopia several times. And one of the things that excites him, he says, you know, there are people hungering for the teaching for the Word of God. There are some people who walk all one day in order to be there the next day for when the gospel teacher is going to be present. Well, in our country, we wouldn’t even think about it. But maybe where there is poverty and people hungering for the Word of God, yeah, they’d think about it.

And perhaps you would too. And so the conditions are that for a million dollars, you must walk everywhere. First of all, wouldn’t you be great? Would you rejoice? Oh boy. I’ve just been told I’m going to inherit a million dollars. You’d have joy for that, wouldn’t you? And you could still be a faithful Christian, but that’s going to be a million dollars. What would you do during the next week? Well, so you start out on the job. Let’s just say it’s next Saturday, getting ready for next Sunday. And so you start walking early Saturday morning, wherever you live, but you’re going to be at worship on Sunday morning. And sure enough, you get tired. You’re not used to walking that far. So you get tired. Let me ask you, you think of yourself as complaining and griping and say, I got to do this walk?

Do I have to? Would you complain about that condition? Or would you find, well, you know, even though you become weary and tired, you’d be willing to continue walking, knowing that at the end you would inherit a million dollars. What if it began to rain? Well, you’d still find a way to get through that rain, wouldn’t you? Derek, no matter what the struggles would be along the road, you would do it and without complaint. Frankly, all through the week, you would overcome those difficulties and find yourself buoyed in spirit. Because you knew at the end there’s going to be a great reward. For a million dollars, we’d do that. How about eternal life? You know why it is that some people who’ve once obeyed the gospel are not faithful now.

I often use the term they’ve pulled up their anchor. What do I mean by that? If the anchor of our soul is in Jesus Christ, who he is and what he has done for our salvation. And we truly believe in the inheritance that awaits those who are faithful. Would we pull up our anchor or would we drop the anchor? Would we reinforce our faith in him, in whom we believe, and in whom we have absolute trust? We would talk about it. We would plan for it. With joy, we would labor. I believe that’s exactly what the Hebrew writer is trying to set before these Hebrew Christians. Don’t lose sight of who you’re serving. Don’t lose sight of where you’re going. But indeed, drop the anchor, the anchor of your soul.

Let us, brethren, be like Abraham, who, as in Romans chapter 4, the scripture in verses 20 and 21 describes him as one who did not stagger. I like that translation, King James Version. He did not stagger at the promise of God through unbelief. But he was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. That if we have that kind of faith in God as an Abraham, God will bless us just like He blessed Abraham. We’re going to close with a word of prayer. We have visitors this morning, and let me explain to you that while we will have about a ten minute interim here, we will go then to our Bible classes, and we do have classes for all ages, if someone will help you if you have a child.

But then uh after the period of the Bible class, we’ll come back in here, at which time we will observe the Lord’s Supper and song and prayer and another lesson. Would you bow with me as we close in prayer? Almighty God, our loving Father, we are truly grateful for your love, overwhelmed by the fact that even though we’re not worthy at all, yet you look down upon us, and in your mercy and through your wisdom, have provided for us a means by which our sins can be forgiven, and upon that basis have that promise of life with you. We marvel, Father, that you’ve so blessed us. And we pray, Father, that by your grace through faith we will continue to be faithful even unto death. No matter what trials and troubles the devil may set before us, that nothing will cause us to turn away.

That we will remember indeed who we are, the blessed children of God, and where we’re headed, that eternal home with you in heaven itself. Keep us, Father, therefore. Help us to resist temptations of evil, help us always to grow in the word of your uh knowledge of your word, and be faithful not only in our lives, but in leading others around us to that same hope that is in Christ. Keep us now as we study through our classes, throughout the rest of the day, that all will be done unto your glory. In the name of Christ we pray. And amen.