The Anchor of My Soul

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

Mary and I have been watching a unique television game show called “The Hustler”. There are five contestants in each episode and they have to work together to answer 10 questions worth $10,000 each. But there is a catch. One of the contestants is the “hustler” and that person already knows the answers to all the questions which are based on his or her life. So that person has to lie in order to keep the others from identifying him or her as the “hustler”. If he or she is successful, that person gets all the money. If not, two of the other players split the pot.

Out of the 19 episodes aired so far, I think Mary and I have each correctly identified the “hustler” maybe 3 times. which means that there are either some really good liars, or we’re just really bad at picking them out. But given that the hustler wins about half the time, I guess we’re not alone.

In some ways, that game show reflects our culture, in which someone’s word often doesn’t mean much. We live in an age of loopholes and broken promises where unfulfilled wedding vows and politicians who lie constantly are expected and accepted as part of life.

Tension

And unfortunately, those attitudes can easily spill over into our ideas about God. I don’t know of anyone, even atheists, who would claim that God lies. But I do think that there are many, even some who are genuine disciples of Jesus, who are tempted, at least at times, not to believe in God’s promises. And that is especially true when we’re going through storms in our lives.

Truth

Today will mark the end of our study of the book of Hebrews for now, but we will pick up with chapter 7 some time next year. And this is a really great place to take a break. After the last couple of weeks of sober warnings about failing to grow up spiritually and the dangers of falling away from Jesus, the author of Hebrews turns to some much needed words of encouragement. So I’m going to begin this morning with the main idea we’ll be developing today and then with that in mind, we’ll dig into the text.

The confident expectation of my future salvation anchors my soul in my present storms

Hebrews 6:13–20 ESV

13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” 15 And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. 16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Once again, we find a section of Scripture that begins with the word “for”, which means that it is further explaining that which came right before it. So let’s look back at the last two verses of last week’s passage and see what that connection is here:

Hebrews 6:11–12 ESV

11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, 12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

We didn’t spend a lot of time on those two verses last week, other than to point out that the author of Hebrews was not trying to get his audience to question their salvation, but rather to encourage them to have “full assurance of hope until the end”. So the passage we’re looking at today is providing the reason they can have that assurance.

This is probably a good time to talk about the word “hope” that was used there in verse 11 as well as in today’s passage in verses 18 and 19, where we are encouraged to hold fast to our hope.

I’m reminded of the man whose neighbor was a frequent fisherman. One day he asked that neighbor how the fishing was going. “Better,” he replied. “Last week I went out for four hours and didn’t catch a thing. Yesterday, I got the same result in only three hours”.

As a fisherman myself, I can relate to the idea that most of us are incurable optimists. But while biblical hope is optimistic, it is certainly different from worldly hope, which is usually just wishful thinking about what we’d like to happen - like I hope I win the lottery even though I know there is only a 1 in 300 million chance that is going to happen.

Biblical hope is not based on mere fantasy. It is, as we will see this morning, based on the certainty of God’s promises. That is why I have used the term “confident expectation” in our main idea this morning.

In order to convince his readers of the fact that they can count on God’s promises, the author uses the example of Abraham. Why Abraham? I think there are at least a couple of reasons:

Abraham preceded Moses and the Law by over 1,000 years. So for those Jewish Christians who were tempted to go back to observing the Law as the basis for their relationship with God, the author is pointing out that long before the law was ever established, the only way to a relationship with God was by faith.

Abraham was the perfect illustration of a man of faith. When we get to chapter 11, we’ll see the author devotes a good portion of that chapter writing about Abraham. Abraham was certainly far from perfect, but we see him trusting God time after time, even to the point of lifting the knife to sacrifice his son Isaac. He trusted God against all odds and found Him to be faithful. The promises of God were a sure anchor for Abraham.

So it’s not surprising that Paul also uses Abraham as an example of righteousness coming through faith in both Romans and Galatians.

WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM ABRAHAM’S EXAMPLE

God’s promises can be counted on because of:

In verse 18, we discover that there are two unchangeable things that guarantee that God’s promises can be counted on. Most commentators believe those two things are God’s promise and His oath, and I don’t disagree with that. But I think it is helpful for us to consider that those promises can be counted on because of...

His character

In verse 17, we are told that God’s character is unchangeable. And in verse 18, we are reminded that it is impossible for God to lie because that would not be consistent with His character. So when God makes a promise we can count on it just because of who God is.

When God made the promise to Abraham to bless him and multiply him, Abraham was able to hang on to that promise even when circumstances made it appear that it would not come true because he trusted in the character of God. And we can do the same.

His oath

In Abraham’s day, when a covenant was made, it was sealed in a unique way. The two people making the covenant would take an animal, cut it in half, lay a piece of the animal to each side and then walk between the two pieces. This was known as “cutting a covenant” and it signified their commitment to keep the terms of the covenant.

In Genesis 15, God has Abraham take some animals and cut them in half and lay the parts to the side. Then God puts Abraham into a deep sleep and while he is asleep, God passes between the halves of the animals. So Abraham isn’t even part of the covenant. Essentially God makes a covenant with Himself. The covenant was not conditional on anything that Abraham did, It was an unconditional covenant that God made to bless and multiply Abraham.

We can count on God’s promises for the same reason Abraham could - God’s character and His unconditional covenant.

God’s promises often require perseverance

Abraham, who was still named Abram at the time, is first called by God to leave his home and go to a land that God will show him at the age of 70.

He is 75 when God first makes His promise to bless Abraham and to make him into a people who will bless all the nations of the earth.

At the age of 86 Abram and Sarai get impatient so they decide to take things into their own hands and Abram conceives a son with one of Sarai’s servants. And Ishmael is born.

It is not until Abraham is 100 years old, 25 years after God had first made the promise, that Isaac, the son of promise, is born.

Even then, the final fulfillment of God’s promise didn’t come for another 2,000 years when Jesus comes to this earth. That is why Jesus proclaimed this to some of His Jewish followers:

John 8:56 ESV

56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”

Today, we wait, much like Abraham, for the final fulfilment of our salvation that will be inaugurated with the return of Jesus. It is likely that many of us won’t see that final fulfilment in our life here on this earth. But Jesus’ promise to return and inaugurate an eternal kingdom under His reign is just as sure as the promises God made to Abraham.

Our anchor is secure on both ends

In verse 19, we are told we have a “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul”. But what, or who, is that anchor? The text is a bit ambiguous here and it could refer to God’s promises, or to our hope, or to Jesus. But I don’t think we’re really forced to choose since those three are all so interconnected you really can’t separate them.

This is the only place in the Bible that the metaphor of an anchor is used. And like an anchor of a boat keeps it from drifting, the anchor for our soul keeps us from drifting away from God.

The anchor of a boat keeps the boat from drifting by going down into the water and connecting to something solid and immovable. Our soul anchor goes up, into the heavens where Jesus has already gone before us as our forerunner. He is in the “inner place behind the curtain”, which is a reference to the Holy of Holies in the tabernacle, and later the Temple. Once a year, the high priest would enter behind that curtain and make sacrifices on behalf of God’s people. But he had to do that year after year.

Jesus, on the other hand, is now permanently in the presence of God, where, having finished His work on the cross, He is now seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding on our behalf. So it’s pretty clear that that end of the anchor is firmly secured.

But what about our end? Obviously an anchor doesn’t do any good for a boat unless it is securely fastened to the boat. And the same is true for us. If Jesus, and our hope in Him, is to be an effective anchor in our storms, we need to be securely connected to Him. So in verse 18, we are encouraged to “hold fast” to the hope we have in Jesus. That makes it sound like I’m responsible for hanging on to that end of the rope.

But our present and future salvation is not secure because of anything we do. It is secure because it rests on the unchangeable purpose and promise of God. In his letter to the church in Philippi, Paul helps us understand this idea of holding fast:

Philippians 3:12 ESV

12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

The phrases “make it my own” and “made me his own” translate an underlying Greek word that means “to lay hold of” or “to seize”, so it is analogous to the idea of holding fast that we find here in Hebrews. The idea is that I can only hold on because Jesus is holding on to me. Once again, Pastor John Piper describes this idea much better than I can:

What Christ bought for us when he died was not the freedom from having to hold fast but the enabling power to hold fast. What he bought was not the nullification of our wills as though we didn’t have to hold fast, but the empowering of our wills because we want to hold fast. What he bought was not the canceling of the commandment to hold fast but the fulfillment of the commandment to hold fast.

So my anchor is secure on both ends because it is dependent 100% on Jesus and not on me. That is why we have said this morning that...

The confident expectation of my future salvation anchors my soul in my present storms

Every one of us needs that anchor. That is the only thing that is going to keep us from drifting into things that will harm us or destroy us as we go through the storms of life. So how do I make sure that Jesus is the anchor for my soul as I navigate through those storms?

Application

HOW TO MAKE JESUS MY ANCHOR IN MY STORMS

Read and meditate on the Bible:

I won’t dwell here, but once again let me remind all of us that the primary way God reveals Himself to us is through His Word. So if we want to understand His character, which is one of the best ways to develop confidence in His promises, we must be not just reading the Bible on a consistent basis, but also thinking deeply about it and chewing on it regularly.

In particular, I want to encourage you to focus often on two areas of Scripture. I’m even thinking that we might develop a reading plan around these ideas for next year.

God’s promises

I want to give you a word of warning here. There are two kinds of promises in the Bible. There are general promises that are applicable to all of God’s people. Those are the ones to focus on. There are also other promises that are directed only toward individuals or certain groups of people. And while we might be able to develop some principles from those promises, we need to be careful not to assume they apply directly to us.

I’d be happy to help you discover these promises, but I’m confident that you can find them yourselves as you read the Bible since they are contained throughout the Scriptures. Just look for them as you read. And if you get stuck, Google is your friend here. You can find all kinds of lists of promises in the Bible that you can use as a resource.

Passages that confirm our future salvation

I’m convinced that in general most Christians are far more focused on the present that the future. That’s completely understandable. But I’m also convinced that life would be a lot more joyful in the present if we took more time to think about the future that God has promised to those who have put their faith in Jesus. That is why we are encouraged in this passage to hold fast to “the faith set before us”.

Again, I’d be happy to suggest some specific passages if you need some help. A good place to start would be Revelation 21-22. 1 Corinthians 15 is another good option. And there are also some great passages in the Old Testament prophets. If you’re going through a storm, those passages can provide the kind of encouragement that you need to stay anchored to Jesus.

Pray and thank God for His great salvation

If prayer is a conversation with God, which I firmly believe it is, then when God speaks to me through His Word, then one way I carry on that conversation is by thanking Him for what He reveals. And that is especially appropriate when it comes to those passages that reveal the future glory God has in store for His children.

One of the best ways to stay anchored in our storms is to get our eyes off the storm and instead focus on the greatness of what God has already done for us in Jesus. It’s pretty hard to praise God for His great salvation and then wallow around in self-pity and despair.

Exhort each other to lay hold of our blessed hope.

About a month ago, I was talking with a good friend about the glorious future that awaits us as disciples of Jesus. That was such an encouraging conversation. Not long after that, my friend contracted COVID and was really sick for a couple of weeks. Thankfully, he’s on the mend now, but he was commenting on how that conversation was an encouragement while he was so sick. I think we all need to have more conversations like that - not just when the storms hit, but well before that.

The confident expectation of my future salvation anchors my soul in my present storms

Action

It is certainly possible that some of you joining us this morning are struggling through the storms of your life because you don’t have Jesus as your anchor. You’ve never completely trusted in what He did for you on the cross as the basis for you present and future salvation. And if that’s the case, then it’s likely that when you go through those storms you don’t find much hope, at least not the kind that we’ve been talking about this morning. The good news is that you can change that today. If that is something that you’re interested in, after this message I’ll give you several different ways you can contact us so that we can help you take that first step in your walk with Jesus.

But even if you have put your faith in Jesus, that doesn’t automatically mean that Jesus will be your anchor in the storms of life. Remember that the letter we’re studying was written to Jewish believers who were tempted to let go of that anchor and go back to their old way of life in which they were more dependent on themselves than on God. And if we’re not intentionally applying the principles we’ve talked about today, we could easily do the same thing.

Inspiration

Abraham certainly had his share of storms and he didn’t always handle them well. Two different times in his life when he thought powerful men might take his wife from him he lied and said she was his sister. As I mentioned earlier, he got tired of waiting on God and conceived a son with Sarah’s servant. But ultimately his faith in the promises of God carried him through those storms.

We also face numerous types of storms that threaten to rob us of our hope in Christ and cause us to break loose and drift away. And sometimes, like Abraham, we fail. But the promises of God never fail. Let me leave you this morning with one of those promises:

Philippians 1:6 ESV

6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.