Transcript...
Amen. So we're having some technical glitches with the software. We tried to change it up a little bit today and got a half screen there for a moment. Shawnee we'll figure it out as we go to church. We have your Bibles with you, we are going to continue our series Jesus is better. Through the book of Hebrews. We are in chapter six. This week, we will be starting in verse we'll be reading verses 13 to 20. But first I want to read verses 18 and 19. And then go to the Lord in prayer says that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong constellation 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 enter into the veil within the veil. Wow, my eyes are not wanting to read that text today. Let's go to the Lord and prayer.
Father God, Lord, I just pray as we study Your Word today, Lord, that we will grab hold to that hope that is before us, Lord, that anchor. And Lord, I pray that we will receive from your word today that we will grow closer to you. More than that we will be encouraged by what your word and what your spirit has to say to us today. Lord, I pray that you will take the devil and cast him away from us Lord hide us behind your cross as we go to your word. And listen to your spirit. Today. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
So we are continuing with Jesus, it's better just going through chapter by chapter, the book of Hebrews. And last week, we kind of left off with a little bit of a hard moment where we talked about people who should know more of the gospel, more... more doctrine than they do, and that they need people to continue to rehash the basics over and over again. That lead here into chapter six, that thing kind of continues through chapter six for a little while. But that turns into encouragement from... from you are not where you need to be to, we encourage you to be where you need to be because Jesus is better. And we're going to pick up right where we see Jesus is better than everything. And it's going to start with the promise.
Verse 13, says that when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater he swear by himself. You're going to have to use something else got middle of the screen text there. So he swear by himself because there was no other greater than himself. I just want to think about that a moment as, as we go through life, there is always somebody stronger than us, right? No matter how strong we think we are. There's always somebody who is stronger than us. No matter how smart we think we are, there is always somebody smarter than us, no matter how fast we think we are. There was always somebody faster than us. Whatever trait we could apply to ourself, there will always be someone who was better than us, or bigger or stronger. But for God, it says here for Jesus, remember when when we see God in the Old Testament, we see Jesus, it's the same God. It says here in verse 13, that there was none greater because he could swear by none greater. When we swear, we have to swear upon something greater than ourselves. And what are we doing? We are calling them as our witness. We're calling them as our as what is holding us accountable. So we could swear upon anyone greater than us but and call them as a witness, but God he couldn't. So when we think about that, we live in a world where there's always one above always someone who's going to be better than me. And then you reach God. And all of a sudden, that mind stops. We reached God and it says there is none greater
So when we talk about Jesus is better, we also realize there's no one stronger than Jesus. No one wiser than Jesus, no one faster than Jesus, no one who can be everywhere at the same time, like Jesus like God, right? He is all powerful. He is Almighty, He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth. And so he swear by himself. Now, when I was studying this and reading the first thing that came to mind, and some people may get mad at me, some may not, I really don't care, the first thing that came to my mind, and you can ask Shawnee, I called her, I read it to her, and asked her to tell me what I'm thinking is that if our God was created by another god, like some people think and say, then this would be a lie that there is none greater than Him. So this also tells us that our God is the only god there's no other gods before him. Because there's no one greater than Him. So when he swear by himself, what he he swore a promise, He said to Abraham, in verse 14, surely blessing I will bless them multiply, and I will multiply the this is a promise to receive blessings upon blessings, and blessing you, I will continue to bless you and I will multiply your seed and we're going through Genesis in our in our Wednesday Bible studies. And we're still within the life of Abraham, where we're at in our study. And so we've seen this theme. Well, we'll actually see this theme occur again, this week in chapter 24, where God has blessed Abraham, and Abraham has received some of the promises already, right. He's already got Isaac the promise child, he's now got a small piece of the Promised Land. He's seeing the promise come. But he's also in the meantime, we've seen him, seen him blessed, greatly and beyond measure. We've seen him grow significantly.
So there's a promise here, and and this chapter doesn't convey the whole promise. What is the whole promise? Is that by Abraham, and his descendants were all families of the earth be blessed. That is the big promise we need to keep our eyes on is that through him will all of us receive blessings. Then it tells us and so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. This made me when we when I was studying made me really think back to what we've talked about in Bible study, is God's word... word sure? If God says, this, will I do we know that he will do right. But it does not happen on our timeline. And I just want to say that Jesus is better. It is with good reason that it does not happen on our timeline. Because when I want a blessing, when do I want it? I want it now. I want everything that I want and desire and hope for I want now because I don't patiently endure very well. But Jesus is better. Jesus sees the whole picture. He's above all of it. And he can see the beginning to the end. He can see what I'm doing today, what I need today and how that's gonna play out in the future and he knows when to bless me with the appropriate blessings. But there's something in here for us we need to patiently Ender. Now, the thing about patience in the in the New Testament here, and what the word really means is patience is painful. It's not just biding your time and waiting. But patients is enduring thats enduring pain we're thinking back to to Hebrews 12. When we talked about running the race, and patience is looking out and enduring. It's pushing past that physical and mental pain and barriers and continuing to go. So patients here is not just biding our time. But patience is, we will endure the trials we will endure the tribulations we will under everything that comes and when we endure that we will receive the promise.
The text will go into how We know we will receive the promise. Verse 16, it says, For Men swear, for men verily swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation is to them in end of all strife, willing, God willing, more abundant need a show unto the heirs of the promise that immutability of his council confirmed it, by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consollation who has led for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. What's the saying here? It says that we as men, we will swear upon someone greater than us, something greater than us. And what do we swear for? We swear as a confirmation when we call upon something greater it is to say, by God or by the President, by the king by whatever, you have a guarantee of what I will do. It's confirmation that whatever I promise, I will do because it's not. You're not relying on me to be accountable, you're relying by whomever I swear upon, to keep me accountable.
And so we swear upon a greater power. Now remember, God swear by himself, because there is no greater power. So we are relying upon God, but it tells us, he says, that wanting to show unto the heirs of the promise the immutability, immutability of us counsel, he confirmed it by an oath. Now what this is telling us is, he wants to show us that it cannot change, change, that's what this word means is that his promises cannot change. And so he did it with an oath and that oath. You remember, in the book of Genesis, when he had Abraham, go and get the cows go and get the doves, the animals, he had them, split them, he had from the head down, remember, he made an aisle. And then God caused a deep slumber to come upon Abraham, and he passed between the covenant offerings, and he made an oath. And now the, the way ancient covenants and oath taken, were made is vastly different from today. Today, if I make an oath with you, I can, I can very well break it. And may... may, depending on if you can convince a court suffer some form of civil liability. Not back then. Because when you passed through that, the cutting of the Covenant, when you pass through those animals, you said, if I break my oath, do unto me what we did to the animals, if I broke that oath, you will take the sword and split me down the middle. Oath taking was a guarantee that the promise was valid. There was no going back on that. So he secured the promise with an oath. Now, what does this mean? What this means that if God were to break his promise to Abraham, and the blessings that He, He promised all families of the earth would be blessed through him, he would cease to be God. And so we have hope, in the promise, because God cannot change. Verse 18, says that by two immutable things, two unchanging things, the promises unchanging and the oath is unchanging, in which it is impossible for God to lie. Why is it impossible? Well, not only is he God, and we know of his characteristics, God is holy goddess, righteous God is, just, he is perfect, he cannot lie. But as a token to us to know that he cannot lie is there was this oath. And so we have a strong consolation. We have a strong hope here. We can trust in it. We can rest in it. We can tie it like a like.
I'm gonna use a bad analogy here. When you are rappelling and you have a bailiff and you have that rope, securely tied around you You can trust that rope. And we can trust God, don't think are the ones that break those are rare. We can trust the ones that never broke. I told you I'm going to make a poor analogy here. But we have a strong consollation. That those who have fled for refuge that is to call upon the Lord, that those who identify him as God Almighty, who see him as a strong tower, the psalms say that the name of the Lord has a strong tower. And the righteous will run to it and are safe. For those who run to the strong tower. It is a strong consollation. But it tells us further verse 19, we're going to get to the bulk of the message here, verse 19, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, for sure, and steadfast.
What is an anchor? I actually wrote this question down in a started to list in a couple of different things. What is an anchor? The first thing that comes to mind, if you go on look at our mobile app, and for this message, you'll see a photo is of a great big metal still anchor. The first thing that came to mind is giant ships stuck out at sea, that anchor right, that dropped this huge heavy weight down into the seabed, it's attached by a chain. And those the waves of the sea no matter how nasty, they come up, and they beat against the ship. And it might sway back and forth like this just a little. But that ship stays anchored. At Sea, that ship stays relatively where they want it to stay. And no matter how violent those storms get, it stays put. In other words that keeps it from being tossed to him fro.
What else is an anchor. I can think of screws and nails. Okay, they fasten one object to another. I was gonna grab an object right here I have it would rip my camera out, so I can't show it to you. But It fastens together. Items, we've got something anchored right here, right? The lid of this box is anchored to the box itself, and it cannot go anywhere. So an anchor then is designed to keep something immovable.
Well, our hope is an anchor to the soul. What is our hope? Well, my hope is Jesus. My hope is the Lord who died for me and rose again and gave me victory over sin and who will resurrect me. And let's hope we'll go deeper into it as an anchor to my soul because we are in a changing world. We're in a wicked world, we're in a world where the tides are pushing us one way and then a next and then maybe under or tossing us up. It's the world is tossing us everywhere. But we are anchored we are immovable because our captain is Jesus, we are anchored to him. Okay in this world and the sea of the world and sin and wickedness, down in the seabed is Jesus Christ. And he's got a chain around us, not that we're prisoners he's got a chain around us. And as the waves are beating up against us trying to make a sway we are staying put because we cannot be moved. The verse The chapter ends here, we're gonna read the last verse and then we'll get we'll get into some more of this. It says that finishing verse 19, and then into the next those who we have a hope as an anchor, other soul both sure and steadfast. And which enter it in to that within the veil. Whether the four runner is for US entered even Jesus made a high priests forever after the order of Melchizedek.
Now when it's talking about the veil, there's an Old Testament picture here where the high priest once a year would go behind the veil and He would offer animal sacrifice for the sins of Israel. And that would keep the wrath of God at bay. But Jesus, our fore runner has gone before us, he's gone behind that veil, and offered upon the altar his own blood. And what happened is a result is that veil was torn. And we now have access, because our former one before us, I did have to point out here it says that the anchor is sure and steadfast, we can trust it, we can hold on to it. And it's here immediately, in the time of need. I want to talk briefly about our anchor.
We have strong encouragement from God, but from the Bible, we only have that encouragement, if we are reading it. We can't be encouraged by the word of God, if we don't know the word of God. Our minds cannot be renewed by the word of God, if we're not reading the Word of God. We don't have encouragement if we don't have a relationship with God, if we're not praying. But there is a strong encouragement for us. There's hope. In the text of the living word. We are told that the Bible that the word of God specifically is sharper than any double edged sword. It's the only offensive weapon that we are given. We have a strong encouragement in the hope to which we have laid hold. We have strong encouragement and Jesus because He is for us. He didn't die for us and say, All right, you're saved, I paid a penalty, but I don't want to see you. He died. And he said, I love you. He said, I want the best for you. I want you to live life to the fullest extent of joy. When we read in the book of John, and he's given us a list of commandments, and he's telling us, you know, do certain things. He says, These things I tell you, because I want you to have joy, and I want you to have it to the fullest, right?
He wants us to be blessed he is for us, not against us. And so when the Creator God is individually for you, there are strong encouragement, if you have laid hold to that hope. But today, the important thing is that hope is our anchor. Hope is our anchor. So today is a very special Sunday for me. For those who don't know, it is this Sunday, many years ago, few years ago now that I got saved. It's this Sunday, I came to know the Lord Jesus. It was yesterday, the same number of years ago that I was thinking about suicide that I was wanting to take my own life and ended up going into the church instead. And so as I can reflect today back so I can think about that day, those two days, and the week to follow. I can say unequivocally that Jesus is my anchor. How does he anchor us? He anchors us in the forgiveness of our sins through his blood. Because my sins are forgiven, I'm immovable. I'm no longer on a roller coaster ride like this, you know, I'm doing good I'm forgiving. I think I'm great and then bam, I'm damned. I'm going to hell. Now I'm going back up and going to heaven... No! My sins are forgiven through his blood. Animal sacrifices had to be offered daily. We'll read this in the next few chapters stay we in the Old Testament, but Jesus blood was offered once for the forgiveness of my sins and I am forgiven. It is the anchor to a new birth from above. In John chapter three verses five and six, crushed us talking to Nicodemous and Nicodemous says to him, What do I have to do to see the kingdom of God of heaven and Christ says that you have to be born again. You have to be born from above.
Well, Paul tells us in the Corinthians when we are born again when we take on the name of Christ, He says you are a new creation. I am anchored because my old flesh has died. Jesus is, is great. He took the old me, allowed him to die and be crucified and made me new again and him, a new creation, a new creature with new desires, with new hope with new purpose and meaning to life. And so I am anchored because I am not that same person. It is victory through Christ, my anchor is victory through Christ over old habits, and the power of sin.
I'll tell you a story I have taught dozens of times behind the pulpit after I got saved. My issues do not go away overnight. You know, those waves still beat against me. Those suicidal thoughts and tendencies, the depression is still beat against me. But in Jesus, there's victory over those things. Because in Jesus using the sword, I've told the story, I carry the Bible with me, the pastor of that church sent me home with the Bible, and I carried it everywhere. And any time I was battered by those waves, I can open up the book, I can open up the Bible, and I can read a chapter and it would go away for a while. Sometimes five minutes, sometimes 30 an hour, and would come back but you could open up the Bible and it would go away again. I was anchored in the Word. And sometimes I wonder why I haven't done that with other small issues and habits in my life. But we can, because we have victory we have an anchor. Jesus is our anchor in our boat through calm and storm.
I'm reminded of the story when they're on the Sea of Galilee. He gets in the boat with the apostles. And he's sleeping and there's a storm coming in the boats filling with water. And the apostles are freaking out waking him up. And he just calms the storm. Because I can tell you that when we go through life, he is our anchor in that as well. He is what keeps us center what keeps us focused. He keeps our mind on the the important task. And he takes care of the rest. He commands those waters to still where he allows him to continue to rage. But as long as we are anchored to Him, we will not drown him that. Our hope is the heavenly home where we're going. And I sure hope in that I look at the world around me and I don't want to live in this world. I don't like when it's coming to what it what it is anymore. But we have a hope we are anchored in where we are going yeah, we are here. We're an evil, wicked, wild place. But we have a hope that where we are going is better. We read in Revelation, the last two chapters about the new Jerusalem, the new city, the streets, the rivers, that there's no sin, there's no night, the gates never close. We won't just have God with us inside of us through the Holy Spirit. But he will physically be there we can see him and touch him and talk to him. Which leads to the last, is the fellowship with the Lord. As we walk with Him. We could continue to come up with examples. But today, Jesus is our anchor. He [...] anchors us through the wildest storms. And he anchors us in the cone. No matter what life throws at us. He anchors us and I can tell you today that he is better. He is certainly better than the fate that awaited me that night. He is better than the pits of hell. He is better than any earthly anchor. Because even the strongest anchors we have can and have been moved. But Jesus is immovable. It tells us that He is our four runner who has already entered behind that veil.
We'll see next week that he is our high priest forever because he lives he's not dead, but he is alive. This Thanksgiving, I have a lot to be thankful for. I have a lot to look back on and see what God has done for me. Especially since it was the week of Thanksgiving that I received my salvation, I really have a lot to look back on and be thankful for. But you can too. As we enter this Thanksgiving, there's a lot to be thankful for. We're thankful for our homes, are thankful for our cars for our jobs, we're thankful for our families and our friends. We're thankful for everything that we have. But none of that has any value. If you do not have Jesus, all that stuff will perish. But Jesus will survive into the world to come.
So if you don't have him, you have nothing to be thankful for. It will all perish but you can receive him today. You can be anchored today. And there's no one who has who's not a Christian listening to this, who is not scared about the world that we live in. There's no one who is not a Christian, if you're not a Christian and listening to this, you're scared. You don't like the world, you're probably worried about how you're going to provide your product. regardless of political party, you're worried about the other side, you're worried about how the politics are shaping this country, you're worried about all of it. But you don't have to be because you can be anchored. And you'll be anchored so that no matter what happens in the world, you are not movable. And it starts with accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. It starts with realizing that he is God, that He died for you. That he was perfect sinless with believing that He rose from the grave, given victory over sin death. And he says, we see over and over again John 3:16, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever would believe in Him, were not perish but have everlasting life. Romans tells us that if you would confess Him, as the Lord Jesus with your mouth, and believe that He raised from the grave, you will be saved. Christ tells him tells us himself, if you would confess Me, before men, then I will confess you. This means though, that you're confessing Him as Lord, that He is God, your God. He is your captain, your king. And he will save you to the ends of the earth. If you're ready to do that, we're going to go into our closing prayer. And the first half of the prayer. I'm going to give the sinners prayer you can ask Him into your heart right now. You can confess them as your Lord, but let us know as well. Don't forget the confessing hand before your fellow man. And I can't wait to celebrate Thanksgiving with you. Having the only thing that truly matters this side of life. Let's pray.
Father, God, Lord, we thank you, and praise you, Lord. We know that we are sinners and cannot save ourselves. We know that we are transgressors of the law. And the our wages is death. But I also know that you came and you live and died. I know that you were sinless and I know that you rose again the third day. And I know that if I would make you my Lord if I would acknowledge that you are Lord. And be willing to obey you and follow you and trust in you that you will save me and so Lord, I call upon your name. Jesus, I ask you to give me a new birth. And I asked you to be my anchor in this world that I live in. More we thank you as we leave here today that we can say you are better Lord, I thank you for showing me that you were better. All those years ago Lord, thank you for all that you have done in my life and in the life of everyone else who knows you what I pray that as we go about this Thanksgiving that we will be most thankful for you. And I pray that we will be thankful toward you by sharing your love and your glory and your message with those around us. Lord I ask you to bless us as we depart today in your beautiful and holy name we pray, Amen.