The Anchor of the Soul

Well, good morning, it's good to be with you all. I was reflecting, it's been a number of years since I was up here for a wedding, so this is the first time I think I've gotten to worship with this congregation, so it's a particular joy for me to be here. And for those of you who don't know me, my name is Joel Wallace, I'm a ruling elder in Manhattan, Kansas, and And so I have a wife and three kids. Unfortunately, they're not able to be with me this morning. We had a busy week this past week, and so asking them to join in for the drive up on short notice, we decided wasn't the best thing. But I'm glad to be here with you.

And if you'll open up your copies of God's word to Hebrews chapter six, Hebrews chapter six. This is going to be our sermon text this morning. And the sermon text will be focusing on verses 9 through 20, but I'm actually going to read the whole chapter because we want to see the context that this passage is set in. And so again, we'll be looking at Hebrews chapter 6, reading the whole chapter, but focusing on verses 9 through 20.

Here now, God's holy and inspired word, which is able to save your souls. Therefore, Leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God, of the doctrines of baptism, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment.

And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible for those who are once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew themselves again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put him to an open shame. For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned.

But beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you. Yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner. For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have 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 promises.

For when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, surely I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you. And so, 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. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of the 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.

Prayer for Illumination

Amen. Let's pray as we consider God's word. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for your word and we thank you for the fruit that it bears. Lord, you often make the analogy in your word of good and bad fruit of crops being borne out by the seed that you plant. And Lord, we ask that this morning, this word, this seed that is planted would bear good fruit in our lives, that you would cause it by your spirit to bear fruit of repentance, fruit of holiness, fruit of sanctification, that we would become more and more like Christ. as we examine your word, as we compare our lives to it, that we be drawn closer to you and that we would lift your name on high for the wonderful things that you do. Pray that you would give us this understanding and we ask it now in Christ's name, amen.

Sermon

Well, I'm certain that you all are a great lot of people. Reality is, I don't know a lot of you very well. Some of you I don't know at all. And so for me to say that I'm certain, that I'm sure that you're wonderful people or that wonderful things are going to happen, immediately prompts the question, what do you know? Why are you so sure?

And here in Hebrews chapter six, we get a sense of the same question when the author says, but beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you. We're confident of better things concerning you. Well, the better things is contrasted with what we read in verses four and five.

Those who are once enlightened that it's impossible for them to come back after they've left. It's impossible for them to have tasted the good word of God and then if they fall away to renew themselves again to repentance. That's a severe judgment and it can be a warning. It should be a warning to God's people.

But the author of Hebrews says, but for you, I'm sure of better things. And being certain about better things, predicting success is something people spend a lot of time in, in all areas, in all avenues. Maybe for those of you who have graduated high school, your high school class chose somebody who was most likely to succeed.

Or maybe if you follow sports, you know that the commentators love to try and predict which team is going to win any given game, and who's going to score how many points, and they love to try and predict the success. Or maybe it's as simple as trying to predict what the crops are going to do this year, and see whether or not it's going to be a good harvest or not. All over the place, people are trying to predict success. They're trying to figure out what's going to be the thing that makes this, that or the other successful. And the reality is it's very hard to predict. People who play the stock market and invest all their money and try and predict which companies are going to do well or not often end up losing a lot of money if they're not careful.

They predict, they choose the wrong companies, and all of a sudden what was their inheritance, what was their retirement savings, is out the window because they didn't know how to predict success. So when it comes to not just things in this life, but spiritual things that the author is talking about, much more significant things than just who's going to win the next game, than what this year's harvest is going to do, how can he be so certain of a better outcome?

Well, I think the rest of the passage is going to explain that. That's what we're going to unfold and answer this morning is how the author and how you who are in Christ can be sure of better things. And before we get to considering that, we have to also ask and answer the question, what are those better things? He says there are better things concerning you, things that accompany salvation. Well, in short, the better things are eternal life. Eternal life with God and all the blessings that that comes with. What the author is certain of for his readers, for the people of God, is that they will certainly obtain eternal life.

And we'll see this morning that the author is convinced of this because of God's work in you God's promises to you and God's work for you. God's work in you, God's promises to you and God's work for you. So let's begin by looking at God's work in you. God's work in you. And as we dig into this passage, as we read verse 10, God is not unjust to forget your work and your labor of love which you have shown toward his name. It seems like we're beginning with God. We're beginning with his justice. God is not unjust. And we can say, yes, amen. God is just. God is righteous.

But then it seems to go somewhere we don't expect. God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love, which you have shown toward his name, your ministry. All of a sudden, we start to get a little bit uncomfortable. It says, well, this sounds a little bit like works righteousness. This sounds like the author is convinced of better things because of our works. And for those of you who are familiar with what scripture says, it's very clear that we are not saved by our works.

We could turn to passages like Ephesians 2, 8 through 9, 1 John 4.19, or in Philippians 1, And we could point out a number of places where it makes very clear that we are not saved by our own works. So if the author isn't saying that he's sure of salvation, of eternal life for you, because of your works earning that salvation, if it's clear that God doesn't owe us anything for our work, then why does he say that God would be unjust if he were to forget our works?

What he's saying, friends, is that God, it would not be just if he were to start a good work in you and not bring it to completion. That's the promise in Philippians, right? That God who began a good work in you will see it to completion. And the work in your life is evidence of God's work. The works that you do are not what saves you, but they point, they point to what? God has done in saving you. God's promise, God's work in your life is what the author is certain of.

He says, I see the fruit that comes from faith. Again, we could look at James 2 and the way that James unfolds how faith and works have to go hand in hand. That true faith necessarily bears itself out in good works. And the author here is echoing that sentiment. I see the good works that point to faith. That's why I'm sure. But that faith, that faith is a work of God in your lives. The sanctification that works out in your lives, that is also a work of God in your lives.

So God would be unjust to start that work and not finish it as he promised. It would be unfair of God. It would be unrighteous of God. And we know that God is not unrighteous. He is not unfair or unjust. And so we can say, well, yes, the good works that we see, the good works that we have that point to our faith, that don't earn salvation, but are evidence of it, remind us of what God is doing in our lives and give us great certainty in salvation. But even as the author points towards ultimately God's work in your life, he doesn't want you to say, oh, God's doing all the work. I'm gonna kick back and relax. I'll wait for God to finish the work and then everything will be grand.

In verse 11, he says, 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 promises. Even as he's pointing ultimately to God's work, he tells you to be diligent. Why? Why should you have to be so diligent? Why do you need to push hard in working out your sanctification with fear and trembling? Well, the answer's in the verse as well, because diligence prevents sluggishness. Diligence prevents sluggishness. And the author doesn't want you to be sluggish.

If you've read through Proverbs, which I would encourage you to do, oftentimes you pull out one proverb or another, and that can be helpful. But if you read through Proverbs, you start to get a sense of some of the themes of Proverbs. And you see wisdom pitted against folly. You see the fool again and again shown to be not a good character, not someone you want to be. But you also see that for the sluggard. Proverbs does not paint a good picture of the sluggard.

Because sluggishness ultimately leads to bad outcomes. Proverbs says that sluggishness leads to poverty, a little rest, a little folding of the hands, a little closing of the eyes, and poverty will come upon you like a robber in the night. But sluggishness also leads to atrophy.

Now kids, do you know what atrophy is? Have you heard that word before? It's a word that we don't often use a lot, but atrophy, it talks about our muscles. It's a medical term that talks about what's going on in our muscles. And so if kids, if you were to sit on the couch and watch TV all day long, every day for months on end, and your parents brought you food so you didn't have to get up and move, and you didn't stand, you just got to kick back and relax. And it sounds great up until the point where you have to stand up. And what's happened is because you haven't used your muscles for so long, the point at which you stand up is the point at which you're going to fall down because your leg muscles aren't strong enough to hold you up.

They've atrophy, they've gotten weaker because you haven't used them. And in the same way, Our spiritual lives can experience atrophy if we're being sluggish. We can have a sort of spiritual atrophy where if we don't work diligently at drawing close to God, if we aren't digging into God's word, if we aren't seeking God in prayer, if we aren't attentive to the means of grace and public worship and joining with people, all the things that the Bible lays out that are part of the Christian life, If we're just coasting, doing the bare minimum, waiting and saying, well, God will take care of it, then what happens is that our spiritual muscles, as it were, grow weak. Our spiritual muscles start to grow weak. And then when something happens, something drastic, something severe, whether that be an illness or a death in the family, whether that be you lose a job or something drastic in your life changes, When you need to stand up and use those spiritual muscles to draw close to God, they're weak. It's much harder to spend time in prayer looking to God because you haven't earnestly prayed for so long. It's much harder to focus on what God's word is telling you because you haven't studied God's word for so long. Now this won't change your state of salvation. It won't change where you stand with God ultimately, but it drastically changes your experience, your ability to partake in grace and mercy that God offers and promises.

And that's why the author is urging you to be diligent so that you would not become sluggish, so that you would not become spiritually weak. So friends, you need to be diligent in the good works that God has given you, recognizing that it is ultimately his work in you. And because of his work in you, seeing the fruit that he is bearing in your lives, then this is one of the reasons why you can be certain of better things if you are one of God's people. But the author doesn't stop there and say, okay, God's doing a good work in you. Be diligent.

Have a great day. The author continues and says, imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. There's an encouragement to look beyond yourself and look around you. Look to the saints who have gone before you. And say, wow. Look at what they endured. Look at how they've grown in their walk with God and take encouragement from that and imitate them. Be like them.

When you see saints who know God's word in and out because they spent so much time over the course of their life, studying, reading, memorizing, don't just say, oh, well, that's just amazing. That's fantastic that they're able to do that. No, what the author's telling you is to imitate that, be like them. Start memorizing scripture, start studying it earnestly and diligently. Don't just say they're doing great, say I want to be like that, I want to emulate that.

And as he points towards faith and patience, inheriting the promises, then the author turns our attention to a classic example for the Hebrew people, turns our attention to Abraham. And this is going to highlight God's promises to you. God's promises to you. As he transitions from saying, those who through faith and patience inherit the promises, then he says, for when God made a promise to Abraham, if you were a Jew, if you were a Hebrew person reading this, right, this is a letter to the Hebrews, then immediately you go, oh, Abraham. Everybody knows Abraham. Abraham, our father, Abraham, the great one, the father and founder of our faith, and they would point to Abraham and say, what a fantastic story to see what God did in Abraham's life, and Abraham, we love Abraham. But very quickly, as you read on, you see that this isn't really about Abraham.

It's really about God. God made the promise to Abraham, and then he talks about God's promises. He goes on to talk about what God did. And ultimately, he talks about God's promises having a double guarantee of sorts. If you look down in verse 18, that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation. He's saying there's two things about God's promises you need to know that guarantee what he says. You need to understand what's going on when God makes a promise to his people. And the first guarantee you see in verses 13 through 17, where God, because he could swear by no one greater, swore by himself.

And the author goes on to explain this. It's a contrast really between God and man. He says that men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. So if two people are debating what really happened, and one of them says, I take an oath that this happened, what they're doing is they're swearing by the greater, they're swearing ultimately by God, saying this is what really happened.

And that ends it, because they've appealed to a higher authority. But God doesn't have that higher authority. God can't say, go see this person and they'll tell you that I'm telling you the truth. Go over here and they'll tell you that this is what really happened or that my promise is really true. So God has to swear by himself because he is the ultimate authority.

It's something that we as people aren't used to. We're always appealing to a higher authority. It's built into our society and how we work. There's all sorts of checks and balances where authority then stamps this or gives that to say this is true, even your driver's license. That's something from a higher authority. It's an external authority, the government, saying you are who you say you are.

So that way, if you go to the airport and you want to get on a flight, you say, I'm really Joel Wallace, I promise. They won't let me on a flight just with my promise. They don't know who I am. My authority isn't good enough. I have to appeal to a higher authority. And once I show them my driver's license, this document from an external higher authority saying, yes, this really is Joel Wallace, then they'll let me on the plane. They'll let me go through.

And this is something we do all over the place. We always are appealing to a higher authority, whether that be pointing to a pastor and saying, well, they know more than I do, and they say this is true. Whether that be looking at a document and pointing to a book and saying, well, I read it here in this encyclopedia, and it says this, this must be true. All the time we are looking to those external authorities. And so it's very different for us to contemplate the reality that God does not have that external, that higher authority to swear by, to point to.

But it should be very encouraging then as we look at God's promises in that light. Because we realize that God is the ultimate authority. And if God is the ultimate authority, the ultimate source of truth, How can his promises be false? If he is where the buck stops, how could we doubt that he has the authority, the ability to bring through what he has promised?

He doesn't need to check it by anyone else. So this is the first guarantee. The second guarantee we see embedded there in verse 18, that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie. in which it is impossible for God to lie. Go back to God's character. Kids, if people ask you, is there anything God can't do, you can point them to this verse and say, God cannot lie, the Bible says so. It's impossible for God to lie.

Again, there's an implied contrast with people. Can people lie? Of course. No one has to teach a child how to lie when they're trying to get out of trouble, when they've done the wrong thing. They know very quickly, very early on, they know that they should say what they think they want to be heard, not what's true. But God, God can't lie because God is perfect. And to lie, to propagate something other than what is true would make God imperfect. It would mean that God is not the source of all truth. He is the source of some truth and some falsehood. And then a God who is not perfect is no God at all.

So the second guarantee is God's character is not just that he has the authority to do what he says, but that his character demands that if he says something, that it would be true. He is unable to lie. And so that means, friends, when he promises something to you, he cannot be misleading you. He cannot be trying to pull the wool over your eyes. He is saying what is true. And as the author draws your attention to this, that God is that external authority, that highest authority, that God has to tell the truth, he cannot lie, and then applies this to all of God's promises.

Again, going back to verse 12, imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. This isn't just one promise, this is all of God's promises that the author is commenting on. And he uses Abraham as an example, but we can think about all of the promises in scripture, not just the promise to Abraham, but the promises that are embedded, not just in the Old Testament, but the New Testament.

And each of these promises, he calls us to have faith in, to believe in, to act as if they were true. That's ultimately what faith is. It's knowledge, it's acceptance, but it's also action. It's believing that something is true and acting as if it were. And so to have faith in these promises, friends, is to act as if every one of God's promises are true for you.

But he also calls you to be patient for these promises. Patient as Abraham had to be as he waited for an heir born of his own body. Patient even then, as the covenant that God made, as we read about in Genesis 15, wouldn't come to fruition, really, for hundreds of years until Abraham's descendants took the land of Canaan. You have to be patient sometimes, and having faith, acting as if they're true, and waiting patiently for them to come to fruition.

This is how we should handle all of God's promises and his word. And so friends, these promises, these guarantees should encourage you to confidently then take hope of the whole, sorry, take hold of the hope set before you. In verse 18, lay hold of the hope set before us. This brings us then to God's work for you, God's work for you. What is this hope? This hope is salvation. Salvation in Christ that leads to eternal life.

The better things that the author mentioned earlier. As we think about hope, we can distort what that word really means. We can misunderstand that and interpret that through the lens of our modern day usage. When people talk about what they hope for now, what they really mean is what they wish for, what they dream of. I hope I will get a promotion. I hope this will happen. I wish this would happen. I would love it if that would happen. But all those hopes, those wishes and dreams are not certain at all. It's simply a desire.

But hope, hope as it's used in scripture, is something much more real, much more certain. We can think of what Paul talked about in Romans chapter 8, that hope being certain of things unseen. Hope is a certainty not yet realized. Hope is a certainty not yet realized.

It's something that will happen. You're certain, you're confident in it. You just don't see it yet. You don't feel it, you don't experience the full reality yet. That's what the author's talking about when he encourages you to lay hold of the hope set before you. And it's interesting then how he talks about this hope, this hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.

An anchor for the soul. Now, I have to confess, I grew up in the middle of Kansas, so I don't have a great depth of experience with boats and water things. It's just not a part of my reality growing up in Kansas. I'm familiar enough, and I've done a little bit of research, and I've learned a thing or two about anchors.

Now, kids, why are there anchors on boats? Why would you choose to put something really heavy on a boat, something that's going to keep the boat from moving? Well, an anchor serves just that purpose, to keep the boat from moving when it's supposed to be in one place. The reality is that there's all different sizes, all different shapes, all different types of anchors, but they all have one purpose, and that is to keep a boat or a ship in one place where it's supposed to be.

You see, if you don't have an anchor, and you're out on a lake, if you're out on the ocean, you don't have stability. You're not tied to anything, and so if a storm pops up, you have no way of staying where you want to be. You're at the mercy of that storm, wherever it will blow. Wherever the waves take you, that's where you're going to have to go. And you don't have any ability to tie yourself to something more certain.

And if you're a ship trying to do a particular job, trying to go to a particular place, that can be really problematic. If you get blown off course, you don't get to where you want to go. Or if you're a fishing boat and you found a great fishing spot and you get blown away, it's very hard to catch those fish if you're not where the fish are.

So this illustration that the author uses, this anchor for your soul, helps you to understand that the hope of salvation, the certainty not yet fully realized, does that for your soul. See, an anchor is stable because it ties the boat to something else more stable than itself. whether that be a rock, whether that be the ocean floor, whether that be a reef, it can latch onto any number of things, but it grabs on, and usually if you see a classic anchor, it has kind of two hooks on either side, it hooks onto something and locks in, and by having that hook tying the boat to something more stable, then the boat gets to stay put where it's supposed to be.

This anchor, this hope, friends, ties your soul to God. Ties your soul, it says, to the inner sanctuary, behind the veil. It's the language it's using here. That's where God dwells. If you think about the temple, where God dwells and to be tied there to where God dwells, certainly God is more stable. God who does not change, God who cannot lie, the ultimate authority of the universe. for your soul to be tied to God. How much stability does that give you and your life, friends?

So you have to hold on to this anchor. But the reality is you can't just buy an anchor on your own. You can't just get it because you want it to tie to God. Sinful people can't generate that connection. They can't say, I want to be close to God and draw near to God themselves. Sinful people, people outside of God's covenant community, only have themselves for stability. They can only grab onto themselves to their own boat, as it were, and just ride out the storm as best they can. And it will not go well. No, the only way to have an anchor, to have that connection to God is through Jesus Christ.

He, verse 20 says, is the forerunner who has entered for us, having become high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Jesus is the forerunner who has gone before you in life as he lived a life of perfect obedience that you can't live. as he has gone before you in righteousness, obeying all of the law. He's also the forerunner in death, as he died the death for your sins, but ultimately conquered death and rose from the dead so that we might have that hope, that certainty of eternal life. Jesus is the one who links your soul to God, by his work on the cross, by his work as high priest, it says here, the priest who intercedes, who goes between the people and God. Jesus is that perfect high priest who goes before us to God, bringing us to God, connecting us to God. By his life, his death, his resurrection, he secures that anchor to God. Jesus' work on the cross, Jesus' work for you gives you something to cling to in the turmoil of life.

All people experience turmoil. They experience instability. You experience fear, uncertainty, worry about what will happen. And what do you do in those times? How do you be sure of better things to come? It's not just by positive thinking. It's not just by hopes and dreams.

It is by clinging to the anchor of Jesus Christ. By holding fast, focusing on what Jesus has done to draw you to God, connecting you to him. And friends, when you are connected to God through Christ, When Jesus keeps you in God's presence behind the veil, when you're focused on God's promises and how certain they are, on God's character and what he has done in you, then you're where you need to be. Then you can be doing the work that God has called you to do. Just like an anchor keeps a ship in the right place, Jesus keeps your soul in the right place so that your life can bear fruit. So that you don't have to worry about what's going to happen tomorrow. You can do what God has called you to do today. The author earlier encouraged you to be diligent. to imitate those with faith and patience. But the only way to be diligent in imitating those with faith and patience is to connect to Christ, is to hold fast to Him.

That's really the secret of other people's success in the faith, isn't it? If you look at the saints around you and those who know and love God's word, those who have a deep and vibrant prayer life, It's not just because they decided to do that and figured out the right pattern. It's not just because they read all the right commentaries to understand God's word. It is because they know and they love God. It is because they are connected day in, day out to God through Jesus Christ. And holding fast to him brings all those wonderful benefits. It brings a deeper understanding of God's word brings an ability to commune, to talk to God, and prayer brings promises great and vast for you.

And you need that faith and that patience because the day is coming when the promises will be realized. But that day is not here yet. It hasn't come yet. And so as you are certain of those better things, like the author is, you need the faith and the patience to serve God until he returns.

And then friends, then all of God's people inherit those promises and all of those better things are fully realized when we have eternal life with God in heaven. Let us thank God for that. and pray that he would come soon. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for your promises. We thank you for your work in us and that you bear out good fruit in our lives through your Holy Spirit and through your word. We thank you for your promises and how certain they are because of who you are. And we thank you for your work for us and saving us from the sins that we cannot save ourselves from. and drawing us close to you when we were so far off and separated from you. We thank you, Lord, for Jesus Christ and for his work on the cross.

And we pray that you would help each one of us to cling more tightly to him. That whatever uncertainty, whatever instability we face, that we would turn not to ourselves, but to you. And that drawing close to you, that we would have the faith and the patience to serve while we wait for those promises to be realized. Lord, we do pray that you would realize all of your promises. And we know that that will come when you come again to judge the world, when you make all things right, all things new. Lord, we long for that day when we have not just the hope, the expectation of those promises, but the reality of them present. Give us strength and patience until then, but come quickly, Lord Jesus. We pray it in your name. Amen.