Our Anchor

[0:00] Hebrews 6 verse 19 Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, and which entereth into that within the veil.

[0:23] ! It talks of fleeing to Christ for refuge. It talks of laying hold upon the hope set before us. It talks about hope that we have as an anchor of the soul.

[0:36] Sure and steadfast that entereth into that within the veil. Now it's been said, the researchers tell us that deep down as many as 95% of people suffer from a strong sense of insecurity.

[0:56] Insecurity. I know for one, we can all feel insecure from time to time. Inadequate. Incapable. We can all feel that we lack the security.

[1:08] 95% of people feel just like that. So you're not alone if you're feeling like that from time to time. And this verse tells us of a ground that we have for security, for stability, for strength, for foundation.

[1:23] The anchor. The anchor. In Rome's catacombs, these were those tunnels under the ancient city of Rome where the early Christians were fleeing and buried.

[1:36] You see symbols of faith on the tombs there. And they had three common symbols on their tombs in the catacombs. They had three common symbols there.

[1:49] The dove, the fish and the anchor. Of course the dove symbolises the Holy Spirit as it was a picture at Christ's baptism. As the Holy Spirit descended in the form, in likeness as a dove.

[2:05] The fish is from the Greek word, the Greek word ichthas meaning fish, which the words combined stand for Jesus Christ, God's Son and Saviour.

[2:18] So it was a sign that they were Christians. The anchor comes from this verse here and from the hope that the early Christians had in those difficult and insecure times that their hope was secured like an anchor, an anchor for their soul.

[2:39] And when you think of a man or woman out on the water in a vessel going out fishing or whatever it be, as that old sailor might look out and look at the skies and they see a dark storm coming.

[2:56] As the sea becomes rough and choppy, that old sailor lowers the heavy chained anchor down link by link. He batons down the hatches and goes to bed for the night because they know that the anchor will keep their vessel secure.

[3:13] Even though that storm may be rough, they have faith in the grasp of the anchor to see them through to the morning. And it's like that too for God's people, that we can have an anchor that keeps the soul.

[3:28] What if you were in a boat without an anchor? Imagine that. I read a story of a man who wanted to set up a bit of a hide to some kind of barrel and he had an anchor and he wanted to go out and they left him to it and the anchor rope broke.

[3:44] And this hide, this kind of little barrel that he was sitting in just floated out as the tide took it out. And the fog came in and he was feeling very vulnerable.

[3:57] But thankfully his friend came and found him. But the anchor chain broke. And he was at the mercy of the waves. Friends, we need an anchor for the boat. We need an anchor for our lives.

[4:09] An anchor for our lives. I know just tonight I was calling to pick someone up for church and they're in the police lock-up tonight. And you wonder, you know, some people, they don't have an anchor.

[4:21] They don't have an anchor. There's a lack of stability and security as they're tossed to and fro by the waves of life and the comings and goings of the world around us.

[4:32] And there's no anchor there. There's no anchor there for that, dear soul. And I trust one day there will be for that one. But an anchor.

[4:43] We need one. An anchor provides stability. It provides security. It brings safety. How we need that. In these days, as the darkening days around us seem to get darker, ever darker.

[4:56] There is hope. There is hope. Hope that is as an anchor for the soul. And hope is a virtue that's listed in God's Word as three ongoing virtues.

[5:09] As three virtues that last. And they're called faith, hope and love. Faith, hope and charity. These three abide.

[5:21] They're lasting. They're remaining. And they're wonderful, important truths. And hope is a virtue that's joined with faith and love. They're joined as one.

[5:34] Sadly, many people, including young people today, but not solely young people, they lack hope. They lack hope. And I'd like to think that we, each one of us here, can be that link in the chain, as it were.

[5:49] And we can be that one who extends a hand to rescue the perishing, to reach out and point them to the anchor. The anchor that will keep them solid and strong and safe.

[6:01] When they're adrift on life's waters without an anchor. Some people are struggling. And no wonder people are despairing and turn to drugs or think to end it all.

[6:16] Because they don't have an anchor that keeps the soul. That hope that goes beyond the present circumstance. People drifting. People without an anchor. With no anchor.

[6:27] No hope. No God. As we read in Romans, there's a verse along that lines. People without hope, without God in the world. What a loss.

[6:37] What a tragedy. To be without hope. Without God in the world. And sadly too, on the church scene. On the church scene too. Got many well-meaning people.

[6:48] They come to church week in, week out. Maybe in between. And they're still lost. They're still lost. Without hope. Without an anchor for their soul. Just at the mercy of the shifting sands.

[7:01] Of the contrary winds. As we read in Ephesians 4 verse 14. That we henceforth be no more. Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine.

[7:15] By the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to the sea. Tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. Unstable as water.

[7:26] It's a verse in the Old Testament. It talks about a man. Unstable as water. They're just like jelly. They're just wibbly wobbly on the plate. You know.

[7:37] They're just tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. There's no stability. There's no strength. There's no anchor for them. To anchor a boat, you've got to throw the anchor in.

[7:48] Cast the anchor to secure the boat. Now who's ever been fishing? You wouldn't want to go fishing without an anchor. I'll tell you now. It's not something you want to take the risk of doing. You know.

[7:58] You don't know whether that motor is going to help you get back. Or who knows what could happen. But if you cast in an anchor, you know you can be safe. It can grab hold of something in those unseen waters.

[8:12] In the depths of that that are unseen, the anchor will grab hold of the surface beneath. The anchor will grab hold of that unseen ground.

[8:24] And your boat will be safe. What about your life? What about your life? The Bible says that that anchor is thrown into, as it were, the veil.

[8:35] It entereth into that within the veil. So as you can imagine, it goes into the veil. It goes beyond what you can see. And it holds fast. It's like, as a Christian, isn't it?

[8:47] That the eternal world, the world to come, you could picture it as being behind a veil. We can't see it yet. Faith is the evidence of things not seen.

[9:00] There's a sense where there's something we cannot see. But we can reach out beyond the veil, beyond the certain, to the uncertain, to the unseen. And we can grab hold of God's hand.

[9:12] We can grab hold as that anchor would enter in to the veil, into the world beyond. And anchor our lives there. Where have you cast your anchor? We know many, sadly, they cast their anchor on other people, on the circumstance, or pleasure, or fame, or finance, or whatever it be.

[9:34] Their own doing, their own making. And it's an unstable life. Because they haven't got the anchor that matters. They haven't anchored in that which counts. They haven't anchored in Christ. Christ is the one.

[9:46] We've got to stand and cast our anchor upon Him. That brings the stability for our Christian life. The basis for our spiritual security.

[9:57] Where can you find stability when the winds and waves of life are raging? And they do. They do for me, for you. They will. We don't know what lies ahead.

[10:10] It could be good. It could be bad. It could be indifferent. It could be in between. But one thing's for sure. Whatever lies ahead. Whatever lies in those days beyond. If your anchor is on Christ, you're sure and steadfast.

[10:24] It's a hope that goes beyond the circumstance. And we know that sometimes the voyage of life, it can be troublesome. It can be dangerous. You know, we all can have experiences we would rather not have.

[10:36] But we have an anchor. We have an anchor that keeps the soul. An anchor fixed in heaven. And perhaps for you, it could come to that place in your life, things just seem totally hopeless.

[10:51] Hopeless. It's hopeless. You know, you feel like packing your bag and going home with your tail between your legs. And you feel like sometimes life isn't fair.

[11:03] It isn't how you'd like it to be. But like someone said, when you say that a situation or a person is hopeless, you're slamming the door in the face of God.

[11:14] Because God is your hope. God is your hope. It's not the experience or circumstance that should dictate how you feel or your surety in life.

[11:27] It's the anchor of that hope in Christ, in that eternal world, beyond the veil, the life to come. We lay hold upon the hope set before us.

[11:37] We flee to him for refuge. In the context there of Hebrews 6, faith, hope, the anchor for us all. Short and steadfast. It will not slip.

[11:48] The anchored ship will not move with the current. You know, sadly these days, it's like the current is just flowing and dictating everything we do. You know, I've been in a church.

[12:00] It didn't occur personally to me. But a church where they said, you know, that they had some question about the direction of the church.

[12:12] And they were told, just go with the flow or go. Just go with the flow. And that seems to be the kind of thinking in many quarters.

[12:24] But ought we to go with the flow or go with the anchor? Go with the anchor. It shouldn't be that the drifting and the tides and the currents of fashion and fan and season and makings of men should dictate what we do.

[12:41] We have an anchor that keeps the soul. An anchor that goes beyond in the veil. And these are days that we must not go just with the prevailing tide of men, wherever they might want to take us.

[12:54] But as God's people, we've got to stand strong if it means against the flow, to swim against the stream as it were. I put it to you tonight. It's better to be a stickler than a drifter.

[13:08] Wouldn't you rather be a stickler? Be a stickler. Even if they're going to call you one-eyed and narrow-minded, if it be so, we'd rather have the narrow way than the fleshly way. Will you be one of the unmovables?

[13:20] One of the unmovables. It says in 1 Corinthians 15, 58, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

[13:36] For as much as you know that, your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Be a stickler, not a drifter. Stick with God. Be grounded. Be planted.

[13:46] Be unmovable in Him. In Christ, who is your anchor, who is your rock, who is your refuge. Steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.

[14:01] You know, there's an old-fashioned gospel song, We Shall Not Be Moved. We Shall Not Be Moved. And there's truth in that. There's truth in that. There's many scriptures.

[14:12] I was amazed in just doing a search for, Shall Not Be Moved. And there's many verses that talk along those theme of, We will not be moved. We will not be moved.

[14:23] We will be unmovable. We will be anchored. As you can read, for example, in Psalm 16, verse 8. Psalm 16, verse 8, it says, I have set the Lord always before me.

[14:36] Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

[14:47] And Psalm 62, 6, likewise, He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defence. I shall not be moved. I shall not be moved.

[14:59] We will not be moved. We will not be moved. We must not be moved. We must not move the ancient landmark. We must not move from God's truth. We must not move away from God's Word.

[15:14] We must be anchored there. Even if they call us intransigence or whatever they might use. Stick in the muds. I'd rather be stuck in the mud with that anchor, wouldn't you?

[15:25] I'd rather be stuck where the anchor sticks. Amen. I'd rather stick with that hope that is beyond, in the veil beyond. We will not be moved. We are anchored. We are planted.

[15:37] We are grounded. I trust if you're grounded in Christ, if your hope is in Him, we have the Gospel hope. The Word speaks of Gospel hope. It's a hope that is grounded in the good news because you've trusted Christ.

[15:51] You've placed your faith in Him. You've cast that anchor into the beyond and it holds on to Christ. It's your faith. It's your hope. It's Christ who keeps you strong and steadfast, sure, by the virtue of what it's fixed upon, by the virtue of His blood, of His saving grace, of His keeping power, of His righteousness, by the constancy of His promises, of His faithfulness, of His power.

[16:20] He is our refuge. He is that one that our anchor holds unto. And this hope that we have, it's alive. It's a living hope, a lively hope.

[16:32] Christ is the object and the ground of the believer's hope. Christ is the rock. As many verses go through Psalms, and, you know, I just love rock.

[16:45] Amen. I love the rock. The rock. And we can't get enough of rock in this church. Amen. We need the rock. We need Christ. That rock. That refuge. That shelter. That stronghold.

[16:56] That strong tower. That fortress. He is the one we love and long for, our salvation, our defence. And we have the object and ground of our hope in Him.

[17:10] And for each one here tonight, the question for you, for me, is, are you attached to the rock? Are you attached to Christ as an anchor would attach itself to a rock?

[17:25] And you can be sure and steadfast. Your hope goes beyond whatever circumstance of life might happen to you. Whatever misery and despair you might naturally feel in your human flesh, your hope is beyond to that eternal hope, to that ever-living hope, to that hope beyond the veil, that eternal hope.

[17:46] He is entirely reliable. He is entirely sure. You know, the word says, don't have confidence in man. You know, I look in the mirror and I say, I don't have confidence even in you.

[17:58] And we don't. It's the man in the mirror. It's our worst enemy. We don't put our confidence even in the one in the mirror, let alone others. But our confidence is in Him, in Christ, that sure and certain Saviour.

[18:13] And David cried out in Psalm 39, Psalm 39, he says, And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in Thee. This is a hope that does not disappoint.

[18:26] He will not let you down. He will see you through whatever life throws at you. And it's like someone said, sometimes life has a way of putting us on our backs to force us to look up.

[18:37] That happens too. I know a dear brother was sharing with me lately how they went through a valley time. A time of a valley. A time of being downcast.

[18:49] A time of despair. A time of seeming lack of hope. And they got through on the other side. And I was blessed by that testimony. And one thing this brother said really helped me too.

[19:04] He said, They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Sometimes we only we're sowing and sowing. We're doing things for God. We're about the Word.

[19:15] We're trying to live the Christian walk and serve the Lord. And we're crying because there's so many discouragements and setbacks and hurts and losses along the way.

[19:27] We sow in tears. But this brother said to me, Don't stop when you're in the sowing time because one day you're going to get through to the reaping in joy. Amen? Amen?

[19:37] Amen. It's just around the corner, isn't it? Amen. Even though you're sowing in tears perhaps to a degree at the moment, it seems like there's a time of despair, of discouragement, of difficulty.

[19:50] Keep on sowing because you're going to be reaping in joy. You're going to be reaping in joy. And that's a wonderful truth. Our hope, our joy is in Him. It's in Christ.

[20:01] It's not in the circumstance of life. He is the anchor for us, not our feelings, not our present circumstance, that can at times be like a storm. Happy is He that hath the God of Jacob for His help, whose hope is in the Lord His God.

[20:19] Psalm 146, 5. Happy is He that hath the God of Jacob for His help, whose hope is in the Lord His God. Is your hope there tonight?

[20:30] Is your hope in Christ? Are you saved tonight? I trust that you are today. If not, you'll seek Him till you are and He will save you. Our Lord is that source for the soul's joy and hope.

[20:46] Friends, are you one of the unmovables? Be an unmovable. Be an always abounding one. Be sure, steadfast, always abounding, strong, unmovable.

[21:01] don't shift the ancient landmark, as it were. Using analogies that are different here, but there's obviously verses there, where the context of that picture for us is of those who would shift the marks in the ground to do a dodgy deal with the land and try to take something that didn't belong to them.

[21:27] Shifting the landmarks, those landmarks have to stay where they're positioned. Where they are meant to be. And some would try to change things. And look, we're not averse to change.

[21:39] If it will be, we will be changed. One day we will be changed. And we want to be changed into his likeness and image. We want that Christ will be formed in you.

[21:50] I'd like to see some people change. Amen. I'd like to see us change, that Christ will be formed in you. I've got a long way to go yet.

[22:01] A long, long way for me to get to be like him. And let's be honest, we all can be more like him and be changed. So it's okay to be changed, but not changed away from the truth.

[22:14] We've got to hold fast that. Hold it fast. Hold it forth. Don't drift. Be steadfast. Don't be a drifter.

[22:25] Be an unmovable. An unmovable. And friends, just to wrap up, Psalm 119, 81 it says, My soul fainteth for thy salvation, but I hope in thy word.

[22:36] This is your hope. This is your hope. Read it. Take it. And feed on it. You know, some, they just come to church and they get the top up and then they scarcely look at the Bible in between times.

[22:51] No wonder you're having trouble. You know, take the word, feed on it, feast on it, saturate yourself with it. I hope in thy word, says the psalmist.

[23:04] And we've got a firm assurance there, the word is full of glad hope, glad tidings. The faith that it can generate will help see you through those storms of life, those calamities and troubles.

[23:21] He'll help you through that. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Blessed assurance, assurance, assurance, assurance, Jesus is mine.

[23:37] Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine, heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his spirit, washed in his blood.

[23:49] Blessed assurance. The Lord will be the hope of his people. It says in Joel 3, 16, 1, 21, it says, the Lord Jesus Christ is our hope.

[24:02] Romans 15, 13, it says, now the God of hope, fill you, fill you, fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope, abound in hope through the power, the power of the Holy Ghost.

[24:24] My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest brain but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

[24:37] When darkness veils this lovely face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds, my anchor holds within the veil.

[24:51] we have a vibrant hope, a sure hope, a biblical hope, a salvation hope, not a hope so salvation, but a no so because of his grace, because of his promise received, there's a sure hope for you.

[25:08] Friends, we can have confidence in the crisis, we can be unlike those having no hope and without God in the world, as Ephesians 2, 12, having no hope and without God in the world, are you one of them, one of the hopeless ones or are you one who has that sure hope, that everlasting hope?

[25:29] Let us pray. Lord, we do grasp beyond, we cast that anchor, that hope upon you, we cast ourselves upon you, we cast ourselves at your feet, we cast our everything upon that ground, that substance, that certainty that you are to us, that salvation that you give to us, that refuge that you are unto us, oh Lord.

[26:05] We pray for every soul here that they might know that there is a hope beyond the veil and that hope is realised in the present, present, in the present day, in the present tense, we can have that in the here and now, and not wait for the here after, when it's too late to wait, Lord, that we'll have it now, grasp it now, by faith.

[26:30] Lord, I trust that each one would know what it means to put faith, not in anything but you, and your work, and your doing, your done work at Calvary's Hill, Lord, where you took our sin, the shame of it, the punishment and penalty of it, that we might never have to bear it, but no everlasting life.

[26:57] Lord, let us put our trust, let us cast our anchor upon you, we pray, and know that sure and certain hope, in Jesus' name. I am to tell your story of hunting things above, of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love.