I mentioned last week that this is one of the most difficult passages, the first half, verses 1 through 12. The second half is not as difficult. And because of really about two-thirds of this chapter, the emphasis is on security, not apostasy or the ability to lose our salvation. And so as I tried to look at it last week, these are those that appear to have trusted Christ, but they've not experienced God's supernatural work of regeneration. I did mention a verse from 1 John 2, and actually 1 John is really a letter trying to remind the recipients that there's evidence of conversion. Profession of faith in Christ without progression of our faith in Christ is suspect. So a person can profess Christ and do everything that we saw last week in this first part of this chapter, but because they've not had a work of God in their heart, they haven't been truly regenerated. That fades, difficulties come, really the third soil of the parable of the soil, maybe a little bit of the second soil, where it appears that they have life, but they have no depth of root. They spring up and have an emotional experience in Christ, but as soon as the sun comes out and tribulation comes, they fade and they shrivel up because there's no, Jesus said there's no depth of root. And then the third soil is the soil that the cares of this world choke off the effect of the gospel in that individual's life. So, profession of faith without some progression. Now again, as we've seen here in this letter, He's chastising them to some degree because they've not progressed as they should have progressed. They've not matured as they should have matured. That there were still babes in Christ and that they needed a milk diet instead of an increasing adult diet. So he chastises them about that, but he sees the potential. And as we see in 1 John, as John is contrasting children of light and children of darkness, some of the very most, I guess I want to use the word shocking or clear words that either you're born of Christ and you're a child of light or you're born of the devil. Most people don't want to hear that. They want this gray area where there's kind of a neutrality and that they don't recognize that what Bible says that if you're of the flesh, you're born of the devil. and you're still in darkness, you're still under the control of the little P, prince of the power of the air, Ephesians 2, you're by nature a child of wrath, and so you're either born of God or you're born of Satan, born of Adam, and there's no middle ground here, okay? But the emphasis of chapter six is to these that the preacher believes and knows and encourages that they are true believers. And so most of chapter 6 is about assurance, our assurance that we have been born again, and we need to take the warning. Now, a true believer in Jesus Christ can fall away deeply. can rebel against God consciously or unconsciously, can fall away deeply. And for a long period of time, I've known individuals that that's happened in their life. But I think two things occur, one of two things, is that they come back to the Lord, God's grace is continuing to work in their life, His hand is continuing to work in their life, even though they may not recognize it, even though they may be rebelling against it, but God chastens, we'll see in chapter 12, the Lord chastens those who belong to Him. He doesn't chasten in the sense of restoration, He doesn't chasten to produce, that's what we'll see in chapter 12, his chastening is to produce holiness in us, to draw us back, to get us back in this race that the first part of chapter 12 talks about. And God is long-suffering. And he, you know, I think I've talked about this before, we talk about praying a hedge of protection around our family, right? Anybody ever do that? Did you ever pray a hedge of protection? That God would put a hedge of protection around your loved ones? When I went overseas, that was my daily prayer for Chris and my kids. That while I was overseas on a missionary trip, that God would put a hedge of protection around my family. And I'm sure they were praying the same thing for me while I was overseas in a foreign country. But in Hosea, there's a prayer of praying a hedge of thorns around a rebellious father of Christ. And the idea of the hedge of thorns is that in a rebellion, they keep running up against these thorns and God is stifling their rebellion. And so we can pray a hedge of thorns around a rebellious believer, child, a husband, wife, a brother, sister. We can pray for that hedge of thorns so that their rebellion keeps running into difficulty and God is keeping putting roadblocks in their way. so that they can, just like the prodigal son, even though he wasted his substance. Now we can apply that to the material things that he had, the inheritance that he had, that he went and gambled it all away, wasted it on drunkenness and promiscuity and all kinds of stuff. But what he really wasted was not the material, it was his heart. He wasted the very substance of his heart in this righteous living. And one of the key phrases in King James is, he came to himself. He came to that bottom where he could only look up. And he still was a true son of the Father. He was still a true brother of his self-righteous brother, but he was still a true brother. What needed in his life was restoration. He walked in rebellion, but he needed restoration. And God kept working his life until he got to the very bottom that as a Jewish boy, he was eating the leftovers of the pig's diet. And the Bible says he came to himself. There are true believers that rebel against God deeply and sometimes for a very long time. But by God's grace, he brings them to a point to where they come to themselves and they turn back to the Father. And the father is the real one of the story. Because he was at the crossroads looking for his son. He was at the crossroads that just ignored his son's prepared speech. Just make me one, the lowest servant in your household and that's better than where I've been. And by the way, that's true. The psalmist said, I'd rather be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord. Right? If you're just a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord, you're better off than anybody else without Christ. But the father pushed that aside, and he wrapped his arms around his son, and he put a ring on his finger, put a new clothes on his body, and he said, slay the fat calf, we're gonna have a celebration, my son has come home. And that's God's attitude toward us as our heavenly father. Now I think the second option that is implied in 1 John, about ascending to death. I truly believe, and I may be wrong about this, I'll find out when I get to glory, is that if a child of God continues in obstinate rebellion, I think God draws a line and says, that's enough. I'm calling you home. And there's a sin unto death that I think happens in a believer's life I don't know when it happens, I can't tell how it happens or who it happens to, but I think it's a reality that God will call that child home because they continue in this rebellion. I think the first option happens more often than the second option. But profession of faith without progression is always suspect. It's a dangerous place to be, to say I profess Christ and there's very little evidence in my life that I've been born again, that I've been made a new creation, that my attitudes change, my heart changes, my thoughts change, my language changes, my desires change. In fact, I heard Andrew Rogers say, a Christian can do anything that he wants. He basically said, because when we come to Christ and Christ does that work of grace in our life, our want to does what? It changes, okay? So we're free in Christ to pursue Christ. This freedom in Christ is not a license to sin. We're not to be, the fancy word is antinomian, against the law, that we reject the law. The law has no sway over us. No, the law becomes our guideline to how to follow Christ. It is not our means to come to salvation, we come to salvation by faith alone and Christ alone. But the law then, which God says in Ezekiel and in Jeremiah, He writes His law in our heart, that's part of the new creation. He writes His law in our heart, then we have a desire to follow His law. Not to gain salvation, but to demonstrate that we've been transformed, we've become a new creation. So those that profess Christ and There's very little evidence of a change. That's very suspect, it's very dangerous. And that's what this preacher says, it's impossible to restore that one because they're under a delusion that they're, because they walked an aisle, they prayed a prayer, they went through baptismal waters, they joined a church, everything's okay. No, none of that is salvation. Salvation is God's supernatural work making us a new creation in Christ and changes us from the inside out. And so John says, they went out from us because they were not of us. If they were of us, they would have remained with us. And even if that time is a very long time of rebellion, God's grace is working to draw that child back into the fellowship of believers. So all that was free. Let's stand and read this passage. For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, surely I will bless you and multiply you. And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained a promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 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, 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. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever, hath the ardor of Melchizedek. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you, Father, for who you are. And thank you, Father, for your unchangeableness. Thank you, Father, that there was no one greater than you to swear by. You swore by yourself. You established this covenant with Abraham that is still true by swearing that oath with yourself. And you cannot lie. And so, Father, we have a sure hope, a steadfast hope, a sure anchor, a steadfast anchor for our soul. That Father, we have security in who you are and what you've done through your son, Jesus Christ. Father, help us to rest in that security, not to be complacent, but Father, to rest in that security as we pursue Christ and follow him. Father, touch our hearts, touch our minds with your truth. and change his father today, in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. So that's what I want us to look at. Our security is in the character of God. It's not in our character. In fact, I don't know who said it first, Luther or Spurgeon, but it's worth repeating. I've heard John MacArthur quote it. If I or you could lose our salvation, guess what? We would have done it. We would have lost it a long time ago. So if we can lose our salvation, We would have done it. Some of this, you have to kind of redefine what sin is, what sin causes. The Catholics have done this. They have venial sin and mortal sin. If you commit a mortal sin, God's grace is gone. You got to do penance and all kinds of things to kind of restore that grace that was given to you when you were baptized. And when you commit a mortal sin, that grace is gone. It's got to be restored. So you gotta change definitions of sin. But our security is not in our faithfulness. Our security is in God's faithfulness and in God's promise. And so he's the promise initiator. I read that from Genesis 12 because God came to Abram. Abram was growing up in a pagan culture and a pagan household. Why did God come to Abram? One word, grace. God's grace. Just like Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. God's grace fell upon Noah and his family. God's grace fell upon Abram. And God initiated the conversation. He initiated the activity. I'm sure Abram was quite content with his paganism and the darkness in which he dwelt. But the God of all creation, the true and living God, came and initiated a relationship with Abram. And he did the same thing to us. He is the initiator of salvation for us. And he's the promise maker. He's the one that made the promise with Abram. He is the one, as we saw there from Genesis 15, that entered between these carcasses. This was a common practice. Abram was familiar with what was going on. And the expectation was for him to stand inside those carcasses, as well as God, and say, if I break this covenant, let me be like these animals. Let me be dead. But he fell asleep. Because he didn't have the ability to keep this covenant. And we don't have the ability to keep the new covenant. Jesus said, this is a new covenant in my blood. I'm the one that's initiating this new covenant. I'm the one that's going to fulfill this new covenant. That's what it says here at the end, where it says here, We have such a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, in the very presence of God, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner. So this new covenant is based upon Christ and Christ alone. He's the one that establishes it, he's the one that keeps it, he's the one that fulfills it, and he's the one that bestows it upon us by his grace. And so God is the promise maker. You ever make a promise to God? Do you ever break it? I'll never do that again, Lord. I won't do it again. And all of a sudden we find ourselves, you know, I think this was Luther. He says, I need to hear the gospel every day because I forget it every day. Because the flesh moves in and moves me in the wrong direction. So I need to hear the gospel every day. I need to fall upon Christ every day. I need to be trusting in Christ, Lord Jesus, every day. Because he's the promise maker, and he's the promise keeper. What assurance of that? Yeah, I know, and I think it's being revived. Back in the 90s, there was this movement, can't remember his name now, the Coach Bill, W something, was the coach of the Colorado University, started this promise keepers movement. I went to one in Indianapolis, I think I went to one here in St. Louis. I went with my brother to Washington, D.C. when we had a big rally back in the 90s in Washington, D.C. where we had hundreds of thousands of men that wanted to be promise keepers, promise keepers to their wife and to their family and to their Lord. And that's a good ambition, that's a good desire, but we are frail people. Our faith fades at times, and it's frail, and there's times that we break our promises. But God is a promise keeper. And his promises to us, that's why we sing, standing on the promises. The promises of God are sure. They will not fail. They never fail because God doesn't fail. And so he's the promise keeper. You see, our security is always in Christ. It's not in ourselves. And he's the promise sustainer. This is part of what Peter talks about when he mentions, quoting from Isaiah, that the flowers of the field will fade and the grass will wither, but the word of God endures, what? Forever. God's word is everlasting. Voltaire mockingly said that Christianity would fade and would disappear on the trash heaps of society. That might not be his next word, but that's what he meant. And guess what's going on where Voltaire lived and where he died? A printing company that prints Bibles. You know, there's a cartoon I saw a long time ago, probably 30, 40 years ago. Nietzsche came out with the God is Dead movement. And so this cartoon on this graffiti on this wall, God is dead, Nietzsche. And underneath that, Nietzsche is dead, God. God is the promised sustainer. His word never fades or never ceases. We can trust his promises. We can trust his word. In many respects, we're promise breakers. Even with the best intention and desires of our heart, we find ourselves failing over and over and over again. But God's grace is sufficient, 1 John 1.9, When we confess our sin, God is faithful and just. Now again, we're not talking about to excuse our sin, have a license to sin because of God's grace. The Bible speaks pointedly against this over and over again. But His grace is sufficient that when we fall, we can confess that failure and God's faithful. He's just. Now I've emphasized this at least once before. Why is God just to forgive us of our sin? Because Romans 3, beginning in verse 21, says God demonstrated His justice at the cross. And His wrath, which Romans 1.18 says, must fall upon all ungodliness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth, His wrath must fall upon wickedness. His wrath must fall upon sin. But when Paul picks that back up in verse 21 of chapter 3 of Romans, he said God did demonstrate His justice. He did demonstrate His judgment of sin at the cross. And so now God is able to forgive me And he's just to forgive me because my sin has already been judged in Christ. You get that? He all looked like a calf looking at a new gate. That is why that promise is there. God is faithful and He's just. He's not excusing our sin. My sin's been paid for. Verse 7 of chapter 1 says, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us of all sin. When I came to Christ as a seven-year-old boy, the majority of my sin was future. And God cleansed me of that by His grace. And our example is Abraham. Abraham believed God through adversity as he sojourned in the promised land. Lot's rebellion against him, Lot's falling into fellowship with those at Sodom and having to rescue Lot. His struggle when he and Sarah sojourned into Egypt with the famine. And he was afraid that Pharaoh would kill him and take Sarah as his wife. And so he's just telling him, you're my sister, which technically was true. But going back to God as the sustainer of his promises, God was watching over the foolishness of Abraham. Because God had made a promise to Abraham that he would have what? An heir, right? So here they are in Egypt. Pharaoh's taken Sarah, probably into the harem, hasn't touched her yet, but taken her into the harem. What if Sarah had become pregnant by Pharaoh, and then her and Abraham move on, and she's pregnant, not knowing it's not Abraham, but it's Pharaoh? And then they look upon that child as the heir of Abraham that God promised. You get what I'm saying? And so God was watching over the foolishness of Abraham and would not allow Pharaoh. And then later on, he does the same dumb thing with Bimelech. And God was watching over his promise, this is what Jeremiah says, he watches over his word to perform it. And so even the foolishness of Abraham with Pharaoh and later on with Abimelech, God was watching and protecting, not just Sarah and Abraham, God was watching over his promise that Abraham would have an heir, a son of promise. And even when Sarah and Abraham got together and worked out this deal with Hagar, which culturally was acceptable, God said, your servant's not going to be your heir. And when Ishmael came along, Ishmael's not going to be your heir. You're going to receive an heir that I provide for you. And we see in Romans chapter 4, Abraham was 99, 100 years old. Sarah's around 90 years old. The menopause train had passed Sarah a long time ago. And God did a supernatural work, miracle in the womb of Sarah by natural means, but it still was an opening her womb because God said, I'm giving you an heir, a son of promise, which was a type and shadow of the Lord Jesus. He's the ultimate son of promise. And so he believed through adversity, he believed through uncertainty, he believed in the face of impossibility, which I just described. Read chapter four of Romans. And he believed, and it was his faith that God justified him through. And because he believed God's word, it was counted to him as righteousness. And Abraham was justified by faith. And that's what, let me read a few verses quickly here from Romans 4. For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if it's inheritance of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law, there is no transgression. That is why it depends on faith. in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to his offspring, not only to the inheritor of the law, but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As is written, I have made you the father of many nations in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. In hope, he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told. So shall their offspring be. He did not weaken in faith. I think that means he didn't give up. Even in his failures, he kept on. Now that's a sign of a true regenerated believer in Jesus Christ. Again, one of my favorite verses, I never can remember which verse, but it's in Proverbs 24. Though a righteous man falls down seven times, he keeps getting back up. And so Abraham did not weaken in the sense that he jettisoned his faith, because true believers don't do that. When he considered his own body, which was as good as dead, since he was about 100 years old, when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb, no distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God. But he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. You see, we need to come to the point of faith where we don't doubt God's love. Now, occasions that may flicker in our hearts, but we need to come back and know the promise of God. We need to come to the point in our life that we believe that God has forgiven us. Do you struggle with trusting that God has forgiven you? At times I have. There's times I don't act like I'm saved. There's times that I don't talk like I'm saved. But God has forgiven me. And whenever I'm in that situation, I must repent, trust 1 John 1. and keep on trusting Christ that I am forgiven. Later on as we get through Hebrews, the preacher is going to talk about the sufficiency of Jesus' sacrifice, which is once for all, to cleanse our conscience. That means we're forgiven. We're no longer under the wrath of God. we're under his grace, we're in a grace relationship, we're in a mercy relationship, and that's how God looks upon us and treats us. Now quickly, our confidence is in our high priest. These are some of the greatest words in this letter, in chapter six here. He's using a nautical illustration here about Jesus being the anchor of our soul. And so, God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater whom to swear, he swore by himself. That's why when we, I guess they don't do it much anymore because of our pagan culture, but in the olden days, and maybe in some places still, when we swear, we say, so help me what? God. because He's the one greater. We swear by Him. But God has no one greater. I talked about this last week. God seeks His glory because there's no one greater to give glory to. And so He seeks His own glory and He's right in doing that because there's no one greater than He is. And He could not swear by anything else. In fact, the Bible says don't swear by the sun or the moon or by the earth. God couldn't swear by anything greater than himself, because there is not one greater than him. So surely I'll bless you and multiply you, and thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and all their disputes and oath is final. God's covenant is final. What Jesus did for us at the cross is final. There's no place else to look. There's no one else to look to. We look to Christ and Christ alone because this covenant is final. That's what I'm telling you. The majority of this text is talking about our security. We have security in Christ. for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs the promise, the unchangeable character of his purpose, what is his purpose? I've got it down here. We flee to Christ for our refuge. He is our encouragement. He is the anchor of our soul. He redeems us, reconciles us, restores us, and his priestly ministry is eternal. I'll just talk about that as we conclude here. So the unchangeable character of his purpose, what is God's purpose? It's to restore us. It's to reconcile us. God's not the one, you know, a friend of mine used to have a bumper sticker on, I think he had a 65 Mustang, powder blue with a white vinyl top. 289 under the hood. On his bumper sticker he said, far from God, who moved? We're the ones that stray. We're the ones that turn our back. We're the ones that pursue the desires of our flesh. God is stable. He's there. In fact, in reality, He's only one step, one prayer, one turn away to restore us, to redeem us, to reconcile us. God is the offended one. That's why we need reconciliation to Him. He's offended by our sin. He's offended by our rebellion. And we need to be reconciled to Him. And in Christ, we are reconciled. We are restored. We are redeemed in Him and Him alone. And so, so by two unchangeable things in which is impossible for God to lie, That's one reason Jesus said, I am the way and I am what? The truth. The words of God are true because of who he is. We who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope. You know, someone says, when you get to the end of your rope, do what? Tie a knot and hang on. We need strong encouragement to hold fast to this hope. Now, how do we do that? Well, we do it by reading the Word of God, by meditating upon the Word of God, by looking at the promises. In fact, I had a lady from my former church in Moberly send me a message, and she said, I'm having some difficulty in my Bible readings. So I basically gave her my basic formula to read the proverb for the day. I read the five psalms that correspond to the day. Today is August 11th, so you would read Psalm 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, because five times 11 is what? Sandy, our mathematician, it's 55, right? So you kind of just multiply five times the day, and you backtrack down back to The five Psalms and so if you read five Psalms a day, this isn't legalism If you missed a couple days just start on the day that you want to do it Don't try to backtrack because you'll get bogged down. Just just start today If you want to read something today go to Psalm 51 and read through Psalm 55 tomorrow read Psalm 56 through 60 And so I just gave her that form and I said, and read one of the gospels, Mark or John was my recommendation. And so when we get in a pattern where we kind of get out of sync, our hope and our encouragement comes from the word of God and the spirit of God working in us. And so we hold fast by clinging to Christ through the word of God. And so we have this, Hold fast to the hope set before us. Thou preparest a table before me. Where? In the presence of my what? Enemies. Jesus, the bread of life, we can feast upon him. Jesus, the living water, we can drink from that stream. That's where our encouragement comes. That's where our assurance comes from. It is set before us, primarily, I think, significantly, almost, I think, exclusively in the Word of God. We have this set before us as a sure and steadfast anchor He's using a nautical analogy here. And it's an anchor of our soul. It's an anchor of our inner man and woman. It's an anchor that links us with security and steadfastness in the very depth of our being. beyond what the wind's doing or what the waves are doing. This anchor is sure. This anchor is steadfast. This anchor is the one where the disciples, I've mentioned, I didn't realize this until we went through Mark. And I've said this several times. While they were in the storm and they were terrified by the storm, and Jesus is sleeping in the bottom of the boat, the best place they could have gone was go down and lay next to him and sleep with him. in the sense of peace and security. And forget about what was raging about them. Because He is a sure and steadfast anchor of our soul. That's easy to preach. It's harder to live. I understand that. But that's what's set before us. Why? Because our hope, Christ, entered into the inner place behind the curtain. Jesus brought himself as a sacrifice. brought his blood, or you washed in the blood, he brought his blood into the very sanctuary that we'll see as we move through this letter, into a sanctuary that is not made with hands, a sanctuary that is the very presence of the true and living God, he brought himself as that Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, he brought his blood before the Father, and he says, I have paid the price. I have paid the penalty. I've endured the wrath of their sin. And He brings that before the Father. And the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us. We're covered by the blood of Christ. We're clothed in His righteousness. And He's entered in the very presence of God. And He's entered as our Great High Priest. As we'll see as we read through this epistle, the Aaronic priesthood had to do this over, and over, and over, and over. And one would die, and another one would come. And they'd have to do it over, and over, and over. But Jesus did it once for all. His sacrifice is sufficient once for all. And our security is in what Jesus has done as our great high priest, as the Lamb of God, as that great priest who brings the sacrifice. And he has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become that high priest forever, forever. That sacrifice was once for all. His priesthood is forever. He stands before the Father forever for us. That's why John says in 1 John 2, I think it's chapter 2, we have an advocate with the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ. This chapter is about security, not about losing one's salvation. Those that just tasted, those that just experienced something, as John says, they went out from us because they were not of us. Because if they were of us, they would have remained with us. What security we have in Christ as the anchor of our soul. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your goodness toward us. Thank you, Father, for the assurance that you give us through your word and by the witness of your spirit. Romans 8.16, the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. As many as are led by the Spirit, these are the children of God. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. So, Father, thank You for the presence of Your Holy Spirit in our life. Thank You, Father, for the work of transformation, making us new creations in Christ. Thank you, Father, for writing your law upon our hearts. Thank you, Father, as Paul said in Romans 7, 21, in my inner man, I desire the law of God because I'm a new creation. And even, Father, when we find ourselves doing what we should not be doing and not doing what we should be doing, Paul cried out, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And if God is for us, who can be against us? So Father, thank you that Jesus is the anchor of our soul. Thank you, Father, that Jesus is our high priest forever in your presence. And Father, may the reality that you've loved us such that we would love you because you first loved us. Help us, Father, to be children of light, to walk in the light as he is in the light, And Father, to cast off the deeds of darkness, to cast off, Father, the desires of the flesh. And Father, help us to pursue Christ by your grace and by your power. In Jesus' name, amen.