Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 19, we have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain. will your anchor hold in the storms of life? When the clouds unfold the wings of strife, when the strong tides lift and the cables strain, will your anchor drift or firm remain? A song full of questions about how secure are we in our lives when storms come, as they undoubtedly will if they haven't already. Storms of bereavement, storms of loss of work or friendships or relationships or money, storms of national world upheaval, literal storms sometimes, they are coming, they have come, they will come, and will your anchor hold? Will you be swept off your feet and swept away, or will you hold steady, safe, and secure? Well, the hymn writer Priscilla Jane Owens didn't leave us guessing. because she wrote in the chorus, we have an anchor that keeps the soul steadfast and sure while the billows roll, fastened to the rock which cannot move, grounded, firm, and deep in the Savior's love. So, what anchor can stop us slipping when the storms come upon us? That's the question that the apostle here answers for us and he does it by giving us first of all a strong confirmation from God and secondly a strong consolation from God. This passage, verses 13 to 20, it comes after a number of verses and chapters that were telling the converted Jews, don't go back. Don't go back. They were being tempted to go back to Judaism, to leave Christ because of the storm of persecution and social isolation from following Jesus. Don't go back. But now, The apostle's really looking forward and he's saying, not just don't go back, but look forward. Have a hope that will keep you, not just where you are, but that will pull you all the way into heaven itself. So let's look at these two chains, as it were, of the anchor of hope that he gives us. First of all, we have a strong confirmation in verses 13 through 18. It says in verse 13, when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself. When I became a citizen of the United States at the at Gerald R. Ford Museum downtown, a number of years ago, I was asked to take an oath of allegiance. And it began like this. I hereby declare on oath that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen." So that's where it began. It says, I'm not just saying I will, I'm not just promising I will, I am swearing, I'm taking an oath that I will abjure, that is completely separate myself from any loyalty to the nation which I came from. And then it goes on that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same. So it's cutting one allegiance and beginning a new allegiance. Such a solemn change was marked by it being framed in terms of it being an oath. It ends like this. I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law, and I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion. So help me, God." Which is not only asking for God's help with fulfilling that oath, but it's reminding me that that oath was taken before God, which we'll see in a moment has tremendous significance. Children, I don't know if this happens in your family. It certainly happened in mine growing up, and I used to hear my own children do it. There'd be some disagreement amongst the siblings, the kids, about something that's gone missing. And the conversation would go something like this. You stole my ball. No, I never. Promise? Promise. Do you swear? Yes, I swear. What was the purpose in that three-stage conversation? Well, it was basically saying, okay, you've denied it was you. You've said that. I want something more. So give me a promise. Yeah, okay, I promise. I never took it. Huh, I'm still not sure. Give me more assurance. Give me more certainty. Okay, I swear. Or I take an oath. Or I swear to God, as we used to say. I'm not sure that was good or not, but it reminded me of that when I read this because you'll see here, God made a promise by Abraham. And since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself. So God said he would bless Abraham. Then he promised he would bless Abraham. In fact, he did that five times. And then the final time in Genesis 22, he actually topped it all off with an oath. And we read of that in Genesis chapter 22 in these words. In verse 16, by myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven. So God made a promise to Abraham of a special son, of a special people, living in a special land, that would all be secured by a special seed, a special descendant who would secure all of this. And he promised it once, then twice, then three times, then four times, then five times, and the fifth time, just to give Abraham complete assurance, he, as it were, held his hand up to heaven. and said, I swear by myself that these promises will be fulfilled. Well, you don't get any stronger confirmation than that, do you? He swore by himself. Now, why do we swear by someone? Usually we swear by someone who is higher than us. because we're basically saying they have authority to punish us if we don't keep our oath, what we have sworn to do. And if we swear by God, we're saying, God, you have the right to strike me down if I fail to keep this oath. So what does God do when he comes to swear an oath? There is no one higher. So he can only swear by himself. And therefore what he's really saying here is, if I fail to keep my promises, let me cease to be God. That is stunning security that God would give such an assurance to his people that he's saying, look, if I don't keep these promises, let me cease to be. And he showed that in picture form to Abraham at the end of Genesis 15. Remember there he got Abraham to gather a number of animals, to kill them, to cut them in two, and to line them up. And then Abraham saw a flame representing God walking through these slain and separated animals. What's that all about? It seems a bit of a weird ritual, isn't it? Well, it wasn't in these days because when kings promised one another or swore to one another that they would not attack one another anymore, they would take a vow and enact the vow in this way. They would take animals, cut them in half, line them up, and they would walk through these animals together saying, if I fail to keep my promises, let this happen to me. Let me be cut asunder. Let me be killed in a gruesome way. And so God here to Abraham was not only giving a promise, he was enacting it. And he didn't walk through that corridor of carcasses with Abraham. He did it himself because he knew Abraham couldn't keep any promises, far less an oath. And so by walking through these carcasses alone himself, he's saying, I and I alone will keep this promise and if I don't, let this happen to me. It's solemn and the impact on Abraham must have been staggering to think, well, How could God give me any stronger confirmation than this? So he made a promise, he enacted a promise, and he swore by himself. Surely, don't doubt it, don't question it, surely I will bless you and multiply you. And that promise, we're told in the New Testament is ours as well. Our hope is similar to Abraham. It's in the promises of God, which were in the Old Testament and in the New. And it's fulfilled, of course, in the special son who is the seed of Abraham, Jesus, who secures to himself a special people. And he did that by being sacrificed. alone, without any help from us, to secure us and to secure a special land, heaven, for us. He obtained the promise. And here we're told in verse 16, what we've already talked about, people swear by something greater than themselves and in all their disputes, an oath is final for confirmation. I don't think this is true today, but it used to be in the courts of the UK, and still in the courts of the church when they're trying a case, that when there's a lack of evidence, it really looks like somebody has done something, but there's not enough to confidently convict them. then the accused can take what's called an oath of expurgation. It's quite a word, an oath of expurgation. And what he's saying or she's saying when they take this oath before God is, I deny this in the most solemn and serious terms before God. And therefore if I'm telling a lie, Let him who is above me strike me down. There's also what's called a promissory oath. An oath of expurgation is purging you of guilt. And when you did that, that was an end of it. The person was declared and viewed as not guilty. They were allowed to go on their way and there was to be no question about their guilt. because it was such a solemn thing they did. That's what it means here. In all their disputes, an oath is final for confirmation. A promissory oath is not so much a denial of doing something in the past, but a promise that you will do something in the future. And that's really the oath that is in view here, an oath that confirms promises. I don't think it would work today, obviously, because God doesn't seem too terrifying to most people today, does he? It doesn't seem to be a difficult thing for people to take God's name in vain, so what's the point in taking an oath to God? But it was certainly there in the past. So, verse 17, when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of promise, that's you and me, we are the inheritors of these promises. When he desired to show more convincingly to us the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath. That is a strong confirmation. That is as sure a thing as you can get in this world. So what should be the effect of that upon us? Well, that's what he goes on to speak about next. God gives a strong consolation. The purpose of a strong confirmation is a strong consolation. And we see that in these verses we've looked at already. He desired to show more convincingly the unchangeable character of his purpose. When he did this, it wasn't that there was any question in God's mind about whether he would keep this promise and this oath, he realized it was his people who needed more convincing. And therefore, he designed this way so that they would be more persuaded, more assured, more confident of the promises of the gospel. And it's a wonderful thing, you know, I don't know if you've ever been in this situation. Maybe, let's try and imagine a situation. Maybe you've got a, let's say you've got a husband and a wife, okay? And the wife says to the husband, let's just say, will you remember to book a restaurant for our anniversary? Let's just say that. Will you remember to book a restaurant for our anniversary? And he says, yes, I will. The woman's kind of like, not sure he's got that. So she says, do you promise? Yeah, I promise. Of course, I promise. And he's beginning to get a bit irritated. And then she says, do you swear? And his response is something like, what kind of man do you think I am? It's like an insult to my integrity. for you to demand not just a yes, but a promise, and not just a promise, but an oath. That means you really don't think I'm a man of truth and integrity at all. But when God does this, he doesn't stand on his own dignity. He doesn't say, look, you should just believe my word. or at least you should believe my promise, come on. But when he sees us trembling, quaking, doubting, tossed to and fro, he goes further. And he says, I swear by myself. He desires to show you more convincingly. He doesn't want to leave you in any doubt. He doesn't stand on His dignity. It's not beneath Him to go beyond His word, go beyond His promise, and go even as far as an oath to keep this promise. So that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie. What are the two unchangeable things? His promise and His oath. two unchangeable things, not just one, but two, in which it's impossible for God to lie. We who have fled for refuge, this is speaking of the Christian, having fled to Jesus as a place of safety. We're all, as it were, spiritual refugees, camping in the camp of Jesus. And he looks down on us all, these refugees, and he says, I want you to have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. And it's so beautiful, God's heart here, that he has such a longing to look into our lives and see our faith grow and our hope grow. As it says here, he wants us to have strong encouragement, not just mild encouragement, but strong encouragement, strong consolation, that courage would be put in us, not just to stop going back, but to Go forward. Press on. The hope, it's set before us. Hope is not a backward-looking thing. Hope is a forward-looking thing. A hope, he says, that is a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul. There's nothing like hope to stabilize us and secure us in a storm. the hope that it will be over. And that when it is over, I will still be here. I will still be trusting. I will still be looking to the Lord. What a great hope this is. He calls it sure and steadfast. Two words that together basically mean unbreakable. It's like, It's like a double chain to this anchor, neither of which can be broken. And then you've got this strange expression, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain. That seems to move away from the nautical image, doesn't it? Well, what's pictured here is Jesus, having died and risen, ascends to heaven and enters into heaven that was pictured by the curtain in the temple and tabernacle, hiding the most holy place. Jesus goes in there and so secures our hope. So try and picture it maybe not so much as a ship with an anchor going down to the bottom of the ocean, but a ship with an anchor that's going up. into the holy place of God. And maybe you can picture a curtain down either side of that frame. Christ has entered in there, and he's taken the anchor of hope, and he has secured it in the very character of God. a God who cannot lie, a God who cannot change. Where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, the fact that he's there means one day he will bring us up with him. Children, I don't know if you know how big the biggest anchor in the world is. Well, I do. It was on a boat called the Sea Wise Giant. It's a super tanker. It's now called Nock Nevis for some reason. And it was designed to hold a ship that was 1,500 feet long. It was 75 tons, 150,000 pounds. That's the weight of about 50 average cars. and it was 20 feet long, so you think of maybe three or four of me. It's absolutely massive. If you were to stand beside that, it would be, you would think, man, I would like that on my ship if I was in a storm. If you've ever gone on boats or ships with anchors, you'll know it is not an easy thing always to get that anchor secure. I remember being in one near Turkey once, and it was a stormy time, and the guy I was with, who was a captain, he put this anchor out at night and said, we'll be fine. Well, I saw the anchor. I knew we couldn't be fine with that anchor. Not in that storm, not in these winds, and I never slept a wink that night, because I had no faith in the anchor. I was always just looking out the little porthole in my cabin to make sure that the lights we could see in the distance hadn't moved or disappeared. I had no faith. It was such a paltry anchor, and we did move. Not far, thankfully, but we did move. Well, this anchor is bigger than any anchor the world has ever seen. Far bigger than that of the Nock Nevis anchor. And it can hold your life, sure and steadfast. The anchor's used here to communicate security, safety, And also maybe, you know, an anchor's usually hidden. You don't actually see it. You see its effect, but you don't see it. And there's something about Christian hope that's similar to that, isn't it? It's not like hope is often visible, but its effect is. The assuring, securing effect is. In the war of 1812, there was a very famous US ship. It was called the USS Constitution. And it was in grave danger. A squadron of five British warships, these terrible British people, spotted her and gave chase off the New Jersey coast. The wind died. These were sailing ships, remember. And the USS Constitution became becammed, motionless in the water, unable to sail away from these five predatory ships. So what did they do? Well, the crew used a desperate and creative tactic called kedging. And what this meant was they took their lifeboats, put them in the water, and put a heavy anchor between these boats so that the boats were together, the anchor lay on top of them, and the sailors rowed as fast and as far as they could in front of the ship. And when they got as far as they could with the chains, they would drop the anchors. And then the sailors remaining on the boat would pull on the chain and pull the boat forward until they couldn't do it anymore. And then the sailors on the boat took the anchor again and went forward with it. And the sailors on the boat then would pull. And they were doing this under enemy fire. But slowly and surely, they eventually got out of range. And the USS Constitution and its crew were all saved. And I couldn't help but think how similar this is to Christian hope. It's like you cast your anchor forward. You look ahead to what God has promised us. And you grab, and by hope you just keep pulling forward this sure and steadfast anchor. And thankfully, when we don't even have the ability to do this so-called caging, Jesus will pull us forward, and Jesus will ultimately fulfill our hopes and pull us all the way home. And that's why here it's called an anchor, sure and steadfast. Will your anchor hold in the storms of life? What anchor can keep us from slipping? Find sure and steadfast hope in God's sure and steadfast anchor. Our hope can only be as strong as the anchor, can't it? And what a joy, Christian, if you have that anchor in your soul. It's sure and it's steadfast. It can never be separated. Not one link in that chain can ever be damaged. Maybe our hold on the chain can be weakened, but the chain can never be weakened. And the apostle brings us in front of people in the midst of a storm and says, use this to not just keep yourself safe and secure and stable, but to move forward. Keep hoping, keep looking. Because these promises of a special sun and a special people and a special land through a special seed, they aren't fulfilled here below. They're fulfilled above and beyond time and place. But what if you don't have an anchor? Or what if you're relying on an anchor that is not this one? It's like somebody in a little boat and the current is coming fast down the river and there's this little boat with a little person in it rowing, rowing, rowing as fast as hard as they can to try and go up against the current. And anyone looking at this with a drone can see that just ahead is a massive waterfall that no one could survive if they went over it. And this little boat, for all the effort, is slowly, slowly, slowly losing ground and is close and closer to the edge. Oh, for an anchor that can hold that boat. Do you have it? Is it an anchor that will hold in the storm of death? Or are you going over the edge? to be crashed forever on the rocks of a lost eternity. If you have an anchor, you don't need to roll. It's not about human effort. It's about the power of the chain. And that chain is unbreakable. And it makes all the difference to life here to have a sure and steadfast hope. And oh, an eternal and infinite difference in the life to come. We've spent a number of weeks in Hebrews. We're about halfway through. And we're gonna take a break. I'll come back to it. I don't like doing series that are too long. So sometime we'll come back to this later in the year. I want to try and do a series of sermons coming up on the Christian's response to artificial intelligence. And that might seem a really weird subject for a sermon or even a series of sermons, but friends, I believe from what I have read and found out over recent weeks and months that AI is going to create the biggest storm that we as individuals and families have seen in this nation for a long, long time. I think it's a great gift. So much good can be done with it, but it is going to put millions and millions and millions of people out of work. It's going to change our nation and our world in a way that we cannot even begin to imagine. I'm not an alarmist by nature, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I really believe something massive is coming, and we need to be ready. We need to prepare. I know some of the old ones feel, it's got nothing to do with me. It's got everything to do with your grandchildren though. And you can help them, and you can guide them, because the world as we knew, is about to change forever, and we need an anchor in that storm. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for hope, especially in the midst of life's storms, and pray that each soul here would be well anchored in the hope that you alone give. In your name we pray, Amen.