Our Anchor or Their Anchor?

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. Well, we're going to start with a word, all right. I mean, if I was to try to spell this out for you, you may be just as confused as well. Maybe if you live in Pennsylvania you wouldn't be confused. But if I was just to spell it, I think you would be like, what is that? What is that? Because that's what I thought when I saw the word, I was like, what is that? Here's the word? You want to hear it. I'm not even going to attempt to say it. Are you ready? Here we go, Susquehanna.

0:42 You want to hear that again? Susquehannah. Susquehannah. You want to hear it again, Susquehanna, Susquehannah. That's the word of the day, Susquehannah. You need to use it in a sentence. And what does Susquehanna have to do with well theology? Well, I don't know either. We're going to find out, and we're going to do that. Well right after I do this. Good morning, it's almost afternoon. Good morning everyone. It is Friday, November the fifteenth, twenty twenty four. It is currently eleven fifty eight AM Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central Studio located right here, not in Susquehanna, but I'm located right here in Abilene, Texas.

1:29 See that's that's much easier to say, Abilene, Texas. Susquehanna. What in the world is Susquehanna? What is that? All right? You want to hear it again? Here we go, Let me play it one more time. Susquehanna, Susquehanna. What is that? Well, it appears to be well a name of a church, all right. In fact, it's called Susquehanna Valley Baptist Church, Susquehannah Valley Baptist Church, Susquehanna Valley Baptist Church. It is located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvaniase Susquehanna. If I can't even say it, if I look at it, I'm like, what is that?

2:12 Susquehanna Valley Baptist Church. Now this is one of those situations where I was like, what do I do? What do I broadcast? Let me just hop on the sermon's two point oh app and start looking around and then I see the first thing I see is preaching conference, and I'm like, ooh, that gets my attention. I like a good preaching conference. I don't like the conference industrial complex where you charge hundreds of dollars to get in. But there are lots of churches out there. I know, believe. I know this may seem hard to believe. There are lots of churches out there who hold conferences and it's free. They just announced, Hey, we're having a preaching conference and anyone is free to come in. And you just grab a Bible in a notebook and you just walk into the church and sit down and you get to hear preaching and nobody charges anything. They may take up a love offering, but they don't charge you anything. It's I know, it's a crazy concept. So I was like, ooh, a preaching conference. So I clicked on the conference. Right, I clicked on the conference and it's like fifty nine sermons and wait, what is this? It started on November the eleventh, twenty twenty and it's gone to November the fourteenth, twenty twenty four. What is that? And I'm like, what is this?

3:25 What is this series? Well, then I read sermons from the annual preaching Conference at the Susquehanna Valley Baptist Church. Over the years, there have been a variety of speakers and themes. So then I start looking down and I see a list of these PC Standing for Preachers Conference PC twenty four fifteen PC twenty four fourteen PC twenty four thirteen, and I noticed, oh, these are all the sermons preached at the preaching conference in twenty twenty four. Now, if I go down, they have sermons from the twenty two twenty three conference, sermons from the well, then the ones before that. They don't have dates on them. But if you look for SUSCOOL, if I can say it again, Susquehanna Valley Baptist Church on the Sermons two point oh app or the Sermon Audio website, then you look for their series find Preaching Conference, and then I would challenge you to download PC twenty four PC twenty four fifteen PC twenty four fourteen all of the messages for the twenty twenty four Preaching conference that was held Subsequanna Valley Baptist Church. All right, that's that's all I want to do.

4:40 That's all. No, No, that's not all I want to do. I want to tell you about it, because well, I was sitting here kind of stuck, and that's why I was looking around in the first place. So let me try to tell you kind of where I'm at right now. And then what we're going to do is we're going to go back to the week before the Susk Subsequana Valley Baptist Church started their preaching conference for twenty twenty four. The week before the conference, they preach a sermon kind of preparing everyone for the conference, and it's a sermon based off a passage in the Book of Hebrews. So we're gonna listen to it and then really we're gonna just kind of use it and maybe talk about the passage in Hebrews. And as soon as I started looking at the passage of Hebrews, I was like, oh boy, here we go again. I have a feeling that this is going to lead to a topic that keeps showing up over and over and over. So here is where I am in my Christian life right now. I don't know where you are in your Christian life, but here is where I am in mind. I'm in a position, I'm in a place of great frustration, irritation, and I don't know how to necessarily get myself out of it, to extract myself from it, to crawl out of it.

5:58 I feel like I've fallen into a pit and there's no way out. Here's two issues, that's just it just seems they just they just keep reoccurring over and over and over. And it's not even like I'm looking for things to keep bringing up these two issues. It's just like, if I'm listening to sermons, this is where I have found myself, and it's kind of a it's kind of it's kind of depressing. Let me explain. So to twenty twenty three. The end of twenty twenty three, I came up with a great idea. We're gonna do the Sermons two point zero app sermon challenge, and every single day we're going to grab the app and listen to a random sermon, right and and I'll give you different themes and different things. And we've been doing that. I mean, we're now fast approaching, you know, the end of twenty twenty four, and I think it's I mean, I think it was a great challenge. But I didn't see. I didn't foresee I couldn't have predicted where I would end up by the end of twenty twenty four. After listening to all of these random sermons we started at the end of twenty twenty three, all of twenty twenty four, I could not have predicted that when I would get to the end of twenty twenty four, I can almost honestly say, I don't know if I ever want to listen to another sermon as long as I live. That's kind of a depressing place to be. And I didn't set out to listen to sermons that I was going to disagree with. I didn't set out to listen to sermons that, oh I could criticize. I listened to sermons to listen to sermons so I could hear the word

7:28 of God preached. But really, two major themes have emerged, and the first is the never ending just drive me crazy, and we've talked about it throughout the entire year. This concept that, hey, when you become a Christian, basically you stop sitting and even though they contradict themselves, it basically offers this idea that when you became a Christian practically speaking, you know what I'm about to say, you became a new creature. Old things are passed away, all things have become new. Now you can say no to sin, yes to God. Basically you can be perfect. And then, of course, five seconds later in this sermon, they'll say, well, however, I mean, you won't be perfect, and you still sin, but I mean, you no longer have a sin nature, you no longer have a sinful heart, but you're still going to sin. But but I mean you don't have to sind. I mean, but you will sin, and just just oh, maddening, and sermon after sermon offers this idea of hey, now that you're a Christian, you should basically stop sinning. And if you keep sinning, well you're probably not saved. Kind of concept. Right, So, in a sense, it's trying to offer you hope, it's trying to offer you some form of comfort. I know you know where I'm going with that, right, And yet it's it's a fraudulent comfort because the reality is you're still a sinner and you sin every single day. You cannot keep the law of God even though you are saved, and that that became a reoccurring theme over and over and over.

9:00 You you'll I mean, just I think yesterday I think it's fair Haven Baptist Church. I think it's fair Haven Baptist Church. They're a broadcaster on the Sermon's two point oh app sermon audio platform, and they're doing like a youth conference, and I was afraid I was gonna start listening. I'm like, I bet you, I know where this is going to go. Then there was a sermon on having these strongholds in our life, right, these strongholds, and then that thing turned into I wanted to review it, but once again just turned into the whole same thing. You know, basically you can stop sitting and all just all kinds of just craziness. So I.

9:42 So I'm tired of listening to sermons that just keeps leading me to that same discussion over and over and over, because so many of the sermons it's just moralism. Do this, don't do this, do this, don't do this, and you can do it, and if you don't, and if you don't stop this and this and this, you're not saved. Moralism, moralism, moralism, moralism, moralism, moralism, over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, even though all around us the reality is Christian sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, and somehow the church seems incapable of dealing with that reality. So I just want to scream. I want to start listening to a sermon, and then I just want to start smashing the iPad into a million pieces, saying I forget it, I give up. Yeah, that's that's probably that's probably not good. But then the second thing that is, I feel trapped right now. Sermon after sermon after sermon opens, the Bible goes to passages that are clearly not for us, not about us, and they just immediately move the original recipients out and move us in. And then it becomes about us, and it becomes and we take those promises and all of those things and we claim them for ourselves, and we are mishandling scripture, miss applying scripture, misinterpreting scripture, twisting scripture, and not only that, offering people hope, and it's all fraudulent. So the constant idea that when you become a Christian, basically you stop sinning, and the constant taking scripture, ripping it out of its context, and applying

11:14 it to us. These are the common things I keep seeing and sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon. That's why we ended up. Remember in twenty twenty four, was it SAW eighty three? Why did we spend all of the time in Saw eighty three? Because once again someone going to that Psalm saying the coming Middle East war and we're like, what in the name of bubblegum is happening? And then now the the Isaiah forty through fifty five, same kind of concept, and then all of the discussion about sin and a kind of a low Gospel, the six Secrets of the all of those things, six Secrets of the Christian Life. I cut myself off all of those discussions. It just feels like that all of the sermon listening. I can tell you this, all of the sermon listening has not helped me spiritually. All of the sermon listening has only driven me to more frustration and more irritation. All of the sermon listening only confirms my worst suspicions that Christians can't agree on anything, and that the Bible is just Plato that we twist to make it say whatever I want. And it really is convinced me that I'm right when I say that Christianity is simply individuals who are nothing more than narcissistic textual hijackers.

12:34 We make it all about us. We take the text, we hijacket, and we fly it wherever we want. That's a bad place to be. As you fast approach the end of a year of listening to sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon, you would think after a year of listening to sermons, I would be like, whoa man. Now I know I'm cutting myself off. I should be like, whoa man, that was awesome, that was amazing, have all of these positive things to say. And what's kind of frustrating is the sermons should have led me more to face God, see my own sin, break me, humble me, and lead me, hopefully to a greater pursuit of holiness than currently present in my own life. But the sad part is it led me more to going, oh that no, And maybe maybe that's my own Maybe it's my own sin deflecting right instead of taking anything good, I'm deflecting it. And because it keeps me from looking at my own sin, maybe that's why I don't know.

13:46 I don't know, or maybe the sermons are just I don't know. So that's where I'm stuck. So I'm you know, what do I do? Well, That's why I was looking around on the sermons two point oh, I'm trying to find give me a little break, because I could go back to the Deuteronomy passage, but I think we've already examined that and what was it. It was another example people taking Deuteronomy and making it say whatever they want and applying it to us. I could review some more sermons on Isaiah forty, We're gonna end up in the same boat. I could try to go back and work on the six Secrets of the Christian Life. But it's like, at this point everything is becoming repetitive, repetitive, repetitive, repetitive, repetitive, repetitive. It's become being redundant. I felt that yesterday talking about comfort.

14:31 Now we did get a little break dealing with exorcisms. I almost wanted to go back to that's more. That's more of a break. But here we are. Because I saw Susquehanna Valley Baptist Sure saw that there was a preaching conference. I'm like, well, we gotta do this, So I went back to the message that was preached. I believe the week prior to the beginning of the conference. It is entitled R. Please note r uh us our anchor holds. Our anchor holds. Now. As soon as I saw R O U R, I was like, oh, here we go, because immediately we go to the text and we make it about us. Of course we do. We don't know what else to do. So I looked at the text Hebrews chapter six, starting in verse thirteen. Let me read it. I'm gonna read it. You'll probably hear it read during the sermon, and we'll make lots of references to it. All right, but that's okay. The more you hear scripture the better. But here we go. For when God made promises to Abraham. This is Hebrews six thirteen. Now, immediately where do we start. We have promises made to Abraham?

15:42 All right. Now, remember it's the book. It's the Book of Hebrews. Hebrews, right, are you getting an idea? And then we start this section with when God made promises to Abraham. It's the Book of Hebrews, and we start the passage with promises made to Abraham. But yet it is entitled our anchor holds. Okay, all right, let's continue reading For when God made promises to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swear by himself, saying, surely, blessings, I will bless THEE, and multiplying, I will multiply THEE. Now please note blessings, I surely blessings, I will bless THEE, and multiplying, I will multiply THEE. See these are promises to Abraham verse fifteen. And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise for men verily swear by the Greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. So this is about God making this promise, God making this covenant Verse eighteen. That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who

17:15 have fled for refuge, to lay hold upon the hope set before us? Well, who here needs consolation? Who here needs refuge? In this context verse nineteen, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul. Both sure instead fast and which entereth into that within the veil, whither the forerunner is for us entered even Jesus made as a high priest, even after the order of Melchizedek. So we have promises made to Abraham. And then now the writer of Hebrews, remember some say it, Paul, some we don't know, is saying, Okay, hey, God, God can be trusted, and how he made because he made by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie.

18:05 Who might have a strong consolation, So we can be sure that God does not lie, that He's made these promises based off immutable things, and that we have a consolation and a refuge. But who is the we in the context? Who needs the refuge? Who needs the consolation? Now, of course we love to go and insert ourselves, so we're going to talk about a lot of this. Now I don't have Again, I have not listened to the sermon, so I don't know which direction it's going to go. But you can see where my concern is going to be, which has been my frustration for a good portion of the year. How quickly are we going to be inserted into this text? Well, considering the title is our anchor holds, not their anchor, our anchor. You can immediately know we're already being inserted to some level. But who was Hebrews written to? What was the historical context of the right? See?

19:01 Hebrews is one of those books that I believe if people would place it in its historical context, A lot of the never ending debates over Hebrews about oh do you lose your salvation? And what are these warnings? And how do we understand these warnings? If we understood it in its Hebrew context and its original audience, I don't think it's that complicated or difficult, but we make it complicated and difficult because we constantly insert us in to the text. So let's listen to this. Let's see if this just falls into one of those categories that I've already talked about, right, those two categories that I feel stuck in, I feel trapped. I hope it doesn't deal with oh, you basically can stop sinning. I think it's going to go more with once again, here's the text.

19:43 It's going to offer promise and comfort to us that I don't know if it's for us at least in the original context. So let's find out. Are you ready? Here we go? Welcome to the Susquehanna Valley Baptist Polpeit preaching a life worth living, abundant life in Christ. And now the message you're. Hearing hebrews our conference starting next week, and I kind of want to sandwich the conference. Our theme for our conference next week is our anchor holds, and I want this week somewhat to introduce and next week to kind of conclude with it.

20:30 Now, I. All right, So the theme of the conference is going to be our anchor holds, not their anchor. Our anchor. Now that's the theme. So this is being preached a week before, so he wants to kind of start set up the conference with this, and he's going to end the conference with this. So you may want to listen to the first and last message or the message, the message that's a week before the conference, and the message that's after the conference, which I'm assuming will be Sunday. It could be interesting and you may want to go see how all of the speakers deal with this particular idea. But he wants to deal with our anchor holds. And of course the text is Hebrew six thirteen through twenty.

21:14 I think you can already see this is going to be heavy, heavy, and inserting us into the text. I think that that's going to be fair. I could be wrong. Let's find out. I have mentioned this to our speakers. I don't know which way the Lord would lead them, but nonetheless I want to spend some time on this this morning. Our anchor holds our text. Really, that we'd find in scripture's verse number nineteen of Hebrews six that we read a moment ago, which hope you have is an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which entereth into the veil. You know, as you read in the book of Hebrews, it's important to note that there are three groups of people, all Jews, hence Hebrews that is written to It is an expressively Jewish book.

22:03 It was written. Oh wow, okay, whoo, all right, this is good. He's giving us context. All right, ladies and gentlemen, I may be able to crawl out of my pit of despair. This is good. Three different groups, all Jews, hence Hebrews. All right, oh wow, this lady, I thought immediately he was going to read that verse and then just immediately start talking about us but immediately starts talking about them. Oh, this is good news, ladies and gentlemen. The sun is coming out. There's a rainbow in the sky and skittles are falling from it. There's a unicorn running by. The flowers are growing, the birds are singing, Oh, happy day. Okay, should I should I measure my excitement? Let's see what happens.

22:57 In about three different groups of Jewish people, and they kind of weave through the narrative of this exposition of scriptures. You have three different groups. You could call it the wicked Jews, the wicked Hebrews. These were Hebrews that had rejected Jesus Christ as the Messiah, and as such, because he proclaimed to be the son of God, the Christ, the Christos have now begun to persecute other Jews that have recognized and accepted his deity. Those are the wicked Hebrews, a second group of Hebrews, or the weak Hebrews. These Hebrews could be further divided into two classifications.

23:43 In a larger. Sense, you have those that are unbelieving in a sense that they're on the fence post. They have to make a decision. They can see the Old Testament truth. They can see the prophecies pertaining to the Christ, but they're stopping short. They're admonished in chapter six and verse one and following where he tells them to move on, to go on to perfection, to move forward from the dead works and towards the fate, towards God, and. To do these things. He's calling them to this, and they're on the fence. The decision must be made. They're not persecutors, but they're not believers either. A second group of those weak Christians are believers that are saved. They recognize the messianic provision of Jesus Christ. They've accepted him, but they're still trying to reach back in some of the old ways of the law, the Sabbath, and they're seeking, if you will, if I can quote Colaustionans, I think it's in the third chapter, the second or third chapter.

24:51 They're holding onto the shadows. All the types and the rituals and the sacrifices. And though they accept Christ and they're saved, and in that sense, they've not gone on to the full maturity. And you see this portion being revealed in chapter five where he talks about for when time you ought to be teachers. You have need at one teach you again, which be the first Prince with the oracle of God. And it become such as have need of milk and not strong meat. They believe, they have a desire for the censure work of the word of God, but they're not matured into the full. Measure that they ought to be. They're weak. The third group is the wise Hebrews. These Hebrews are believing. These Hebrews are dedicated.

25:39 You see in chapter six and verse ten he talks about not forgetting that the Lord is not unrighteous, God is not unrighteous. To forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed and do show in His name, and that you have minister to the saints, and do minister. They're wives, they're believing, and their belief in God has created change across the board in their life, in so much that they have dedicated their life to being obedient and following and pursuing the things of God. But they do have a problem. They are persecuted believers. Three groups, the wicked they've rejected and persecuted. The weak they're on the fence about believing, or they've just believed but not gone on to maturity. And the last group, the wise, they believe they're pursuing God, yet they're given pause because the persecution against them is great.

26:39 That's pretty interesting. Now that's good stuff right there, right the wicked, the weak, the wise, three different groups of Jews. That's important that are weaved through the narrative of the Book of Hebrews. And it says weaved through. So that means you can look at some section and go that seems to go to the wicked, that seems to go to the weak, that seems to go to the whys. Now that's his hypothesis, his way of breaking it down. Does that work when you look at Hebrews? Can you take a section and go, that's for the wicked, that's for the week, that's for the wyse? Do they intermingle? How separated are they? Is the book divided in? These sections are for the wicked, these sections are for the week, These sections are for the wise. That I mean, now this is good stuff, like this is the kind of stuff like good. You just handed me a great hypothesis.

27:31 Now I could work on this for six months. So I'm excited because that's good stuff right there. That's that's great. That is really good. I mean I'm not even I'm not being sarcastic in any way, shape or form. Anybody should take that right now and just spend the weekend working on it, all right. You can start mapping it out wicked, weak wise, go through ebrews and see if you can determine which sect, which versus apply to which group? Does that? Does the hypotheses fall apart? It? Does it work? How many is this a common approach to Hebrews? How uncommon is it? Like? Is there a history for this approach? Where did this approach originate from? I mean, oh, I've got so many questions. So maybe we'll do some work on this hypothesis. I think it's good. Maybe we'll work on it. But for now, instead of stopping everything, I almost want to stop right now and just start doing the work right now in real time. But we'll see.

28:29 I don't think that's the hypothesis of the sermon, right, I mean, that's not the thesis of the sermon. The sermon is about our anchor. So this is good information. What does this do? Because I think the thesis is is that you and I have an anchor. All right, But He's made it very clear that the book is primarily written to three groups of Jews. So how are we going to get inserted into this? How do we show up here? All right, let's find out. And that's really to whom this Book of Hebrews is written. Notice, if you will, in the text here, particularly starting in verse number nine, he said, but beloved, we are persuaded that has the idea of full assurance.

29:10 Better things of you, things that accompany salvation. Though we thus speak for God is not unrighteous to forget your work in labor of love, which He has showed, and do show in His name to in that you have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope, and to the end that you be not slawful, but followers of them who, through faith and patience inherit. The promise here is admonishing. There's kind of an exhortation, better things are persuaded of you. If you come down to verse number nineteen. The theme for our conference, how are they going to attain better things in the face of opposition? That's really the question.

29:56 You know, when you're in a time of difficulty in your life, when you're in a time of truggable trial and suffering, that's not the time that you want to hear about doing more for the Lord. So how are they going to obtain better things in the face of persecution or opposition? All right? That's I mean, I think the answer is somewhat. Okay, let's just see. Let's just see where he goes. Let's see where he goes now now immediately, now he's applying it to us, all right, how he's going to apply it to us. Let's see what happens here. When you have great concerns upon your heart and mind, you wonder, how can I do any more for God?

30:41 God has not seemingly answered my prayer. These believing Hebrews have prayed well countless times. They have turned their face towards to God of Heaven, and they said, God aid us, God help us. I don't know the exact context of time and when the Book of Hebrews has written this very difficult thing to ascertain, but I can tell you this persecution right after the ascension of our Lord in the heaven was very difficult among those believers. Okay, now we got to stop. The dating of the Book of Hebrews is hard to ascertain. Now this is a Now you may be just sitting in church listening that and not think anything about it. I would immediately be like, WHOA. If he does not ascertain the dating of the book, then the interpretation of the book becomes problematic.

31:29 And my estimation, my hypothesis is the dating of the book. If we can figure out when this book was written, then the interpretation of the book is that's the key. If it's written at a specific time, that is key. He says, we don't know. So let's let's talk about the timing of the writing of Hebrews. I want to go to those three those three groups. Wicked week, so wicked Week. I need a piece of paper. Where's a piece of paper? Hang on, I got a notebook here. I'm going to write that down. I'm going to write these down because we need to get to that. All right, Wicked Week, Wicked Week, and wise right, three groups. All right, we will challenge that hypothesis at some point. I don't want to do it now, but I definitely want to get to the dating of the book. And so now this is very important. There's a lot of times in hermeneutics and biblical interpretation knowing the dating of the book.

32:35 It may be interesting, it may it may add to a good discussion, but it doesn't really impact the interpretation of the book too much. I will argue Hebrews is one of those books that the dating of the book is absolutely critical to the interpretation of the book. All right. So he says that the writing the dating of the book is somewhat debate or it's hard to ascertain, but most I would let's I'll use the word many, many scholars would agree that the Book of Hebrews was likely written before the destruction of the Temple and seventy a D. Now, there may not be unanimous agreement, but there's not a unanimous agreement on anything in Christianity. I mean, there's not unanimous agreement literally on anything, all right. So I'm not shocked that there's not unanimous agreement. But the majority view seems to rest on internal and external evidence that it was written prior to seventy AD. I when I taught Hebrews, I dated the writing of the book somewhere between sixty seven to sixty nine AD. Right before the destruction of the Temple, right before basically the destruction of the Temple and Israel being wiped off the face of the earth.

34:00 So let's look for the evidence for a pre seventy AD date, evidence for a pre seventy. A d date. Now, this is not some academic dispute. This is not some academic argument. This is practical because the interpretation of the book has everything to do when it was written. Because if it's written to Jews right before the destruction of the Temple and basically the destruction of Judaism in the nation, then many of the words make perfect sense and what the author is attending attempting to do for the original recipients, the original recipients, remember Hebrew six. Remember look at verse eighteen by two. That by two, this is Hebrew six eighteen that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie. We might have a strong consolation. Who needs the strong consolation obviously Jews, who's about to see Judaism and their nation wiped off the face of the earth, who have fled for a refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.

35:06 They need hope, They need refuge, who does the Jews. And sixty sixties and the sixties, if you want to go sixty to sixty nine ad watching what is taking place, and they are about to witness the total destruction of their entire culture, their religiousness, everything's about to be wiped off the face of the earth. Then this makes far more sense. So let's look at the arguments or the evidence for a pre seventy ady date. I think number one the absence of the mention of the Temple's destruction. The fact that this is written to Jews and it talks about priest and sacrifice and all of these things, but it doesn't mention the destruction of the temple, doesn't mention it at all. That's seems odd, right, As one source says, the argument and themes of Hebrews strongly focus on the superiority of Christ's sacrifice compared to the temple sacrifices. Now, why would the writer of Hebrews be coming to the Jews going, hey, hey, hey, you need something better than these sacrifices. You need something better than the temple, you need something better than an earthly high priest. Why because all of that's about to be wiped off the face of the earth. They're gonna wake up one day and there's not going to be a sacrificial system. They're not gonna have a high priest. They're not gonna have a temple. They're not even gonna be able to the genealogical records are going to be destroyed.

36:35 They're not even gonna be able to determine which tribe they are a part of. Everything is about to be gone. So the writer of Hebrews is trying to prepare them. You need Christ. Move to Christ. Move to Christ, because all of this is going to be gone. You're not gonna have a sacrifice for sins, You're not gonna have a priest. You need something better because all of this is temporal. The fact that the temple, it's not like, hey guys, all of that's gone, so now you need Christ. It would be it would be much a different way to present the argument, Hey, you don't have anything, so you probably should consider Christ. Now this is saying Christ is better because at the time those other things still exist, but they're about to go away. If the temple had already been destroyed, it seems to me, I mean, you could tell me if you think I'm wrong. I think that the author would have mentioned it as a definitive proof that the old covenant system was obsolete. It would be like, hey, guys, I don't need to argue with you.

37:36 The old system is gone. I don't need to debate you. It's gone. Go outside and go look, go to Jerusalem. Oh yeah, you can't. Everything is gone. All it's gone. You would just say, hey, guys, since the old is gone, let me present to you something better. But instead of doing that, if you read Hebrews, sarcrificial system is spoken of in the present tense Hebrews, I believe it's ten eleven. I believe it's Hebrews ten eleven. I believe it's Hebrews ten eleven. Yes, And every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering, oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away, since it's spoken of in the present tense, not hey remember back in the old days when there no no It's being spoken of as present tents. So this would suggest it was still functioning when the Book of Hebrews the Letter of Hebrews was written. So the absence of any mention of the temple's destruction to me screams that this was written prior to the destruction of the temple. So that's number one. Number two, how about the context of persecution.

39:00 Hebrews refers to a community that has faced persecution but has not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. I believe that. I believe it's Hebrews twelve four. Yes, you have not yet resisted unto blood. This could reflect, and I say, could the early stage of persecution under Nero, which is about the mid sixties, mid sixty a d. Mid mid sixty five sixty six eight. Remember I date the book somewhere between sixty seven and sixty nine. This is referencing at least I'm around sixty five AD, So this would seem to that it's referencing the early stages of persecution, obviously not the later, more severe persecutions that come after seventy a d. So right there, there seems to be There seems to be the context of persecution, and the way it's described seems to lead me to around at sixty five sixty. How about the reference to Timothy.

40:03 So number one, there's no mention of the destruction of the temple. Number two, the context of persecution and number three the reference to Timothy. Look at Hebrews. I believe it's thirteen twenty three. I could be wrong. Yeah know ye Hebrews thirteen twenty three. Know ye that our brother Timothy. He's mentioned it, mentions Timothy. Now this would suggest a date within his active ministry. This fits with the mid to late first century, but aligns well with a pre seventy a D. Period. So those are three arguments to interpret or to understand Hebrews being written prior to seventy a D. Now, what are the arguments for a post seventy a D.

40:55 Date. Some argue that a post seventy a D date is based on philological or stylistic reasons. They kind of argue from a philological or stylistic Here's what they say. Number one, philological reflection on the temple. This is their argument. They say that it's possible that the author of Hebrews deliberately avoided mentioning the destruction of the temple, focusing instead on philological arguments about the ops about the Old Covenant being obsolete. That doesn't seem to make any sense. Hey, I'm just gonna deliberately not mention it that the temple has been destroyed.

41:41 But yet I'm gonna argue about the Old Covenant being obsolete. That makes no sense. I'm just not gonna mention it. But I'm gonna make an argument about being obsolete. Why wouldn't you mention the destruction of it? Say? That makes no sense to me. Hey, I'm just gonna purposely not mention that the temple was destroyed. Instead, I'm just going to give philological arguments about the Old Covenant being obsolete. I'm not a fan of that argument. As one critique says, this type of argument is weaker because the destruction of the temple would have been a compelling support for the Epistles claims. The number one support for the claim that's being made in Hebrews is, of course Christ is better because the Old is completely gone. Why would you not make that argument? It makes no sense. Yeah, the post seventy eighty, it makes no sense. Number two the sophistication of theology. Some suggest that the philological depth of Hebrews indicates a later date, reflecting a more developed understanding of Christ, priesthood and the New Covenant. However, this is speculative and depends on a assumptions about the development of early Christian theology. So those are the best arguments for a post seventy a D. Timing. That's ridiculous. Those arguments are I'm just I'm gonna be dogmatic. That's trash.

43:15 Everything points to a pre seventy a D. Writing, and I think it comes right before. I think it's written somewhere between sixty seven to sixty nine. I'm still gonna fight for sixty seven to sixty nine. That's where I'm going to. In fact, I'm gonna look here, i gotta study Bible in front of me. Let's see what they say. They have the dating sixty four to sixty eight. Almost almost everything you'll look look at a fact. In fact, I think, because I typically do so whenever I teach you anything, I have everyone in my church right there in real time in church, grab dictionaries, encyclopedia, study Bibles, and I think I don't think anyone founded a top found a timing of anything after seventy seventy eight D.

44:00 I think every source that we looked at in real time was all before seventy eight D. I'm not saying that there isn't one, but there you go. The majority of scholars. All right, you could say many, but I believe many is accurate. Many lean towards a pre seventy a d date. Some put it around sixty three to sixty five. I don't know about sixty three to sixty five. I think it comes. I think it comes around sixty maybe sixty five to sixty eight, sixty five to sixty nine, I think somewhere along that time. And because when you read Hebrews, if you wonder like this is why we get into all of these arguments about does Hebrews teach you can lose your salvation? And does this teach you that you have to do this? In order to prove that you're saying, we turn it into these soteriological arguments.

44:51 This is arguments for the Jews that hey, hey, this whole system that you're holding to, there's not going to be any salvation in it because it's not going to exist in just a few years. So when he says it's hard to ascertain, I don't know why he would say that. The majority of people put it before. I don't know why he would do that. That's just odd to me why he would say it's hard to ascertain. I mean, maybe he's got lots of books that put it after seventy a D. But if you look at the arguments typically presented the after seventy after seventy a d. Arguments to me are in no way. So let's see what he does here.

45:39 And it would continue for nearly more than a generation, in so much that the apostle Paul would gather support, financial tangible support to take down to the Church at Jerusalem. And there were many churches, the Church at Rome. The Church at Colossae, the Church in Malaysia, the churches in Galatia, Church of the Fesians, Philippians. These churches would send down finances. They this group of believers that were in Jerusalem, they were not bursting out the seams and success. Spiritually. You come under that kind of trouble in life, and you wonder, this is disappointing. I thought, I thought that God heard my prayer.

46:25 I thought that God would answer my prayer. And so much that you have a group of believers that are beginning, though they had been saved, though they have been faithful servants of God, their doubting, and the admonition here in verse number nineteen is to remind them that the assurances of God their anchor holds. You know, that's the same truth for you and I today. Okay, now, yeah, the believers that this is written to would have been facing some difficult times. If you look at the timing, the key events leading to the siege and destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and seventy a d.

47:21 It kind of begins in sixty six AD when the Jewish rebels rose up against Roman rule. The revolt escalated tensions and eventually led to a full scaled Roman military response. So it kind of starts in sixty six a D. Right, Then you have a Roman general in sixty seven to sixty eight AD, under Emperor Nero's orders, he leads a campaign in Galilee and Judea to suppress the rebellion. He systematically subdued Jewish strongholds preparing to march on Jerusalem. That's sixty seven to sixty eight AD. So, in other words, if you put the writing of the book somewhere between sixty five and sixty eight a D. The writer, the writing of Hebrews is occurring when all of this tension and all of the the well the ultimate destruction is about to occur in sixty nine AD. The Roman Empire faced political chaos during the Year of the Four Emperors, so you have that general's declared emperor, and then his son Titus took command of the Roman forces. And then April seventy a D. The Siege of Jerusalem begins, So April seventy a D. And then the temple is destroyed in August of seventy a D. So everything starts in sixty six AD. You already trouble is already starting. So anybody needing hope, anybody needing an anchor, anyone needing consolation, it's these individuals. Now, what is the consolation? What is

48:55 the hope? Now he immediately turns to us. But what would be the console and hope for them? Well, let's see how he handles this. He immediately just turned it to us. Let's see what he says about us. If your hope and trust is in the almighties provision Jesus Christ, your anchor holds, and it's going to be steadfast. It's not going to disappoint you. It's not going to break off and fail to secure you. Too often we as Christians, we move backwards on the promises of God.

49:35 I see now this is where I get frustrated. Ome boy, here comes my frustration. The sermons started with the three different groups of Jews that the writer of Hebrews addresses in his narrative, or he weaves them into the narrative of Hebrews. He weaves them into the story that certain art not the story into the letter that they are, that certain sections are addressed to the wicked, to the weak, and to the wise. All right, he talks about the persecution happening he places in its context, and then all of a sudden he's talking about for us to hold onto God's provision and promises, and it's our anchor. Well, whoa whoa, whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa? What promises and what's provision? Are you referring to the promises and provision being given to these people? Or what are you referring? And how did we all of a sudden get inserted? You just set up the context. Now you're going to the verse, and you're merely making about what about the original people? What about the original people?

50:37 God has promised us peace, yet we'll refuse his anchor and allow our hearts to be driven to the depths. Of discouragement. We see the promises of God in a hopeful expectation, and yet at the same time, like Sarah, that saintly lady of Old, we doubt God's ability to do anything. And the Old Testament guns set is his hand short that he cannot save it? So often we as believers are in the same plight as Sarah. We're laughing at the promises of God. Why because at the midst of it we doubt that his promises can hold.

51:20 What promise or promises are you referring to? Do you see a lot of Christians who believe who doubt God's promised to save us, Who doubts God's promise to forgive us our sins? Who doubt I mean you could talk about maybe people who struggle with guilt and shame, who can't accept the forgiveness of God. Is that the promise you're referring to are you getting to? Are you going to start applying implying that we have promised that God is going to do this for us, and this for us and this life. Well, the reason Christians may doubt that God's going to do this or this and this and this life is because you can look around the world and go, Okay, there's no guarantee God's going to protec act or do this or do this, or do this or do this. Now I can have full assurance that God will save God has saved me through the work of Jesus Christ, that I will there will be a day while there all there will be no more pain, no more suffering, and no more death, and all sin will be now. Yeah, I can have hope in that.

52:17 What are you referring to specifically? We talked about this yesterday. How some of the comfort that pastors offer is this generic, generic promise of comfort and peace that's never truly clearly defined, and it kind of leaves you with what what what? What does this mean? How does this even work? Because you don't see it working in your life, and this leads to problems. I don't know if that's where he's going. I'm just curious how the original recipients have already been so moved out of the text. But let's see if he gets back to them. So often we're on the side that draws away from the things of God because we doubt whether or not the prom us of God can hold firm.

53:03 And I want to submit to you. If God fails in regards to these. Promises, that I want nothing to do with biblical so called truth. I know broken promises. You know broken promises. You don't have to live long at all in life and no disappointments. That's a big statement. If God fails on his promises, then you want nothing to do with biblical truth. Now, this is the dangerous part. What if you're telling people God has promised something that he hasn't promised, then the promise doesn't come about, and then they perceive that, Well, then I don't want anything to do with biblical truth because God didn't fulfill this promise. Well, maybe the reason God didn't fulfill that promise is because He never made that promise to you and you relied to in a sermon.

53:55 I'm not saying this sermon, but I'm saying this is when we've been talking. This is why I've been talking about this over and over and over and over again. That's why the comfort in Isaiah forty verse one is so important. To understand the context. I can't run in. And so what promises is he referring to, Well, the promises he seems to be referring to or in Hebrews chapter six. Well, the only problem with the Hebrews chapter six passages is wait a minute, who is this actually too? Well, clearly Hebrews six thirteen for when God made promises to Abraham and then when it talks about the US and the WII, is that not referring to the Hebrews and the Jews. So what could these promises be referring to in that context? Could it be referring to covenental promises made to Israel and that Israel needs to hold on to these promises when they watch Jerusalem burn, when they watch the temple fall, when they see their own selves being killed destroy all the horrible things that happen. You can read I think Josephus the accounts of the Siege of seventy eight D. Some historians call into a question his account, but you can read Josephas and how horrible the siege was upon Jerusalem in seventy eight D. They that's, I mean, there was some really messed up things that went down. What can they hope to? What can they was?

55:17 The hope that they can is that God is going to ultimately fulfill those promises for them. It was I mean ultimately the ultimate fulfillment of these promises haven't even happened yet. Is that the hope they were to cling to, like what or was the hope of spiritual hope? Forget any material hope, forget any material deliverance, That ultimately the hope was found in Christ and salvation in Him, a spiritual salvation in spite of earthly suffering and death. Is that the promise. And no failed expectations. You know, it's amazing, And I know there's an election. I'm not oblivious. I haven't had my head under it. I mean I have nearly filled my recycling can with packs political action committees that are mailing to me, and politicians that have stopped by, and mailers upon mailors upon mailor's.

56:18 And in your heart there's wonder the politics of our day. I can't say what it used to be, but the politics of our day is about fear, the certainty that is conveyed that if a certain individual doesn't get elected, then that's the end of the America. You knew? Can I tell you something, just very direct, regardless of what happens on Tuesday, And the reality is, I don't think we're going to know anything on Tuesday. It's really going to be next Tuesday, two weeks from Tuesday. Whatever it is. But let me tell you to be as sure of something, God's anchor will still hold.

57:04 That's oh Man. So now the anchor in Hebrew six is the anchor that holds us because of election. Man, live. Now, if you want to apply it that way, don't we have to first? Don't we have to first do observation, then do interpretation, then get to application. He gave contexts, some observational context. Now he didn't necessarily show us how those three groups show up in Hebrews. Then he goes to Hebrew six thirteen through twenty. He's not done much observational work on the text, and then he's not done any actual interpretive text based on the context. And now he's already up to application. And maybe he's gonna back up and then give us something here.

58:04 It's not my promise to you, that's God's promise to you. You see, your circumstances in life. Are not. Somehow I picture of God's ability. You might be in a relation, You might be in a circumstance in your life, at work, at home. I don't know. There's a number of people. But you've got problems at life. Those problems don't always come from God. Oh boy. Now all right, so immediately, now see this is not this is God's promise to you.

58:45 Oh boy. So now immediately we've been inserted. And now he's saying that whenever you have a problem, it doesn't come from God. Now wait a minute, are you saying God didn't allow it? Are you saying things are happening apart from God's sovereignty? Now we get into a whole host of issues. Hey, you have problems. God didn't give you those problems, but he allowed it. He didn't stop it, he didn't intervene from it. So then is God not somehow respond? Okay? And now we get into oh boy, okay, I don't know. Now, I don't know what's happened all of a sudden. See, this is the pit that I have found myself in this year. I listen to sermons and now I'm sitting here going here's all these promises being made, all this comfort being offered? Is it peace? Is it promise? Is it comfort? When what about the people this was given to?

59:33 They have real problems their city? It depending on when this was written, the siege is well, the siege starts. Since seventy eighty, the siege is about to begin. There's already conflict, and there's already military campaigns happening. Things are not good. They've got real problems, like serious well, in fact, when you read about what happens in seventy eight, they've got horrifying problems. And God has never promised you that He's going to delive you from every problem in this life. Look back into Blessed Daniel in the Old Testament. Did he not get thrown into a den of lions? Don't ask you something.

1:00:14 Did God prevent him from getting thrown into the den of lions? No? But was God's promise? Sure? Yes. Probably One of my favorite groups in the Book of Daniel is the three Hebrew children, which I attempt defiantly not to call them Shadrack mee shack in a bendigo. I know that's the name in the Bible as well, But another name, Hannonaya, Miishiel, and Azariah is given. And these three Hebrew boys. Much like Daniel, stood defiantly against rebellious authority in their day. And I'm certain there was a chorus of so called well experienced people that yelled at them and said, if you don't go along, to get along, Hanna, iamis yell in Azariah. God's never going to be able to use you.

1:01:09 There's too few of you and too many of everybody else. But the theme of their life. Was deprive the truth of the word of God and rest with full assurance and the singular thought that their anchor holds. So they came into the plains of Dura and Nebuknezar, that great builder king, that's what he was, built him a majestic idol. And at the sound of the music, all of them were to bow before it. You know, Dan, you'll no doubt absent that day, and the music plays, and everybody in Unison bows except for three.

1:01:52 Here's the honest thing. We want to see great things in life, don't we. I've never met a Christian that didn't want to say with their life, well, I want to see God do great things in my life. You raise your hand, how naves, I want God to do great things in my life, all our hands right, we want that from God. Yet we're so so inconsistent about the regular things that God wants to do in our life. We're ready to see God bring about a great deliverance if you will. I'm speaking of Hannah, I, Michaelle, and Iszariah. They are the Jews present that had the same association that they did, and they're all willing and ready, you know, to see God work. But the problem was most of them weren't willing to do the little things at all.

1:02:53 Isn't this bizarre that this passage about hope and anchor and God's promises is turning into you don't do this. You it's about you and what you do. It's not about God anymore. It's now it's turned into about what you do and you don't take care of the little things. Now, I'm gonna let this play out a little bit more, but this is bizarre. This is the passage you're supposed to bring comfort, This is the passage it's supposed to bring hope, and it's now turned into a sermon you don't do the little things. You want to see God do great things, but you don't take care of the little things. Wait, when did this become about what I'm supposed to be doing? And this about me relying? If you're gonna make it about me, it would be relying on God's promises. What are these promises? What promises are you talking about? Is it like, well, God promises to do great things, but he won't do them unless you do Like is this? How is this turning into my responsibility?

1:03:54 If God answered our prayer to do the big things like you and I so oftenering consistent at doing the little things, we'd be in a world of trouble. But here's Hannaia Michel and Nazareiah and the King's benevolent King. After the first time he pleads with them, there's time and time again, but eventually they're threatened that if you don't do this, you're gonna be thrown into this fiery furnished Hannaiah shadow ack, Hannaiamishel Nazaraiah said, we're not gonna bow. Our God will save us. But even if he doesn't, that's a commitment to God's truth. All that we were committed to God's truth and did not let the trouble and the uncertainty of life dissuade us from that commitment.

1:04:41 They recognized as they were being chucked into the fire by the hands of soon men that would be slain by the heat of that fire, that God's promises were an anchor to their soul, and that their anchor. Would hold. There. What has happened here, ladies and gentlemen, What has happened to the text? I just don't know. I'm gonna let it play out a little bit longer, and then I'm just gonna help you understand these promises here that how are you to understand this? Like it?

1:05:21 It's so simple to me. But let's see if we can if we can wrap this up priority over an hour again. All right, let's see what we can do here. What trial or trouble you're going through in life? My friend, God has made certain promises. His promises to you are an assurance. Now we can ask this question, how do we know this? How can I know? How can I know that. My anchor holds? And I want to look at just a few things here in the next couple of minutes that we have. I want you to know. Number one, I can know that my anchor holds because of what God desires for me. Notice in verse number nine, we are persuaded better things of you, things that company salvation.

1:06:16 Okay, so just he's moved the original recipients out. He's just now made this all about us, and it keeps saying, our anchor, our anchor, our anchor, our anchor, our anchor, our anchor. Let me read it to you again, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure insteadfast, and which enters into into that within the veil. Please note it is we have as an anchor, that we is the original recipients. Here. He's writing to Jews, he's writing to the Hebrews. The anchor and hope mentioned in Hebrews six nineteen can, indeed and should be connected to the promises made specifically to Israel, as found in Ezekiel thirty six twenty five through thirty eight and Jeremiah thirty one thirty one through forty. That's how you should unders these promises. This refuge is strong consolation is because God has made promises to Israel and gets what they're about to encounter the destruction of everything and they need If this is the same concept being played out as in Isaiah forty comfort comfort, ye, my people, they need comfort? Why because they're in Babylonian captivity, but

1:07:47 that captivity is about to come in. Hey, these people need something to hold on to, an anchor. Why, because Judaism in Israel is about to be wiped off the face of the earth, the Abrahamic and New Covenants are foundational to Israel's hope. The writer of Hebrew of Hebrews explicitly let me state that again explicitly ties the assurance of God's promises to abra Ham Hebrews six thirteen through fifteen, and the fulfillment of these promises in Christ. While the immediate audience includes Jewish Christians, the broader promises of restoration, renewal, and a new Covenant from the prophets were deeply ingrained in their understanding. Now we could go through Ezekiel thirty six.

1:08:44 We could go to all these promises and see how this would be a hope. This would be at their anchor. The anchor. Their hope is the anchor, and that hope is in God's promises that he has made to them as a nation. Even though the nation is about to be wiped off the face of the earth, you can have hope that one day the nation will be regathered, the nation will be restored, the nation will be will get the land, the nations will get the promise, and the nation will be saved once again. They said, well, how does it apply to us, Well, if it applies to us, what promises do we have? Our promises once again, will be spiritual promises. We can't. We don't have any guarantee.

1:09:41 And he even said in discernment, any guarantee God's going to do this or this or this in our life. I have promises of well, something better. Spiritual promises that are better because any temporal promise, even if there is a temporal promise, we know ultimately we're going going to die. We know ultimately this world is going to go away. So the spiritual promises are always better because they're eternal salvation, eternal life, forgiveness of sins, new body, no more pain, no more suffering, no more death, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Now that hope is an anchor for us, but that application would come after first understanding everything about the promises to them. And oh, I don't have time. Now I'm at seventy minutes to go through all of this. I could go through. I could break down Ezekiel thirty six.

1:10:33 I could break down Jeremiah thirty one, specifically showing you what those promises were. We could break it down, but oh, man, see this is the same thing with Deuteronomy. Same thing happened in Deuteronomy. See same thing happened in Isaiah forty, same things happening in Hebrew six and all three cases. I could spend week. I could spend hour after hour after hour after hour going through the text trying to put it in its historical textual context. And to do that puts me then outside. Really almost every sermon I listen to, how is that possible? But yet, at the same time, we say we are people of the book.

1:11:26 We love the Word of God. We love it. It's the inspired and fallible Bible. We love it, and we study it, and we want to read it, and we want to just rip it into I don't know, a million pieces and put it back together anyway. We so desire. All right, Well, I'll stop there now, I'm kind of stuck. Right do we keep working on this? I mean, I mean all I could do keep working out, we could keep playing that sermon. I bet you're just gonna turn into a lot of what we need to do, or you know about us us us us us us us us us us us us us us us us us us us.

1:12:12 And what's bizarre is the original recipients, they just become for good. They just become an afterthought. They needed comfort. They're there there, their city is about to be surrounded by armies, and they're gonna be starved to death, and and and there's gonna be complete destruction. And what it was the numbers? Let me see if I can find the numbers here? Oh see, how many people died during the fall of Let me see here of Jerusalem in seventy I know there's going to be some disputes of numbers here. Josephus, I don't think most people account his numbers as accurate.

1:13:07 All right, here's Josephus estimates. One point one million people died during the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. I want you to hear that one point one million died. And a lot of this was was because of famine and disease. A lot of this happened because the Roman siege cut off all supplies to the city. Thousands of people died from starvation, with accounts of desperate acts including cannibalism. Say they needed hope. They needed an anchor, but we want to take it and go, oh, you're going through a difficult problem. You have a medical condition, your bank accounts running a little low. Well, your anchor holds. No. The anchor is for these people. They need it. One point one million people died and they had to resort to cannibalism to try to survive. They needed hope. But we just pushed them out and say, look, look, guys, we're here.

1:14:01 Make it about us. It's about me. Once the Romans breached the wall, they conducted a systematic slaughter. Josephus described the carnage and graphic terms, emphasizing the indiscrimate killing of men, women, and children. Josephus also reported that around ninety seven thousand survivors were captured and enslaved. Now, just remember a lot of people critique Josephus's numbers and say that they were exaggerated. Just so that you know that many people do not like Josephus's account. So just so that you know that that you understand that you can look at the works of Josephus and read about it. Just note that lots of historians criticize it. Okay, got into a huge debate with a doctor I worked in. Josephus wasn't an idiot.

1:14:53 He didn't know what he was talking about. He wasn't a good historian. Okay, okay, calm down, calm down. I get it, Okay, I get it. You don't like Joe Cephas, I get it right. But you can see my frustration. I mean, these are words that meant something to the original people, and we just walk in and go my anchor hole, my anchor. Forget your anchor, my anchor. Now their anchor would be somewhat different than our anchor, but it would be similar but different, right, because there are specific promises made to Israel, not made to us. That's what we get in the Old Testament, over and over and over, these covenant promises that are connected to the Covenant. They have clear promises of provision, of protection, of blessing, and we want to just take it all and make it about us, which then leads people with a false comfort and a false hope, and then we want to take anchors. Do we have an anchor? Yes, I have a blessed hope in Christ Jesus, and I can anchor myself to that. For what not that anything in this life is going to go well, that anything here this could be. This life could be filled with pain, suffering, disease, death, tragedy, famine, disease, plagues.

1:16:03 I have no guarantee that God's going to do anything for me in this situation, but I have an anchor that, well, I will be in heaven because all my sins have forgiven now that I can't. But is that the anchor being spoken of here? So we want to get back to what's being specifically promised to them again? Look at the section first as thoughts. God made promise to Abraham right then by and then verse eighteen by two immutable things, which was impossible for God to lie. We might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. What is that hope set before them? What is that anchor that both sure and steadfast which entereth into that within the veil? Now, is that hope that God's going to do something specifically for them? Well, there are promises? Is that hope specifically in Christ, that that they're going to have salvation in spite of the fact that a million of them are getting ready to die. I mean, so those are the more important philological and hermoneutical questions, but the sermon just turns it into you you, you you, and it's like, well, can't we understand them first? All right? Well, yay yay,

1:17:37 yay yay, thanks for listening. God bless