Nov. 15, 2024

Our Anchor or Their Anchor?

Our Anchor or Their Anchor?

A discussion about Hebrews 6:13-20

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A discussion about Hebrews 6:13-20

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Looking at our world from a theological perspective.

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This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central.

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Well, we're going to start with a word, all right.

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I mean, if I was to try to spell this

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out for you, you may be just as confused as well.

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Maybe if you live in Pennsylvania you wouldn't be confused.

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But if I was just to spell it, I think

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you would be like, what is that? What is that?

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Because that's what I thought when I saw the word,

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I was like, what is that? Here's the word? You

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want to hear it. I'm not even going to attempt

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to say it. Are you ready? Here we go, Susquehanna.

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You want to hear that again? Susquehannah. Susquehannah. You want

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to hear it again, Susquehanna, Susquehannah. That's the word of

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the day, Susquehannah. You need to use it in a sentence.

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And what does Susquehanna have to do with well theology? Well,

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I don't know either. We're going to find out, and

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we're going to do that. Well right after I do this.

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Good morning, it's almost afternoon. Good morning everyone. It is Friday,

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November the fifteenth, twenty twenty four. It is currently eleven

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fifty eight AM Central Time, and I am coming to

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you live from the Theology Central Studio located right here,

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not in Susquehanna, but I'm located right here in Abilene, Texas.

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See that's that's much easier to say, Abilene, Texas. Susquehanna.

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What in the world is Susquehanna? What is that? All right?

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You want to hear it again? Here we go, Let

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me play it one more time. Susquehanna, Susquehanna.

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What is that?

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Well, it appears to be well a name of a church,

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all right. In fact, it's called Susquehanna Valley Baptist Church,

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Susquehannah Valley Baptist Church, Susquehanna Valley Baptist Church. It is

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located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvaniase Susquehanna. If I can't even say it,

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if I look at it, I'm like, what is that?

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Susquehanna Valley Baptist Church. Now this is one of those

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situations where I was like, what do I do? What

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do I broadcast? Let me just hop on the sermon's

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two point oh app and start looking around and then

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I see the first thing I see is preaching conference,

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and I'm like, ooh, that gets my attention. I like

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a good preaching conference. I don't like the conference industrial

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complex where you charge hundreds of dollars to get in.

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But there are lots of churches out there. I know, believe.

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I know this may seem hard to believe. There are

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lots of churches out there who hold conferences and it's free.

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They just announced, Hey, we're having a preaching conference and

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anyone is free to come in. And you just grab

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a Bible in a notebook and you just walk into

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the church and sit down and you get to hear

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preaching and nobody charges anything. They may take up a

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love offering, but they don't charge you anything. It's I know,

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it's a crazy concept. So I was like, ooh, a

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preaching conference. So I clicked on the conference. Right, I

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clicked on the conference and it's like fifty nine sermons

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and wait, what is this? It started on November the eleventh,

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twenty twenty and it's gone to November the fourteenth, twenty

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twenty four. What is that? And I'm like, what is this?

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What is this series? Well, then I read sermons from

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the annual preaching Conference at the Susquehanna Valley Baptist Church.

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Over the years, there have been a variety of speakers

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and themes. So then I start looking down and I

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see a list of these PC Standing for Preachers Conference

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PC twenty four fifteen PC twenty four fourteen PC twenty

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four thirteen, and I noticed, oh, these are all the

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sermons preached at the preaching conference in twenty twenty four. Now,

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if I go down, they have sermons from the twenty

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two twenty three conference, sermons from the well, then the

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ones before that. They don't have dates on them. But

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if you look for SUSCOOL, if I can say it again,

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Susquehanna Valley Baptist Church on the Sermons two point oh

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app or the Sermon Audio website, then you look for

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their series find Preaching Conference, and then I would challenge

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you to download PC twenty four PC twenty four fifteen

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PC twenty four fourteen all of the messages for the

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twenty twenty four Preaching conference that was held Subsequanna Valley

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Baptist Church. All right, that's that's all I want to do.

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That's all. No, No, that's not all I want to do.

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I want to tell you about it, because well, I

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was sitting here kind of stuck, and that's why I

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was looking around in the first place. So let me

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try to tell you kind of where I'm at right now.

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And then what we're going to do is we're going

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to go back to the week before the Susk Subsequana

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Valley Baptist Church started their preaching conference for twenty twenty four.

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The week before the conference, they preach a sermon kind

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of preparing everyone for the conference, and it's a sermon

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based off a passage in the Book of Hebrews. So

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we're gonna listen to it and then really we're gonna

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just kind of use it and maybe talk about the

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passage in Hebrews. And as soon as I started looking

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at the passage of Hebrews, I was like, oh boy,

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here we go again. I have a feeling that this

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is going to lead to a topic that keeps showing

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up over and over and over. So here is where

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I am in my Christian life right now. I don't

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know where you are in your Christian life, but here

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is where I am in mind. I'm in a position,

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I'm in a place of great frustration, irritation, and I

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don't know how to necessarily get myself out of it,

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to extract myself from it, to crawl out of it.

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I feel like I've fallen into a pit and there's

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no way out. Here's two issues, that's just it just

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seems they just they just keep reoccurring over and over

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and over. And it's not even like I'm looking for

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things to keep bringing up these two issues. It's just like,

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if I'm listening to sermons, this is where I have

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found myself, and it's kind of a it's kind of

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it's kind of depressing. Let me explain. So to twenty

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twenty three. The end of twenty twenty three, I came

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up with a great idea. We're gonna do the Sermons

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two point zero app sermon challenge, and every single day

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we're going to grab the app and listen to a

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random sermon, right and and I'll give you different themes

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and different things. And we've been doing that. I mean,

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we're now fast approaching, you know, the end of twenty

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twenty four, and I think it's I mean, I think

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it was a great challenge. But I didn't see. I

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didn't foresee I couldn't have predicted where I would end

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up by the end of twenty twenty four. After listening

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to all of these random sermons we started at the

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end of twenty twenty three, all of twenty twenty four,

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I could not have predicted that when I would get

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to the end of twenty twenty four, I can almost

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honestly say, I don't know if I ever want to

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listen to another sermon as long as I live. That's

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kind of a depressing place to be. And I didn't

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set out to listen to sermons that I was going

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to disagree with. I didn't set out to listen to

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sermons that, oh I could criticize. I listened to sermons

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to listen to sermons so I could hear the word

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of God preached. But really, two major themes have emerged,

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and the first is the never ending just drive me crazy,

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and we've talked about it throughout the entire year. This

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concept that, hey, when you become a Christian, basically you

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stop sitting and even though they contradict themselves, it basically

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offers this idea that when you became a Christian practically speaking,

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you know what I'm about to say, you became a

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new creature. Old things are passed away, all things have

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become new. Now you can say no to sin, yes

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to God. Basically you can be perfect. And then, of course,

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five seconds later in this sermon, they'll say, well, however,

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I mean, you won't be perfect, and you still sin,

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but I mean, you no longer have a sin nature,

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you no longer have a sinful heart, but you're still

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going to sin. But but I mean you don't have

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to sind. I mean, but you will sin, and just

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just oh, maddening, and sermon after sermon offers this idea

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of hey, now that you're a Christian, you should basically

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stop sinning. And if you keep sinning, well you're probably

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not saved. Kind of concept. Right, So, in a sense,

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it's trying to offer you hope, it's trying to offer

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you some form of comfort. I know you know where

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I'm going with that, right, And yet it's it's a

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fraudulent comfort because the reality is you're still a sinner

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and you sin every single day. You cannot keep the

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law of God even though you are saved, and that

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that became a reoccurring theme over and over and over.

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You you'll I mean, just I think yesterday I think

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it's fair Haven Baptist Church. I think it's fair Haven

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Baptist Church. They're a broadcaster on the Sermon's two point

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oh app sermon audio platform, and they're doing like a

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youth conference, and I was afraid I was gonna start listening.

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I'm like, I bet you, I know where this is

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going to go. Then there was a sermon on having

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these strongholds in our life, right, these strongholds, and then

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that thing turned into I wanted to review it, but

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once again just turned into the whole same thing. You know,

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basically you can stop sitting and all just all kinds

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of just craziness.

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So I.

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So I'm tired of listening to sermons that just keeps

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leading me to that same discussion over and over and over,

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because so many of the sermons it's just moralism. Do this,

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don't do this, do this, don't do this, and you

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can do it, and if you don't, and if you

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don't stop this and this and this, you're not saved. Moralism, moralism, moralism, moralism, moralism, moralism,

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over and over and over and over and over and

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over and over and over again, even though all around

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us the reality is Christian sin, sin, sin, sin, sin,

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and somehow the church seems incapable of dealing with that reality.

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So I just want to scream. I want to start

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listening to a sermon, and then I just want to

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start smashing the iPad into a million pieces, saying I

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forget it, I give up. Yeah, that's that's probably that's

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probably not good. But then the second thing that is,

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I feel trapped right now. Sermon after sermon after sermon opens,

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the Bible goes to passages that are clearly not for us,

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not about us, and they just immediately move the original

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recipients out and move us in. And then it becomes

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about us, and it becomes and we take those promises

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and all of those things and we claim them for ourselves,

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and we are mishandling scripture, miss applying scripture, misinterpreting scripture,

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twisting scripture, and not only that, offering people hope, and

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it's all fraudulent. So the constant idea that when you

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become a Christian, basically you stop sinning, and the constant

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taking scripture, ripping it out of its context, and applying

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it to us. These are the common things I keep

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seeing and sermon after sermon after sermon after sermon. That's

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why we ended up. Remember in twenty twenty four, was

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it SAW eighty three? Why did we spend all of

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the time in Saw eighty three? Because once again someone

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going to that Psalm saying the coming Middle East war

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and we're like, what in the name of bubblegum is happening?

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And then now the the Isaiah forty through fifty five,

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same kind of concept, and then all of the discussion

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about sin and a kind of a low Gospel, the

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six Secrets of the all of those things, six Secrets

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of the Christian Life. I cut myself off all of

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those discussions. It just feels like that all of the

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sermon listening. I can tell you this, all of the

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sermon listening has not helped me spiritually. All of the

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sermon listening has only driven me to more frustration and

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more irritation. All of the sermon listening only confirms my

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worst suspicions that Christians can't agree on anything, and that

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the Bible is just Plato that we twist to make

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it say whatever I want. And it really is convinced

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me that I'm right when I say that Christianity is

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simply individuals who are nothing more than narcissistic textual hijackers.

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We make it all about us. We take the text,

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we hijacket, and we fly it wherever we want. That's

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a bad place to be. As you fast approach the

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end of a year of listening to sermon after sermon

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after sermon after sermon after sermon, you would think after

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a year of listening to sermons, I would be like,

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whoa man. Now I know I'm cutting myself off. I

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should be like, whoa man, that was awesome, that was amazing,

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have all of these positive things to say. And what's

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kind of frustrating is the sermons should have led me

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more to face God, see my own sin, break me,

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humble me, and lead me, hopefully to a greater pursuit

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of holiness than currently present in my own life. But

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the sad part is it led me more to going,

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oh that no, And maybe maybe that's my own Maybe

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it's my own sin deflecting right instead of taking anything good,

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I'm deflecting it. And because it keeps me from looking

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at my own sin, maybe that's why I don't know.

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I don't know, or maybe the sermons are just I

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don't know. So that's where I'm stuck. So I'm you know,

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what do I do? Well, That's why I was looking

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around on the sermons two point oh, I'm trying to

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find give me a little break, because I could go

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back to the Deuteronomy passage, but I think we've already

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examined that and what was it. It was another example people

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taking Deuteronomy and making it say whatever they want and

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applying it to us. I could review some more sermons

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on Isaiah forty, We're gonna end up in the same boat.

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I could try to go back and work on the

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six Secrets of the Christian Life. But it's like, at

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this point everything is becoming repetitive, repetitive, repetitive, repetitive, repetitive, repetitive.

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It's become being redundant. I felt that yesterday talking about comfort.

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Now we did get a little break dealing with exorcisms.

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I almost wanted to go back to that's more. That's

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more of a break. But here we are. Because I

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saw Susquehanna Valley Baptist Sure saw that there was a

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preaching conference. I'm like, well, we gotta do this, So

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I went back to the message that was preached. I

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believe the week prior to the beginning of the conference.

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It is entitled R. Please note r uh us our

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anchor holds. Our anchor holds. Now. As soon as I

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saw R O U R, I was like, oh, here

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we go, because immediately we go to the text and

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we make it about us. Of course we do. We

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don't know what else to do. So I looked at

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the text Hebrews chapter six, starting in verse thirteen. Let

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me read it. I'm gonna read it. You'll probably hear

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it read during the sermon, and we'll make lots of

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references to it. All right, but that's okay. The more

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you hear scripture the better. But here we go. For

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when God made promises to Abraham. This is Hebrews six thirteen. Now,

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immediately where do we start. We have promises made to Abraham?

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All right. Now, remember it's the book. It's the Book

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of Hebrews. Hebrews, right, are you getting an idea? And

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then we start this section with when God made promises

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to Abraham. It's the Book of Hebrews, and we start

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the passage with promises made to Abraham. But yet it

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is entitled our anchor holds. Okay, all right, let's continue

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reading For when God made promises to Abraham, because he

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could swear by no greater, he swear by himself, saying, surely, blessings,

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I will bless THEE, and multiplying, I will multiply THEE.

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Now please note blessings, I surely blessings, I will bless THEE,

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and multiplying, I will multiply THEE. See these are promises

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to Abraham verse fifteen. And so after he had patiently endured,

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he obtained the promise for men verily swear by the Greater,

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and an oath for confirmation is to them an end

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of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show

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unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel,

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confirmed it by an oath. So this is about God

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making this promise, God making this covenant Verse eighteen. That

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by two immutable things in which it was impossible for

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God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who

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have fled for refuge, to lay hold upon the hope

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set before us? Well, who here needs consolation? Who here

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needs refuge? In this context verse nineteen, which hope we

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have as an anchor of the soul. Both sure instead

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fast and which entereth into that within the veil, whither

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the forerunner is for us entered even Jesus made as

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a high priest, even after the order of Melchizedek. So

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we have promises made to Abraham. And then now the

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writer of Hebrews, remember some say it, Paul, some we

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don't know, is saying, Okay, hey, God, God can be trusted,

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and how he made because he made by two immutable

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things in which it is impossible for God to lie.

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Who might have a strong consolation, So we can be

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sure that God does not lie, that He's made these

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promises based off immutable things, and that we have a

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consolation and a refuge. But who is the we in

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the context? Who needs the refuge? Who needs the consolation? Now,

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of course we love to go and insert ourselves, so

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we're going to talk about a lot of this. Now

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I don't have Again, I have not listened to the sermon,

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so I don't know which direction it's going to go.

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But you can see where my concern is going to be,

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which has been my frustration for a good portion of

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the year. How quickly are we going to be inserted

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into this text? Well, considering the title is our anchor holds,

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not their anchor, our anchor. You can immediately know we're

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already being inserted to some level. But who was Hebrews

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written to? What was the historical context of the right? See?

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Hebrews is one of those books that I believe if

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people would place it in its historical context, A lot

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of the never ending debates over Hebrews about oh do

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you lose your salvation? And what are these warnings? And

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how do we understand these warnings? If we understood it

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in its Hebrew context and its original audience, I don't

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think it's that complicated or difficult, but we make it

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complicated and difficult because we constantly insert us in to

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the text. So let's listen to this. Let's see if

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this just falls into one of those categories that I've

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already talked about, right, those two categories that I feel

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stuck in, I feel trapped. I hope it doesn't deal

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with oh, you basically can stop sinning. I think it's

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going to go more with once again, here's the text.

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It's going to offer promise and comfort to us that

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I don't know if it's for us at least in

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the original context. So let's find out. Are you ready?

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Here we go? Welcome to the Susquehanna Valley Baptist Polpeit

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preaching a life worth living, abundant life in Christ.

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And now the message you're.

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Hearing hebrews our conference starting next week, and I kind

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of want to sandwich the conference. Our theme for our

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conference next week is our anchor holds, and I want

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this week somewhat to introduce and next week to kind

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of conclude with it.

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Now, I.

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All right, So the theme of the conference is going

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to be our anchor holds, not their anchor.

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Our anchor.

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Now that's the theme. So this is being preached a

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week before, so he wants to kind of start set

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up the conference with this, and he's going to end

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the conference with this. So you may want to listen

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to the first and last message or the message, the

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message that's a week before the conference, and the message

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that's after the conference, which I'm assuming will be Sunday.

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It could be interesting and you may want to go

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see how all of the speakers deal with this particular idea.

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But he wants to deal with our anchor holds. And

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of course the text is Hebrew six thirteen through twenty.

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I think you can already see this is going to

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be heavy, heavy, and inserting us into the text. I

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think that that's going to be fair. I could be wrong.

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Let's find out.

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I have mentioned this to our speakers.

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I don't know which way the Lord would lead them,

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but nonetheless I want to spend some time on this

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this morning. Our anchor holds our text. Really, that we'd

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find in scripture's verse number nineteen of Hebrews six that

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we read a moment ago, which hope you have is

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an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, which

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entereth into the veil. You know, as you read in

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the book of Hebrews, it's important to note that there

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are three groups of people, all Jews, hence Hebrews that

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is written to It is an expressively Jewish book.

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It was written.

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Oh wow, okay, whoo, all right, this is good. He's

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giving us context. All right, ladies and gentlemen, I may

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be able to crawl out of my pit of despair.

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This is good. Three different groups, all Jews, hence Hebrews.

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All right, oh wow, this lady, I thought immediately he

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was going to read that verse and then just immediately

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start talking about us but immediately starts talking about them. Oh,

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this is good news, ladies and gentlemen. The sun is

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coming out. There's a rainbow in the sky and skittles

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are falling from it. There's a unicorn running by. The

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flowers are growing, the birds are singing, Oh, happy day. Okay,

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should I should I measure my excitement? Let's see what happens.

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In about three different groups of Jewish people, and they

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kind of weave through the narrative of this exposition of scriptures.

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You have three different groups. You could call it the

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wicked Jews, the wicked Hebrews. These were Hebrews that had

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rejected Jesus Christ as the Messiah, and as such, because

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he proclaimed to be the son of God, the Christ,

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the Christos have now begun to persecute other Jews that

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have recognized and accepted his deity. Those are the wicked Hebrews,

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a second group of Hebrews, or the weak Hebrews. These

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Hebrews could be further divided into two classifications.

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In a larger.

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Sense, you have those that are unbelieving in a sense

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that they're on the fence post. They have to make

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a decision. They can see the Old Testament truth. They

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can see the prophecies pertaining to the Christ, but they're

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stopping short. They're admonished in chapter six and verse one

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and following where he tells them to move on, to

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go on to perfection, to move forward from the dead

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works and towards the fate, towards God, and.

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To do these things.

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He's calling them to this, and they're on the fence.

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The decision must be made. They're not persecutors, but they're

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not believers either. A second group of those weak Christians

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are believers that are saved. They recognize the messianic provision

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of Jesus Christ. They've accepted him, but they're still trying

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to reach back in some of the old ways of

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the law, the Sabbath, and they're seeking, if you will,

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if I can quote Colaustionans, I think it's in the

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third chapter, the second or third chapter.

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They're holding onto the shadows.

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All the types and the rituals and the sacrifices. And

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though they accept Christ and they're saved, and in that sense,

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they've not gone on to the full maturity. And you

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see this portion being revealed in chapter five where he

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talks about for when time you ought to be teachers.

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You have need at one teach you again, which be

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the first Prince with the oracle of God. And it

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become such as have need of milk and not strong meat.

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They believe, they have a desire for the censure work

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of the word of God, but they're not matured into

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the full.

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Measure that they ought to be. They're weak. The third

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group is the wise Hebrews. These Hebrews are believing. These

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Hebrews are dedicated.

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You see in chapter six and verse ten he talks

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about not forgetting that the Lord is not unrighteous, God

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is not unrighteous. To forget your work and labor of love,

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which you have showed and do show in His name,

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and that you have minister to the saints, and do minister.

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They're wives, they're believing, and their belief in God has

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created change across the board in their life, in so

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much that they have dedicated their life to being obedient

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and following and pursuing the things of God. But they

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do have a problem. They are persecuted believers. Three groups,

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the wicked they've rejected and persecuted. The weak they're on

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the fence about believing, or they've just believed but not

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gone on to maturity. And the last group, the wise,

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they believe they're pursuing God, yet they're given pause because

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the persecution against them is great.

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That's pretty interesting. Now that's good stuff right there, right

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the wicked, the weak, the wise, three different groups of Jews.

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That's important that are weaved through the narrative of the

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Book of Hebrews. And it says weaved through. So that

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means you can look at some section and go that

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seems to go to the wicked, that seems to go

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to the weak, that seems to go to the whys.

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Now that's his hypothesis, his way of breaking it down.

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Does that work when you look at Hebrews? Can you

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take a section and go, that's for the wicked, that's

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for the week, that's for the wyse? Do they intermingle?

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How separated are they? Is the book divided in? These

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sections are for the wicked, these sections are for the week,

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These sections are for the wise. That I mean, now

459
00:27:25.000 --> 00:27:27.319
this is good stuff, like this is the kind of

460
00:27:27.319 --> 00:27:30.759
stuff like good. You just handed me a great hypothesis.

461
00:27:31.079 --> 00:27:33.680
Now I could work on this for six months. So

462
00:27:34.200 --> 00:27:38.720
I'm excited because that's good stuff right there. That's that's great.

463
00:27:38.920 --> 00:27:41.119
That is really good. I mean I'm not even I'm

464
00:27:41.119 --> 00:27:44.319
not being sarcastic in any way, shape or form. Anybody

465
00:27:44.319 --> 00:27:46.279
should take that right now and just spend the weekend

466
00:27:46.319 --> 00:27:48.720
working on it, all right. You can start mapping it

467
00:27:48.759 --> 00:27:53.599
out wicked, weak wise, go through ebrews and see if

468
00:27:53.640 --> 00:27:56.720
you can determine which sect, which versus apply to which group?

469
00:27:56.960 --> 00:28:01.519
Does that? Does the hypotheses fall apart? It? Does it work?

470
00:28:02.079 --> 00:28:05.680
How many is this a common approach to Hebrews? How

471
00:28:06.160 --> 00:28:09.839
uncommon is it? Like? Is there a history for this approach?

472
00:28:09.880 --> 00:28:13.839
Where did this approach originate from? I mean, oh, I've

473
00:28:13.880 --> 00:28:16.440
got so many questions. So maybe we'll do some work

474
00:28:16.559 --> 00:28:21.039
on this hypothesis. I think it's good. Maybe we'll work

475
00:28:21.079 --> 00:28:24.039
on it. But for now, instead of stopping everything, I

476
00:28:24.119 --> 00:28:25.759
almost want to stop right now and just start doing

477
00:28:25.799 --> 00:28:28.400
the work right now in real time. But we'll see.

478
00:28:29.279 --> 00:28:31.440
I don't think that's the hypothesis of the sermon, right,

479
00:28:31.440 --> 00:28:33.640
I mean, that's not the thesis of the sermon. The

480
00:28:33.720 --> 00:28:39.200
sermon is about our anchor. So this is good information.

481
00:28:39.880 --> 00:28:42.000
What does this do? Because I think the thesis is

482
00:28:42.000 --> 00:28:44.319
is that you and I have an anchor. All right,

483
00:28:44.359 --> 00:28:46.440
But He's made it very clear that the book is

484
00:28:46.480 --> 00:28:49.200
primarily written to three groups of Jews. So how are

485
00:28:49.240 --> 00:28:51.680
we going to get inserted into this? How do we

486
00:28:51.799 --> 00:28:53.480
show up here? All right, let's find out.

487
00:28:55.759 --> 00:29:00.279
And that's really to whom this Book of Hebrews is written. Notice,

488
00:29:00.279 --> 00:29:03.200
if you will, in the text here, particularly starting in

489
00:29:03.279 --> 00:29:07.599
verse number nine, he said, but beloved, we are persuaded

490
00:29:07.640 --> 00:29:09.799
that has the idea of full assurance.

491
00:29:10.119 --> 00:29:13.279
Better things of you, things that accompany salvation.

492
00:29:13.400 --> 00:29:17.039
Though we thus speak for God is not unrighteous to

493
00:29:17.079 --> 00:29:19.279
forget your work in labor of love, which He has showed,

494
00:29:19.279 --> 00:29:21.119
and do show in His name to in that you

495
00:29:21.200 --> 00:29:25.000
have ministered to the saints, and do minister. And we

496
00:29:25.079 --> 00:29:26.799
desire that every one of you do show the same

497
00:29:26.839 --> 00:29:28.960
diligence to the full assurance of hope, and to the

498
00:29:29.079 --> 00:29:33.000
end that you be not slawful, but followers of them who,

499
00:29:33.079 --> 00:29:38.119
through faith and patience inherit. The promise here is admonishing.

500
00:29:38.200 --> 00:29:41.880
There's kind of an exhortation, better things are persuaded of you.

501
00:29:42.799 --> 00:29:45.440
If you come down to verse number nineteen. The theme

502
00:29:45.480 --> 00:29:49.920
for our conference, how are they going to attain better

503
00:29:49.960 --> 00:29:54.920
things in the face of opposition? That's really the question.

504
00:29:56.240 --> 00:29:58.119
You know, when you're in a time of difficulty in

505
00:29:58.160 --> 00:29:59.920
your life, when you're in a time of truggable trial

506
00:30:00.160 --> 00:30:02.960
and suffering, that's not the time that you want to

507
00:30:02.960 --> 00:30:06.279
hear about doing more for the Lord.

508
00:30:07.119 --> 00:30:10.920
So how are they going to obtain better things in

509
00:30:11.000 --> 00:30:14.200
the face of persecution or opposition?

510
00:30:15.319 --> 00:30:15.720
All right?

511
00:30:16.160 --> 00:30:22.759
That's I mean, I think the answer is somewhat. Okay,

512
00:30:23.160 --> 00:30:25.000
let's just see. Let's just see where he goes. Let's

513
00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:27.680
see where he goes now now immediately, now he's applying

514
00:30:27.720 --> 00:30:30.319
it to us, all right, how he's going to apply

515
00:30:30.359 --> 00:30:32.359
it to us. Let's see what happens here.

516
00:30:35.240 --> 00:30:38.079
When you have great concerns upon your heart and mind,

517
00:30:39.200 --> 00:30:41.240
you wonder, how can I do any more for God?

518
00:30:41.279 --> 00:30:44.640
God has not seemingly answered my prayer. These believing Hebrews

519
00:30:44.680 --> 00:30:47.640
have prayed well countless times. They have turned their face

520
00:30:47.640 --> 00:30:50.200
towards to God of Heaven, and they said, God aid us,

521
00:30:50.359 --> 00:30:53.920
God help us. I don't know the exact context of

522
00:30:53.960 --> 00:30:55.640
time and when the Book of Hebrews has written this

523
00:30:55.759 --> 00:30:58.000
very difficult thing to ascertain, but I can tell you

524
00:30:58.039 --> 00:31:01.079
this persecution right after the ascension of our Lord in

525
00:31:01.079 --> 00:31:04.680
the heaven was very difficult among those believers.

526
00:31:06.039 --> 00:31:10.640
Okay, now we got to stop. The dating of the

527
00:31:10.640 --> 00:31:15.839
Book of Hebrews is hard to ascertain. Now this is

528
00:31:15.880 --> 00:31:18.759
a Now you may be just sitting in church listening

529
00:31:18.880 --> 00:31:21.920
that and not think anything about it. I would immediately

530
00:31:21.960 --> 00:31:25.720
be like, WHOA. If he does not ascertain the dating

531
00:31:25.759 --> 00:31:29.599
of the book, then the interpretation of the book becomes problematic.

532
00:31:29.680 --> 00:31:33.880
And my estimation, my hypothesis is the dating of the book.

533
00:31:33.920 --> 00:31:35.759
If we can figure out when this book was written,

534
00:31:35.920 --> 00:31:39.960
then the interpretation of the book is that's the key.

535
00:31:40.440 --> 00:31:42.640
If it's written at a specific time, that is key.

536
00:31:42.839 --> 00:31:46.319
He says, we don't know. So let's let's talk about

537
00:31:46.319 --> 00:31:48.799
the timing of the writing of Hebrews. I want to

538
00:31:48.839 --> 00:31:53.240
go to those three those three groups. Wicked week, so

539
00:31:53.640 --> 00:31:57.519
wicked Week. I need a piece of paper. Where's a

540
00:31:57.559 --> 00:31:59.559
piece of paper? Hang on, I got a notebook here.

541
00:32:00.640 --> 00:32:02.880
I'm going to write that down. I'm going to write

542
00:32:02.880 --> 00:32:05.000
these down because we need to get to that. All right,

543
00:32:05.759 --> 00:32:18.640
Wicked Week, Wicked Week, and wise right, three groups. All right,

544
00:32:18.960 --> 00:32:23.920
we will challenge that hypothesis at some point. I don't

545
00:32:23.920 --> 00:32:25.880
want to do it now, but I definitely want to

546
00:32:25.920 --> 00:32:27.720
get to the dating of the book. And so now

547
00:32:27.759 --> 00:32:30.480
this is very important. There's a lot of times in

548
00:32:30.680 --> 00:32:34.720
hermeneutics and biblical interpretation knowing the dating of the book.

549
00:32:35.279 --> 00:32:38.680
It may be interesting, it may it may add to

550
00:32:38.759 --> 00:32:42.480
a good discussion, but it doesn't really impact the interpretation

551
00:32:42.599 --> 00:32:45.799
of the book too much. I will argue Hebrews is

552
00:32:45.839 --> 00:32:48.400
one of those books that the dating of the book

553
00:32:48.680 --> 00:32:53.359
is absolutely critical to the interpretation of the book. All right.

554
00:32:53.799 --> 00:32:58.640
So he says that the writing the dating of the

555
00:32:58.640 --> 00:33:02.799
book is somewhat debate or it's hard to ascertain, but

556
00:33:03.240 --> 00:33:07.720
most I would let's I'll use the word many, many

557
00:33:07.920 --> 00:33:12.079
scholars would agree that the Book of Hebrews was likely

558
00:33:12.119 --> 00:33:17.960
written before the destruction of the Temple and seventy a D. Now,

559
00:33:17.960 --> 00:33:20.319
there may not be unanimous agreement, but there's not a

560
00:33:20.400 --> 00:33:23.720
unanimous agreement on anything in Christianity. I mean, there's not

561
00:33:23.960 --> 00:33:27.400
unanimous agreement literally on anything, all right. So I'm not

562
00:33:27.480 --> 00:33:31.880
shocked that there's not unanimous agreement. But the majority view

563
00:33:32.640 --> 00:33:39.480
seems to rest on internal and external evidence that it

564
00:33:39.559 --> 00:33:44.839
was written prior to seventy AD. I when I taught Hebrews,

565
00:33:44.960 --> 00:33:48.160
I dated the writing of the book somewhere between sixty

566
00:33:48.240 --> 00:33:53.319
seven to sixty nine AD. Right before the destruction of

567
00:33:53.359 --> 00:33:56.960
the Temple, right before basically the destruction of the Temple

568
00:33:57.079 --> 00:33:59.319
and Israel being wiped off the face of the earth.

569
00:34:00.160 --> 00:34:03.799
So let's look for the evidence for a pre seventy

570
00:34:03.920 --> 00:34:08.280
AD date, evidence for a pre seventy.

571
00:34:07.880 --> 00:34:08.480
A d date.

572
00:34:08.639 --> 00:34:11.840
Now, this is not some academic dispute. This is not

573
00:34:11.920 --> 00:34:16.559
some academic argument. This is practical because the interpretation of

574
00:34:16.599 --> 00:34:18.800
the book has everything to do when it was written.

575
00:34:19.039 --> 00:34:22.719
Because if it's written to Jews right before the destruction

576
00:34:22.880 --> 00:34:25.519
of the Temple and basically the destruction of Judaism in

577
00:34:25.559 --> 00:34:29.079
the nation, then many of the words make perfect sense

578
00:34:29.119 --> 00:34:33.079
and what the author is attending attempting to do for

579
00:34:33.280 --> 00:34:40.360
the original recipients, the original recipients, remember Hebrew six. Remember

580
00:34:41.199 --> 00:34:45.079
look at verse eighteen by two. That by two, this

581
00:34:45.119 --> 00:34:48.079
is Hebrew six eighteen that by two immutable things in

582
00:34:48.119 --> 00:34:50.719
which it was impossible for God to lie. We might

583
00:34:50.800 --> 00:34:56.039
have a strong consolation. Who needs the strong consolation obviously Jews,

584
00:34:56.199 --> 00:34:59.840
who's about to see Judaism and their nation wiped off

585
00:34:59.840 --> 00:35:02.679
the face of the earth, who have fled for a

586
00:35:02.719 --> 00:35:06.280
refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.

587
00:35:06.679 --> 00:35:11.440
They need hope, They need refuge, who does the Jews.

588
00:35:11.199 --> 00:35:14.559
And sixty sixties and the sixties, if you want to

589
00:35:14.559 --> 00:35:18.599
go sixty to sixty nine ad watching what is taking place,

590
00:35:18.840 --> 00:35:22.480
and they are about to witness the total destruction of

591
00:35:22.519 --> 00:35:26.840
their entire culture, their religiousness, everything's about to be wiped

592
00:35:26.840 --> 00:35:27.880
off the face of the earth.

593
00:35:28.119 --> 00:35:34.480
Then this makes far more sense. So let's look at

594
00:35:34.480 --> 00:35:38.519
the arguments or the evidence for a pre seventy ady date.

595
00:35:39.880 --> 00:35:45.880
I think number one the absence of the mention of

596
00:35:45.960 --> 00:35:48.559
the Temple's destruction. The fact that this is written to

597
00:35:48.679 --> 00:35:52.159
Jews and it talks about priest and sacrifice and all

598
00:35:52.199 --> 00:35:55.000
of these things, but it doesn't mention the destruction of

599
00:35:55.039 --> 00:36:01.599
the temple, doesn't mention it at all. That's seems odd, right,

600
00:36:02.280 --> 00:36:05.199
As one source says, the argument and themes of Hebrews

601
00:36:05.199 --> 00:36:08.960
strongly focus on the superiority of Christ's sacrifice compared to

602
00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:12.519
the temple sacrifices. Now, why would the writer of Hebrews

603
00:36:12.679 --> 00:36:14.920
be coming to the Jews going, hey, hey, hey, you

604
00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:18.079
need something better than these sacrifices. You need something better

605
00:36:18.119 --> 00:36:21.440
than the temple, you need something better than an earthly

606
00:36:21.519 --> 00:36:24.760
high priest. Why because all of that's about to be

607
00:36:24.800 --> 00:36:26.840
wiped off the face of the earth. They're gonna wake

608
00:36:26.920 --> 00:36:28.400
up one day and there's not going to be a

609
00:36:28.400 --> 00:36:31.000
sacrificial system. They're not gonna have a high priest. They're

610
00:36:31.000 --> 00:36:32.760
not gonna have a temple. They're not even gonna be

611
00:36:32.800 --> 00:36:35.199
able to the genealogical records are going to be destroyed.

612
00:36:35.199 --> 00:36:37.400
They're not even gonna be able to determine which tribe

613
00:36:37.400 --> 00:36:40.280
they are a part of. Everything is about to be gone.

614
00:36:40.719 --> 00:36:43.639
So the writer of Hebrews is trying to prepare them.

615
00:36:44.360 --> 00:36:49.079
You need Christ. Move to Christ. Move to Christ, because

616
00:36:49.119 --> 00:36:50.880
all of this is going to be gone. You're not

617
00:36:50.920 --> 00:36:53.480
gonna have a sacrifice for sins, You're not gonna have

618
00:36:53.519 --> 00:36:56.400
a priest. You need something better because all of this

619
00:36:56.519 --> 00:37:01.960
is temporal. The fact that the temple, it's not like,

620
00:37:02.079 --> 00:37:05.239
hey guys, all of that's gone, so now you need Christ.

621
00:37:05.400 --> 00:37:07.360
It would be it would be much a different way

622
00:37:07.360 --> 00:37:10.159
to present the argument, Hey, you don't have anything, so

623
00:37:10.239 --> 00:37:13.000
you probably should consider Christ. Now this is saying Christ

624
00:37:13.079 --> 00:37:15.960
is better because at the time those other things still exist,

625
00:37:16.000 --> 00:37:20.079
but they're about to go away. If the temple had

626
00:37:20.119 --> 00:37:24.719
already been destroyed, it seems to me, I mean, you

627
00:37:24.719 --> 00:37:26.480
could tell me if you think I'm wrong. I think

628
00:37:26.480 --> 00:37:30.679
that the author would have mentioned it as a definitive

629
00:37:30.760 --> 00:37:33.639
proof that the old covenant system was obsolete. It would

630
00:37:33.639 --> 00:37:36.480
be like, hey, guys, I don't need to argue with you.

631
00:37:36.760 --> 00:37:41.679
The old system is gone. I don't need to debate you.

632
00:37:42.079 --> 00:37:45.360
It's gone. Go outside and go look, go to Jerusalem.

633
00:37:45.360 --> 00:37:48.960
Oh yeah, you can't. Everything is gone. All it's gone.

634
00:37:49.880 --> 00:37:52.239
You would just say, hey, guys, since the old is gone,

635
00:37:52.480 --> 00:37:57.320
let me present to you something better. But instead of

636
00:37:57.480 --> 00:38:01.440
doing that, if you read Hebrews, sarcrificial system is spoken

637
00:38:01.480 --> 00:38:07.000
of in the present tense Hebrews, I believe it's ten eleven.

638
00:38:08.320 --> 00:38:12.559
I believe it's Hebrews ten eleven. I believe it's Hebrews

639
00:38:12.599 --> 00:38:18.199
ten eleven. Yes, And every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering,

640
00:38:18.280 --> 00:38:22.280
oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away, since

641
00:38:22.559 --> 00:38:25.800
it's spoken of in the present tense, not hey remember

642
00:38:25.840 --> 00:38:29.000
back in the old days when there no no It's

643
00:38:29.079 --> 00:38:35.599
being spoken of as present tents. So this would suggest

644
00:38:36.039 --> 00:38:39.400
it was still functioning when the Book of Hebrews the

645
00:38:39.480 --> 00:38:43.280
Letter of Hebrews was written. So the absence of any

646
00:38:43.400 --> 00:38:47.440
mention of the temple's destruction to me screams that this

647
00:38:47.599 --> 00:38:55.559
was written prior to the destruction of the temple. So

648
00:38:55.679 --> 00:38:59.199
that's number one. Number two, how about the context of persecution.

649
00:39:00.320 --> 00:39:04.599
Hebrews refers to a community that has faced persecution but

650
00:39:04.760 --> 00:39:07.480
has not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.

651
00:39:08.360 --> 00:39:12.880
I believe that. I believe it's Hebrews twelve four. Yes,

652
00:39:13.000 --> 00:39:19.840
you have not yet resisted unto blood. This could reflect,

653
00:39:20.039 --> 00:39:24.280
and I say, could the early stage of persecution under Nero,

654
00:39:24.559 --> 00:39:28.239
which is about the mid sixties, mid sixty a d.

655
00:39:28.599 --> 00:39:32.039
Mid mid sixty five sixty six eight. Remember I date

656
00:39:32.079 --> 00:39:35.119
the book somewhere between sixty seven and sixty nine. This

657
00:39:35.239 --> 00:39:40.000
is referencing at least I'm around sixty five AD, So

658
00:39:40.159 --> 00:39:43.360
this would seem to that it's referencing the early stages

659
00:39:43.400 --> 00:39:49.039
of persecution, obviously not the later, more severe persecutions that

660
00:39:49.079 --> 00:39:53.360
come after seventy a d. So right there, there seems

661
00:39:53.400 --> 00:39:56.000
to be There seems to be the context of persecution,

662
00:39:56.280 --> 00:39:58.519
and the way it's described seems to lead me to

663
00:39:58.599 --> 00:40:03.519
around at sixty five sixty. How about the reference to Timothy.

664
00:40:03.599 --> 00:40:05.920
So number one, there's no mention of the destruction of

665
00:40:05.920 --> 00:40:08.639
the temple. Number two, the context of persecution and number

666
00:40:08.679 --> 00:40:11.199
three the reference to Timothy. Look at Hebrews. I believe

667
00:40:11.239 --> 00:40:19.159
it's thirteen twenty three. I could be wrong. Yeah know

668
00:40:19.360 --> 00:40:24.440
ye Hebrews thirteen twenty three. Know ye that our brother Timothy.

669
00:40:25.119 --> 00:40:29.559
He's mentioned it, mentions Timothy. Now this would suggest a

670
00:40:29.679 --> 00:40:34.000
date within his active ministry. This fits with the mid

671
00:40:34.199 --> 00:40:38.480
to late first century, but aligns well with a pre

672
00:40:39.079 --> 00:40:45.440
seventy a D. Period. So those are three arguments to

673
00:40:45.599 --> 00:40:50.599
interpret or to understand Hebrews being written prior to seventy

674
00:40:50.639 --> 00:40:54.679
a D. Now, what are the arguments for a post

675
00:40:54.719 --> 00:40:55.559
seventy a D.

676
00:40:55.800 --> 00:40:56.039
Date.

677
00:40:57.639 --> 00:41:03.800
Some argue that a post seventy a D date is

678
00:41:03.840 --> 00:41:10.679
based on philological or stylistic reasons. They kind of argue

679
00:41:10.679 --> 00:41:13.920
from a philological or stylistic Here's what they say. Number one,

680
00:41:14.519 --> 00:41:19.440
philological reflection on the temple. This is their argument. They

681
00:41:19.480 --> 00:41:24.800
say that it's possible that the author of Hebrews deliberately

682
00:41:24.840 --> 00:41:28.360
avoided mentioning the destruction of the temple, focusing instead on

683
00:41:28.400 --> 00:41:32.719
philological arguments about the ops about the Old Covenant being obsolete.

684
00:41:33.840 --> 00:41:36.360
That doesn't seem to make any sense. Hey, I'm just

685
00:41:36.400 --> 00:41:41.239
gonna deliberately not mention it that the temple has been destroyed.

686
00:41:41.400 --> 00:41:45.599
But yet I'm gonna argue about the Old Covenant being obsolete.

687
00:41:45.679 --> 00:41:48.400
That makes no sense. I'm just not gonna mention it.

688
00:41:48.639 --> 00:41:51.320
But I'm gonna make an argument about being obsolete. Why

689
00:41:51.360 --> 00:41:53.400
wouldn't you mention the destruction of it?

690
00:41:53.440 --> 00:41:53.599
Say?

691
00:41:53.639 --> 00:41:55.840
That makes no sense to me. Hey, I'm just gonna

692
00:41:55.840 --> 00:41:59.320
purposely not mention that the temple was destroyed. Instead, I'm

693
00:41:59.320 --> 00:42:04.440
just going to give philological arguments about the Old Covenant

694
00:42:04.440 --> 00:42:12.239
being obsolete. I'm not a fan of that argument. As

695
00:42:12.320 --> 00:42:17.679
one critique says, this type of argument is weaker because

696
00:42:17.719 --> 00:42:20.159
the destruction of the temple would have been a compelling

697
00:42:20.199 --> 00:42:24.480
support for the Epistles claims. The number one support for

698
00:42:24.639 --> 00:42:27.840
the claim that's being made in Hebrews is, of course

699
00:42:27.960 --> 00:42:32.599
Christ is better because the Old is completely gone. Why

700
00:42:32.639 --> 00:42:35.840
would you not make that argument? It makes no sense. Yeah,

701
00:42:35.840 --> 00:42:39.000
the post seventy eighty, it makes no sense. Number two

702
00:42:39.400 --> 00:42:46.400
the sophistication of theology. Some suggest that the philological depth

703
00:42:46.599 --> 00:42:52.880
of Hebrews indicates a later date, reflecting a more developed

704
00:42:53.000 --> 00:42:57.119
understanding of Christ, priesthood and the New Covenant. However, this

705
00:42:57.280 --> 00:43:02.039
is speculative and depends on a assumptions about the development

706
00:43:02.119 --> 00:43:05.800
of early Christian theology. So those are the best arguments

707
00:43:05.840 --> 00:43:10.039
for a post seventy a D. Timing. That's ridiculous. Those

708
00:43:10.159 --> 00:43:15.000
arguments are I'm just I'm gonna be dogmatic. That's trash.

709
00:43:15.360 --> 00:43:18.920
Everything points to a pre seventy a D. Writing, and

710
00:43:18.960 --> 00:43:22.519
I think it comes right before. I think it's written

711
00:43:22.519 --> 00:43:25.239
somewhere between sixty seven to sixty nine. I'm still gonna

712
00:43:25.239 --> 00:43:28.119
fight for sixty seven to sixty nine. That's where I'm

713
00:43:28.159 --> 00:43:31.000
going to. In fact, I'm gonna look here, i gotta

714
00:43:31.000 --> 00:43:35.079
study Bible in front of me. Let's see what they say.

715
00:43:35.719 --> 00:43:40.199
They have the dating sixty four to sixty eight. Almost

716
00:43:40.480 --> 00:43:43.360
almost everything you'll look look at a fact. In fact,

717
00:43:43.400 --> 00:43:46.000
I think, because I typically do so whenever I teach

718
00:43:46.039 --> 00:43:48.480
you anything, I have everyone in my church right there

719
00:43:48.519 --> 00:43:53.599
in real time in church, grab dictionaries, encyclopedia, study Bibles,

720
00:43:53.639 --> 00:43:56.440
and I think I don't think anyone founded a top

721
00:43:56.559 --> 00:44:00.719
found a timing of anything after seventy seventy eight D.

722
00:44:00.880 --> 00:44:03.280
I think every source that we looked at in real

723
00:44:03.360 --> 00:44:06.440
time was all before seventy eight D. I'm not saying

724
00:44:06.440 --> 00:44:10.280
that there isn't one, but there you go. The majority

725
00:44:10.320 --> 00:44:14.280
of scholars. All right, you could say many, but I

726
00:44:14.840 --> 00:44:19.719
believe many is accurate. Many lean towards a pre seventy

727
00:44:19.800 --> 00:44:22.840
a d date. Some put it around sixty three to

728
00:44:22.920 --> 00:44:26.559
sixty five. I don't know about sixty three to sixty five.

729
00:44:26.920 --> 00:44:30.719
I think it comes. I think it comes around sixty

730
00:44:30.960 --> 00:44:34.599
maybe sixty five to sixty eight, sixty five to sixty nine,

731
00:44:34.679 --> 00:44:37.159
I think somewhere along that time. And because when you

732
00:44:37.199 --> 00:44:40.960
read Hebrews, if you wonder like this is why we

733
00:44:41.000 --> 00:44:43.679
get into all of these arguments about does Hebrews teach

734
00:44:43.719 --> 00:44:46.159
you can lose your salvation? And does this teach you

735
00:44:46.199 --> 00:44:47.800
that you have to do this? In order to prove

736
00:44:47.840 --> 00:44:51.559
that you're saying, we turn it into these soteriological arguments.

737
00:44:51.880 --> 00:44:55.199
This is arguments for the Jews that hey, hey, this

738
00:44:55.280 --> 00:44:58.400
whole system that you're holding to, there's not going to

739
00:44:58.440 --> 00:45:01.800
be any salvation in it because it's not going to

740
00:45:02.000 --> 00:45:08.159
exist in just a few years. So when he says

741
00:45:08.199 --> 00:45:11.679
it's hard to ascertain, I don't know why he would

742
00:45:11.719 --> 00:45:15.119
say that. The majority of people put it before. I

743
00:45:15.119 --> 00:45:18.280
don't know why he would do that. That's just odd

744
00:45:18.320 --> 00:45:21.280
to me why he would say it's hard to ascertain.

745
00:45:21.679 --> 00:45:23.880
I mean, maybe he's got lots of books that put

746
00:45:23.880 --> 00:45:26.239
it after seventy a D. But if you look at

747
00:45:26.280 --> 00:45:30.960
the arguments typically presented the after seventy after seventy a d.

748
00:45:31.119 --> 00:45:35.679
Arguments to me are in no way. So let's see

749
00:45:35.679 --> 00:45:37.639
what he does here.

750
00:45:39.440 --> 00:45:42.400
And it would continue for nearly more than a generation,

751
00:45:42.480 --> 00:45:45.440
in so much that the apostle Paul would gather support,

752
00:45:45.880 --> 00:45:50.159
financial tangible support to take down to the Church at Jerusalem.

753
00:45:50.320 --> 00:45:52.679
And there were many churches, the Church at Rome.

754
00:45:52.519 --> 00:45:55.280
The Church at Colossae, the Church in Malaysia, the churches

755
00:45:55.280 --> 00:45:58.400
in Galatia, Church of the Fesians, Philippians. These churches would

756
00:45:58.440 --> 00:46:02.760
send down finances. They this group of believers that were

757
00:46:02.800 --> 00:46:08.880
in Jerusalem, they were not bursting out the seams and success.

758
00:46:09.039 --> 00:46:09.639
Spiritually.

759
00:46:11.920 --> 00:46:13.679
You come under that kind of trouble in life, and

760
00:46:13.719 --> 00:46:21.840
you wonder, this is disappointing. I thought, I thought that

761
00:46:21.920 --> 00:46:22.960
God heard my prayer.

762
00:46:25.280 --> 00:46:28.360
I thought that God would answer my prayer.

763
00:46:31.280 --> 00:46:33.639
And so much that you have a group of believers

764
00:46:34.920 --> 00:46:38.639
that are beginning, though they had been saved, though they

765
00:46:38.679 --> 00:46:44.199
have been faithful servants of God, their doubting, and the

766
00:46:44.320 --> 00:46:48.559
admonition here in verse number nineteen is to remind them

767
00:46:49.599 --> 00:46:55.760
that the assurances of God their anchor holds. You know,

768
00:46:55.920 --> 00:46:59.719
that's the same truth for you and I today.

769
00:47:01.960 --> 00:47:07.440
Okay, now, yeah, the believers that this is written to

770
00:47:07.800 --> 00:47:11.880
would have been facing some difficult times. If you look

771
00:47:11.920 --> 00:47:16.199
at the timing, the key events leading to the siege

772
00:47:16.280 --> 00:47:20.960
and destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple and seventy a d.

773
00:47:21.880 --> 00:47:25.159
It kind of begins in sixty six AD when the

774
00:47:25.519 --> 00:47:29.480
Jewish rebels rose up against Roman rule. The revolt escalated

775
00:47:29.519 --> 00:47:33.199
tensions and eventually led to a full scaled Roman military response.

776
00:47:33.400 --> 00:47:37.000
So it kind of starts in sixty six a D. Right,

777
00:47:37.039 --> 00:47:40.159
Then you have a Roman general in sixty seven to

778
00:47:40.239 --> 00:47:45.719
sixty eight AD, under Emperor Nero's orders, he leads a

779
00:47:45.760 --> 00:47:49.320
campaign in Galilee and Judea to suppress the rebellion. He

780
00:47:49.440 --> 00:47:53.800
systematically subdued Jewish strongholds preparing to march on Jerusalem. That's

781
00:47:53.840 --> 00:47:57.000
sixty seven to sixty eight AD. So, in other words,

782
00:47:57.119 --> 00:47:59.400
if you put the writing of the book somewhere between

783
00:47:59.440 --> 00:48:03.760
sixty five and sixty eight a D. The writer, the

784
00:48:03.800 --> 00:48:08.239
writing of Hebrews is occurring when all of this tension

785
00:48:08.559 --> 00:48:12.800
and all of the the well the ultimate destruction is

786
00:48:12.880 --> 00:48:17.119
about to occur in sixty nine AD. The Roman Empire

787
00:48:17.159 --> 00:48:20.159
faced political chaos during the Year of the Four Emperors,

788
00:48:20.960 --> 00:48:25.679
so you have that general's declared emperor, and then his

789
00:48:25.800 --> 00:48:28.639
son Titus took command of the Roman forces. And then

790
00:48:28.800 --> 00:48:33.480
April seventy a D. The Siege of Jerusalem begins, So

791
00:48:33.719 --> 00:48:37.840
April seventy a D. And then the temple is destroyed

792
00:48:37.880 --> 00:48:42.239
in August of seventy a D. So everything starts in

793
00:48:42.280 --> 00:48:46.000
sixty six AD. You already trouble is already starting. So

794
00:48:46.400 --> 00:48:50.639
anybody needing hope, anybody needing an anchor, anyone needing consolation,

795
00:48:51.079 --> 00:48:55.119
it's these individuals. Now, what is the consolation? What is

796
00:48:55.159 --> 00:48:58.639
the hope? Now he immediately turns to us. But what

797
00:48:59.239 --> 00:49:01.519
would be the console and hope for them? Well, let's

798
00:49:01.519 --> 00:49:03.960
see how he handles this. He immediately just turned it

799
00:49:03.960 --> 00:49:05.559
to us. Let's see what he says about us.

800
00:49:07.639 --> 00:49:10.960
If your hope and trust is in the almighties provision

801
00:49:11.079 --> 00:49:19.079
Jesus Christ, your anchor holds, and it's going to be steadfast.

802
00:49:20.039 --> 00:49:22.960
It's not going to disappoint you. It's not going to

803
00:49:23.000 --> 00:49:28.320
break off and fail to secure you. Too often we

804
00:49:28.400 --> 00:49:34.159
as Christians, we move backwards on the promises of God.

805
00:49:35.440 --> 00:49:37.760
I see now this is where I get frustrated. Ome boy,

806
00:49:37.760 --> 00:49:41.880
here comes my frustration. The sermons started with the three

807
00:49:41.920 --> 00:49:46.599
different groups of Jews that the writer of Hebrews addresses

808
00:49:46.679 --> 00:49:49.960
in his narrative, or he weaves them into the narrative

809
00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:52.880
of Hebrews. He weaves them into the story that certain

810
00:49:52.960 --> 00:49:55.920
art not the story into the letter that they are,

811
00:49:56.159 --> 00:49:58.719
that certain sections are addressed to the wicked, to the weak,

812
00:49:58.920 --> 00:50:02.079
and to the wise. All right, he talks about the

813
00:50:02.119 --> 00:50:05.800
persecution happening he places in its context, and then all

814
00:50:05.800 --> 00:50:07.840
of a sudden he's talking about for us to hold

815
00:50:07.880 --> 00:50:11.039
onto God's provision and promises, and it's our anchor.

816
00:50:11.039 --> 00:50:12.719
Well, whoa whoa, whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa?

817
00:50:12.760 --> 00:50:16.079
What promises and what's provision? Are you referring to the

818
00:50:16.119 --> 00:50:20.000
promises and provision being given to these people? Or what

819
00:50:20.280 --> 00:50:22.159
are you referring? And how did we all of a

820
00:50:22.199 --> 00:50:25.360
sudden get inserted? You just set up the context. Now

821
00:50:25.400 --> 00:50:27.679
you're going to the verse, and you're merely making about

822
00:50:27.760 --> 00:50:31.760
what about the original people? What about the original people?

823
00:50:37.360 --> 00:50:41.960
God has promised us peace, yet we'll refuse his anchor

824
00:50:42.159 --> 00:50:44.960
and allow our hearts to be driven to the depths.

825
00:50:44.960 --> 00:50:45.840
Of discouragement.

826
00:50:47.159 --> 00:50:49.920
We see the promises of God in a hopeful expectation,

827
00:50:50.880 --> 00:50:53.719
and yet at the same time, like Sarah, that saintly

828
00:50:53.800 --> 00:50:57.599
lady of Old, we doubt God's ability to do anything.

829
00:51:00.280 --> 00:51:02.840
And the Old Testament guns set is his hand short

830
00:51:02.880 --> 00:51:06.480
that he cannot save it? So often we as believers

831
00:51:06.519 --> 00:51:10.039
are in the same plight as Sarah. We're laughing at

832
00:51:10.079 --> 00:51:14.039
the promises of God. Why because at the midst of

833
00:51:14.079 --> 00:51:18.960
it we doubt that his promises can hold.

834
00:51:20.159 --> 00:51:27.079
What promise or promises are you referring to? Do you

835
00:51:27.119 --> 00:51:31.079
see a lot of Christians who believe who doubt God's

836
00:51:31.119 --> 00:51:34.639
promised to save us, Who doubts God's promise to forgive

837
00:51:34.719 --> 00:51:36.920
us our sins? Who doubt I mean you could talk

838
00:51:36.920 --> 00:51:39.719
about maybe people who struggle with guilt and shame, who

839
00:51:39.719 --> 00:51:42.400
can't accept the forgiveness of God. Is that the promise

840
00:51:42.440 --> 00:51:45.000
you're referring to are you getting to? Are you going

841
00:51:45.039 --> 00:51:48.119
to start applying implying that we have promised that God

842
00:51:48.199 --> 00:51:49.599
is going to do this for us, and this for

843
00:51:49.679 --> 00:51:52.400
us and this life. Well, the reason Christians may doubt

844
00:51:52.440 --> 00:51:53.960
that God's going to do this or this and this

845
00:51:54.000 --> 00:51:55.960
and this life is because you can look around the

846
00:51:56.000 --> 00:51:59.719
world and go, Okay, there's no guarantee God's going to

847
00:51:59.719 --> 00:52:01.440
protec act or do this or do this, or do

848
00:52:01.519 --> 00:52:04.320
this or do this. Now I can have full assurance

849
00:52:04.360 --> 00:52:07.840
that God will save God has saved me through the

850
00:52:07.840 --> 00:52:10.639
work of Jesus Christ, that I will there will be

851
00:52:10.679 --> 00:52:12.760
a day while there all there will be no more pain,

852
00:52:12.800 --> 00:52:14.800
no more suffering, and no more death, and all sin

853
00:52:14.840 --> 00:52:16.880
will be now. Yeah, I can have hope in that.

854
00:52:17.039 --> 00:52:21.440
What are you referring to specifically? We talked about this yesterday.

855
00:52:21.840 --> 00:52:25.559
How some of the comfort that pastors offer is this generic,

856
00:52:28.000 --> 00:52:33.719
generic promise of comfort and peace that's never truly clearly defined,

857
00:52:33.960 --> 00:52:37.519
and it kind of leaves you with what what what?

858
00:52:37.519 --> 00:52:40.000
What does this mean? How does this even work? Because

859
00:52:40.039 --> 00:52:42.400
you don't see it working in your life, and this

860
00:52:42.519 --> 00:52:44.719
leads to problems. I don't know if that's where he's going.

861
00:52:44.880 --> 00:52:47.800
I'm just curious how the original recipients have already been

862
00:52:47.800 --> 00:52:49.719
so moved out of the text. But let's see if

863
00:52:49.719 --> 00:52:53.039
he gets back to them.

864
00:52:53.079 --> 00:52:55.639
So often we're on the side that draws away from

865
00:52:55.679 --> 00:52:59.000
the things of God because we doubt whether or not

866
00:52:59.480 --> 00:53:02.119
the prom us of God can hold firm.

867
00:53:03.119 --> 00:53:08.079
And I want to submit to you. If God fails

868
00:53:08.199 --> 00:53:09.559
in regards to these.

869
00:53:09.360 --> 00:53:15.159
Promises, that I want nothing to do with biblical so

870
00:53:15.320 --> 00:53:21.079
called truth. I know broken promises. You know broken promises.

871
00:53:23.480 --> 00:53:25.880
You don't have to live long at all in life

872
00:53:25.920 --> 00:53:27.360
and no disappointments.

873
00:53:29.920 --> 00:53:34.320
That's a big statement. If God fails on his promises,

874
00:53:34.360 --> 00:53:36.960
then you want nothing to do with biblical truth. Now,

875
00:53:37.039 --> 00:53:40.159
this is the dangerous part. What if you're telling people

876
00:53:40.199 --> 00:53:42.920
God has promised something that he hasn't promised, then the

877
00:53:42.960 --> 00:53:45.599
promise doesn't come about, and then they perceive that, Well,

878
00:53:45.599 --> 00:53:47.559
then I don't want anything to do with biblical truth

879
00:53:47.679 --> 00:53:50.360
because God didn't fulfill this promise. Well, maybe the reason

880
00:53:50.360 --> 00:53:52.960
God didn't fulfill that promise is because He never made

881
00:53:53.000 --> 00:53:55.639
that promise to you and you relied to in a sermon.

882
00:53:55.679 --> 00:53:58.000
I'm not saying this sermon, but I'm saying this is

883
00:53:58.039 --> 00:53:59.880
when we've been talking. This is why I've been talking

884
00:54:00.039 --> 00:54:02.000
about this over and over and over and over again.

885
00:54:04.119 --> 00:54:07.159
That's why the comfort in Isaiah forty verse one is

886
00:54:07.239 --> 00:54:10.480
so important. To understand the context. I can't run in.

887
00:54:10.559 --> 00:54:13.119
And so what promises is he referring to, Well, the

888
00:54:13.159 --> 00:54:15.719
promises he seems to be referring to or in Hebrews

889
00:54:15.800 --> 00:54:18.840
chapter six. Well, the only problem with the Hebrews chapter

890
00:54:18.920 --> 00:54:23.599
six passages is wait a minute, who is this actually too? Well,

891
00:54:23.599 --> 00:54:28.679
clearly Hebrews six thirteen for when God made promises to

892
00:54:29.199 --> 00:54:33.639
Abraham and then when it talks about the US and

893
00:54:33.679 --> 00:54:36.400
the WII, is that not referring to the Hebrews and

894
00:54:36.440 --> 00:54:39.920
the Jews. So what could these promises be referring to

895
00:54:40.360 --> 00:54:44.639
in that context? Could it be referring to covenental promises

896
00:54:44.920 --> 00:54:47.840
made to Israel and that Israel needs to hold on

897
00:54:47.920 --> 00:54:51.719
to these promises when they watch Jerusalem burn, when they

898
00:54:51.760 --> 00:54:55.440
watch the temple fall, when they see their own selves

899
00:54:55.440 --> 00:54:58.519
being killed destroy all the horrible things that happen. You

900
00:54:58.519 --> 00:55:01.800
can read I think Josephus the accounts of the Siege

901
00:55:02.000 --> 00:55:04.719
of seventy eight D. Some historians call into a question

902
00:55:04.880 --> 00:55:07.679
his account, but you can read Josephas and how horrible

903
00:55:07.960 --> 00:55:11.719
the siege was upon Jerusalem in seventy eight D. They that's,

904
00:55:11.800 --> 00:55:13.679
I mean, there was some really messed up things that

905
00:55:13.760 --> 00:55:17.039
went down. What can they hope to? What can they was?

906
00:55:17.119 --> 00:55:19.360
The hope that they can is that God is going

907
00:55:19.360 --> 00:55:22.159
to ultimately fulfill those promises for them. It was I

908
00:55:22.199 --> 00:55:26.079
mean ultimately the ultimate fulfillment of these promises haven't even

909
00:55:26.119 --> 00:55:28.480
happened yet. Is that the hope they were to cling to,

910
00:55:30.159 --> 00:55:34.119
like what or was the hope of spiritual hope? Forget

911
00:55:34.159 --> 00:55:39.280
any material hope, forget any material deliverance, That ultimately the

912
00:55:39.320 --> 00:55:42.559
hope was found in Christ and salvation in Him, a

913
00:55:42.960 --> 00:55:49.119
spiritual salvation in spite of earthly suffering and death. Is

914
00:55:49.159 --> 00:55:50.440
that the promise.

915
00:55:52.880 --> 00:55:56.679
And no failed expectations. You know, it's amazing, And I

916
00:55:56.719 --> 00:55:58.760
know there's an election. I'm not oblivious. I haven't had

917
00:55:58.760 --> 00:56:02.559
my head under it. I mean I have nearly filled

918
00:56:02.599 --> 00:56:08.800
my recycling can with packs political action committees that are

919
00:56:08.800 --> 00:56:13.480
mailing to me, and politicians that have stopped by, and

920
00:56:13.599 --> 00:56:16.440
mailers upon mailors upon mailor's.

921
00:56:18.360 --> 00:56:24.840
And in your heart there's wonder the politics of our day.

922
00:56:24.920 --> 00:56:26.400
I can't say what it used to be, but the

923
00:56:26.400 --> 00:56:32.960
politics of our day is about fear, the certainty that

924
00:56:33.039 --> 00:56:37.519
is conveyed that if a certain individual doesn't get elected,

925
00:56:38.239 --> 00:56:39.559
then that's the end of the America.

926
00:56:39.639 --> 00:56:41.360
You knew?

927
00:56:42.760 --> 00:56:48.039
Can I tell you something, just very direct, regardless of

928
00:56:48.039 --> 00:56:51.000
what happens on Tuesday, And the reality is, I don't

929
00:56:51.000 --> 00:56:53.039
think we're going to know anything on Tuesday. It's really

930
00:56:53.079 --> 00:56:55.840
going to be next Tuesday, two weeks from Tuesday.

931
00:56:55.519 --> 00:56:56.159
Whatever it is.

932
00:56:56.960 --> 00:56:58.679
But let me tell you to be as sure of something,

933
00:57:01.079 --> 00:57:02.480
God's anchor will still hold.

934
00:57:04.960 --> 00:57:09.159
That's oh Man.

935
00:57:10.280 --> 00:57:15.159
So now the anchor in Hebrew six is the anchor

936
00:57:15.239 --> 00:57:17.400
that holds us because of election.

937
00:57:18.519 --> 00:57:19.559
Man, live.

938
00:57:28.039 --> 00:57:30.639
Now, if you want to apply it that way, don't

939
00:57:30.639 --> 00:57:33.679
we have to first? Don't we have to first do observation,

940
00:57:34.239 --> 00:57:39.920
then do interpretation, then get to application. He gave contexts,

941
00:57:40.199 --> 00:57:43.719
some observational context. Now he didn't necessarily show us how

942
00:57:43.760 --> 00:57:46.880
those three groups show up in Hebrews. Then he goes

943
00:57:46.920 --> 00:57:51.079
to Hebrew six thirteen through twenty. He's not done much

944
00:57:51.119 --> 00:57:54.920
observational work on the text, and then he's not done

945
00:57:54.960 --> 00:57:58.320
any actual interpretive text based on the context. And now

946
00:57:58.320 --> 00:58:01.320
he's already up to application. And maybe he's gonna back

947
00:58:01.400 --> 00:58:02.840
up and then give us something here.

948
00:58:04.440 --> 00:58:12.360
It's not my promise to you, that's God's promise to you.

949
00:58:12.360 --> 00:58:14.639
You see, your circumstances in life.

950
00:58:16.119 --> 00:58:16.559
Are not.

951
00:58:18.800 --> 00:58:23.360
Somehow I picture of God's ability.

952
00:58:25.159 --> 00:58:26.920
You might be in a relation, You might be in

953
00:58:26.960 --> 00:58:29.400
a circumstance in your life, at work, at home.

954
00:58:29.480 --> 00:58:32.320
I don't know. There's a number of people.

955
00:58:32.559 --> 00:58:35.719
But you've got problems at life. Those problems don't always

956
00:58:35.760 --> 00:58:37.960
come from God.

957
00:58:39.480 --> 00:58:40.039
Oh boy.

958
00:58:40.119 --> 00:58:43.159
Now all right, so immediately, now see this is not

959
00:58:43.440 --> 00:58:45.079
this is God's promise to you.

960
00:58:45.320 --> 00:58:45.760
Oh boy.

961
00:58:45.840 --> 00:58:48.800
So now immediately we've been inserted. And now he's saying

962
00:58:49.039 --> 00:58:51.320
that whenever you have a problem, it doesn't come from God.

963
00:58:51.400 --> 00:58:54.679
Now wait a minute, are you saying God didn't allow it?

964
00:58:55.559 --> 00:58:58.119
Are you saying things are happening apart from God's sovereignty?

965
00:58:58.239 --> 00:59:00.360
Now we get into a whole host of issues. Hey,

966
00:59:00.360 --> 00:59:02.800
you have problems. God didn't give you those problems, but

967
00:59:02.880 --> 00:59:05.840
he allowed it. He didn't stop it, he didn't intervene

968
00:59:05.880 --> 00:59:08.480
from it. So then is God not somehow respond? Okay?

969
00:59:08.480 --> 00:59:12.199
And now we get into oh boy, okay, I don't know. Now,

970
00:59:12.239 --> 00:59:15.119
I don't know what's happened all of a sudden. See,

971
00:59:15.199 --> 00:59:17.480
this is the pit that I have found myself in

972
00:59:17.519 --> 00:59:19.760
this year. I listen to sermons and now I'm sitting

973
00:59:19.760 --> 00:59:22.920
here going here's all these promises being made, all this

974
00:59:23.039 --> 00:59:26.559
comfort being offered? Is it peace? Is it promise? Is

975
00:59:26.599 --> 00:59:32.199
it comfort? When what about the people this was given to?

976
00:59:33.280 --> 00:59:37.400
They have real problems their city? It depending on when

977
00:59:37.400 --> 00:59:40.599
this was written, the siege is well, the siege starts.

978
00:59:40.599 --> 00:59:43.119
Since seventy eighty, the siege is about to begin. There's

979
00:59:43.159 --> 00:59:47.360
already conflict, and there's already military campaigns happening. Things are

980
00:59:47.400 --> 00:59:52.440
not good. They've got real problems, like serious well, in fact,

981
00:59:52.519 --> 00:59:55.440
when you read about what happens in seventy eight, they've

982
00:59:55.480 --> 00:59:58.559
got horrifying problems.

983
01:00:00.480 --> 01:00:02.480
And God has never promised you that He's going to

984
01:00:02.480 --> 01:00:06.519
delive you from every problem in this life. Look back

985
01:00:06.519 --> 01:00:10.639
into Blessed Daniel in the Old Testament. Did he not

986
01:00:10.679 --> 01:00:14.320
get thrown into a den of lions? Don't ask you something.

987
01:00:14.760 --> 01:00:17.159
Did God prevent him from getting thrown into the den

988
01:00:17.159 --> 01:00:17.639
of lions?

989
01:00:18.639 --> 01:00:18.679
No?

990
01:00:21.679 --> 01:00:22.880
But was God's promise?

991
01:00:23.000 --> 01:00:23.280
Sure?

992
01:00:24.679 --> 01:00:24.920
Yes.

993
01:00:26.199 --> 01:00:28.800
Probably One of my favorite groups in the Book of

994
01:00:28.880 --> 01:00:32.880
Daniel is the three Hebrew children, which I attempt defiantly

995
01:00:33.400 --> 01:00:35.840
not to call them Shadrack mee shack in a bendigo.

996
01:00:37.039 --> 01:00:38.760
I know that's the name in the Bible as well,

997
01:00:38.800 --> 01:00:42.199
But another name, Hannonaya, Miishiel, and Azariah is given.

998
01:00:43.760 --> 01:00:45.320
And these three Hebrew boys.

999
01:00:45.679 --> 01:00:53.920
Much like Daniel, stood defiantly against rebellious authority in their day.

1000
01:00:54.599 --> 01:00:57.679
And I'm certain there was a chorus of so called

1001
01:00:57.719 --> 01:01:01.880
well experienced people that yelled at them and said, if

1002
01:01:01.880 --> 01:01:04.840
you don't go along, to get along, Hanna, iamis yell

1003
01:01:04.880 --> 01:01:09.039
in Azariah. God's never going to be able to use you.

1004
01:01:09.360 --> 01:01:12.599
There's too few of you and too many of everybody else.

1005
01:01:14.199 --> 01:01:15.639
But the theme of their life.

1006
01:01:17.000 --> 01:01:19.880
Was deprive the truth of the word of God and

1007
01:01:20.000 --> 01:01:23.000
rest with full assurance and the singular thought that their

1008
01:01:23.079 --> 01:01:27.239
anchor holds. So they came into the plains of Dura

1009
01:01:28.599 --> 01:01:31.760
and Nebuknezar, that great builder king, that's what he was,

1010
01:01:32.760 --> 01:01:36.760
built him a majestic idol. And at the sound of

1011
01:01:36.800 --> 01:01:39.000
the music, all of them were to bow before it.

1012
01:01:39.159 --> 01:01:44.000
You know, Dan, you'll no doubt absent that day, and

1013
01:01:44.079 --> 01:01:51.440
the music plays, and everybody in Unison bows except for three.

1014
01:01:52.639 --> 01:01:54.719
Here's the honest thing. We want to see great things

1015
01:01:54.760 --> 01:01:58.239
in life, don't we. I've never met a Christian that

1016
01:01:58.280 --> 01:01:59.639
didn't want to say with their life, well, I want

1017
01:01:59.639 --> 01:02:03.159
to see God do great things in my life. You

1018
01:02:03.239 --> 01:02:05.199
raise your hand, how naves, I want God to do

1019
01:02:05.239 --> 01:02:09.079
great things in my life, all our hands right, we

1020
01:02:09.119 --> 01:02:13.599
want that from God. Yet we're so so inconsistent about

1021
01:02:13.679 --> 01:02:19.679
the regular things that God wants to do in our life.

1022
01:02:19.920 --> 01:02:24.639
We're ready to see God bring about a great deliverance

1023
01:02:24.639 --> 01:02:30.800
if you will. I'm speaking of Hannah, I, Michaelle, and Iszariah.

1024
01:02:31.119 --> 01:02:36.519
They are the Jews present that had the same association

1025
01:02:36.800 --> 01:02:41.559
that they did, and they're all willing and ready, you know,

1026
01:02:43.079 --> 01:02:48.119
to see God work. But the problem was most of

1027
01:02:48.119 --> 01:02:51.360
them weren't willing to do the little things at all.

1028
01:02:53.639 --> 01:02:59.480
Isn't this bizarre that this passage about hope and anchor

1029
01:03:00.199 --> 01:03:05.079
and God's promises is turning into you don't do this.

1030
01:03:05.280 --> 01:03:08.159
You it's about you and what you do. It's not

1031
01:03:08.199 --> 01:03:10.480
about God anymore. It's now it's turned into about what

1032
01:03:10.559 --> 01:03:14.239
you do and you don't take care of the little things. Now,

1033
01:03:14.239 --> 01:03:15.880
I'm gonna let this play out a little bit more,

1034
01:03:16.000 --> 01:03:18.519
but this is bizarre. This is the passage you're supposed

1035
01:03:18.519 --> 01:03:20.920
to bring comfort, This is the passage it's supposed to

1036
01:03:20.920 --> 01:03:24.679
bring hope, and it's now turned into a sermon you

1037
01:03:24.719 --> 01:03:27.199
don't do the little things. You want to see God

1038
01:03:27.239 --> 01:03:29.079
do great things, but you don't take care of the

1039
01:03:29.119 --> 01:03:31.800
little things. Wait, when did this become about what I'm

1040
01:03:31.840 --> 01:03:35.199
supposed to be doing? And this about me relying? If

1041
01:03:35.239 --> 01:03:37.280
you're gonna make it about me, it would be relying

1042
01:03:37.320 --> 01:03:40.519
on God's promises. What are these promises? What promises are

1043
01:03:40.519 --> 01:03:43.480
you talking about? Is it like, well, God promises to

1044
01:03:43.519 --> 01:03:45.920
do great things, but he won't do them unless you

1045
01:03:45.960 --> 01:03:53.119
do Like is this? How is this turning into my responsibility?

1046
01:03:54.079 --> 01:03:56.280
If God answered our prayer to do the big things

1047
01:03:58.559 --> 01:04:01.000
like you and I so oftenering consistent at doing the

1048
01:04:01.000 --> 01:04:06.239
little things, we'd be in a world of trouble. But

1049
01:04:06.280 --> 01:04:10.280
here's Hannaia Michel and Nazareiah and the King's benevolent King.

1050
01:04:10.280 --> 01:04:12.360
After the first time he pleads with them, there's time

1051
01:04:12.360 --> 01:04:15.239
and time again, but eventually they're threatened that if you

1052
01:04:15.280 --> 01:04:17.239
don't do this, you're gonna be thrown into this fiery

1053
01:04:17.280 --> 01:04:24.719
furnished Hannaiah shadow ack, Hannaiamishel Nazaraiah said, we're not gonna bow.

1054
01:04:25.519 --> 01:04:27.360
Our God will save us. But even if he doesn't,

1055
01:04:28.480 --> 01:04:32.760
that's a commitment to God's truth. All that we were

1056
01:04:32.760 --> 01:04:36.440
committed to God's truth and did not let the trouble

1057
01:04:37.119 --> 01:04:40.400
and the uncertainty of life dissuade us from that commitment.

1058
01:04:41.199 --> 01:04:44.719
They recognized as they were being chucked into the fire

1059
01:04:45.159 --> 01:04:47.840
by the hands of soon men that would be slain

1060
01:04:47.920 --> 01:04:54.000
by the heat of that fire, that God's promises were

1061
01:04:54.000 --> 01:04:57.719
an anchor to their soul, and that their anchor.

1062
01:04:57.840 --> 01:05:03.480
Would hold.

1063
01:05:02.599 --> 01:05:08.079
There. What has happened here, ladies and gentlemen, What has

1064
01:05:08.119 --> 01:05:14.199
happened to the text? I just don't know. I'm gonna

1065
01:05:14.280 --> 01:05:15.800
let it play out a little bit longer, and then

1066
01:05:15.960 --> 01:05:18.920
I'm just gonna help you understand these promises here that

1067
01:05:19.320 --> 01:05:20.639
how are you to understand this?

1068
01:05:20.840 --> 01:05:21.039
Like it?

1069
01:05:21.559 --> 01:05:24.519
It's so simple to me. But let's see if we

1070
01:05:24.559 --> 01:05:27.000
can if we can wrap this up priority over an

1071
01:05:27.039 --> 01:05:29.159
hour again. All right, let's see what we can do here.

1072
01:05:31.519 --> 01:05:34.119
What trial or trouble you're going through in life? My friend,

1073
01:05:34.159 --> 01:05:39.559
God has made certain promises. His promises to you are

1074
01:05:39.599 --> 01:05:44.920
an assurance. Now we can ask this question, how do

1075
01:05:45.000 --> 01:05:51.679
we know this? How can I know? How can I

1076
01:05:51.719 --> 01:05:52.199
know that.

1077
01:05:52.039 --> 01:05:52.840
My anchor holds?

1078
01:05:53.880 --> 01:05:55.119
And I want to look at just a few things

1079
01:05:55.119 --> 01:05:56.519
here in the next couple of minutes that we have.

1080
01:05:57.559 --> 01:05:58.199
I want you to know.

1081
01:05:58.280 --> 01:06:02.840
Number one, I can know that my anchor holds because

1082
01:06:02.840 --> 01:06:08.000
of what God desires for me. Notice in verse number nine,

1083
01:06:08.840 --> 01:06:13.480
we are persuaded better things of you, things that company salvation.

1084
01:06:16.159 --> 01:06:20.159
Okay, so just he's moved the original recipients out. He's

1085
01:06:20.320 --> 01:06:24.519
just now made this all about us, and it keeps saying,

1086
01:06:24.519 --> 01:06:27.440
our anchor, our anchor, our anchor, our anchor, our anchor,

1087
01:06:27.480 --> 01:06:30.559
our anchor. Let me read it to you again, which

1088
01:06:30.639 --> 01:06:33.519
hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both

1089
01:06:33.559 --> 01:06:38.119
sure insteadfast, and which enters into into that within the veil.

1090
01:06:38.400 --> 01:06:42.559
Please note it is we have as an anchor, that

1091
01:06:42.639 --> 01:06:44.639
we is the original recipients.

1092
01:06:44.719 --> 01:06:44.960
Here.

1093
01:06:45.199 --> 01:06:51.079
He's writing to Jews, he's writing to the Hebrews. The

1094
01:06:51.280 --> 01:06:59.679
anchor and hope mentioned in Hebrews six nineteen can, indeed

1095
01:07:00.159 --> 01:07:09.320
and should be connected to the promises made specifically to Israel,

1096
01:07:09.840 --> 01:07:14.719
as found in Ezekiel thirty six twenty five through thirty

1097
01:07:14.760 --> 01:07:21.360
eight and Jeremiah thirty one thirty one through forty. That's

1098
01:07:21.360 --> 01:07:26.119
how you should unders these promises. This refuge is strong

1099
01:07:26.159 --> 01:07:30.280
consolation is because God has made promises to Israel and

1100
01:07:30.320 --> 01:07:34.000
gets what they're about to encounter the destruction of everything

1101
01:07:34.280 --> 01:07:37.199
and they need If this is the same concept being

1102
01:07:37.239 --> 01:07:43.280
played out as in Isaiah forty comfort comfort, ye, my people,

1103
01:07:43.679 --> 01:07:47.079
they need comfort? Why because they're in Babylonian captivity, but

1104
01:07:47.159 --> 01:07:50.639
that captivity is about to come in. Hey, these people

1105
01:07:50.719 --> 01:07:54.519
need something to hold on to, an anchor. Why, because

1106
01:07:54.599 --> 01:07:57.360
Judaism in Israel is about to be wiped off the

1107
01:07:57.360 --> 01:08:05.000
face of the earth, the Abrahamic and New Covenants are

1108
01:08:05.119 --> 01:08:12.039
foundational to Israel's hope. The writer of Hebrew of Hebrews

1109
01:08:12.719 --> 01:08:18.439
explicitly let me state that again explicitly ties the assurance

1110
01:08:18.760 --> 01:08:24.720
of God's promises to abra Ham Hebrews six thirteen through fifteen,

1111
01:08:25.199 --> 01:08:29.000
and the fulfillment of these promises in Christ. While the

1112
01:08:29.199 --> 01:08:35.319
immediate audience includes Jewish Christians, the broader promises of restoration, renewal,

1113
01:08:35.560 --> 01:08:38.760
and a new Covenant from the prophets were deeply ingrained

1114
01:08:38.840 --> 01:08:44.399
in their understanding. Now we could go through Ezekiel thirty six.

1115
01:08:44.439 --> 01:08:46.680
We could go to all these promises and see how

1116
01:08:46.920 --> 01:08:50.920
this would be a hope. This would be at their anchor.

1117
01:08:51.159 --> 01:08:54.239
The anchor. Their hope is the anchor, and that hope

1118
01:08:54.319 --> 01:08:57.119
is in God's promises that he has made to them

1119
01:08:57.279 --> 01:09:01.119
as a nation. Even though the nation is about to

1120
01:09:01.159 --> 01:09:03.039
be wiped off the face of the earth, you can

1121
01:09:03.159 --> 01:09:06.520
have hope that one day the nation will be regathered,

1122
01:09:06.640 --> 01:09:10.199
the nation will be restored, the nation will be will

1123
01:09:10.199 --> 01:09:12.760
get the land, the nations will get the promise, and

1124
01:09:12.880 --> 01:09:31.000
the nation will be saved once again. They said, well,

1125
01:09:31.000 --> 01:09:32.800
how does it apply to us, Well, if it applies

1126
01:09:32.800 --> 01:09:36.000
to us, what promises do we have? Our promises once again,

1127
01:09:36.039 --> 01:09:41.239
will be spiritual promises. We can't. We don't have any guarantee.

1128
01:09:41.279 --> 01:09:43.479
And he even said in discernment, any guarantee God's going

1129
01:09:43.560 --> 01:09:45.199
to do this or this or this in our life.

1130
01:09:45.600 --> 01:09:50.439
I have promises of well, something better. Spiritual promises that

1131
01:09:50.479 --> 01:09:53.359
are better because any temporal promise, even if there is

1132
01:09:53.399 --> 01:09:56.239
a temporal promise, we know ultimately we're going going to die.

1133
01:09:56.399 --> 01:09:58.720
We know ultimately this world is going to go away.

1134
01:09:59.039 --> 01:10:02.800
So the spiritual promises are always better because they're eternal salvation,

1135
01:10:03.720 --> 01:10:07.960
eternal life, forgiveness of sins, new body, no more pain,

1136
01:10:08.159 --> 01:10:10.760
no more suffering, no more death, et cetera, et cetera,

1137
01:10:10.760 --> 01:10:13.479
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

1138
01:10:15.079 --> 01:10:21.680
Now that hope is an anchor for us, but that

1139
01:10:21.800 --> 01:10:26.000
application would come after first understanding everything about the promises

1140
01:10:26.159 --> 01:10:28.359
to them. And oh, I don't have time. Now I'm

1141
01:10:28.399 --> 01:10:30.840
at seventy minutes to go through all of this. I

1142
01:10:30.880 --> 01:10:33.920
could go through. I could break down Ezekiel thirty six.

1143
01:10:33.960 --> 01:10:36.800
I could break down Jeremiah thirty one, specifically showing you

1144
01:10:36.880 --> 01:10:51.239
what those promises were. We could break it down, but oh, man,

1145
01:10:52.279 --> 01:10:54.279
see this is the same thing with Deuteronomy. Same thing

1146
01:10:54.319 --> 01:11:01.239
happened in Deuteronomy. See same thing happened in Isaiah forty,

1147
01:11:01.359 --> 01:11:04.439
same things happening in Hebrew six and all three cases.

1148
01:11:04.479 --> 01:11:07.039
I could spend week. I could spend hour after hour

1149
01:11:07.119 --> 01:11:10.319
after hour after hour going through the text trying to

1150
01:11:10.359 --> 01:11:15.199
put it in its historical textual context. And to do

1151
01:11:15.279 --> 01:11:18.800
that puts me then outside. Really almost every sermon I

1152
01:11:18.920 --> 01:11:23.960
listen to, how is that possible? But yet, at the

1153
01:11:24.000 --> 01:11:26.039
same time, we say we are people of the book.

1154
01:11:26.279 --> 01:11:29.520
We love the Word of God. We love it. It's the

1155
01:11:29.600 --> 01:11:33.520
inspired and fallible Bible. We love it, and we study it,

1156
01:11:33.640 --> 01:11:35.359
and we want to read it, and we want to

1157
01:11:35.439 --> 01:11:38.039
just rip it into I don't know, a million pieces

1158
01:11:38.039 --> 01:11:52.239
and put it back together anyway. We so desire. All right, Well,

1159
01:11:52.319 --> 01:11:57.000
I'll stop there now, I'm kind of stuck. Right do

1160
01:11:57.079 --> 01:11:59.359
we keep working on this? I mean, I mean all

1161
01:11:59.399 --> 01:12:01.399
I could do keep working out, we could keep playing

1162
01:12:01.399 --> 01:12:03.680
that sermon. I bet you're just gonna turn into a

1163
01:12:03.680 --> 01:12:05.760
lot of what we need to do, or you know

1164
01:12:06.119 --> 01:12:08.920
about us us us us us us us us us

1165
01:12:09.000 --> 01:12:11.880
us us us us us us us us us us.

1166
01:12:12.039 --> 01:12:15.439
And what's bizarre is the original recipients, they just become

1167
01:12:15.520 --> 01:12:20.279
for good. They just become an afterthought. They needed comfort.

1168
01:12:21.800 --> 01:12:24.319
They're there there, their city is about to be surrounded

1169
01:12:24.319 --> 01:12:27.039
by armies, and they're gonna be starved to death, and

1170
01:12:27.039 --> 01:12:31.600
and and there's gonna be complete destruction. And what it

1171
01:12:31.600 --> 01:12:33.119
was the numbers? Let me see if I can find

1172
01:12:33.119 --> 01:12:33.880
the numbers here?

1173
01:12:34.439 --> 01:12:48.399
Oh see, how many people died during the fall of

1174
01:12:49.319 --> 01:13:01.079
Let me see here of Jerusalem in seventy I know

1175
01:13:01.119 --> 01:13:03.520
there's going to be some disputes of numbers here. Josephus,

1176
01:13:03.520 --> 01:13:05.920
I don't think most people account his numbers as accurate.

1177
01:13:07.840 --> 01:13:11.720
All right, here's Josephus estimates. One point one million people

1178
01:13:11.760 --> 01:13:14.000
died during the siege and destruction of Jerusalem. I want

1179
01:13:14.000 --> 01:13:19.159
you to hear that one point one million died. And

1180
01:13:19.199 --> 01:13:22.840
a lot of this was was because of famine and disease.

1181
01:13:24.479 --> 01:13:26.479
A lot of this happened because the Roman siege cut

1182
01:13:26.520 --> 01:13:29.079
off all supplies to the city. Thousands of people died

1183
01:13:29.119 --> 01:13:33.439
from starvation, with accounts of desperate acts including cannibalism. Say

1184
01:13:33.680 --> 01:13:36.800
they needed hope. They needed an anchor, but we want

1185
01:13:36.800 --> 01:13:38.239
to take it and go, oh, you're going through a

1186
01:13:38.279 --> 01:13:42.840
difficult problem. You have a medical condition, your bank accounts

1187
01:13:42.920 --> 01:13:46.239
running a little low. Well, your anchor holds. No. The

1188
01:13:46.359 --> 01:13:50.600
anchor is for these people. They need it. One point

1189
01:13:50.640 --> 01:13:53.520
one million people died and they had to resort to

1190
01:13:53.640 --> 01:13:57.479
cannibalism to try to survive. They needed hope. But we

1191
01:13:57.840 --> 01:14:00.760
just pushed them out and say, look, look, guys, we're here.

1192
01:14:01.319 --> 01:14:11.800
Make it about us. It's about me. Once the Romans

1193
01:14:11.840 --> 01:14:17.319
breached the wall, they conducted a systematic slaughter. Josephus described

1194
01:14:17.359 --> 01:14:21.439
the carnage and graphic terms, emphasizing the indiscrimate killing of men, women,

1195
01:14:21.520 --> 01:14:25.800
and children. Josephus also reported that around ninety seven thousand

1196
01:14:25.880 --> 01:14:31.399
survivors were captured and enslaved. Now, just remember a lot

1197
01:14:31.439 --> 01:14:35.359
of people critique Josephus's numbers and say that they were exaggerated.

1198
01:14:35.439 --> 01:14:37.600
Just so that you know that many people do not

1199
01:14:37.760 --> 01:14:40.720
like Josephus's account. So just so that you know that

1200
01:14:40.720 --> 01:14:42.760
that you understand that you can look at the works

1201
01:14:42.760 --> 01:14:46.119
of Josephus and read about it. Just note that lots

1202
01:14:46.119 --> 01:14:50.399
of historians criticize it. Okay, got into a huge debate

1203
01:14:50.439 --> 01:14:53.239
with a doctor I worked in. Josephus wasn't an idiot.

1204
01:14:53.279 --> 01:14:55.079
He didn't know what he was talking about. He wasn't

1205
01:14:55.079 --> 01:14:58.840
a good historian. Okay, okay, calm down, calm down. I

1206
01:14:58.920 --> 01:15:02.479
get it, Okay, I get it. You don't like Joe Cephas,

1207
01:15:02.680 --> 01:15:08.119
I get it right. But you can see my frustration.

1208
01:15:08.560 --> 01:15:10.359
I mean, these are words that meant something to the

1209
01:15:10.399 --> 01:15:12.640
original people, and we just walk in and go my

1210
01:15:12.880 --> 01:15:18.560
anchor hole, my anchor. Forget your anchor, my anchor. Now

1211
01:15:18.680 --> 01:15:21.119
their anchor would be somewhat different than our anchor, but

1212
01:15:21.319 --> 01:15:23.720
it would be similar but different, right, because there are

1213
01:15:23.760 --> 01:15:26.520
specific promises made to Israel, not made to us. That's

1214
01:15:26.600 --> 01:15:28.600
what we get in the Old Testament, over and over

1215
01:15:28.640 --> 01:15:32.439
and over, these covenant promises that are connected to the Covenant.

1216
01:15:32.960 --> 01:15:37.560
They have clear promises of provision, of protection, of blessing,

1217
01:15:37.800 --> 01:15:39.359
and we want to just take it all and make

1218
01:15:39.399 --> 01:15:42.159
it about us, which then leads people with a false

1219
01:15:42.199 --> 01:15:45.560
comfort and a false hope, and then we want to

1220
01:15:45.600 --> 01:15:48.279
take anchors. Do we have an anchor? Yes, I have

1221
01:15:48.319 --> 01:15:51.399
a blessed hope in Christ Jesus, and I can anchor

1222
01:15:51.439 --> 01:15:54.520
myself to that. For what not that anything in this

1223
01:15:54.560 --> 01:15:56.920
life is going to go well, that anything here this

1224
01:15:56.960 --> 01:16:02.920
could be. This life could be filled with pain, suffering, disease, death, tragedy, famine, disease, plagues.

1225
01:16:03.840 --> 01:16:06.079
I have no guarantee that God's going to do anything

1226
01:16:06.119 --> 01:16:10.600
for me in this situation, but I have an anchor that, well,

1227
01:16:10.760 --> 01:16:12.920
I will be in heaven because all my sins have

1228
01:16:13.000 --> 01:16:15.840
forgiven now that I can't. But is that the anchor

1229
01:16:15.880 --> 01:16:18.560
being spoken of here? So we want to get back

1230
01:16:18.560 --> 01:16:23.000
to what's being specifically promised to them again? Look at

1231
01:16:23.000 --> 01:16:26.960
the section first as thoughts. God made promise to Abraham

1232
01:16:27.800 --> 01:16:31.239
right then by and then verse eighteen by two immutable things,

1233
01:16:32.159 --> 01:16:34.840
which was impossible for God to lie. We might have

1234
01:16:34.880 --> 01:16:37.800
a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay

1235
01:16:37.800 --> 01:16:42.319
hold upon the hope set before us. What is that

1236
01:16:42.399 --> 01:16:47.319
hope set before them? What is that anchor that both

1237
01:16:47.439 --> 01:16:53.000
sure and steadfast which entereth into that within the veil? Now,

1238
01:16:53.079 --> 01:16:55.880
is that hope that God's going to do something specifically

1239
01:16:55.920 --> 01:16:59.039
for them? Well, there are promises? Is that hope specifically

1240
01:16:59.079 --> 01:17:01.880
in Christ, that that they're going to have salvation in

1241
01:17:01.960 --> 01:17:03.479
spite of the fact that a million of them are

1242
01:17:03.479 --> 01:17:07.119
getting ready to die. I mean, so those are the

1243
01:17:07.159 --> 01:17:14.600
more important philological and hermoneutical questions, but the sermon just

1244
01:17:14.640 --> 01:17:18.960
turns it into you you, you you, and it's like, well,

1245
01:17:18.960 --> 01:17:35.960
can't we understand them first? All right? Well, yay yay,

1246
01:17:37.079 --> 01:17:45.319
yay yay, thanks for listening. God bless