The Promise Keeper (Part 3)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ. Based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Well, everybody has probably asked the question sometime in their life, can

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I lose my salvation? Do I have eternal security? And really there are three basic answers to that question.

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First answer is, we don't have enough information to know. It's a mystery. We hope we are saved.

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Second option is, yes, you can lose your salvation. And many churches teach that, that you, in fact, can lose your salvation.

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Even though you've been a Christian, you can end up in hell. Roman Catholic Church teaches that. The Church of the

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Nazarenes teach that, Churches of Christ, Methodist churches, and more. And the third answer to this question, can

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I lose my salvation, is no, you cannot lose your salvation because it's earned by God and God can't lose a

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Christian. Now sometimes we talk about eternal security. That would be the one view where you can't lose your salvation.

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The other option is, I kind of learned this new this week, you could call it temporary security if you could lose your salvation, or you could call it eternal insecurity.

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But this idea of eternal security, I think it's better thought of if you think of, God preserves his saints, and then

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God has them persevere, and because of that, you have eternal security.

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The Bible teaches that God preserves his saints, he keeps them, he protects them, he guards them.

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Psalm 94, the Lord will not forsake his people. Hebrews 13, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

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The Lord Jesus, John 6, the one who comes to me, I will certainly not cast out.

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First Peter chapter 1 verse 5, we are kept by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

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God preserves his saints. Jude 24, now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory blameless with great joy.

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Aren't you glad God preserves you from payment of sin, death, hell, Satan himself?

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Aren't you glad just like when Jesus said to Simon, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.

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God is not going to lose one Christian to Satan in this so -called tug of war for souls.

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The gifts and calling of God, Romans 11, are irrevocable. And Christian, you never have to sing that bad version of amazing grace.

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I once was saved, but now I'm lost. Once saw, but now I'm blind. Turn to Hebrews chapter 6, please.

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Hebrews chapter 6 teaches this. God preserves you. God keeps you and God keeps his word because he's faithful to himself and he's faithful to you.

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And if God has ever promised you anything, his promises are certain. Can you imagine if you had to live underneath the scheme that says you can lose your salvation?

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How many sins do you have to commit before you can lose your salvation? How many, what's the quality of sins you have to commit before you lose your salvation?

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We would certainly lose our salvation, but in fact, God has justified you, declared you not guilty.

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He's adopted you into his family and he will never lose a Christian. He preserves you.

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And the writer of Hebrews basically says this. I know it doesn't look like he's preserving you, but he does.

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So I want you to walk by faith and not by sight. I know you're getting persecuted. There's all kinds of trials.

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You could put whatever trial you're going through right now. How can God love me and how is God preserving me and how has

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God keeping me in light of what I see and in light of what I experience? And the writer of the Hebrews wants you to know, don't just look at what you can see.

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Look at the character of God. Look at the nature of God. Look at the promises of God. Look at God himself, the triune

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God. And I love the book of Hebrews because it just over and over and over emphasizes and reemphasizes the fact that God can be trusted.

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He keeps his promises. A lot of us have not kept promises in our life, but God keeps his promises.

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And therefore your salvation, future salvation is secure.

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Now he starts off in chapter six, just for a very quick review with a, with a warning. And he is warning people that you can get really close to the

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Lord Jesus and still not believe. That's true in the book of James, right? Even the demons believe in what?

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Tremble. By the way, remember that word tremble. It's an emotional word and it's the word that could be used of a dog's, the hair on a dog's back.

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When it's frightened, what does, what happens with that hair? It goes up, right? It's, it's, it's angry.

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It's frightened. That's why a matter of fact, the Jewish people used to sometimes call demons, what? The hairy ones.

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That's right. I think you've heard the sermon before. Once in a while, I'll meet people.

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Barry Aloisi is the one who especially does this. I'm talking to him about something and we're kind of debating the theological point.

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And he quotes me back, but he didn't say it's me, but he's, I've taught him that. And I thought, no, you can't use that.

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I've taught you that years ago. Stop that. On a true note though, it is the joy and pastor

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Bob knows this for certain. It is a joy of all joys to preach to a theologically literate congregation who wants the

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Bible, who wants to learn about the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing like it. He's warning these people, you can come close and still not be a believer and you can taste and you can experience and you can have all kinds of things that Judas had, but he wasn't a believer.

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And so he wants people to move all the way from, you know what, I'm not too sure. And move all the way to believe and to trust and to rest and he gives them warnings.

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And certainly this sermon, the book of Hebrews, sometimes I say Christian and I'm talking to Christians and other times

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I'll say, if anybody here is not saved, here's what I want from you or here's how you should respond. And he does the same thing here.

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The first eight verses. If you're not a Christian, make sure you believe. And if you are a Christian, verse nine and following, make sure you're trusting in the

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Lord Jesus and his promises. All of us need to be encouraged in this life.

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And verse 18 is kind of the driving force to everything. Do you see it at the very end that we might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us?

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That's why he wants you to focus on the nature of God and the character of God and the promises of God, because we need to have encouragement.

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These people were ready to run back to Judaism. They're ready to run back to their old life. You can just imagine the person who becomes a

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Christian and their life was actually easier before they were a Christian. Maybe I should go back.

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And he said, there's no way to go back. There's nowhere to go back to. Let me remind you of who

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God is. And did we not see these six great descriptions of God? Remember verses 13 through 15,

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God's a promise keeper. Why go back when you can rest in this God who keeps his promises?

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Verse 13, for when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself saying, surely

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I will bless you and multiply you. And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

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Do you see what's going on there? What he saw wasn't good. What he experienced wasn't good, but he was trusting in the promises of God.

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He was standing on God's promises in spite of circumstances, in spite of what he saw. True or false, we walk by faith and not by sight.

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That's the point. And this is the object of that faith. He's an oath maker.

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Verses 16 through 17, we saw a couple of weeks ago, for people swear by something greater than themselves and in all their disputes, an oath is final for confirmation.

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So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath.

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Can you imagine? God really wants you to know. How much does he want you to know? He doesn't just say, I'm God, believe my word.

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He says, I'm God, believe my word, and by the way, I'll make an oath. I'll make it more convincing to you.

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I'll show you that what I say is true and I'll confirm it with an oath and I'll put an end to all argument.

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Verse 18, he's a truth teller, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie.

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God never lies. God always tells the truth. God made a promise.

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He keeps it. God made an oath. He keeps it. He doesn't change it when it suits him.

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This oath is unalterable. This oath is immutable. This oath is irrevocable.

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Isaiah 55, so my word shall be which goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty without accomplishing what

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I desire. And in this particular case, God gives you an oath so that you'd rest in him and trust in him in spite of what you see.

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So when God says, if you'd believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved. You need to trust in that, to rest in that.

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Some of you have been to Crete with me, the island of Crete, and it's funny. We went to Starbucks at Crete.

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I thought that was very fascinating. Perfect shop for Crete for lots of reasons. I did not see a

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Dunkin' Donuts at Crete. Crete was known for and is known for liars, a whole island of liars, a whole island of lazy people, and a whole island of gluttons.

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I asked the people in Athens just several years ago, do you see people in Crete positively or negatively?

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Negatively. And so Paul is writing to Titus, and he says, you know what? I know there are liars in this island.

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I know there are lazy people, and I know there are gluttons. And how does he start off Titus?

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In the hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began.

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Everybody else might be liars, but God's not going to lie, and when he makes a promise, he keeps the promise.

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He's also a refuge. Remember that in verse 18? We who have fled for refuge.

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I received many emails this week from you saying that you have aha moments as well. I'm glad to give you aha moments.

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Remember, this was an aha moment for me because these recipients of this letter, Hebrews, thought like Jews, and when they thought of refuge, how did they think?

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What did they think? What did they think about? Oh, they would think, can

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I make up a word, Old Testamently. They would think about the Old Testament, and they would read the

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Old Testament and say, you know what? When you killed someone by accident and you had to go for refuge, you had to flee to one of those six cities, remember?

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You could have asylum there. You could be safe. What a great picture of our salvation.

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We are guilty. We have sinned. We have fought against the Lord Jesus Christ. Is there any hope for us as men who have committed treason and women who have rebelled against the

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Lord Jesus? Yes, but it's not a city. It's a person. You can flee for refuge to the person, the

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Lord Jesus Christ, and you're safe. And then once the high priest dies, you can go back to your normal life.

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What a great picture of the Lord Jesus dying for us, being raised for us. Satan, the avenger after us, and we have a place of refuge.

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I love Psalm 46. Our God is a God of refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

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Psalm 91, my refuge and my fortress. And last week we started to look at anchor.

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Verse 19, the promises of God, God himself can be thought about as an anchor.

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Verse 19, a hope that enters into the inner place. But that's the second part of the verse.

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What about the first part of verse 19? We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.

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I mean, we've gone from a city metaphor now to an anchor metaphor. Years ago

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I went to Israel and sometimes they run out of things to take you to, run out of places.

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And you know, you've got to fill up the day for the tourists. And so they'll take you to a sesame seed production plant, you know, tahini plant, and everything is five times more than what it's supposed to cost, and you pay anyway gladly because the driver and the bus tour guide needs the extra money.

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And they take you to all these places. I mean, how much holy water can you buy on a trip? They took us to an anchor museum.

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I've been to Israel many times, we went to anchor museum and they got little anchors, they got bigger anchors.

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And then outside they had these huge anchors and, you know, don't think kind of like Navy anchors, just think about this large stone with a circle in the center, you know, a hole in the center.

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And the guy said, what's odd about that anchor? I don't know.

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Is it for sale? How am I going to get that in my luggage? Whenever I travel,

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Kim usually says, can you pick up something, you know, when you're in this other country? And whatever she asked for, it's usually like 10 feet long or 900 pounds.

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Could you get like a spear in Africa? Sure. Can you get an elephant in India?

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No problem. Anchor was huge. And the guy said that anchor could never be an anchor for any boat 2 ,000 years ago or 3 ,000 years ago from when this anchor came because it would sink the boat.

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So why do you have an anchor so big? Answer, because it's a

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God. Because if you need a God to help you with stability and firmness, and the waters of life are swirling all around and you think you're going to get shipwrecked on a reef, what are you going to worship?

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A God who's a flim -flam God or the anchor God? That's a God, the anchor God. Well, here in the right way, this anchor, this metaphor for stability and hope is meant to give you stability and hope.

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God's promises more us to his person. Even though we can't see what goes on down below when we drop the anchor in a real boat, we know it hits the bottom.

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And I did a lot of studies about anchors this week, and it's got to be the right depth, and it's got to be the right anchor.

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It's got to have the right scope. You just don't drop the anchor down. We can't see what's going on. But here we know where it goes because the anchor is the promises of God found in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Security, support, stay, safeguard.

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Every time this word anchor is used in the New Testament, except for here, it's used of a literal anchor.

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God's sworn promises are supposed to calm you in the storms of life. Anchors are supposed to keep the ship from moving.

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I can't see the anchor. It's down low. What a great picture. 1 Peter 1, though you have not seen him, you love him.

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Though you do not see him now, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and what?

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Filled with glory. Who just said that? What young person just said that? That was excellent. You know, they said the biggest mistake you can make when it comes to buying an anchor is you have a $500 ,000 boat and you buy a chintzy little $500 anchor.

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It doesn't make sense. That's a number one mistake people make when it comes to real anchors is having an inadequate anchor.

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Is the Lord Jesus Christ in his promises? Are they inadequate? The answer is no. It says that if you throw your anchor out in a real boat and it starts dragging, what do you do?

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Inform the master, inform the engine room, stop all cargo operations, start heaving up the anchor, deploy a second anchor, use bow thrusters.

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If scenario permits, let the vessel drag in a controlled manner. And lastly, call the tugboat for assistance.

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This anchor is what? Sure and steadfast. None of that's going to happen. You can trust in him.

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The whole picture is just, if I just said to you, you can trust God, that should solve it. But you can trust

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God. He keeps his promises. He keeps his oath. He tells the truth. He's like an anchor of the soul.

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He'll never cause disappointment. You'll never throw an anchor over in the storms of life and go, you know what? It didn't hold.

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It broke down under the weight of something. I believe in Romans 9, 33 and Romans 10, 11.

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It says, those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ shall never be put to shame. The anchor holds.

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That word sure is used elsewhere in first Peter. We have the prophetic word made more what?

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Sure. That's the kind of anchor we have. And where does this anchor go? On a reef, on a sandbar.

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Do you notice the text? A hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain. The anchor is placed there behind the veil.

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That's fascinating. If you're a Jew, what do you begin to think about? So you've got the anchor that goes behind the veil.

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Who goes behind the veil? How often do they go behind the veil? Now, of course, we know that the answer is found in the

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Old Testament. There's a book in the Old Testament that Jewish children study first in synagogue.

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There's a book in the Old Testament that so few people read it, they functionally treat it like it doesn't even belong in the

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Bible. There's a book in the Old Testament that when hearing an analogy about this book and liver and onions responded,

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I like liver and onions better. There's a book in the Old Testament where people starting

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January 1st begin to read Genesis and Exodus and they bog down in this particular book. It's a book of Leviticus.

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So I want you to go there. Leviticus 16. And it is anything but boring. I eat a lot of food in life.

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I never thought I'd eat beets, but I eat beets now, but I still will never eat liver as far as I know or kidney.

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That's out. But this book isn't like that at all. This book,

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Leviticus, is fascinating. It's interesting. Israel just sits at the bottom of Sinai and Leviticus goes on.

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But you ought to read it because over and over and over, I am the Lord. I am the Lord. I am the holy one. Can a holy

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God dwell in the midst of sinful people? And Leviticus 16 tells us a little bit about it.

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And if you get Leviticus 16, I think it's probably a little of exaggeration. But if you get 16, you get all the book of Hebrews.

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If you get chapter 16, you certainly will get 619 of Hebrews. Going back and forth to Hebrews.

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And of course, if you go to the Old Testament and think, show me Israel, that doesn't work for Charlie's song.

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But it also doesn't work theologically, because this writer, when he goes to the Old Testament, he isn't thinking

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Israel. He's thinking about the one that births Israel, and that's the Lord Jesus. Everything about Leviticus 16 shows us

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Christ and the need for him. Leviticus 16, verse 1, we won't do the whole chapter, but just a little bit.

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The Lord Yahweh, Leviticus 16, spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the

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Lord Yahweh and died. Remember what happened in chapter 10? They offer strange fire.

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They don't think God's so holy, and what happens? They are incinerated. They're going to worship

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God the way they want to worship God. They're going to be flippant. They're going to be careless and thoughtless. They'll do it the way they want to do it.

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Leviticus says, fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the

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Lord. They just saunter into the holy of holies and get away with it. No, God is serious about sin.

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Verse 2 of Leviticus 16, Yahweh said to Moses, tell Aaron, your brother, not to come at any time into the holy place inside the veil.

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That's the language of Hebrews. Before the mercy seek that is on the ark so that he may not die like his sons.

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For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. You don't just walk in, there are certain prescriptions and laws that you have to do to walk into such a place.

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And it starts with verse 3, but in this way Aaron shall come into the holy place. Not your way, but a holy way, a sanctified way, a way through bloodshed.

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With a bull from a herd for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering.

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And, by the way, Aaron, those wonderful robes that you have, full of color, and opaz, and opaz, what's opaz, opaz, opaz is even a more costly jewel.

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Sweet story, my mom was on her deathbed and she had been a jeweler, and so she knew all the different stones and what they looked like.

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And I was reading Revelation 21 and 22 to her, and she was telling me what all those stones were, and I said, pretty soon, glory, pretty soon you'll see face to face, pretty soon.

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If I would have asked my mom, what's an opaz, she would have said, are you from Nebraska? Exodus talks about these ornate gowns that the priest had to wear.

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Four rows of stones, the first row shall be sardis, topaz, emerald, turquoise, sapphire, diamond, amethyst, onyx, jasper, all set in gold settings.

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And they looked great, opulent, is how they looked.

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But when you come in here, when you go into the Holy of Holies, you take all that off and you look like a slave, because that's all you are.

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Do you see it, verse 4, he shall put on the holy linen coat, and shall have the linen undergarment on his body.

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It's what slaves wear. And he shall tie the linen sash around his waist, and wear the linen turban, those are clothes you serve in.

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These are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water, and then put them on.

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You look like a slave on the day of atonement, simple, ordinary worker.

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And he shall take, verse 5, from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and the one ram for a burnt offering.

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Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. Of course, you know about the lots and the goats.

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Take two goats, verse 7, set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the

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Lord and the other lot for Azazel. And you present the goats on which the lot fell, verse 9, for the

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Lord and use it as a sin offering. The wages of sin is death, but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive.

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That sin just goes away, sent into the wilderness. A great description of the Lord's work.

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He bears the sins, and he makes the sins go away. And now down, skip to verse 12.

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Before you walk into the Holy of Holies, before you go beyond that veil, take a fire pan, verse 12, full of coals of fire upon the altar of Yahweh, and two handfuls of finely ground incense, and bring it inside the veil.

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And he shall put the incense on the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of incense may cover the mercy seat that is on the ark of the testimony.

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You create this large smoke. You create this large thing that you can't see through, so it deflects and it refracts some of the light, so you don't die from it.

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Because if you look at the glory of God, you're going to die. Ask a Nadab and a Bihu. Get some kind of covering in there to dim God's glory, so you don't just get annihilated.

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Make a dark shrine. Can you imagine walking in there? Your sons have just died.

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Now it's your turn. You think you'd be precise? Do you think you'd walk circumspectly?

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You think you'd put a little extra incense in there? I don't think you'd do the last one, because you don't want to be very, very particular.

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And then after this, more blood, more goats, more blood, more bulls, more blood, more sacrifice to try to enter into that veil.

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And friends, nobody in the Old Testament is going in that veil, except that priest on that one day.

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And now what the Lord Jesus Christ does? He... Well, I'll tell you what he does.

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He blazes a trail for you. Let's go back to Hebrews chapter 6. He blazes a trail for you.

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You get to go in. It's like the Holy of Holies was just a picture of the presence of God.

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And now you get to go into the presence of God. Yes, in spite of sin, in spite of trials, in spite of Satan, in spite of persecution, you get to go in, because Jesus is not just a refuge.

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He's not just an anchor, but He, chapter 6, verse 20, is a forerunner. This is the best.

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Where Jesus has gone, we're talking about He's gone into the veil, has He not? He's gone into the

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Holy of Holies, behind the curtain, the inner place, and Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf.

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Now, sometimes you might think of a forerunner in just simple English words, He runs ahead. But that's not what

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He's saying. He runs ahead and He has people who follow Him. He's a forerunner.

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There are after -runners. You, Christian, are an after -runner. And no bull's blood is needed, no goat's blood is needed, it's the

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Lord Jesus' blood and He takes you in. He's the precursor of all believers. There's a series of people who follow

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Him. Forerunners mean someone's following. Can you imagine, you get to go into the

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Holy of Holies to where God is, in the presence of the Father. You're the follower of Jesus.

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No Levitical high priest entered the sanctuary as a forerunner. Only the representative of the people, sinful people.

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Now you have sinless Jesus as a forerunner and He brings you in. Man and God, full fellowship, based on the resurrection and work of the

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Lord Jesus. Sometimes this word forerunner is used of a military commander, who does not lead from the back, he leads from the front.

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The point is, he's trying to make you not have cares, casting all your cares upon the

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Lord because He cares for you. Why would you go back to Judaism, when that particular high priest can only go into the

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Holy of Holies, once a year, with the right clothes, substitute sacrifice for himself, could possibly get killed like Aaron's sons, and you kind of just go in there with the cloud and the smoke and everything else, and that's what you get.

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One sinful priest to represent you on that one day of the year. Why would you go back to that?

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I could make it even simpler, or maybe more apropos for today. Why would you go back to that dead religion you left?

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Why would you go back to that religion that says, you know what, if you don't confess all your sins before you die, you're going to hell.

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Why would you go back to that? Jesus has promised, in spite of your sin, He's taken you in to the inner sanctuary, to the presence of God Himself, to the

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Holy of Holy places, where angels bow and blush, but you get to stand blameless with great glory.

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Jesus goes ahead in to the Holy of Holies, and you're going to go with Him soon enough.

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Sound familiar? It sounds very familiar to me. Jesus, let not your hearts be troubled, believe in God, believe also in Me.

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In My Father's house there are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

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And if I go and prepare a place for you as a forerunner, I will come again and take you to Myself.

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As a forerunner has afterrunners, I'm going to come and get you. That where I am, you may be also.

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That's a forerunner, John 14. And you know the way to where I'm going.

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Thomas said to Him, Lord, we do not know where You are going. How can we know the way? And Jesus said to him,

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I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, into the Holy of Holies, into that place, except through Me and by Me as forerunner.

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If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him. That is amazing.

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He's the forerunner. You think, wait a second, how did we get from anchor nautical to forerunner?

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Paul's day, the word for forerunner. One article says, was the word used to describe smaller boats that were sent into the harbor by larger ships that were unable to enter due to stormy conditions.

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These smaller boats carried the anchor through the breakers inside the harbor and dropped it there, securing the larger ship.

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The pilot boat, the boat that went in ahead of time that brought your anchor into the port was the forerunner ship.

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That is amazing. The forerunner goes in first, makes it safe for you to follow.

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Sound familiar? It will hold fast. That anchor holds.

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One guy tried to describe it this way, forerunner. You know, you watch the football games. I know everybody's going to wake up now.

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I see a few of you sleeping, so now I'll talk about football. Football, you sleepers, ready? Here's an illustration.

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That's actually a Bible verse, awake, oh sleepers. The game's about ready to start.

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It's a high school game. The team's in the locker room. And out in the field, there's like a cheerleader standing over there and a cheerleader standing over there, and they've got a big banner, right, and it says, go

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Huskies or something. What's Boston College mascot? The Catholics?

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Oh, sorry. The Eagles. Excuse me. The Eagles. Sorry. I thought that was

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Notre Dame for a second. The Eagles. Go Eagles. And the one guy, the team captain, he runs out first and he breaks through the paper, right?

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And everybody else follows him. That's the forerunner. All right. I got to get out of here.

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That is amazing. Forget that illustration, but at least I've got you awake now. And by the way, do you notice, does it say

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Christ? Does it say Lord? It says where Jesus has gone as a forerunner, humanity of Jesus, the person of Jesus.

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The author has placed that word Jesus emphatically in that clause so that you realize it takes a human to do it.

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There's the human high priest to be your representative. Of course, he's the divine high priest to give you an infinite amount of righteousness.

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But Jesus is the one who enters the heavenly sanctuary and he didn't get killed for his own sins like Nadab of Bihu.

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He got killed for our sins and now makes it into heaven. Additionally, don't forget verse 20,

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Jesus is a forerunner on our behalf.

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Jesus did that for you, Christian. He did something for us. He atoned for sin and showed us the way to the

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Father. That language is substitution language. That language reminds me of while we were still helpless at the right time,

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Christ died for the ungodly. That's the language of substitution. Like 2

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Corinthians, he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, same word.

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1 Thessalonians 5, Christ died for us, same word. And lastly, don't forget, he has become this forerunner and a high priest forever.

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Jesus, he's human. On our behalf, it's in our place and forever, not just once a year, forever.

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The enthroned Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary guarantees you, Christian, that you'll make it safe and secure from all alarm.

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Salvation is in God's hands and you are secure in him. That is such great news.

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If I could lose my salvation, I would. If I could lose my salvation, I did.

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But the Lord Jesus Christ paid for every one of my sins, past, present, future, because he loved me and he gave his life for me.

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And now the language in the book of Hebrews is put together so everyone would realize, no matter what angle you look at, refuge, oath, truth, you're not going to lose your salvation.

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God's going to keep his promises so that you might rest in him and trust in him and have faith in him.

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And so I'll ask the question, friends, do you believe the Lord Jesus Christ? Are you trusting in him?

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Even this week I hear about car accidents, bad ones in the congregation. We need to be ready.

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Maybe some of you are sitting here thinking, you know what, I'm on the fence. I don't know whether to believe or not. I know mom and dad believe it, but I'm not quite sure.

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Can you think of a better God to represent you? Can you think of a better way to try to make it to eternity?

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How are you going to get into the heaven, God's heaven? By your own goodness, you're not good enough.

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By your own concoction of your own mind, there are realities that are not post -modern realities.

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Taxes, health. And there are realities, spiritual realities that are not post -modern. And that is, you're going to die and stand before God one day.

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And without the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to be like Nadab and Abihu. But with the

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Lord Jesus Christ, you have all these promises ahead of time. Trusting in the promises of God, that He is who

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He said He is. You say, yeah, but the circumstance I'm going through, you don't understand how bad these things are that I have in my life.

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And you know what? But that doesn't mean the promises of God aren't true.

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That's the point of this whole passage. Can't I lose my salvation? When it comes to theoretical possibility, nobody can know.

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We know, yes or no, can you lose your salvation? And when it comes to the answer that teaches you can, we know that's not true.

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There is eternal security because God perseveres through the perseverance of the saints.

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And He will never leave His saints. There was a man named

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John Stam and his wife, Betty. And they were in China as missionaries.

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And he was 28 years old, had done a lot of work there for the Chinese people, preaching the gospel.

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And the rebellion comes in, and if you haven't read the story, you ought to, about the life of John and Betty Stam.

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And they know they had to go die. And so they were allowed to leave their little child up in the room.

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And if memory serves me, John or Betty tucked a little bit of money into the diaper of the child because they knew, they,

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John and Betty, knew they were going to die. And they would hope someone would take care of the baby. On the way to get executed by the communist, his wife going with him on the road, and someone said to them, where are you going?

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And John Stam said, we are going to hell. How do you talk that way?

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How do you say things like that? Every visible circumstance, every evidence for their eyes showed something different than God loves them.

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Except they were walking by faith, and if I imported my text, they knew God would never leave them or forsake them.

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They knew God kept their promises of eternal life. They knew that if they trusted in the Jesus that purged them, that God would, in fact, take that final payment because he took the final payment of the resurrection.

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They knew he was an anchor. They knew they could flee for refuge. And they knew that Jesus had already entered into heaven, and they were soon to follow.

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We are going to heaven. And that's what

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Hebrews 6 is meant to do for troubled Christians who wonder about life.

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Let's pray. I thank you, Father, for our time in your word. I thank you that we could just sit and talk about your son from every different perspective and still not exhaust that.

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And I think that's probably what heaven will show. We can be amazed at the Lord Jesus and learn new things about his person and work for all eternity and just be in awe.

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Father, I admit I'm not in awe very often. Maybe when one of my children is born, then the next, then the next, then the next.

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Maybe when I see Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls, could that be it? But heaven, in awe.

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If there were time, all the time in heaven, in awe because of the Lord Jesus and the angels and the saints swirling around worthy as the lamb who was slain.

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What a great forerunner. I'm glad he brings other with him, sinners cleansed by the blood of the lamb.

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And I pray for everyone here, in spite of what they're going through, I pray that they'd walk by faith in this lamb who loved them and gave himself for them.

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In Jesus' name we pray, amen. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.