Hebrews Study: Our Anchor for the Soul :: By Sean Gooding

Published on: by RR10 Category:General Articles, Sean Gooding

Hebrews 6:13-20

“For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, 14 saying, ‘Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.’ 15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. 16 For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. 17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, 18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.

19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, 20 where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”

Right now, I am reading in the Torah once again, Genesis to Deuteronomy, and these verses are coming to life right before my eyes as I am teaching through the book of Hebrews. It is important to see the Old Testament as relevant to us in the New Testament era. There has been a push of late among even prominent church leaders to treat the Old Testament as not necessary in the New Testament era. Nothing could be further from the truth. The faith we have in the New Testament is a faith rooted and built on the promises that God gave to the Patriarchs; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

There are two stages to the covenant: a physical one in that, through Abraham, God would build a literal nation called Israel. The second is a spiritual one for all who believe in God by faith. Abraham, one man and his wife, they being 75 and 65 respectively, would have children as numerous as the stars of heaven or the sand of the seashore. They had one son, Isaac, at the age of 100 and 90 respectively, and he, Isaac, had just 2 sons. But today, in spite of persecution and centuries of hatred that still persist to this day, there are approximately 9,200,000 people living in Israel (and in the vicinity) of the 14,800,000 Jews living in the world today. God’s promise to multiply the children of Abraham is being fulfilled and played out right before us, and there is nothing anyone or any nation can do to stop it.

The nation of Israel continues to be a blessing to the world in technology, medical discoveries, and financial prowess. There are communities of Jews everywhere; even my little Barbados has one of the oldest synagogues in the Western Hemisphere, established in 1654. About 300 Jews settled in Barbados in the 1600s, many of them skilled in the sugar industry. Today, it is a museum in Bridgetown, Barbados. The prosperity of the Jews and their seeming ability to survive any and all attacks and not just to survive but thrive is all a part of the promises that God made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You need to know these promises as a child of God. The faithfulness of God to the Jews, even in the midst of sin and rebellion, is a comfort to us and provides a sure footing for our growth in Christ.

Please, please remember that Jesus is a Jew. Our salvation was brought by a Jewish Rabbi named Jesus, God and Man in one, who died on the cross. The whole reason for God’s promises to Abraham was to pave the way for the Jewish God-Man, Jesus, to be our salvation.

  • God Made a Covenant with Himself, 16-18

God swore an oath that He could perform all that He had promised to Abraham. There is the Abrahamic covenant recorded for us in Genesis 12: 1-3 (NKJV), but this covenant was further secured via an ancient ceremony that was often performed between two warring kings. We find the record of this in Genesis 15. In this ceremony, the two kings would cut an animal in half, then walk between the two halves in the blood. This action secured peace or secured whatever covenant they made until one of the kings died, and then it was back to war or whatever was before. In Genesis 15, if you read verse 12, Abraham falls asleep, and God does the ceremony with Himself. And since He cannot die, the covenant will never expire. The covenant is recorded in verses 1-6:

“After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.’ But Abram said, ‘Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?’ Then Abram said, ‘Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!’ And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.’ Then He brought him outside and said, ‘Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” (NKJV).

Our promises in God, through Jesus, are as secure as this covenant, which has not nor will ever go out of existence, because the promises are to Jesus as well, as a descendant of Abraham.

  • The Anchor of our Souls, verse 19

This is the hope we have in Jesus; this is the hope we have in God’s promises and the hope we have that transcends the trials and storms of life. It even transcends our failures, our sinfulness, and our faithlessness. In all of our shortcomings, God is faithful, and He will NEVER renege on His promises to Abraham since they are also promises to His Son, Jesus. We are secure in Jesus, not because we are good but because God is good. We can trust in His salvation when He calls us His children (1 John 3:1). Thus, we have an anchor for our souls, and we have a security that is guarded by God himself. He will never die, so the covenant is secure, and He cannot lie, so he will not go back on His word.

But, you say, the covenant was with Abraham; what has that to do with us? Genesis 15:6 (NKJV) is repeated for us in Romans 4: 3, 22. We see that Abraham believed in God, and it was accounted to him for ‘righteousness’; therefore, when you and I believe in God by faith, just like Abraham, we are declared righteous as well. By the way, it was not until Genesis 17, when Abraham was 99 years old, that God made him get circumcised. So, Abraham’s righteousness was accrued to him before circumcision, so not by the law but by faith.

There are still so many who want to be saved by keeping the Law, but this is impossible. Abraham was saved by faith. He simply believed in God, he took God at His word, and he, Abraham, was declared righteous. This is still how we are saved today, ‘whosoever believes in Him will be saved.’ Our hope, our security, and your future and mine are in God’s hands, the most secure hands ever, the Anchor of our soul.

Who anchors your soul?

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

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Volitional Disqualification :: By Edwin Tan

Published on: by RR10 Category:General Articles

“For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14).

For a long time, I struggled to come to terms with the true meaning of the above-mentioned verse from the Gospel of Matthew. Did it seem like a tough selection protocol amidst a plethora of criteria that weeded out the majority from a long line of aspirants? Substantial head scratching all through the years until only recently when everything started to make sense.

Let’s just begin with the altar calls way back some forty or even fifty years ago. There was then no shortage of teenagers and young adults vacating the pews as they walked up to accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour. All this took place in an era where the Counsel of God was given serious consideration by the pulpits.

There was undoubtedly a noteworthy transformation in the lives of these youthful individuals. The question is – did it stand against the test of worldliness as time would tell? No questions asked, there was a sizeable number that stayed on course and remained steadfast where their faith in the Lord mattered. They took Holy Writ to their hearts with joy as their perseverance stood against the ravages of a fast-declining planet. A good many from this cohort are familiar faces in the remnant that covers every page of the Bible, prophecy included. These folks are genuinely shepherding scores of believers who make up the Bride of Christ!

But in the comparative scenario, which is in play as I write, this bunch of people pales immensely when pitted against the larger crowd. It might come as no surprise that someone who became a Christian as a young person is no longer one! Simply because they succumbed wholeheartedly to the seduction of society. Maybe an atheist, if not a believer in something else – all because of an unholy matrimony, societal peer pressure, and even a caving in to egotistical promptings from the father of lies!

Then there are those who are seldom absent from the pews on a typical Sunday, except when their vacation break excuses them from this weekend ritual. At first glance, these people seem to be more than decent and seemingly diligent in their practice. However, closer examination reveals substantial streaks of worldliness. One thing they dislike is Bible Prophecy; there you go – at least a quarter of the Living Word out of the window. Some would have a station in the church, and they do see it as an earthly vested interest — enough to permit the politics of the flesh to sideswipe the workings of the Holy Spirit!

It could only get a whole lot worse, beginning with the kind of material circulating in the sanctuaries. Watered-down sermons and tolerance for deviations from righteousness sound like the self-destruct button being pressed. As worldliness has more than a stranglehold over pews and pulpits, it only serves as an open invitation for the forces of wicked deception to have a free for all.

There is so much blindsiding when the enemy goes deep into the heart of a wayward church. It begins when the Sunday regulars decide to compartmentalize Christ. This flaw has severe repercussions on the status of their souls. Simply said, the working of the Holy Spirit is more than hampered once the opposition is welcomed with open arms. The congregation would show the door to a pastor who sticks to the truth in the Living Word – they would, in turn, give the crimson carpet to one that sounds like Kayne West, if not Beyonce! “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

Interestingly enough, a good number of these teachers who answer to itching ears could be those who answered the call of Christ in their youth but, in their middle age, bowed down to peer pressure. They look like a spent force when it comes to genuinely contending for the faith, choosing to be manipulated by men instead of heeding the voice of the Lord.

So everything adds up to what we all witness in our present day and age – blatant lawlessness! So if the masses have to be pleased, it is as good as pampering the son of perdition – both pulpits and pews are equally culpable. This is the case when the world is set high above the loving Heavenly Father. His limitless grace and mercy have been unwittingly jettisoned; deceit, which precedes devastation, has indeed become a reality. Woke is currently in vogue!

We get the final indictment from the Lord in Matthew 22:11-13. “But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to his servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.'”

There is no wedding garment when there is all that filth amidst heaps of abominations. They wholeheartedly celebrate it and curse those who speak against it with the ferocity of a bogus freedom fighter. At the end of the day, they shot themselves in the foot. If only they could alleviate the problem faced by many in the true Body of Christ – finding a church that teaches and preaches the whole Counsel of God. It was an open and cordial invitation by the Heavenly Father, but they shunned it defiantly; they disqualified themselves from the place where there is eternal joy. They made their choice; nothing was forced on them at gunpoint. The right to refuse and reject the lies was (still is) an unfettered option. So they have to stomach the consequences of their decision.

The Body of Christ has decided, staying on course until the trumpet sounds.

Maranatha

Edwin

Contact me at edwinuk13@gmail.com