The Book of Hebrews 6:13-20 "An anchor of the Soul, Part I"
Hebrews 6:13-20 · Vern Peterman · Sep 29, 2013
Hebrews, No. 24
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492643155929

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We're going to continue on our study. We're going through this passage that Brad read for us, verses 13 through 20, and we'll be focusing particularly on verses 16 through 18 today. We're kind of taking the section and reading the section and then going through each part slowly here. As we mentioned last week, the pattern in Hebrews is to begin with an explanation and then follow with an exhortation. We're now in the fourth series of that.

We've begun in Hebrews 6.13, which begins the longest explanation section in the book of Hebrews here. We'll continue through about the middle of chapter 10.

Now, just kind of going back over some things from last week, why is this passage talking about Abraham? Hebrews 6, 9 through 12 was an encouragement to these Hebrew believers, and they definitely need to be encouraged after the warning passage previous to that. Verse 12 finished with be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. So that's why Abraham is brought up here and and Abraham and those who follow with him are brought up in the current passage we're looking at today. So the readers are Hebrews and we are learning from the life of Abraham which shows faith and patience and that's the reason for bringing Abraham and as we'll see towards the end of the passage Melchizedek.

Faith in all of God's promises and patience in God's working them out. One of the points we brought up last week is God made promises to Abraham and now 3,000 years, no, 4,000 years later, we are still seeing the promises to Abraham being filled out. and they will continue to be filled out until the end of this present heavens and earth, and they will continue beyond that on into eternity to be fulfilled. So, patience? Yeah. Lots of patience. God, who is the promise maker and the promise keeper, okay? He's the promise keeper, not us, okay?

Made various promises in the Bible, beginning with several key promises in the book of Genesis here. These promises were part of God's covenant, that is, God making a covenant, a promise and an oath, that he made with Abraham. That was begun in Genesis 12, 1 through 3. As a matter of fact, let's put it this way. If the promise had not been made to Abraham, there would be no use for the rest of the Bible after chapter 11 of Genesis. It's that important. It's that critical.

So, making a covenant had three main elements. A promise, a swearing by a deity, and a gesture or sign, often a sacrifice. Not always, but often a sacrifice. A promise, a swearing by a deity, and a gesture or sign, often a sacrifice. We'll see some unusual gestures. Nancy and I were talking about that just yesterday. Some of the gestures we look at and kind of scratch our heads. So we can do that this morning. A covenant was a promise with a sacred character, that is, it's more than just a promise, it's a promise that has a sacred or spiritual character to it, either because it was made by God, and that's the particular ones we're looking at here, or God was called as a witness to the covenant. Genesis 12-24, God makes promises to Abraham again and again and again, even in chapter 24, the last chapter that talks about his life.

So now, with Hebrews 6.16, let's read through that. Now this is about what people do. It's people, not just men. That word there doesn't mean just the males, right?

So people, not just the males, swear by someone higher, and so they make an oath. It is the most serious and solemn statement that what I am saying is the truth, that what I am going to do, I will do. That's what this swearing by is that people do. We have oaths of office. People take anything from a local office all the way up to the national level. We have oaths of office. We have oaths of military service. That's what we do. We have oaths for some professions. In addition to that, we have oaths for court testimony and for depositions.

And we sign contracts and papers with threat of civil and criminal penalties if what we say is not true or if we don't follow through on what we sign on. So we have similar things. They had similar things like that back in biblical times as well. Now here's an example of a promise and a swearing by God in Genesis 21, 22 through 24. So this is a swearing between people.

Now it came about at that time that Abimelech and Phicol, the commander of his army, by the way I don't recommend you Name your kids that that's kind of a strange name Okay spoke to Abraham saying God is with you in all that you do now therefore swear to me here by God that you will not deal falsely with me or with my offspring or with my posterity but according to the kindness that I have shown to you you shall show to me and to the land in which you have sojourned Abraham said I swear it okay and So here is a swearing by God, person to person, just like is spoken about there in verse 16. Here's another one, and this is the unusual gesture that Nancy and I were fascinated by. Now Abraham was old, this is the last chapter of his life, advanced in age, and the Lord had blessed Abraham in every way. Abraham said to his servant, the oldest of his household, who had charge of all that he owned, please place your hand under my thigh.

And this was in Genesis times. The gesture that we talk about your hand under my thigh I will make you swear by the Lord the God of heaven and the God of earth That you shall not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites Among whom I live but you will go to my country and to my relatives and take a wife for my son Isaac so what we have there is That that's the content of the promise.

You're not going to take a wife from here You're going to take a wife back in my home country, right? That's that. Then there is a swear by God, and the gesture that we talk about is the hand under the thigh. We don't do that anymore. Usually we would shake hands or do something else, but not that. Okay. So what does that mean? Let's talk about that. Swearing by higher power actually has a few different possible meanings. And one of them is a swearing is calling upon the higher power to bring in judgment if there is untruth or a lack of follow-through.

I call upon God to do this and that and thus and so with me. Swear to God and hope to die, that kind of thing. So, that's one purpose of bringing in the name of God. The one swearing in another instance is asking for the power to carry out the promise in truthfulness and faithfulness. I swear to tell the truth so help me God. So that's this kind of swearing where it's asking for the assistance of God himself to remain faithful and true to my word.

God can also be called as a superior witness. We frequently have, for example, at a wedding, reference to God and these witnesses. So God is called as a superior witness. Now why is God a superior witness? Witnesses can come and go, right? And people have their frailties. God doesn't come and go, and God doesn't have his frailties. So God is called in as a superior witness.

He is a witness like no other. He doesn't forget. Here is an instance and what I have particularly marked out here is the part where Laban is speaking to Jacob and he's calling upon the Lord as a superior witness. You'll also notice in this passage that there's a heap of stones and Laban calls upon those stones as a witness.

Now, the reason for this particular set of words is because Laban and Jacob don't trust each other. So keep that in mind as you read these words. It's like, look, I don't trust you. You don't trust me. We're going to call these stones and God to deal with the fact that neither of us are trustworthy. Alright, so it goes like this.

Laban said, This heap is a witness between you and me this day, therefore it was named Gilead and Mitzpah. For he said, May the Lord watch between you and me when we are absent one from the other. If you mistreat my daughters, or if you take wives besides my daughters, although no man is with us, see, God is witness between you and me. Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold the pillar which I have set between you and me.

This heap is a witness, and the pillar is a witness, that I will not pass by this heap to you for harm, and you will not pass by this heap and this pillar for me for harm. The God of Abraham and the God of Nehor, the God of their father, judged between us. So Jacob swore by the fear of his father Isaac. Then Jacob offered a sacrifice on the mountain and called his kinsmen to the meal, and they ate the meal and spent the night on the mountain."

Okay? Here's the content of the promise. I promise between you and me, right? We're both going to promise here. Here's the content of the promise. It's calling to the Lord in as a superior witness, and the gesture is the sacrifice and the meal that they ate together. Imagine two guys, neither of them trust each other, but they can sit down and have a meal together. I don't know about that. Anyway, that's what they did.

So now let's look at Hebrews 6, 17, and 18, which is the next part here. So what happens is in verse 16, it's what people do, right? Now in verse 17 and then on into verse 18, God is now making promises, giving an oath, and that's based on what we do as people. But there's some differences we want to point out. Here's how it reads.

In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. So notice the first part of that is in the same way God, so taking the same principles Remember, principles are either the way things work or a fundamental truth, and so this is the way things work, right? Taking the same principles regarding oaths as they apply among people, and in which people often appeal to God in some way in the making of an oath. people will do various things as we said as a witness we will say help me God we will say you know God come down with judgment on me if I don't tell the truth and if I don't do what I'm going to say I'm going to do. God also makes oaths here we see as a part of a covenant to make certain what he intends to most certainly to do and to fulfill in the centuries to come. So isn't it interesting?

God makes oaths and he fulfills it in centuries and millennia to follow. God has a long memory. Long after we've forgotten. What God says is true, however, without an oath. And we'll talk about that in a minute. What God says is true without the oath.

Now one thing is that God intentionally reveals himself. He reveals things about himself and about his character. And he does so in scripture. Earlier on in times like with Abraham, he spoke directly to people as his way of doing things. What he does now is he speaks through his word, his written word. But God is a God who intentionally reveals himself.

And by the way, Allah does not reveal himself. In Islam, Allah does not reveal himself. What he reveals is what we're supposed to do, supposedly, right? Allah is not a revealing God. The God of the Bible is a God who reveals himself. He desires, as we see here, even more to show and exhibit his intent and his character. So where Allah doesn't reveal himself, God strongly desires to reveal himself and to show his intent. Very different God. You ever hear somebody say, well, all these gods are the same? Not even close. Okay. This God strongly desires to show and to reveal himself and to show his intent. Okay. Big difference.

God himself is unchangeable. And that's the foundation. That's the foundation on God's making a promise that lasts not only centuries, not only millennia, but forever. When God makes a promise, it's founded on the fact that God Himself is unchangeable. And we could give more passages, we'll just give several as an instance.

Psalm 15.4 and Psalm 110.4 both say God is unchangeable.

Jeremiah 4.28, God is unchanging.

Malachi 3.6, God does not change.

Hebrews 7.21, as we're going to see here in a few weeks. also says God does not change. God himself is unchangeable and that's the foundation. That's the foundation for when God makes a promise it sticks forever.

God is a God also not just of unchangeableness but of infinite and absolute truth and there's a difference between those. Infinite truth means there is no limit There is no limit to his truthfulness. And absolute truth means that he is fixed as to the truth and completely unwavering. He is the very definition and foundation of truth.

Now the next set of words there, heirs of the promise. The promise was first made to Abraham. He's the first one that begins in and is repeated and expanded numerous times from chapter 12 to chapter 24 to Abraham in Genesis 12 verses 1 through 3. Those are the key verses and that set of three verses in a promise to Abraham just continue on in having applicability on into eternity, forever. Then the promise was repeated, a lot of the same things said to Abraham were repeated to Isaac and Jacob. Very much the same kinds of things repeated again to Isaac and to Jacob.

They are heirs of the promise. The promise was inherited by their blood descendants, those of the nation and people of Israel. And we who believe are heirs of the promise by faith. So here's Galatians 3.29, and by the way, much of that chapter describes this, but this is a good summary statement. And if you belong to Christ, which you do if you have believed in Him, then you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise. Not by physical descendancy, not by blood descent, but heirs by faith. of Abraham's promise.

Now you have here, and this is a half-page chart I'll call it, God's covenants with Israel. And one of the reasons why I think this is going to continue to be an important chart for us to look at is that all five of God's covenants with Israel are touched upon or in some cases spoken of at length here in the book of Hebrews.

So let's step our way through them. First we have the promise to Abraham, beginning in Genesis 12, 1 through 3. And then God repeats, expands upon that promise to Abraham. He gives him more information and more application of what that means, continuing on through chapter 24. So that's the first one, the covenant with Abraham. Now was Abraham actually a Jew? No. Abraham was not actually a Jew. So when I say covenants with Israel, this begins the nation of Israel. You could call Abraham a proto-Jew. A proto-Jew.

Because he was actually a Gentile. Actually a Gentile that God selected and said, I'm going to make promises to you. And I'm under no obligation to do so. So they're completely gracious. Right? By the way, there's a story. This is an interesting story among the Jews about Abraham. I'm just going to tell it. Abraham's father in the city of Ur had an idol shop. You could get idols. So Abraham's father had this idol shop where he would sell idols to people. one day his father needed to be gone for a little bit and so he left Abraham in charge and so then his father comes back and all the idols are smashed to pieces except for one and his father is furious and shocked what all the idols are smashed you know and Abraham pointed to the one that was left he said that one did it Anyway, that's the way the story goes.

The next one here is of Moses. The next one here is of Moses. And in 1446 BC, and that's pretty close to the exact year, Exodus 19, 1 through 6, you have the Mosaic Covenant that is the Law Covenant. That's the Law Covenant. So you have the promises to Abraham, which were gracious. Here is the covenant with Moses, which is entirely lawful.

Entirely law. It establishes in place 613 laws. 365 of them are things not to do. The remainder are things that you must do. So here is the covenant with Moses regarding the law. People say, well, you've got to do the Ten Commandments. Not just ten. That's just a down payment. There's 613 of them, and you better do every single one if you're going to be under the law.

So that's the second covenant. The next one is the land covenant. So here's Moses at the beginning of their 40 years journey into the wilderness, beginning the covenant of the law. And here, as they're getting ready to enter the land, is the land covenant.

If you do this, you'll be blessed. If you do not do this, you will be cursed. As you go into the land, you must do things this way. As you go into the land, you must not do things this other way. They were never ever to cut down a fruit-bearing tree, for example, when they went into the land. As long as it's bearing fruit, you may not cut it down. Can't do that. It's against the law. That's the land covenant, the third covenant. The fourth one is the covenant with David.

David, there will be a descendant of you who will rule over Israel. It's the promise of the kingdom. That promise was what the angel Gabriel repeated to Mary. He told Mary, you are going to have a child. And he gave her that covenant as the fulfillment. This is the one. This is the one who fulfills the covenant with David given a thousand years before. And the last one is the New Covenant.

There are almost a dozen passages that talk about the New Covenant, but Jeremiah 31-34 is kind of the core passage that talks about that. And what that means is you've still got all the Law of Moses, but you have, and this is for Jews in the coming millennial kingdom, you have the Holy Spirit, Indwelling you all the time to know and live out the law it is written on your heart and Since you will know and live out the law and be empowered to do so by the Holy Spirit you will be blessed instead of as it was under Moses only if you obey and you have no power to do it and and you have no power to remember it. Only if you obey will you be blessed and otherwise you'll be cursed. The New Covenant says you will be empowered and you will know it and therefore you will absolutely be blessed for a thousand years.

That's the New Covenant. And so we'll talk about that because chapter 8 of Hebrews is substantially about the New Covenant with Israel. So all five of these covenants show up at one point or another in the book of Hebrews, and we'll be touching upon them as we proceed through.

The other thing is there are four seeds of Abraham, and we'll step through these one at a time. The first seed the scripture talks about is a natural seed, the physical remnant. All physical descendants of Abraham, starting with Genesis 12, 1 through 3, and then again in verse 7.

So that's the natural seed, the physical remnant descendants of Abraham through Isaac and through Jacob and through the sons of Israel The next one is the spiritual natural seed among those who are of the natural seed of Abraham Those who believe God are the spiritual natural seed the spiritual remnant that's brought up in Isaiah 41 6 Romans 9 6 and Galatians 6 16 and So that's the second kind of seed. The third one is the one of which we are a part. The spiritual seed includes Gentile believers now, even those who are not of the physical seed of Abraham. Believing, non-physical descendants of Abraham, you and me, are the spiritual seed of Abraham. So you've got the natural, the spiritual natural, and the spiritual seed.

We are of that third group. And then one more seed. And that's very clearly taught, singular ultimate seed is Jesus Christ. Singular ultimate seed is Jesus Christ. So four seeds of Abraham. We're a part of the third group. Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, is the fourth seed, the singular seed.

Now, in verse 17, one of the phrases that comes up is the unchangeableness of his purpose. God himself, we said, is unchangeable. So that is a fundamental characteristic of God himself. God, the one who deliberately reveals himself, that's God's character. He intentionally and deliberately reveals himself.

He reveals his purpose, not just the character of himself, but this is what I'm doing among you. He reveals his purpose and intent for all mankind and all of creation. And he tells us. Why does he tell us? It's not just a whim. He tells us because He loves us. He tells us because He loves us.

God also tells the truth when He reveals Himself. He tells of His purpose, being Himself unchangeable and keeping all of His promises forever. One of the points we want to make is that God graciously gives an oath. Does God have to give an oath? No. Because what God says is true. Period. Your word is truth, is what Jesus prayed.

What God says is absolute, unchangeable truth because that is God's character. That's who He is. He didn't just say, hey, I'm going to tell you something that's absolute and unchangeable. He says, I'm going to tell you something because I'm absolute and unchangeable.

God doesn't need to make an oath. He doesn't have to say, you know, swear to God. He doesn't have to do that. He does so as a gracious accommodation to us frail and feeble human beings. See that? He does so as an accommodation. He doesn't have to go swear by anybody. What he says is true, absolutely. He does so to accommodate us.

We who doubt. We who don't necessarily know that we can count upon another human being's word. In one way, God could take it as an insult that he would have to make an oath. But he sets that aside. Why? Because he is infinitely gracious. He doesn't have to make an oath. But he does anyway. He sets aside the possible insult because he's infinitely gracious. He is a phenomenally, amazingly gracious God. So he sets the insult implied aside.

Now, by two unchangeable things, verse 18, the two unchangeable things that he's talking about there are one, God's promise, the content of what God says he will do. And Abraham, I will bless you, and I will make you a blessing. So when he says that, that's the content of what he's going to say. And then God's oath, God swearing by himself that he will do what he says. So those are the two unchangeable things.

God isn't going to come up and say, you know, I've been thinking about this, I'm not so sure. I kind of love you guys, but I've been rethinking that. He doesn't do that. He doesn't do that. That's not the way it works. These things are unchangeable because God himself is unchangeable and he deliberately reveals the truth. I should have put a capital T on that. Okay. Absolutely. You can change that if you like. Absolutely. He deliberately reveals the truth. Absolutely. He doesn't rethink something and then decide to do something different.

God absolutely keeps every one of His promises, no exceptions. Now, it says there in verse 18, it is impossible for God to lie. It is entirely contrary to His character. Numbers 23, 19, there, right in the middle of the law, and it says, God is not a man that He should lie. Not happening. John 17, 17, the last half of that verse, your word is truth. Jesus is praying to the Father. Your word is truth. It's just that simple. Your word is truth.

Paul writes in Titus 1, 1 and 2, because by the way, Titus had been sent into the Cretans, and you know what they were really good at? Lying. I'm not sure good's the right word. Anyway, they were really good at lying. As a matter of fact, they admired somebody who would befriend someone and then stab them in the back. They admired that. They thought, boy, that was a really admirable characteristic. So he sends Titus in to that incredibly corrupt culture and says, I'm sending you in to appoint elders.

Good luck with that, right? So here's how he says, Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness in the hope of eternal life which God who cannot lie promised long ages ago. The God who cannot lie promised long ages ago. He's going to stick with it no matter what.

Now, in verse 18, the words, we who have taken refuge are there. We who have taken refuge are we who have believed what God said and did, and what God says He is going to do. We are the ones who have taken refuge, just like the readers of this book are as well. We've taken refuge from the evil world system, from Satan, the liar from the beginning, and from the wrath of God. We've taken refuge from all those things.

God is our refuge. We believe Him. We go to Him. He's our refuge. And some of us have been through some things that need a refuge, huh? We've been through some wild and crazy times. We desperately need that refuge. That refuge is given to us, to you and to me, by God's mercy and grace.

And His mercy and His grace, Ephesians 2, doesn't just leave it at mercy and grace. It says He has a wealth of mercy. And of grace, wealth is plural. Riches. Riches of mercy and grace. And it's entirely at God's expense. If you think of someone who is really, really wealthy, you think of just piles and piles of gold bricks or whatever conjures up the idea of wealth in your mind. Think of someone who is really, really wealthy and it's kind of astounding, right? Well, think of that with God regarding mercy and grace. He is wealthy in those.

Mercy and grace. We took that refuge in Him. when we believe that Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again. It's that simple. It's that simple. God takes our belief, and He says, that's it. I'll take it from there. Right? He does everything else. I'll take it from there.

Now we also have these words that Brad read for us here in verse 18, strong encouragement. Now notice, God desires strongly to reveal himself and his purpose, and now it turns around to us. Strong encouragement. And let's see what that strong encouragement is about. Here in verse 18, we see that what God has said and has done offers strong encouragement to us, to you and to me. There is nothing about God's motivation or our encouragement in these things that is ambivalent or indifferent. There is no apathy. It's intense. It's intense. It's intense with God and it's intense with us. Strong encouragement.

For what? to take hold of the hope set before us. Now, I can tell you, over the course of life, I've learned you have to be careful what you take hold of. I mean, I've had some wild times. You have to be careful what you take hold of. But this is something that you really want to take hold of. Don't be careful. Take hold of the hope set before us.

What do we mean by that? One way to put that is this way. By all of God's doing, we have a marvelous and graciously provided position in Christ. Who we are in Him, who He is in us, that includes our unique hope. We'll talk about that hope a little bit more. Taking a hold of it is a matter of our daily condition. So when He says, take hold, okay? That's our daily condition. We have a hope out there. God did it all. All we got to do is believe Him.

That's taking hold of it. Moment by moment. By the way, you remember that hymn, Day by Day? There was a guy who heard that. He walked out of church one day after hearing that. He said, that's not often enough. So he went out and wrote Moment by Moment. That's how that song got written.

Moment by moment we do by faith in what God has said and done and revealed because He loves us. By faith in what God has said and done and He's revealed it because He loves us. And by the way, He's strongly motivated to reveal it because He loves us. Because He loves us a lot. With His great love, Ephesians 2, that He loved us.

So there's nothing wimpy or minimal or minuscule about this. We're talking about intense desire in God's part, strong motivation on our part, great mercy and great love and great grace. To take hold means we walk by faith in what God has revealed to us in his word. That's it. It's that simple. Grab it. Take hold of it.

Our hope does more than float. The hope that this passage is talking about isn't just an I hope so kind of hope. This isn't just a roll the dice kind of thing. Which card do you pull? None of that. It's not hoping for a possible outcome. It's not that kind of hope. Matter of fact, this is a hope that this world just really doesn't understand and doesn't know about. It's not just a subjective feeling of our hopefulness. You got that? It's not just feeling hopeful. It's not about that. Do I want you to feel hopeful? Certainly, but that's not what he's talking about here.

This kind of hope is absolutely certain of the outcome because of an unchangeable God who always tells the truth and keeps his promises and he's told us how this is going to turn out. It's that kind of hope. It absolutely is going to happen the way he says it will. Absolutely. It's that kind of hope. Not an I hope so hope. It's not we're feeling hopeful. It's an absolute certain hope. That's the kind of hope we're talking about here. So this hope we have, and I'm jumping ahead into verse 19, which we'll actually get into next week, is an anchor of the soul.

An anchor was used in ancient times, as it is today, to keep a ship from drifting. Some of the ways that they would use it, and this addresses in part Brad's concern, they would certainly drop an anchor down But the other thing that they would do is actually have a smaller boat and they'd carry the anchor and they'd carry it ashore. So they might have several anchors and include anchors to the shore so that in the storm that you wouldn't be drifting away and caught away with the storm. So when we talk about an anchor of the soul, it isn't just you drop an anchor and it goes down to the bottom of the sea. You would certainly do that if it's shallow enough, but you'd also have anchors that would go off to the shore, sometimes several of them, in order to make sure that you don't go drifting away.

Because in those days you could get lost at sea and never get found again and you could never find your way again. So you need an anchor of the soul. And we need that too because it is quite possible for people to just kind of spiritually drift. And you may have seen that. People can drift spiritually and head off in some hazardous direction and simply be lost out there. And so we need that anchor of the soul.

There were several Christian symbols in the early church. People are familiar often with a cross, of course, and a fish. But another lesser known symbol was an anchor. And these are a couple of grave markers, Christian grave markers from the time. In the catacombs under Rome, they've counted 66 anchors on the grave markers there.

And the reason is because they looked upon Christ as an anchor of the soul. You know, I have my anchor with Him. I won't drift away. I won't be lost at sea. I won't be gone and lost forever because I have an anchor of the soul, and that's Jesus Christ. And so this anchor symbol is a lesser known Christian symbol in the early church. And they took that and would look upon that, that's a very good picture, because then I won't be lost, spiritually speaking.

Christ is our anchor of the soul, and his coming for us is our blessed hope. This is the blessed hope from the book of Titus. Now, I'd like to do a cappella, this song, and so I'll ask you to stand with me. Just two verses, and after that we'll have the music team come up. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly in Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale My anchor holds within the veil. On Christ the solid rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand.

Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you that we do have this firm anchor. We have a certain and absolute and fixed hope, an unchanging hope, an unwavering hope, and an unfading hope. Thank you for that marvelous hopefulness that we can have because of that. And we just thank you for your most amazing love and grace towards us. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.