January 13, 2025 • 26 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Nothing can make you feel more adrift than hopelessness, more
more secure than hope. No wonder, the writer of Hebrews says,
hope is like an anchor. Today on Turning Point, doctor
David Jeremiah continues his series on Hope with a look
at the three qualities that make hope so fulfilling for
the believer. With the conclusion of his powerful message Hope
(00:28):
and Anchor for Life, here's David.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
You know, this is the time of the year when
we do an inventory of our ministries, our stations, daily television,
weekly television, and daily radio. And I have just finished
reviewing all the places where our radio program is heard,
and it's been such a thrill for me to see
the footprint that God has given us for His truth
(00:52):
every place in America. There's a way to get Turning
Point on the radio, mostly through a community supported radio stations,
and you've been a part of that. You give gifts
to your station to help them with their sharethon so
that they can continue broadcasting the Gospel, and they do.
And we are the ones who bring the message to
that station, and we hear the reports back of many
(01:16):
whose lives have been changed and whose eternal destiny has
been solidified in heaven because they put their trust in Christ.
Radio is a powerful tool, and men and women, if
you listen to us every day on the radio, and
you're living in an area where your station is supported
by its listeners, don't forget your station. Without them, we're
(01:36):
not there. And we are so grateful for the many
men and women who spend long hours promoting, directing, organizing
Christian radio. We are delighted to be a part of
this great industry. Today we are going to finish up
our discussion of hope and Anchor for life. It's from
Hebrews chapter six, and I hope you'll join us there
(01:59):
as we begin discussion. Some of you remember a book
that came out several years ago, and if you haven't
read the book, I'm sure you've read an article that
was published because of the book, because it's one of
the most often referred to books in modern journals. The
book was written by a guy named Norman Cousins who
was an intriguing person. He got a very serious disease
(02:21):
that threatened his life. In fact, he was told by
all of his doctors that he would die, and he's
written a book called Head first, the biology of hope.
In one of the places in his book, he says,
people tell me not to offer hope unless I know
hope to be real. But I don't have the power
not to respond to an outstretched hand. I don't know
(02:43):
enough to say that hope can't be real.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Anybody knows enough to deny hope. I've seen too many
cases these past ten years when death predictions were delivered
from high professional station, only to be gloriously refuted by
patients for reasons having to do less with tangible biology
than with the human spirit. It went on to say
that the human spirit may be admittedly a vague term,
(03:10):
but it is probably the greatest force within the human
arsenal for dealing with discouragement and disease. On the back
of his book, I copied off this phrase. And you
may not remember a lot that I say, Todavi, but
this is a phrase worth keeping. And it didn't come
from the Bible. It came from this man. But it's
a very, very worthwhile phrase. And this is what he said,
(03:30):
don't deny the diagnosis, but defy the verdict. And I
thought to myself, how many of us in our lives
have faced challenges like that, haven't we. Everybody's around to
tell us how bad it's going to be and why
it won't work, and how we can't do it, and
we cannot deny the diagnosis. But friends, we can, by
(03:52):
the faith that is in us through Jesus Christ, we
can defy the verdict because last I knew, the last
word on hope doesn't come from the earth. It comes
from up there, doesn't it. Well, I want to talk
with you about this whole matter of hope, and I
(04:13):
want to take you on a journey through some of
the passages in the Word of God that encourage us
to be filled with hope.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
I want to challenge you, if you don't have hope in.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Your life, to begin to cultivate it, because I'm convinced
that in this generation and what's going on in even
our country today, unless we have a strong hope at
the center of our lives, we're going to be cast
about on a sea of uncertainty that will just lead.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Us to despair.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
I want you to all be able to say to
yourselves when this is over, the words of the Psalmist
who said in Psalm forty two, why art thou cast down,
O my soul, hope Thou in God hope. Turn to
Hebrews six. In this section of scripture, there is a
marvelous discussion of this subject. And I'm not going to
(04:57):
give us a long exposition, but I want to just
give you the argument of the passage very quickly and
reminds you that here is a picture of why we
need hope and where it is to be found. This
is a section that deals with the Old Testament in sense,
some of you know Hebrews quotes from the Old Testament
more than any New Testament book. In fact, if you
(05:18):
study the Book of Hebrews, you have to have the
Old Testament in your hands to do it, because it
constantly refers to Old Testament passages and events. And here
the writer of Hebrews is referring back here at the
end of the sixth chapter to an event that took
place in the life of Abraham. In the thirteenth verse,
we are told that when God made a promise to Abraham,
(05:39):
because he could swear by no one greater, he swore
by himself, saying, surely, blessing, I will bless you, and multiplying,
I will multiply you. Let me suggest to you that
hope is necessary in our lives today, because often the
way is unknown.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
God came to Abraham.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
And he said, Abraham, I want you to go to
a place out yonder that I have charted out for you.
I want you to leave your home and your family
and go there. Didn't give Abram a map, didn't give
him a timetable. He just said, Abraham, I picked a
place for you to go, and you go. And the
Word of God says that Abraham pulled up everything, all
his family and friends, and he left, and he crossed
(06:21):
the river, and he followed God. Hebrews chapter eleven gives
Abraham an a plus in faith because he went out
not knowing where he was going. But that was only
a small portion of God's testing of Abram's faith. For
one day he came to Abraham and he said, Abraham,
I'm gonna bless you. Genesis chapter twenty two tells the story.
(06:43):
He said, I'm going to bless you with a son,
and out of that sun is going to be a nation.
In fact, Abraham, you're going to have so many descendants
that they're going to be like the sands of the
sea and the stars of the sky because you won't
be able to number them. And Abraham, I'm gonna bless you,
and I'm gonna bless your son, and I'm gonna bless.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
The whole nation that comes from this promise.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
A wonderful promise, except for the fact that when Abraham
got those words, he was in his early nineties and
they still didn't have a son, and that was a
real challenge. I always love the way the scripture in
a very sterile way, describes the fact that Sarah was
beyond the age of conception, but he had this promise
(07:26):
from God. And I have to tell you something that
it was the hope that Abraham had in his heart
that helped him to get through the way.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
He didn't know.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Abraham woke up every morning not knowing what God was
up to. He just had this one thing in the
back of his mind, and that was what God had
told him.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
It was his hope.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
And I have to tell you the second thing that
I learned from reading about Abraham is that hope is
necessary because often the waiting is uncontrollable. Did you know
God didn't tell him how long you'd have to wait?
He just said, Abraham, here's the hope, and you just wait.
God made a promise to Abraham, but that promise was
not to be fulfilled for many days, and in some respects,
(08:05):
that promise was not fulfilled totally even in his lifetime.
Because you and I sitting here today, we are the
fulfillment of that promise, because we are the children of
Abraham according to Galatians, and we are the result of
God having blessed Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and having
blessed the nation of Israel, and then through Israel blessing
all of us. Because the Word of God, which we
(08:26):
hold in our hands is Jewish, and the Savior who
died on the cross is Jewish. We are blessed because
of Abraham. He never saw all of that, but he
saw enough, so the promise came true in his lifetime.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
But he had to wait.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
And I tell you today, friends, that hope is the
ingredient that keeps you going between the promise and the fulfillment.
Hope is the thing that gets you up in the
morning when you know that God cares but you haven't
seen any evidence of it in the last few days.
Hope drives you onward when you want to quit and
stop Hope keeps your dream alive while you're waiting, and
(09:02):
you need hope because you can't always control the timetable. Thirdly,
this passage of scripture teaches us that hope is necessary
because often the will is uncooperative. We all know we
should hope. We all know that should be who we
are as Christians, that we should be filled with hope.
But how many of you have ever found yourself even
in this regard? Praying the prayer of Paul in Roman seven, Lord,
(09:24):
I know what I should do, and I don't do it.
I know what I shouldn't do, and here I am
doing it again. The passage is very interesting. It says
in verse eighteen that by two immutable things in which
it is impossible for God to lie, that we might
have strong in the word consolation, there is the word encouragement,
that we might have strong encouragement. Who have watched this
(09:46):
fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope that
is set before us? How many of us have experienced
that when we've been going through difficult times and we
know our hope ought to be in the Lord, and
yet our will is uncooperative, and sometimes we have to
forget everything and just go and hang on to God,
flee to him for our refuge. Hope is necessary because
(10:08):
sometimes the will is uncooperative. Hope is necessary. Number four
because and I'm not trying to change the dynamics of
this passage, but if you will look with me in
a moment, you'll see this accurately comes from the text.
Hope is necessary because often the waters are unchartable. Notice
(10:29):
what he says in verses nineteen and twenty. He says,
this hope we have as an anchor of the soul,
both sure and steadfast, and which enters the presence behind
the veil where the forerunner has entered for us, even
Jesus having become high priest forever according to the order
of me Chizedek.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I'll watch carefully. What the writer of Hebrews is saying.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Is this, We are on a journey, and the water
sometimes become turbulent. He can't always chart the course. And
the imagery that he picks here is very, very precious,
if you understand it. I always have sung that song
we have an anchor, and my anchor.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Holds and had this picture.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
In fact, I remember chalk artists coming to our church
when I was a little boy painting the picture of
the ship moored out in the anchor that's cast into
the deep. And I've always thought of it that way,
but I think there's a whole different.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Thing going on here, if I understand it correctly.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
When you go on a cruise out into the big waters,
and we've had a chance to do that a couple
of times because of ministry opportunities, one of the intriguing
things is to watch them when they bring these huge
vessels back in to port and they dock them up,
like in Vancouver or down in Miami somewhere. I've always
been fascinated. In fact, just recently when we did that,
(11:46):
I stood out on deck for almost an hour and
watched them as they brought this huge vessel in, how
careful they were. And then I don't know if you've
noticed what they do, but they have a little tiny
rope and they throw that rope and the people on
board get it and they pull that little tiny rope
and it's attached to a little bigger ope, and then
you get the bigger ope and pull that and find
the bigger ope is big enough to pull the rope
which is going to hold the ship. Next to the dock.
(12:08):
It's a very intricate process, far more complicated than I
ever dreamed, but not unlike what's going on in this passage.
Listen to what the writer says. He says, you and
I have a hope, and that hope is our anchor.
And the anchor, he tells us, has three qualities. It
is sure, it is steadfast, it is secure. I'll watch carefully.
(12:32):
The first thing it says about this hope is that
it is sure.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
That means.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
It is dependable, you can count on it. Secondly, it
says it's steadfast, that means it's not going to change.
And thirdly it says it's secure, for it's entered in
behind the veil and it is fastened there. Now, if
you go back up in the text, you'll see that
these two principles clearly parallel what the Word of God
(12:59):
says about God's promise to Abraham. He says that when
God gave Abraham the promise that he was going to
have a son, he did it in such a way
that there were two undeniable proofs of the promise, two
immutable things.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
He said.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
First of all, he gave him a promise, and secondly
he gave him an oath. In the promise, he cannot lie.
In the oath he cannot change. His promise is sure,
he cannot lie. His promise is steadfast, he cannot change.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
The anchor we.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Have is like the promise God gave to Abraham. It
is confirmed unto us by two immutable things. First the
promise of God he cannot lie, and secondly the oath
of God he cannot change. But the third thing is
where the imagery of nautical experiences during the writer of
(13:59):
Hebrews days take us to truth. You see, when a
large ship would come into the harbor in the days
of Paul and the New Testament writers, they had a
procedure not unlike the one I described for the major
cruise ships of our day. They had a rock that
was embedded into the granite in the harbor. Literally, the
(14:21):
rock was called the anchorea. It's the word from which
we get our word anchor. When a larger ship would
come into the harbor, they would disembark two or three
of their chief hands into small little boats we would
probably call them dinghies, and they would take the anchor
(14:42):
rope from the ship in their little boat, and they
would take that into the harbor, and then they would
fasten it to the anchorya rock, and the boat, trying
to safely get into the harbor, would follow the strength
of that rope as they literally brought but the boat
into the harbor and anchored it securely.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Now watch carefully.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
The text says that Jesus Christ is our forerunner, and
that he has carried our anchor behind the veil into
the very presence of God, and he has a fixed
that anchor there, so that as we move through life
(15:27):
into the turbulent waters in the troubled times, we have
an anchor that is secure, and we follow that anchor,
who is Christ, and it gives us strength and hope
for all those times.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
When we don't know what to do. Our anchor is secure.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
And I've noted that while the human anchors go downward
into the sea, our anchor goes upward into the heavens,
and it's sure, it's steadfast, it's secure. I think aw
Tozer put it best when he wrote that man who
(16:06):
comes to a right belief about God is relieved of
ten thousand temporal problems because he sees at once that
these problems do not have to do with matters which
at the most can concern him for very long.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Did you hear what he's saying.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
He said, a Christian who's got his heart right with
God is relieved from ten thousand worries because if he
stops to think about where his anchor is, he realizes
that whatever temporal problems he's experienced, he's not going to
have to worry about them for really very long. It's
the old adage that when you get Christ and you
get eternity, then all of life begins to start making sense.
(16:44):
On the other hand, if you have ever read Dante's
Divine Comedy, you have seen Hell described as having a
giant door that leads down into the pit of the Abyss.
Above this door are inscribed these words despair of all
hope ye who enter here. That is a description of
(17:05):
everyone who is outside of the Lord. They are without hope,
And that's what the Word of God says, without God
and without hope. It is a description of all outside
of Christ. And it is a picture of many folks
that you and I know. It may be a picture
of some of you here today. You're making it. You're
taking one step at a time, getting up every day
(17:26):
and pushing your body forward into the challenges, but it's
not with any hope. I want to commend you today
to the one who is the anchor of your soul,
Jesus Christ, who is entered in and fastened that anchor inside.
I have always been a quiet fan of Alfred Hitchcock,
(17:50):
kind of miss his old profile on the Tube.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
He used to intrigue me.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
We used to have little arguments at our house over
who done it and how it was going to turn out.
Most of the time none of us ever got it right.
Tremendously gifted storyteller. In one of his classic TV episodes,
there's a story of a rather wicked, two faced woman
who murdered an individual and was found guilty by the
(18:19):
court sentenced to life in prison. This woman was very
angry and in the courtroom she screamed at the judge,
and she told the judge that she didn't care where
he sent her. She would escape and come back to
haunt him someday. Well, they took her away and she
took that infamous bus ride to the prison. En route,
(18:43):
she noticed something that was to become a part of
her escape plan. She saw an old man an inmate
covering up a grave outside the prison walls, and she
began to realize that the only way she would ever
be able to escape from that prison was to know someone.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Who had a key to the gate. The only one who
did have.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
A key to the gate was the old man who
assisted in the burial of the inmates who died inside
the prison. Actually, he not only buried them, he built
the caskets in which they were buried. His job included
rolling the casket on an old cart to the gravesite
outside the wall and lowering it into the hole and
covering it up with dirt. The old man was going
(19:21):
blind and needed cataract surgery, and this woman found out
about it, and she went to him, and she told
him that it would be worth his while if he
would help her escape, because outside the wall she had
enough money to buy all of the surgical needs that
he had to have them all fixed. At first, he said, no, ma'am,
I can't do that. Oh, yes she can. She said,
(19:43):
I have all the money you need outside these walls
to pay for your cataract surgery, And if you help
me get out of here, I'll give you that money.
And if you ever hope to have an operation. You
will help me out of this place, and finally he
reluctantly gave in. Here was the plan. The next time
she heard the toll of the bell, which signaled the
(20:04):
death of an inmate, she would slip down to his
work room where he made the caskets. She was to
locate the casket in which the old man had placed
the corpse, and then, if you can imagine it, secretly
slide herself into that same casket.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
And pull the top down tightly. Early the next.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Morning, the old man would roll her, along with the
corpse in the casket, out to this place of burial,
drop it into the hole, dump a little dirt on it.
The next day he was to come back, release the
lid on the casket, uncover the grave, and she would
be free. Perfect plan. Almost late one night, she heard
(20:42):
the deep toll of the bell. Someone had died. This
was her moment. She secretly slid off of her cot
made her way down to the eerie hallway. Looking into
the dimly lit room, she saw the casket, and without hesitation,
she lifted the lid and in the darkness, slipped into
the bar. After squeezing in beside the corpse, she.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Pulled the lid down tightly. Within a matter of hours.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
She could feel the wheels rolling as they were making
their way to the gravesite. She smiled as the casket
was placed in the hole. She began to hear the
clumps of dirt as they hit the top of the casket.
Before long, she was sealed beneath the earth, still smiling.
She had done it. Silence followed. She could only contain
(21:27):
her excitement. Time began to drag. The next day came
and passed into the night, and the old man didn't
show up. Now she was getting worried. In fact, she
broke into a cold sweat. Where was he? What could
possibly have gone wrong?
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Why doesn't he show up?
Speaker 2 (21:46):
In a moment of panic, she lights a match and
glances at the corpse next to her, And you guessed it.
It's the old man himself who had died. And that
is truly an Alfred Hitchcock story, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
But I got to tell you something.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
I told you that not to break the spirit of
the service, but to soberly remind you that a lot
of folks you and I know, perhaps even some of you,
go to their grave and they're buried with their hopes.
And what is it that Paul says to the Corinthians.
He said, if in this life only you have hope
(22:26):
in Christ, you are of all men most miserable. And
I couldn't help but think what a beautiful picture that
is for us to look at and perhaps get a
sense of what happens to us. If we don't get
our anchor beyond the veil, if we don't get our
hope in someone who's going to survive all of this
(22:46):
that we're in, then we have no hope, really, not
any hope that can pull us through the storms.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
And the challenges that are before us.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
And I want to tell you about somebody who went
in to the grave, didn't need anybody to come and
get him out of his own power. He came forth
victoriously out of that tomb and raised his fist up
to say, if you believe in Me, you shall live also.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
And when you put your trust in Christ, you have
the hope of the resurrection.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
And I want to ask you, as you're hope in him,
have you trusted Jesus Christ in a personal way? And said, God,
I bet my eternity on the Lord Jesus.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
I place my hope.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
In him and in him alone.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
If you haven't done that, I hope you will.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
He is the real source of hope in this dark world,
and you can know him in a personal way.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Friends, Most psychologists and counselors tell us that men can
live without anything except one thing they must have, and
that's hope. It's very difficult for anybody to live very
long if there's no hope, and there's no reason for
anybody to live without hope because Jesus Christ, the Hope
of the Earth, the Hope of Heaven, has come to
(24:07):
bring to us the eternal message of hope that will
get us through the difficult times and help us get
to heaven, which is really so important.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
You know.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Sometimes we just throw up our hands and say there's
no hope, But there's never a time when there's no hope.
If there's Jesus, and if the Bible is available somewhere
in the pages of that book is just.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Exactly what you need to read or hear so that
you can have hope.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
It's my prayer that your heart will be filled with
the hope of eternity during these days as we discuss
this important subject tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Part one of hope in God.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I hope you'll join us then for the next edition
of Turning Play right here on this grade station.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Our message today originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and
doctor David Jeremiah, the senior pastor. Let us know how
this ministry is impacting you by writing to Turning Point
pobox thirty eight thirty eight, San Diego, California, nine two
one sixty three, visiting our website at Davidjeremiah dot org,
Slash Radio, or calling eight hundred ninety four seven nineteen
(25:18):
ninety three ask for your copy of David's helpful new book,
The Whole Story, a fifty two week devotional journey through
every book of the Bible, yours for a gift of
any amount. You can also download the free Turning Point
mobile app to instantly access our content, or search in
your app store for the keywords Turning Point Ministries. Visit
(25:41):
David Jeremiah dot org Slash Radio for details. This is
David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue hope
and anchor for life on Turning Point with Doctor David
Jeremiah
Nothing can make you feel more adrift than hopelessness, more
more secure than hope. No wonder, the writer of Hebrews says,
hope is like an anchor. Today on Turning Point, doctor
David Jeremiah continues his series on Hope with a look
at the three qualities that make hope so fulfilling for
the believer. With the conclusion of his powerful message Hope
(00:28):
and Anchor for Life, here's David.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
You know, this is the time of the year when
we do an inventory of our ministries, our stations, daily television,
weekly television, and daily radio. And I have just finished
reviewing all the places where our radio program is heard,
and it's been such a thrill for me to see
the footprint that God has given us for His truth
(00:52):
every place in America. There's a way to get Turning
Point on the radio, mostly through a community supported radio stations,
and you've been a part of that. You give gifts
to your station to help them with their sharethon so
that they can continue broadcasting the Gospel, and they do.
And we are the ones who bring the message to
that station, and we hear the reports back of many
(01:16):
whose lives have been changed and whose eternal destiny has
been solidified in heaven because they put their trust in Christ.
Radio is a powerful tool, and men and women, if
you listen to us every day on the radio, and
you're living in an area where your station is supported
by its listeners, don't forget your station. Without them, we're
(01:36):
not there. And we are so grateful for the many
men and women who spend long hours promoting, directing, organizing
Christian radio. We are delighted to be a part of
this great industry. Today we are going to finish up
our discussion of hope and Anchor for life. It's from
Hebrews chapter six, and I hope you'll join us there
(01:59):
as we begin discussion. Some of you remember a book
that came out several years ago, and if you haven't
read the book, I'm sure you've read an article that
was published because of the book, because it's one of
the most often referred to books in modern journals. The
book was written by a guy named Norman Cousins who
was an intriguing person. He got a very serious disease
(02:21):
that threatened his life. In fact, he was told by
all of his doctors that he would die, and he's
written a book called Head first, the biology of hope.
In one of the places in his book, he says,
people tell me not to offer hope unless I know
hope to be real. But I don't have the power
not to respond to an outstretched hand. I don't know
(02:43):
enough to say that hope can't be real.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
I'm not sure.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
Anybody knows enough to deny hope. I've seen too many
cases these past ten years when death predictions were delivered
from high professional station, only to be gloriously refuted by
patients for reasons having to do less with tangible biology
than with the human spirit. It went on to say
that the human spirit may be admittedly a vague term,
(03:10):
but it is probably the greatest force within the human
arsenal for dealing with discouragement and disease. On the back
of his book, I copied off this phrase. And you
may not remember a lot that I say, Todavi, but
this is a phrase worth keeping. And it didn't come
from the Bible. It came from this man. But it's
a very, very worthwhile phrase. And this is what he said,
(03:30):
don't deny the diagnosis, but defy the verdict. And I
thought to myself, how many of us in our lives
have faced challenges like that, haven't we. Everybody's around to
tell us how bad it's going to be and why
it won't work, and how we can't do it, and
we cannot deny the diagnosis. But friends, we can, by
(03:52):
the faith that is in us through Jesus Christ, we
can defy the verdict because last I knew, the last
word on hope doesn't come from the earth. It comes
from up there, doesn't it. Well, I want to talk
with you about this whole matter of hope, and I
(04:13):
want to take you on a journey through some of
the passages in the Word of God that encourage us
to be filled with hope.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
I want to challenge you, if you don't have hope in.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Your life, to begin to cultivate it, because I'm convinced
that in this generation and what's going on in even
our country today, unless we have a strong hope at
the center of our lives, we're going to be cast
about on a sea of uncertainty that will just lead.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Us to despair.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
I want you to all be able to say to
yourselves when this is over, the words of the Psalmist
who said in Psalm forty two, why art thou cast down,
O my soul, hope Thou in God hope. Turn to
Hebrews six. In this section of scripture, there is a
marvelous discussion of this subject. And I'm not going to
(04:57):
give us a long exposition, but I want to just
give you the argument of the passage very quickly and
reminds you that here is a picture of why we
need hope and where it is to be found. This
is a section that deals with the Old Testament in sense,
some of you know Hebrews quotes from the Old Testament
more than any New Testament book. In fact, if you
(05:18):
study the Book of Hebrews, you have to have the
Old Testament in your hands to do it, because it
constantly refers to Old Testament passages and events. And here
the writer of Hebrews is referring back here at the
end of the sixth chapter to an event that took
place in the life of Abraham. In the thirteenth verse,
we are told that when God made a promise to Abraham,
(05:39):
because he could swear by no one greater, he swore
by himself, saying, surely, blessing, I will bless you, and multiplying,
I will multiply you. Let me suggest to you that
hope is necessary in our lives today, because often the
way is unknown.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
God came to Abraham.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
And he said, Abraham, I want you to go to
a place out yonder that I have charted out for you.
I want you to leave your home and your family
and go there. Didn't give Abram a map, didn't give
him a timetable. He just said, Abraham, I picked a
place for you to go, and you go. And the
Word of God says that Abraham pulled up everything, all
his family and friends, and he left, and he crossed
(06:21):
the river, and he followed God. Hebrews chapter eleven gives
Abraham an a plus in faith because he went out
not knowing where he was going. But that was only
a small portion of God's testing of Abram's faith. For
one day he came to Abraham and he said, Abraham,
I'm gonna bless you. Genesis chapter twenty two tells the story.
(06:43):
He said, I'm going to bless you with a son,
and out of that sun is going to be a nation.
In fact, Abraham, you're going to have so many descendants
that they're going to be like the sands of the
sea and the stars of the sky because you won't
be able to number them. And Abraham, I'm gonna bless you,
and I'm gonna bless your son, and I'm gonna bless.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
The whole nation that comes from this promise.
Speaker 2 (07:06):
A wonderful promise, except for the fact that when Abraham
got those words, he was in his early nineties and
they still didn't have a son, and that was a
real challenge. I always love the way the scripture in
a very sterile way, describes the fact that Sarah was
beyond the age of conception, but he had this promise
(07:26):
from God. And I have to tell you something that
it was the hope that Abraham had in his heart
that helped him to get through the way.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
He didn't know.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Abraham woke up every morning not knowing what God was
up to. He just had this one thing in the
back of his mind, and that was what God had
told him.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
It was his hope.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
And I have to tell you the second thing that
I learned from reading about Abraham is that hope is
necessary because often the waiting is uncontrollable. Did you know
God didn't tell him how long you'd have to wait?
He just said, Abraham, here's the hope, and you just wait.
God made a promise to Abraham, but that promise was
not to be fulfilled for many days, and in some respects,
(08:05):
that promise was not fulfilled totally even in his lifetime.
Because you and I sitting here today, we are the
fulfillment of that promise, because we are the children of
Abraham according to Galatians, and we are the result of
God having blessed Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and having
blessed the nation of Israel, and then through Israel blessing
all of us. Because the Word of God, which we
(08:26):
hold in our hands is Jewish, and the Savior who
died on the cross is Jewish. We are blessed because
of Abraham. He never saw all of that, but he
saw enough, so the promise came true in his lifetime.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
But he had to wait.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
And I tell you today, friends, that hope is the
ingredient that keeps you going between the promise and the fulfillment.
Hope is the thing that gets you up in the
morning when you know that God cares but you haven't
seen any evidence of it in the last few days.
Hope drives you onward when you want to quit and
stop Hope keeps your dream alive while you're waiting, and
(09:02):
you need hope because you can't always control the timetable. Thirdly,
this passage of scripture teaches us that hope is necessary
because often the will is uncooperative. We all know we
should hope. We all know that should be who we
are as Christians, that we should be filled with hope.
But how many of you have ever found yourself even
in this regard? Praying the prayer of Paul in Roman seven, Lord,
(09:24):
I know what I should do, and I don't do it.
I know what I shouldn't do, and here I am
doing it again. The passage is very interesting. It says
in verse eighteen that by two immutable things in which
it is impossible for God to lie, that we might
have strong in the word consolation, there is the word encouragement,
that we might have strong encouragement. Who have watched this
(09:46):
fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope that
is set before us? How many of us have experienced
that when we've been going through difficult times and we
know our hope ought to be in the Lord, and
yet our will is uncooperative, and sometimes we have to
forget everything and just go and hang on to God,
flee to him for our refuge. Hope is necessary because
(10:08):
sometimes the will is uncooperative. Hope is necessary. Number four
because and I'm not trying to change the dynamics of
this passage, but if you will look with me in
a moment, you'll see this accurately comes from the text.
Hope is necessary because often the waters are unchartable. Notice
(10:29):
what he says in verses nineteen and twenty. He says,
this hope we have as an anchor of the soul,
both sure and steadfast, and which enters the presence behind
the veil where the forerunner has entered for us, even
Jesus having become high priest forever according to the order
of me Chizedek.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
I'll watch carefully. What the writer of Hebrews is saying.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Is this, We are on a journey, and the water
sometimes become turbulent. He can't always chart the course. And
the imagery that he picks here is very, very precious,
if you understand it. I always have sung that song
we have an anchor, and my anchor.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
Holds and had this picture.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
In fact, I remember chalk artists coming to our church
when I was a little boy painting the picture of
the ship moored out in the anchor that's cast into
the deep. And I've always thought of it that way,
but I think there's a whole different.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Thing going on here, if I understand it correctly.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
When you go on a cruise out into the big waters,
and we've had a chance to do that a couple
of times because of ministry opportunities, one of the intriguing
things is to watch them when they bring these huge
vessels back in to port and they dock them up,
like in Vancouver or down in Miami somewhere. I've always
been fascinated. In fact, just recently when we did that,
(11:46):
I stood out on deck for almost an hour and
watched them as they brought this huge vessel in, how
careful they were. And then I don't know if you've
noticed what they do, but they have a little tiny
rope and they throw that rope and the people on
board get it and they pull that little tiny rope
and it's attached to a little bigger ope, and then
you get the bigger ope and pull that and find
the bigger ope is big enough to pull the rope
which is going to hold the ship. Next to the dock.
(12:08):
It's a very intricate process, far more complicated than I
ever dreamed, but not unlike what's going on in this passage.
Listen to what the writer says. He says, you and
I have a hope, and that hope is our anchor.
And the anchor, he tells us, has three qualities. It
is sure, it is steadfast, it is secure. I'll watch carefully.
(12:32):
The first thing it says about this hope is that
it is sure.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
That means.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
It is dependable, you can count on it. Secondly, it
says it's steadfast, that means it's not going to change.
And thirdly it says it's secure, for it's entered in
behind the veil and it is fastened there. Now, if
you go back up in the text, you'll see that
these two principles clearly parallel what the Word of God
(12:59):
says about God's promise to Abraham. He says that when
God gave Abraham the promise that he was going to
have a son, he did it in such a way
that there were two undeniable proofs of the promise, two
immutable things.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
He said.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
First of all, he gave him a promise, and secondly
he gave him an oath. In the promise, he cannot lie.
In the oath he cannot change. His promise is sure,
he cannot lie. His promise is steadfast, he cannot change.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
The anchor we.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Have is like the promise God gave to Abraham. It
is confirmed unto us by two immutable things. First the
promise of God he cannot lie, and secondly the oath
of God he cannot change. But the third thing is
where the imagery of nautical experiences during the writer of
(13:59):
Hebrews days take us to truth. You see, when a
large ship would come into the harbor in the days
of Paul and the New Testament writers, they had a
procedure not unlike the one I described for the major
cruise ships of our day. They had a rock that
was embedded into the granite in the harbor. Literally, the
(14:21):
rock was called the anchorea. It's the word from which
we get our word anchor. When a larger ship would
come into the harbor, they would disembark two or three
of their chief hands into small little boats we would
probably call them dinghies, and they would take the anchor
(14:42):
rope from the ship in their little boat, and they
would take that into the harbor, and then they would
fasten it to the anchorya rock, and the boat, trying
to safely get into the harbor, would follow the strength
of that rope as they literally brought but the boat
into the harbor and anchored it securely.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Now watch carefully.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
The text says that Jesus Christ is our forerunner, and
that he has carried our anchor behind the veil into
the very presence of God, and he has a fixed
that anchor there, so that as we move through life
(15:27):
into the turbulent waters in the troubled times, we have
an anchor that is secure, and we follow that anchor,
who is Christ, and it gives us strength and hope
for all those times.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
When we don't know what to do. Our anchor is secure.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
And I've noted that while the human anchors go downward
into the sea, our anchor goes upward into the heavens,
and it's sure, it's steadfast, it's secure. I think aw
Tozer put it best when he wrote that man who
(16:06):
comes to a right belief about God is relieved of
ten thousand temporal problems because he sees at once that
these problems do not have to do with matters which
at the most can concern him for very long.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Did you hear what he's saying.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
He said, a Christian who's got his heart right with
God is relieved from ten thousand worries because if he
stops to think about where his anchor is, he realizes
that whatever temporal problems he's experienced, he's not going to
have to worry about them for really very long. It's
the old adage that when you get Christ and you
get eternity, then all of life begins to start making sense.
(16:44):
On the other hand, if you have ever read Dante's
Divine Comedy, you have seen Hell described as having a
giant door that leads down into the pit of the Abyss.
Above this door are inscribed these words despair of all
hope ye who enter here. That is a description of
(17:05):
everyone who is outside of the Lord. They are without hope,
And that's what the Word of God says, without God
and without hope. It is a description of all outside
of Christ. And it is a picture of many folks
that you and I know. It may be a picture
of some of you here today. You're making it. You're
taking one step at a time, getting up every day
(17:26):
and pushing your body forward into the challenges, but it's
not with any hope. I want to commend you today
to the one who is the anchor of your soul,
Jesus Christ, who is entered in and fastened that anchor inside.
I have always been a quiet fan of Alfred Hitchcock,
(17:50):
kind of miss his old profile on the Tube.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
He used to intrigue me.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
We used to have little arguments at our house over
who done it and how it was going to turn out.
Most of the time none of us ever got it right.
Tremendously gifted storyteller. In one of his classic TV episodes,
there's a story of a rather wicked, two faced woman
who murdered an individual and was found guilty by the
(18:19):
court sentenced to life in prison. This woman was very
angry and in the courtroom she screamed at the judge,
and she told the judge that she didn't care where
he sent her. She would escape and come back to
haunt him someday. Well, they took her away and she
took that infamous bus ride to the prison. En route,
(18:43):
she noticed something that was to become a part of
her escape plan. She saw an old man an inmate
covering up a grave outside the prison walls, and she
began to realize that the only way she would ever
be able to escape from that prison was to know someone.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Who had a key to the gate. The only one who
did have.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
A key to the gate was the old man who
assisted in the burial of the inmates who died inside
the prison. Actually, he not only buried them, he built
the caskets in which they were buried. His job included
rolling the casket on an old cart to the gravesite
outside the wall and lowering it into the hole and
covering it up with dirt. The old man was going
(19:21):
blind and needed cataract surgery, and this woman found out
about it, and she went to him, and she told
him that it would be worth his while if he
would help her escape, because outside the wall she had
enough money to buy all of the surgical needs that
he had to have them all fixed. At first, he said, no, ma'am,
I can't do that. Oh, yes she can. She said,
(19:43):
I have all the money you need outside these walls
to pay for your cataract surgery, And if you help
me get out of here, I'll give you that money.
And if you ever hope to have an operation. You
will help me out of this place, and finally he
reluctantly gave in. Here was the plan. The next time
she heard the toll of the bell, which signaled the
(20:04):
death of an inmate, she would slip down to his
work room where he made the caskets. She was to
locate the casket in which the old man had placed
the corpse, and then, if you can imagine it, secretly
slide herself into that same casket.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
And pull the top down tightly. Early the next.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Morning, the old man would roll her, along with the
corpse in the casket, out to this place of burial,
drop it into the hole, dump a little dirt on it.
The next day he was to come back, release the
lid on the casket, uncover the grave, and she would
be free. Perfect plan. Almost late one night, she heard
(20:42):
the deep toll of the bell. Someone had died. This
was her moment. She secretly slid off of her cot
made her way down to the eerie hallway. Looking into
the dimly lit room, she saw the casket, and without hesitation,
she lifted the lid and in the darkness, slipped into
the bar. After squeezing in beside the corpse, she.
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Pulled the lid down tightly. Within a matter of hours.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
She could feel the wheels rolling as they were making
their way to the gravesite. She smiled as the casket
was placed in the hole. She began to hear the
clumps of dirt as they hit the top of the casket.
Before long, she was sealed beneath the earth, still smiling.
She had done it. Silence followed. She could only contain
(21:27):
her excitement. Time began to drag. The next day came
and passed into the night, and the old man didn't
show up. Now she was getting worried. In fact, she
broke into a cold sweat. Where was he? What could
possibly have gone wrong?
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Why doesn't he show up?
Speaker 2 (21:46):
In a moment of panic, she lights a match and
glances at the corpse next to her, And you guessed it.
It's the old man himself who had died. And that
is truly an Alfred Hitchcock story, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
But I got to tell you something.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
I told you that not to break the spirit of
the service, but to soberly remind you that a lot
of folks you and I know, perhaps even some of you,
go to their grave and they're buried with their hopes.
And what is it that Paul says to the Corinthians.
He said, if in this life only you have hope
(22:26):
in Christ, you are of all men most miserable. And
I couldn't help but think what a beautiful picture that
is for us to look at and perhaps get a
sense of what happens to us. If we don't get
our anchor beyond the veil, if we don't get our
hope in someone who's going to survive all of this
(22:46):
that we're in, then we have no hope, really, not
any hope that can pull us through the storms.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
And the challenges that are before us.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
And I want to tell you about somebody who went
in to the grave, didn't need anybody to come and
get him out of his own power. He came forth
victoriously out of that tomb and raised his fist up
to say, if you believe in Me, you shall live also.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
And when you put your trust in Christ, you have
the hope of the resurrection.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
And I want to ask you, as you're hope in him,
have you trusted Jesus Christ in a personal way? And said, God,
I bet my eternity on the Lord Jesus.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
I place my hope.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
In him and in him alone.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
If you haven't done that, I hope you will.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
He is the real source of hope in this dark world,
and you can know him in a personal way.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
You know.
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Friends, Most psychologists and counselors tell us that men can
live without anything except one thing they must have, and
that's hope. It's very difficult for anybody to live very
long if there's no hope, and there's no reason for
anybody to live without hope because Jesus Christ, the Hope
of the Earth, the Hope of Heaven, has come to
(24:07):
bring to us the eternal message of hope that will
get us through the difficult times and help us get
to heaven, which is really so important.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
You know.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
Sometimes we just throw up our hands and say there's
no hope, But there's never a time when there's no hope.
If there's Jesus, and if the Bible is available somewhere
in the pages of that book is just.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Exactly what you need to read or hear so that
you can have hope.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
It's my prayer that your heart will be filled with
the hope of eternity during these days as we discuss
this important subject tomorrow.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Part one of hope in God.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I hope you'll join us then for the next edition
of Turning Play right here on this grade station.
Speaker 1 (24:56):
Our message today originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and
doctor David Jeremiah, the senior pastor. Let us know how
this ministry is impacting you by writing to Turning Point
pobox thirty eight thirty eight, San Diego, California, nine two
one sixty three, visiting our website at Davidjeremiah dot org,
Slash Radio, or calling eight hundred ninety four seven nineteen
(25:18):
ninety three ask for your copy of David's helpful new book,
The Whole Story, a fifty two week devotional journey through
every book of the Bible, yours for a gift of
any amount. You can also download the free Turning Point
mobile app to instantly access our content, or search in
your app store for the keywords Turning Point Ministries. Visit
(25:41):
David Jeremiah dot org Slash Radio for details. This is
David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue hope
and anchor for life on Turning Point with Doctor David
Jeremiah
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