In our message for tonight, we want to give you a teaching message with a few key verses from the sixth chapter of Hebrews. And if I gave a title on this, I would call it "An Anchor of the Soul."

As you may know, a lot of the trouble in the world today is caused by people being unstable. That is, by people not having any anchor. By people not having anything on which to fix their hope and to fix their plan and their future prospects and so forth. And this business of an anchor of the soul is a very important subject to think about because of this common problem.

Many people today have no real purpose in life. They have no real aim in life. They have no anchor at all for their life. All they've got is a desire to get as much as they can and to give as little as they can and that's the aim of most people's lives today. And of course, that doesn't give a proper aim, nor does it give a proper purpose in living. In fact, that kind of aim or purpose in living will not do anything except just destroy one's whole life and future. That attitude of get-get-get all you can. And give-give-give as little as you can just won't work. And it doesn't make a proper anchor of the soul.

Let's read a few verses over here in Hebrews and then we'll talk about it together. Hebrews Chapter 6, beginning with verse 15, and our key verse will be chapter 6, verse 19. Reading in Hebrews 6:15 we see: "And so, after he had patiently endured," -- now what's he talking about here? -- Before we even begin reading, let's find out what he's talking about. Who is he talking about? He's talking about Abraham, isn't he? "And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise." If you go back and check the earlier part of this chapter, which we won't take time to do tonight, you'll find that he'd been talking here for some little while about Abraham, in fact, most of this chapter has been about Abraham and Christ coming to us through the seed of Abraham.

And so, remembering this, let's move on from verse 15. "And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise." Now what was the promise? What's the promise he's talking about. He had been promised seed, that was the basic, simple version of the promise to Abraham, wasn't it? He'd been promised seed. But this seed -- this promise of the seed included -- you find that in verse 13, "For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swear by himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise."

This promise involved the giving of seed, or the promise of seed; but this promise of seed wasn't just a simple promise of fleshly seed, but also he was promised spiritual seed (we find in other Scriptures), that he became the "father" of all believers. And also, we find that he was to furnish the seed which would be the line though which the Savior would come, as well.

Now, reading verse 15 again and going on down through verse 19 this time. "And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul," now that's the theme of our message tonight, "An Anchor of the Soul." "Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil." And let's read verse 20 as well. "Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." Now, let's keep in the back of our mind as we think of this, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast.

Now, I checked on some definitions of this word "anchor" and the definition of the word "anchor" goes something like this: "that which gives stability or security, that on which we place dependence for safety." Of course, we could also use it in the sense that it's used relative to boats, which would fit very well here as well. In that case, it would be this very large steel object which is built and designed in a certain, particular fashion that makes it so that when they cast it over from the bow of the ship, it sinks down to the bottom and it grabs hold of the solid earth at the bottom of the sea and stabilizes or holds the ship or boat to keep it from moving. That would be another definition that we can use.

Then, if we wanted to use a definition of the verb "anchor," the word "anchor" used as a verb, we could give it something like this: "to fix or fasten on, to fix in a stable condition." That would be the definition of the word "anchor" used as a verb.

But we want to think tonight in connection with this anchor of the soul about four answers that we want to give you tonight -- four questions that we want to answer tonight.

The first question is this: "How can we absolutely know that there is a God?" That's the first question, how can we absolutely know that there is a God? And then, after we've answered that question, we also want to answer a second question. That is, "How can we know that God is dealing with us through the Bible?" And the third answer that we want to give is, we want to show you for a certainty that Christ is the Savior.

Let me go back and give those first three again, and then I'll give you the fourth one. How we can absolutely know that there is a God. Second, that God is dealing with us through the Bible. Third, that Christ is the Savior. That Christ is the Savior, is number three. And then, the fourth answer that we want to give tonight is to show that the believer will spend eternity in heaven. That the believer will spend eternity in heaven.

Now, if we can show you an answer to all four of those questions, that would certainly constitute or show you an anchor for the soul, wouldn't it? Now, the first one of those is, how we can know there is a God. You know, there are always people, I don't know what you call them here in your colloquial language in South Africa, but when I was a child years ago in Texas, we used to call them smart-alecks. And you may use that same expression here. Smart-alecks, meaning a fellow who's always trying to be smart and sarcastic or a little bit nasty and a little bit hard to convince about anything. A smart-aleck. Well, we used to always have smart-alecks and we have them around us everywhere we go in the world.

We have them here, as well as everywhere else. And they always want to ask you some kind of silly question about God or where God came from. And one of the questions that they want to ask you is, "How did God make Himself?" Of course, this shows in itself that they have no conception whatsoever of God or of theology. Or of any true religion, else they couldn't possibly ask such a silly question. But the false reasoning behind this question has caused millions of people to topple over the edge into hell. Trying to be smart about it from a human viewpoint and say, "How did God make Himself?"

I can answer that question in a simple example. If we had a bottle -- on Earth here it's virtually impossible as you students in science will know, to create a perfect vacuum. But if you could create a perfect vacuum here on Earth, and you can create an "almost" perfect vacuum here on Earth -- If you could create a perfect vacuum here on Earth in a bottle, and then seal that bottle completely while the vacuum was perfect inside the bottle, then you would have what one might call a perfect vacuum inside of a hermetically sealed bottle. You could take this bottle and you could put this bottle on the shelf there and if we could live a million years, if the world stood that long and the bottle didn't get broken or anything else happened to stop the experiment, a million years from now, that bottle would still be completely empty, wouldn't it? It would still be a perfect vacuum. It would be a hermetically sealed bottle with nothing inside of it. No matter if you left it there for a million years.

In other words, from nothing, nothing can come. Now, you say, "Well, how did that come around?" "How does that do us any good in talking about where God came from?" Okay, let's turn that same experiment right around like this. We have a world here, don't we? We have a whole universe, in fact, all around us! We have galaxies -- hundreds of galaxies, in fact. Thousands of galaxies. But just right here, what we can see with our naked eye, we can see this world around us. And remember what our axiom was, "from nothing, nothing can come." And just the very fact that there is a world here, in and of itself is sufficient proof that there is a God! Because without God, from nothing, nothing can come.

The same way as the example of the hermetically sealed vacuum bottle that we talked about. With nothing inside of it, you could leave it a million years, you could leave it five hundred billion years and there'd still be nothing inside that bottle. So, from nothing, nothing can come. Therefore, just the very fact that there is a world here, is solid proof that there is a creator God, proof that there is a cause behind all of the effects that we can see around us. That's a logical proof, too. It's perfectly logical to anyone who wants to be logical about it.

Okay, another way that we can know there is a God. We can take Bible prophecy and we can prove from Bible prophecy that men, hundreds or even thousands of years before the event, were able to predict exactly and in detail certain events which God said would come to pass. That in itself is again, sufficient proof that there is a God -- Just the fact that there is accurate Bible prophecy, which foretold events hundreds of years before they occurred. You may remember an incident that I've mentioned to you before in other sermons, when the Lord had His prophet to prophesy that a man named Cyrus would allow his people to go back and rebuild the temple.

Now, this prophecy was written about 150 years before Cyrus was even born. And there are several other examples of a similar nature in Scripture where God prophesied that certain things would happen, but in this particular instance, I believe that's Isaiah chapter 45. "Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue nations before him," and so forth. And then He goes ahead and makes certain prophecies. And He called this man's name in Isaiah chapter 45, beginning with verse 1 and several verses following. He called this man's name 150 years before the man was even born. And told about certain things that he would be used to do and how God would lead him and cause him to do this and that and thus and so. And it did, of course, come to pass, exactly as prophesied.

As we go on a little further, there are all kinds of examples in Bible prophecy and I'll give you some more of them in a minute. There was a great French scholar of whom you may have read when you were in school named Pascal. He was a famous French scholar and philosopher. And he said this about Bible prophesy. He said: "I find real prophecy in the Hebrew Scriptures. I find it nowhere else." And he was not really a believer himself, that is in the sense of being a true believer in the Lord as Savior and King as we are. But yet, he admitted this. Though he was an agnostic type philosopher himself, he admitted that there was real and accurate prophecy in the Scriptures.

The fulfillment of prophecy shatters evolutionary theories. You know, some people don't seem to think it's worth the game to fight the lies which are promoted in the name of evolution. But it is worth the game because the purpose of the evolutionary idea is not just to try to explain where man came from, the whole purpose behind the whole background of evolution is this: that is, to make man believe that there is no God and that man is just an accident. And so, fighting evolution is worth the game. It's worth the fight. But the fulfillment of prophecy completely shatters all of these lies that are told under the heading of evolution.

I want to give you four examples of fulfilled prophecy now. One of them is from Micah 5:2. Let's turn over there and read that one. Micah chapter 5, verse 2. We use that book so little that you have to hunt to find it, don't we? But there is a good reference there about the coming of the Lord. That is, of course, about the birth of the Lord, the first coming of the Lord in human form.

It says in 5:2 of Micah, "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."

This was written at least six or seven hundred years, (about seven hundred years it's estimated by most scholars), before the birth of Christ. And yet, here is an exact prophecy, not only that Christ would be born, but that He would be born in Bethlehem. And it's very clear, it's not one of these prophecies like these modern day prophets give, you know, that could mean anything. And then, when something does come to pass, they say, "Oh, that's what I meant." It's not that kind of prophecy.

Anybody can prophesy like that, if they just use their head a little bit and know a little about what's going on, then they can make that kind of prophecies. But this is not that kind of prophecy, of course. It even names the town, and the fact that He is going to be the ruler of Israel, and mentions the fact that His goings forth have been from of old. In other words, that He's the Son of God. And the prophet told all of this about seven hundred years before the birth took place. Even naming the town that He would be born in.

So, the objector to this and to the fulfillment of prophecy in the Scriptures, he always says that he can't believe that Christ was virgin born. And yet, that very same rascal that says he can't believe that Christ was virgin born, he's willing to believe that the first human beings got here without father or mother, either one. Now, is that reasonable? Is that sensible? Is that logical? No, it's not, is it? And yet, the very same fellow that will tell you that he can't believe that Christ is virgin born, will turn right around and try to convince you that he believes that mankind came and began here without father or mother, either one. There's no sense in that -- Doesn't make any sense at all.

Nahum 2:3-4 gives us another good example of fulfilled prophecy. Anyone who could read Nahum chapter 2:3 and 4 and not believe that this a true prophecy of some things that have happened in our modern age is just a nut case, that's all. This is what it says. "The chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation." Now, what's the day of his preparation? The time of the Lord. "The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings."

Now, we could go back and modernize this and apply it to our present situation in which we live and we could say the automobiles are going to be traveling madly down the highways and the freeways and having wrecks all over the place with their lights shining and bumping into each other in the broad ways, as it says here. And it says, "They'll seem like torches." When you see, out on a lonely road at night, you come meeting a car with bright lights, it seems like a torch racing down the road, doesn't it? They shall run like the lightnings. We have speed trappers around all the time to catch these that run like lightning, haven't we? So, there's no way that anyone can avoid, if they're just read what it says and apply it, coming to the conclusion that this is a prediction or prophecy about what is going on right now around us!

Isaiah again, 60:8 tells us about another modern day event which is very clear proof of accurate prophecy in the Scriptures. Isaiah says: "Who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows?" That definitely and clearly and plainly is a prophecy about the airplane, isn't it? If you go out here to Jan Smuts (a big International Airport in the region) and stand around there a little while, you'll see some of these who are these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their windows. You'll see them all over the place, won't you? They'll just be going every direction, especially about from about six until about nine in the evening. There will just be planes going everywhere. So, there you have in Isaiah 60:8, a prophecy of the airplane, of men flying in airplanes. And that was written about seven hundred years before Christ. It's dated by the scholars at about 712 B.C., the writing of Isaiah.

Going on to Isaiah chapter 53, we find another prophecy. This was perhaps the greatest prophecy ever written. And if you read the entire chapter there, we won't take time to do it now, but you should do that. Read the entire chapter of 53 of Isaiah, the greatest prophecy ever written. But I want to read you just verses 5 and 6, which is the central teaching of the chapter. "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one unto his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." Now, if you go ahead and read the entire chapter, it has only twelve verses, if I remember correctly.

If you read the entire chapter, you'll find that it's very clearly describing a man. It is describing the Savior, of course. Being crucified on a cross and the way He would look and so forth, tells about it in this chapter 53 of Isaiah. Now, at the time that this Isaiah was written, and, in fact, until Roman times, until nearly New Testament times, this method of crucifixion of people had never been practiced. So, here we have another clear proof of God's revelation of the truth to His men who wrote it down for our benefit, way back there seven hundred years before Christ was born. At a time when crucifixion was not even thought of or recognized as a means of execution. And yet, here he goes, and if you read through the whole chapter, you'll see that it goes through there and gives a complete description of His looks, the things that happened to Him, methods and everything, at the time of His crucifixion.

And yet, among the Jews, crucifixion was unheard of, until Roman times. Unthought of, until Roman times. The way they killed people in the Jewish culture and the background of the Jews, as you know, perhaps, is that they stoned them to death. They didn't crucify people. They wouldn't have even known how to describe such a thing. And yet, here it is in Isaiah 53, seven hundred years before Christ was even born, a complete description of how He looked and of what happened at the time of His crucifixion. If you read the entire chapter, you'll see it does describe a man crucified, when they had no knowledge of such things at all among the Jews in that day.

Now, as we go on a little further, let's look at Leviticus 16:21-22. Leviticus is the next book after Exodus in case you've forgotten exactly where it is. The third book of the Bible. We won't take time to do it now, but if you went back and read the earlier part of this chapter you would find that this is a description of one of the offerings that was to be made, which became a picture of the Crucifixion. All these old offerings and sacrifices became types of the offering and sacrifice of Christ Himself in our stead. And if you read earlier in the chapter, you would find that it's talking here about two goats that were to be brought up and one of them was to be sacrificed, and the other one was to become the scapegoat.

Now, let's read verses 21 and 22. They've already sacrificed now, the first goat, and the second goat that's left is to become the scapegoat and, of course, Christ became both the offering and the scapegoat for us. He became both of these in the picture. "And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat." This is the one that hasn't been sacrificed, of course -- the second one. "And confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness."

Now, sometime we'll preach you a full scale message on the scapegoat, but here, we want just to call your attention to the fact of this scapegoat and this example of it that I just read to you, how the sins were placed on the head of this scapegoat and he was carried away or cast away into the wilderness, led away into the wilderness by a strong fit man and abandoned there. He carried away, in other words, symbolically, the sins of the people of Israel.

(By the way, I didn't emphasize perhaps as much as I should in Leviticus a couple of words. Let me go back and emphasize that again. "Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him," —notice this word— "all the iniquities of the children of Israel, --and then -- all their transgressions in all their sins," -- notice that word all through here, repeatedly. It says, all—all—all. ". . . putting them upon the head of the goat." And then, down in verse 22, "And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities." Every one of their iniquities.

So the emphasis there in verses 21 and 22 of Leviticus 16 is the fact that the goat carried away all sin. Not just some of their sins. Not just part of them. Not a little bit of them. Not just certain classes of sins. But all sin.

Now read with me in Titus 2:13-14, and see what it says about the Savior. "Our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from" ?some? of our sins. Is that what it says? No, it doesn't say that, does it? "That he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." So here we see this scapegoat -- the heavy emphasis that was placed on this word "all" is carried out again in referring to the Savior, Christ, in that He might redeem us from all iniquity.

We've all sinned against God. There's no doubt about it. All we like sheep have gone astray, as He teaches us in Isaiah 53. And we might just as well have a big brand on our forehead that says, "Sinner, sinner, sinner." Because we all are, aren't we? And yet, something has got to be done about that big brand on us of "sinner." Something's got to be done about it, and of course, Christ did it already.

It's like we've talked about before to you. A lot of religious people -- false religious people -- their salvation is based on do this and do that and do something else. In other words, their religion is a do religion. But the true religion is a done religion. Christ has already done it all, hasn't he? It's not a do religion, it's a done religion. He did it all already. Our salvation is already complete.

You know, a lot of people seem to think that God will forgive sinners their sins just because they beg and cry and ask God to do so. And you say, "Well, I thought that too." Well, if they go about it in the right way, it is true. But just the fact that most people beg and cry to God to forgive their sin is not enough to save us. They repent only when they get caught, and that's not real repentance, is it? You know, every crook in the world, he's sorry when he gets caught. And that murderer out there that killed somebody ten years ago and got away with it and then he gets caught tomorrow, he's going to be very sorry after he gets caught that he killed that person ten years ago. But until then he didn't worry about it at all.

And that's what I'm trying to emphasize here when I say that God will not forgive sinners their sins just because they beg and cry in a human style of asking God to do so. He doesn't forgive sin just because we ask Him to do so. He forgives sin because it's already been paid for by our scapegoat, doesn't He? That's the reason He forgives our sin! Not because we beg and cry and ask Him to. Although He does expect us to repent and confess before He will forgive our sins, but that's not the cause or reason He forgives our sin. The reason He forgives our sin is because of this anchor of the soul that we're talking about.

And what's the anchor of the soul? We never have really brought that out yet, have we? The anchor of the soul is Christ! He's the anchor of the soul. The only anchor that works. The only anchor that's steadfast and sure and never gives way.

God does not forgive sinners in the sense that we often mean when we use the word. When we say forgive, we often mean just like letting us off from our sins without payment for it. Now God doesn't forgive that way, does He? He cannot overlook sin. He cannot just ignore it and act as if it didn't happen.

But, our sin has been paid for. This is the anchor for the soul that we're talking about. Christ, the scapegoat. And also our sacrifice in our place. He's already paid for our sin. Therefore, God is not just overlooking it and forgetting it when we commit a sin, but the sin has already been paid for by Christ; therefore, God doesn't hold it to our account. It wouldn't be justice if God charged us for this account when Christ has already paid for it, would it? That would be unfair. That would be unjust. And God is certainly just and fair, isn't He. Otherwise, He couldn't be God.

So God does not let us off from our sins without payment for that sin. Because the payment for that sin has already been made by Jesus Christ, the anchor of our soul! Our sins have been paid for and carried away by Jesus, our scapegoat. Remember what Hebrews 9:22 says: "Without shedding of blood is no remission" of sin. So this again fits in with what we've just been talking about. The fact that God doesn't just forgive our sins just because we ask Him to. He forgives us our sin because it has been laid to the account of Jesus. He's already paid for it; therefore, our sin is washed away in the blood of Christ.

But not in the sense that we usually think of forgiving. "Oh well, I'll just overlook that. Now you asked me to forgive you for it, so I'll just forgive you and we'll forget about it." He does forget about it, and He doesn't ever remember it against us. The Bible teaches that. But it's not in the sense that we do, when we forgive sin. But rather, it's because of the fact that His Son has already paid for our sin. Therefore, He can fail to remember it against us anymore, and forget it as far as we're concerned because it's already been paid for by the Savior.

First John 1:9 says: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." And then he goes ahead and says, "and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Now this was written to whom? This was written to saved people, wasn't it? This wasn't written to unsaved people, this particular verse was written to saved people.

God forgives the believer on confession because of one thing. Because of this family relationship that we have. Not because we beg and cry and plead with Him to forgive us. That's not the reason He forgives us at all. He forgives us because Christ has paid for the sin already and we are in a family relationship with Him. Therefore, He forgives our sin when we confess our sin.

God is not the father of sinners. You know, people all over the world today, they keep talking about the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. And that's just another big lie of the devil. Because, in the sense that it's used by men today, there's not a word of truth in it. God is not the father of sinners. He's the creator of all mankind. He's the creator of all things. But He's not the father of sinners. John 1:12, tells us about those of whom He is the father. It says: "As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." That tells us who the sons of God are, doesn't it? Those who believe on His name -- "even to them that believe on his name."

Our sins deserve just punishment and God punishes sin in His children for one purpose. He punishes sin in His children to reform them. Now I'm sure Tom won't mind me using this as an illustration. When he punishes one of his children, he doesn't punish that child because he's enraged at that child. He doesn't punish that child because he's angry at that child. He doesn't punish that child because he hates that child. But he punishes that child for the purpose of reforming the habits and practices of that child.

That's the same manner in which God punishes His children. He punishes sin in the sinner -- the unsaved person -- as a matter of justice. But He punishes sin in His children as a means of reforming our habits and practices. So there's a difference in the reason for which He punishes sinners and the reason for which He punishes His children.

Hell is going to be a place of degrees of punishment. The one who will depend on the teaching of the Scriptures for salvation is absolutely sure and certain of heaven. Now that's one of the things we said we were going to try to answer for you at the beginning. The one who will depend on the teaching of the Scriptures for salvation is absolutely sure and certain for heaven.

We've already done a pretty complete job, I think, of showing you the truth of this statement in some of the previous Scripture that we've given you. What is the sense of God laying our sins on Christ, which He did as we read in Isaiah 53 and as we showed in the picture that He showed us in Leviticus of the scapegoat? What's the sense of God laying our sins on Christ if it does not really pay for our sins and redeem us from our sins? There's no sense in that, is there? How can God send anyone to hell for the sins from which Christ redeemed us? There's no way that He could and be a just God, is there? Because, those who come to Christ and receive Him, trust Him as their Savior, He has become already their scapegoat and their sins have been carried away. He has borne our sins in His own body on the tree, as the Scripture teaches us.

Another question here at this point. For how many of our sins did Christ die? Well, we've been emphasizing that right from early on in the lesson tonight, haven't we? All. All. All. He died for all our sins. The scapegoat carried away all the sins of the children of Israel, didn't it? Not just some of them. Not just a few of them. Not just the mortal sins, as some people would have you to say. But rather, it carried away all the sins and Christ redeemed us, or died, for all of our sins -- redeemed us from all our sins.

Now as we hurry on, in John 5:24, it tells us a little bit about this when it says: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me," -- perhaps someday he might have eternal life. Is that what it says? No, that's not what it says, is it? "He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath," -- right now -- that's present tense, isn't it? ". . . hath everlasting life." And, just to be sure that no one could twist it around and make it mean that he just has it for a little while and might lose it, He goes ahead and says, ". . . and shall not come into condemnation."

And then, just to be sure that one of these real knot-heads that really twists everything couldn't take that and twist it to mean something else, He goes ahead and makes it even more sure by saying, ". . . but is passed from death unto life." So that really sums it up, doesn't it?

We have an anchor for the soul. The anchor for the soul is Christ. In Him we have eternal life. The one who rests on the teaching of these Scriptures for salvation will live a better life than he ever would under any other circumstances. I run into people almost every time I go out visiting who try to tell me that, well if I believed that you could be saved today and you could never be lost again after you're once saved, then I'd be saved today and then I'd live like the devil the rest of my life. In the first place, that person shows a complete and total lack of understanding of what salvation is or they wouldn't make a silly statement like that.

But, this is just not true. If you really get saved today, you're going to want to live for the Lord tomorrow. You're going to want to live for the Lord the rest of your life. You're going to want to witness for Him and bring others into this glorious salvation. So that they can have this anchor of the soul that we have, in Christ.

We said that the one who rests on the teaching of these Scriptures for salvation will live a better life than he would ever live under any other circumstances. First, because he is born of God the Spirit. That's one reason why. Because he's born of God's spirit. First John 5:1 says: "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God," and that makes a difference. These people who claim to be saved and it makes no difference in the way they live, the way they act, and they just go on living like the devil the rest of their life -- let me tell you brother and sister, I just don't believe they've been saved. Because the Scripture teaches that it makes a difference, doesn't it? It teaches all the way through that it makes a difference.

Here in I John 5:1 that I just read to you, "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God." Doesn't say that he will be born of God when he finally gets to heaven. Doesn't say that after twenty years of uh, leading a good Christian life, he will finally be born of God and then he'll be perfectly saved and sanctified. It doesn't say anything like that. But it says, "He that believeth --- or whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is --- right now --- born of God," I John 5:1. And lives are transfer—transformed by a—the new birth. Lives are changed when people really experience the new birth their life is changed.

It makes a difference. I don't mean that they're going to be sinless, little perfect—perfect angels the rest of their life. That's not true. Why, I've even made a mistake or two myself. Quite a few of them. And so, we can't claim that we're going to live perfect lives, but our life will be changed when we experience the new birth. And anyone who claims to have experienced the new birth and yet they go right on living like the devil, and as the old fellow says, "Just raising hell all over the place," they're just not saved, that's all. They weren't saved in the first place, because if they keep doing that and habitually doing that on a long term basis, that's enough proof by itself that they just never were really saved, isn't it?

Now we said that one would live a better life than he would under any other circumstances because he's born of God's spirit. And secondly, he'll live a better life from love for Christ who redeemed him. From his love for Christ who redeemed him, he'll want to give his life of service to the Savior. He'll want to. People say, "Well, if I believed like you do in eternal salvation, I'd get saved today and then I'd just go out and do anything I want to tomorrow." And you know what I tell people when they tell me that? I tell them I do that all the time. I do exactly what I want to, but my want to was fixed when I got saved. And if you really get saved, your want to will be fixed. It'll be changed. You'll want to. You can do anything you want to if you've truly been saved because you won't want to do all these other things. I tell them when they tell me that—I tell them I do everything I want to. But my want to was fixed when I got saved.

This anchor of the soul that we've been talking about tonight is the only sure hope of heaven. There's not any other anchor for soul. This anchor is sure and certain. It's backed up by hundreds of fulfilled prophecies. It's truly, as Hebrews 6:19 tells us, an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.

And every time I read about this in the Scripture, I always think of a story that I read one time about an old sailor. He had sailed the oceans for years and years. And he finally came to know the Savior. And after sailing the oceans for many years he came down to die. And a friend went to visit him as he was near death. And the old fellow couldn't talk much, but he said this to everyone that came to visit him. He always said to them, "My anchor holds." "My anchor holds." That's the anchor of the soul. The old Christian sailor, that's the last testimony that he gave to everyone who visited him as he was dying. "My anchor holds."

No slipping of this anchor. It's an anchor for the soul. This anchor will hold as no other anchor will. Will you have it tonight? Do you have it tonight? I hope you do, and if you don't have it, I hope you'll get it tonight. The great prophecy of the Savior which I read to you earlier closes with these words, "He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied." He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Now that's what makes our anchor steadfast and sure. Because, as we've been talking about all the way through the lesson tonight, Jesus paid the price for our sins. Therefore, we can say—speaking of God—"He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied." God's justice in the matter of sin is satisfied because Christ bore our sins on the cross and died in our place.

And then we can apply this again when the Savior looks out over that vast throng which no man can number, and He thinks back over all that He suffered Himself to redeem us from all iniquity, God's Word says that He'll be repaid for all that He ever suffered. He'll be satisfied. He'll be satisfied. This is the anchor for the soul. Will you be in this great throng that will satisfy Him, or will you be in hell when this time comes?

Let us pray. Our Father, we thank You tonight for Your Word. We thank You for this anchor for the soul that we have in Christ. We thank You that He is our anchor, both steadfast and sure. And that when the storms of life are raging, this anchor never slips. We thank you, Father, that we can say with the old sailor in the story that we told, "My anchor holds." Yes, "My anchor holds." Bless us we pray, Father, through the week. Use us to witness to others. Bless us in the matter of the building. Bless those of our number that are ill and those that are absent. Bless Jack especially, Father, and heal him. Guide the doctors as they prescribe medicine for him and as they work to heal him. Use them to raise him up again. We ask this in Christ's name. Amen.