Hebrews
6:13-20 Such
a Great Assurance
Rev.
Tim Muse
BPC 5/19/02 (Encouragement;
Perseverance; God-Goodness)
Introduction
We are continuing in our studies this morning on the book of Hebrews
entitled New Confidence For The New Order Responding In Faith To Such A
Great Salvation. Last week we said that we need to ”leave the elementary
teachings and go on to maturity”.
We concluded with verse 12 that said: “We do not want you to
become lazy but to imitate those who thru faith and patience inherit what
has been promised.” This
morning we want to pick up in Chapter 6 particularly looking at verses 13
thru 20 as we examine “faith” and “patience” and the relationship
between the two.
Scripture
Reading: Hebrews 6:13-20
This is God’s word, beginning in v. 13:
“When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one
greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself, saying, ‘I will surely
bless you and give you many descendants.’ And so after waiting patiently,
Abraham received what was promised. Men swear by someone greater than
themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all
argument. Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose
very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath.
God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is
impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered
to us may be greatly encouraged. We
have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the
inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has
entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of
Melchizedek.”
This ends the reading of God’s Holy, inspired and inerrant word.
May he add his rich blessing to our reading, our understanding our
embracing and our living of it. Would
you bow with me once again in prayer.
Prayer
Our
Heavenly Father, you know us better than we know ourselves and you know the
places where our faith often fails. But
even better, you know the solution, you know the needs that we have even
this day. Father, may you
expose us today to your eternal counsel and comfort and we may we be
encouraged not only today as we hear the word of your truth, but also in the
days to come, when our faith is tested and when the road becomes difficult.
These things we pray in Jesus name.
Amen.
Sermon
Last
week, we began by saying that you and I live in a society that likes to put
the blame on somebody else. This
morning, I would like to begin in a similar fashion by saying that you and I
also live in a society that likes instant and immediate gratification.
Think about it with me if you would.
How may of us like standing in line at the grocery store waiting
while the cashier at the register helps those 6 other buggies in front of
us. None of us.
We like immediate gratification.
How may of us like waiting in the doctor’s office while the doctor
is doing his best to carefully handle the others that are in the offices
beside us. None of us.
We want that doctor to come to our room and we want help now.
I remember two weeks ago when I passed a kidney stone.
I remember rushing to the emergency room wanting help.
Only to hear the words: “Do
you have an insurance card? And
you can take a seat over in the other room.”
Needless to say I was not happy.
You see I too want immediate results and I expected
that help, just as I arrived. But
you know it is just not true in matters concerning our shopping and our
doctors’ visits and so forth. It
is also true when it comes to our spiritual lives, isn’t it?
Think about it. How many
of you today can say that you have never been discouraged, you have never
felt defeated, you have never doubted God?
…that you have never gotten frustrated, you have never felt like
giving up. When the times got
tough, or when things did not go your way, either according to the time or
the timeframe you thought it ought to happen or simply according to the way
that you thought it might or should work out.
How may of you have never become discouraged, or defeated, or felt
like giving up, or turning from God at times like that.
You see when it comes to our spiritual life as well, we are
those who like instant and immediate gratification.
For example, think about those who first come to the faith and they
attempt to get there life right with Christ and all of a sudden they begin
to recognize that the consequences from the choices that they made in the
past are going to catch up to them and continue to follow them for awhile. What do they want?
Immediate gratification …God stop all of this …, I have given my
life to you. Perhaps that is
not your trouble, maybe you at one time thought everything in your life was
on track. Your life was
beginning to turn out just as you wanted it to be, and Boom!
Something happened and all of those glorious plans began to change
and there was nothing you could do about it.
Ever become discouraged? Begin
to ask God, What are you doing? Perhaps
it has come as you matured some in the faith and you are now beginning to
take your battle more seriously with indwelling sin. What you are beginning to see is… as you begin to look at
God’s word closer you are beginning to see that more and more as you begin
to look at indwelling sin and the more and more you begin to look at God’s
law and pursue holiness in your life, …it seems as if the more and more
that sin seems to be getting the best of you.
What do you want? Instant
gratification! God fix
it! Fix it, in me!
I am giving it my best, fix it in me.
Maybe it has come when there has been a death of a family member or
when everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.
Have you ever caught yourself saying.
“What is the use?” “It doesn’t seem to matter.”
“I know God’s word is true, but I’m starting to wonder if it
really applies to me?” “Seems
like God is against me, or forgotten me?
“Will I ever get to where I need to be?”
“Will I ever receive the blessings the Bible says will come to
me?”
What’s
a person supposed to do in times like this?
Is there anything that can help?
Where should we turn? What
can we count on? I imagine if
you and I could find the answer to questions like these; it would prove to
be one of the MOST VALUABLE TREASURES we could ever possess.
The GOOD NEWS is: GOD’S
WORD PROVIDES the answer for us.
I am going to present to you a basic teaching in which I am going to
disguise a little bit some of the meatier portions of the answer to those
questions just to hold you on a little longer.
But this is what we learn in this text.
What we learn here is that:
God’s people must
never give up, regardless of what we face in this life, because God has
provided that you and I can be greatly encouraged at all times. And you and I can be motivated, strongly motivated to hold on
and to reach out and lay hold of the hope that is given to us in Christ
Jesus. As we do, we will find
the solution to all those other questions.
I want you to look at it with me this morning under three categories.
First of all,
The
Person Who Waits On God Will Eventually Find That It Is
Worth It.
In v. 12., we read: “We do not want you to become lazy but to
imitate those who thru faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” And then it goes on in v. 15 to say: “And so after
waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.”
What
we find here is Abraham is a TYPE, he is an example for all of us who would
follow him in the faith, particularly when it comes to the need for waiting
upon the Lord. It’s true that
God made his covenant promises directly to Abraham, saying ”I am going to
bless you” and “I am going to make you into a great nation” and “I
am going to bless other peoples thru you, all of the earth is going to be
blessed” thru you. And God
communicated it verbally to him… But don’t let that fool
you into thinking that made it so much easier on Abraham.
In v. 14 (Gen 22:!7) we read “I will surely bless you and give you
many descendants.” BUT, have
you ever thought about how long it took for those promises to come true.
Have you ever thought about how much patience it required on
Abraham’s part when those promises were not immediately fulfilled.
You see, God even made an oath to Abraham in giving these covenant
promises to him… have you ever thought about why that oath was given?
You don’t make an oath if something is going to be fulfilled right
away. Even from the beginning Abraham was set up as one who would
have to trust and hope and exercise faith and patience and wait for the
promises to come true.
How
long did Abraham have to wait? We
know that he was 75 years old when the covenant was communicated to him.
We know that it was an additional eleven years before Ishmael was
born. It was 25 years before
his son Isaac was born. That
was the first view in which Abraham actually began to see the lineage that
would ultimate lead to Christ. Twenty-five
years! You and I often have a
tough time waiting for three days for God’s will to play out in our lives.
We often have a hard time waiting two or three weeks to find out if
the Lord’s will and his plans are going to work out for our good.
Twenty-five years! And,
that is not all. After Abraham
was born, we see that God tested Abraham with Isaac on Mount Moriah and
began to test him. I’m sure
Abraham struggled as he thought “God, you’ve finally given me a son, why
am I raising the dagger?”. And
yet his faith did not wane. He
trusted in God in being able to raise Isaac from the dead if necessary and
in one sense God did that. But
is that all? No, we see that it was 66 years before Jacob and Esau were
born. And so here is a man that
God said I am going to make you into a great nation. And after 65 years, he had a son. It wasn’t until the sixty-sixth year that he even saw the
second part of that seed. In
fact what we learn is it went well beyond that.
If you go to Hebrews Chapter 11 we read all the great heroes of the
faith, even at their death, had not received what was promised. Now you look back here at verse 15 and it says: “And so
after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.”
When did he receive it? He
received it when Christ came to this earth and those promises were fulfilled
in Christ. You see: Abraham had to wait his entire life, … but
in the end was it worth I! Yes,
Christ came and fulfilled those very promises and even provided for the very
salvation of his soul. The
question is will you and I be prepared to wait.
Will
you and I be prepared to wait …because what we see in the example of
Abraham is those who wait will ultimately find that it is well worth it!
Graduates, when it does come to dating, how long will you be willing
to wait? How long will you hold to Godly standards, even if it means
sitting at home without a date? Congregation,
what battles are you currently facing?
Where does the temptation lie for you to give up on the Lord?
Is it where you have begun to exercise discipline in your life and
yet the results are going to take more than two or three weeks of work and
you are being to question God thinking “Is it really worth it?
And will you really provide for me if I honor you in this aspect of
my life.” Are you looking for
a new job or for a change of jobs but the Lord’s timing does not seem to
be coinciding with your timing. Can
you be disciplined enough to wait? Maybe
you have begun to understand the significance of the suffering and the pains
and particularly the things associated with the later years of this life and
begun to despair and your desire is Come Lord Jesus!
And yet he seems to tarry. And
you wait upon the Lord. You may
say to yourself, you know it does not seem to be any hope in my situation, I
understand Abraham’s but there doesn’t seem to be hope in my situation. What does Romans 4: 18 say concerning Abraham.
It says: “Against all hope , Abraham in hope believed
and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him,
So shall your offspring be.” All
hope …he was approximately 100 yrs. Old.
The very same passage says that Sarah’s womb was dead.
Beyond all hope. Yet
what we see is that he remained faithful.
In the end he found out that it was worth it. The question is: Are
you and I willing to hope even when all indicators in this life seem to be
pointing against the Lord and against what we believe is his goodness and
his plans for our life. The
truth of the matter is the person that waits on God will ultimately
find it worth it.
Secondly
we see:
The
reason it is worth to wait upon the Lord is because is God is determined to
bless his people.
I
want you to get this. This will
change your entire future if you understand this.
In verses 17 and 18, we read “Because
God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the
heirs of what was promised.” …To
US, he wanted make his eternal purpose clear to us. It says “he confirmed
it with an oath.” Verse 18: “God did this SO THAT, by two unchangeable
things” and I am going to drop down.
He did this SO THAT “we who have fled to take hold of the hope
offered to us may be greatly encouraged.”
God
has done something on our behalf, that regardless of what you and I face in
this life, you and I may find great encouragement… encouragement that will
enable us to be encouraged and “rejoice in the Lord” regardless of where
we find ourselves. The question
is: What has he done?
Verse 18 says he did two unchangeable things.
What are they?
First,
he points us to his OWN ETERNAL, IMMUTABLE WILL.
You will find that in verse 17. “Because
God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very
clear.” He refers to the
creation of the world, even before the creation of the world when the
Godhead determined God’s eternal and unchanging stance and his position
toward his people. And he
draws our attention … even back to his determinations before the creation
of the world and what do we find out about those creations, or his position
toward his people? Well, his
position, his ETERNAL position toward his people is revealed in the covenant
made with Abraham. What does he
say to his people through Abraham? He
says: “ I will BLESS you.” In
fact, the Greek is even more emphatic when it says: BLESSING, I will BLESS
you, multiplying I will multiply you.”
His whole purpose for his people, his position toward his people is
that there would be blessing in their lives.
And that in those blessings and bringing about those blessings he
would bless us. Now think about
that. His position was not just
for Abraham it was for all of God’s people.
In the covenant. We
read: “ I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant.” Not just for Abraham, but “between me and you and your
descendants after you, for generations to come to be your God and
the God of your descendants after you.”
So what we see here is it is for us, the heirs of that very
covenant, that God made this promise. But
you may ask what about when I sin, what about when I do wrong?
What about when I face difficulty, what about when all the kids are
sick, … what can I say about God’s eternal purpose for me at those
times? Look at verse 17.
What does it say? “Because
God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very
clear.” His purpose is to
bless us and that purpose is unchanging, it is eternal, it is immutable.
God never changes that plan concerning you and me.
You see God’s purpose toward you and me is forever fixed and it is
to do us good. Let me ask you,
Is that encouraging? Let
me ask you that when you walk out of this church and you go and face the
troubles of this world tomorrow, is it encouraging that in the end, we are
to ultimately find that everything that has taken place in our life is
ultimately for our good. That’s encouraging. That’s
greatly encouraging even as we face the trials. We are not removed from
them. But think about Joseph,
what did he do? Joseph was sold
off by his brothers, he was put in the well and ultimately his brothers came
to him and what did he say. In
Genesis Chapter 50 he says: “ You intended to harm me, but God intended it
for good.” What does Paul say
in the book of Romans, Chapter 8. He
says: “For we know that all things work for the good of those who
love him and who are called according to his purpose.”
You see whether Paul was sitting in prison, whether Paul was being
shipwrecked, regardless of what was taking place, he knew that in the end it
was going to work for his good and for the good of those around
him. Let me ask you: Do you have that confidence today?
Secondly,
he points us to his OWN CONFIRMING PERSONAL OATH.
We find that in verse 17 too - “Because
God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear
He confirmed it with an oath.”
Does God have to do that? No,
God is truth, his word is always truth, he doesn’t have to give an oath,
but here you see God condescending and understanding our frailty,
particularly when we are under trouble and trials and under the
pressure…What God did is he condescended to us, to help us in those times.
And in addition to giving us the truth of his word, he also added to
it, an oath in order to confirm and add to the trustworthiness of his word.
What do you and I do if we want to make somebody understand we are
telling the truth. We call down
a higher power, don’t we. In
court, “do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but
the truth, so help you God?” God
did the very same thing. There
was nobody higher for him to call to and so he swore according to his own
name in Genesis Chapter 22. He
says “…I swear by myself,
… that because you have done this and have not withheld
your son, your only son, I will surely bless
you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and
as the sand on the seashore.” The
point is God doesn’t want you and me to doubt, he doesn’t want us to
become discouraged, he doesn’t want us to give up.
God wants us to know with no uncertainty what his position toward us
is, and that is, to bless us and ultimately prosper us. Not the health and wealth gospel, but to prosper us according
to that which is truly best for us, even if it is shaping us by hard times.
If that is not enough, he goes on to add I will surely bless you, and
surely give you many descendants. You
know the truth is, you and I are not even limited to the promise that was
given to Abraham, he got it from God’s word.
He got the covenant communicated to him through God’s word. But we
have greater confidence than even this!
… for you see that promise was ultimately fulfilled in Christ.
So we have something even better than the promise made to Abraham.
We have the very fulfillment of the promise.
Through Christ’s life and the cross,
God is telling us, I do intend to do you good, even at the very cost
of the life of my own son. Concerning
the oath that God communicated to Abraham.
Would you simply want the oath that God says I swear by my own name
(and this is sufficient), or the oath that is communicated as God sent his
son, … the oath given through the son’s blood that has been shed?.
Even as he has given his own Holy Spirit to live within our hearts,
we have been given a deposit. You
see, we have a measure so much better than even Abraham had.
The question is: will we
respond to it in faith?
Who
can claim this? Verse 17 says
the heirs of what was promised, but 18 goes on to say God did this so
that “we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may
be greatly encouraged.” If
you do not have this encouragement in your life, either one of two things is
true. You have not fled to take
hold of this hope that God offers to us in his gospel … So, receive
God’s word, receive the truth that he does love us this much, and that he
does intend to bless his people. He
sent Christ, even though we are sinful, he loves us that much that he still
intends to do us good. Paying
the price through Christ. Then
there are those who have accepted the faith, and yet still do not have this
great encouragement in our lives. Well
the problem there is not that we have not initially held to the hope that
was given to us. But the
word here in the Greek is to lay hold of, to strongly grasp and not let go.
So what he says is regardless of the troubles you and I face we need
to go back to that very same hope. You
see the very hope that God’s ultimate end is to bless us, regardless of
what we face in life is given as an encouragement to help us throughout our
lives. It will strengthen us
and encourage us in everything that we face in this life.
But apart from laying hold of it, you and I will not possess that
encouragement. We will become
discouraged, we will become defeated and our lives will take on a form a lot
lower than what God has for us.
That
brings us to the final point.
Taking
God at his word provides strength and stability in our struggles (vv. 19-20)
There
is an anchor, there is the hope that we must hold on to.
If you looked at the end of this passage in verse 19 it says; “We
have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.” How may souls
are tossed back and forth, every trouble that comes into their life, and yet
you have seen those people that are firm and steady even though they are
getting blown back and forth, they are steady and they are stable.
God says it is that hope that gives us that firmness.
In
a boat, in the same way that an anchor,… you see the chain going down into
the depths of that murky water but you don’t see the anchor, but it is
holding firm even though you are tossing back and forth.
Well the anchor for Christians is not down in the ground, but
something even more stable. It
is anchored right through the curtain, right through the veil of the heavens
itself, and is found in the foundation of Christ himself.
The anchor is there. It
is secure! The question is: will
we lay hold of it? He is fixed
and firm and steadfast and nothing will move him.
The question is: will
we make him our own when we face the troubles of this life?
Sandy
Patty has a song that encapsulates this truth well.
The words go like this: “Empires
have fallen, castles of sand, kingdoms in the ruin today, the house of the
wise man is certain to stand, built upon the rock that will stay.
You alone are the foundation for the rest of my life. Lord, I want to build my world around you.
Build my world around hope.
Build my world where there is mercy and grace.
Where there is faith.”
Closing
Prayer
Our
gracious heavenly father how we do thank you that even at points where we in
the faith we become discouraged, that you meet us at those points and will
enable us to stand firm and fast, and even be encouraged, regardless of the
pressures of this world. Cause
us to fear you and not men, cause us to fear you and not the circumstances
of this life, and cause us Father to rejoice and be glad in the hope, and
the security, and the steadfastness that belongs to us in Christ.
These things we pray in Jesus’ name.
Amen.
Let
me ask you to stand for the benediction.
And
may now the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father and
the fellowship of his Holy Spirit be with you all.
Amen.
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