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And we desire each one of you
to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of
hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators
of those who, through faith and patience, inherit the promises.
For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one
greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, surely
I will bless you and multiply you. And thus Abraham, having
patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by
something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes, an
oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more
convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable
character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath. So
that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for
God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong
encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have
this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that
enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has
gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek. Please join me in prayer. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic
is your name in all the earth, and you have set your glory above
the heavens. So we've come to worship you by singing praises,
confessing our faith and our sins, giving our tithes and our
offerings, and listening to the preaching of the word. We admit
that we are not worthy of the salvation we possess, but we
know that you call us to make us holy and not the other way
around. I pray that you would teach us
from your word today. Gently instruct us in your ways.
Guide us into both faith and repentance. You have promised
that your word will not return void, but will accomplish the
purpose for which it is sent. And we thank you for this. In
the name of Jesus Christ, hope of the world, we pray, amen.
You may be seated. What do you think of when I say
the words swear and oath? There could be a few things that
pop into your mind immediately. The first thing that might pop
into your mind is the scene of a courtroom where when witnesses
are called to the stand, they raise their right hand and they
swear to tell the whole truth and nothing about the truth.
So help them God. Perhaps scenes from different movies might arise,
whether it's the fellowship and the fellowship of the ring when
the fellowship is forming, when they all swear to help Frodo
with the burden of the ring and help him get to Mordor. Things
didn't go as planned, but we have Aragorn saying, you have
my sword, and then Legolas, my bow, and Gimli, and my axe. And they all promise to help
him. Or maybe even more nobler thoughts enter your mind. Maybe
you think, for those of you who are military, perhaps you think
about your oaths of office, or your oaths of enlistment, raising
your right hand and affirming those oaths. Maybe you even think
of, better yet, the presidential inauguration, political office
in general, where they raise their right hand and swear on
the Bible, their particular oath of office, to uphold the Constitution
and defend our country from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
So for me, personally, oddly enough, when I think of swearing
oaths, I think of my time in Christian middle school in Las
Vegas, Nevada, when my dad was stationed at Nellis Air Force
Base. I saw a wide variety of behavior at my Sin City Christian
school, ranging from questionable, and sometimes good, to just straight
up bad. But it is my friend Michael who gets the mention today, 15
years later. At one point he decided that saying, God is my
witness, after the end of statements, was a foolproof method to make
invincible claims that no one could either verify or counter.
And if they questioned it or dared to, he would just say,
God is my witness, and that would be that. So using this declaration would
end dispute or interrogation on the spot, at least from us,
not from our teachers. But eventually, this bad behavior
spread to the rest of us. Many of the boys started using
the phrase for the same purpose, to make invincible claims that
could not be challenged, as if invoking God for a self-serving
purpose gave our word more power over one another. And rightly
so, deep down, being raised in the church, this always kind
of scared me, even though I'm guilty of it. So this ultimately
blasphemous oath was at best wasted breath or at worst an
actual call for God to vouch for our version of events. But
the phrase was used so often that essentially came to mean
nothing. So what makes oaths meaningful then? They depend
completely upon the intent and the ability of the oath giver
to keep their word with respect to whom they make the oath in
the first place. And it's not just a promise, it's a binding
promise. So in lieu of Pastor Toby being in Italy, I still
have three alliterative points for you. God's oaths demonstrate
his covenant, his character, and his constancy. So first,
his covenant. I'm gonna go back to verses 11
and 12 at the end, so if you could follow along with me in
verse 13. For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one
greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, surely
I will bless you and multiply you. And thus Abraham, having
patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by
something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes, an
oath is final for confirmation. So to knock out some early points
here, on multiple occasions from Genesis 12 onward, God makes
this twofold promise to Abraham. He promises to multiply him like
the sand on the seashore and the stars in the sky, and he
promises to give him the land of Canaan. So doubtless, many
of you have read through Genesis and both the Old and New Testaments
and wondering how these oddly specific promises connect to
new covenant realities. After all, doesn't it look like
Israel for a long time lost the benefits of the promise? When
during the time of the Babylonian exile or even at Titus's, Roman
Emperor Titus, destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. So why the,
and then there was a flurry of excitement in the 40s, in the
late 40s when Israel was, modern day Israel was reforming as a
nation, right? In the evangelical community.
So what did these promises have to do with Jesus? Frankly, every
child of faith is a child of Abraham and we will be more numerous
than the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. And
we shall inherit not just Canaan, but the whole earth with Christ.
And all these come to fruition in Jesus Christ. So the text
tells us that God guarantees this twofold promise of both
offspring and land with an oath. And having no one greater by
whom to swear, God swears by himself. So verse 16 makes a
valid observation that when people swear, they typically invoke
a higher power. Some invoke, and some of, some invoke thought
to be sacred objects. Scripture tells us that Pharisees
were swearing by the gold of the temple and by the gift on
the altar, or even by heaven. This is in Matthew 23, and Jesus
gives them a thorough rebuking for that. But maybe more frivolously,
perhaps you've heard someone swear on their own life, their
mother's grave, or perhaps even the beard of Zeus. Still others
are more daring, like my friend Michael, swearing directly upon
the living God for their appeal to the truth. But it makes sense. What good is an oath if you swore
by something meaningless or without value altogether? If I swore
an oath by the crumbs on the ground, you wouldn't take me
seriously. But here's a worse example. There is a story coming
out of the news in St. Louis where a newly elected councilwoman
refrained from being sworn into her position using a Bible. In
fact, she didn't use the Constitution, a law book, or any other serious-minded
text. So she decided to take her oath
of office, put her right hand, raise her right hand, put her
other hand on a Dr. Seuss book. She claimed that
the text held personal significance to her and was an inspiration
for her to work hard and do the best she could So while the debate
to use a Bible, a Quran, or the Constitution is its own debate,
the Councilwoman communicated something else entirely with
her decision. What she was essentially saying
to us was, the only standards to which I am going to hold myself
are my own, and I'm charting my own path. So the reason why officials have
sworn and continue to swear in the Bible, whether or not they're
believers, is because it is a sign that they are binding themselves
to discharge their duties in a way that honors God and their
community. And even if they don't believe in God, they are still
at least promising that they are accountable to others in
the society by some sort of moral code. Dr. Seuss holds no such sway. It
cannot convince us of her commitment to her office. to use one of Pastor Toby's favorite
words, no such gravitas. No such gravitas as the eternal
word of God given by the mouth of the most high. Dr. Seuss compares not. Her oath
is basically worthless to us because of that. So in light
of this, what does it mean that God swore on himself? So the
writer of Hebrews makes direct reference to Genesis 22, 16,
where God declares that he has sworn by himself to fulfill the
promises of Abraham. This declaration followed Abraham's
obedience to offer up his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice on the
altar on Mount Moriah. So you know the story. They go
up the mountain and Isaac says, father, where is the wood and
the sacrifice? And he says, God will provide. And then as it
goes on, he ties up Isaac, lays him on the altar, and just as
the knife is up and he's ready to strike, God stops him at the
last possible moment. It says, don't do it, stop Abraham. And in the thicket, the ram is
caught. And this is the, the youth groupers
learned about this. The penultimate sacrifice of
the Old Testament was the ram caught in the thicket, clearly
representing Christ being given for us as a substitute for Abraham's
offspring. Yet, God uses a very interesting
word that leads to a deeper meaning in this passage. So instead of
telling Abraham that because of his obedience, he swears to
uphold the covenant, Genesis 22, 16 says that he tells us
that he has sworn, God has sworn on himself. So lovers of grammar
out there, they will tell you that the verb swear has been
given in the past perfect case. And this indicates that the past
tense verb denotes a sense of sequence. So not only is it the
past tense, but it's telling you at some point in the past
this has happened. So God has sworn, he has already
sworn in the past. So therefore, we must conclude
that the oath had occurred in a definitive time and a point
prior to this. This may seem strange, but we
have to go back seven chapters to Genesis 15. Genesis 15 is
known for two notable events. The first is the hallmark verse
six, where it says, Abraham believed God and it was credit to him
as righteousness. The apostle Paul uses this first multiple
times to prove his point that righteousness is not by works
of the law, but by faith alone. But the second, possibly just
as, if not more significant, is in the events that follow.
So despite his believing God's word and it being credit to him
as righteousness, Abraham's faith is still fighting doubt. Even
after being shown the stars in the sky and being said, can you
count these? If you can count these, these shall be your descendants. And Abraham believes God and
is described as righteous, but he's still doubting. And that's understandable. Abraham at this point is very
old. Sarah is very old and he's still at his human limit for
understanding how God is going to accomplish the promises. So
he asked, how am I to know that these things are true in verse
eight, Genesis 15. So God responds to him by commanding
him to bring a heifer, goat, ram, a turtle dove, and a young
pigeon. He's to kill these animals, cutting the large ones in half
and leaving the pigeons as is. So Abraham obeys, but he falls
into a deep sleep. It says a dreadful and terrifying
darkness overtook him. But during this time, God reiterates
the promises to him. But then something astounding
happens. In verse 17, the text tells us that a smoking fire
pot and a flaming torch pass between the pieces. To the modern
mind, this scene amounts to complete nonsense. We have no reason to
understand it from our point of view. So what in the world
could this possibly mean and why is it included in the text
of scripture? So for you kids who have gone to youth group
for the past year, year and a half or two, they've had the privilege
of me speaking on this once or twice already, and I'm going
to ask that you once more will bear with this teaching for the
sake of your parents and the other adults. And if you personally
doubt the importance of this passage, it was so important
to R.C. Sproul that he would actually
sign this as his life verse when he gave autographs, confusing
a lot of people, understandably, but he would explain why. And
here is why. What we see in the text is the
ritual of the Hittite covenant-making ceremony, a prevailing form of
the binding agreement in the ancient Near East. So what makes
a covenant a covenant and not merely just an oath? Oaths are
binding promises with consequences for failure, but a covenant is
a relationship created and fellowship built upon the basis of such
an oath. And here's how it worked. In a bilateral covenant, that
is, two equal parties, after setting terms and conditions,
two parties would cut up animals like Abraham did, and they would
pass through the pieces together, entering into that relationship,
essentially declaring, may it be done to me as it has been
done to these animals if I do not fulfill my end of the covenant.
In a unilateral covenant, that is, a sovereign over lesser,
people, so you could say a lord over a vassal, if you will. An
autocratic ruler would force the people to pass through the
pieces, pledging their loyalty and support to the monarch with
the same threat of death in exchange for protection of his military
and his rule of law. So the scene of Genesis 15 matches
this ritual, but with some crucial differences. Does Abraham pass
through the pieces? No, he doesn't. God and God alone
symbolized by torch and smoke corresponding to the pillar of
smoke and pillar of fire in Exodus. God alone passes through the
pieces. And what does this mean? God does not confirm his promises
to Abraham upon condition of Abraham holding up his end of
the bargain. That's what Adam had in the first
covenant and he fell. No, this is a better covenant.
God confirms his promises to Abraham by passing through the
pieces by himself. And God gives what's called an
oath of self-malediction. May it be unto me if I do not
fulfill my word. That's intense. The gravity of
this statement, though, requires a little bit more explanation.
At first glance, it might not seem like God swearing an oath
on himself means more than it appears. Some might say, well,
God is a personal being, and he swears an oath on himself
because there is in fact nothing higher than him by which to swear.
So there's nothing higher than God, sure, but don't human beings
swear oaths on their life all the time? But the only way to
move past these objections is to look more closely at who God
is, to feel the gravitas of God's oath. When God reveals himself
to Moses as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He reveals,
he names himself for the first time in the scriptural text,
Yahweh, or I am. So in Exodus 3.14, he says, I
am who I am. In that moment, what God claims
for himself is a characteristic called aseity, A-S-E-I-T-Y. Coming from the Latin, ase, meaning
from or by oneself. So why am I giving you technical
theological knowledge? Get there. And calling himself I Am, God
is claiming self-existence. He is claiming that the entirety
of all of the cosmos and all of the space-time continuum derive
from himself. He is the center of the universe
and is the uncreated self-existence. God's name is nothing less than
the ultimate metaphysical statement. I am. You know, the philosopher
Rene Descartes, and he's a 17th century philosopher, thought
to be a rationalist, or he was a rationalist. He said, I think,
therefore I am, cogito ergo sum. I think, therefore I am. But
God, he doesn't say, I think, therefore I am. He says, I am.
That's it. Just let the gravity of that
statement soak into your bones, and let it cause you to worship
God with fear and reverence. He's impossibly transcendent.
His essence is identical to his existence. So when God, the I
Am, swears an oath upon himself, he's also swearing upon the whole
weight of all conceivable existence, including his own essence, transcendence,
goodness, purity, and holiness. He condescends to Abraham. So if you can imagine a God who
has a seity, he is the I Am. He doesn't have to make a promise
to Abraham. He doesn't have to do anything for Abraham, but
he condescends to Abraham, who is a lowly piece of the creation,
climactically entering into a covenant relationship with him. And one
could imagine the whole host of heaven holding their breath
at this moment as God swears upon himself. It is one of those moments in
scripture that is a hallmark moment. It's one of those moments,
monumental moments, where you stop and stare, if you could.
When you're reading, perhaps, maybe you stop and just bask
in the wonder of it all. So God staked all of created
existence and his uncreated essence on an oath to fulfill his promises
to Abraham, who patiently waited, as verse 15 tells us. God did
fulfill them, and he did obtain the promise. So the question
is, was the entirety of space-time continuum in danger when God
sworn himself? Was God in danger through his
own oath? By no means, as Paul would say. The point here is
not high stakes, but certainty of God's word promised in the
covenant. Certainty of God's word promised
in the covenant. So again, did God need to swear
upon himself through the covenant ceremony for Abraham? No, he
didn't need to do that. So why did he do it? Because
of who he is and because of his character, our next point. So
to verse 17. So when God desired to show more
convincingly to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable
character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath so
that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for
God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong
encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. So from
this first verse in 17, there are two important points to gather.
The first is the verb desired. It says God desired. to give
Abraham a more convincing demonstration of the truth of the promise.
So again, God did not need to swear on himself. God's word
is both without error and unchangeable. And despite Abraham's doubts,
God could have let the promises work out in their own timing.
And Abraham still would have been patriarch of the faith.
But that's not what happened. God didn't just throw a bone
to Abraham by passing between the pieces like, here you go
Abraham, feel a little bit better about your doubts. That's not
what happened or why he did it. It says God desired to convincingly
give Abraham assurance of his word. And the word desire is
pregnant with meaning. It communicates more than just
the word want does. If you just want a piece of cake, That's
not the same thing as you desiring for your children to know the
Lord. We want our children to know the Lord, but for the Christian
parents out there, we desire that thing. That desire is almost
part of who we are. There's personal significance
to me desiring something. And that's why Proverbs 13, 12
says, hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled
is a tree of life. The things that we desire reveal
our hearts, the things that are most important to us. So God
desired to show Abraham how true his word really is. It points
us to God's character. By swearing on himself, he's
deepening his relationship with Abraham, so much that Abraham
was called the friend of God. In the cross-reference, 2 Chronicles
27 and James 2.23, where Abraham's called the friend of God. And
I'll admit I'm not a huge fan of relational Christianity. I'm
a bit of a, maybe not like a miser, but I'm not sure. But the text
makes the relational aspect of God's oath completely unavoidable.
So perhaps if you boiled this part down, God swore an oath
on himself to show Abraham that he loved him. And because we
are Abraham's children by faith, God himself shows us that same
love in Christ. There's a second thing to pick
here. and what God desired to show more convincingly to Abraham,
the unchangeable character of his purpose. So God swearing
an oath on himself not only showed Abraham that he loved him, but
also demonstrated to Abraham the character of his divine sovereignty
at work. And all the good Calvinists cheered.
Just kidding. Once again, God didn't endanger
the metaphysical order by swearing on himself. He was showing Abraham
the impossibility of his word not coming to pass. Failure for
God to fulfill his promises was not possible, and that's what
God was showing. God is immutable. He cannot change. Therefore, everything that he
has purposed shall come to pass and cannot be thwarted. And so
the Westminster Short of Catechism 7 tells us, the decrees of God
are his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby
for his own glory he hath foreordained all things whatsoever comes to
pass. And the beginning of verse 18 confirms that from this moment,
there were two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for
God to lie. And what were these two things?
His word, the original promise, and his oath, And that's where
the title of the sermon comes from. Word and Oath. His Word
and Oath. And Lamentations 3.37 says, who has spoken and it came
to pass unless the Lord has commanded it. His word is sure because
the whole order of reality is upheld by the word of his power.
Which is Hebrews, in Hebrews 1.3. So God's swearing on himself
is inalterable. He cannot take it back. And these
two things are sure because it is impossible for God, the self-existent
God, who orders all things to lie. So God showed this all more
convincingly to Abraham, and he believed him. And then so
what should our reaction be then? Those who call themselves Christian,
who claim the promises of God in Christ Jesus, we who have
fled for refuge from God's righteous judgment on sin and our own weak
inability to follow God's law, might have strong encouragement
to hold fast to the hope set before us. This isn't just any
encouragement. Not all encouragement, as many
of you have lived long enough to experience this, not all encouragement
is good. Some encouragement is really well-intentioned and doesn't
do much for us. And let me give you an example,
a made-up example. How many of you have friends
that are inappropriately half-glass full or positive at the worst
possible times? Big or even small situations
in your life could be falling apart, and going badly with no
end in sight. And they will attempt to offer
perspective on the situation by simply rewording what's happening
to you. So imagine the following scenario.
You have a fishing vessel out in the Gulf of Mexico, off the
coast of Florida, sinking. And all the crew and passengers
are vigorously pumping or pailing water out of the boat. And it's
not going well. The water continues to pile on.
There are enough life vests for everybody, but they are afraid
for their lives because the danger is within the water, like sharks,
jellyfish, hypothermia, et cetera. Amid the peril, one particular
person, passenger, pipes up, not saying, I'm really glad we
have life jackets, we'll do our best to band together to survive.
That's not what they say at all. Instead they say, at least we're
experiencing something new. I'll pass, personally. It's a
made up example. But here is an example that actually
happened. So some of you may know this,
some of you not, but Erica's father died when she was seven.
And so I had recently asked her mother, my mother-in-law, what
were some of the worst things that people said to you as you
were going through the loss of your husband? And she gave me
a couple. So one of those things was, at
least you have the kids. Or we know he's in a better place
now. Or time will heal. Or you'll always have him in
your heart. I'll admit I'm guilty of saying
some of those things at some points to some people in the
past. But no matter how well-meaning those people are in those comments,
they just simply aren't helpful. It's like putting a Band-Aid
on a punctured artery. So for any of you who have taken
your SABC course, like good Air Force personnel, you know that
when you have artery bleeding, you need a tourniquet. You need,
or a surgeon, like a trauma surgeon or something, you need help quick.
And a Band-Aid is not gonna help, and that's what those comments
can be. It doesn't offer any real hope outside of us. So we
need real help, real fast. We need a real hope. And what
else could be that hope set before us other than Jesus Christ himself
and all the promises in him that are yes and amen. In him we have
forgiveness of sins by his blood and resurrection from the dead
because of his righteousness, not our own. He who has a son
has life. 1 John 5, 11 tells us, actually
12. And we can be more certain of
the promises in Christ than we are about anything else because
God has given us his word and his oath. And these things have
been set before us by God Almighty. Have you held fast to God? Have
held fast to Christ? And will you hold fast to him?
You have every reason in the world to do so. But let me provide
one more. Verse 19. We have this as a sure
and steadfast anchor of the soul. That first part of the verse.
The result of God's oath to fulfill his promises is that we acquire,
as the text says, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul.
I don't know of how many of you have been to any sort of maritime
museum or if you grew up near a shipyard or on the water, but
if you've seen those ship anchors, those things are no joke. Those
things are usually the prop outside of a maritime museum, and they
usually weigh tons, literal tons and tons. They're no joke. And in the 18th and 19th century,
those wooden ships, we're watching a documentary about late, like
Napoleonic era British warfare, and it would take them four hours
to get that anchor out of the water. That anchor was heavy,
and the rope that attached to the anchor, that pulled the anchor
up, was probably about, it was probably bigger than the size
of my head in just the gauge. Anchors are no joke. And Christ,
definitely not. He is our sure and steadfast
anchor of the soul. Just imagine something so heavy
that it keeps a ship of 800 people and thousands and thousands and
thousands of pounds floating on the water from moving in the
middle of a storm. It's intense. The very idea of an anchor is
one that brings constancy, and that's our third point, constancy,
a stability that is unmatched on the wild seas of life and
peace amid the perils of our sin. To use a sports analogy,
many of the great sports dynasties that ever existed have always
had one thing in common. They had a player, or a manager,
that was their it man, their it man, or their anchor. So in
the old school Murder Row Yankees of the 20s and 30s, Babe Ruth
was arguably its best player, but the anchor was actually Lou
Gehrig, who's considered sort of the, as far as production
goes, the number two man, but he was actually the real heart
and soul of the team, Lou Gehrig. And he was the Yankees anchor
in the 20s and 30s. Fast forward 60, 70 years, in the 90s and
the 2000s, those really good Yankee teams had Derek Jeter,
and he was considered their anchor, their it man for about 20 years.
So in basketball, you may guess who I might mention here, but
I can't mention anyone else other than Michael Jordan. Michael
Jordan was the penultimate dominant force on the basketball court
whenever he played, up until his time at the Wizards. We don't
talk about that. And finally, love him or hate
him, Tom Brady is the, the Patriots would have nothing without Tom
Brady, honestly. You could go on and on with examples,
but all these teams would be considered good teams without
their anchor, but without, when their anchors don't play, they're
incomplete teams. In a very real sense, one could
say Tom Brady is the Patriots, at least for the past 20 years,
seems like it. So Christianity is not unlike
this analogy. Without Christ fulfilling the
promises of God made to Abraham, without his death, resurrection,
and lordship, do we even have a religion? No, we don't. A Christianity that fails to
place Christ as our best hope, our sure and steadfast anchor
will wander into utter darkness. And if you look at church history,
this has happened on repeat since the apostles. Let's say after
the apostles. So the church goes into a period
where Christ is not the center of the church, and it wanders
into a period of serious decline. But the church always reemerges
from that decline, and why is that? It's Christ the anchor.
So not only is Christ the sure and steadfast anchor, he's the
sure and steadfast anchor whether we want him to be or not. He
will always, always anchor the church. So though we are faithless,
he is faithful. Though we violate the covenant
God has made, he has promised to fulfill it himself. So what
does Christ do about us, the covenant breakers? Every day
we sin, every day we do not love our Lord the God, love him with
all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Every day we don't
love our neighbor as ourselves. We're covenant breakers. So what
does God do about us? What is there to do about us?
The rest of verse 19. I'll just read, pardon me, I'll start
from verse 19 at the beginning again. We have this as a sure
and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner
place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner
on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek. So the writer uses an analogy
directly calling back to the function of the high priest under
the old covenant. On the Day of Atonement, he would
enter into the Holy of Holies behind the Great Curtain once
a year, sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice on the mercy seat
of the Ark of the Covenant, and confess the sins of the people
to bring reconciliation between them and God. The high priest
was entering the very presence of God to plead the cause of
Israel. And as we know, these things foreshadowed what Christ
would do for us. But now, our faith, our hope, and our love
enter into the holy of holies where Christ has already gone
to intercede for us. It says, while we were still
sinners, Christ died for us. While we hated him, he gave his
life so that we might live. Before we ever asked him to or
thought we needed him to, he entered as a forerunner behind
the curtain on our behalf. But later in the book of Hebrews,
the writer informs us that the tabernacle and the temple were
but mere copies of the real thing in heaven. So after Christ completed
his work of redemption, it says that Christ enters the real holy
of holies by means of his own blood and makes effective intercession
for us because of his own righteousness and sacrifice. Scripture gives
us proof of payment when the great curtain tears in two when
Jesus gives up his spirit on the cross. The separation between
God and man through Christ is over. But Jesus didn't just die
on the cross to die on the cross in an abstract way. It didn't
just happen somewhere out there, not related to us. He died for
the elect, the people of God who make the church the church.
And for if you believe in Christ, that's you. He died directly
for you. So likewise, he intercedes in
the Holy of Holies in heaven before the Father, where he entered
as a forerunner on our behalf. So being born in the very last
part of the second millennium AD, Christ entered as a forerunner
on my behalf long before I was ever born, for sure. But for
everyone who was there, the readers of the writer of Hebrews letter
Christ also enters a foreigner on their behalf before they ever
had this letter being penned to them. And he's reminding them
of that. He always lives to intercede
for us. His resurrection guarantees that. In demonstrating the constancy
of an anchor, the love that will not let us go. He is our high priest, effective
in his intercession for our sins. In comforting us with wounds
by which we are healed. This is why we take the Lord's
Supper when we do, so that we receive comfort as we, in a sense,
taste his death for our life. But there is another oath with
which I have not yet dealt, but about which we read in our call
to worship this morning from Psalm 110. Verse four reads,
Lord has sworn, again, past perfect, sworn, and will not change his
mind. You are a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. The word of God is eternal. prior
to us writing it down, when it was written down. So Lord has
sworn before the scriptural testimony was ever written. You are a priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. So again, the youth group, pardon
for all you kids out there who are tired of me referencing you,
has also learned about Melchizedek and what he did, and unfortunately
time does not permit me to go over that through exhaustion. If you want to talk about that,
you know where to find me. However, things that we need to know about
Melchizedek is that he was the King of Righteousness, as his
name translates, and the King of Peace, the King of Salem.
From his titles, both King of Righteousness and Peace, there
appears to be a paradox. How is it that Righteousness
and Peace meet in one? We deserve wrath for our sins,
except we have Righteousness and Peace meeting in one, and
that's only through atonement. Melchizedek was the priest of
God most high, atoning and interceding for believers before Moses and
the law were given. So what does it mean that Christ
is a priest after the order of Melchizedek? The rest of Hebrews goes on to
make this argument. But it means that Christ belongs
to a priesthood whose intercession is prior to faith and prior to
the law because it's an eternal order. This intercession is for
all time past and all time future. So if you're wondering what that
means for you, if you believe in Christ, and you've trusted
him with your life, it means that he's been interceding for
you in that order for all of time. Quite frankly, so long
as he has been, and so long as he will ever be, Christ will
be the high priest, our high priest. Christ, the I am, is
our high priest. There exists no greater hope
for weary sinners such as ourselves, and may he be glorified it forever
and ever. So, with such great hope, what
do we do now? How then shall we live? But let's
go back to the very beginning of the passage, as promised.
The writer of Hebrews reveals his own purpose he has in mind
for the reader of the passage, and in this we find our application. So back to verses 11 and 12.
And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness
to have this full assurance of hope until the end, so that you
may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and
patience inherit the promises. So to change our hearts, the
logical flow of this passage is this. We are gonna show earnestness
of faith in Jesus, our doubly confirmed anchor and hope, so
that we can be imitators of Abraham, the archetype of faith for Christians. The next four chapters of Hebrews
expand on the hope sworn that we have in Christ, speaking of
his high priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, the better
covenant, the law being a shadow of the coming reality and the
sacrifice being once for all. And then the hall of faith in
chapter 11, as it's called, gives us more examples of faith to
imitate, showing their earnestness for the hope they had in Christ.
And Abraham makes that list along with many others. If we only
seek to emulate the hall of faith's exact circumstances and decisions,
we're missing the point because it's not about them. The timeless
catholicity of the church, that was a $2 word, catholicity of
the church, from the Old Testament saints to the new, is a unity
that depends upon the shared hope in Jesus as our high priest,
who lives to intercede for us on the merit of his own blood
and righteous life. This hope is as sure as God's
existence as the I am. And if we share their hope, then
we will imitate their faith in action. And more than just Hebrews
11, you can read about the saints from the time of the apostles
on that loved Christ unto their death with their life. So to
renew our minds, what's the alternative to this? What happens if we fall
flat in our earnestness? Being sluggish, that's what the
writer says. It says being sluggish. Being sluggish in our faith and
subsequently our practice. This unfortunately describes
us far too often. So being sluggish is the result
of the hope of the gospel falling out of the center point of a
Christian's life. But you know that. But for those
of you who are doers, those who like, I'd say ones who tend toward
practice over faith or theology, for the doers, this is a reminder
that theology is the important underpinning of our doing. We
cannot create self-sustaining little farms of good works. We
will forget the why and what we are doing. And if you lose
sight for whom you are doing, ask yourself, what motivation
has taken its place? Am I serving God or am I doing
good for myself? And for those of us who aren't
doers by nature, perhaps thinkers, a robust faith in the hope to
which God has called us in Christ should drive your doing. So if
you're not a doer, as well as a thinker and a believer, you
should be. If you say you believe and hold
these truths dear, but are not obeying, how certain are you
that you truly believe? You might, but you wouldn't know
from your works. Sluggishness will prove how shallow
these beliefs might be. So therefore, we should repent
of our sluggishness, either to hope in Christ as our high priest,
or to better obey him as Lord. And may God cleanse us of sin
and purge disobedience from our hearts in that manner. And finally,
how do we live out our faith further? Ephesians 1.3 tells
us that we have every spiritual blessing through Jesus Christ.
There is no sub-tier of Christian. There is no such thing as a lower
class of Christian. We have everything we need in
Christ. Once we have Christ, the anchor, we have everything
we could ever ask or dream to have. So verse 12 gives us a
picture of how we must live. Coupled together with faith is
patience. With both faith and patience, we hold fast to inherit
the same promises as Abraham, all found in Christ. So what
exactly does the writer mean by patience? Patience is the
outworking of faith over time. Faith plus time. It is a specific
trust in God's timing for the fulfillment of his promises.
Patience is a continual act. of faith over time. It is a trust
that regulates and protects our faith in Christ over the long
haul. It keeps us from going after the newest fad or the latest
thing that we can possibly put our hope in. It protects us from
those things. It submits to God's sovereignty and calls him good.
So like Abraham, who patiently waited, we will also obtain the
promises of our future glory, resurrection, and rest in Christ. Many of us are restless, waiting
for the next thing, waiting for our present toil to end. Those things never truly end
in this life necessarily, but in a very real sense, they do
end in Christ, and they will consummate to a better rest when
the time comes. As we imitate Abraham's faith,
we also become models of imitation for those around us, particularly
our children. For those of you who are concerned
about the spiritual well-being of the next generation, have
you examined your own faith? Is it worth imitating? Surely
there is repentance for all of us needed in this arena as well.
And as I end, I address those who sit here amid hardship. The
last thing you may want to hear from a pulpit during your suffering
is to just trust God and be more patient. That's aggravating. No one wants a a self-help from
a pulpit. You don't want a Band-Aid on
your punctured artery. You need real hope. And my point is not to give you
a Band-Aid. My message is this. Though you
suffer greatly, there is a hope in Christ greater than your pain.
The more uncertainty we face in questions of our faith and
future, the steadfastness of the anchor remains. He is constant. When winds and waves arise, when
the trouble of life comes, when our sins threaten to put us under,
as we sang in our song today, Christ is sure and steady anchor,
not picked by accident. The song proclaims, deeper still
goes the anchor, and it shall never be removed. Receive Christ
and believe on him as your one hope in life and death. Amen. Please pray with me. Dear Heavenly
Father, we confess that you are a holy God, you are the I am,
and we acknowledge the glory that you gain from swearing on
yourself in love to assure us of your promises. Lord, we confess
that we have often abandoned our assurance that we gain through
Christ. Lord, I pray that you would gently
lead us back to him. Lord, we have nothing without
him. And Lord, the guarantee you've given us is in your oath,
but you also guarantee it by sending your seal of the Holy
Spirit upon us. Lord, I pray that he would teach
us and he would guide us into all truth. For your word is truth. And we ask these things in your
precious and holy name. Amen.
Word and Oath
| Sermon ID | 15201931226398 |
| Duration | 47:32 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Hebrews 6:11-20 |
| Language | English |
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