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.