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Introduction
Good morning.
Go ahead and open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 6. We’ll be camped out in verses 13-20 today.
We live in a modern age where someone's word really doesn't mean that much.
It's an age of loopholes and broken promises.
Between unfulfilled wedding vows and unfulfilled political promises, we have become skeptics.
Our age is one in which human words are really considered as worth next to nothing.
Back in chapter 5, the author of Hebrews was writing about Jesus as our faithful high priest.
If you will recall, in verse 11 of that chapter he let them know that there was more he wanted to say about it but they audience was too immature to take solid food.
So he begins this digression of thought that goes into how they were still needing milk, like an infant.
They had become dull to the Word and childish in their understanding.
He progressed from warning about this problem of immaturity to, in the beginning of chapter 6, urging them to press on toward spiritual maturity.
And just after this in verses 4 through 8 of chapter 6 he warns them about the dangers of apostasy and falling away.
He moves through this warning of the very real danger for those who have never known Jesus but think they know Him.
Then in verses 9 through 12, he says that for them he has hope for better things.
He has great hope for them, hope for the things accompanying salvation.
Today we get to the final section of this digression and find out why he has this hope for them and why we should also relish this sure and steadfast hope that we have in Christ Jesus, the Son of the Living God.
This is a passage containing a great assurance for believers.
Hebrews 6:13–20 (ESV)
13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself,
14 saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.”
15 And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.
16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.
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,
18 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.
19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,
20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
I. God makes promises.
Almighty God is a God who has made promises.
We can look through the pages of scripture and see promises that He has made.
I need to take a moment and say that not everything you read is a promise.
There are some things in Proverbs, especially that are not necessarily promises but instead are principles.
However, God does make promises.
We’re so used to not believing promises that we may be tempted to not believe God’s promises.
We’re so skeptical when those on the television make very sure and assertive statements that it may often carry over into our spiritual life.
There is a difference between a man made promise and a promise made by God.
Man’s promises have many different reasons for not coming true.
But God’s promises have reasons that guarantee them.
Man, at best makes a promise and hopes it comes true.
God makes a promise already knowing His decreed future.
He knows that it is as good as fulfilled.
Hear this: When God made a promises they were as good as already fulfilled.
Therefore, we can trust Him.
The author uses the example of God’s promise to Abraham so that his readers will hope in God’s promise.
Let’s take a look at it.
For some context to verse 13, we turn to Genesis 22.
As we look, we must ask why is this promise to Abraham the basis for them to have hope?
The allusion here and quote is from back in Genesis 22.
We are going to look at verses 16 through 18.
Genesis 22:16–18 (ESV)
16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son,
17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.
And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,
18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
God makes this promise to Abraham and his offspring.
God’s promise is the basis of our hope.
- His ultimate promise of rescue for His people - Jesus.
This is why it is the basis of our hope because Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of that promise.
II.
God is the guaranteer of His promises.
God makes the promise and He guarantees it by putting His own name on it.
Not only does God make a promise but He gives an oath.
In ancient Israel oaths were very different from the oaths that we see taken today.
They were not contractual as we see them today.
They were sealed not with a signature but with the personal word of the person taking the oath.
God sealed his oath to Abraham with His own word and by His very own name.
There was no one greater for him to take the oath by so He sealed it with Himself.
Have you ever made a promise to your kids and then not been able to keep it?
I remember when we first moved to Illinois.
Javan was not thrilled with leaving his friends right before high school.
He was super bummed.
We moved and I promised him that he would be able to graduate from his new school.
We had moved around a lot and I wanted him to be able to have that stability.
Well, things didn’t work out at the church I was pastoring and we needed to move on.
I had to break that promise.
It doesn’t matter what the circumstances were because it was still a broken promise.
My promise depended on lots of things that were outside of my control.
It depended on choices made by other people, as well as by me.
And I was not able to keep that promise.
And here is where God’s promises differ from our manmade promises.
God’s promises do not depend on our character or our ability.
They don’t depend on what someone else does.
They depend on His faithfulness.
Hear that again:
God’s promises don’t depend on your character but solely on His faithfulness.
Abraham “patiently waited.”
This is the opposite of the sluggishness mentioned back in verse 12 of the previous section.
Remember that the Hebrew Christians who were the first recipients of this book of Hebrews were in danger of giving up.
Their endurance was running low.
They were worn out.
The author wanted them tot know that they would obtain and enjoy all that God had promised if they were diligent in applying themselves to their spiritual lives.
In other words, “don’t give up.”
“Wait for the Lord patiently!”
That means working on your life and your doctrine and watching in faith, not complacently or out of laziness.
He had told them to move on toward maturity and bank on the promise that God had made.
III.
God is the fulfiller of the promises that He has made.
God’s promises are ensured and fulfilled by Him.
Every.
Time.
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