Go with me, if you would, back
to Hebrews 6. Last Sunday, we looked at the
first 12 verses in our Bible study. We were in Hebrews for
the Bible study and the subject of it was obedience to the Word
of God. Obeying what our Lord has said
and growing in the grace of it, growing in the knowledge of it,
bearing spiritual fruit. He said in verse 7, if you look
at Hebrews 6 verse 7, he gave an illustration here. He said,
For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon
it, and bringeth forth herbs, meat for them by whom it is dressed,
receiveth blessing from God." Those herbs come up, it bears
fruit. The Lord sends His blessing on
it and the response is that spiritual fruit. He said in verse 10, For
God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love which
you have showed toward His name. in that you have ministered to
the saints and do minister. And we ended last Sunday with
verse 12 where he said that you be not slothful, lazy, but followers
of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. What he's saying is press toward
the mark. That's what Paul kept saying.
Press toward the mark with faith, with patience. I love that. If
you think about that, he's saying press with patience. Press toward
the mark with faith, with patience, expecting to receive what God
has promised you. And he made it clear throughout
the first 12 verses, we are not working our way to this promise
or this reward. We're not earning it. He is through
this encouraging good works. He's encouraging good works. But he said we're not trying
to earn any reward. God promised it to us. If you
look at the end of verse 12, The promises, I have a center
reference in my Bible to Galatians 3. Look with me over there at
Galatians 3. Galatians 3 verse 18. For if the inheritance be of
the law, it is no more of promise. But God gave it to Abraham by
promise. By promise. Now, there are seven
glorious facts that we're going to look at in the text tonight
from verses 13 to the end of the chapter there in Hebrews
6. When I read down through those
verses and I saw these seven wonderful, wonderful, glorious
things. I thought, what more can He say
than to you He had said? What more could He say than this
right here? You talk about drive a nail. You talk about give assurance. I mean, if you as a believer
would love assurance in the work of Christ, I can't imagine a
better portion of Scripture than this. I cannot imagine. Go with
me back over to Hebrews 6. We're going to look at these
seven glorious facts. Now, he is talking right here
about inheriting promises that God made to Abraham and his seed. Alright? And he told us in Galatians
3 that his seed is Christ. You remember that? Which is Christ.
Abraham and his seed. He didn't say seeds. He said
seed, which is Christ. This promise is to every soul
in Christ. The elect are the elect in Christ. God the Father said, I choose
my Son. We are chosen in Him. Right? So this is to every soul that
is in Christ. Verse 13 says, For when God made
promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he
swear by himself. Now I'm about to say something
that I don't ever say. I'm not boasting in that. I, in humility, in lowliness, beg
the Lord to allow me to not ever say this. We should never say
this phrase. Let's not ever say this phrase.
The reason is because there's no vow that we could ever keep. No vow. God will not hold us
guiltless in a vow. He said, if you make a vow, defer
not to pay it. And we should never say this. Never, never. But Christ said,
oh, how glorious this is to know that Christ said this. He said, I make this promise
to you. And he said, I swear to God, I'll keep it. I swear to God, I'll keep it. He said, I make this promise
in the eyes and the ears of God Almighty. I make a vow to God,
I'll keep it. Is that not glorious? Glorious. Back in the good old days, The
good old days. Men used to be men. There was some amount of honor
and some amount of respect left in this world. And back in those
good old days, a man was only as good as his word. Isn't that
right? A man was as good as his word.
Two men would come to some kind of agreement One would want to
sell something to another one, and they'd come to some kind
of agreement, and the one would say, you want me to put something
down on it? And he'd say, nope. Your word
is good enough for me. Isn't that right? I'll take your
word for it. Christ said, I give you my word. I give you my word. I give you
the promise of my word. And I swear to the God of heaven
on it. I swear. Verse 13 says, For when
God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no
greater, he swear by himself. That's the first amazing thing.
That's the first amazing thing. Now here's the second. Verse
14 says, saying, surely blessing, I will bless thee and multiplying,
I will multiply thee. He made his promise. He swore
to God on it. And the promise was, I'm going
to bless you. I'm going to bless you. Abraham was a sinner. Abraham
was an idol worshiper until he was 75 years old. For the first
75 years of his life, he worshipped idols. He lied on more than one occasion. He told the enemies that his
wife was his sister so they wouldn't kill him. God promised him a son. He promised
him an heir, a seed. Abraham got tired of waiting.
He had his own son. God said, he's not it. I made
a promise to you. I'll keep it. I will keep it. Abraham is known for his faith.
The truth is there was no faith of Abraham. If you look at his
life, he said, you know, you tell him you're my sister. That's
not faith. He said, well, I guess I'll have
my own son. That's not faith. There was no faith of Abraham.
The only faith he had was the faith God gave him. The faith
God put in him. The faith God performed in him. And because of God's doing, because
God gave it and God performed it, because of God's doing, God
said, I'm going to bless you. Because of everything I've done,
I'm going to bless you. That's amazing. That is absolutely
amazing. For when God made promise to
Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself,
saying, Surely, blessing, I will bless thee, and multiplying,
I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise." God gave him a promised son.
Verse 16, For men verily swear by the greater, and an oath for
confirmation is to them an end of all strife. If two men want
to agree on something, they want to come to some kind of agreement,
and they don't want to base it on a man's word is his bond,
if they want something more secure than that, they sign a contract. Isn't that right? They sign a
contract. After they sign a contract, if
one of them is not holding up his end of the deal, the other
one can take him to court. And the judge will say to the
one who's not holding up his end of the deal, is that your
signature? Yes, your honor, it is. Then
you have to make the payment. That settles it. That's all there
is to it. Verse 16 says, For men verily
swear by the greater, and in oath for confirmation is to them
an end of all strife. That settles it. Verse 17, wherein
God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise,
God desiring more abundantly to prove to His people, the heirs
of promise, desiring to absolutely prove to believers, And this
right here is the third glorious fact, verse 17, wherein God,
willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the
immutability of His counsel. Immutability means cannot change,
cannot, does not change. To prove the fact that He cannot
change, once He decrees something, once He promises something, Once
it settled in His heart, which we know every work and every
purpose was before the foundation of the world, right? As soon
as they were, not one of them could be changed. Not one of
them. Not one purpose, not one promise
has ever changed. Christ made a promise and He
swore to God. The promise was, I'm going to
bless you. And that promise can never be
changed. Never. Turn with me over to Malachi
3, last book in the Old Testament. Malachi 3. Verse 6 says, For I am the LORD, I change not,
that is the reason you sons of Jacob are not concerned. That's the reason. I change not. That's your hope. I change not. Look over at Romans
11. Romans 11. Verse 29 says, For the gifts and calling of
God are without repentance, he does not change his mind. Isn't that glorious? He does
not change his mind. Will not ever. He will not ever. Now go with me back to our text,
Hebrews 6. Here's the fourth glorious fact. Hebrews 6 verse 17 says, Wherein
God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise
the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath. Not only did Christ swear His
promise to God Almighty, He swore it to God Almighty. But not only
did He do that, in order to prove that that promise cannot change,
He also bound Himself to an oath. Also. He made himself sign a
contract. He is good on his word. His word shall stand, not one
word shall fail. But to prove to his people the
immutability of his word, the unchangeability of his promise,
he also signed a contract. He said, I swear and I sign. He signed it with his own blood. He signed it with his own blood.
Do you see the center reference for the word confirmed there
in verse 17? You see that? It says, interposed
himself by. You see that? Interposed himself. We're just saying, come thou
found. That song says, Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering
from the fold of God, he to rescue me from danger, interposed his
precious blood. The word interposed means to
place or insert between one thing and another. It means to intervene. to intercede, to step in, to
involve oneself, to interfere, to intrude, to butt in, to barge
in, to muscle in. Don't you love that? He intruded. He muscled in. He to rescue me from danger,
forced His precious blood between me and that danger. He swore
to God, saying, I'm going to bless you. He cannot change His
promise. With His promise, He signed a
contract with His own blood. Here's the fifth glorious fact.
Verse 18 says, that by two immutable, unchangeable things. That's his
promise and his contract. That by two immutable things
in which it was impossible for God to lie. What a glorious fact. Not only did he swear to God,
not only did he sign a contract, it's impossible for God to lie. Go back just a few pages to Titus
1. Titus 1 verse 1 says, Paul, a
servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to
the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth
which is after godliness, in hope of eternal life which God
that cannot lie promised before the world began. He cannot lie. He cannot lie. Back in the text, Hebrews 6, it says in verse 18, that by
two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to
lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope set before us, those of us who have fled
to Christ for refuge, refuge from sin, refuge from the curse
of the law, refuge from judgment, refuge from eternal condemnation. Does that ever sink in? We have
been spared from eternal condemnation, eternal wrath and punishment,
fire, Whatever that fire means, it won't be consumed. It's the
worm that dieth not. We've been spared eternal condemnation. And this is the sixth glorious
fact. God has given us, those who have
fled to Christ, He said, a strong consolation. A strong consolation. Verse 19 says, Which hope we
have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. This hope can't be broken. Did you ever get your hopes up
only to have them smashed? Has that ever happened to you?
Oh, so hopeful. This hope can't be smashed. It can't be broken. It can't drift away like a boat
just drifts away. He said it's an anchor of the
soul. It can't slip. Its footing is sure and steadfast
because this hope that we have, this expected anticipation, this
strong consolation This anchor of the soul, sure and steadfast,
is because of this seventh glorious fact. Alright, the last one.
Verse 19 says, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul,
both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within
the veil, whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus
made a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." You
know what that seventh glorious fact is saying? Christ has already
finished the transaction with God for us. He has already finished
the transaction. It is done. The great transaction
is done. The promise that Christ made
has already been fulfilled. The contract that He signed has already
been stamped. paid in full. The hope that He's
given us of Him interceding for us, interposing His precious
blood, that hope is so sure and steadfast because the transaction
is already over. It's already over. Look with
me at Romans 8. I'm going to wrap this up. Romans 8 verse 34 says, Who is
he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather
that is risen again, who is even at, right now, who is even at
the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us. He is already there right now
making intercession for us. Last one, go to Hebrews 4. Hebrews 4 verse 14, seeing then
that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens. He's already passed into the
heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Christ, our text said, is the
forerunner. You know, when John the Baptist
came, when the message of Christ crucified came to this earth,
God sent a forerunner to go out in front. Isn't that right? And
prepare the way. And that was John. Well, when
it comes to this issue of dealing with God Almighty over our sin,
Christ is our forerunner. He went in before us. We're all going in. That veil
has been ripped and all of God's people are welcome in. But He
went in first. The high priest offered everything
God required, completely satisfied God Almighty. If the Lord is
willing, next week we'll look at Melchizedek. But our forerunner,
Christ Himself, has already entered in and made intercession for
us. And He still, right now, makes
intercession for us. Isn't that wonderful? Wonderful. Thanks be to God. Thanks be to
God. Let's all stand together.