Well, we come to the passage
that I mentioned earlier, the second half of Hebrews, chapter
six, and I've called this Those Who Inherit the Promises, and
that's there at the end of verse 12. Through faith and patience
inherit the promises. God's purpose in Hebrews, as
I keep trying to stress, God's purpose in Hebrews, and indeed
the whole scripture, but especially in this book, is to confirm the
accomplishment of salvation from sin in our Lord Jesus Christ,
and the certainty, the certainty of the eternal abode of the people
of God in him, in that kingdom of God. Almighty God, Manifest
in his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Made known in his Son. How can
we know God? Look to Christ. Almighty God,
manifest in his Son, has done everything that is necessary.
He has done everything to accomplish the salvation of his people.
He was foreshadowed in Old Testament types throughout the Old Testament.
What's it about? Jesus said, these scriptures,
they are they that speak of me. Beginning at Moses and the prophets
to the disciples on the Emmaus road, he expounded to them in
all the scriptures the things concerning himself. He was foreshadowed
in Old Testament types. in pictures in the Old Testament,
in the law, the law of Moses, in the priesthood, the temple,
the sacrifices, all of these things. But every single one
of them was fulfilled and ended when he came. God became man. God incarnate. When he was obedient
as a man, when God, the second person of the Trinity, God, became
obedient to his heavenly Father as a man, he was limited for
a little while, as Hebrews 2 told us, for a little while, made
lower, a little lower than the angels. In his incarnation, he
was obedient to his Father. He was obedient in everything. and ultimately unto death. What
death? Even the death of the cross.
That cursed, shameful death of the Roman Empire. That cursed
death reserved for the worst of criminals. He was obedient
unto death, the death of the cross. But it was not possible
that death was able to hold him. And he rose again from the dead.
He rose to newness of life. All of it was fulfilled and ended. All the Old Testament times were
ended in his incarnation, becoming man, in his obedience, in all
of these things. And all who by faith apprehended
the truth. In Old Testament times, all who
by faith apprehended the truth saw the reality of Christ. beyond
the Old Testament patterns. I am sure that Abraham, Jesus
said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day and was glad. I am sure
that Moses, with all the law, saw beyond it to Christ, and
I'm sure he preached Christ. They all saw beyond these things.
When Abel sacrificed his lamb, long before the era of the Old
Testament law, the Mosaic law, He looked to Christ, all who
by faith apprehended the truth of the reality of Christ, beyond
those patterns. And when we get to Hebrews chapter
11, of course, that's the faith gallery, where we'll see many,
many of them listed there, of their era, looking beyond to
the things of Christ. They looked for his coming. They
trusted. in the eternal redemption that
God had promised in him. They rested in his promise of
eternal bliss. As Hebrews 11 says, as some of
them were sown in two, they were cruelly treated, yet they looked
for that promise of eternal bliss in the celestial city, for they
looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
In Hebrews, we see the preeminence of Christ. It shows us, we saw
in the first couple of chapters, he is superior to the angels. He is superior to Abraham and
Moses and the patriarchs. He is superior to the prophets,
for he is the ultimate prophet, the bringer of the word of God
from heaven. He is superior to the priests of the Aaronic and
the Levitical era, because he is a priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek, of which we'll learn more later. He is
superior to all of the kings, for he is our prophet, priest,
and king, and he is king of kings and lord of lords. Christ is
all and in all. That's what Colossians 3 tells
us. In Hebrews, professing believers are warned. We've seen that in
recent weeks. They're warned about unbelief because a promise
was made that they would enter the symbolical rest of the land
of Canaan, the promised land. But most of them didn't enter
in. Why not? They could not enter in. What
was it that kept them out? It was unbelief. They could not
enter in because of unbelief. Hebrews 3 verse 9, I think it
is. We're warned about unbelief. were warned about unbelief. Unbelief
is what will keep you out of the promise of God, that eternal
kingdom. Unbelief is what will keep you
out. Failing to attain the goal, just as those Israelites failed
to attain the goal of the promised land rest because of unbelief. They didn't believe God. It were
also warned, as we saw last week, to beware of giving an outward
appearance of discipleship, but proving to be false. And we're
exhorted to press on diligently to lay hold of what it says in
verse 11 of chapter 6, of the full assurance of hope unto the
end. We're told diligently, press
on to lay hold of the full assurance of hope to the end. So in the
second half of Hebrews chapter 6, I've got three points. the
goal of faith, the certainty of the promise, and the believing
soul's anchor, all in these last few verses. So the goal of faith,
verse 11, we desire that every one of you do show the same diligence
unto the full assurance of hope unto the end. Is that not the
goal of faith? It's that hope at the end, that
hope of eternal glory. He says give diligence. Give
diligence in what? Verse 9, the things that accomplish
salvation. What are those? Verse 10, your
work and labor of love. It's perfectly clear. Give diligence
in your work and labor of love, that you inherit that You grasp
that full assurance of hope unto the end. What is it? It's a work
of faith. A work of faith. What must we
do? Ask the Jews of Jesus in John
chapter 6, that we do the work of God and therefore do that
which pleases him and be acceptable to him. And Jesus said to them,
this is the work of God. that you believe on him whom
he has sent. The work of faith is to trust
Christ. How do you do that work? It's
entirely the work of God. You rest in him. You rest in
him. You don't walk out on it. Evident
belief of gospel truth is what is called for. Diligence to believe
it, to be committed to it, to grow in it, and also minister
to the saints, selfless help to the saints, selfless help
to God's people in need. What constrains that help to
from one child of God to another. What is it? Is it the law of
God? Is it the law of Moses, as they say, the believer's rule
of life? No, absolutely not. The law of
Moses is not the believer's rule of life. Christ is the believer's
rule of life. What is it that constrains the
right behavior of one to another? scripture tells us. You won't
find a verse that tells you that the law of Moses is the believer's
rule of life, but you will find a verse that tells you that it
is the love of Christ that constrains his people. The marks of true
faith of God's elect are clear. Paul was clear when he wrote
to the Thessalonians. In 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 13,
he said, How do I know? Through sanctification of the
Spirit, I can see you're clearly set apart, committed to Christ,
and belief of the truth. When you heard the Gospel, you
knew that that was the Gospel of God. That was the faith of
God's elect that was imparted. You believed it, you trusted.
So it's a life of faith in Christ. It's a life of trust in God,
which confirms the believer's confidence. What's the confidence?
The full assurance of hope to the end, in verse 11. That full
assurance of attaining the end goal. The realization of the
promises God has made. Look there in verse 12, that
ye be not slothful, diligent. but followers of them who through
faith and patience inherit the promises. The promises? Which
promises? The promises made by God to his
elect multitude. The people of God, that multitude
that no man can number, the elect of God, that the world of religion
and the world in general hates that concept, but it's true.
Those chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world,
A multitude that no man can number were united with Christ. They were united in a way that
marriage portrays so clearly. They were united with Christ
from before the beginning of time. I'm not making this up,
you can see scriptures that say this clearly. 2 Timothy chapter
1 verse 9 says exactly that. His people are saved from sin's
curse in him their substitute coming to pay the penalty of
their sin to the offended law of God in his death and his shed
blood. were fitted for heaven, made
meet, as it says, made fit for heaven by him. How? 2 Corinthians
5, 21. For God made him, his son, who
knew no sin, to be sin for us, to take our sin and pay its debt. Why? That we, his people, for
whom he died, might be made the righteousness of God in him,
in the justice, the eternal justice of God, If you're resting in
Christ, if you're trusting in him, if you're believing in him,
you are the righteousness of God in him. What must you have
in order to see God? Pursue holiness, we read later
on in this very epistle. He said, you must have holiness.
Without it, no man shall see the Lord. But in the Lord Jesus
Christ, we are made the righteousness of God in him. Not through your
own efforts to become righteous. Our righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. He has clothed his people with
the garments of salvation, and thus we rejoice. We're assured
of eternal communion with God and with his redeemed church.
We're all one body in Christ. One body. He is the head, but
all of his people are that body. This is the hope unto the end. And this hope is more certain. You know, in British aristocracy,
you have the duke of somewhere or other will have an heir, usually
the oldest son, who is waiting for when his father dies and
he will inherit the dukedom. And he can be pretty certain
that's going to happen unless an accident befalls him, unless
some unpleasant disease takes him over. He's got a title waiting
there and nothing will stop it apart from the things in this
life that stop things like that. But for the child of God, there's
a promise, there's a hope unto the end that is more certain
than an heir inheriting a title. Which hope, it says, in Colossians
1 verse 5, we're talking about this hope unto the end, which
hope is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the
word of the truth of the gospel. It's certain. It's non-negotiable. It cannot be changed. It makes
believers, true believers, think and act and speak differently
to the unbelieving world. And the unbelieving world might
notice. And the Apostle Peter says in 1 Peter 3.15, be ready
always. to give a reason to anyone who asks you about the hope that
is evidently in you. Clearly, you have a hope that
when you leave this life, you go straight into the presence
of the living God. Why? What is it that gives you
that hope? What is it? Be ready to give a reason to
anyone who asks you, because we have solid Perfectly good
reasons, we believe it on the basis of the truth of God. We
think differently about life and mortality, about ambition
and service, about pleasures and trials. We're not forever
congratulating ourselves on what we've done. We're looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. To unbelieving
humanity, death is a terror. But to Christ's people, it is
the entrance into the promised kingdom. This is our hope. This is our hope. And then secondly,
here's my second point. the certainty of promise, in
verse 12, that ye be not slothful. He said, believe, go on, go on
serving, committed to God, that ye be not slothful, but followers
of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
Who might he be referring to? Well, I think for one, not exclusively,
but I'm pretty sure he's referring to the ones he's gonna list when
we get to Hebrews 11. He's gonna list, because he's
particularly writing to Jewish believers, Hebrew believers,
and they will be familiar with the Old Testament saints, and
he's saying, be followers of them, not in the outward patterns
that they observed, but in what their faith looked to. Through
faith and patience, they've inherited the promises, whatever this world
did to them. This will remind the Hebrews,
of the believing ancestors who through faith and patience inherited. They passed out of this life
into that realization of their eternal state. Follow their example
of faith. Follow their confident trust
in God, despite satanic, worldly opposition in this life, because
it's all listed there in Hebrews 11. In verses 13 to 18 of this
passage, we're shown how certain the hope and the promise of heaven
is. Let me just read them again.
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. For men
verily swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation
is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel,
confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things, in which
it was impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation. who have fled for refuge to lay
hold upon the hope set before us. We're shown here the certainty
of the hope and the promise that God has made. Is heaven just
a maybe aspiration? You know, oh, we've got some
big event taking place at such and such a time. Oh, I hope the
weather will be nice, but we've no certainty that it will. Have
we, really? We haven't. No, it's the promise
of Almighty God concerning our eternal abode, our eternal destiny. What God promised to Abraham,
we read it right at the start. It was in... the situation was
After years and years of waiting and hearing the promise of God,
Abraham and Sarah had finally had a son who was their own.
Abraham had an earlier son, Ishmael, by the servant woman. But now
this was by Sarah. This was the seed of promise.
And this was Isaac. This was their only Isaac. There
was only one. And God had promised that the
world, his people, would be blessed in the seed of Abraham. And so
he says to him, when he's got this son, he says, right, I want
you to go and sacrifice him. And you know, I'm sure Abraham
thought, this is the one that God's promised. This is the one
who's going to redeem us from the curse of the law. And he
took him, and was willing to slay him. And he bound him on
the altar with ropes, and got his knife, and was ready to slay
him. And the angel cried, don't touch
him, Abraham. I now see that you know the truth. You believe me. You see the truth
as it is. And so they're coming back down
the mountain. Isaac had already asked, where's
the ram? the lamb for an offering, and
Abraham had said those well-known words, God will provide himself
a sacrifice. And he did. There was a ram caught
up in the thicket, which was a picture of Christ. And Isaac,
in whom the seed would come, was let loose. And so in verse
15 of Genesis 22, God reiterates his promise. The angel of the
Lord, who's that? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
the word of God. The angel of the Lord is the
Lord Jesus Christ speaking to Abraham in this context. He called
to Abraham out of heaven the second time. He confirmed it
and said, I've sworn by myself, saith the Lord. See, it's the
Lord speaking, isn't it? The angel of the Lord is the
Lord speaking. For because thou hast done this thing and hast
not withheld thy son, thine only, I won't read the italics because
they're not there. That in blessing I will bless
thee and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars
of heaven and as the sand which is upon the seashore. You won't
be able to count it, he said. You won't be able to count it.
And in thy seed, the one who would come, in thy seed, which
would be Christ when he would come in due course. This angel
of the Lord would come, that seed, in thy seed shall all the
nations of the earth be blessed. And the elect of God is a multitude
which no man can number of every tribe and tongue and kindred. This is the promise of Almighty
God. So it's certain. What God promised
to Abraham is certain. It's certain. It's underlined
in Galatians chapter 3, that promise. Galatians chapter 3
verse 14, that the blessing of Abraham, the promise made to
Abraham, might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. That we
might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brethren,
I speak after the manner of men, though it be but a man's covenant. Yet, if it be confirmed, no man
disannulleth or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as
of many, but as of one. And to thy seed? which is Christ. Does it not show you how important
the accuracy of scripture is? You might ask, if you're new
to this, you might ask, why do we still use this King James
Version? Because the translators stuck more accurately than anyone
ever since to the original intent of the language. People would
say, seeds, seed, what does it matter? Oh, it matters a lot.
To thy seed, which is Christ. And verse 29 of that same chapter
three of Galatians, if ye be Christ's, if you're believing
in him, if you're trusting him, if you're amongst that number
that he's redeemed from the law's curse, then you are Abraham's
seed, even though you're not biologically descended from him,
you have the same faith, and so you're heirs according to
the promise. Heirs of what? Heirs of the kingdom
of God, with Abraham. Because God is who he is, this
promise can be relied upon. He's immutable. He doesn't change. That's what immutable means.
He doesn't change. In Malachi chapter 3 verse 6,
the last book of the Old Testament, he says, I am the Lord. I change not. We change all the
time. He says, because he changes not,
because he's immutable, therefore ye sons of Jacob, therefore ye
sons of that line from Abraham, you're not consumed. you go on
and will go on into glory. As such, because he's God who
cannot lie, he doesn't need to swear a promise, but God condescends
to our level of understanding. to show us how certain it is.
In verse 16, men verily swear by something greater, and an
oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. So, one
person makes a promise to another, or one person enters into a covenant
with another, into a legal contract with another, And they say, well,
how do I know that you're going to keep it? Because men tend
to be liars and men tend always to dodge their responsibilities.
How are you going to keep it? Ah, an oath, an oath, a promise,
an oath ends all strife. The promise ends all strife.
The questions about a promise. So people swear an oath by something
greater. So in a court of law, for example,
a witness comes to give evidence. How do we know that he's telling
the truth? It's abused no end in these days,
but not many years ago it was the case that if you stood in
the witness dock in a court of law and the usher of the court
put the Bible in your hand, that's something greater, isn't it?
That's the word of God. You're saying to that court,
to that judge, to that jury, you're saying that as God Almighty,
who sees everything, looks down on me in this moment, I promise
by that fact that God, whose word I have in my hand, who's
looking down on me now, that I will tell the whole truth and
nothing but the truth. That's an oath. That's what they
did. Nothing, though, is greater than
God. So what's God going to swear
by? He can't swear by a Bible in a court of law, so he swears
by himself. He swears by himself. God, by
two immutable things, verse 18. What are the two immutable things?
His decree of salvation, and his oath that it will not fail.
They're two immutable things. His decree of salvation cannot
fail, and his oath that he will keep it will not fail. Look what
he's decreed. You say, give me a summary. Right,
turn to Romans 8, verse 28. Romans 8 and verse 28. Here Paul
is listing these things to do with the the decree of salvation
of God. And if God has decreed it, God
doesn't change. So how can it possibly change?
We know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. God is unchangeable. If he has
a purpose, it is an unchangeable purpose. For whom he did foreknow,
in everlasting electing love, for whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of his
Son. When we shall see him, we shall
be like him, says John, for we shall see him as he is in heaven.
That he might be the firstborn, the Son might be the firstborn,
among many brethren, of whom you, if you believe, are amongst
them. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, And whom
he called, them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. You say, well, I'm not glorified
yet. In the reckoning of God, you are. In the reckoning of
God, you are. Who do you think John saw when
he looked in Revelation 19, verse one, and he said, I saw much
people in heaven. If you're one who believes the
Lord Jesus Christ, I believe he saw you and me, because I
believe we're already there out of this realm of time. You say,
oh, that's stretching things a bit. Well, we'll see. God chose
a multitude in love. He united them. with himself,
with God, in the person of his son. He redeemed them, he paid
the price of their release, their liberty from the curse of sin,
and he guaranteed their eternal abode. And look what it says
in verse 18, by two immutable things in which it was impossible
for God to lie. God cannot lie Titus says the
same Paul writing to Titus in the hope of eternal life Which
God that cannot lie promised before the world began God cannot
lie for he's unchangeable so the believers consolation and
assurance of heavenly certainty is not found in how you feel
today or what you've experienced today or the wonderful thrilling
meeting you've just been to or a the material blessing you've
just had. No, it's not found in that. It's
not found in personal worth. It's not found in the things
you do to sanctify yourself. It isn't even found in your faith. Heavenly certainty is not even
found in your faith. It's found in the object of your
faith. God our Savior, our Lord Jesus
Christ, revealed to his people in his word, being worthy of
eternal condemnation as his people, as sinners, by faith, we who
believe Christ. Look what it says at the end
of verse 18, what we sang in that hymn. We fled for refuge
to lay hold on the hope that is before us. We fled for refuge. We are guilty. We are guilty. We are worthy of death and condemnation. But we fled for refuge to lay
hold on the hope set before us. To lay hold on. That means to
grasp it. To grasp it. tightly as if as
if you were if you were to fall off if you were to let go you'd
fall to certain death that's the that's the lay hold on it's
a grasp that would we would hold on to something so we didn't
fall to certain death and the illusion here fled for refuge
is to the cities of refuge listed in the law of Moses they're listed
in well the principles in exodus it's in Numbers, it's in Deuteronomy,
and then the cities themselves, six of them, are actually listed
in Joshua. And they're six real places,
three on one side of the River Jordan and three on the other.
They're Kadesh, they're Shechem, they're Hebron, they're Beza,
Ramoth, and Golan. And their names have names which
resonate with the names of the Lord Jesus Christ. Holy, shoulder
to bear the burden, fellowship, strong place, exaltations. They're all made characters of
God in Christ. And those cities were there so
that when somebody accidentally kills somebody, and the example
given in scripture is that Two men are working in a forest and
cutting trees down, and one swings the axe and the head of the axe
flies off and hits a man and kills him. He didn't intend to
kill him. It was an accident, but nevertheless,
he'd killed someone. And the rest of the law said,
an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And so the relatives
of that one who had died, he'd be called the avenger of blood.
And he would feel it his legal right to go and kill the one
that's killed his brother. And so he'd set after him. But
the one who'd accidentally killed someone was told, you will flee
to the city of refuge. They have fled for refuge to
lay hold upon the hope set before us. They fled to that city. And
in that city, there's an article in the bulletin by Don Faulkner
that I've slightly adapted, but it's still there exactly the
same. They fled to that city and there they would be safe.
They would bring their case before the elders of the city and they'd
say, yes, clearly you are one who is rightly fleeing from what
was an accidental crime. And it's the same idea here,
fled for refuge. And so we sang, how firm a foundation,
ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent
word. What more can he say than to you, he has said, you who
unto Jesus for refuge have fled. You've fled to Jesus to lay hold
on the hope that is set before us, that hope of eternal life. All the elect of God, each in
their turn, each in their era, by faith and by patience, inherit
the promises of God, the promises of God who cannot lie, as Jesus
said to that penitent thief on the cross next to him in Luke's
account. This day, you will be with me
in paradise. The moment you leave this time
consciousness, you will be in the eternal presence of God.
That's the hope that is set before his people. And so finally, the
believing soul's anchor, a hope. We have it, verse 19, which hope?
we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and
which enters into that within the veil where the forerunner,
even Jesus, has gone before us, our great High Priest after the
order of Melchizedek. The hope is a certain expectation
of the attainment of God's kingdom of eternal bliss, of his peace
and of his righteousness. Life constantly presents unexpected
surprises and shocks, doesn't it? Everything's going along
fine and then all of a sudden there's some dreadful diagnosis,
there's some dreadful event happens. Issues of life and of death.
of health and of sickness, of prosperity and of hardship, of
happiness and sorrows. All these things are what we
might call the hap of life, the things that happen. But the believer's
hope is not in doubt. The believer's hope is certain.
It's unmovable. like an anchor on a small ship
in a storm. You know, a little ship would
get tossed about in a rough storm, like a cork on a rough sea. But if it's anchored, if it's
anchored to something solid and unmovable, like a rock with the
anchor clasped onto that solid rock, it's safe. The storm can do what it wants,
but it will not move that ship away from that anchorage. and
this hope we have as an anchor of the soul. We have it as an
anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast. It's not going
to let us go. No one can pluck them, said Jesus, out of my Father's
hand. God will carry his people into
the holiest of all. all within the veil. It says
there, entereth into that within the veil. What veil is it speaking
about? It's speaking about the temple
veil that separated the people from the holiest of all, the
holiest place in the temple. And the high priest alone was
allowed to go into that holiest place. When he'd made sacrifice
for his own sin and then he took the the offering that was specified
for the Day of Atonement, into that holiest of all. And the
people watched, and when Christ died on the cross of Calvary,
that veil of the temple was literally torn from top to bottom. The
way was opened up for the people of God, with Him, the forerunner,
going in. What with? Animal blood? No,
with His own blood, as we'll see in later chapters of Hebrews.
He went in as the forerunner before us, This hope is an anchor
for the soul in this storm-tossed sea of life, in this world of
time and of sin and of evil. But we have this hope as an anchor
for the soul. This certainty is an anchor for
the soul. It's like the nail in a sure
place that Isaiah speaks of. He shall be for a glorious throne
to his father's house. They shall hang upon him all
the glory of his father's house. It's the same idea, an anchor
for the soul. Our forerunner is Jesus, the
man. Our God become man, God incarnate,
our forerunner as a man has entered into that glorious abode through
the way he made when his blood was shed and the temple veil
was symbolically torn from top to bottom, opening it up. He,
our great mediator, Our great high priest, because that's what
a priest is, one God and one mediator between God and man,
the man Christ Jesus. Our great mediator, who is a
high priest, not after the order of Levi or of Aaron. but a high
priest after the order of Melchizedek, who he wants to tell us a lot
more about in chapter 7. But that has opened up the way,
and at his bidding, and in his perfect timing, we all who believe
him follow and inherit. What does he say? To the sheep
he says, come ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. Do you have this hope
as your soul's anchor in this storm-tossed life, in this world? If you do, rejoice in your rest. If you don't, well, waste no
more time and seek him while he may be found. Today is the
day of salvation, not tomorrow.