Hebrews chapter 6. The book of Hebrews chapter 6. Here in verse 10. Let's begin
in verse 10. For God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labor of love which you have showed towards
His name, and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. And we desire that every one
of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope
unto the end, that you be not slothful, but followers of them
who through faith and patience inherit the promises 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. 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. We are in 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 a strong consolation
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure
and steadfast, and which entereth unto that within the veil, whether
the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, maiden and high priest,
for ever, after the order of Melchizedek." The apostle begins
here in verse 10, and he reminds these Hebrews that their work
in the Lord is not in vain. For God is not unrighteous to
forget your work and labor of love. The work for the Lord would
not be in vain. He would never forget it. A cup
of cold water in His name, and the Lord would never forget it. Indeed, he tells them here that
he knows the kind of work that they're doing. It's a labor of
love. A work and labor of love. And He knows who this work concerns. Did you notice that? It's the
saints. They minister to the saints.
And He acknowledges their motive. Why are they doing what they're
doing? Towards His name. It's always for His glory, for
His honor, the name of the Lord. They love Him. They do what they
do because of it. Now there in verse 11, He tells
them of His desire. This is one of the reasons. The
Apostle is writing this letter to them to stir them up to be
diligent. He tells them if you're going
to hope until the end, you cannot be slothful. You cannot be sluggish. Hope to the end. Be diligent. Be diligent when you study God's
Word. Be diligent when you pray. Be
diligent in your walk. Be careful. And then in verse
12, he reproves them just a little bit. That you be not sluggish,
he said. All of us know what makes us
sluggish, don't we? When we don't exercise, we get
sluggish. These people had ceased to exercise
as they should. He said, for the time you ought
to be teachers. You have need that one teach
you again. And he says there in the last verse of chapter
5, strong meat. belongs to them who are of full
age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised
to discern both good and evil." So He tells them not to be sluggish.
Don't be sluggish. And He tells them the harm of
being sluggish. There are two graces that sluggishness
hinders. Be not sluggish, but followers
of them who through faith and patience inherit the promise."
Two things that slothfulness, being sluggard and lazy, will
hinder. That is faith and patience. Faith and patience. It hindered
Sarah. Remember Sarah? How impatient
she became and she gave Abraham Hagar to have a child. I wonder
if she didn't get sluggish in her soul. Rebekah, remember Rebekah? She got ahead of the Lord and
wanted to make sure that she secured the promise for Jacob
and she deceived her husband Isaac. And I tell you sluggishness
will hinder our faith and hinder patience. You have need of patience,
he says in the 10th chapter. You have need of patience. After
you have done the will of God, you may inherit or receive the
promise. I told you last week there were
five things to look for when you read the book of Hebrews,
and we see four of them in this chapter. They are in verse 12,
that you be not slothful, but followers of them who through
faith and patience inherit the promises. Faith and patience
and promises. And then he goes on in the last
portion of this verse to talk about hope. And then you read
in the eleventh chapter and you see all about sufferings. Sufferings. And that's the way this begins.
First comes the promise. Then faith lays hold of the promise. Then what happens? We begin to
suffer, don't we? We suffer afflictions. We suffer
persecution. We suffer trials. And then what
does this manifest? What does this produce? Hope.
And what does hope bring? Patience. If we hope for that
which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. So
examine your heart and watch yourself day by day and you will
see these five things. Every child of God has much to
do with these five things. And now he comes to verse 13.
For when God made promise to Abraham, Abraham's life began,
his spiritual life began with a promise from God. You'll read
it in the twelfth chapter of the book of Genesis. The Lord
appeared to Abraham, said the God of glory appeared to him.
And said, Abraham, get out from your father's house. Get out
from your kindred, your own land. And come into a land that I will
show thee. And here's the promise. I will
make of you a great nation. I will bless them that bless
you. I will make your name great.
And you shall be a blessing. I'll bless them that bless you.
And I'll curse them that curses you. And in all the families
of the earth shall be blessed. in you, all the families, all
the nations of the earth. In a nutshell, this promise contained
temporal and physical blessings. It contained spiritual and eternal
blessings. The promise was to an earthly
seed concerning an earthly country. But listen, the promise was also
concerning a spiritual seed and a heavenly country. Have you
ever read the Old Testament and tried to wonder and tried to
figure out and you wondered, is this literal or is this spiritual? Is this talking to the nation
of Israel or is this talking to the church? Sometimes it's
difficult then. But the promise to Abraham concerned
both. It concerned both. And we're
told here in verse 13 that God confirmed this promise to Abraham
with an oath. When God made promise to Abraham,
because he could swear by no greater, he swore by himself,
saying, Surely, blessed, I will bless thee, and multiplying,
I will multiply thee. Now why did God swear to Abraham? That's strange, isn't it? Wasn't
his promise true? Well, of course it's true. God
doesn't have to swear, does He? It wasn't for God's sake that
he swore, but it was for Abraham's sake. Abraham's the one that
needed the oath. Abraham's the one that said,
that needed God to say, Abraham, I'm going to bless you, and I
swear that I'm going to bless you. Now, why did God swear that
He would bless Abraham? Well, let me give you three things.
First of all, because of the greatness of the Promiser, the
God of glory, appeared to Abraham, the God of glory. He said, Abraham,
I'm going to bless you. Boy, I tell you, he didn't need
Abraham, did he? He's the God of glory. But I tell you, Abraham
needed Him. This was such a glorious and
eternal being, and these promises of God originated in the heart
of God's undeserved goodness. To receive a promise of any good
from such an eternal being would have been overwhelming to Abraham's
heart. Can you imagine the eternal God
appearing to you and promising you anything? Man, that's difficult
to believe that. God, the eternal being, would
stoop to you and appear to you? I tell you, if He did that to
me, He better give me an oath. I just can't hardly believe it
for the joy of it. The goodness of such a being's
heart. Abraham needed this oath. Secondly,
because of the greatness of the promise. I will make you a father of many
nations. You shall be the heir of the
world. That's what he tells us in Romans
4. Kings shall come out of your loins. Even the Messiah Himself. came out of Abraham. He was Abraham's
seed. That God would be his exceeding
great reward? That God would prepare him a
heavenly city? And at the last day the Lord
would gather His spiritual children and they would come up to heaven
and sit with Abraham in His kingdom. Now that's just a nutshell of
what He promised the Lord. And can you imagine God making
you such promises? Wouldn't you need an oath attached
to it? I think I would too. And what great promise is, has
God made the children of Abraham? The Scripture says, Know ye therefore
that they which be of faith, the same are the children of
Abraham. If you belong to Christ, you
are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. If
you are Christ by election, if the Father has given you to Him,
If you are Christ by redemption, if He has redeemed you by His
blood, if you are Christ by calling, if you have His life in you,
you belong to Him and therefore you are Abraham's seed and heirs
according to these promises. Everything that was promised
to your father Abraham was promised to you. And you know just as
Abraham's spiritual life began by promise, Ours does too, does
it not? It begins by promise. Listen
to these promises. Listen to some of these. Some
of them apply to some of us and some of them may apply to all
of us. All that the Father gives to me shall come to me. Isn't that a promise? It's a
promise to Him. and all that comes to me I will
in no wise cast him out." How many times have I quoted that
passage to a poor sinner and say, take that promise with you.
And he will promise you that he will never cast you out. Listen
to this promise. Come unto me, and though your
sins be as scarlet, They shall be as white as snow, though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Isn't that a promise?
That's a promise. Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the ungodly man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord,
and he'll have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon. That's promises to every coming
sinner, to every seed of Abraham. And listen to this promise. Blessed
is the man that endeareth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall
receive a crown of life. I don't know really what that
is. It has to do with reigning, I guess. They shall reign in
life by one man, Jesus Christ, which he hath promised to those
who love him. Whatever it is, it's a promise.
And listen to this in James 2.5. He has chosen the poor of this
world, rich in faith, and heirs of a kingdom that fades never
away, which He hath promised to them that love Him." That's
a promise. That's a promise. And listen
to this, while they live in this present world of death and destruction,
full of devils, they have this promise of life eternal. This is the promise that He has
promised us, even life eternal. And while they are going through
this world of devils and temptations and a world that allures them
and all of their sins and all of their fallings and all of
their felons, He has promised them this, that He is working
everything for their good. Now that is promises, ain't it?
That is exceeding great in promises. And He tells us that when we
sin, that if we'll confess our sins, He's faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And on and on we could go. That
when we leave this world, He has promised us without any lapse
of time that we shall be with Him in heaven. And see His smiling
face. And enter into that eternal rest.
And on the last day, That He Himself would come to heaven.
That's from heaven. That's a promise, isn't it? We
had His promise that He was coming the first time. We have a promise
that He's coming again. And when He does, He's going
to awaken those sleeping bodies. And He's going to change them
and fashion them back into His glorious body. That's a promise. And we would sit down with Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. All of these promises. I don't know how many more. They
have tried to count the promises of God's Word, and nobody knows
for sure how many is in there. But they're exceeding great and
precious promises. They're so exceeding, they're
so great, that the Lord says, if I don't swear to them, I don't
know if they can come to believe them or not. Oh, the greatness of the Promiser,
and the greatness of the promises. He had to swear to it. Not for
His sake. but for our sakes. And thirdly,
consider this, the Lord promised with an oath to bless Abraham
and us as the children of Abraham. And He had to give an oath because
of this, because the one He made the promise to. The greatness
of the Promiser, the greatness of the promise, and the feebleness
and the sinfulness of the man He made the promises to. You'd
think this would be amazing if he made these promises to a mighty
angel. But Abraham, you remember who
Abraham was? The Bible calls him an Assyrian.
He was not an Assyrian. He was not an idolater. He was
over there worshiping idols. Remember when he sent his servant
back to get a wife out of his family? Remember what they were
doing? They had all their gods, didn't they? They packed their
gods around with them. Rachel stole some of Laban's
idols, his gods, and made him mad. That's where Abraham came
from. He was just a poor, wretched,
miserable sinner just like you and me. Who are we when we consider
that the everlasting God has made us these precious promises? When you look at yourself, I
know what you think about yourself. Old Bob Dylan. Bless his heart,
he wrote a song, Blinded by the devil, Barned already ruined,
Cold stone dead, As I stepped out of the womb. Now that's not
flattering, is it? That's not flattering, but that's
the way we were. We'd all gone astray. We'd all
turned to his own way. And we know that in our own selves.
We were enemies in our mind by wicked works. The Lord Himself
had to come to us in the power of His Word through His Gospel
and bring us to Himself and forgive us of all our sins. And then
He turns and makes these precious promises to us. And I tell you,
if He didn't give them to us with an oath, He'd have trouble
convincing us of the truth of them, wouldn't He? To me? To me? The everlasting God makes
these promises to me? I wonder if Abraham, when the
Lord first came to him, he was there in idolatry, and the Lord
saved him and forgave his sins and began to tell him about these
promises. I wonder if Abraham sometime looked around and said,
sure, he's talking to me. Bless me. God is going to bless
me. And when we read that He's blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
No wonder he has to swear. No wonder he has to swear. It's a difficult task. It's a
difficult task and only grace can perform it. To give a conscience,
strong consolation, a conscience that has gotten a good sight
of its own misery and its own weakness and unworthiness. not just when we're fleeing for
refuge, but after we've fled for refuge. Sometimes it seems
as if even providence itself is against our obtaining the
promises. Sometimes darkness comes in our
way, we fall into awful temptations and trials, and we wonder if
the promise is sure. We begin to judge the Lord with
feeble sins. And we cry with ASAP. Listen
to what Asap said. See if you can't relate to this.
He got in this awful trial. It was prolonged. And he said,
Is His mercy clean gone forever? Doth His promise fail forevermore? It seems like it doesn't. It
seems like you're ready to just reach out and get a hold of the
promise. And boy, it eludes you. It eludes
you. That's what Asap said. Has God
forgotten to be gracious? Has He in anger shut up His tender
mercies? I tell you, no wonder He wrote
to us and said, you have need of patience. After you've done
the will of God, that you may obtain the promise. God gives
a promise, then look how many years that roll by and it's still
not fulfilled. Consider poor Abraham. No sooner
had the Lord came to him and promised him a son, I'm going
to give you a son. And then next week, Sarah said,
Abraham, I'm pregnant. I don't think it happened that
way, did it? You know from the time that Abraham was promised
a son, it was 25 years before Sarah was pregnant. And between
that time, boy, there was famine in the land of Canaan. Abraham
went through a war. He went through family trials.
And only when he reached the place when Sarah was past barren
and Abraham was as good as dead did the promise come true. Now
that's the way it is, isn't it? That's why we need this oath
to take hold of. to bring it to our hearts and
say God's promise is sure. Look at poor Joseph. He had a
dream and in that dream he was promised that he would sit on
the throne. I'm going to sit on the throne. I'm going to be
governor. Well, you know the first thing
that happened to him, don't you? He was sold by his brother. He
went down into Egypt, was falsely accused, was put in prison. and
suffered and suffered and suffered until the very day that he was
brought out of prison and the dream was fulfilled. You have
need of patience. Look at Abraham Seed. They were
promised the land of Canaan, but they were enslaved in Egypt.
Four hundred and thirty years they were slaved in Egypt. Can
you imagine that? Now just think of that. Your
seed, Abraham, is going to inherit the land of promise, a land of
milk and honey, wells that they never dug, houses they never
built, vineyards they never planted. You talk about a life, you talk
about a land, and where did they find themselves at? In Egypt,
in slavery for 430 years. How long has our country been
founded? Some of you kids, or maybe you would tell me that.
100? I think it's more like 200. It's a long time, ain't it? But
it ain't 430 years, is it? Our country is old, but my goodness,
430 years? That's a long time, Remy. Ain't it? 430 years. We have
a need of patience. Joseph said on his deathbed,
here's what he said to him. when he had his dream and he
was there ready to die. He said, This day
I am going the way of all the earth, and you know in your heart
and in your soul that not one thing has failed of the good
things which the Lord your God spoken concerning you. Not one
thing has failed, he said. All came to pass And not one
thing has failed thereof. Why did He tell them that? They
had almost 400 years to go before that promise would be fulfilled. You have a need of patience.
And it came to pass, now listen, and it came to pass At the end
of the 430th year, even the seventh same day, it came to pass that
all the hosts of the Lord went out of the land of Egypt. They had the promise, and the
promise was sure. The boy, I tell you, from the
time you receive the promise till it's fulfilled, you're going
to have to suffer. There's going to be some afflictions.
There's going to be some waiting. There's going to be some patience.
Therefore, we best get the reality of this promise in our hearts. Not only what God promised, but
the sureness of that promise. It's real. It's real. It wasn't
for God's sake that He swore it. He is for Abraham's sake. He is for the seed of Abraham's
sake to whom these promises pertain. Look over in the 11th chapter
right quickly. In verse 9, look what is said
of these. I love the way this graduates
on down here in these verses. It progresses, Hebrews 11, 9,
By faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange
land, strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and
Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked
for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive
seed, and was delivered of a child when he was past age, because
she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there
one even Therefore spring there even of
one, and him as good as dead, as many as the stars of the sky
in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. These all died in faith, not
having received the fulfillment of the promises, but having seen
them afar off." Now look at this. First thing they saw, that they
were true. But they said the fulfillment
of it was going to be far off. But look at the next thing. They
were persuaded of them. Now what am I saying? I'm saying don't read over this
too quickly. Don't get something in the top of your brain. Get
it down in your heart. Let it sink down deep in your
heart. Why? You're going to need it.
You're going to need it. You're going to be tried to see
if you really believe it. To see if you've laid hold upon
these things. Brothers and sisters, get these promises in your heart. Ask the Holy Spirit to seal them
to your soul. They were persuaded of them.
And look at this, they embraced the reality of them, the truth
of them. And what did it do? It made them
confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Now look at this, for they that
say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. See what the promises do when
you get them in your heart? When they're real to you and
you're persuaded of them, they'll make you seek a country apart
from this world. They'll put you to seek in a
heavenly city. And verse 15, And truly, if they
had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they
may have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better
country. That is an unheavenly Wherefore
God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared
for them a city." Desire. Desire. You know what's the matter
with this world. You know why they live like they
do. Why they want to get their hands on everything here and
never let go of it. They don't desire a heavenly
country. They don't have these promises in their hearts. from the Lord. Look back over
now at our text again in chapter 6, and we'll look at the rest
of this quickly and closely. In chapter 6, verse 16, He said,
After Abraham had patiently endeared, he obtained the promises. In
verse 16, For men barely swerved by the greater, we used to swerve
by the rock of You ever seen that old rock of Gibraltar that
sticks up out of the ground? We wanted something, you know,
that was real steady, that was going to stay there. I swear
by the rock of Gibraltar. That's what we swore by. And
what happens when you swear? Men swear by the greater and
an oath for confirmation. When you say, I swear, that's
the end of all strife. Well, if somebody's willing to
take an oath, Larry Baker, if I promise you something, I say,
Larry, I swear by the rock of Gibraltar, you'll say, oh, Bruce
is going to do it. He's going to do it because he
swore to it. That settles it with Larry. It's finished, boy,
that's settled. I'm going to do it because I
swore to it. We do that all the time, don't we? We used to do
it all the time. He said men do that. And look
at God in verse 17. He condescends to our need of Him treating us the way man
treats us. Wherein God, even God, this eternal
glorious being, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs
of promise the unchangeableness of His counsel, He confirmed
it by an oath. He not only promised, and brothers
and sisters, isn't the promises of God sure? All the promises
of God are yea and amen in Christ. But here He says, I'm willing
to swear to it. I'm going to swear to it. That
by two immutable things. People are always asking, what
are those two things? If you study this, I think to
me it becomes sort of evident there's two words that He keeps
using. He keeps using promise and He
keeps using oath. He swore with an oath. So it
seems to me that these two immutable things, one is the promise of
God itself. They're immutable. They'll never
change. We've just been reading about them with Israel and Abraham,
haven't we? And then the oath. The oath itself. I swear. And boy, when he swears to it,
that settles it. Two immutable things. The promise
and then the oath. in which it was impossible for
God to lie, we might have a strong comfort, the comfort in our conscience,
our hearts, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope
set before us, which hope we have as an anchor of our souls. Jim just sung about that, didn't
he? I've anchored my soul in the haven of rest. And Paul uses
this analogy of a ship We don't know much about that now, but
used to be in ancient times, they used anchors to hold the
ships. When they had to anchor outside
the harbor to load and unload, they had to anchor the ships.
If it didn't, the wind would come by and bring them in and
dash them against the docks and the rocks. Sometimes during a
violent storm, they'd let down those anchors And they'd get
down in the dirt, in the mud, in the bottom of the ocean, or
hit on a rock or something, and it would secure the ship when
the storm came. Sometimes their anchor failed.
And boy, the winds drove them into the rocks and crushed them.
So many of the old sailors died because their anchor failed. Boy, we have an anchor of our
souls. A man's soul needs an anchor,
doesn't it? We run into some violent storms
in this lifetime, and we've got to have an anchor for our souls,
lest our souls be dashed against the rocks and perish for all
eternity. There's nothing so disappointing
as having your hope dispelled. I'm telling you, how many times
have we hoped for something in this life? And it just didn't
come to pass. We didn't realize it. Oh, our
hopes were so high. And then this hope failed us.
And how disappointed we were. And that's bad enough when it
happens in this lifetime. But it's devastating. It will
be heartbreaking to have a hope fail if we go up to heaven and
can't get in. Wouldn't that be awful? Those
that stand there knocking, Lord, Lord, open to us. Open to us. And He says, depart from Me,
I never knew you. Oh, their hopes! Hope! It was dashed. But oh, when our
hopes are in Jesus Christ, in His person, in His work, within
the veil, your hope will never be disappointed. And this analogy
won't hold up of this ship having an anchor because they'd always
send their anchors down into the dirt. But you know something? Our anchor is up. Ain't that
wonderful? That's a mystery, isn't it? Our
anchor is within the veil. Our anchor is the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself. And the ships used to pull up
their anchor. But here the anchor pulls up the ship and pulls Him
right up into heaven. Oh, if your hope is in Christ,
you have the promise of God and you have an oath of God to back
it up. His promise will never fail. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I go
to prepare a place for you, and if I go prepare a place for you,
I'll come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am,
there you may be also. Brothers and sisters, that's
a true promise. God's oath is there to back it
up. And if your anchor is Jesus Christ,
someday He will pull you up. where He is. He'll get you through
the storms of life. Your soul will never be dashed
in pieces or disappointed. My anchor holds within the veil. The Lord bless His Word. Let's
pray.