Apostasy and Perseverance - Part 3
Sermon Downloads
Sermon Transcript
[00:00:00] If you would, take your Bibles and open them up to the book of Hebrews chapter six. Uh, we're in a series right now in the book of Hebrews, and we'll be concluding the sixth chapter today. So our reading will be Hebrews chapter six, verses 13 to 20. And I'm gonna ask you if you're able to please stand and hear this again for what it is, the words of the living God.
Hebrews chapter six, beginning in verse 13. For when God made the promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself saying, I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you. And so having patiently waited, he Abraham obtained the promise for men square by one greater than themselves and with them.
An oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way God [00:01:00] desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable ness of his purpose, interposed with an oath so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie. We who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.
This hope we have as an anchor of the soul. A hope, both sure and steadfast. One which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered his forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever. According to the order of Melek, may God bless the reading, the hearing, and obedience to his word. Please be seated.
What shakes your faith? What troubles you? Jesus, what causes you distress? What causes you to cry out? Why God? [00:02:00] What shakes your faith? Because we all experience it. We're gonna read a little bit about Abraham today, and Abraham certainly experienced it and Abraham was far from a perfect man, and yet his faith is described as strong and resolute and enduring, and.
So I just want you to think about that question as we get started today. In your bulletin, there's a, uh, sermon outline you can use if you'd like. It's got some fill in the blanks. And number one on that outline, God's promise to Abraham, God's Promise to Abraham. So in Hebrews chapter six, we'll look at verse 13 again.
And the writer begins for when God made the promise to Abraham. Since he could swear by no one greater than himself greater. He swore by himself. So kids, there's a question on your outline. Those you kids that are filling in the blanks and stuff, and the question is very simple and kids, I want you to answer out loud on this one, okay?
Is there anyone greater than [00:03:00] God? No. No. And that's the answer with a capital N. No. There's no one greater than God. And, and that's what is being spoken of here. But we need to stop for just a minute. Because I want you to remember the flow of the passage, and it's a fair question to ask why? Why would the author be bringing up Abraham right now?
Why would he insert Abraham into his discussion? Hopefully you'll remember what we've covered, but in chapter five, the author brought up Melek and Melek is this interesting Old Testament figure that only has a couple of verses assigned to him, but he was a priest and he was a king. And we're told in chapter five that Jesus's high priesthood is after the order of melek and then the author bemoans because he wants to start talking about it.
But he has to warn the people and he warns them about immaturity. He says, I don't know as much as I want to go on and talk about this, you're behaving in a very immature way. Are you ready? Can you handle this? [00:04:00] And then as we've discussed, maybe the strongest warning found in scripture, a warning against apostasy.
And this, this warning against apostasy and the continued warning against immaturity is found in chapters five and six, and then all of a sudden, instead of returning to Melek, which he doesn't do until chapter seven, he brings up Abraham. So why bring up Abraham? And I just, I wanna remind you of what we read last week and in verse, uh, chapter six, verses 11 and 12, and I'll just reread it.
And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you'll not be sluggish, but imitators of those who, through faith and patience, inherit the kingdom. So at the very end of his warning, before he shifts gears here, at the very end of his warning, he, he commands us.
He exhorts us. Be diligent. Be in [00:05:00] a hurry to obey God. Be in a hurry to learn obedience. Don't be sluggish, don't be lazy when it comes to the Christian life. And then lastly, imitate Godly saints. Imitate godly saints. And that is the first reason why he brings up Abraham, him because Abraham is the picture of faith in the Old Testament.
And so we ought to imitate Abraham when it comes to faith. And the great thing about Abraham, the great thing for you and me is he wasn't perfect. And so we can imitate a man and we can see what the man did when he failed, when he had his failures, but that's why he brings up Abraham. But I think there's a second reason that he brings up Abraham here.
And I think this is every bit as important if we're gonna understand the rest of the book. It. We need to understand the story of Abraham. If we're gonna understand his faith. We need to understand God's promise to Abraham and how God respon or how Abraham responded to that promise. We need to [00:06:00] understand how and what Abraham believed, because as we've talked about in the past, the Old Testament, including the story of Abraham, is full of types and shadows.
They point beyond themselves. And the story of Abraham was gonna be quite instructive to these early believers, and it ought to be quite instructive to us. So the author goes on verse 14, and this is the promise and this is God speaking as when we go back and we look at Genesis 22 that we'll do in just a minute.
This is the angel of the Lord who is identified as Yahweh, as Yahweh himself, and he says, I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you. And kids. There's another fill in the blank on your outline. I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you. He promised to give Abraham a son. He promised to give Abraham a son.
But when we go back and we look at the story, we'll see like everything else in the Old Testament, even [00:07:00] Abraham's son, or to use the language of the Hebrew, his seed, his offspring was a type, was a picture. And so we read in verse 15, and so Abraham. Having patiently waited. He obtained the promise. He obtained the promise.
And Kids another, uh, on your handout, the promise was for a son, God promised him a son. And there's another question. I'm jumping ahead a little bit, but what was Abraham's son's name? Isaac. This was Isaac that was promised. But it's interesting because the passage says, having patiently waited, he obtained the promise.
The promise was fulfilled in his lifetime. But you see, this is where unbelievers wanna nitpick a little bit because they don't know how to read the scriptures. But you don't have to turn there. But listen to Hebrews chapter 11, verse 13, because in Hebrews chapter 1113, and you're probably familiar with [00:08:00] that passage, it's, we call it the Hall of Faith.
It. And he, he begins by talking about Abel's faith, and he goes on and he starts talking about Abraham, and he says this about Abraham in verse 13. All of these died in faith. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all of these died in faith without receiving the promises. But having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance and having confessed that they were strangers in exiles upon the earth.
So do we have a contradiction in scripture or do we need to narrow down the promise that's being spoken of in chapter six? And I would submit to you, we need to narrow it down. You see when we get to chapter 11 and, and we'll talk about it in more detail then, but these are the fulfillment of the new covenant.
These are new covenant promises. This is the coming of the promised seed, the coming of the kingdom of Christ. And Abraham didn't receive that in his lifetime, but he did receive a son. Because notice again further in [00:09:00] Hebrews chapter 11, verse 33. Again, this is speaking not just about Abraham, but a whole list of Old Testament saints, and the writer says, these Old testament saints by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises.
Shut the mouths of lions. Yes. So there were promises fulfilled, but as we look at the Old Testament, we have to remember that they were shadows and they were types of something coming. And it's also important to understand the story of Abraham because the story of Abraham was a shadow. It was a type.
Hebrews chapter 11, verse 19. Speaking of Abraham, the author writes this. He considered that God is able to raise people even from the dead. From which he also received him, speaking of Isaac back. And the author goes on as a type, as something and someone pointing [00:10:00] away from his self and the promises found in Genesis 22.
So I'm gonna ask you to turn back to Genesis chapter 22.
And I've said this a number of times. We read this at the beginning of service, but I've said this a number of times. Whenever the New Testament authors cite a scripture passage, we need to treat it as a hyperlink. And you all know what a hyperlink is. You click on a hyperlink, it takes you to another article.
And in order to understand what's going on, you need to read the article. And so in order to understand why he quotes this verse, we need to have an understanding of Genesis 22. In Genesis 22 is typically known as the sacrifice of Isaac, and I'm not gonna reread it. I'm just going to point out some highlights to help us better understand this story.
And it actually begins in, in chapter 21. I'll just summarize that and then we'll look at 22. But in chapter 21, we read of the birth of Isaac, and then after the birth of Isaac, we read this interruption because Sarah [00:11:00] and Hagar. Abraham's concubine, they're, they're, they're starting to have issues because of Hagar's son.
And it's interesting because throughout the entire chapter, Genesis chapter 21, Hagar's son is never mentioned by name. And it's interesting, and I think there's something more there, but at the very least, it's a way of, in a sense, the writer putting him in his place. You see, Hagar's son is not in the same category.
As Isaac, he's not in the same category as the Child of Promise, and so the author doesn't mention his name. And then we come to chapter 22 and it's interesting. The first verse of Chapter 22 says that God tested Abraham. And I think it's important to understand that word because it's the same word. It's the Hebrew equivalent of the word that we've seen multiple times and often in the New Testament, it's translated tempted.
It, and I've tried to convince you that a better [00:12:00] translation 95% of the time is tested because we tend to tie sin with temptation. We, we tend to tie it to, to something else, and yet, more often than not, it's a test and we can pass the test and not sin, or we can fail the test and we end up sinning In Hebrews chapter four, verse 15, speaking of Jesus.
For, we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tested, most translations will go tempted, but again, the root is tested. One who has been tested in all things as we are yet without sin. And I would argue that James uses it this way and the only time that James uses it in a way that it really makes sense to call it temptation, is when it comes from our own heart, when it comes from our own residual sin.
In verse two, we read that Abraham goes to the land of Mariah to one of the mountains. And this is important. Abraham goes to a mountain. [00:13:00] Why is this important? Because Isaac's age is important. If we're gonna understand the story, it's important to have an idea of just how old Isaac was. And if you look on your children's, uh, handout sheet, and if you look at the front picture, you'll see that I had Isaac drawn as a young man.
Because I believe Isaac was a young man, but most of the Bible stories, most of the picture books show him as a young child, maybe 9, 10, 11. But it doesn't really fit the context. And one of the hints, and there are several hints, and honestly that's all we have hints. So I'm not trying to be definitive, but I think there's enough hints to push us in this direction.
They went to a mountain that meant that when they got to the mountain and when we finished the story, Abraham and Isaac, Isaac had to do some climbing. Keep that in mind. In verse four, it says that they arrive there on the third day, and anytime you read that phrase in scripture, it ought to jump out at you.
There's no [00:14:00] mistake that the author is writing this in a way that this happened on the third day. The typological death and resurrection of Isaac happened on the third day because what greater event in the future was gonna happen on the third day? The resurrection of Jesus. And while I think we need to be careful when it comes to numbers in scripture, numbers do have some meaning.
And often the number three is associated with life and resurrection. And so this takes place on the third day. And then in verse six, Abraham loads the wood of the burnt offering on Isaac. And this too gives us a hint to Isaac's age. He's not a little kid. It's when, when you read the story, Abraham split the wood before they left.
He loaded the wood on the donkey and then when they get there and he's got two servants with him and he says, you guys stay here. My son and I we're gonna go worship. They get to the foot of the mountain, he loads all the wood on Isaac [00:15:00] and Isaac's gotta be old enough and strong enough to carry this wood however far they're gonna hike up the mountain.
In addition to that, in verse seven, Isaac asks, where's the lamb for the burn offering? Abraham's answer is God will provide. In other words, again, Isaac is old enough to recognize something's wrong here. He's old enough to have seen enough sacrifices that dad, something's missing, and the story even points out.
He sees the fire because Abraham took the fire with him. He sees the wood. But he was smart enough and old enough and intelligent enough to understand something's missing. So are there any other clues? Well, if you look at the very last verse of chapter, I think it's the very last verse of chapter 21.
It's chapter 21, verse 34. We read this, and this is after Isaac is born. Isaac is circumcised, Isaac is weaned. So he's at least three years old. And then we read Abraham's Sojourned in the land of the [00:16:00] Philistines. For many days. So Abraham soured for many days, and literally in the Hebrew we could translate it legitimate Abraham Sojourned for a great many days.
So Abraham spent some time in the land of the Philistines, and I've already said this, Isaac was old enough, strong enough to carry the wood to go hiking up a mountain and to understand the sacrificial system. But there's something more. Abraham had two servants with him, and you read of these servants several times throughout the text, and they're always referred to in most translations.
And I did a really quick check on eight different translations. So I went and checked eight different translations and every single translation, they're either translated servants or young men. Isaac is referred to in verse 12, and in the same eight translations, verse 12 is usually translated lad. Or boy, [00:17:00] but here's the interesting thing.
It's the exact same Hebrew word, and if these servants were young men, then Isaac was a young man, and I, I proposed to you that Isaac was indeed a young man. It's interesting because even Jewish tradition, rabbinic tradition says he was 37 years old, and what Rabbinic tradition says is this took place just before Sarah dies.
And Sarah died at 127 years of age. Isaac was born when she was 90, he'd be 37 according to rabbinic tradition. Josephus, the Jewish historian during the time of Jesus said that he was 25 years old and many other Christian commentators will put him somewhere between 18 and 30 years of age. But it seems to fit the story better, and not only does it fit the story better, but it fits the typology better.
Think about this. [00:18:00] Abraham was a hundred years old when Isaac was born, so whatever age Isaac is, and let's just for argument's sake, say he was 18, whatever age Isaac was, Abraham would've been 100 plus that age. So Abraham would've been 118. Isaac could have taken his father. Again, we need to be careful because we can't compare.
100-year-old Abraham with a 100-year-old man today because we find out that when Sarah dies, Abraham remarries and he has six more sons. And not only that, but we read, he had other concubines who had other sons. So I'm not saying that Abraham was this frail rim wimpy old man, but at 18 I think I could have taken him.
So I'm guessing Isaac could have taken him. But here's the fascinating thing.
Isaac willingly allowed his father to bind him and [00:19:00] to lay him upon the altar, and he didn't fight him, but he was like someone he pointed to that went to the cross as a lamb. Who didn't utter a sound, who didn't cry out, who went willingly to the cross and let those whose life he maintains nail him to that tree and put him to death.
And that's what Isaac allows his father to do. He allows his father to bind him. He trusts his father, he allows his father to lay him upon the altar. And he watches his father as he lifts the knife, and Abraham had every intention of plunging that knife in his chest until the angel of Yahweh cried out from heaven.
Stop. And I want you to hear the angel's words. And the angel is identified as the angel of Yahweh in verse 15. But then in verses 16 and 17, it is Yahweh himself. And I submit to you, and we've looked at this before, the angel of [00:20:00] Yahweh is the pre-incarnate Christ. So Christ was there as well. And Christ calls out to Abraham in verse 16 by myself.
I have sworn he's swearing an oath. And as we'll see in the text, God does not need to square an oath, but he does it for our sake by myself. I have sworn declares Yahweh, because you have done this thing, have not withheld your son. Your only son. Indeed. I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply your seed.
It. And I submit to you that Abraham was promised a son all the way back in chapter 12, really? And it was reiterated in chapter 15 and reiterated again in chapter 17. But I submit to you if we understand what the writer of Hebrews is saying, the promise of a son was not fulfilled until after his typological, death and resurrection.
Because that is what the son pointed to beginning with Eve, when the promise is she will have a child, and it's referred [00:21:00] to in, uh, chapter three of Genesis, the seed of the woman. That seed was going to come upon the earth and that seed was gonna die. And in dying he was gonna crush the head of Satan. And then we see the seed of Abraham, and it's that same Messiah, and we see the seat of David, and it's that same Messiah, and we see the child promised in Isaiah, and it's that same child.
And that's who Isaac pictured. And like that child, Isaac allowed his father to do as he willed.
And so the writer of Hebrews, and you can turn back to Hebrews chapter six, says that finally Abraham obtained that promise. Typologically, his son died and was resurrected because his son points to something else. Think of what that would've communicated to the original readers. Think of how these Hebrews, these Hebrew readers that were thinking about going back to the old system, think of how it would've impacted them.
Think of the grace and the [00:22:00] kindness of what the author does here. Because the author, and we tend to focus on this, we tend to focus on the warning and we tend to focus on those questions. Can you lose your salvation? And this, this warning so strong and we forget that the rest of this section is a blessing and an encouragement.
Verse 16, number two on your outline is God's character in verse verses 16 through 18. Teach us something about God's character and kids. There's a lot on your, your outline here. And in verse 16, the author writes, for men swear by one greater than themselves and with them, an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute, and we have the same thing.
We have business contracts, we enter into covenants and that promise, that oath should be the end of all disputes because should we should be men and women of our word in verse 17 continues in the same way God desiring even more. To show the heirs of [00:23:00] promise, the unchangeable of his purpose, interposed with an oath.
By God's grace, he stoops down and he does something he doesn't need to do. He swears an oath and he swears an oath in his own name because os are usually sworn in the name of someone greater. When you are all familiar with this, even though I think we're getting away from it a little bit, but. It used to be common practice.
You'd go to court, you'd lay your hand on the Bible, and you'd swear to tell the truth in the name of God. We still see this in presidential inaugurations. The Bible is laid out and they take the oath with their hand on the Bible because they're swearing by someone greater than themselves. God had no one greater than themselves to square by, and yet he stooped to our condition.
He stooped to our lowness. He stooped to our needs, and even though my promise is good enough. I'm gonna give you an oath and verify it even further. [00:24:00] And the words that are used here are interesting. Look at verse 16 again. It says, for men, square by one, greater than themselves and with them, an oath given as confirmation is an end to every dispute in this Greek word confirmation.
And it's important to know this. It's a legal term, it's a legal term, and it would've been used in the courtroom, uh, courtrooms of the day, and it meant a legal guarantee by law. I'm locked into this. And then in verse 17, we see the same thing to show to the heirs of promise, the unchangeable ness of his purpose.
This word unchangeable is another legal term, and it means incapable of being annulled. Incapable of being set aside. And it's important to know this because the author of Hebrews is using legal terminology here, and he's getting ready to talk about the atonement of Jesus Christ in which he will continue to use legal terminology, and he's setting the stage here because the only way to [00:25:00] properly understand the atonement of Jesus Christ, the.
Only way to properly understand justification by faith is in legal terms. And I will endeavor to prove that as we progress in this book, we are guilty, we are lawbreakers, we are deserving of death. Jesus paid that penalty,
unchangeable of his purpose. And again, I remind you because it's important in terms of the book of Hebrews, what was the purpose of God? And it's important to understand this and remember this as we look back on the various warning passages found in the book of Hebrews. God's purpose was to save a people to himself and his purpose is unalterable.
And yet we have the arrogance to think that if God saved me, I can somehow short circuit it or mess it up. No, his [00:26:00] purposes are legally guaranteed and unchangeable so that by two verse 18, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie. We who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.
So multiple things in this passage, and just by the way, by two unchangeable things, that's that same word used in verse 17. In other words, these are unalterable, these are legally binding. And what are the two things? What are the two unchangeable things? Well, the first one is his promise, and again, we've already read this, but the promise comes from Genesis chapter 22, verse 17.
And the promise goes like this. Indeed, I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply your seed. You are gonna have a son, and I am gonna multiply your seed and I am gonna make a nation out of you. Going all the way back to Genesis 12. And kings are gonna come from you and the world, the [00:27:00] entirety of this planet.
All the families of the Earth will be blessed in you, Abraham, because of this future coming seed. That was God's promise. And what was the second unalterable thing? God's oath. And again, we read God's oath in Genesis 22 and Yahweh says the angel of the Lord according to verse 15. But when we get to verse 16 by myself, I have sworn declares Yahweh, because you have done this thing and have not your son, your only son.
Those are the two things in which it is incapable of God lying. So kids, there's another question on your outline, and again, I want you to answer out loud. Can God lie? No. No capital in exclamation point. God cannot lie. In fact, we read it again in Titus chapter one, verse two, Titus's writing about the hope of eternal life, which God who cannot lie [00:28:00] promised long ages ago.
And so I have these two things that guarantee. And we, we know that God can't lie, so we can take refuge in this hope. And what is this refuge that we seek? And what is this hope that we seek? Well, ultimately it is Christ Jesus. He is our refuge. He is our hope.
In other words, there's no room for sluggishness. There's no room for sluggishness. Remember the warning of chapter six verse 11. We desire that each one of you show the same diligence, show the same speed, the same desire to obey so as to realize the full assurance of hope, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience, inherit the promises.
And we have two unalterable things. And so I asked you at the beginning of the sermon, what troubles your faith? And whatever it is, whatever troubles your faith, go home, write it on a piece of paper and then write down [00:29:00] God's promises and look at that. When your faith is troubled, think of that. When your faith is troubled, memorize these passages for it is impossible for God to lie.
And so I just want to take a, a very short, I didn't even put it in your outline, but I wanna take just the short excursions and I wanna talk about this perfection of God. That he can't lie, because I think it's important to understand something here. And those of you that know me, know that I'm always thinking apologetically as I approach the scriptures.
I'm always thinking apologetically. So sometimes in the Bible, God's attributes are presented negatively. God can't lie. That's that's what I mean by negative. God can't do something. God can't lie. And other times it's God's attributes are presented positively. Okay, so for instance, Hebrews six 18. We've already read that.
We've already read Titus one two. God can't lie, that's presented negatively, but in verses like Jeremiah [00:30:00] ten, ten one, John chapter five, verse 20, and John 14 six, and this is just a sampling and most of you probably know John 14, six. Jesus is responding to Thomas. Because Thomas says, we don't know where you're going.
We don't know the way. And Jesus responds, I am the way and the truth. God is truth itself. And so we read in scripture that God is the truth, that God speaks truth and that God does truth, that he is always faithful. But this is where my apologetics mind comes in. I can't tell you how many times when you present an attribute like God can't lie.
The unbelievable will say, well, see your Bible contradicts because your Bible says that God can do anything. God can do all things, but now you're telling me he can't lie.
Well, so much wrong with that number one, and this might be new to you. Nowhere does the Bible [00:31:00] say that God can do all things nowhere. The Bible says that God can do everything he wants to do. The Bible says he can do all things according to his holy will and character, and to not be able to lie is to not sin, and to not sin is perfection, not limitation.
There are certain things that perfect beings will not be able to do, like lie or sin, or cheat or break covenant. Those are not weaknesses and there is no contradiction there. Scripture says that we are to be perfect like our heavenly Father is perfect. And we can't do that. We can't be perfect, and that's what the entire book of Hebrews is about.
Jesus was perfect in my place. Jesus was perfect in my stead, and so it is his perfection that fulfills the covenant on my behalf, and it is his perfection that brings me forgiveness.[00:32:00]
So negative and, and I had a lot more, but I'm, I'm, I'm not gonna get, get into that. But negative descriptions of God's attributes do not limit him because God is perfect and perfect beings. There are certain things perfect beings will not do. One thing is they will not lie, they will not sin, they will not break Covenant.
Number three on your outline, hope. Number three is hope. And when we get to verses 19 and 20, we return to where the author started. Listen to verses 19 and 20. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope, both sure and steadfast, and one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us having become a high priest according to the order of melek.
And this takes us all the way back in chapter five to where we began. He introduced Jesus as the high [00:33:00] priest after the order of Melek, and then he warns, and then he cautions, and then he encourages and he's getting ready to return. And when we get to chapter seven and eight, we'll see that he goes into detail of Christ's high priestly work.
But a couple of things concerning verse 19. And kids, I believe this is on your handout as a fill in the blank. You need to fill in the words of verse 19, but he speaks of hope. He speaks of hope in verse. 18 and in verse 19, and we need to understand that because hope is both objective and subjective and objectively the hope is Jesus and kids.
That's on your outline. Our hope is Jesus, and the author says that our hope is sure and steadfast and literally you could translate this. Our hope is a fact. Our hope is definite. And our hope is steadfast. It is a guarantee, and it is another word that can be [00:34:00] translated unalterable. That's the kind of hope we have because ultimately our hope is objective.
Our hope is a person. It is Jesus Christ. He is our hope, and his finished work is our hope, but it's also subjective. You see, hope is not wishful thinking. Hope is confident. Expectation. And hope is confident expectation based on God's sed. And that's one of the few Hebrew words. I try to stay away from Greek and Hebrew words, but that's one of those that I've told you you should memorize sed.
And the reason you should memorize it is there's no simple way to translate it into English. And so you should memorize what it means. And it's translated various ways in different versions of the Bible. And even in the same version, it'll be translated differently because it is a rich and a wonderful and a beautiful word.
And it means covenant loyalty, covenant kindness, covenant, mercy, covenant faithfulness, [00:35:00] covenant love. And you see that is our subjective hope. We have a confidence assurance based on God's character, based on his promises, based on his hasad. His love for us, his faithfulness. And that's why the Abraham story is so important to this part of scripture, because God was faithful to Abraham and because God was faithful to Abraham, Abraham was faithful to God.
Do you see how that goes round and round? Because God was faithful to Abraham and God fulfilled the promise. And Sarah at 90 years old, bears a son. And then 18, 19, 20 years later, God says, take this son and I want you to sacrifice him. And because God was faithful, Abraham was faithful. And then God was faithful again because Typologically, shadow and type Isaac was sacrificed in Isaac resurrected, [00:36:00] and it pointed to even greater faithfulness on the part of God.
And this hope is described as an anchor. Of our soul. And this word for anchor, it, it means a ship's anchor. It means if you're on a ship and you'd throw the anchor overboard and it, it holds you in place. It means refuge. I, I, I hate this phraseology, but it's actually true of Christians. I hate the phraseology.
The young generation today, they talk about safe places. Okay, well, guess what? As a Christian, if you're in Christ, you are always in your safe place. Because Christ, our hope is an anchor for our soul. And that word had such impact on the early church that an anchor, an anchor. The symbol of an anchor meant Christian hope and assurance.
There's a catechism or a catechism. There's a CaTECH. There's many catacombs in the city of Rome, but in the city [00:37:00] of Rome, there's a catacomb, and it's called the catacomb of Priscilla. The catacomb of Priscilla, and this is, you can go, you can visit it today, you can tour it. It is eight miles of underground tunnels.
It is an eight mile underground ca graveyard where Christians would've been buried. And in that catacomb, there are no less than 66 pictures of anchors because in death, Jesus is our hope. In death, Jesus is our guarantee in death. Jesus is the anchor of our souls. And so the early Christians would depict it with an anchor and they would post them around their graveyards.
And why is he our hope? Because Jesus enters the veil. Because Jesus is the new high priest and Jesus enters the holy of holy. And unlike the old high priest, and the author is gonna expand upon [00:38:00] this in chapter seven and eight, unlike the old high priest, Jesus enters the veil, presents his perfect sacrifice.
His perfect sacrifice is accepted by the father. The father is perpetuated, sin is aone for, and Jesus passes straight through. And where does he go to sit on his throne? He is seated at the right hand of the father today. He is seated on the true throne of David today and he ruled and he reigns today and he makes intercession for us today, and he never has to return to the holy of Holies like the high priest had to do year after year after year.
Verse 20. Jesus enters the holy place. He enters through the veil as a forerunner. For us, having become a high priest forever, according to the order of Mel Ek, and this is fascinating. If when you go back and, and you read some of these verses and stuff, the promise that Jesus would be king, [00:39:00] God sealed it with an oath.
I'll give you the verses later if you want 'em. The promise that Jesus would be high priest, God sealed it with an oath, and this oath was important to the people of God.
So as I ask at the beginning of the sermon, what troubles you? What troubles your faith, what weakens your faith? Because you need to remind yourself, we have an anchor for the soul, and that anchor is ultimately Jesus. And ultimately this, this portion of scripture, and as I said before, usually Hebrews chapter six is all about verses four through six.
It's all about this, this warning passage that I think we looked at in detail and we forget the encouragement. So the, the main thing that I want you to walk away with today is be encouraged. Be encouraged. God is faithful and he has not lied to you. [00:40:00] If your faith is in him, if your hope is in him, if you're clinging to him and the only reason you ought to clinging to Christ is because you know you're a mess up.
If I thought I was perfect, I wouldn't need Christ, would I? It's because I know I still fall. It's because I know I still sin. It's because I know I have to confess my sins. I have to repent from my sins. I have to seek help from others in the church, so I clinging to Christ. So if you clinging to Christ, no, he's faithful.
He has made promises to you. You are secure in Christ Jesus because his purpose will not fail, and he is faithful to his covenant. So be encouraged. You see, love produces warnings. So it would be odd that the writers of the New Testament wouldn't warn their readers because love produces warnings [00:41:00] and love and warnings produce encouragement, love, and warnings blossom into encouragement.
Remember that God is faithful even when we aren't. And Jesus fulfills the conditions of the covenant on our behalf. So let his promise and let his oath, which are yes and amen in Christ Jesus. Let them have full effect on your faith. Know that you are secure and when you do rate waiver, when you do fall, as Abraham fell multiple times, get up, dust yourself off.
Confess your sins. Clinging to God's promises. If we confess our sins, he is faithful. And just to forgive us, dust yourself off, confess your sins, and be the church. Repent. Seek accountability, get help. Pray with somebody. Ask somebody to pray with you. Be encouraged. God is good. [00:42:00] Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this passage of scripture.
Help us to understand the warning properly. Help us not to ignore the warning, but Father, help us not to forget that there's so much more encouragement in this text than there is warning. Even after the warning, father we're told that he doesn't expect us to fall because the author himself trusted Christ and the author himself knew that Christ wasn't gonna fail at his work.
In Christ intends to save a people. So Father, with these truths, I would ask that you would strengthen our faith. Give us assurance, may we be sure of our salvation. Because today, right now, I love you today. Right now my faith is in you and in you alone. And I clinging to you and I follow you. Father, fill us.
Fill anyone that can say those words. Lord, fill us now with assurance. With [00:43:00] hope, with confidence, have your spirit speak to our heart that we would not waver, that we would not doubt. And when we do waver, when we do sin, when we do fall, pick us up. Remind us, may we be people of the word so that. Your word would come flooding into our minds.
Your promises would come flooding into our minds. And Father, in the weeks to come. As we continue to look at this book, and as we take a little closer look to the covenants, help us understand those things as well, and more than anything else, help us understand that you have fulfilled it on our behalf for we ask all these things in the name of Christ Jesus.
And all of God's people said, amen.
