Grace Baptist Church Eureka
Hebrews 6:13-20 - Jesus Fulfills God's Promises

      • Psalm 43:3–4ESV

  • Only A Holy God
  • Rock Of Ages (Hymn #204)

      • Romans 4:13–25ESV

  • When I Survey The Wondrous Cross (Hymn #185)

  • Pray

    Father, thank you for giving us your Word.
    Thank you for revealing to us everything we need to know about you and your promises and your purpose.
    Thank you for revealing to us the glory of your Son, Jesus.
    I pray that you would use your Word this morning to change our hearts.
    As we look more and more at the glory of Jesus, I pray that you would change us into his likeness from one degree of glory to the next.
    I pray that you would use my meager faithfulness to accomplish your glorious work in our hearts.
    Because I certainly don’t have any power to do it on my own.
    Please speak through me, speak into our hearts by the power of your Spirit.
    And help me exalt Christ and not myself.
    I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

    Intro

    We’re plugging away through the book of Hebrews.
    So far we’ve seen how Jesus is a better messenger of God than any that came before including angels or even Moses.
    Then in 4:14 the argument shifted to the primary argument of the whole book, that Jesus is a better priest that any of the old covenant priests because his priesthood is eternal after the order of Melchizedek.
    But before the author would explain Jesus’ priesthood after the order of Melchizedek, he rebuked his audience for their dull hearing, and their spiritual regression, which if left unchecked would result in their rejection of Christ with no possibility to repent.
    The author didn’t leave his audience to wonder if they had rejected Christ like this.
    He encouraged them that he was sure of their salvation, and his desire was that everyone in the Church would show earnestness and hope in Christ until the end, imitating those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
    The prime example of that faith and patience and obtaining God’s promises is Abraham.
    And that’s exactly where the author begins this section, Hebrews 6:13-20, which concludes his encouragement for believers to maintain their hope in Christ and not regress or reject him.
    It’s all about hope in Christ, hope in God’s promises and purpose.
    But sometimes, many times, our hope needs a sort or boost.
    Proverbs 13:12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.”
    Our hope tends to wane when we have to wait too long to receive what we’ve hoped for.
    God’s people had to wait through hundreds of generations to receive the promised Messiah.
    And waiting that long made many of them lose hope that the Messiah was ever coming.
    So, when Jesus finally showed up, their hearts were sick, and they rejected him.
    Some accepted him at first, but they had regressed, and they were in danger of rejecting him because of their sick hearts, their hard hearts.
    We can also end up regressing away from Jesus and in danger of rejecting him if we don’t pay close attention to God’s promises and their fulfillment in Jesus.
    Our hope can wane if our desire of salvation from the presence of sin and living with Jesus forever is deferred with no assurance that our desire will ever be realized.
    We can’t see Jesus in heaven, we can’t see him interceding for us, paving the way for us.
    So, how can we know for sure that we’ve been redeemed, that he’s actually interceding for us, that we will actually follow him to heaven to live with him forever?
    How can we make sure that our hope isn’t deferred, but strengthened as we wait to fully receive our desire?
    We have to look to God’s promises and the gracious gift of his oaths to prove his purpose and the assurance of his promises to our hearts.
    That’s how we can strengthen our hope.
    And God has given us this passage in Hebrews 6:13-20 to show us just how sure his promises are and just how glorious his purpose is so that our hope can be strengthened as we wait.
    This passage follows the example of Abraham’s hope in God’s promises to the encouragement for our own hearts to hope in God’s promises, specifically fulfilled in Jesus, our great high priest.
    So, let’s look at Abraham’s example of hope in Hebrews 6:13-15.
    Hebrews 6:13–15 ESV
    For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.
    This is God’s sure promise to Abraham and…

    Abraham’s Example of Hope in God (13-15)

    God made quite a few promises to Abraham.
    Before God changed his name, he was called Abram, and God first called him to follow him and obey him with a promise.
    Genesis 12:1–3 “Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.””
    God promised to make of him a great nation, a great nation of descendants.
    He promised to bless him and to make his name great to be a blessing to others.
    He promised to bless those who bless him and curse those who dishonor him.
    And he promised to bless all the families of the earth through him.
    After Abram obeyed what God told him to do and left for the land of Canaan, God made a further promise to him.
    Genesis 13:14–17 “The Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward, for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth, so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. Arise, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.””
    God promised to give him the land of Canaan, him and his offspring… forever.
    And he promised that his offspring would be so many that they would be practically unable to be counted.
    Abram was also given a vision of God making a covenant with him to secure these promises in Genesis chapter 15 because his hope was being deferred.
    God promised again that Abram’s offspring would be practically uncountable and Abram believed that promise.
    Genesis 15:6 “And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.”
    God also promised again that Abram would possess the land of Canaan, and he made a covenant with him to prove it.
    Genesis 15:18 “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,”
    After Abram tried forcing God’s promise through his barren wife’s servant, Hagar, God reinforced his promise again through the covenant sign of circumcision and the promise of a son through his wife in Genesis chapter 17.
    It was here that God changed both Abram and his wife, Sarai’s names to Abraham and Sarah.
    And it was here that God clearly established the lineage of his covenant promises through the son he promised to give to Abraham and Sarah.
    Finally, after patiently waiting for God to give him the son he had promised, Isaac was born in Genesis chapter 21.
    But in the very next chapter, chapter 22, God tested Abraham’s faith by commanding him to sacrifice his son, the son God had promised to give him, the son he loved.
    And after Abraham obeyed and God rescued his son from death by providing a substitute, God blessed him and graciously gave him an assurance of his promise in verses 16-18.
    Genesis 22:16–18 “and (God) said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.””
    This is the promise that the author of Hebrews goes to in order to show us the example of Abraham’s hope.
    It’s exactly the same as all the previous promises.
    But this one is different because God guaranteed his promises with an oath.
    “By myself I have sworn…”
    We’ll get into the specifics of what an oath is and does in just a bit because the author of Hebrews explains it in the next few verses.
    But the part right here that I want to look at more closely is verse 15, how Abraham responded to God’s promises and how he was rewarded for his response.
    All the way back in Genesis chapter 12, God first promised Abraham that he would make of him a great nation.
    A nation needs people and a place, and so, God also was promising him many descendants and a land for all his descendants to possess, to call home.
    And for many years, Abraham wandered around, not seeing any progress toward having many descendants or possessing the land God had promised to give him.
    But Abraham never doubted God’s promises.
    He wrongly thought he had to go about it another way, but he never doubted that God would make good on his promises.
    He patiently waited for it for many years, and finally he saw a glimmer of the promises being realized when Isaac was born.
    And God gave him a veiled look at his purpose, the true fulfillment of his promises when he asked him to sacrifice Isaac.
    God would multiply Abraham’s descendants exponentially from every nation and blessing every nation through the death and resurrection of God’s own Son, Jesus, who would also be a descendant of Abraham.
    God rewarded Abraham’s faith and obedience by giving him a small portion of the promises in receiving his son Isaac.
    And he gave him a picture of his purpose in receiving Isaac back from the dead through a substitute.
    And he also rewarded him with assurance of his promise with an oath, swearing that he will absolutely do what he said he would do, no matter what.
    Abraham patiently waited to receive something of God’s promises, and he did receive a small portion of it and the assurance that the rest would absolutely come later.
    So, Abraham had a sure hope in God because of his promises secured by his oath.
    Abraham’s hope was seen in his patient waiting to obtain God’s promises, and his hope was rewarded with the gift of seeing that promise realized in a small way and having his hope strengthened by God’s oath.
    Now the argument shifts from Abraham’s example of hope to…

    Our Encouragement to Hope in Christ (16-20)

    Our encouragement to hope just like Abraham did, patiently waiting.
    But this encouragement comes in two stages.
    First, is the the function of God’s oaths to back his promises, the guarantee of his promises in verses 16-18.
    And then the result of God’s oaths which give us assurance of our hope in Christ.
    God’s promises backed by his oath that Jesus is our great high priest forever in verses 19 and 20.
    So, let’s look at verses 16-18 to see how God guarantees his promises in our hearts through his oaths.
    Hebrews 6:16–17 ESV
    For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath,
    Hebrews 6:18 ESV
    so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.
    So, here we have our encouragement to hope in Christ established with…

    The Guarantee of God’s Promises (16-18)

    And in verse 16 we get a description of exactly what an oath is and what it does.
    People swear by something greater than themselves.
    This establishes an assurance that the one doing the promising will be held by more than just themselves to honor their promise.
    In the book, The Lord of the Rings, Gollum swears to Frodo that he will serve him and be “very, very good.”
    And he swears by something greater than himself, he swears on the ring of power.
    And Frodo holds him to it and believes his promise because he knows that the ring is greater than Gollum, and that the ring won’t let him go back on his promise.
    In a court of law, not too long ago, people would swear on the Bible to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
    Understanding that the Bible, as God’s Word, is greater than any of us.
    And God would compel us through his Word to keep our promise to tell the truth.
    Swearing by something greater than yourself gives such assurance to those you are giving your promise to, that any dispute is settled by it.
    No matter how untrustworthy a person is, as soon as they invoke an oath to back their promise, the dispute over their faithfulness is settled.
    It’s final for confirmation.
    You don’t need any more assurance that they’ll do what they promised.
    But back in verse 13 we saw that God had no one greater than himself to swear by because God is greater than anyone and anything.
    He’s the almighty creator of everything, and he’s 100% faithful.
    So, his promise should be believed without needing an oath.
    But God gave his oath anyway swearing on himself, on his unmatched greatness and his perfect faithfulness.
    You see, God’s promises are backed by his character.
    And his character is clearly articulated in Exodus 34:6–7 “The Lord passed before (Moses) and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.””
    This is who God is, this is what he has invoked to back his promises.
    His character of mercy, and grace, and patience, and steadfast love, and faithfulness, and forgiveness, and justice.
    And I want you to notice something about oaths in general… an oath is not for the sake of the one making the promise.
    It’s not to compel the one making the promise to do what they said they would do.
    It’s to convince the one the promise is given to that the promise will be upheld.
    This is important because when God made his promises and backed them with his oaths it was not to compel him to do what he said he would do.
    It was to convince us, to give us a sure hope that he will absolutely do what he promised he would do.
    Now, we see in verse 17 that God gave the heirs of the promise an oath to back that promise because he desired to show more convincingly the unchanging character of his purpose.
    Throughout Genesis chapters 12 through 22, God’s promises to Abraham never changed because God’s purpose behind his promises never changes.
    And God’s oath to the heirs of the promise show that his purpose will continue unchanged, so the promises also remain unchanged.
    And in verse 18 we get a “so that” statement.
    “So that” indicates a reason or a result of what had been stated previously.
    God gave his oath to the heirs of the promise, and the reason or result of doing that has to do with us.
    WE are also heirs of the promise.
    He gave his oath so that WE would have strong encouragement to hold fast to our hope like Abraham did.
    Now, there are a few clauses in verse 18 that might need a bit of explaining.
    The first is “by two unchangeable things.”
    God has given us a strong encouragement to hope in his promises by two unchangeable things.
    But what are those two unchangeable things?
    The author doesn’t say exactly what they are, but the context is pretty clear to me.
    Pastors and theologians all throughout church history have said that these two unchangeable things are God’s promise and his oath.
    Some say it in different ways.
    One of the more memorable ways is that God cannot die and God cannot lie.
    The argument goes like this:
    An oath back in the culture of Israel apparently carried the death penalty if the oath was not upheld by the one who invoked it.
    And since God cannot die, his oath is based on his unchanging life.
    Also, a promise is based on the truthfulness of the one giving the promise.
    And since God cannot lie, his promise is based on his unchanging character of truthfulness.
    There’s nothing untrue about those statements, but they don’t seem to fit what the author of Hebrews is getting at.
    The passage the author of Hebrews is explaining with this whole argument about Jesus’ better priesthood is Psalm 110:4 “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.””
    As true and memorable as the traditional explanation is in general, I think the author had Psalm 110:4 in mind with these two unchangeable things God used to encourage us in our hope.
    The Lord has sworn, he’s given his unchangeable promise backed by his oath that Jesus is our great high priest forever.
    And the Lord will not change his mind, he’s shown us his unchangeable purpose that his Son is our great high priest forever.
    These two unchangeable things are God’s promises and his purpose.
    The next clause that I want to explain is “in which it is impossible for God to lie.”
    As we saw in the previous clause, traditionally this would explain one of the unchangeable things.
    But the relative pronoun “which” in Greek is actually plural.
    It’s not one of the unchangeable things, it describes both unchangeable things.
    God cannot lie about his unchanging promises, and God cannot lie about his unchanging purpose.
    Because it’s impossible for God to lie.
    God cannot lie because he is the truth, the author of truth, and all his ways are true.
    Psalm 18:30 says, “This God—his way is perfect; the word of the Lord proves true; he is a shield for all those who take refuge in him.”
    Which brings us to the last clause I want to explain “we who have fled for refuge.”
    When life is hard and sin and sorrow abound because of our fallen world and the inevitable persecution from it…
    We ought to run to God, into the arms of Jesus rather than away from him.
    We ought to flee from pain and sorrow and sin; we ought to flee these things to God as our refuge.
    But the only way that we will stay in him as our refuge is if we are sure that he will protect us and comfort us and save us.
    He’s our hope of comfort and salvation from sin and death.
    But remember what Proverbs 13:12 said about deferred hope?
    It make the heart sick.
    If we don’t reassure our hearts in the hope of God’s unchanging promises and purpose, then we may become hardened and fall away.
    The very things the author of Hebrews has been warning against throughout this book.
    God has given us his unchanging promises, and he’s shown us his unchanging purpose, and he cannot lie, so we can have unwavering hope in him if we keep reminding ourselves and each other about these things.
    Abraham had God’s promises guaranteed in his heart through God’s oath, swearing by himself that he would do what he promised.
    And we also have God’s promises guaranteed in our hearts with his oath since we are heirs of the promise, Abraham’s descendents of faith.
    But the assurance of our hope doesn’t rest in the obscurity of being blessed in some way by God because of our faith.
    The assurance of our hope rests in Jesus as the fulfillment of God’s promises and purpose, specifically that he is our great high priest forever, as we’re going to see in verses 19 and 20.
    Hebrews 6:19–20 ESV
    We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
    This is how we are encouraged to follow the example of Abraham because of God’s guarantee of his promises through his oath, specifically fulfilled in Jesus.
    This is…

    The Assurance of Our Hope (19-20)

    Our hope in God’s unchanging promises and purpose is a sure and steadfast anchor for our soul.
    Our hope is likened to an anchor that is as strong and as steadfast as God’s unchanging promises and purpose.
    When the wind and waves of life beat against us and push us around, we can remain steady in our faith, we can keep clinging to God our refuge because of our hope.
    And we can make sure that our hope remains strong and steadfast by reminding ourselves and each other about God’s promises and purpose.
    Like an anchor sinking all the way to the bottom of the water, our hope rises all the way to heaven past the heavenly curtain into the very presence of God, where Jesus is.
    You see, Jesus is who we are anchored to through our hope in him.
    Jesus has gone past the curtain into the heavenly holy of holies, God’s throne, and our hope for refuge from sin and death is attached to him as our great high priest forever.
    God has sworn and will not change his mind about this.
    Abraham had hope in God’s promises and his purpose because God gave him a glimpse of their fulfillment and his oath the secure it in his heart.
    And we can have hope in God’s promises and his purpose because we’ve seen how Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises and purpose.
    God promised to give Abraham uncountable descendants who would rule and bless the nations, and he fulfilled that promise in Christ.
    Revelation 5:9–10 says, “And they sang a new song (singing to Jesus), saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.””
    Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, all who put our faith in him are added to God’s kingdom as descendants of Abraham to rule with Jesus.
    And God’s purpose has always been to save us through the death and resurrection of his Son, Jesus, just like he gave Abraham a glimpse of that purpose of salvation through the almost sacrifice and practical resurrection of his son, Isaac.
    And we have the assurance of our hope in Jesus’ sufficient sacrifice and intercession on our behalf because God has sworn, just like he did with Abraham, that Jesus is our great high priest forever.
    A priest after the order of Melchizedek.
    Now, I’ve been talking a lot about God’s promises and purpose, and I want to make something crystal clear right now.
    God’s promises and purpose are the gospel.
    2 Corinthians 1:20 says, “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him (Jesus). That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.”
    That means that all of God’s promises culminate in the gospel of Jesus Christ.
    All of God’s promises have been leading up to God’s Son being sent by him to become human like us, to die in our place, and to rise from the dead like we will, all so that we could be forgiven and saved from sin and death and resurrected like him to live with him forever.
    God has always had this as his primary purpose in his interactions with us.
    From the very onset of the fall in Genesis 3:15 “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.””
    Through each of the covenants referring to the promised offspring who would bless all the nations and rule all of God’s creation.
    Through all of the prophecies about God’s anointed one, his chosen deliverer of his people, the rescuer, the redeemer, the Messiah, the Christ.
    And as we saw briefly in Revelation chapter 5, the theme of these promises and purpose go all the way into the future, into eternity in heaven.
    Our sure hope rests in how sure God’s promises and purpose are.
    And our hope is anchored to the one God’s promises and purpose are about.
    Jesus, our great high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
    Jesus, our Lord, our savior, our advocate.

    Conclusion

    So, we’ve got Abraham’s example of hope in God.
    And we’ve got our encouragement to hope in Christ.
    Encouragement based on the guarantee of God’s promises and resulting in the assurance of Jesus as our eternal great high priest.
    When you read about Abraham and the promises God gave to him and the oath he secured those promises with, look to their fulfillment in Jesus.
    Jesus is the one Abraham was saved by.
    Jesus is the one Isaac’s near death and resurrection prefigured.
    Jesus is the one we’re saved by if we have faith in him like Abraham had faith.
    Jesus is the one who became human, died on the cross, and rose from the dead to fulfill God’s promises and purpose for his creation.
    And Jesus is the one we’ll be worshipping for eternity because he did it.
    He fulfilled God’s promises and purpose and ransomed a whole kingdom of people from every tribe and language and people and nation.
    This is where our hope is secured.
    So remember and remind each other about the gospel.
    Because when we remember Jesus’ sufficiency and his fulfillment in the gospel, we are strengthening our hope, our anchor on Jesus.
    Now, if you don’t have this hope, if you haven’t put your faith in Jesus, then I beg you to do that right now.
    Without Jesus all of us would be hopeless and headed to hell for our sin against God.
    But God loves us too much to let us go.
    He sent his Son, Jesus to become a man, to die for you, and to rise from the dead so that you could be forgiven and reconciled to God, so that you could have hope of eternal life rather than dread of eternal condemnation in hell.
    So, in order to have this hope, this freedom from sin, this eternal security in God’s promises and purpose, simply confess that Jesus is your Lord and savior, and that God raised him from the dead.
    Romans 10:9 says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

    Pray

    Father, thank you for giving us your promises.
    You promised to bless us, and to save us, and you’ve done that through your Son, Jesus.
    And thank you for guaranteeing your promises in our hearts so that we can have a strong encouragement to hope in Jesus as our great high priest.
    I pray that you would help us remember these truths, to remember the gospel, to remember Jesus’ work on the cross and the empty tomb and how he is interceding for us right now.
    Help us remember these things when life is hard, and life is always hard in one way or another.
    Help us remember so that we can run to you in hope rather than away from you.
    Thank you for your purpose to save us from sin and death all to your glory and the glory of your Son, Jesus.
    We thank you and ask all these things in his glorious name. Amen.

      • Hebrews 6:13–15ESV

      • Hebrews 6:13–20ESV

      • Hebrews 6:16–17ESV

      • Hebrews 6:18ESV

      • Hebrews 6:13–20ESV

      • Hebrews 6:19–20ESV

      • Hebrews 6:13–20ESV

  • We Believe (Apostle's Creed)

      • Romans 8:32ESV

  • Be Thou My Vision (Hymn #382)

      • Romans 15:5–6ESV

Grace Baptist Church Eureka
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