1. "When someone tells you they're going to do something, how do you know they mean it? And even if they mean it, how do you know that they will be able to or that they will actually do what they said?"

2. "He's tender with us about our tendency to doubt. He knows what we are like. And so, though He doesn't have to, He makes this promise and He confirms it with an oath to help us in our weakness."

3. "The Bible is like an operating system that never needs to be updated. You never need to worry that when you open it up, it's going to say, hold on, wait three hours while I update things. No, the Bible's always there, always completely ready to go."

4. "If you don't think you need a refuge, if you don't think you have anything to flee from, Christianity will not be of any interest to you. It might not even make any sense."

5. "Sinners finding refuge in the presence of an all holy God. That's exactly what Christianity is about."

6. "The anchor promises that we will stay put, but it doesn't promise us there won't be any waves going up and down. We're tethered to this place, we're secure, but the ride till the end of the storm can still be there."

7. "A forerunner goes ahead and then you come in afterwards. People were never invited into the Holy of Holies in the old covenant. But Jesus, He goes into the presence of God in order to make a way for us to follow after Him into the presence ourselves."

8. "Why would you go back to the temple priests and leave Jesus there? That's like saying, I don't really want the meal. I'm fine with the menu. Why would you do that?"

9. "We as a church, we're future-oriented people. What brings us together is we're all going the same way to the same place. We come from disparate places, but we're all headed over there like the iron bits pulled by the magnet underneath going in this direction."

10. "If you think your situation is hopeless, you have not yet understood who God is. Real hope comes not by what we give, not by our reaching up, but by what God gives us by His reaching down in His great mercy."

Observation Questions

1. According to Hebrews 6:13, when God made a promise to Abraham, by whom did He swear, and why did He swear by Himself?

2. What does Hebrews 6:14 say God promised to Abraham, and according to verse 15, what was the result of Abraham's patient waiting?

3. In Hebrews 6:16, how does the author describe the function of an oath among people, and what does it accomplish in disputes?

4. According to Hebrews 6:17, what two things did God want to show the heirs of the promise, and how did He guarantee it?

5. In Hebrews 6:18, what are the "two unchangeable things" in which it is impossible for God to lie, and what effect should these have on "we who have fled for refuge"?

6. How does Hebrews 6:19-20 describe the hope we have, and where has Jesus gone as a forerunner on our behalf?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why is it significant that God swore by Himself rather than by something or someone else? What does this reveal about God's nature and the certainty of His promises?

2. The author describes believers as those "who have fled for refuge" (v. 18). What does this phrase suggest about the human condition and the nature of salvation in Christ?

3. How does the image of hope as "a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul" (v. 19) help us understand what it means to wait patiently for God's promises while still experiencing life's difficulties?

4. What is the significance of Jesus entering "into the inner place behind the curtain" (v. 19) as a "forerunner on our behalf" (v. 20)? How does this differ from the role of the Old Testament priests?

5. How does Abraham's example of patient waiting (v. 15) connect to the author's earlier warning in Hebrews 6:11-12 about not becoming "sluggish" but imitating those who "through faith and patience inherit the promises"?

Application Questions

1. The sermon asked what significant promise someone has made to you that remains unfulfilled. How does reflecting on God's track record of keeping His promises—as seen in Abraham's life and in your own experience—help you trust Him with the things you are still waiting for?

2. The passage describes believers as those who have "fled for refuge" to God. What are you currently tempted to run to for security or hope instead of Christ, and what would it look like to consciously turn back to Him as your refuge this week?

3. Abraham waited 25 years for God's promise of Isaac to be fulfilled. What specific area of your life requires patient endurance right now, and how can you practically remind yourself of God's faithfulness during that waiting period?

4. The sermon emphasized that we often trust lesser people (doctors, repairmen, financial advisors) to keep their promises. In what ways do your actions reveal that you trust human promises more readily than God's promises, and what is one step you could take to realign your trust?

5. How can you help a fellow church member this week who may be struggling to hold fast to the hope set before them? What encouragement from this passage could you share with them?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Genesis 22:1-19 — This passage contains the original account of God swearing by Himself to bless Abraham, which Hebrews 6:13-14 directly references as the foundation for trusting God's promises.

2. Romans 4:13-25 — Paul explains how Abraham's faith was credited as righteousness and how believers today are heirs of the same promise through faith, reinforcing the sermon's point about being heirs of the promise.

3. Romans 8:28-39 — This passage demonstrates the unchangeable nature of God's purpose for His people and the security believers have in Christ's intercession, echoing the themes of God's immutable plan and Christ's eternal priesthood.

4. Hebrews 11:8-19 — The "hall of faith" chapter expands on Abraham's patient waiting and faith, providing additional examples of how the patriarchs trusted God's promises without seeing their full fulfillment.

5. 1 Peter 1:3-9 — Peter describes the living hope believers have through Christ's resurrection and how faith is tested and refined, connecting to the sermon's theme of patient endurance anchored in certain hope.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Challenge of Waiting for Unfulfilled Promises

II. Context of Hebrews: Jewish Christians Tempted to Abandon Christ

III. God Confirmed His Promise with an Oath (Hebrews 6:13-14)

IV. God Is the Greatest Being Who Made the Promise

V. Much of God's Promise Is Already Fulfilled (Hebrews 6:14)

VI. Abraham's Patient Waiting Was Rewarded (Hebrews 6:15)

VII. We Believe Lesser People Will Keep Their Promises (Hebrews 6:16)

VIII. God Does Not Change His Plans (Hebrews 6:17)

IX. God Does Not Lie (Hebrews 6:18a)

X. God Alone Is Our Refuge (Hebrews 6:18b)

XI. Christ's Sacrifice Was Offered for Us (Hebrews 6:19)

XII. Christ's Priesthood Is Eternal and Effective (Hebrews 6:20)

XIII. Hope for Those Who Fear They Have Wandered Too Far

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Get in mind a significant promise that someone has made to you that they've not yet fulfilled.

Maybe it's Verizon.

Maybe it's the district government.

Maybe it's a friend.

Or your employer, or your father.

When someone tells you they're going to do something, how do you know they mean it? And even if they mean it, how do you know that they will be able to or that they will actually do what they said?

Do they have a track record?

Can you name another person or cite an example of a time when they've made a similar promise and kept it?

Do you have much experience of people keeping promises they make to you?

Or have you been let down so often that this topic is a very tender one for you?

How do you know His plans won't change or circumstances might prevent it?

Do you trust this person?

I mean, do you really have much of a choice? In your situation?

Have they already done the most difficult parts of the promises they've made to you and just not quite finished it yet?

Do you have any reason to think this person's promise will expire or fail?

This is right where the author to the Hebrews has us. In our study passage this morning. So far in the New Testament, he has held out in this letter Christ to Jewish Christians whose faith seemed to be wavering. Some seem to be deciding to no longer trust Christ. Their time for relying on him was seeming to be about to run out as they were considering, and some perhaps were even going back to the worship in the temple.

Let's just review this letter and what we've seen in it so far. If you take your Bibles that are provided, you can find it beginning on page 1001. Of course you can look in your own Bible if you brought one with you. If you're not used to looking at a Bible, the chapter numbers are the large numbers, the verse numbers are the smaller numbers. With it, let's let's just see there the beginning of Hebrews.

While you're turning there, let me simply set the stage for you. When the church first begins in the book of Acts, we see this very interesting note in Acts chapter 6, verse 7. The word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. And a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. Friends, it seems like this first Christian church in Jerusalem was not that small and was very Jewish, and that it included a lot of priests, former priests, people who were very familiar with the sacrificial system that we see described in the Old Testament.

This letter to the Hebrews was written to them when some of them seemed to be about to lose patience with waiting for Christ to return and fulfill all His promises. And so they were considering returning to the regular Jewish temple worship instead of continuing to trust in Christ. If you look here at the letter, the writer starts in the first couple of chapters telling us that God has finally spoken through His Son, Jesus Christ, that the Son is superior to the angels. That's chapter 1. And that's when he then warns them at the beginning of chapter 2, it's the first of seven warnings in the book.

He warns them here at the beginning of chapter 2 not to disregard or ignore what God has said to us through Christ. And then in chapter 2, the rest of it, he explained the obvious question, Isn't Jesus merely a man? And he explained that Jesus is God's Son and also truly made man and that He had to be, to be a priest for us, to represent us before God. That's really what chapters 3 and 4 and most of 5 have been about. This is where he explained in chapter 3 that Jesus was greater than Moses.

And that's where he stops and gives his second warning in chapter 3, beginning at verse 7. He points out that they need to not only pay attention, like he said in chapter 2, but they need to believe what they're hearing. He points out in chapter 3, remember all those Israelites under Moses, the great ministry of Moses, they all heard God's word and yet they perished because they didn't believe it. That's what he says in chapter 3. They were excluded because of their unbelief.

Last verse of chapter three, so we see that they were unable to enter the Promised Land because of unbelief. Then in chapter four, he shows these wavering Jewish Christians that Jesus is greater than Joshua, Moses' successor. We read there in chapter four, verse eight, For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken another day later on. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. And then in chapter 4:14, the author begins what is really the main theme of his book, and that is Jesus is greater than the high priest, than any high priest they're going to find back in the temple in Jerusalem.

And he'll keep going in this theme really for much of the letter through at least the first half of chapter 10. So this is the section of the book that we find ourselves in. It's about Jesus being the greater high priest. The author begins with these sweet words that we considered a few weeks ago, chapter 4:14. Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Then in chapter 5, the writer specifically compares Jesus to the founder of the Jewish priesthood, Aaron, and he looks at the temple priests and he notes that these temple priests were taken from among men. They too were sympathetic, but it's because of their own weaknesses, including their own sins, and therefore they presented sacrifices for the sins of the people and their own sins. He points out that God had called Aaron and his descendants to this role.

And then in chapter 5 verse 5 he points out that Jesus too was divinely chosen, that Jesus offered up earnest prayers for deliverance and became the source of eternal salvation. But it's like there's something there in chapter 5 verses 7 to 10 that is getting so deep into the Christian message that he remembers some of these people he's writing to, of course, seem to be in danger of falling away from it. So there is something clearly that they are fuzzy on that's very significant, especially in understanding Jesus as their priest, as a mediator for them. So he wants to go on and explain this eternal priesthood of Jesus, how much better it is than any priesthood they might find back in the temple. And he's going to get to that, Lord willing, in chapter 7, the text we hope to come to next week.

But first he stops and he warns them again. You know, he said in chapter 2 that they need to listen up. In chapter 3 that they need to believe what they're hearing. But here in chapter 6 he looks at these exhausted believers and he says to them in this warning that we began to consider last week, Look, you need to keep believing. You need to not just believe it initially, but you need to keep believing.

I remember last week there at the end of chapter 5 he rebuked them for being spiritually dull and immature. Then in chapter six, he called them to move on and progress spiritually. And verses four to eight is that stern warning that we considered about rejecting Christ. He balanced it with some encouragement there in verses nine to 12 of chapter six. Well, the rest of the chapter is the rest of this warning.

And in our passage that we look at this morning, he finishes off this warning reminding them of the basis they have for confidence and steadfastness in Christ. He reminds them of the fulfillment of God's promises, the sureness of that. Listen to our passage for today, beginning in chapter 6, verse 13.

For when God made a promise to Abraham, 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. 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, 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. 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.

So friends, I want us to look through this passage verse by verse and see what reasons there are for us today to keep waiting patiently for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham and so as Abraham's descendants in the faith, his promise to us as well. He mentions here in chapter six, verse 17, the heirs of the promise. You see that? Well friends, those heirs are not simply Abraham and his immediate descendants. Those heirs are still there in the first century AD when this was written.

Back in chapter 4:1, the writer said, While the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. Those people reading this letter were heirs of this promise. We see this image of heirs of the promise used again and again of Christians in the New Testament. John in 1 John 2:25 refers to the promise that God made to us of eternal life. Back in chapter 1 of Hebrews, verse 2, the writer calls Jesus Christ the heir of all things.

So friends, in Christ, he tells us in Matthew 28, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him, and He promises His presence with us. We are with Christ. We are in Christ. According to Galatians 3:29, we are Abraham's offspring. We are heirs according to promise.

How did we get such an exalted status? Well, a lot of us were studying a few weeks ago on Wednesday night in Romans chapter 8, verses 16 and 17. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, Christ. So you see that promise that God made to Abram back in Genesis 12, that through his descendants he would bless them and through them bless all the families of the earth.

That promise comes down to us as Christians. We are heirs of that promise. That promise is still being fulfilled in us. It culminates in Christ and in him we have been promised both eternal lives ourselves and we then can be the bringers of this good news of eternal life to all the families on the earth. Now the question that was pressing in on these Jewish Christian believers in the first century was simply how could they keep waiting patiently for God to fulfill all his promises?

That is, the world was still falling around them. Death and suffering still were all around. How could they continue to trust Christ while death and still stalked their world as it does ours. So that question that was very specific that caused Hebrews to be written is still a question that resonates with us today. There are always people in a congregation of this size who are in that category like those people in the first century looking over at something else wondering is this really working?

Is this really all it was cracked up to be? This following Jesus? Isn't there something better? So the question that this passage addresses is why we should keep waiting patiently and persevering in our faith in Christ. He warned them in the first part of it to keep going, to not just believe, but to keep believing.

And in the last part of this chapter that we're looking at now, he gives us some reasons. He helps us to see why we should keep believing. Look at the couple of verses right before our passage. The two verses we looked at at the end last week, there in chapter 6, verses 11 and 12, We desire each of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. We want to see all of us inherit these promises.

So as we look through our passage today, I want to point out to you 10 reasons for patiently waiting. That is for persevering faith in Christ. 10 reasons.

I said 10.

I could tell you that some of them are longer or shorter, but I might like you to figure that out yourself.

And I bring this one up first because I think it's the most obvious thing we notice in this passage that we have to sort of understand. Number one, God confirmed his promise with an oath. God confirmed his promise with an oath. That's the two unchangeable things he mentions, the promise and the oath. God confirmed his promise.

I will bless you and multiply you with an oath, he swore by himself saying. So an oath is swearing, swearing is taking an oath. And the promise is that future indicative statement about others. So that's what's going on here. Verse 13, For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself.

But what the writer is referring to, you can find back in Genesis 22. You can make a note, look there later, verses 16 and 17. Genesis 22:16-17, where we read the Lord calling to Abraham, By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply your offspring. So here we have God's promise of blessing and multiplying, and our writer says God confirmed this promise by swearing. That is not saying a bad word, but taking an oath, swearing in that sense.

Now, traditionally, taking an oath in any culture would be asserting something and then calling on powers above you, especially divine powers, to obviously contradict you, to make it known to everybody around you, to judge you immediately if you're lying. And in the ancient world, an oath was often the end of the matter. You would swear in the presence of somebody superior to you in social standing, invoking them to punish you should you be lying. And you understand in a society with fairly little formal judicial structure and effectively no police, no prisons, this informal method was nearly universally employed to promise loyalty, to ensure honesty, to add weight and solemnity to business deals, to decisions that needed to be made, because people took it seriously when they said that. They really believed there was a God.

And they really believed that they were exposing themselves to serious danger and peril if they spoke specifically calling on God as their witness. Now, it's interesting at this point that some Christians think, well, didn't Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount forbid us to swear, to take oaths? And didn't James repeat that in James 5:12? Certainly we're commanded not to regularly or commonly make such oaths. But we know they're not by nature wrong.

The Old Testament law actually instructed the Israelites to swear by the Lord's name as part of their worship of him. So in Deuteronomy 6:13, you can look it up later, Deuteronomy 6:13, they are instructed to swear by the Lord's name instead of swearing by Baal or swearing by some other power to show who they were really united with and loyal to. So this was assuming that such oath taking was a necessary part of life and that such wrath invoking oaths should show who you believe to be able to judge you for misspeaking. If you wonder, did Jesus mean to say this is always wrong? I think the answer is clearly no.

If you look in Matthew 26, when Jesus himself is in court at the end of his earthly ministry, he he speaks, testifies under oath in court. It's the kind of casual debasing swearing that I think Jesus and then later James were forbidding. It's where the inflation of language degrades normal language and you trot out oaths all the time for things that don't deserve them. But in serious matters, we today here in this church regularly use oaths. We're about to see Eva taking oaths a little bit later when she's baptized.

Every time we install new elders or deacons, you see them taking a whole series of vows in front of you and oaths. So we regularly do this to solemnize and make weighty certain expressions that we say. So here God was showing how seriously he took this promise to Abraham and to us who are Abraham's descendants. So brothers and sisters, if you are confused at all about this, just understand that God has so confirmed his promise to his people. And so we should trust him.

He has given his promise to us in the most secured form of communication, a promise with an oath. I will, he swore by himself. That's the way that we should understand this. He's tender with us about our tendency to doubt. He knows what we are like.

And so, though He doesn't have to, He makes this promise and He confirms it with an oath to help us in our weakness. Believe him.

Among so many other applications for us here, I just want to suggest one, and this is that you respond to the seriousness of God's communication to us with the seriousness in your own study of God's Word. If God has taken such care to communicate to us, seriously study his Word. Friends, the whole way we've structured our life together as a church is to begin every week together with a meeting like this. In fact, it is this one, with this meeting. And at this meeting, the very center of this meeting is what I'm doing right now.

In fact, you called me to do this. You pay me to prepare for this. You pray for me to do this. And part of the way that we take this seriously is in the very way this place is laid out. It's in the very fact that we have Bibles translated into English, and we have copies made available here in the pews.

Jamie earlier asked you to take one if you didn't have one. This is what we're doing in these messages. So one thing you can do is prepare for the sermon by studying the passage in the week leading up to the message. So you know we print these sermon cards three times a year. It's on the website as well, but we've got copies of them for all of you, the racks by the door as you go out of the building.

Take one of these. This has all the sermons that we're planning in May, June, July, and August. So you can see the passage that's coming up next Sunday. You can read it every morning, be tilling up your own heart, getting it ready. So that when you come, you're prepared to hear God's word.

I do that in my own quiet time, whether I'm preaching or Bobby's preaching or somebody else is preaching. The point for me when I do that during the week is not sermon prep, it's heart preparation. It'll become sermon preparation when I start working on the sermon. But friend, I would encourage you to do this. We do this so much that even when we go on vacation, I'll figure out where I'm going to church on Sunday and I'll try to look on their website or if I need to, you can call them to find out, hey, what are you preaching on this coming Sunday?

Because that's what I want to be studying every day of the week going up to the Lord's day. Well, that's just one idea for you. If you want a reason to wait patiently, consider carefully what God has so solemnly promised to us. Look at what He's done. He has taken an oath.

That's why you should keep trusting Him. But there's still another reason in verse 13 for us to wait patiently on the Lord's promises to us. Look at whose promise it is. It's God who has promised us. Verse 13, For when God made a promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater by whom to swear, He swore by Himself.

Think of what that phrase means. He had no one greater by whom to swear. Why is that? Because there is no one greater than God. So if there's no one greater than God, God doesn't need to confirm things to us by swearing, by some king or president, he can replace some son of dust who's here for a moment and then gone.

He's the eternal creator of everything. He is the just judge of all. He's over all nations and all families and all entities. We are privileged, friends, for him to make himself known to us at all and to promise himself as he has. We have His truth to know for ourselves and to share with others.

So this church and all of our hymns and prayers and readings and sermons is meant to be all about this greatest of beings, God. And when this God promises something, we can patiently wait for those promises to be fulfilled and we can wait with confidence because who it is that has made the promise. Not just how he's made it, first reason, confirmed with an oath, but second, who it is who made it. God himself, this greatest of all beings. Another reason, number four, so much of God's pro, verse 14, number three, just freaked out the note takers.

I was thinking verse 14, it's number three, so much of God's promise to us is already fulfilled. Would you think about that? Look at verse 14 and read it.

Surely I will bless you and multiply you. So that's the promise that God gave to Abraham first in Genesis 12, and it was so unlikely when he gave it. But after 25 years later, it was fulfilled. Isaac was born. To Abraham and Sarah.

Well it makes sense then that the author would turn to Abraham. He was the father of the Hebrew nation. He was the father of the religion that some of the people were thinking about going back to. And as with the promise of entering God's rest, the final fulfillment of this promise lay ahead still in the future. But Abraham is a nice bridge into talking about Melchizedek there in chapter 7, which we'll get to more next time, Lord willing.

We find Abraham again later in chapter 11, the most prominent member of that great hall of faith. And though the final fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham is still in the future, we've already seen so much of it. We've already seen at this point that God did give Isaac to Abraham and Sarah. And then Isaac fathered Jacob, and 12 sons were born to him, and they become the great nation of Israel, composed of 12 tribes. And God gave them his law through Moses, and the promised land through Joshua.

And God gave them prophets and judges and kings and leaders. He gave them David, and through David still more promises of one who would rule forever. And that one who was promised to rule forever has come, Jesus Christ, the Son of God and Son of man, truly God and truly man. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1, All the promises of God find their yes in him. He came not to serve, not to be served rather, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

Now you may be here today not knowing that your life needed to be ransomed, but according to the Bible, this holy God made you to be like him and you, friend, have not been perfectly holy. You've not been always right and good. That is, you've taken your creation in his image and you've used it for your own smaller purposes, for your glory, for things that you think are good, even if God doesn't say they're good. And friends, I know this is not because I know each one of you, but because I know what the Bible teaches about all of us. And that's true for all of us.

God, in His great love then, did not simply judge us all as He rightly could have, but in His amazing love He sent His only Son to live a perfect life of trust, relying on the promises of God, living according to His Word, and he gave his life as a sacrifice for sinners in the place of all of us who would ever turn from our sins and trust in him. And God raised him from the dead. He ascended to heaven and he sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. He sat there as the interceder for us, as the throne of mercy himself, presenting the real atonement for our sins that all the ones at the temple were only shadowy pointers to. Friends, this is the one who calls us now to turn from our sins and to believe in him, to trust him, and so we'll be forgiven and find new life.

This church is a collection of several hundred people who've done that, who've understood that, who've come to be born again in Jesus Christ. And that's the good news that we have for you, that this promise of God that he has made to us has already been fulfilled. On so many levels in the lives of so many of us here. He promised forgiveness of sins and life eternal to all who believe in him. He said, the Lord Jesus said to his followers that he would be crucified and he was.

He said that he would rise again from the dead and he did. He said he would return to his father in heaven and send his spirit and he did. He said that his gospel would be proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and it has been. He said God's Spirit would bear fruit in our lives, and he has. I could go on and on, brothers and sisters, with parts of this promise that we have already seen fulfilled.

We here as a community have seen his Spirit give new birth to Claudia and to Ryan and to William. And to Eva that we'll be celebrating today and to so many more. His Spirit is at work in us, and he will continue to fulfill all his promises to us in his time and in his way for our good and for his glory. So we should wait patiently, because God has already shown himself a fulfiller of promises in the lives of all of us sitting here. Another reason, number four.

We have the example of Abraham's patient waiting rewarded. Look at verse 15. And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. Abraham's patient waiting is the example that the writer is presenting to these Hebrew Christians. This is what they should do.

They should follow his example, and so should we. Now, if you know your Bibles very well, you may be thinking, Abraham? He's not exactly the best example, is he? And that's a good question. But for some reason, Abraham is held up as the father to the faithful, not just here, but in Romans chapter four, Paul does.

In James chapter two, James does. Even later in this book of Hebrews, he'll talk more about him in chapter 11. Why is this? Because friends, instead of chucking it all and going back to the worship of idols in Ur, Abram kept following God. He kept trusting him.

He kept believing the Lord. And that's exactly what the writer is urging these Christians here to do in chapter six, to not turn away from Christ and go back to the temple priests whose only function anyway was just to point to Christ. Why would you go back to the temple priests and leave Jesus there? That's like saying, I don't really want the meal. I'm fine with the menu.

Why would you do that? You wouldn't. And so he's trying to show that to the people here that you don't want to do that. Abraham waited 25 years for that first promise to be fulfilled of Isaac, but he kept believing.

So what about for you? What spiritual stretch is God calling you to in your current circumstances? God has put us in time like this and He's decided to do these things that He could do all of these things instantly. I mean, if He made the world by speaking a word, what could He not do in your life? So why does He tell you He's going to do something like sanctify you perfectly and then stretch it out over so many decades?

Why not just get the thing done? Well, obviously, He's teaching us something about ourselves and about Him. We mean to learn and to even show others as an example of what this faithful God is like. So we ask Him for those things like we were praying for a few minutes ago. What is it you're asking for these days?

For God to help you grow in your faith, to continue in your hope, to see how you can be loving in a certain situation or maybe keep being loving. Is it God giving your family children? Is it finding a husband or a wife or consolation for grief over a husband or a wife you've lost? Friends, talk with some others over lunch today about what it means for you to patiently wait for the promises of God. What is the difference between the things you want and pray for and that which God has promised you in Christ?

Let me ask that again. What's the difference between the things that you want and pray for and what God has promised you in Christ. Some of those things you want to pray for are promised to you in Christ. But friends, all of our needs will be met by Christ in heaven, won't they? You know, one of the main reasons to join this church is to help others wait well, to help each other as we wait, and let others help you.

We have so many good examples of waiting being rewarded in the pages of Scripture, but one of them, one of the chief ones, is Abraham. So look to his example to help you wait patiently. Another reason you can wait patiently today, number five, we believe people less good or powerful than God will keep their promises. So what's up with that? Why would we credit these other people and not God?

That's really what he's saying in verse 16. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes and oath is final for confirmation. It's normal, he's saying, to swear to confirm a promise. This is something he assumes all his readers will know and has sent too quickly. He's not arguing about this.

It's common practice at the time. And oaths and vows you call on God as a way of showing the seriousness with which you intend your statement to be taken. Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God. And whatever statement then is appended to it, to an oath like that, is to be taken as being confirmed or guaranteed as being the truth. So not only have you said it, but you've invoked someone greater than yourself to enforce the truth of what you're saying.

And that, he says, puts an end to all argument there may be about whether that person is lying. They have invoked the judgment of heaven on them if they're lying, or if they fail, and so you believe them. Friends, other people promise things all the time, and we believe them. The repairman says he's coming Thursday afternoon, and so we clear our schedule. We don't even know his family.

The doctor tells you that this practice will have this effect. The lawyer says drawing up this document will protect this. The financial planner advises that making this investment will get you that. A friend tells us he's going to explain what he meant. We can go on and on and on about statements people make to us all the time about the future.

Friends, if we can wait patiently for these other people's promises, surely when the Lord Jesus promises that he's coming back again, we can wait patiently trusting him, knowing that he of all people can be that He will do just what He said and everything that He said. So wait patiently for God to fulfill His promises because we believe people less good and powerful than God will keep their promises. Another reason to wait patiently for God to fulfill His promise. Number six, God assures us that He doesn't change His plans. He doesn't need to change His plans.

He is sovereign. Look at verse 17. 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. Friends, the Bible is like an operating system that never needs to be updated. You know, you never need to worry that when you open it up, it's going to say, Hold on, wait.

Wait just half an hour. Wait just three hours while I update things. No, the Bible's always there, always completely ready to go. God's counsel, His plan, His decisions are immutable. They are completely stable by their very nature.

No new information will be forthcoming to change His plans. No improvement in moral reasoning, no growth in values and progress in knowledge. God is already completely good and holy and just and righteous in all of His ways. There's nothing waiting to be added to Him to help Him out. We can rejoice in that and be confident in that.

There are never any new facts for him to take into account. Beautiful examples of this are found throughout the Bible. If this is a weakness for you, if this is maybe a reason why you're having trouble trusting God, let me suggest, let me give you a prescription of three books. All right, three books. And most all of you already own all three of these books.

All right, Ruth, Jonah, and and Esther. So this week, they're all short. You could read them out loud. Take one and read it and see if you can notice God's sovereign, unchanging plan. So in Ruth, you know, when Ruth is accompanying Naomi back, and when Naomi is coming back into Of all places, Bethlehem.

All her children have died. And she's now wondering, you know, what am I? I'm barren. I have no hope for the future. And the very time she's complaining bitterly, what do we see all around it?

The barley harvest is growing. And so the reader knows that this is where the hope is going to come as Boaz meets Ruth and the line of David goes on. Or if you go to the book of Jonah that we considered so recently through Ben's preaching, you see in Jonah how God used this reluctant prophet to get the gospel to an enemy state. And there was great repentance, even against Jonah's desires. Or the book of Esther, which is supposedly the most godless book in the Bible, but yet there is this delicious phrase that keeps on happening.

And it happened that. And it happened that. And it happened that. Friends, that is the sovereign hand of God. That is God moving things around exactly for his purposes to get the maximal glory for himself and to protect his people.

So, friend, if you are having trouble trusting this God and you need to work on knowing that his plans don't change, that he is good and sovereign, take these books. From this unchanging nature of God's character, God encourages His wayward people with His mercy. We read in Malachi 3, I, the Lord, do not change. Therefore, you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. You might think He says, I, the Lord, do not change, so you're in big trouble.

But no, I, the Lord, do not change. So, friends, that mercy that I promised, it will be there for you. I, the Lord, do not change. Those promises are held out as the writer to the Hebrews says later in chapter 13, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. If God has promised us something, we can root our hopes fully in it.

We can wait patiently for it. God is even more stable than the best of parents. Some of us in this room have been given wonderful parents. God is even better than them. God is completely good, completely wise, completely sovereign.

This is the God who desires us to know and to be convinced for our own good and our own satisfaction. So friends, we as a church, we're future-oriented people. What brings us together is we're all going the same way to the same place. We come from disparate places, but we do things in different ways. But we're all headed over there like the iron bits pulled by the magnet underneath going in this direction.

That's us with the promises of God going toward God. Our unity as a church comes and are all traveling together because we trust this sovereign God who is working for his purposes. We are believing and following this sovereign unchanging God. And because his plans don't change, ours don't have to either. If we're trusting in him, we can keep trusting in him.

You can wait patiently also number seven because God doesn't lie. God doesn't lie. Verse 18, so that by two unchangeable things, and again, that's His promise and the oath confirming His promise, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, and I just want to stop there and just notice, God doesn't lie. God does not lie. If He's told us something, we can believe it.

What God promises will occur. So, parents, one of the great stewardships that God has given us with little impressionable people is that they grow up learning a lot about God from the way we treat them. So when we speak, we want to make sure we do what we speak. So we teach them of the honesty and the reliability of our heavenly Father. The family is the most basic unit of how we learn to trust others.

And our experience in church with our fellow Christians should reinforce our willingness to believe others as they also Tell us the truth. God in his word has given us so much, hasn't he? He's given us just what we need. He has provided life and new life in his word. He gives us what we need to feast on.

So we've been exulting in God's word, believing what he says. Every Wednesday night in Roman and in Romans eight, it's just been so wonderful to stare at these promises of God. So friends, we're very careful here about how we teach about God, because that affects how you hope in him. And we want you to hope in Him well. We want to be clear to present Him as accurately, as truthful, because He is always truthful.

And the more you understand that, that will help you to keep trusting Him and to keep waiting patiently. Another reason to wait patiently that we see here in verse 18, number eight, God alone is our refuge. You see, he says here in verse 18, so that by two unchangeable things, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. So God confirming the truth of his promise to his people as he has, is meant to be a strong encouragement to our patient waiting and holding this hope as those who have fled for refuge. What an interesting phrase.

Fled for refuge. Now particularly if you're here and you're not a Christian, you may wonder, who's fleeing? What do I need to flee from? What refuge do I need? Those are great questions.

So if you don't think you need a refuge, if you don't think you have anything to flee from, Christianity will not be of any interest to you. It might not even make any sense. So try to explore with your Christian friends what it is exactly that we think all of us are in danger of, that is God's good judgment of us because of our sins, and why that would make us flee. And in what sense we would flee to God for refuge, because that seems strange. If God is the one who is perfect and who made us and who will hold us to account and He's the one we've offended by our sins, wouldn't it make sense to flee away from him?

Why would we flee to him? That's very strange. Well, it is. And that's what we learn when we learn about the Son of God coming and becoming for us our refuge. That's exactly what Christianity is about.

Sinners finding refuge in the presence of an all holy God. And friends, beginning to understand that, asking that question takes us back into the heart of our Christian faith and of why we can wait patiently for God's fulfillment of all His promises and of the work that Christ has done that no other Jewish priest could ever do. Again, why would you leave this place and go back to that place when all they're doing is just pointing over to Christ? Christ is the fulfillment of all this. So we flee to God for refuge from God's good, just, and right wrath.

Because where else can we find such refuge? He is the offended party. It's just like what Bobby, you read last week in John's Gospel where Simon Peter, after Jesus had had some hard teaching, remember, and a lot of people leave him. And Jesus looks over at his disciples and he says, what about you? Are you going to leave too?

And Simon Peter gives a less than resounding answer. But an earnest one. Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of life. There's no competition here.

It's a monopoly. You know, you've got the only hope there is. You've got the corner on this market. If God alone is our refuge, then we should trust in him and all his promises to us. Paul says to the Philippians in Philippians three, he talks about obtaining the resurrection from the dead, and he says, not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, But I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Brothers and sisters, we can trust the one who has conquered death for us. So I wonder what you think your biggest problem is today.

If you answer that, then you'll see where your own heart is going to want to take you for refuge. That's what you want to untangle over lunch or this afternoon as you're reflecting. Fellow church members, let's renew our resolve to help each other hold fast to the hope set before us and wait patiently for God. We hold fast by waiting patiently. That's how we do it, for God to fulfill all His promises to us.

Another reason to wait patiently, number nine, Christ's sacrifice was offered for us. Look at verse 19. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain. Now he's got a few different images that are compacted together here in verse 19. But the main one is in the second half of the verse, it's that image of entering into the inner place.

And that's referring to the Holy of Holy in the temple in Jerusalem, which in Hebrews becomes really a picture for the heavenly, the true Holy of Holies, which is also the throne room of God that we talked about earlier in this Hebrew series, how Jesus has entered there after his ascension. He has come into the presence of his heavenly father. He's presented his sacrifice. It's been accepted. He has sat down on the throne of grace and he's begun to reign there as the Messiah King.

He's begun his reign already now. So this passing through is going into this sanctuary and there finding rest. So this is Jesus, the high priest, who has passed through the heavens and has exhorted them back in chapter 4, let us hold fast our confession. Jesus has gone into the place of atonement for us, the cross, and he has offered himself. And in the cross and resurrection and ascension and session there, presentation to the Father, his promises to us are fulfilled.

It's this sufficient sacrifice. Than that is meant to be the anchor of our soul, that anchor that we sang of earlier that is sure and steadfast. And this is an anchor, this is a, is an image that's a full of meaning. Uh, the anchor promises that we will stay put, but it doesn't promise us there won't be any waves going up and down. So, you know, we're, we're tethered to this place, we're secure, but the ride till the end of the storm can still be there.

And that's the image that we see here. Our sins pronounce our death, only God's promises in Christ can give the spiritually dead life. So as a church, we work together to help each other be secure in our trusting in Christ and to continue in Him. We want to help each other continue to trust in Christ. Sacrifice offered for us.

This is the foundation for our trusting God for all of His promises to us and patiently waiting for their fulfillment. And finally, a reason to not walk away and not go back to the temple, but to keep trusting Christ and wait patiently for all of His promises to be fulfilled in us. Number 10 is Christ's priesthood is eternal and effective. Christ's priesthood is eternal and effective. Look at verse 20.

Where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Well, again, this takes us back to the topic we hope to consider over these next couple of weeks in chapter 7. Getting back to the topic that he was beginning when he switched to this warning, look back in chapter 4:7.

Again, he appoints a certain day today, saying that through David so long afterward in the words already quoted, Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. He's really showing here that the result of God's good work is to bring us to that place of victory, of salvation, of rest in Christ.

And this is the confidence that we have because of Christ, because his priesthood does work. Again, thinking of Romans 834, who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Friends, this is the basis of Christ's wonderful priesthood. Though its effects begin in your life one specific day, the life changing effects continue on.

If you became a Christian 10 years ago, that's wonderful. There was change then, but you've also noticed that change continues. So again, Christ's priesthood is not like the one at the temple in Jerusalem, passing and ineffective. As part of rejecting Christ, ironically, the temple would become an idol itself.

Friends, that's not what we're to do. We're to listen to the promises of Jesus. Remember what he said in John 10? The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Brothers and sisters, he came for us to have life and to have it abundantly, and he will do what he promises. And you, if you're a Christian, will already know that in some measure. And that measure will one day be perfect and full. He uses also, you're the image of that forerunner on our behalf. There are a few different things that that word was used for.

One of them was of a little boat that would carry the anchor of a larger ship into a harbor. And so help to plant the ship in a difficult time so that it could get into the harbor. It's a small thing that goes on before to bring the whole thing in. Well, this is an image that's very different of the priesthood of Aaron and Sons. You know, Aaron and Sons, they keep teaching us a lesson.

It's an important lesson. But there is sin, there is atonement, but they don't provide the atonement. They're just pointing that there will be one. They would go into the Holy of Holies again and again, each time having to go in because the previous time didn't finally fully work. But Christ enters once.

That's the difference between his priesthood and theirs. And you know what the other one is? They are never called a forerunner because a forerunner goes ahead and then you come in afterwards. People were never invited into the Holy of Holies in the old covenant. No, they were seeing a picture of something.

But Jesus, He goes into the presence of God in order to make a way for us to follow after Him into the presence ourselves. So we are in the presence of God. Nothing that the priest of the temple had ever promised. He goes to prepare a place for us. Into the eternal presence of God.

Because Jesus Christ's priesthood is eternal and effective, we can wait patiently for all of His promises to us. You see from all these reasons that our promise-making God is completely trustworthy and completely worthy of our patient waiting. I think of how Paul reasoned in Romans chapter 5. We also rejoice in our sufferings. Because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope.

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him?

For if when we were God's enemies we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life. Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation. Visiting pastors at this weekender conference, we are so honored to have you. Thankful you've got somebody to preach for you while you're away. I pray that this message will continue to be your message, that you will hold fast to this message, that you will continue to hold out this message of the reconciliation of God through Jesus Christ.

Our true hope is only in Christ. And this is the hope that does not disappoint. Now one final application here at the very end. This warning in chapter 6 is a serious, even a severe warning. And we thought last week about some of the people who were considering turning away and maybe even had, at least for a time, turned away.

So the question for us is, what if you're sitting here and you're one of the people who's wondering, Am I hearing this warning too late? Am I really one of those people who was brought up hearing this? Maybe I grew up in a Christian home. Maybe I've been a member of this church for a while, but I know pretty much effectively I've walked away from all this. And I wonder if I'm this one who's just finally condemned in Hebrews chapter 6.

Maybe you think when I'm talking about hope, I'm talking to somebody other than you. I can't be talking to you. Perhaps you're thinking you've gone beyond the bounds of God's care, that you've put yourself outside the realm where He could still call you in His mercy. One of my favorite quotations from the writings of John Bunyan is where he wrote that sometimes a man is, as he apprehends so far off from God, that they think themselves beyond the reach of God's mercy. But then Bunyan writes, When we think His mercy is clean gone, and that we ourselves are free among the dead, and of the number that He remembers no more, Then he can reach us.

This should encourage them that for the present cannot stand, but that do fly before their guilt, them that feel no help nor stay. I will say before thee, and I pray thee hear me, O the length of the saving arm of God. As yet thou art within the reach thereof. Do not thou go about to measure arms with God. I mean, do not thou conclude that because thou canst not reach God by thy short stump, therefore he cannot reach thee with his long arm.

Look again. Hast thou an arm like God? Job 40. It becomes thee when thou canst not perceive that God is within the reach of thy arm, then to believe that thou art within the reach of His, for it is long and none knows how long. Friend, if you think your situation is hopeless, you have not yet understood who God is.

Real hope comes not by what we give, not by our reaching up, but by what God gives up, what He gives us by His reaching down in His great mercy with His long arms. God has promised. He has given us His Word. He has given us His Son. What more do we need?

This is the Christian's continual hope this morning. Is it yours?

Let's pray together.

Lord God, you, know the challenges that we feel to our faith this morning.

We pray that yout would, in mercy, Remind us of all the ways you've already shown yourself to be a promise fulfilling God in our life. Strengthen us by your word. Lord, we pray that our faith would not fail. We pray, Lord, that you would honor yourself by making us faithful. Do that even today, we ask in Jesus' name, Amen.