Refuge from the Storm

Hebrews chapter 6 and we've had the bad news we now have the good news and let's read from verse 9 through chapter to the end of the chapter to verse 20 so Hebrews chapter 6 reading from 9 through 20 Hebrews 6 9 but beloved we are confident of better things concerning you yes things that accompany salvation though we speak in this manner for God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you've shown towards his name in that you've ministered to the Saints and do minister and we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end that you do not become sluggish but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises for when God made a promise to Abraham because he could swear by no one greater he swore by himself saying surely blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you and so after he had patiently endured he obtained the promise for men indeed swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute thus God determined to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope that is set before us this hope we have as an anchor for the soul both sure and steadfast and which enters the presence behind the veil where the forerunner has entered for us even Jesus having become high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek and so the the writer is encouraging the Saints and obviously encouraging us that we should not fall away and he gives the warnings concerning that in the beginning of the chapter and now he is going to speak about the the great promises that we have and the immutability the guaranteedness of those promises that we have remember that it's connected in verse 14 sorry verse 15 and so he after he does Abraham had patiently endured he obtained a promise that's connected to the previous section in verses 9 through 12 where he speaks about the fact that we need to endure so let's have a look at those verses then in verse 13 for when God made a promise to Abraham because he could swear by no one greater he swore by himself and so God makes an oath when he promises Abraham now remember that we are taught by Paul in Corinthians and also by James not to make oaths but that I guess must be yes and I know must be no but obviously there is a place for making an oath and of course the point of the notes and if we just skip forward to verse 14 no 15 for men indeed swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute so if there's a dispute if there's a disagreement about the facts this is not a disagreement about you know about a point of view but about the facts one says well it's this way and the other one says no it's that way they resolve that dispute men do by saying well I swear it's this way and so it gives veracity it gives weight to the statement of course the reason why men need to use oaths is because their yes is not there yes and Paul and both Paul and James say that your yes be yes your no no in other words if you say yes it means yes it doesn't mean maybe off or something else and the problem we have today of course is that even when people make an oath they it has no weight it really is meaningless and so people will will make oaths about all sorts of things promise to fulfill their their office an oath in court testifying in court and yet they will blatantly lie and so an oath has no value anymore these days but in the old days it did have value because men believed in God and believed that when they took an oath by God that God would punish them if they if they lied the thing with an oath is that essentially if you don't keep that oath you are breaking the third command taking the name of the Lord in vain so you're saying by God this is what happened or I swear by God this is what happened now if that is not what happened if you're lying then you're taking God's name in vain for the Jews that was a very very serious thing and so they would not take an oath lightly what they would do in the New Testament the the Pharisees is they would find a way around that and so they would say well you know I didn't swear by God but I'll swear by the temple or I'll swear by the gold of the temple trying to find some some way around now the problem with an oath is that the the oath calls the one to who the one whom you call as witness to your oath as a witness in other words if you're saying I swear by by the governor of California that this and this and this well he can only testify or witness against you or for you depending on which way it's going as long as he's alive the moment he's dead it has no power and so the only one that you can really swear by is by God who is eternal in fact the Pharisees and the the the rabbi said that you cannot swear by the earth or by the heavens because the earth and the heavens will pass away you must swear by God because God is eternal and he never passes away so those are just some general comments about making an oath now when God made a promise to Abraham because he could swear by no one greater he swore by himself now that's pretty self-explanatory God could not swear by by anyone else there is no one greater than God so if he's going to make an oath he has to make that oath by himself he is the one who is eternal now he's referring to where are we let me see now I've got myself lost again Genesis chapter 2 verse 16 and we'll read three verses there so you remember what happened is that God had brought Abraham he was 75 years old brings him out of the Gentiles brings him to the promised land promises him two things promises him the land and promises him a great multitude of descendants and Abraham is eventually a hundred years and promise is still not fulfilled and in fact we'll see later on in Hebrews chapter 11 when we get there we'll see that Abraham died and he still had not received the promise of the land because he understood that the promise of the land was more than just Palestine more than just the promised land Israel the promise was in fact the New Jerusalem so he never he never inherited that promise he died living in tents never built a city never lived in a city even though he was a civilized man and had come from a very well-developed city and so but the promise of his son and of descendants then happened and then the Lord takes him and says to him now you need to take your son your only son and you need to go and sacrifice him and we know how that Abraham then goes and he he puts Isaac on the on the altar and the Lord stays his hand and there's a ram in the thicket taking the place of his son picture of the cross and the ram is killed and the son is set free and so it is at that point at that moment that God then said in Genesis 22 16 by myself I have sworn so this is what Hebrews is referring to by myself I have sworn says the Lord because you have done this thing and has not withheld your son your only son blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies and then this 18 in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice we'll see this later on in the book of Hebrews is the book of Hebrews highlights the fact that he says in your seed singular not in seeds as of in other words the blessing is not in the nation of Israel the many the blessing is in one descendant one seed one descended the Lord Jesus Christ and so God then makes that promise to Abraham now of course the question then is why does God have to swear so verse 13 when God made a promise to Abraham because he could swear by no one greater he swore by himself saying surely blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you verse 15 and so after he had patiently endured he obtained the promise so this is a interjection it breaks up the flow of thought a little bit but of course it's connecting it to the previous section we said that we must endure and so he is now saying that pay that Abraham patiently endured and he obtained the promise the promise of descendants now he had to wait a long long time he had to wait 25 plus years for that promise to be fulfilled and then he waits another long time to to see more than just one descendant and and so he patiently endures and he obtains the promise and this is the whole point is that he is saying that we need to patiently endure now the the problem is that we one of the reasons we don't patiently endure is because we lose faith in the promise so when when when someone makes a promise and says I will do this and this and the person doesn't do it and doesn't do it and doesn't do it and days go by months go by years go by eventually you come to a place where you say it's not going to happen because the promise is not a good promise it's there's nothing no substance to the promise the problem and of course this is the reality of of life is that we have all sorts of things that we promise ourselves that we assume are promised to us we assume because we are Americans that we are promised the pursuit of happiness that happiness is promised to us well it's not promised God doesn't promise it maybe man tries to promise it but God does not promise happiness and yet we promise ourselves I'm going to be happy I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that and I'm and and it doesn't happen we've been through two and a half years of COVID now and you know next month it's going to change next month it's going to be different next year is going to be different I remember clearly when it first began and we were in Australia and we thought oh well it's going to be six months we're going to have to tough it out and then we'll get back to normal well it's five times six months now and we're still not back to normal and so we lose faith we lose hope and of course that's one of the problems that the health people the health officers have because whenever they want to impose some new restrictions we say well you promised last time we had this hope that you know if we do this or that we would get out of this thing and it's not happened and so and so when our hope is frustrated we lose confidence and we lose hope and what he is trying to get us to understand is that God's promise is not a empty promise God is not a man that he should lie nor the son of man that he should say and not do it and so what God promises he will do and so we need to continue to have faith or have hope in the promise and not lose heart that's the whole problem so we've lived a long time with a promise that Jesus is coming soon and of course he is coming soon but the problem is that many have lost faith in the promise and said where is his coming remember that Peter says they'll say where is he's coming because nothing has changed from the beginning 2,000 years now that we've been saying Jesus is coming and he hasn't come yet but God is not slack concerning his promises if God has promised he will do it and so we need to be patient concerning the coming of the Lord we need to be patient concerning the promises that he has made for us in his word now just by the way also the part of the problem also is that we we claim promises from God that God has not given us and so preachers like to say well you know that God promises you that you know that your marriage is going to be without problems now God never made that kind of promise and yet we we try and say well that's a promise from God it's not a promise from God because God cannot God cannot fulfill he that kind of promise because the promise is not dependent on his goodness the problem promises dependent on our obedience to him and so so yes he can give us good marriages he can give us the kinds of things that we want but at the same time it's dependent on us obeying him and because it's dependent on us God cannot be held to the promise and that's why the covenant that God makes with Abraham is a unilateral covenant it's a one-sided covenant God does not say to Abraham if you do this and do that then I will bless you God says I'm going to just bless you end of the story because God knows that even Abraham was not always a good boy that even Abraham messed up and so God does not make the promise to Abraham conditional on Abraham's performance but it is conditional on God's ability to keep his promise and so he endures and he obtains the promise and then he says in verse 16 for men indeed swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation is from for them an end of all disputes so we've we've touched on that and so now why then does God swear why does God make an oath remember that God is not like us who don't always keep our word who don't always speak the truth I've just quoted that God is not a man that he should lie the problem is not with God's credibility the problem is with our unbelief God is 100% dependable reliable faithful credible he keeps his word he never fails the problem is that we don't trust him and so it's not because God has to somehow say look you know the one of the reasons we we make an oath is is really with the moment we make an oath we say well you know I normally lie but but now I'm promising you I'm telling the truth now of course that's a problem we should always be speaking the truth now God doesn't normally like God always speaks the truth there is no evidence anywhere that God has ever lied that God's ever made a promise that he is not kept and that he is not fulfilled and in fact the whole point of the of the coming of the Lord Jesus or not the whole point but one of the things about the coming of the Lord Jesus we've gone through the book is to see how that the promises in the Old Testament are fulfilled in the New Testament that that that even the unbelievers the Roman soldiers and those around fulfill the promises that God made or the prophecies that he made in the Old Testament so here's that then the reason for the for the oath is so that it's so there's no no further argument now verse 17 thus God determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise that word determining is a very very strong word it is rooted in God's sovereignty in the fact that God does what he chooses to do and God in his sovereign will says I'm going to show them more abundantly I'm going to give them more evidence than they even need it's it's God's goodness God's grace that he makes the promise so God determining to show more abundantly and I want you to see these these words abundantly abundantly so so you see here's here's the thing is that when we come to the Word of God we don't have a couple of pages that give us a bit of an outline and says well you know this is this is that you know God made man man sin Jesus died on the cross no he he gives us hundreds of years of writings from Job the first book that was written Genesis right through to the book of Revelation covering hundreds and hundreds of years many writers writing from many different perspectives in many different cultures and many in three different languages all of them giving us abundant evidence for our faith so so God doesn't just give us a few words and say well there it is now you need to believe no he in his in his grace and in his mercy knowing that we are weak gives us abundant evidence abundant promises abundant proof of the resurrection abundant proof of the fact that Jesus is indeed the Messiah as we've been seeing in the Gospel of Luke so to show more abundantly to the heirs of the promise so who are the heirs of the promise we are the heirs of the promise what was the promise I will make you a great nation and we know that that great nation is not just Israel but also many of the Arab nations come out of Abraham so there are physical descendants from Abraham and we know that Galatians deal deals with that that they are not the true sons but they are half sons we understand all of that but then there's also the spiritual sons so early on God shows Abraham the sand of the seashore and he says your descendants will be as the sand of the seashore in the passage in Genesis that we looked at he says your descendants will be as the stars of the heaven and and I interpret that to mean that there will be two groups of descendants the earthly descendants being Israel and the heavenly descendants being the church but Paul is very clear in the book of Romans and elsewhere that we are the sons of Abraham because we believe with the same faith that Abraham believed and so we are also Abraham's there so God gives him a promise and we are the inheritors of that promise mainly here he's speaking about the descendants but remember that there's another promise and the promise is of a city which has foundations whose builder and maker is God Abraham did not receive that promise that promise is yet in the future that promise we see in the book of Revelation is called the New Jerusalem and so we are still waiting for the fulfillment of that promise we are the evidence of the fulfillment of the first promise we're still waiting for the fulfillment of their second promise that deals with the city so he to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel there's a fancy word immutability simply means the unchangeableness the unchangeableness of his counsel God cannot change God is not a man he does not lie he is the same yesterday today and forever heaven and earth will pass away but his word will endure forever God does not change God's word does not change his counsel does not change so he wants to show us more abundantly more than we need proof that he word is not changing you see the problem with changing is that whenever we make a promise and we break the promise invariably what defense do we give for the breaking of the promise oh things have changed things have changed and so because they have changed or because I have changed my mind but because there is change I no longer feel I'm held to the word I gave in the beginning in Psalm 16 he says who's the man who will walk with God it's the man who swears to his own hurt and yet performs it in other words he makes a promise discovers that in fact the promise is against him is is is going to cost him more than he thought it was going to be and yet he still performs that even though it's costing him more than he anticipated this is the man that God will honor and so he wants to show us the immutability the unchangeableness of his counsel confirms it by an oath so that we are absolutely sure that God's promise is sure and steadfast and he will fulfill it now this 18 he says that then that by two immutable things this is where you can easily get hung up in this passage two immutable things what are the two immutable things well the first one is in the previous verse so determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel he confirms it by an oath so that's the first thing it's actually the second but never mind verse 18 that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie so there are those two things that cannot change God cannot lie and God swore an oath and so he gives us double assurance he didn't need to do that he all he needed to do is give us his word and we know that his word is yay and amen and yet he because of our weakness he gives us two things his word and his oath and so by which by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie when we lose confidence in the Lord or in his promises we must ask ourselves is God a liar when things don't work out for us the way we want them to work out has God deceived me and of course the answer is no it is impossible for God to lie he cannot lie and so in that we find comfort because when things don't work out like this church in that the letters being written to who's saying well you know we thought Jesus is going to come and you know life's just going to be wonderful and we're going to serve him and we're going to have wonderful revival meetings and everything's going to be great and wonderful and now suddenly they get fed to the lions and they get beat up and they get imprisoned and and life really becomes hard in a very real way it's easy for them to say well we maybe we misunderstood God make maybe it's not the way we thought it is no God's Word is sure if it has not worked out the way that we wanted to work out it's not because God lied it's because of something else and there's many other reasons which I don't want to get into it has to do with ourselves has to do with things around us but God cannot lie and so by two things his inability to lie and and and and I want you to see that in that it is impossible God is not able to we choose I hope not to lie but not one of us is unable to lie every one of us is very able to lie it's something we can do but it's something God cannot do he doesn't have to force himself to speak truth he is truth and so it's something that not just something he does not do an honest man in the world an honest man in Christianity is a man who does not lie but he's not a man who cannot lie but God cannot lie it's impossible for him to lie and so that we might have strong consolation remember I said notice the the adjectives if we go back to verse 17 that he determined to show more abundantly not just abundantly but more abundantly the immutability of his counsel and now he says that we might have not just consolation but strong consolation strong consolation of course the word consolation comfort who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope that is set before us and so we're able to have comfort these guys needed comfort because they were facing persecution they were being discouraged they were getting persecuted by their fellow Jews and they were being persecuted by the Romans and everybody was against them but there was comfort in the promises of God and not just comfort but strong comfort now the problem is that when we need comfort and we do need comfort and consolation especially these days as we have gone through probably in certainly in all of our lives probably the most difficult times in our lives in these last several years due to the political situation the covert thing and now the economy the war these are really difficult times now I understand they don't compare to the First World War or the Second World War those were even worse times but for us these are probably the worst times that we have that we've experienced and we're not even talking about personal problems and personal issues that we that we're dealing with and yet we can find comfort and our comfort is in the promises of God our promises are in the hope that is set before us and so he says that we we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge you see here's why many Christians don't have consolation don't have comfort because they have not fled for refuge to the Lord Jesus the moment we need comfort we speak to our friends we speak to our spouse maybe we try and escape it by watching a movie whatever it is but we find some kind of escape we find some kind of comfort in this world and yet there is no comfort in this world because the world cannot keep its promises if you've been watching the stock market in these last months you see it goes up and it goes way down and a lot of that has to do with the hope of tomorrow is going to be better so let me buy now because tomorrow is going to be better or the other way around but there's only one place that there is consolation and that is with the Lord Jesus and so we have strong consolation who have fled for refuge and we are living in a time that is stormy stormy economically politically health-wise emotionally in every way we're being battered by the winds of change and by the storms of life but we need to flee notice who have fled for refuge not who have sought refuge when when the ships when the fishermen are out with their little ships out on this on the ocean and the squall comes up the storm starts happening they put those engines in full blast and they run for the harbour with all the speed and haste that they can because they have to flee the storm and folk we need to not just find refuge in Jesus but we need to flee to him we need to run with all we have because it's the only place there is peace from the storm there's the only place there is security and refuge and the fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us now remember that when he speaks about the hope he's speaking about the resurrection so that is the hope that is before us of course the the rest of the promise of the New Jerusalem is tied up with that and so we need to not just hold on because it seems that in the language that he is using is that they're out there in the storm they're not where they should be in a place of refuge and he says you want to give up because you can't deal with a storm anymore but in fact you shouldn't be in the storm you should be in the place of safety you should be in the cleft of the rock you need to flee for refuge and you need to lay hold of the hope set before us lay hold of the hope set before us but it's easy to to cling to your 401 or your social security or your job or your relationships or whatever it is but they cannot offer security they are temporal they are fickle they change but there is one hope that will never fail and that is the hope of the coming of the Lord the hope of the resurrection and we need to lay hold of that hope and you know the the picture I get is of in Acts chapter 27 remember Paul is on the ship and the ship is in the middle of a storm the ship is being driven onto the rocks and it says then fearing lest we should run aground on the rocks they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come so they throw out four anchors to hold them so that the storm doesn't dash them against the against the rocks now I'm going to come back to that idea of the anchors because that's in the last verse but you remember then what happens the next day is that they are told to abandon ship and they jump overboard and they grab hold of pieces of wreckage pieces of the ship they those days they didn't have Mae West's and life jackets and those kinds of things so they grabbed hold of a piece of wood a plank whatever it was and I can imagine how they would lay hold of that piece of wood they were not going to oh well let me know they were going to embrace that piece of wood with everything they have because it was their only chance of getting out of the sea and making it and of course we know that they they all made it but but I but I see in that a picture here then of verse 18 who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope we need to lay hold of it we need to grab it with all that we have and the problem today is that so many Christians are yeah they saying well we have this hope but they're they're holding it with one finger while they play over here and do their own thing but we need to embrace that hope with all that we have because it's the only thing that will see us through we think times are rough they're going to get rougher still there is no promise that the stock market is going to change there is no promise that covert is ever going to get better and I'm not maybe I'm pessimistic but I don't see it there is no promise that politically things are going to get better they're getting worse by the day not just in this country but every other country and if anyone still has hope in a earthly government doesn't matter which government doesn't matter left or right or this country or another country you're wasting your time because it's going to get worse and worse but let's grab hold of that hope and let's cling to it with all that we have and then he says this hope and I know spoken about this many times but I need to deal with it again to finish off this context but this hope we have as an anchor of the soul I want you to see that he says an anchor of the soul the soul is the emotions it's our emotions that are like the stock market they're up and down and up and down but the hope that we have is an anchor to our emotions to our soul it brings stability and for the reason so many Christians don't have stability is because because they're anchored in things other than the hope set before us their hope is based on their relationships is based on their finances based on their job and as the job goes up and down and the boss is in a good mood they're good and if the boss is in a bad mood they're down and if business is up they're up when the business is down they're down when they feel strong and healthy they're up and when they get sick they're down and so we go on and on and on and on but this hope is an anchor it gives stability and as we saw that verse in in Acts chapter 27 the storm could not drive that ship because the anchors there were four anchors that says and they were holding the ship and stopping it from going adrift and so we have an anchor for the soul and it is sure and it is steadfast there is nothing in this world that is a sure thing except death and taxes I guess but there is nothing that is steadfast there is nothing that is the same except the weather in California but for the rest it all changes moment by moment every time I turn on the news there's something that has changed something different and I'm not we're not talking about small little differences big stuff happening all the time shootings and killings and battles between the parties and the list goes on and on and on and on stock markets down and crashing it prices are going up and gas is going up and gas is never going to come down again they tell me but this anchor is sure and it's steadfast and the reason it is is because it enters the presence now I see the presence is in italics so it's not in the original it enters behind the veil the presence is it's legitimate there but it's it's not the original so where is the anchor it's in heaven itself and while we say heaven and earth will pass away this is not heaven in the in the space in the in the cosmos that's going to pass away this is the very presence of God which never changes and that's why the anchor is sure and steadfast if your anchor is in something that is not sure it's going to drift we all saw what happened last year when the ship out in the bay dragged the anchor and ruptured the oil pipeline the anchor was out there but it couldn't hold and the ship drifted but if we have our anchor in a place which does not move it is sure and it's steadfast and this is the reason why so many Christians are falling away because that's the context of the passage they're falling away because they're anchored not in heaven but they're anchored in the pastor they're anchored in the church they're anchored in this world in one way or the other but they're not anchored in heaven and when the storms come they don't last they don't endure that's the whole context of what he's dealing with here and so he's saying let's get our anchor in heaven and let's cling to that with all that we have and then verse 19 this hope we have as an anchor for the ship sold was sure and steadfast which enters the presence behind the veil where the forerunner has entered for us even Jesus having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek now the last part of the verse now introduces us to chapter 7 which we're going to deal with again with the order of Melchizedek so I'm not going to deal with that first half of the verse so the anchor goes into the presence behind the veil now remember we spoke about this on Sunday when Jesus died the veil was torn and access was given to us into the very presence of God and so that's where we need to be that's where we need to find that security now he says the forerunner Jesus has entered there so why does he speak about Jesus as the forerunner as the pioneer as the pathfinder because he's trying to infer he's trying to remind us that if Jesus is the forerunner then he Jesus not the runner he's the forerunner in other words there are others who will follow and so we are the ones who will follow so he's saying Jesus has entered into the presence of God but he's just a forerunner I'm not saying just in a I'm not minimizing the greatness importance of Jesus but he is he is the forerunner and we are those who going to follow into the presence of God and so he is then saying that we need to have this anchor where Jesus is where Jesus is in the presence of God having become a high priest forever now he's going to speak about that high priestly ministry of the Lord Jesus father we thank you for the fact that we can find stability and security steadfastness in this world Lord not in this world but in heaven itself and Lord that as we live this life here and much Lord as a as a ship bobs up and down on the waves but if it's anchored it's not going to move and yes Lord the waves of this world push us up and pull us down but Lord if we're anchored into heaven itself and Lord while the anchors of the ships go down our anchor goes up and Lord I pray that we may indeed have an anchor in the very presence of God Lord that we may flee from the insecurity the storms the problems of this world to the Lord Jesus himself that we may lay hold with all of our power all of our might on those promises that you've given the promises that you're coming again the promise that because I live you will live also the promise that when you come we will be caught up to meet you in the air but we will be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye the promise that you are bringing for us a new city at your new Jerusalem in which righteousness dwells Lord we thank you for those great promises and Lord we pray that we may grab hold of those promises and just like Abraham Lord who lived all his life and didn't see them fulfilled only partially fulfilled pray Lord that we may in spite of not seeing the promises fulfilled we'll never lose faith and lose heart because you are true Lord you've given us two immutable things your word and your oath Lord I pray that you'd help us to not lose confidence in you as many are but Lord that we may grab hold of that hope and Lord that we may make it to the end we ask this in Jesus name I pray Lord that you'd go with us keep us and protect us bring us together again safely on Sunday we pray for those who are not here Lord you know each situation we pray that you administer to each one according to their need we ask this in Jesus name amen