Before we read the passage, I want to remind you, as always, that we will be reading the word of God that was given by God through his Holy Spirit to the writer of Hebrews. It’s recorded for us to read. If God, who made all things, including us, has recorded something for us to read, we had better take it seriously.

¹⁶Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument. ¹⁷Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. ¹⁸God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. ¹⁹We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, ²⁰where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. (Hebrews 6:13-20)

Through last week’s passage we were warned against falling away—falling away from following Jesus. (Last week’s passage is right before this week’s passage. We are going through Hebrews in sequence for any of you who have not been here right along. We don’t skip anything. God didn’t skip it, so we won’t either.)

The writer of Hebrews (God’s Holy Spirit is the writer of Hebrews, but I will refer to the human writer...) The writer of Hebrews, after warning us against falling away, is giving us some encouragement. (Remember, this is written to Jewish believers in the early church, but it’s written to us, also.) I’m going to read the last three verses from last week’s passage:

¹⁰God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. ¹¹We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. ¹²We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. (Hebrews 6:10-12)

God will not forget us. If we started out following Jesus, he wants us to be diligent to the end so that we will inherit what he has promised. What has he promised? He has promised eternal life, rather than death. He has promised heaven, rather than hell. And although the promise of eternal life is certainly vastly more important than anything else, God has promised more. We have an inheritance that is kept in heaven for us. I’m going to read 1 Peter 1:3-5 (you’ll see where the name of our church, Living Hope Fellowship, came from, too):

³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade— kept in heaven for you, ⁵who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:3-5)

We have a new birth into a living hope not a dead hope. We have ad inheritance that can never perish spoil or fade. And we are protected from falling away by God’s power through faith. Faith is trusting God. (And, as I have frequently pointed out, in the Bible, in Greek, faith is the same word as faithfulness. Faith and faithfulness are only distinguished by the translators according to what they think the context calls for. Faithfulness goes together with faith.)

¹¹For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹²If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, ¹³his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. ¹⁴If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. ¹⁵If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. (1 Corinthians 3:11-15)

¹⁹“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. ²¹For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21)

What are you looking forward to right now? ...a nice house? ...big screen TV? ...maybe retirement, for some of us. Those things may be OK, but they won’t last! Where your treasure is, that’s where your heart will be also. Let’s store up treasure in heaven. Then our hearts will be in heaven. (And I better point out that I’m speaking to those of us who have entrusted ourselves to Jesus for salvation. If you haven’t done so, you are still dead in your sins and transgressions. You are headed for hell! And there is no one who hasn’t sinned. So don’t delay any longer. Entrust yourself to Jesus for salvation.)

Let’s go on to today’s passage. The last verse of last week’s passage, verse 12, says: “We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised.” The first verse of this week’s passage, verse 13, says, “For when God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself...” (The NIV doesn’t have For, but it’s there. It’s in the Greek and in all the other translations I look at. I don’t know why the NIV translators left it out. “For when God made his promise to Abraham...”)

It says, “Imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised. For when God made his promise to Abraham...” The writer of Hebrews is still talking about God’s promises in this weeks passage. And the point he is going to make is that when God promises something, it is certain that he will bring it about.

God made a promise to Abraham. He swore by himself: “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” What was the basis of that promise? God tested Abraham. This is a quote from Genesis chapter 22. That’s where God confirmed his promise by an oath. He had made this same promise other times to Abraham. Genesis 12:2, 3 says, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” ‘A great nation’ is many descendants. (And it says, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” Jesus, by human descent, was descended from Abraham. Jesus died for all peoples on earth.) Genesis 13:16 says, “I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.” Genesis 15:5, 6 says, “He (God) took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars— if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’ Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” Believing—trusting—God is credited to us as righteousness, too, by the way.) God had promised many descendants to Abraham earlier, but in Genesis 22 he confirmed the promise with an oath.

In Genesis 22, God tested Abraham. He said to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about.” (You know, Isaac was not a young boy when this happened. He may have been around the same age as Jesus was when he went to the cross. And there are many similarities between his life and the life of Jesus.) Abraham followed God’s instructions. (You know, God does not condone human sacrifice. There was only one time where he permitted human sacrifice, and that was the sacrifice of his own Son on behalf of the rest of us. I think there’s evidence that Abraham knew that God would not allow him to go through with the sacrifice of Isaac, but nevertheless, he took Isaac to be sacrificed.) When God saw that Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac, he told him, “Don’t lay a hand on the boy.” He provided an animal sacrifice, instead. And that’s when God made the oath to confirm the promises that he had made to Abraham. I’m going to read it. This is from Genesis 22:15-18:

¹⁵The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time ¹⁶and said, “I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, ¹⁸and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.” (Genesis 22:15-18)

Abraham, because he trusted God, was willing to sacrifice his own son Isaac. You know, Abraham was rich—very wealthy. God had made him rich. But what do suppose was more precious to him, his material wealth or his son Isaac? But Abraham was willing, in any case, to take Isaac to be sacrificed as a burnt offering. And God the Father was willing to sacrifice Jesus to save us from hell. What are we willing to sacrifice in this life because we trust God? What are we willing to offer? It only makes sense that we must be willing to offer everything! *******

God had promised Abraham something: “I will surely bless you and give you many descendants.” He confirmed that promise with an oath. He has also promised us something and has confirmed it by the blood of Jesus—the blood of the New Covenant. What has he promised us? Eternal life...immortality...bodies that are indestructible...no more sickness...no more mourning or crying or pain...no more death! How important is it to know these things? Does it seem like they are off in the distance somewhere? Are they obscured by all the stuff that’s going on around us now? They really are not very far away. We need to have God’s promises in our hearts all of the time!

Verse 15 in today’s passage says, “And so after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.” You know what? Abraham died without seeing any of the promised descendants beyond Jacob, Isaac’s son. (Yes, he had other children besides Isaac, but God’s promise was to be reckoned through Isaac.) Abraham died without seeing any of the twelve patriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel or their tens of millions of descendants. He died without seeing Jesus, his descendent through whom all nations on earth would be blessed.

But you know what, else. What I’ve just said is not quite right. It’s not quite right because Abraham is not dead. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. The Sadducees, who claim there is no resurrection of the dead, were arguing with Jesus that there was no resurrection of the dead. They believed that when you were dead, you stayed dead. This is what Jesus said to them: “Now about the dead rising— have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? (not, “I was the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob,” but “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” That’s my comment.) Jesus went on to say, “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!” (Matt. 12:26, 27) They were badly mistaken. Even though Abraham’s physical body has long since been buried, he’s still alive! And you know what else? I said that Abraham never lived to see Jesus. But I think Abraham really did see Jesus even while he was still in his physical body! Jesus was there back in Genesis. And while he was in his physical body, Abraham received what was promised by faith. We have to receive what was promised by faith, too. But we have this to assure us: God the Father was willing to send Jesus, his one and only Son, whom he loved, to become a man and to suffer and die on our behalf. Not only that, after Jesus had suffered and died, he rose from the dead—and we will rise from the dead, too.

Let’s look at verse 16. God swore an oath to Abraham to confirm what he had already promised to Abraham. Verse 16 says, “Men swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument.” Really? Does swearing an oath really put an end to all argument? Men are liars. (Women are, too, just so they don’t feel left out.) I think we—we in this present time and place—question whether swearing an oath could possibly put an end to all arguments because there is no fear of God in this present time and place. But I’ll give you one example where swearing an oath has quite a bit of influence. It’s when we take an oath to tell the truth before testifying in a court of law.

In a court of law, people are less likely to lie (whether they fear God or not) because they know that there are severe penalties for committing perjury. If you don’t fear God, then the judge is the someone who is greater than you (men swear by someone who is greater than themselves) and you fear him. He has the ability to charge you with perjury.

The book of Hebrews was written to Jews—to believing Jews. They would have been afraid to swear falsely before God. How would you feel about swearing falsely before God? If you fear God, you won’t do it! (And, by the way, Jesus told us not to swear at all—not by anything. He told us to simply let our yes’s mean ‘yes’ and our no’s mean ‘no’. Anything beyond that comes from the evil one. Jesus was rebuking the unbelieving Jews who were in the habit of swearing by this and that and the other thing. That meant that they were really liars.

¹⁷Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. ¹⁸God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. (Hebrews 6:17, 18)

The writer of Hebrews says in verse 18, “...we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us...” If you look up the word translated fled, it says it means to flee to refuge or to safety. John the Baptist warned those he was preaching to to flee from the coming wrath. Except that he put it a little more strongly than that. I’m going to read it. This is from Luke 3:7-10:

⁷John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? ⁸Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. ⁹The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

¹⁵The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ. ¹⁶John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. ¹⁷His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” ¹⁸And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them. (Luke 3:7-18)

The ‘coming wrath’ really is coming. God will judge. His winnowing fork is in his hand. What did John the Baptist tell them? Share with those who are in need. Be honest. Don’t cheat anyone. We need to examine ourselves on all of these things continually and in all of our decisions. The last verse in this passage, verse 18, says, “And with many other words John exhorted the people and preached the good news to them.” Good news?! Man! You read that passage and it doesn’t sound anything like good news! But the word translated fled in today’s passage (“...we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us...”) means to flee to safety or to a refuge. We have fled to Jesus. He is our refuge.

God wants us to be encouraged. These days there are many distractions around us. Jesus talked about these things in the Parable of the Sower. In the parable of the sower Jesus represented the message of the gospel as seed. The sower scattered the seed. Some fell on the hard path. The seed that fell on the path was immediately eaten by the birds so that it didn’t even have a chance to germinate. Jesus said that this represented people who heard the word but the devil came and snatched it away before it had to a chance to take root at all.

Some of the seed that the sower scattered fell in rocky places. It came up quickly. But in the hot sun and dry weather, it died because it didn’t have any root. Jesus said that this represented people who received the gospel and began to grow, but when there was trouble or persecution, they fell away. (There’s always trouble or persecution, so we need to hold firmly to God’s promises.)

Right now we have worries about a depression. People were encouraged to go into debt for houses they can’t really afford—the deceitfulness of wealth—and then when taxes went up and there was a downturn in the economy, it all comes crashing down. We need to not let these things choke the life out of us—the life that Jesus gave us. Jesus said that we must seek God’s kingdom and his righteousness first and all these things—material needs—will be given to us as well. I’m going to read the passage. This is from Matthew 6:25-34:

²⁵“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? ²⁶Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

²⁸“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? ³¹So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³²For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

We have an anchor for the soul. What’s an anchor do? It keeps you from drifting. How easy it is to drift away from Jesus—especially with the deceitfulness of wealth or the worries of this life. (Did you know, by the way, that poor people, people below the poverty level, provide around half—I don’t remember the exact percentage—of the income for the state lotteries? That’s the deceitfulness of wealth.) But we won’t drift if we have the hope of what God has promised as an anchor for our souls.

And, by the way, just what is a soul? I used to have a small airplane. (I sold it over 20 years ago.) Anyway, I’d be flying along and I’d hear over the radio someone filing a flight plan from the air. They’d say, “We have four souls onboard.” They meant their were four people onboard. Souls are people. But souls are much more than just warm bodies. The Greek word translated soul is psyche. It’s sometimes also translated as life depending on the context and on which translation you are looking at. I’m going to read some passages where the word is used and you’ll get the idea. The first one is from Mark 8:34-38. The words life and soul in the passage are both translations of the same Greek word psyche. In fact, the footnote in the NIV points out that they are translations of the same Greek word. Listen:

³⁴Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ³⁵For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. ³⁶What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? ³⁷Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? ³⁸If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.” (Mark 8:34-38)

²⁹“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ ³¹The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

³²“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. ³³To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself.” The people who had been questioning Jesus weren’t doing anything like loving God or loving their neighbor. They were trying to trip Jesus up. The man who asked Jesus about the most important commandment knew the answer. He was giving Jesus the opportunity to rebuke those who were questioning him. They were completely put to shame. From then on no one dared ask Jesus any more questions.

Verse 20 in today’s passage tells us that Jesus has entered the Most Holy Place in heaven, the place where God the Father is, before us. He entered with his own blood as a payment for our sins. He entered before us. That means we can enter there after him and bring our requests before God. Jesus is our intercessor. Praise the Lord! And the writer of Hebrews is going to tell us more about these things as we go on through Hebrews.