The Wicket Gate

Introduction

Good morning! Go ahead an open to Hebrews 6, we are going to cover the rest of chapter 6 this morning with verses 13-20. I am sure most of us have watched at least one of the many different singing talent shows that have been done or are being done. Inevitably, if you have, you have been introduced to contestant, usually they are off by themselves nervously getting themselves ready and immediately the reflective music starts playing and you get their back story and all the adversity they have overcome in life to get where they are.

Those feel good stories always end with person saying, “I never gave up because I just knew I was going to make it.” or “I couldn’t quit because I promised my grandpa I would make it for them.” The reason why those stories make it in to every show is because they resonate so well with us. As cheesy as they are sometimes, seeing how someone has overcome adversity and pulled through is inspirational. Seeing how someone pushed through against all odds because of a promise they made. Seeing how their circumstances and difficulties didn’t distract them from where they were going.

We could say they displayed faith and patience. They demonstrated earnestness, perseverance, and steadfastness. I feel confident the producers of American Idol or many of those contestants didn’t intend to communicate gospel virtues, they were just trying to pull at your heart strings to get you to keep watching but in the light of general revelation sometimes the truth of God and his word can not be hidden.

That feeling you get when you watch one of those intro stories is the same feeling I want you to have this morning except you aren’t just watching someone else’s story this morning. Cue the overly emotional music because the story this morning will hit a little closer to home. Stand with me then as we read our text, Hebrews 6, starting in verse 13.

Hebrews 6:13–20ESV

For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, “Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. 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.

Promise to Abraham

There are many reasons we could point to as to why Abraham is such an important figure in the bible. For the sake of time, I will jump to the biggest and more relevant reason for us today. If you are in Christ this morning, you are a recipient of the same promise that God first made to Abraham. As with much of what we have covered in Hebrews, such ideas are explicitly supported by much of Scripture.

Galatians 3:29ESV

And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

So the writer of Hebrews here is drawing us back to Abraham to ground our unity with Christ in the same promise made to Abraham. Let’s look briefly then at that promise.

Genesis 12:1–3ESV

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

What an incredible promise isn’t it? One in which he didn’t deserve, didn’t do anything to earn, couldn’t fulfil in his own power and certainly at first was very hesitant to believe was even possible. How in the world could Abraham, an older man with an older wife and no specific notoriety or fame ever become a great nation or through whom all the families of the earth would be blessed?

Abraham said as much to God too, right? “Oh Lord God, what will you give me.” I am old, my wife is barren and old, my heir is a member of my house and not my own son, how is such a promise possible? This is Abraham practically looking at the desperation of his situation and saying I don’t know how this is possible.

God in his mercy gives Abraham some encouragement though.

Genesis 15:4–7ESV

And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.” And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. And he said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.”

The encouragement God gave was to visually show him a representation of his promise and say see all those stars, those are the heirs according to the promise I am making you. He didn’t explain how he was going to do it he simply reinforced his promise by illustrating to him what the final outcome of that promise would be. That was enough to stir the faith of Abraham in that promise and he believed.

The rest of Abrahams life was characterized by many acts of faith in that promise, not the least of which was to offer his son, Isaac, on the alter knowing that God was somehow still going to fulfill his promise. It was his patience and trust in the promise of God that against all odds Abraham obtained this promise.

If you are here this morning and are in Christ, that salvation has come to you down through the ages by way of the same promise that God made is Abraham so long ago. If you have trusted in Christ then you are one of the stars upon which Abraham looked and who God promised Abraham he would make an heir according to that promise. You could say than that you were a long time in the making. If God has been so diligent and perfect in his promise to Abraham and to the oath he made to himself, do you suppose he will forget about you now? If in Christ you are the part of the promise and oath made to Abraham how is it possible for God not to deliver you to glory where Christ and Abraham and all those other countless stars await for the fullness of the promise to come to pass.

As sure as God is God, he will keep his promise to you.

Pledge Secured

That is the point that the writer of Hebrews makes next as he demonstrates the double surety of God’s promise. He says, “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.”

Let’s look at that oath really quickly that God made to himself. You can turn if you wish but this is Genesis 22 right after the near sacrifice of Isaac where the Lord provided for himself the offering.

Genesis 22:15–17 ESV

And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies.

So not only does God make a promise to Abraham that through him will come a great nation, a numerous people, he also provides for himself the offering as confirmation of Abrahams faith in him who made the promise. Then, for good measure, The Angel of the Lord, most likely Christ, the eternal son, declares that the Lord, on account of Abraham’s faith, swears by himself that the promises he has made will come to pass.

When someone desires to bolster a promise or give it an extra validation they always swear by something greater than them right. Usually either to God, or oddly enough their mother’s grave which is one I have never really understood. The point is to assure the recipient of the promise that the promise can be trusted. When God makes a promise it can certainly be taken simply as a promise and trusted because God can not not keep a promise by nature of his eternal perfection and truth.

So for him to swear by himself an oath to keep his promise is purely for our sake. The writer of Hebrews says as much right? To show more convincingly to the the heirs of his promise, that’s us, that his purpose is unchangeable. He is going to save and keep all who by faith, trust in him to receive the benefits of his promise. He promises that he will and to prove to all those who read and hear his word that such a promise will never change or be altered he swears by himself that it will be done.

That’s great right but he’s God, he makes promises and he keeps promises, what specific value does that have for me and you today. Again, the writer of Hebrews makes it plain. “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.”

Cue the emotive music. In the midst of all that this life will inevitably throw at us, all the trials and triumphs, all the failures and temptations and worldly influences that seek pull us out to sea or turn us away from God or destroy our hope we can have this strong encouragement. Not in ourselves and our promise. We aren’t confident or sure we will make it because we promised grandpa or because we just knew we could persevere. No, we will persevere and we will make it through life, and we will make it to glory because our God has promised and has sworn to himself that he will give us eternal blessing, everlasting inheritance, timeless joy and peace in which he will be our God and we will be his people.

This is doubly certain, if we would only trust in his immutable promise for us. Further, God is not afraid of being reminded of this promise because he swore it on himself. So when life and sin feel like they are going to crush you, don’t be shy to remind God, “You promised to keep me Lord!” We can only be encouraged when we return again and again the his promise to us that by faith, all will truly be made well.

Anchor of Hope

I read that a professor of psychiatry at Harvard, Armand Nicholi, was quoted as saying the following, keep in mind that I am not even sure this man is a Christian. He argues that we are in a crisis of hope saying,

Our culture has forsaken its spiritual roots, [and] we live in an overtly secular society without even the pretense of spiritual values. Many young people today feel that their cultures fail to provide answers to questions of purpose and meaning and destiny. We fail, they feel, to provide some reason for hope. The consequence is that we are now in a cultural crisis and living in what is being called ‘The Age of Despair.’

We can say then that perhaps the biggest crisis facing the world which also happens to be the cause of much of the despair you may feel, is a crisis of hope. The world is struggling, we are struggling and our only real hope is to have our souls anchored to the promise of God. What a sure and steadfast anchor this hope is if we would only cling to it. Samuel Rutherford says this,

Our hope is not hung upon such an untwisted thread as, ‘I imagine so,’ or ‘It is likely’; but the cable, the strong rope of our fastened anchor, is the oath and promise of Him who is eternal verity. Our salvation is fastened with God’s own hand, and Christ’s own strength, to the strong stake of God’s unchangeable nature.

What does an anchor do? Among other things, it fastens a ship in place such that it is stable a secure. In a shifting, mutable sea it is a tether to something solid and unmovable. To have our souls anchored then is to have a tether from our very soul not down into the seabed but up into the heavenly places, held firm in the unshakeable grip of Christ our solid rock. As Rutherford says, that cable is the oath and promise of God in which we hope.

The author of Hebrews does something so poetic here in this final verse with connecting the ship metaphor back with the high priestly illustration he began with before he made this short diversion in chapter 6. The connection comes with the reminder of Christ entering behind the curtain, our high priest as a “forerunner” on our behalf. This explanation comes from Louis Talbot.

The Greek harbors were often cut off from the sea by sandbars, over which the larger ships dared not pass till the full tide came in. Therefore, a lighter vessel, a “forerunner,” took the anchor and dropped it in the harbor. From that moment the ship was safe from the storm, although it had to wait for the tide, before it could enter the harbor.… The entrance of the small vessel into the harbor, the forerunner carrying the ship’s anchor, was the pledge that the ship would safely enter the harbor when the tide was full. And because Christ, our “forerunner,” has entered heaven itself, having torn asunder everything that separates the redeemed sinner from the very presence of God, He Himself is the Pledge that we, too, shall one day enter the harbor of our souls and the very presence of God, in the New Jerusalem.

That of course connects us back to the incredible work done for us by Christ as our high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. So, to return again to where we started when the reflective music of your life plays, and someone asks how did you keep going through all the trials and the temptations? When sin racked you, when the hostile world was beating you down, how did you still make it to glory. My prayer is that our reply is that of verse 3 of the second song we sang today.

All the way my savior leads me

O the fullness of His love

Perfect rest to me is promised

In my fathers house above

When my spirit, clothed immortal

wings its flight to realms of day

This my song through endless ages

Jesus led me all the way

This my song through endless ages

Jesus led me all the way

Conclusion

If you remember back several weeks ago now, we began this diversion in the letter because the writer felt that he needed to address first the readers spiritual immaturity. In doing that he has chastened us to grow up and stop being childish Christians. To put down your roots on those elementary principals as the foundation of your faith, that is justification, sanctification and glorification. He warned us of the dangers of not being a mature Christian growing in Christ, the danger of apostasy, of turning from Christ because you are not grounded and growing in the person of Christ by faith.

He then warned us not to let such warnings cripple us because by faith working through us in love we can be assured that we are abiding in Christ and connected to him. From that assurance we are encouraged to be eager and earnest to serve him. Finally this morning he anchored our soul in the surety of God’s oath and promise that we do not wish for glory and salvation but with Christ as our forerunner we have a tethered hope that when the tide is full we will enter the harbor of eternal glory.

With all that done, and with him returning to his reference to Christ’s office as high priest, he is signaling to us that we are now ready to move on to the deeper truths of God’s word. It’s as if Hebrews 6 is the prescribed diet to move from milk to solid food and for us, now having received it, and I pray digested it well, we are now ready to move on to the meat. Now that our souls and our stomachs are ready, we can load up our plates with the t-bones and the tomahawks. God willing, next time we will do just that. Amen.