Hebrews - Part 16 Two Unchangeable Things (Hebrews 6:13-20)

Amen. We are beginning to finish chapter 6 of Hebrews. I am reading from the Legacy Standard Bible. I will begin in verse 11. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end. so that you may not become dull, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made the promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, sorry, saying, I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply you. and so having patiently waited he obtained the promise for men swear by one greater than themselves and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute in the same way God desiring even more to show the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose guaranteed it with an oath so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.

So that was Hebrews 6, 11 to 18. If we remember the context that we're in already here in Hebrews. So in context, the author just warned us that there will be some who faithlessly apostatize. They will walk away from the faith. And remember, he said, we're convinced about better things of you, things belonging to salvation. And now we are being told to be imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

And so what I think the author wants us to do in the receivers of this letter is to exercise the same kind of faith that the example given Abraham gave. I think it's a reminder that, you know, there were people who came before you who they received the promises of God by faith. And that was why they were accounted righteous. Remember, the whole point of this is to put down their works of the old covenant in that sense and to pick up the fact that Jesus Christ has now come, that Jesus Christ is now the fulfillment of what all those things pointed to. and abraham is repeatedly given to us in scripture as the model of faith not necessarily that his faith was the greatest although what he did with being willing to sacrifice his son isaac is maybe one of the greatest feats of faith ever accomplished but it's just the same type of faith.

God is trying to let us see that it is belief in what God has promised, and then it is acting as though we really believe in his promise as evidence of our faith. That is what saved the saints of old, and that's what will save the saints today. And so it's not your works that will save you, but as James tells us, your works will show that you have the faith that saves you.

So in verse 13, he starts an explanation of what he means by becoming imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. And he brings us the example of Abraham. And he tells us when God made the promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself. And he says, I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply you.

Now, he says this in Genesis 22. and he says it earlier we'll go back to Genesis 15 as well but Genesis 22 is where Abraham goes to sacrifice his son Isaac and I'm going to turn there in my legacy standard Bible I also have an ESV Bible open here I'm starting to get more into the LSB, and yet I also always have the ESV handy still, because that's what I've used forever. But in Genesis 22, in verse 15, after, well, we'll go back to verse 14, and Abraham called in the name of that place, Yahweh will provide. So this is where God saw to it that a sacrifice was made so that Abraham could do the sacrifice he had to do.

And Yahweh will provide is the name that was given, which is just so significant that we have this hope of, this hope that God is the one that will take care of us. And I think that's, what is it, Jehovah? I don remember the name of that one right now But that one of those Hebrew words that has a very good meaning there One of those names with Yahweh But then it says in verse 15 then the angel of Yahweh called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said by myself I have sworn declares Yahweh because you have done this thing and have not spared your son your only one Indeed, I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore, and your seed shall possess the gate of his enemies.

In your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have listened to my voice. So it's in verse 16 where he uses this phrase that the author in Hebrews is referring to when he says, By myself I have sworn. It's in Hebrews 6 that he says he swears by himself. So go back to Genesis 15 now, and then we'll kind of put it all together here.

Sometimes it feels a little choppy when you're bouncing around. So verse 5 of Genesis 15. And he brought him outside and said, now look toward the heavens and number the stars, if you are able to number them, which of course he couldn't. And he said to him, so shall your seed be, so you'll have innumerable offspring. Remember, this is a promise to a guy with an old wife, and she was barren.

And it says, then he believed in Yahweh, and he counted it to him as righteousness. And he said to him, I am Yahweh who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess it. And he said, O Lord Yahweh, how may I know that I will possess it? So he said to him, bring me a three-year-old heifer and a three-year-old female goat and a three-year-old ram and a turtle dove and a young pigeon.

Then he brought all these to him and split them into parts down the middle and laid each part opposite the other. But he did not split apart the birds. Then the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses. and Abraham drove them away. Now it happened that when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him.

Then God said to Abram, know for certain that your seed will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and they will be enslaved and mistreated 400 years. And so we have these promises to Abraham that we now know came true. And the people of, the people of the time of the first century knew this so then you go back to genesis 12 and again we have yahweh said to abraham verse 1 go forth from your land and from your kin and from your father's house to the land which i will show you and i will make you a great nation he says and i will bless you and make your name great and so you shall be a blessing and i will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you i will curse and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

And so Abraham believed these promises of God. So back to Hebrews, we are told to imitate him. And he says, so in Hebrews 6, 13, for when God made the promise to Abraham, since he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself saying, I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply you. So he's reminding us of this promise that was made in the Old Testament at this point.

And in verse 15, we get kind of the key here. And so having patiently waited, he obtained the promise. And so we're told that Abraham was patient, that there were things that, excuse me, Abraham suffered in route to the promise. And I think that what he's trying to communicate to the Hebrews and to us is that God's promises will come true no matter what the odds.

So no matter the circumstance. So the circumstance is you've decided that you want to be a Christian. You start living a Christian life. You start putting away your old ways. In this case, the Jewish religion. And then the next step is you get persecuted.

The people who still love those works, the people who are still faithful in those dead works, they they will hate you. The people who you now preach the gospel to, who you now proclaim that Christ can forgive. many of them will persecute you. Jesus said, I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. And he mentions that even within a household, people will be fighting.

He'll put father-in-law against daughter-in-law, son against mother, and all the different relations. And the point being is that all of even the closest and best relationships that any of us have will have inherent strife if, in one sense, they're unequally yoked. If one person wants to follow the Lord and the other person doesn't, you're going to have persecution and difficulty. and there's going to be a part of you that thinks, well, I thought the Lord was making things better.

And you're going to be tempted to walk away from him because what you thought would be the immediate effect of faith in him is not occurring. So for God to promise Abraham that through his seed, he's going to have innumerable offspring. and then for Abraham to be told sacrifice your only son In Abraham mind those are two contradictory ideas But Abraham exercised faith. He exercised great faith that was given to him by God, whereby we'll see later actually in this book that Abraham believed that God would give his son back to him from the dead because he had no doubt that God's promise would still come true, even if, from our perspective, the worst thing that could happen to destroy that promise happened.

If Isaac dies, we don't see any natural way that God's promise to have innumerable offspring would come true. And the same becomes true of Jesus Christ. A dead Savior is no Savior at all. So when Jesus died, there were very few people, I dare say none, that were walking around thinking this is the beginning of our victory. That was a shock. And even when we tell people about it, it's kind of a shock.

Like, wait, you're telling us your God died? You know, that's what people will say. but it's that he rose from the grave and conquered death that shows that the the death wasn't even a blip on the map it's it's you know if there was like a figurative football game between god and satan it's not like satan got a field goal then like god was winning the whole time it was all part of his plan believing that god's promises will come true even when they don't seem likely to you, that's the essence of faith that we need to imitate. Everyone's faithful when things are good or things are probable, right?

It's being faithful when things are improbable that shows that you actually believe. And so we have this interesting, Hebrews is full of these like little side notes. and and so we have to keep our minds on track of what we're studying we're studying the fact that jesus was appointed a high priest but right now we're on a side note in verse 15 it says and so having patiently waited he obtained the promise 16 for men swear by one greater than themselves and with them an oath given as confirmation is the end of every dispute so he's kind of laying out just a truth for it. Hey, when we swear, we swear by something greater, right?

When we take an oath before a court, when you take an oath to join a club of some kind, you know, military oaths, we swear by something greater than ourself. You know, one of the points is we're affirming in front of other people that there's something greater than me that I'm promising this by. It's not just me. In theory, we should all just say the truth all the time.

That's what Jesus teaches us. Don't take an oath at all, but just let your yes be yes and your no be no. But in order to establish truth with other men, people take oaths of a serious nature that helps other men be able to believe you. And then it says here in verse 17, he explains the reason for an oath. He says, in the same way, God desiring even more to show the heirs of the promise, the unchangeableness of his purpose, guaranteed it with an oath.

And so God, who cannot lie, made that oath to Abraham. Remember, he cut up the animals and he put Abraham to sleep. And that was all like a ritual at the time that showed that there was an oath being made, that there was a promise being made, and that both people who were in a contract were going to keep their side. But in God's covenant that he made, it was just a one-sided covenant.

God promised something to Abraham that was not conditioned upon Abraham's obedience. it wasn't a contract like here I'll give you this and you give me this it was a promise I will give you this your seed will be greater than you can count basically right in you all the nations will be blessed those who curse you will be cursed God made this promise and it's unbreakable and it's unbreakable because God swore by the greatest thing that can be sworn by, which is his own name. And so the question might be, why would God do that? Because his promise that he made to Abraham with the oath is no more sure than any other promise of scripture because God can't lie.

And so it's easy for us to look back and think, well, we know the attributes of God and we know he can't lie. So even the most passing promise made somewhere in scripture is still a promise to us. Well, I like the way Calvin put it. He said, what a merciful and gracious God we have that he would condescend to do something like that to give us even more hope and confidence in our weakness.

You know, oaths are made for the person observing it, not for the person making it. Look at verse 16. Men swear by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given as confirmation is an end of every dispute. The oath is made to help end a dispute with someone else someone who doesn understand or believe verse 17 in the same way God desiring even more to show the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose guaranteed it with an oath God had a desire it says, to show us the unchangeableness of his purpose with an oath.

He wanted us to be able to see, look, this is rock solid. This stands out. This is what we can cling to. This is our anchor. And so we have hope today in God that is different from the kind of hope that the people who fell away in early of Hebrews 6 would have, because we actually hope in his promises despite our circumstances, rather than we hope in his promises as long as things are going well for us.

I talked to a dear brother yesterday he was recently diagnosed with cancer he's only 36 years old he has a young wife 37, they haven't been married that long I was talking to him about are you being faithful and I could tell he was but I told him that's my biggest concern as I know Christians who when things are going their way, when they can see God working because something good's happening, they are praising the Lord, they're faithful. But I've known people who, wow, when tragedy struck, real tragedy, I'm talking about, you know, death of a child, horrible crime committed against them. poverty, when real difficulty came to them, all of a sudden they just didn't think God was there. And that's not the God that we're called to have faith in.

The God that we're called to have faith in has promised us suffering in this world and redemption of the body. But that comes at the end, that promise. so God, knowing our weakness, condescends, makes this special oath with Abraham that also applies to us. We are the offspring of Abraham that he was talking about. Yes, Abraham had the fulfillment of his physical promise, but it is the people of God, the believers in Jesus Christ, who are the heirs of the promise.

We are the ones who are the fulfillment of this. And so now we have what I thought was the most interesting part of this whole section, and this is what I spent the most time on. He says, so that by two unchangeable things, in verse 18, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us.

And I'm like, okay, what are the two unchangeable things? And I thought, well, I'll just go read what the old guy said. And of course they didn't all agree on it. So the author of Hebrews seems to think that he's mentioned two unchangeable things that would be clear on the mind of people. Some commentators have said the two unchangeable things are His word, because when he's speaking, it's his word, and an oath.

And the oath given was the oath given to Abraham. I've sworn by myself. Those two things are impossible to change, and they would show us his purpose. Some people have proposed that the two unchangeable things are the promise and the oath. as if the promise and the oath are somehow distinct. And I don't care which one people believe, honestly. I don't think this is real essential to your salvation or fellowship.

I think that the two unchangeable things, though, are the oath and the promise, I think, are just one thing. He's made an oath. It's a promise. It's that simple. This is going to happen. and we can be very confident that it'll happen because what God says is unchangeable. If he makes an oath, it's unchangeable.

If he makes a promise, it's unchangeable. I think the other, so I think that's one unchangeable thing, though, is his promise in this oath. The other unchangeable thing, I believe, is his declaration that Jesus Christ is a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. That is what I think is the other unchangeable thing. It just isn't mentioned super duper close if you're just reading the text and just looking at the surrounding verses.

But in Psalm 110, in verse 4, he says, Yahweh has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek, or after the order of Melchizedek in some versions. I think that is the second unchangeable thing. And I think that because here we are in Hebrews 5, we're being taught about high priests, and we're reminded that in Hebrews 5.5, Yahweh said to him, you are my son, today I've begotten you.

And then we're reminded in verse six, you're a priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. And so I don't think that's a big essential thing, but for whatever reason, that's what I spent the most time trying to figure out. people thought. So we have two unchangeable things, that God has made an oath and a promise to Abraham and that he has, in fact, declared his son to be the priest after the order of Melchizedek.

And the reason I think that is that we're in the context of that, actually, from chapter five, and I believe we're just in a side note right now, and he's referring back to the outer context. And then as soon as we finish chapter six, we're going to go right back into talking about what it means that Christ is a priest of Melchizedek. And so I think that the author wants us to be able to understand that the priesthood of Christ is also unchangeable because that is where we can see that he's encouraging the people to abandon the Levitical or Aaronic priesthood because it's now obsolete because of Christ's priesthood that's all going to culminate at the end of chapter 7 when he says, therefore, since he always lives, he can make intercession for anyone who draws near to God.

That's the unchangeable thing that we have an anchor to. When you wake up tomorrow and you sin again, you have Jesus Christ interceding to the Father. Why? Because he lives. He ever lives. All the priests that ever made sacrifices in the Levitical priesthood, they're all dead.

They were all dead by the year 100 A.D. Jesus Christ lives forever. So that's why in verse 19, we can be reminded of what this strong encouragement is. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul. All right. We all know it an anchor as it keeps the boat from moving.

Right. The boat can move a little bit. It can drift one direction or another. But as long as that anchor is where it's supposed to be, the boat's not getting too far from where it's supposed to be. he says the heaven we have an anchor of the soul he says a hope both sure and confirmed and then he says and one which enters within the veil he says where a forerunner has entered for us jesus having become a high priest forever according to the order of melchizedek So the two unchangeable things that God made a promise to Abraham.

And he won't break his promise. He solidified it with an oath. It was his word. So we know we can believe it. And then secondly, that he declared Jesus Christ to be that priest forever. And so then we're going to see next time.

And what this means that Jesus was a priest of Melchizedek having entered the veil before us. And so we with humble hearts believe that we can enter the temple of God. We can enter the Holy of Holies because Christ has made the sacrifice. We have a sacrifice for sin that allows us to be in the presence of God. And that sacrifice for sin no longer is the blood of animals that we brought to maybe a qualified high priest in the Levitical priesthood.

It's a permanently completed blood sacrifice by a perfect high priest with a perfect Lamb of God. So that's our hope. because Christ can never fail to be a perfect high priest, because God's promises won't be broken no matter what the circumstance, we should not fall away but remain faithful, imitating Abraham. But I will stop there, and we will see if there are any comments or questions. the idea that the second thing is that Jesus is of the order of Melchizedek it's kind of supported as you go on you look at the last verse where it's talking about him being the high priest of Melchizedek yeah yeah it's a i could i could see though like there could be another one it could potentially be thought of as the promises made and the and the one by whom the oath was was sworn to I could see that too as being another alternative.

This is like a challenging thing to puzzle out. Yeah. Yeah. I think I think that was another one that I I encountered I just forgot right now Yeah I was looking at the Greek too in parallel here, my logos, and that's not helpful for me. Yeah. I think this is a really good example of, you know, if you want to know the answer, we got to study and pray, but context.

We just have to look at the context and, you know, two unchangeable things. What are they? Well, I just think it's, you know, because to me, the unchangeableness of God's promise, the unchangeable of an oath God made, those are all based on the fact that he's God and he's unchangeable already. So in my mind, I wasn't making that two distinct things that were unchangeable.

Although I see that point you brought up and other people said stuff like that. To me it was these are going to be it's not going to be mysterious. If we read it a few times I felt like I should be able to see what would he have meant? What would he have clearly meant when he says two? It's not like it was a cryptic writing. I just saw it as the priesthood and the promise to Abraham.

Yeah. it's kind of one of those fun ones that people can talk about, theorize about, but you don't have to fight about it. Yeah. Well, everyone's quiet. Maybe everybody's tired as I am today. It was a very tiring weekend. I left Thursday and drove to Illinois with my friend Mike Stockwell and my son.

Stayed the night in Illinois. Next day, we drove to Arkansas, preached at an evangelism conference Friday night, preached at an evangelism conference Saturday morning, spent the day Saturday, kind of busy. It was kind of tiring. And then preached Sunday morning at Sunday school, went back to church at my buddy's church that night for a Q&A. Then we drove home Monday and Tuesday again. and I am just beat.

It's amazing how that kind of stuff takes such a toll on you. Especially because while it's going on, I'm full of adrenaline. I'm like, oh, I can do this. This is easy. So. I find driving to be just tiring.

Yes. five hours of sitting there trying not to you know crash well and i you know if we were in the car for about 24 hours you know uh i drove about three of it another guy drove and so i actually have the benefit of not having to have done that but i had to hold on to the little handle though and he'd go too fast or something. So that was tough. My right arm's all built now.

My left arm's weak. Hey, Jason. We've got a visual. Yeah. I had a question. I was looking at the order of Melchizedek.

It speaks about that in verse 20. and I was thinking about how Christ is perpetually a priest in the order of Melchizedek. I wasn't sure if I was looking a little too deeply when I was thinking about the promise to Abraham that his offspring would be innumerable like the stars. would that promise could there be a correlation between that being perpetual and the order of melchizedek in the sense that the kingdom of god is uh is perpetually spreading and i i think where it kind of confused me was in let's see in verse 15 it says Abraham obtained the promise but yet the promise is fulfilled throughout over the 400 years of of oppression the Israelites faced and it was it continued on after his death So. Yeah, I'm thinking now.

You're making me think. So you're looking at Hebrews 6, like 15, where it says, Abraham obtained the promise, right? Yes. And so what do you think that promise is there? So this reading, this part here, I see that the promise basically is that surely I will bless you and multiply you. That's just kind of simply put on this part.

But you're saying that you think there might be a correlation with that and the Melchizedekian priesthood spreading. yes in the sense that the Abrahamic promise was obtained but yet the the growth the spread continued yes yeah that's a good question man I I think it makes sense but there is one thing later where it says in Hebrews 11.8, by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place he was to receive an inheritance and he went out not knowing where he was going. And then later in that verse it says, in Hebrews 11.39 and all these, so referring back to Abraham and all the other people you see 11.39 he says, though commended through their faith did not receive what was promised. And so there is a sense where there was a promise that wasn't quite received also in this life, you know what I mean? yeah sort of been already but not yet yeah and so i think i think what you're saying it makes perfect sense that yeah abraham abraham the promise to abraham was that the seed would multiply and spread right yes and the i don't know if i'd say it's the perpetuity of of the melchizedekian priesthood But it's that's the number of people that are being gathered under Christ as high priest is spreading and growing in the same way.

Right. And it's the same. It's the same people who are the heirs of the promise. Right. And so I think you're right. I don't know if I I don't remember exactly how you said it.

Maybe I don't know if I would have said it that way at first, but. I don't want to put it to where it sounds like I'm digging too deep and putting something that's not there on the text, but just, you know, thinking from the perspective when you when you hear about the growth of the lineage of Abraham and then you you read promptly after. the like I guess the continuity of the covenant with Abraham and the continuity of Christ as great high priest yeah no I don't see any problem seeing those correlations at all I think it I think it helps us to see how everything's woven together so perfectly in God's word that, yeah, like the people who are represented by the high priest of the order of Melchizedek are in fact the same people who are the heirs of the promise to Abraham, right, that were his children. you know we understand that Abraham had physical seed and there was a lot of truth to that that that pointed to a greater reality that he had a spiritual seed of children of faith who were his children because they imitated his faith instead of being his children because they imitated whatever like you know his his fatherhood or whatever which is which if people disagree with that i get it i mean i know it's it's a covenantal idea to see it that way but i mean abraham god tells abraham he has only one son and he literally has two sons obviously God speaking of a different kind of son a son of promise not the son of the flesh when he says that too I think that's astute man I like your beard too I haven't seen you in a year and a half or something you know so yeah yeah usually i go to work we're going away for the weekend to holmes county uh amish country for my birthday so who just you and uh katie yeah and then uh loretta's staying with uh grandparents so okay so just having like a weekend getaway yeah yeah it'll be nice yeah that's a nice place over by guggisberg and we used to drive up to guggisberg cheese factory like once every couple months and bring a cooler and buy like all this cheese there. It's so much less expensive there.

Okay. Yeah. There's a lot of stuff there that's a lot less expensive than what we paid down by Columbus. But there's a lot of nice stuff around there. Yeah. You've been there before.

Yeah. Yeah. Growing up, we went to Holmes County quite a few times. Oh, so you know about it then. Yeah, first time with Katie. Oh, that'll be great, man.

How old are you? 32. Wow. You had to think about it. That's getting old. Greg, what do you think, man?

Yeah, it's old, man. You think 32 sounds pretty old? It was when I was there. What'd you say? It seemed like it was a long time ago when I was there. The other day I was with Stockwell.

He's in his 50s. And he asked me how old I think my stepdad was or my mom. And I said 72. And he's like, okay. And I kind of laughed. I said, you know, 72 used to sound like ancient to me.

And now it's like, man, it doesn't sound so far away. like it's so funny the way we think but well that's good well happy birthday to you thank you i appreciate you letting me make that and ask about that point um it's all new in the sense that uh growing up um in a very strong dispensational position. That wasn't something you could even really, it wouldn't even come across your mind even remotely. Sure.

I didn't grow up that way, but I spent the first 10 years of Christianity in dispensational churches and teaching, so I'm with him. It is a new way of thinking, and I kind of do what I sense that you did, where I see something like that, and I'm almost afraid to say it out loud, like, oh, wow, this is kooky. And then I'm like, wait a second, let's just talk about this, you know, see what other people think.

But God's just so, his word is so perfect, and his spirit is powerful, and so we have to pray that his spirit would lead us to all truth, as he promised. Well, good deal. Well, Jason, you want to pray us out of here and then we'll. I'm so excited that you've got a microphone this time, so. Yeah. I'm going to make you talk.

Dear Jesus, we just thank you for today. We just thank you for the blessing of your word and just your immutability and how you're able to show you are a covenantal God and that you're unchanging. And the blessing that that is, as we go forward in our daily lives, Lord, I just pray that you would bless everyone here and those that weren't able to be here today.

And you would continue to grow and strengthen them in their knowledge and their walk with you. it's in Jesus name we pray amen thank you for listening to be a Berean with your host Michael Coughlin I am a writer at thingsabove.us and I also have a personal website michaelcoughlin.net you can contact me by emailing me michael at thingsabove.us I hope that you have been encouraged to search the scriptures