God’s Promise is Sure | Hebrews 6:13-20 | Once for All

Is your life anchored to something that holds, or are you drifting with the winds of the world? In this study of Hebrews 6:13–20, we discover the "overarching theme" of Scripture: the covenant faithfulness of God. Using the story of Abraham, we examine how God ratified His promise with an oath, swearing by Himself because there is no one greater.

This "covenant of grace" ensures that our salvation does not rest on our own efforts, but on the unchangeable character of a God who cannot lie. Whether you are facing life's storms or struggling with failure, find peace in the anchor that is firmly set in the presence of God through Jesus Christ, our great high priest who has gone behind the curtain as our forerunner.

📖 Click to Show the Transcript of this Sermon

There is a theme throughout all of scripture that you just can't ignore. It's an overarching theme. Example after example is there in its pages. I'm actually reminded of the gag that has been used in so many television shows over the years. Someone will ask someone about their kids. And then the person asks if they would like to see pictures, and what happens? They pull out their wallet, and a giant string of pictures falls all the way to the floor because they're so proud, and they have so many examples of their child. Well, thankfully, that gag doesn't make any sense anymore, because what do we do now? We pull out our phones. And when we have a new child or a new grandchild or a child that we're talking about that we're proud of, it doesn't take long for us to find the most recent picture, right? And you won't swipe too many times until you find another picture. Or you won't swipe very many times until you find another one. They're usually very close together. Why? because we find that value there. We find that that is what our pride and our joy is. Maybe there's some random items in there, things we've taken pictures of, but ultimately the theme there is this thing that is the focus of our life, that we're so proud of. something that we want to share with others. Well, the Bible is the same way when it comes to the covenant faithfulness of God. We don't have to swipe too many pages to find another example of it. When we see an example of God's covenant faithfulness, we'll find another example on the next page. It is there.

And we've learned this. We've especially learned this earlier this year as we were in the first part of the book of Genesis. In fact, we saw the covenant faithfulness of God right away in the garden. We even saw it in the story of the fall. We saw that God was faithful to the covenant he made with his people. Right there in the garden, he made a covenant saying that the head of the serpent would be crushed by the seed of the woman. And that covenant was the promise of Jesus, the promise of that Messiah. And the rest of the story going through the Bible is about that covenant faithfulness, that story of this head crusher who will restore God's people to himself. We saw it even after Cain killed Abel, because what did God do? provided Seth as a replacement. And Seth became the godly line. And then we saw it, even in genealogies, in those boring parts of the Bible you read to put you to sleep at night. We saw the covenant faithfulness of God. We even saw the covenant faithfulness of God in who he put on the ark. Because the waters came. and the world was destroyed. But what did God do? He was faithful to his covenant because Noah was not simply a faithful man in a godless generation, he was in that line to the Messiah. And God could not break his promise to his people, so he made sure that Noah and his family, the covenant people, were on the ark. And that story comes forward to us today. Here we are in the ark, except it's upside down, but here we are. We are the covenant people of God, and God has been faithful to us. That's the story of salvation in the Old Testament, and it's the story of salvation in the New Testament and in the church. And we can go on and on. I could give you examples through all of the Old Testament. The covenant faithfulness of God is on display for us on nearly every page.

And that's the theme that we're going to see as we look at our passage today, as the author of Hebrews is encouraging us to stand strong in the faith. And so as we land here, at the end of the sixth chapter of Hebrews, we're gonna break down these eight verses into two main points today to help us understand and apply it to our lives. The first thing we're going to see is that God's promise is sure. because He swears that promise by Himself. Now, we make a pretty big deal about making a promise. It's a big deal to us. And we connect those promises and pledges to something in our lives many times. Well, there is nothing higher for God to pledge by than by Himself. And so, we see that that means that this promise that we have in God is secure in Him.

And secondly, we're going to see that this truth gives us a strong anchor. Again, what we're talking about here in the book of Hebrews is not just a intellectual exercise. The book of Hebrews is practical. It has an application for us because when the storms of life beat upon us, and when the waves are coming against us, We have an anchor that will hold us steady and strong and help us to be secure. And so we land in chapter six, once again, as we look at verses 13 through 18. Now, the first thing we notice is that the author of this book is consistent, right? He keeps doing the same thing over and over. He's going back to the Old Testament. He wants to show his audience of Hebrew Christians that they should continue trusting in Christ because Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of the promises that are contained in the Old Testament. That's what he keeps on going back to. Remember, the folks he is writing to are considering going back to the laws and the rights of the old covenant. And so what he's saying here is, ladies and gentlemen, why in the world would you go back to the Old Testament when it's just pointing to you, when it's just pointing out to you what you are going to have in Jesus Christ? If you're gonna go back and look at the Old Testament, you need to understand it in the lens of Jesus Christ. You don't go back hoping to find ultimate salvation in those rites and rituals because ultimate salvation is in Jesus. You see, the people that we read about in the Old Testament, would have loved, they would have loved to see the fulfillment of the promise that you have now. They would have loved to see that. So he's saying to his audience, what are you thinking? Don't go back to that, you have Jesus.

And to continue doing this method of argumentation, we see the author of the book going to Genesis and to one of the foundational people in the story of redemption, Abraham. Abraham is an important person in understanding the story of salvation, and more importantly, to help us understand the covenant of grace. Now, as I said, this is our last week in Hebrews for a while, because starting next week, we're gonna go back to Genesis and look at the story of Abraham. Now, I planned our readings and our sermons maybe a year ago, maybe more, when I submitted it to the elders for approval. So it's been a while. I can't remember if I intentionally had us ending in Hebrews 6 where it talks about Abraham before we go back to Abraham. I can't remember if I did that on purpose, but if I did, that was a pretty good job out of me, actually, because this really works. We're hearing about how we need this story of Abraham to have an understanding of God's covenant faithfulness. We see here in the story of Abraham how foundational that story that we're going back to next week is. The covenant that's made with Abraham is foundational to know the fullness of the story of the promised Messiah. That covenant, that covenant is ratified in Genesis by God himself. And it's a picture for us of the gospel because the covenant that God makes with Abraham is all on God. It is a covenant of grace. God is the one making the covenant, and he's the one who's gonna keep it.

Abraham, actually, when God establishes the covenant with him, Abraham is asleep. He can do nothing to do anything in that covenant himself. Abraham is asleep. He's as good as dead if he's gonna try and do it on his own, because he's out of it. But God promises to keep that covenant. Now, we have to remember, as Reformed Christians, we understand that there's two kinds of covenants. We talk about this quite often, but it's a good refresher. There are covenants of law, where those people who are in the covenant, they need to follow the commands or they're in trouble. In other words, the covenant is dependent upon me as a human to obey. Well, in the Bible, there's also covenants of grace. where it's a gift. And that covenant is not about what we as human beings do, how we are able to ascend to God, it's not about that. It's about how God comes to us and gives us this covenant, gives us this salvation as an act of sheer grace. And we see here in these words about Abraham and Hebrews, that this is a covenant of grace with Abraham because God is the one who's making the promise. And what did he do? He swore a promise that he would keep the promise. I don't want to spill too many of the details because we have the story of God's establishing the covenant with Abraham coming up for us in a few weeks. But like I said, when God confirms the covenant with Abraham, Abraham does nothing. He is asleep. God makes the covenant. And if the covenant is broken, God's a liar. God is not true to his word.

So now, we understand the idea of swearing a promise upon something. I'm guessing maybe you're saying, okay, what do you mean? Well, I'm gonna go back to one of my favorite places to go to prove that we all understand something, and that's the playground. When we were kids, I'm guessing a substantial percentage of us had the words, cross my heart and hope to die, come out of our mouths. That's the idea of swearing on yourself. There's nothing greater you could do than give up your life to ratify a promise, right? Now you, of course, didn't have much force behind that promise because no one was going to take you up on it on the playground, I hope. I haven't heard any stories of that going south, so I'm guessing we didn't really mean it there. But what do we do? We swear upon ourselves because there's nothing greater, as I said, than our lives to make a promise upon. And that idea holds true, but think about how truly it holds for God. He is the ultimate, and what greater thing could be sworn upon than God. So he makes these covenants of grace that rest on him and his name and his faithfulness. That's what a covenant of grace is.

And what was the promise in this covenant that God made with Abraham? That he will bless Abraham and multiply him. In other words, he will be a God to Abraham and to his children, to his offspring. Now, without digging too much into Abraham today, we have to remember how big that covenant promise is. Abraham was an old man. His wife was an older lady who was not only beyond the years to bear a child, but had been barren in the first place. That's the story of Abraham. This old man and this barren woman who is beyond the ages of childbearing are being told, I will be a God to you and to your children. That's radical. Because would you believe it? Would you believe God would be able to fix a womb and give you children at their age? Now we'd like to say, yeah, we'd believe that, but think about that. And in their time, what did this promise mean to them? Without children during this time, what was the inheritance? Where would the inheritance go? We hear from the mouth of Abraham that it's going to be a servant of his who's going to take his possessions after he dies if he doesn't have any children. But we understand this. If you don't have any offspring, who are your heirs? A servant, a distant relative, who is it?

But what does God do? He makes a promise to Abraham that he is gonna be multiplied. And it's really an outrageous promise from our human perspective. This woman who's advanced in years is gonna have a children, we would say, no way, no chance, she's barren. But we have to understand that Abraham had to believe this by faith. He had to be ready to receive the promises of God. And again, what was that promise in the covenant? That he will bless Abraham and multiply him. In other words, he is going to be a God to him and his offspring forever. This is not a short-term promise. It's a long-term promise. And so we see here in these words in Hebrews that Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained that promise. God kept the covenant. God made an oath to confirm that he would keep his promise, and he actually did. And we should expect that this would happen because, what does it say here? God cannot lie. God speaks, and it is truth. This means that the promise and the oath are above certainly. That's what it means when it says two unchangeable things here. It says both the promise God made and the oath he made are rock solid. They are secure, they are immovable. It's not only true, but it is the very purpose of God and how he saves his people.

And so we have clearly seen our first point here. God made a sure promise by making an oath on himself. By doing that, it not only ensured that it would happen, but it also shows as a covenant of grace that God delivers as a gift to his people. And with that truth vividly spelled out for us, we come to the last half of verse 18 today, and we go through the end of the chapter to verse 20, where we see that this is a strong anchor for us as believers. As those who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, this is what we cling to. We cling to the salvation given to us in Jesus because it is our only refuge. And I love the imagery here that this part of the passage lends itself to. We're under attack. All of our weapons are gone. Every last defense we have has been decimated. Our sin has exposed us. And the law of God shows us that we have no means to brag that we can save ourselves. And so like a warrior who has nothing left, what do we do? We flee to a refuge. We run to the one who takes us in, who defends us, and wins a victory on our behalf. Imagine if we were in a battle and that was our state of affairs, stripped of all our weapons. All of our defenses are gone and suddenly we are given refuge from the battle and rescued and made whole. That is our great Christian hope.

And the point that the author of Hebrews is making here is substantial. If God made a promise to Abraham and swore it by himself and kept it, then the fulfillment of that promise in Christ is just as secure as the promise that God made to Abraham. As surely as the promise came to Abraham, it comes to you. It comes to you. As surely as Isaac was conceived in the barren womb of Sarah and born to fulfill the promise of God, so surely, So surely will he fulfill the promise he has made to you in Christ, that you will be saved by grace through faith. Do you understand how earth shattering this is? If you flee to God for refuge, and you trust in Christ as your fortress of salvation, it is sure, it is certain, it cannot be moved. If you abandon all hope of saving yourself, and cling to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, it is certain, It is certain as that covenant made with Abraham. Because Jesus lived, died, rose again, and he ascended to the right hand of the Father to fulfill the covenant of grace that he made with Abraham. So that covenant that you benefit from is as sure as the covenant God made with Abraham. And we see here that that sure and certain truth is to be an anchor for our souls.

Now, over the course of the time I spent fishing with my dad when I was younger, we went through a few different anchors. As I got a little bit older, I would be in charge of lowering it, because it was tied to the front of the boat where I was sitting. It was just a tiny little boat, and so I think my dad was probably pretty happy about this, because when he used to have to move the anchor for me, The boat would do a lot of this because it was so little, and I did not like that. I kind of held on to my life jacket, right? But I eventually became the one who lowered the anchor. We didn't fish in very big lakes, so it was minimal depth. I would lower it down. And I didn't really know what I was doing. I didn't know how to secure that anchor very well. So I can remember multiple times where my amateur anchor dropping skills caused a problem. It didn't get set right. I didn't know how to really make sure it was hooked. And we would drift from where we actually needed to be or wanted to be. And we all understand that that isn't the purpose of an anchor, is it? What good is it for me to lower that anchor into the lake if it's not going to hold us shore and in the spot where we wanted to fish. What does an anchor do? It keeps us from drifting aimlessly. And the author of Hebrews wants us to understand that this promise and this oath that shows us the surety of our salvation in Christ is an anchor. It keeps us from drifting from the faith. If we understand this good news, we will be firmly tethered to something that will not move. because Jesus has done what we need for our salvation.

And as this passage finishes off today, the author of Hebrews makes another connection to the Old Testament to prove his point. Like we did a couple weeks ago, we see that Jesus is our great high priest, and what priests did in the Old Covenant was to make sacrifices. And all of this pointed to Jesus. Jesus fulfilled the office of priest, we read a few weeks back. Well, the priest would go behind the curtain in the tabernacle and in the temple to offer a sacrifice for the people. But what we have in Jesus is so much better because he goes behind the curtain for us. And he himself was the sacrifice. His sacrifice makes it possible for us to go behind the curtain with him. With earthly priests, the people never went behind the curtain. But now, with our great high priest, Jesus Christ, he goes in front of us. Notice what it says here. He goes behind the curtain as a forerunner. His work on our behalf brings us behind the curtain. In other words, it brings us into the presence of God. That is our anchor. Not that we have had a personal spiritual experience, but that in real time and in real space history, Jesus did all that we needed in order to be able to go before God. He came in our very own flesh and lived a sinless life for us. He suffered and died in our place as our sacrifice to bear the wrath of God for our sin and unbelief. He suffered. He suffered and died. but he rose again. He was victorious over the grave and now he's ascended and he is our mediator before God. And so we, his people, are able to go into the very presence of God because he is the high priest that fulfills all things for us. This is our hope, this is our peace, this is our anchor.

And as we think about this important passage today, I want us to come away with two important applications as we step out from here into God's world this week. First thing we have to do, we have to remember the promises of God. Because the world, the world makes so many promises, but there are promises it can't keep. And we need to keep the promises of God in front of us. We need to have those promises in view, because these are the promises that give us true hope. When we remember the promises of God, we are pushed to remember this covenant of grace that God has made with us. We'll be reminded of the work of God on our behalf, and that all the work that has been done for us by the Lord Jesus. Every day, every day as we live in this world, we're gonna be reminded of the law. We're gonna see where we have failed. We're gonna see where we have sinned. We're gonna see moments of unbelief in our lives. Whether we see this in the pressure that the world puts on us or whether our consciences convict us of our sin, we will feel, we will always feel as though we haven't done enough or that we need to be more, need to do more or be more to be able to go into God's presence. And that's why we need to be centered on the promises of God, because we need the true story of the gospel to remind us that we have been forgiven in Christ. And he takes us behind the veil, he has done it all, and that promise is sure, because he not only made that promise, but he made an oath on himself, showing us that promise is secure, it is sure.

And so that brings us to our second application today. Set your anchor. I talked about our small fishing boat going adrift because the anchor wasn't set. And we see that the promises of God are to be an anchor because those promises of God don't drift. They don't move. It's vital for us to acknowledge that this is the true place that we're to be centered on. This is our anchor. It's so easy to move our faith to the margins of our lives. We can easily make it just a Sunday thing, or just something we do on the side when maybe we're in a little bit of trouble. But here's the truth. When we remember that our faith in the promises of God is our anchor, it helps us to understand that it's to be the center of who we are, not on the fringes. Our faith is at the center of who we are, and this anchor of who Christ is will keep us centered to this. Wherever we drift here, we will be pulled back to the center of who Jesus Christ is. When you put your anchor down in your boat, you will still move. but you're tethered to that center, to that place where you need to be. And our faith in Christ does the same thing for us. When the winds of the world blow against us and we're pushed this way and that, we need Christ at the center, at the root, at the anchor to keep us in the truth of the gospel and the truth of his word. And so the challenge for us is to make sure that we set our anchor on what really holds us in the center. Make sure that we are set and rooted in the truth of the gospel. When the winds of the world blow, you will be safe, you will be secure from the storms that come because you are tethered to the God who keeps his promises and is never moved.

And now we're blessed this morning to have a visible reminder of this true anchor that we trust in. As we baptized Blake this morning, we are trusting in God's promise that he will bless and multiply his people. We are putting faith into action by believing God when he says that he will be a God to us and to our children. And we trust not in the water itself or in our own actions, but we trust in the God who through his word and spirit creates faith in his people. So as a way in which we believe the promise, and as a way that we set our anchor, may we pledge as a people of faith to gratuitously proclaim the word to not only Miss Blake, but to all of our covenant children. May they see in our proclamation of the word that we actually believe this. that we actually believe what we say we believe, that the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword. May our children see that our anchor is the Word of God. May our children see that we actually believe that Christ is sufficient and that his word is sufficient. So may we faithfully be a people of the word who have the Lord Jesus Christ as our anchor, keeping us centered in this world. Amen.

View the full series: Hebrews: Once for All

Browse our teaching library: Sermon Archive