Online Text Sermon - 'Two Immutable Things', Hebrews ch.6 vv.16-17
| Date | 05/11/2000 |
|---|---|
| Time | 11:00 |
| Preacher | Rev. Maurice Roberts, Inverness |
| Sermon Title | 'Two Immutable Things' |
| Text | Hebrews ch.6 vv.16-17 |
| Sermon ID | 203 |
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"For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us" (Hebrews 6, 16-18).
There are people present in this service who do not have any certainty of being the Lord's people. We must appreciate that. It is a very common problem amongst those who are serious about the things of God. It has always been the case that there are people who are very diligent in attending the house of God and diligent in reading the Bible, and who, perhaps, over many years have been concerned about the things of Jesus Christ. Yet, even to this day some such people do not have any certainty that they belong to Christ. I say that's a very common problem. If you read the biographies of great men you will know that even some of the greatest of them have been troubled with this problem from time to time. Some of the greatest Christians who ever lived have, on their deathbeds, known great darkness, uncertainty and fear. We may not be able to explain all the reasons why this should be so but, of course, part of it is the cunning craftiness of the devil. Even such a great man as James Durham - one of the outstanding Covenanters - facing death at the end of his wonderful ministry and life had considerable darkness, uncertainty and fear in his mind. If you are to read books like the late Murdo Campbell's books, which are so sweet and spiritual, you will find that he is for ever dealing with this problem, that there are good and godly, fine Christian people who do not all always have certainty or assurance of the love of God towards themselves.
That is the situation as we find it in the real world. You may say it ought not to be the case but then, it is the case. There are many strange things in this world - things that ought not to be and things that are. It is a very imperfect world. One of the strangest things of all is that there are some people who seem to have a great deal of assurance and yet they turn out to be a disappointment in the end. There are others who seem to have very little, if any, assurance and they keep going - faithful, even unto death. So it behoves every one of us to have a humble attitude towards the subject of assurance. If you have much of it, then be thankful to God and appreciate that the Lord does not deal with all His children as He chooses to deal with some of them. Some of God's children walk in darkness and have very little light.
My text is before you for this very reason: "For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath" (text). If these words mean anything they mean that God is very ready to give assurance to His people. Indeed, these words reiterate it - they say it more than once. God is generous and God is abundant in His readiness to give assurance to His people; "willing more abundantly" (v. 17) - is the way this writer puts it. God is not only abundantly willing to confirm our acceptance with Him but more than that He says He is willing "more abundantly". God is above measure lavish in the way He is prepared to give assurance and comfort and inward certainty to His own people in this life. I want to prove that statement; that will be my first heading - 'The Readiness of God to Assure You All'. Let me prove it from Scripture so that you are, I hope, convinced, especially those of you who have this very problem.
I am going to take a number of cases in Scripture which show this very truth which is in the text: God is abundantly willing to assure you and give you inward certainty and tokens of His love that you are accepted with Him in Christ.
Let's begin with Adam and Eve as our first proof and evidence. When God put them out of the garden for their sin and disobedience, He did so after having done two things. He gave them the promise of the coming of Christ, who would be the seed of the woman, who would bruise the serpent's head. They believed this promise and they were saved. Adam and Eve are in glory now but they were put out of the garden because of their disobedience; however, the promise went with them. The second thing God gave them was skins with which He clothed them. Before He let them go out of His presence in the garden, the Lord God clothed our parents with skin. He did that as a token of the reality of the promise which He gave to them of eternal life.
You can well imagine that when our parents were outside the garden and when these heavenly beings turned with the flaming sword so that they could not return, that the devil would come to tempt them. Here you are, outside the garden, shut out of the love of God; your case is hopeless. But they would be able to say to the devil, "On your way Satan! These very garments that we wear were given to us by God as a token of the proof and evidence of His love that the Saviour will one day come and that we shall be saved by His death and blood." Now that was to our very first parents God gave that token of His care. It is one of these many evidences in Scripture of the willingness that God has to assure you. Don't be in any doubt; God will assure you of His love if you desire it with all your heart. He did so to Adam, in spite of that atrocious sin that brought upon the world all the miseries of history.
Come now to Noah. In his day the world was devastated by a flood. We are seeing floods just now in England, and no wonder when you think of the wickedness of England. A friend said to me just yesterday that the floods are very dangerous; is it twenty-five feet higher than normal? They haven't had floods like that since 1625 - nearly four hundred years ago. When you think of the wickedness of the land you say to yourself that it is a wonder that God doesn't sweep away the inhabitants all at once. In Noah's day He did. When the flood waters assuaged and Noah and his small family emerged from the ark, you can hear the devil saying to Noah, "Well, Noah, God did it once and He can easily do it again. He can easily sweep away the world a second time." In proof of His assurance that He would never do it, God gave him a promise. He said there would never be another flood of that order; floods there would be, but not a universal flood to devastate the whole world. How would Noah have assurance of this? Well, God placed the bow in the sky: "the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant" (Genesis 9, 14-15). Do you see how God reassured him; He gave him a token. That is God's common way of doing it.
Come down to Jacob. Jacob was a child of promise: "Jacob have I loved," (Romans 9, 13) said God: "Esau have I hated, but Jacob have I loved." Jacob was going away from home - a young man beginning his career in life. It is a very critical hour, isn't it? It is a very critical moment in a family's life when a son or daughter moves away from home for the first time. Every wise parent and sensible child is very concerned. It is either a make or break situation with our children when they go away from the nest. Jacob was in that position. However, the Lord met him, you remember, in his sleep and gave him that vision and dream of the ladder set up to heaven; a ladder which could carry sinners to heaven - Jesus Christ our Lord. When he woke, Jacob recognised that this token of assurance was given to him by God. He said, "How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven" (Genesis 28, 17). God gave him that token as an assurance to him that He would be with him always and that He would bring him safely home again. Twenty years were to elapse before it was fulfilled but the Word of God is always fulfilled to the letter. God's word is immutable; God's counsel cannot fail; God's promises are sure - they are yea and Amen (2 Corinthians 1, 20). God is lavish in giving assurance to us when we plead with Him to give it and to manifest Himself to us. Jacob got it.
Take Moses now. He was at the back side of the desert when he saw the burning bush. God spoke to Him and called him to go to Egypt and show signs and wonders to Pharaoh and to say to him, "Let my people go" (Exodus 5, 1). Moses was nervous - no wonder; what a commission. Pharaoh was the most powerful man on earth at that time. Moses had been forty years living a private and obscure life. "Who am I," (Exodus 3, 11) said Moses to God, "Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh". "I am not eloquent," (Exodus 4, 10) said Moses and he made various objections as you will recall. God did not leave him without assurance - He gave him signs. God told him to cast down the rod which was in his hand; he did so and it became a serpent (Exodus 4, 2-3). "Take it by the tail," (Exodus 4, 4) said God; it again became a rod in his hand. "Put now thine hand into thy bosom"," said God; "when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow" (Exodus 4, 6). "Put thine hand into thy bosom again," said God; "and, behold, it was turned as his other flesh" (Exodus 4, 7). This was the evidence that God would be with him: the promise, the sign, the token that God does not leave His people without assurance. When we have Him first in our life, He will give us these evidences of love and grace and kindness.
You say that this is the Old Testament when God did miracles; all right, let's come to the New Testament. What about the woman who had the issue of blood for twelve years? She went to many doctors, spent all that she had and grew no better, but rather worse (Mark 5, 25). You recall how in the crowd she came where Christ was. In her heart she secretly said, "If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole" (Mark 5, 28) - and she did so; a touch of faith which nobody saw but Christ knew. He stopped immediately, "Who touched my clothes?" (Mark 5, 20) He said. The disciples said, Lord, "Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?" (Mark 5, 31). But Christ recognised the faith of that woman's soul. Faith was what He saw. Many jostled Him with their elbow but this woman touched Him in faith! Christ asked where the person was who touched Him and she came forth trembling. She was afraid in case He would expose her and be angry with her. What did He do? He said, "Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace" (Mark 5, 34). She would have treasured those words to the end of her days. There was her token; there was her divine assurance from the Lord.
Let me give you another one. What about the blind man in John 9. He went to the pool of Siloam and became seeing. His parents were afraid to confess that this young man had been born blind and had now been healed by Christ. They were afraid of being put out of the Synagogue. There are people who are afraid of that kind of thing; they have the fear of man greater than the fear of God. They were afraid to say what they knew to be true. There are people like that and these parents were of that order. But now the blind man, being healed, admitted that Christ had given him sight - and the Lord gave him a token. He said to this blind man, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" (John 9, 35). The blind man said, "Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?" (John 9, 36). Jesus said, "Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him" (John 9, 37-38). Then Christ gave this token to him. He said, "For judgement I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind" (John 9, 39). In other words, those who think they see but don't will be made hardened by the judgement of God. But those who trustingly believe will be given the token from God that they do have spiritual sight.
There are many of these. Let me take one more in my argument before I move on. The thief on the cross; he is so very well known to us all. What did he say to Christ? "Lord", he said, "remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom" (Luke 23, 42). The Lord was not obliged to say anything to him; he was after all a dying thief. He had no entitlement, you could say, to any assurance from Christ. You could say that Christ had plenty to think about in His own life - He was dying for the sins of the world. Surely He had no time to waste upon a dying thief. But you see, Christ is lavish in His goodness; He is abundantly generous in giving assurance. The words that this man got have been a help to millions ever since - "To day shalt thou be with me in paradise" (Luke 23, 43).
Now my dear heart, if you have no assurance, is it not clear from the Word of God that my text is telling you the absolute truth: God is "willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel" (text). That is another way of saying that the gospel is rock solid, that Christ most certainly saved to the uttermost. Even the weakest and the poorest, if they come to put their confidence in Christ, will certainly never be allowed to fall and to fail.
This, the writer here illustrates in the case of Abraham. He does so in a way that you and I probably would never notice, were it not drawn to our attention by this great and inspired writer to the Hebrews. When God called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees and blessed him in various ways later, what God said to him was this. "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 12, 2-3). Abraham, we are told, "went out, not knowing whither he went" (Hebrews 11, 8). That is exactly what all Christians do. When a Christian trusts in the Saviour, he goes forth not knowing what lies ahead of him. When a young man enters the work of the gospel ministry, he goes forth in faith; he has no idea what lies ahead of him. It is as true today as it was four thousand years ago - in Abraham's day. We must trust the Word of God. Now, God gave him a promise and not a promise only, says the writer; but God gave him two immutable evidences and assurances. One was the promise - but there was more than the promise; there was the oath of God. Where is that to be found? It is to be found in the word 'surely'. That is a thing which I suppose you and I would not have noticed had it not been pointed out to us by this inspired writer. God says not simply that He would bless Abraham but He says, "Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him" (Genesis 18, 18). That was not just a promise; that is an oath!
You ask - what is an oath? Let's go to the law courts. In the law court a witness, when he comes into the witness box, puts his hand on the Bible. He then says these words, "I swear by Almighty God to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth". That is a promise - but it is more than a promise. It is not simply a statement; it is a statement which is made stronger and bolder and more certain because of the appeal to Almighty God. A man who takes an oath like that is equivalent to saying that if he tells a lie, he is expecting God to strike him down dead. It is, of course, a very, very serious thing to take an oath.
The writer to the Hebrews in this passage says that because God wanted to reassure Abraham, He not only gave him the promise, but He strengthened the promise with an oath. "Yes", he says, "God, even though He is God and His Word is infallible, He strengthened His promise by an oath." You might ask, "By whose name can God swear, seeing He is God?" The answer is that because He could swear by no greater, He swore by Himself. "As I live", saith the Lord, "I will do this for you...I will do this to you." God does this for one reason only - to reassure His people. You will notice my text says God did this for Abraham's sake - not simply and solely so that Abraham would be benefited - He did it so that all Christians and all believers of Old Testament and New Testament would get this reassurance. Let me read it to you: "God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath" (text). To whom was He giving this assurance? To Abraham? Yes, but also to "the heirs of promise" (text). Who are they? All those who trust in Christ, as Abraham did, of course. All those who have faith, as Abraham did. So the writer is telling us that there are two ways in which God proves His readiness to give you assurance. He gives you the promise and He gives you the promise fortified, reinforced and strengthened by an oath.
If an illustration helps you, let's notice the difference between concrete and reinforced concrete. Concrete is very hard stuff but it can be broken, so you have something else called reinforced concrete - stronger still. The promises of God cannot crumble. No pickaxe can break in to the promises of God but just in case anyone's weak faith might imagine that God's promises could ever crumble, He fortifies and reinforces them. Reinforced promises are given by God, so that the heirs of salvation may be certain that everything that God has said is true. And what has He said? He has said that the weakest believer will be saved; the weakest faith will get us to heaven; the weakest one who trusts in the blood of Jesus will most assuredly come to heaven at last. That is what He said.
Someone once asked a famous missionary who was going to a distant heathen country what hope he had of seeing the people of that heathen country turn to Christ. The answer the good man gave was this - he said, "my confidence is as bright as the promises of God". That once heathen country is now aflame with millions of Christians. How did that missionary know? He didn't know because he had it before his eyes; there was no physical evidence of it. However, he had the promises of God, the God who cannot lie, whose counsel is immutable - that means He cannot be moved. There are some things you can move and there are some things you can't. You might want to stand beside Gibraltar, which is a huge rock at the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea. You may want to push hard against it and see if you can move it two inches towards Spain or North Africa. You will be pushing a very long time, I assure you, before you move Gibraltar to the right or to the left. So it is with the promises of God; they are immovable. All the devils in hell cannot move the promises of God one iota to the right or to the left. They may try to do so but they cannot. The prospect of a weak believer getting to heaven is as right as the promises of God. God has given the oath and we are told here that this certainty is as an anchor for the soul - it enters in to the unseen world. That is what happens when you throw an anchor overboard a ship, it becomes invisible; you can't see the anchor, it goes many fathoms deep in to the dark waters of the sea. Eventually it grips on to the floor of the ocean bed and it holds safe the ship in the storm. So is this anchor - it becomes invisible - it goes through the veil.
What is meant there by the 'veil'? The veil is a reference to the temple and tabernacle of the Old Testament. You recall there were two special rooms or chambers in the tabernacle and temple; one was called the holy place - that was a bigger room; through the curtain or the veil was the smaller room called the holy of holies. These two rooms symbolised two different worlds. That is why God gave these two chambers or rooms to the Israelites in their tabernacle or temple. The larger one symbolised this world; through the veil, the smaller room, symbolised the next world. The idea was that to get from one to the other you went through the veil, which of course is death. Our blessed and holy Saviour, Jesus Christ, is here called the forerunner. He is at the head of the whole pack. In a race, one runner - if he is exceptionally good - outstrips all the rest; he becomes the forerunner. All the pack come after him - maybe many yards behind him - but he is the first. That is what Jesus has done - He has outstripped the whole human race and He has entered in through the veil. He has left this world and gone into the next. He is already at the right hand of God. He is seated in the glory and in the majesty. He is with the Father and with the Holy Spirit in the presence of all the angels and all these Old and New Testament saints. Our hope, based upon the promise and certified by the oath of God, is a hope which is like an anchor - it has gone through the veil. It grips on the other side and we know that we have not believed in vain. We are sure that the promises of God cannot fail. All that God has said will be fulfilled in its time. That is the way we are to look at the generosity and the kindness of God.
I am well aware that tender-hearted people find even these things fall short of giving them what they are looking for so let me come back to you, you who have difficulty with this whole question of assurance. You say to me that you don't feel any different. I am very sympathetic to that. There is something very good about that objection. Feeling is very important. The Bible tells us that when we become Christians we may expect feelings. For instance: "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God" (Romans 8, 16). There is feeling there. When you read 1 John, John refers to that as an 'unction': "ye have an unction from the Holy One" (1 John 2, 20) - an anointing, if you like. The oil of the Spirit is put upon our hearts and we feel something; we, as it were, hear a warm and inward voice, which gives us a reassurance of our acceptance with God. Therefore, you are quite right, when you say you don't feel anything that you need to feel something. But, here is the way I answer you.
My very dear friend, you must not put feeling first. 'Feeling' comes second. What we are to do is believe the promise. We are to take the promise as God has given it to us, strengthened by His oath. As He has sworn it, we are to believe it because it is the Word of God and feeling must come second. So, the beginning of all our query must be, "Have we believed the promise of God?" We mustn't first of all want the feeling; we must first of all make sure we have rested our whole hope and confidence upon what God has said. "Surely blessing I will bless thee" (Hebrews 6, 14), He says to everyone who rests their hope of heaven on the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have trusted in the blood of Christ and if your whole expectation and acceptance with God is in what Christ is and has done, then feeling is something which will come in the course of time. It may not come all at once - you may need to wait for it. Remember, we are not saved by 'feeling', we are saved by faith. Rest upon what He has said.
Perhaps you want to ask, "How do I know that it is a solid faith that I have?" We must take it in terms of what our Scripture tells us here. He calls this promise of God something which is "immutable" (text) - something which is infallible, something which is absolutely rock-solid. It is impossible for God to lie. Some people trouble themselves where no trouble should be. I do not want to amuse you or make you smile but I did hear a story which made me smile - it may help. A lady bought a ticket to fly on an aeroplane. She had never flown before. As we all are, the first time you fly you are very nervous. She was nervous, sitting on the edge of her seat, pushing herself up with her armrests: she wasn't putting her weight on the seat. One of the flight attendants came along and said, "Madam, are you comfortable?" "Yes," she said, "but I'm not putting all my weight on this seat." You see, her idea was that if she did that, she might make the aeroplane so heavy that it would come crashing down. The flight attendant said to her, "Madam, relax, sit back, all will be well." That is what we have to do - relax and sit back on the promises of God. We can't save ourselves. Nothing you or I can do can add anything to what Christ has done. The promises of God are safer than all the aeroplanes in the world; rest your certainty upon it. Believe the promise to be as He has said: that "whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (Revelation 22, 17). Do you want Him? Then if you want Him you will get Him. The nature of faith is that it believes what God has said: "Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil" (6, 19).
My very dear friends, God has provided everything necessary for His people's safety. He has given us a thousand promises in His Word. They are like the stars in the sky - they will not fall down tomorrow morning. They will shine in the sky until heaven and earth pass away, so do the promises of God. It is the calling of God which will bring His people out of this world and take them into eternity.
I remember some years ago there was a young woman who my wife and I encouraged to go to a certain church service. She started to attend. It is always very thrilling when you invite someone to come to the house of God and you see them, after a while, beginning to understand a little. It was at a stage in her experience when she was obviously being affected by the gospel but we didn't know whether she really had come to Christ. She had said nothing about her own personal faith. One day she came to the house and she was quite emotional. She said, "I want to read a verse from the Bible - it helped me. I don't know where it is," she said, "but I discovered it." It turned out to be in Isaiah - we found it for her when she quoted some of the words. She began to read it: "I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine" (Isaiah 43, 1). There she stopped - she couldn't read any more for deep and solemn weeping. My friend, when we take God at His Word we find that He accepts us and He will give us that token and He will assure us. "Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away" (Mark 13, 31).. Plead with the Lord to give you this assurance. It will make you new men and new women and new children.
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