The Promise Keeper (Part 2) - [Hebrews 6:13-20]

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.�

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the

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Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King. Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

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The psalmist writes, �Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.�

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I�ve been studying the Bible for almost 30 years now, and there are occasions where you just say, �Wow!

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That is unbelievable! Oh, the goodness of God and His character and His work.� And it�s one of those �aha� moments where the

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Spirit of God illumines your mind and you understand one of these truths and you think, �I now know God better.

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I understand His work, His character, His perfections, His attributes.�

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I had an �aha� moment this week studying the Bible, and I can�t wait to tell you about it.

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It made me even think of the word �aha� first used in English, the Canterbury Tales, 1380s.

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And Chaucer writes, �They cried out, �Aha !� the fox, and after they ran.�

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Soon Shakespeare in the 1600s had Hamlet say to Horatio, �Aha! Come some music.�

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Well, today we�re going to have one of those �aha� moments, and it�s not going to be in Canterbury Tales, it�s not going to be in Shakespeare, it�s going to be from one of my favorite passages in all the

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Bible, Hebrews chapter 6. Turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 6, and we are just moments away from one of those �aha� moments.

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Delighted discovery is a good definition of �aha.� Surprise, exaltation.

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This writer wants you to know that you can trust the Lord Jesus Christ with your soul, that you can trust that His promises are true about forgiveness and justification and reconciliation.

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You can trust Him because His character is full of fidelity, and He�s sure and trustworthy.

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He keeps His promises. We need someone like that with our salvation.

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Theodore Beza said, �Truly it is more than necessary that our salvation be in better and more secure hands than our own.�

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Beza said, �Truly it is more than necessary that our salvation be in better and more secure hands than our own.�

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And the writer here in Hebrews wants you to know that this great person, the

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Lord Jesus Christ keeps your salvation secure. The future salvation is certain because God�s purpose is unchangeable.

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And of course, the book of Hebrews, if you had to summarize it, it would be that Jesus is superior. No matter what system, what person that comes up against Jesus, He�s better.

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He�s better than, remember? He�s better than angels. He�s better than prophets. He�s better than Aaron. He�s better than Moses. He�s better than the

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Levitical system. He�s just better. And the writer wants you to understand that. And we come to chapter 6 today.

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Remember chapter 4? He�s been talking about the high priestly work of Christ Jesus as Jesus is the intercessor and He�s the sacrifice.

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And He went on a little deviation to challenge people that they might have mature faith.

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He warned them not to just coast and backslide. We come to chapter 6, we�ve seen the last few weeks that you�re not saved by doing religious things.

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That was in verses 1 and 2. Verse 3, you�re not saved by your own power or will, you�re saved by God�s power.

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Verses 4 through 6, you�re not saved by having religious experiences. You can die in the wilderness as an

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Israelite and not make it into the promised land temporally. And you can have apostasy experiences, a

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Judas -like experience, and be really close to the Lord Jesus but still not rest in Him and trust in Him.

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And so He wants you to really, truly believe and not just experience things or just intellectually know about things.

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And then He turns. He turns to verse 9 of chapter 6, completely different from the warning, completely different than the exhortation.

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And He gives promise and hope now to every believer. Though we speak in this way, this very hard way in the earlier verses, yet in your case, and now everything turns,

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He�s talking to Christians. Beloved, we feel sure of better things, things that belong to salvation.

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And everything is driving toward this object of your faith, the Lord Jesus. And it says in verse 10, �For

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God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for His name in serving the saints as you still do.�

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And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness, to have the full assurance of hope until the end so that you might not be sluggish or may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

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And if you were a Jew and I said to you, �Faith, promises, inherit ,� who would you think about if I said, �Faith, promise, inherit ?�

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Maybe you would say, maybe Adam or maybe Moses. But every good Jew would know

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He�s talking about Abraham. Abraham is a man who put his faith in who God was because God made a promise to him.

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And that�s exactly what our writer does. He talks about Abraham and how

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Abraham believed. And so this morning, we�re in part 2, Hebrews chapter 6, verses 13 through 20.

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We got through three verses last week. That was pretty good, by the way. I don�t mean my sermon, but that we got through three verses.

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And I think that�s about how many we�ll get through today as well. Here�s the outline in Hebrews 6, 13 through 20.

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Six descriptions of God so that you continue to rest in Him, that you trust in Him for your eternal salvation.

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Christian, you put your faith in Christ Jesus, you can rest securely in Him. If you�re not a

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Christian, this is the object of your faith, this Lord Jesus. And so this writer, this preacher wants you to understand the object of your faith.

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We�re not talking about faithfulness here, we�re talking about faith in the object of the Lord Jesus Christ. Six descriptions of who

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God is so that you continue to rest in Him, i .e. believe in Him and trust in Him.

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For what purpose? It�s tucked down in verse 18. Do you see it? That we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

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And that is what every Christian needs because there are difficulties in life and you need to have hope so you can keep trusting because when your gaze becomes on your problems and you�re only glancing on the

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Lord, there�s trouble. So the writer wants to fix your eyes, fix your hope on gazing on who

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God is so you only glance at your problems, so you keep eternal perspective in front of you.

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Last week we saw the first description of God and that was promise keeper. Remember that? God is a promise keeper.

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We found this in verses 13, 14, and 15. For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, saying, �Surely

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I will bless you and multiply you.� That�s right from Genesis 22 where Abraham was supposed to slay

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Isaac. And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

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Remember God promised Abraham to have many progeny, many children, as many as the stars in the sky, as many as the sand on the seashore.

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And of course his wife was barren and there�s the whole Hagar incident and Ishmael and how is this all going to happen, especially when finally after 25 years

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Isaac is born and now God tells Abraham to go kill Isaac.

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How is this all going to work out? Could God be trusted? Did God say the right things?

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Paul relates this story in Romans 4 about Abraham, �Without becoming weak in faith,

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Abraham contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah�s womb.

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Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief.�

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What does the King James Version say? He what? You guys awake today?

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Okay. He staggered not at the promises of God. He staggered not.

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I dreamt last night that when I was preaching that I'd have to slam down my hand on the pulpit.

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That was an actual dream. I don't think it was an inspired dream, but I thought, well, now I'm going to have to use that.

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That is inspiring to me even though it isn't inspired. Is it too hot in here? All right.

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I'm going to just have to, you know, in the old days, here was the old Pastor Mike. This is God's word. Pay attention.

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The new Pastor Mike, the kind of grandfatherly Pastor Mike is. It is

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God's word and you should pay attention, but I'll try to help you pay attention by the way I preach. How's that? So wake up.

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He staggered not at the promise of God. He determined, you know what? God has promised to bless me with children and now

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God has told me to kill that child. The only thing I can do instead of blaming God or not trusting

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God, I'm going to make a deduction. He's faithful. He's trustworthy. And there's only one outcome.

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God will raise that kid from the dead after I kill him. So the writer here knows that these recipients are struggling.

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They're getting persecuted. They're losing homes. What do you tell people who are getting persecuted and losing homes or having some medical issue?

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It could be any trial. What do you tell them? You tell them, listen,

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God's faithful. And God said, I'm going to be faithful to the end. You can trust me in spite every evidence to the contrary for Abraham.

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He's old. His wife's old. He's got to kill his son. Yet Abraham believed

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God and he is a great person to imitate great only because of his great savior.

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Now we break new ground versus 16 and 17, the second description of God so that you might continue to rest in him.

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He's an oath maker, very closely related to promise keeper. He is an oath maker versus 16 and 17.

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For people swear by something greater than themselves and in all their disputes, an oath is final for confirmation.

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You can think about our own legal system. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise of the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath.

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That's pretty amazing. God not only promises, he makes an oath designed so that you trust him.

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Remember, he could just say, it's my word, take me at my word. But because we're weak, because we're frail, because he really wants to make sure we believe, he not only gives his word, but he gives a promise and then he gives an oath all designed so that we might take him at his word.

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That's incredible to me. Does God take an oath because he's untrustworthy? Does God make a promise because you can't really believe in him?

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No, he makes a promise to engender your faith. People swear by something greater than themselves.

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We know that from verse 16. In legal matters, raise your right hand and repeat after me.

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I solemnly swear, dah, dah, dah, dah. And what do they say at the very end, even in courts today? So what? So help me

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God, making an oath. Here's God, not trying to swear by some judicial system on earth, but he swears by himself, no higher power.

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This is a legal device that the people would understand back in those days, and we understand, so that it might force us to realize

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God guarantees his word. This should be the final solution to any dispute we might have, is

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God faithful? He says it in his word, he makes a promise, and he gives an oath. So everything is confirmed.

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And that's what an oath does. It confirms and it puts to end every argument. The language here could be summed up with some of these words, swear, confirm, guarantee, give proof, and that's what

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God was doing when it comes to Abraham. Verse 17, so when

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God desired to show more convincingly, I mean, what's more convincingly? More convincingly than his word, more convincingly than his word and a promise, but now with an oath to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath.

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What great condescension to our frailty, to accommodate himself so that we realize his promises are true.

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Now, if you go too fast, you missed some of these words, the unchangeable character of his what? Purpose.

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When you read that word purpose in the Bible, especially in Luke and Acts, it's talking about the saving purpose of God, that God saves sinners.

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It's an unchanging great promise that God saves sinners. That's amazing.

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If there's someone in your life that you know needs to be saved, the only hope that they'll ever be saved is what?

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Their own free will. Ah, left to themselves, they could never be saved, but when

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God has a purpose to save, he will save. That's the word here. When God purposes to send his son to redeem people for his glory, it happens, and these people are called what?

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Heirs of the promise. You don't choose to be an heir. God chooses you to be an heir. This is the language here of more certainty and more purpose and more resolve and the will of God.

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Isaiah 46, it's so great, saying of God's purpose, it says, my purpose will be established and I will accomplish all my good pleasure.

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You can trust God because he keeps his promises. He keeps his oath. Thirdly, verse 18, he's a truth teller.

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He's a promise keeper, an oath maker, and a truth teller. Now, I use the positive phrase, but in the scripture here, it's phrased negatively, something that God doesn't do.

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Do you see it? Verse 18, so that by two unchangeable things, that is the promise and the oath, in which it is impossible for God to lie.

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There are two things that cannot be changed, his promise and his oath. And God can never lie, so you can trust in him.

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Imagine if God lied. Imagine if God's promises could be revoked. God is unchangeable and cannot be ever accused of lying because he never lies.

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That word unchangeable there, I think you could probably get bogged down in too many word studies in a sermon, but I love the word unchangeable for lots of reasons.

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Here's one. It's used in secular Greek in the context of wills and contracts signifying stipulations that could not be annulled.

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This is the law of the Medes and the what? Persians. This cannot be revoked.

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It's unchangeable and it's impossible for God to lie.

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He's incapable of lying. The Greek word is he has no power to lie. He can't cheat you.

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He can't defraud you. He can't say something that's untrue. He's not going to keep a promise unfulfilled.

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Numbers 23, God is not a man that he should what? Lie. Samuel and 1

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Samuel 15, the glory of Israel will not lie. Friends, let's make it very practical.

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Jesus came to purge sins, Hebrews 1. And it says if you trust in him, all your sins are purged.

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Guess what? That's true. That's not a lie. Take him at his word. See, God has said that if I trust in the

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Lord Jesus Christ, I repent and trust in the Lord Jesus. His death burial resurrection. I can be forgiven and have eternal life.

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He didn't lie when he said it. Because what's happening is these people are looking at their circumstances saying, you know what?

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Our circumstances look pretty bad. I wonder if that's still true. Does God really love me or not?

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Don't question him when it comes to him telling the truth. It's impossible for him to lie.

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He's never lied ever. No white lies, no gray lies, no black lies. He's never lied in all of eternity.

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And how about this? First John 5, whoever believes in the son of God has the testimony in himself.

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Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar because he has not believed in the testimony that God has born concerning his son.

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And this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life. And this life is in his son. Whoever has the son has life.

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Whoever does not have the son does not have life. And you should have strong encouragement knowing that God doesn't lie.

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And now we come to the aha moment, verse 18. The fourth description of God so that you might continue to rest in him.

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He's a promise keeper. He's an oath maker. He's a truth teller. And I'm not going to use two words here.

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I'll just use what's in the text. He's a refuge. He's a refuge.

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We who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement. Friends, this is the aha moment.

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Do you feel it? Do you see it? You come to this passage and you go, aha, I get it. I've been waiting for eight days to preach this section right here.

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And if I don't preach it well, then it's on me. But the text is great. That's part of being a pastor.

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You're just trying to get out of the way so you can see it. So you take your Bible home tonight and you reread chapter Hebrews 6 and you go, you know what?

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Abendroth is crazy, but he's not that crazy. I see it. Aha. I get it. You're like, well, what's the aha moment?

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I know. I'm trying to keep you awake. It's hot in here. Now, this seems simple, and I've said it over and over and over.

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When you read the book of Hebrews, you should think like a Jew. You should think like you're receiving it from this

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Jewish writer who's writing about a Jewish man, Jesus, to say, don't be

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Jewish anymore when it comes to the Levitical system. But still understanding things in a Jewish context.

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It's written to the Hebrews. Hebrews think, okay, what when it comes to refuge?

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What goes through their mind? If it's word association, I say to a Jewish person, refuge. They say, what?

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That's what I'm after. And you're saying, well, I don't know. Think like a Jew. These people knew the

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Old Testament, did they not? This preacher, he's quoted Psalm 110. He's quoted Psalm 2. He's quoted

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Psalm 102. He's quoted Psalm 45, Psalm 89. He's quoted

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Genesis 22. These people knew these scriptures, and they were their bedrock scriptures.

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And when he says, you know what, Christian? I know you're suffering. I know you're struggling. But you can go to God for refuge.

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And they knew right away what he was talking about. Where in the Old Testament is this such a key foundational thought?

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Refuge. To flee for refuge. And the answer is found in the devotional book of Numbers.

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Turn your Bibles to Numbers. But here's what's the funnest thing about this. We don't read

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Numbers like we should. We're like, yeah, it's a bunch of Numbers. Well, that's true at the beginning.

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But pretty soon you start reading about the snakes, and the manna, and the pole, and Phineas, and all these things.

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Numbers 35 will never be the same again to me. And I hope it's true for you as well. Because this is the foundation for refuge.

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When you read the Psalms now, dozens of times, I go to God for refuge.

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This is the background. When you first understand a genealogy and why they're so important, then every other time you read genealogy, you see it.

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Every time you read refuge now, you're going to see it, I hope. That's my prayer. Cities of refuge.

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Numbers 35 verse 6. Now before I read this, if you had to summarize

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Hebrews, how would you summarize Hebrews? Jesus is superior. And is it talking about Jesus as a king?

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Well, yes, he's seated at the right hand. Is it talking about Jesus as prophet? Yes, he's better than the prophets. But what does he focus on most?

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Jesus as prophet, king, or what? Priest. A little priest, a low priest, or what?

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See, I'm trying to keep you guys awake. It's Monday co -op right now. Okay, high priest.

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Think high priest. We have a high priest. And he's a refuge. And now we read numbers 35 verse 6.

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The cities that you give to the Levites shall be six cities of what? Refuge, where you shall permit the manslayer to flee.

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And in addition to them, you shall give 42 cities. All the cities that you give to the Levites shall be 48 with their pasture land.

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So you had some for manslayers, the rest for the Levites. And as for the cities that you shall give from the possession of the people of Israel, from the larger tribes you may take many, smaller few.

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Verse 9. The Lord Yahweh spoke to Moses saying, Speak to the people of Israel and say to them,

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When you cross into the land of Canaan, then you shall select cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person without intent may what?

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Flee there. There's the language of Hebrews, flee for refuge. The city shall be for you a refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment.

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And the cities that you shall give shall be six cities of refuge. You shall give three cities beyond the

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Jordan, three cities in the land of Canaan to be cities of refuge. These six cities shall be for refuge for the people of Israel, and for the stranger and for the sojourner among them, that anyone who kills any person without intent may flee there.

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Okay, so let's think about it. There are special cities that God has, and these cities that if you kill somebody on purpose, you're gonna die.

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You're just a murderer, you have intention to kill, you're gonna die. But if it's an accident, and you don't want the family member of a dead person to come and get you, you can go for asylum, you can go for refuge, you can run, and once you get to that city, they can't do anything to you.

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And you flee for the city of refuge. Now in verses 16 and following, there are some examples of people that can't go to these cities of refuge.

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I mean, if you're gonna strike down somebody with an iron object, you're just a murderer. But verse 22, if he pushed him suddenly without enmity, or hurled anything on him without line and weight, it's not premeditated in other words, or used a stone that could cause death and without seeing him dropped it on him so that he died, though he was not his enemy and did not seek his harm, then the congregation shall judge between the manslayer and the avenger of blood in accordance with these rules.

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And the congregation shall rescue the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood. That local person who had a relative was gonna try to come and kill them, but they can't when they get to the city of refuge.

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Now, here it comes, aha moment. And the congregation, verse 25, shall rescue the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge to which he has fled, and he shall live in it until the death of the, you've gotta be kidding me, the death of the high priest.

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You go there, if you've committed one of these acts, and you can have refuge, and you can be having asylum, and you have to stay cordoned up in this place, but once the high priest dies, you can go back to life as it was.

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You can go back to your city. That's exactly what the text goes on to say. Verse 28, For he must remain in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest, but after the death of the high priest, the manslayer may return to the land of his possession.

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Do you see it? He's safe until the high priest dies, then he can go back to his normal life.

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I thought to myself, this is amazing. For all sinners, it should be amazing.

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No matter what sin you've committed, there's a place of refuge for you to go, and you're safe.

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I don't think we maybe have many murderers here in the congregation. Maybe there's one or two. I'm not kidding.

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I got dirt on all of you. You've got it on me. You know, sometimes people come in and tell me what's going on with their lives, or what they've done in their past, and I just try not to let my mouth drop.

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Because I know when I tell them what I've done, that I don't want their mouth to drop either. When I first would ride a bicycle, and somebody would cut me off,

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I try not to be a jerky bicyclist, but when some cars cut me off, and there's some four -ton truck, and I'm on some 18 -pound bicycle with spandex,

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I'm like, you know, I'm not really that dangerous, and then they cut me off, I used to just yell, idiot. And then

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I read in scripture in Matthew chapter 5, 6 and 7, and Rachah is idiot, and it's like you're committing murder, essentially, with your words.

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So I thought, I better change that. So now I just say, classy. That's really classy.

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But my heart is probably still, you idiot. The other day,

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I mean, I'm a pastor, and I know these things and everything, and somebody cut me off, I thought he was about to kill me, I go, you idiot.

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It's just in there. What do we do when we just have those remaining sins still in us?

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And we think, I still have to stand before God one day. How am I going to do this? The Lord Jesus, the great high priest, who offers himself as a sacrifice, and intercedes for us, says what?

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You can flee for refuge to me, and no matter what you've done, it's been paid for, because I, the high priest, have died, and so now you go back home.

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It's amazing. We're guilty of manslaughter. Maybe not with our hands, but with our words.

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We fought against the Lord Jesus Christ, have we not? But we're forgiven, because there's a salvific effect of the death of the high priest.

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It's almost like you could see the picture, the types in the Old Testament. When that high priest died, it was like that other person died, and now he's free to go back.

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One writer said, his death as high priest is the anti -type for the atoning deaths of the high priest of Israel in antiquity.

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You're free to go back, never to be subject again to that avenger, that relative, who wanted to pay back.

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What a great picture of redemption, what a great picture of the death of the high priest, ends one era, and inaugurates another era, and right at the very beginning of Hebrews, it says

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Jesus has purged our sins, he's died, and he's been exalted to the right hand of the Father. He died, and has been raised.

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I don't have to be in this imposed asylum anymore. Warren Wiersbe writes, we have fled to Jesus Christ, and he is our eternal refuge.

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As a high priest, he will never die, and we have eternal salvation. No avenger can touch us, because he has already died, and risen from the dead.

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And this is really important, because if I think about, what if I went to one of the other non -specified cities of refuge, would there be hope for me there?

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No, only in God's appointed city. What happens when a manslayer goes outside these boundaries?

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They could be killed. There's only one high priest, and his name is the Lord Jesus, the ultimate high priest.

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One writer says, this fleeing for refuge, speaks of a sinner fleeing for refuge, from the penalty of sin, to the high priest, who has offered atonement for him, and his sin.

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His only hope is in the high priest, the Messiah. That is so great.

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Dear Christian, turn with me to Psalms, and I want you to see, some of the great language of refuge in the

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Psalm. No matter what you've done in the past, and it could even be premeditated murder in the past.

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There's forgiveness, because you fled for refuge, and that high priest has died, and now you're able to live.

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Cities of refuge. I don't think we read the Psalms, in light of Numbers 35 either.

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But now when I do read the Psalms, I'm reminded about our great refuge, the

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Lord Jesus Christ, and we can flee to Him, like a fugitive. Because He has paid for our crimes.

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He's paid the penalty for our sins. He's paid the penalty for our guilt. What a perfect refuge.

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Have you not seen the shows, where these people, and even happened in Germany, where people run into a house of worship, for asylum, and then they burn it down anyway, right?

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But not this particular asylum. Not this Lord Jesus. All sinners, trusting in this high priest, have refuge.

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Psalm 212. I mean, you can just go through the Psalms, and see these great words pop up.

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Fleeing and refuge. And I want you to just think high priest, in each one of these. You look back to Numbers, and you go look forward to Hebrews.

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Psalm 212. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath is quickly kindled.

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On the other hand, blessed are all who take what? Refuge in Him. Psalm 511.

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But let all who take refuge in you, rejoice. Let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name, may exalt in you.

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Christian, I hope you're just singing for joy, you don't have to go to hell, you don't have to pay for your own sins, even though you did all those sins, you have a place of asylum, and refuge.

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Psalm 71. Oh Lord, Yahweh my

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Lord, in you do I take refuge. Save me from all my pursuers, and deliver me.

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I mean, can you imagine? What if we had to really worry about Satan, robbing us of our salvation?

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Satan's real. What if we had to worry, I wonder, kind of like this worldview that says,

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God's powerful, and Satan's just as powerful, but negatively powerful, and I wonder how this battle's gonna work out.

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Except Satan is a created being, and by the way, we've already had our refuge confirmed. We don't have to worry about Satan.

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Psalm 111. In Yahweh I take refuge.

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How can you say to my soul, flee like a bird to the mountain? Psalm 14 .6

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mentions refuge. Psalm 16 .1 Preserve me, oh God, for in you I take refuge.

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And maybe the one that we know very well, because somebody wrote a song about this,

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Psalm Psalm 1, sorry, excuse me, Psalm 18, verse 2. Yahweh is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer.

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My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge. My shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

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Over and over and over, the psalmist singing, refuge, refuge, refuge, refuge, you can take refuge in the one high priest, the

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Lord Jesus. Now I don't know about you, but to me that was an aha moment.

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And how do you know it's an aha moment for you? If you would just sit and think for a while about your sins, and you think, you know what?

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What does one of my sins deserve? As we've talked about regularly, how many times do you have to spit in the king's face before he damns you?

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And then you think, you know what? How am I going to get rid of these sins? Here's how the unbeliever thinks. You know what? Other people sin more than I do.

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What does that have to do with anything? We're talking about you standing before God. The unbeliever says, well, you know what?

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I'm just going to do more good than bad. It's like the guy who gets arrested for murder, and he gets put before the judge, and the judge says, do you have anything you want to say before you're sentenced?

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Well, you know what? I was really nice to my next door neighbor. I worked.

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No, we're not talking about what you did that outweighs your bad. What you did was bad. We are created beings, and we're to love

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God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love our neighbor as ourself. And we can't do it. And we need a refuge.

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We need someone who did perfectly obey, who did love God, who did love his neighbor. And so you fleet him.

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This is language of run for your lives. And if you do, guess what? God's word is true.

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You can trust him. You can be forgiven. I said to the Friday night concert, at the Friday night concert, wouldn't you like to be forgiven?

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Our Christian, isn't it sweet to be forgiven? Can you imagine? He knows everything that you've ever done or will do.

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And he says, what does 1 John 3 say? Behold, what manner of love. We should be called children of God.

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That's amazing to me. Well, let's go back to Hebrews for the fifth word. And if you want to put things out on Facebook and Twitter about how that's not your aha moment, don't blind copy me.

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Okay? I just think it's so great. I have refuge. I need safety. God is a consuming fire.

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He has wrath on the wicked. He punishes sinners, but I'm safe.

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Even though I'm a manslayer, I'm safe. Now we have another word, and this changes the metaphor from a city of refuge to a nautical metaphor.

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Verse 19, you can trust and rest in who God is and his promises because of his character.

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He's a promise keeper. He's an oath maker. He's a truth teller. He's a refuge, and he is an anchor.

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Verse 19 of Hebrews 6. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters in to the inner place behind the curtain.

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We're moving from cities to the water. What do anchors do?

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Well, they give what? Stability. Surety.

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Huh. That seems to make sense because the whole point is you can trust in God's word. You can trust in his integrity.

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He's sure. He's firm. He's faithful. And who's the anchor? Christ is the anchor.

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He's entered into heaven. Our hope is based on his promises.

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He's our spiritual anchor. Calvin writes, we are tossed about as if we were in the midst of the sea and a stormy one at that.

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The devil never ceases from stirring up countless tempests, which would at once capsize us and submerge our ship.

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If we did not cast our anchor far down in the depths, I mean, left to ourselves, we're going to be dashed to pieces.

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Are we not on the rocks and reefs of this world in our own sin?

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The anchor. Have you been to the catacombs in Rome before or any catacombs? Well, one of the things that you'll see there regularly in Roman catacombs is a little symbol.

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And that symbol is the what? The anchor symbol. That's amazing.

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They knew. Okay. What happens if you've got a bad anchor? It doesn't catch.

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It just makes you drag along the bottom. But what if your anchor is sure and firm and give stay and hope and it's a safeguard?

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Bible dictionary said this. It would appear that the Roman vessels carried several anchors, which were attached to the stern as well as to the prow.

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The Roman anchor, like the modern one, had two teeth or flukes in the word.

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The word is used metaphorically for that, which supports or keeps one steadfast in the time of trial or of doubt.

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It is, he said, the emblem of hope. You have the storms coming my way and I've got that health diagnosis and I've got this going on.

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I've got that going on and the world seems chaos. Listen underneath it all. You can't see the bottom of the ocean, but if you've got the right anchor, it's keeping you stable, even though everything looks chaotic and is chaotic.

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See what the writers trying to do? Why would you ever go back to that temple? That's up right down there in Jerusalem.

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It was still up. It wasn't smashed until 70 AD. Here we're in the 60s. Why run back to this temple when you have an anchor?

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Don't go back. Jesus is the anchor.

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He's secure. He loves nautical concepts in this book. Does he not?

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Chapter 2, verse 1, lest we drift away from it. Chapter 3, verse 6, talks about holding fast like a rope that goes out to the anchor.

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Verse 14 of chapter 3, hold our confidence firm. That's other nautical language of grabbing the rope that's tied to the boat.

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Chapter 10, verse 23, he uses nautical language. Let us hold fast the confession.

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Chapter 10, verse 38, he uses the same language. The anchor keeps the ship from moving.

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It gives stability. That's the point. Now, here's what I might do if I were God. Listen, Jesus died for your sins.

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He's been raised from the dead. He'll keep you to the end. That's true. I guess it would make for a small

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Bible. How many different metaphors does he give us to make sure we know?

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He gives his word. He gives promises. He gives oath. He says, yeah, like a city of refuge. Yeah, like an anchor.

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He just keeps piling them on. So, you know, life is difficult.

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But for the believer, they have an anchor, the Lord Jesus. He's reliable.

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He's steadfast. And friends, he's reliable and steadfast. Even when your friends aren't, when your family isn't, when the church family isn't, and when you're not, man -centered theology doesn't do any good at all.

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And where does this anchor go? Deep down into, what's the deepest part of the sea? Marianas Trench?

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Does it go way down to the Marianas Trench and we can't see it? Here it goes into the veil of the temple. Now, you see what he's doing?

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He's using all this high priest language, and now it's back to the temple. It's like that chain goes from where you see it, into the temple, into the veil of the temple.

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A hope that enters, what's the text say? Into the inner place behind the curtain. That curtain that separated the holy of holies in the tabernacle from the outside.

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That's where it goes. That's where that anchor goes. Right into the holy of holies, stabilizing the

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Christian in which one enters in the veil.

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By the way, you could never enter into the veil if you weren't a high priest. But now that the high priest has gone in there, guess what happened?

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When Jesus died, did that veil get torn asunder? The Talmud said veils in the temple were 60 feet long, 30 feet wide, thickness of a man's palm, which is about 4 inches.

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And it was made of 72 squares that were sewn together. 300 priests had to work on it to hang that veil because it was so heavy.

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And what does Matthew 27 say? And behold, the veil of the temple was torn into from top to bottom supernaturally by God doing it and the earth shook and the rocks were split.

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Isn't that a coincidence? Perfect timing. Since therefore, brethren,

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Hebrews 10, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus. Christ has entered on our behalf and now we have access.

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So what do we do with all this? Here's what we do. Christian, you can trust

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God no matter what the circumstances are. You have no option.

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What are your options? You lay in that MRI table and all of a sudden you start hearing all those sounds go on.

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What's your only hope? Because what if it is bad news? Your only hope is what?

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Remember when John DeBriene was here? I've told the story a hundred times and he said, right over there, John DeBriene said, when

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I had a heart attack, I was laying on the ground and here's what I was not singing. Shine, Jesus, shine.

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By the way, if Mark ever has to sing that on Sunday, he's fired. I have the authority to do that. By the way,

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Mark has really come into his own as he's been leading songs. You notice that? Excellent. What was my point?

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John DeBriene said, what I said to the Lord was my hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

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That's Abraham. Hope against hope. I don't have anywhere else to go. Storms of trials, storms of difficulty.

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I have an anchor of my soul. He's not only that, he's a forerunner, but we're going to do that next week.

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Aren't you glad, Christian, you have an anchor? Aren't you glad you could flee for refuge? I'm glad because I know what

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I've done in the past and I know you've done similar things, but we are forgiven people and we can hope in the promises of God standing on the promises of God.

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Let's pray. Father, I thank you this morning that we can just rehearse these truths. I probably used to think, why are these cities of refuge in Numbers 35?

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Why are there so many laws in Leviticus? Why are there so many genealogies? But now, looking back,

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I can see it. And I pray, Father, these dear people can see it as well. We not only unintentionally killed, but we killed with malice in our hearts.

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Yet that was not a sin that would damn us because Jesus experienced the torments of the dam for those three hours on Calvary when you poured out your wrath that He didn't deserve.

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But we did and He intercepted it for us. He assuaged your wrath for us and He is the real city of refuge incarnate and that gives our hope a real anchor found in His work.

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I pray for these dear people. I know many of them having issues behind the scenes especially with health things big health things.

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I pray that you just help them not to worry and you would replace that worry with trust and hope having anchor that you are faithful and we know whatever has happened or will happen in the future there is a promise that's sure for Christians and that promise is

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I will never leave you nor forsake you. God, Emmanuel you're with us and we're banking on that promise,

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Father. We're trusting in you for that promise for these tests for these cancers for these issues that are going on including our very death because one day we will all lay our heads down and we need hope and we need a promise that's sure and even on our death bed the promise is

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I'll never leave you nor forsake you. Thank you for that in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.