Forest Hill Presbyterian Church
God's Oath
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We'll brought to you by Forest Hill Presbyterian Church. I'm Jason Van Bell. Well, we are on day 21 of Hebrews, and that brings us to the end of Hebrews chapter 6. We're going to be looking at verses 13 to 20 today and asking this question, "Why would God bind Himself with an oath?" In our text, Hebrews 6, 13 to 20, "For when God made a promise to Abraham, since He had no one greater by whom to swear, He swore by Himself, saying, 'Surely I will bless you and multiply you, and thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes and oath is final for confirmation. So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable character of His purpose, He guaranteed it with an oath. So that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hopes that before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor for the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." Again, that's Hebrews 6, 13 to 20, from the English standard version. Go ahead and let go, I've got you, I promise, I won't let you go, but I'm scared Daddy, I can't trust me, son, I swear, I won't let you fall, I promise. I remember conversations like this that used to take place between me and my now 14-year-old son when he was younger and terrified of coming down ladders. He sometimes wanted to go up into the attic of our house in South Carolina and once he got up there, not a problem, but coming down, different story. He was paralyzed with fear as was my now 11-year-old son. I would have to vow oaths and make promises to get them to trust me, to get them to release their death grip on the attic and let me help them down. Well, after reading the first 12 verses of Hebrews 6, you might be feeling afraid. If you take seriously the warning of the opening verses and then consider yourself in light of the threefold test in the middle of the chapter, you might be feeling very uncertain. How can you know you are truly in Christ and bearing fruit, not just in the covenant community, fitting in with those around you, but not really united to Christ? Perhaps you see your sin struggles and feel your lack of fruitfulness and you are scared. What can you do with your fear? Thankfully, God answers our anxiety. He tells us to flee to him for refuge. He invites us to bring our confusion, our doubt, and our fear and flee to him. But how can we be sure that if we flee to God for refuge, He will accept us? How can we be sure He will save and keep us? To give us assurance, to strengthen our confidence, God binds Himself with an oath. Think about that for a moment, God doesn't owe us a refuge. He doesn't owe us anything but judgment and condemnation. Yet far from condemnation, He offers us not only a refuge, but a refuge secured by strong confidence, by binding Himself with an oath to save all of those who come to Him by faith in Jesus Christ. Now God has no one higher than Himself by whom He can swear, so He simply says, "Surely I will." God first makes a promise, and then He guarantees that promise with the oath. The oath, referred to here, probably is the covenant ceremony that God made with Abraham in Genesis 15, but the oath that God made in Genesis 15, He fulfills on the cross, where
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