Sermon Tone Analysis

If you remember, last week we got back into our study in the book of Hebrews.

We looked at the first twelve verses of Hebrews chapter six, and we saw how the writer of Hebrews gave us three great ways that we can draw closer to Jesus Christ.

We saw how one way that we can grow in our faith is by mastering the basic principles of Christianity.

If we do not have a good doctrinal foundation, then everything about our faith will be weak and shallow.

The second way to grow in our faith was to refuse to turn our backs on our salvation.

This is that same theme of apostasy that runs throughout the book of Hebrews.

The final way he told us we could grow in the faith is to be diligent.

While the Holy Spirit does all of the really hard work in our spiritual growth, we must diligently try to kill the sin in our lives, and focus on our Lord and Savior.

And that brings us to this week’s passage.

The theme of the final eight verses of chapter six is the trustworthiness of God.

And the author makes the point that because God is trustworthy, we should always trust in Him.

Makes sense, doesn’t it?

But as I was preparing this sermon, it struck me that it’s much easier to trust in God in some aspects of our lives than it is in others.

Which made me wonder, “What do twenty-first century Christians have the hardest time putting in God’s hands?”

So to find the answer to this question, I asked my friends and family on facebook what they struggled leaving in God’s hands.

Here are some of the answers that I got.

Someone said that for them, the hardest thing to trust in God about were the little things that we think we can do on our own.

How true!

I often seek God’s advice about life’s biggest decisions, but on the little stuff, well, I can handle that on my own.

Am I the only one that way?

Someone else said that they struggled with trusting God in their relationships.

Especially for teenagers, there are times when you might really be fond of someone, but what happens when that person fails to meet God’s standard for a suitable friend or spouse?

Will you trust your instincts, or will you trust God’s?

Another person said that they struggled with trusting in God for parental advice.

It seems as if a new parenting book comes out almost every day, doesn’t it?

And while some of these books are good; as Christians, we are told to put our trust in parenting tips that were written 2,000 years ago!

Sometimes, trusting in God is hard!

But as we’re going to see this morning, we can trust in God no matter what the situation is.

To see what God’s word has to say, please turn in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter six, verses thirteen through twenty.

Again, Hebrews 6:13-20.

“For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, He sware by Himself, saying, ‘Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.’

And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

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 show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, 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: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest after the order of Melchizedek.”

Let’s pray.

This morning’s sermon will take a good look at what it is about God’s character that makes Him so trustworthy.

You know, there are a whole lot of promises in the Bible.

The Bible promises us that God has good plans for us.

The Bible promises us that God hears our prayers, and that God delights in answering our prayers.

He promises to forgive us of every sin when we put our faith in Him.

God promises that He will never leave us or forsake us.

Jesus promised in Matthew chapter six that if we will seek the Kingdom of God with all of our hearts, then God will supply all of our needs, and we would never even have to worry about them.

Those are some stout promises, aren’t they?

And not only are they stout promises, but they are stout promises to you.

And the singular question that we will focus on this morning, is “How can I know that God is worthy of my trust?”

In these eight verses, the writer of Hebrews gives us two excellent reasons so that we can know with certainty that God makes good on His promises.

Let’s look at what God’s word has to say.

Reason #1: God’s proven track record

Because the writer of Hebrews is trying to prove that God is worthy of our trust, he starts with an Old Testament example of a man that trusted in God even though it might cost him his most valuable possession.

That man was Abraham.

Look at what verses thirteen and fourteen have to say.

“For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, He sware by Himself, saying, ‘Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.’“

There are two really important things that I want to point out to you about these two verses.

The first thing is this concept of an oath that we see in these verses.

In Bible times, (and really up until the past couple generations), a man’s oath was as good as a legally-binding document.

And often times, a man would bolster his oath by swearing by someone that could vouch for him, or someone that could hold him accountable.

And while this may seem like a foreign concept, almost all of us have experienced this concept first-hand.

Let’s say you are going to buy your first car, or you are going to buy your first house.

You go to the bank, and they notice that you have yet to establish any credit.

The bank might be willing to loan you the money, but what is the bank normally going to want you to have?

That’s right, a co-signer!

A loan is basically an oath between you and the bank that you are going to pay back the money you borrowed plus interest.

And a co-signer is essentially you swearing by someone greater than yourself, someone that can put their own credit on the line saying that you are good for your word.

Or, let’s say that you witnessed a crime, and the court called you in as a material witness.

Before you testify, the court is going to want you to take an oath.

“I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

And then what comes next?

So help me God.

And on top of that even, you must lay your hand on the Bible.

While we don’t do these kinds of things nearly as much as they did in Bible times, we do often take oaths, and we do often swear by someone greater than ourselves.

But notice what verse thirteen says about God’s oath.

The Bible says that God swore by His own name, because there is no one greater!

So this fact about the oath shows that God’s word is surely worth more than anyone else’s, and Abraham knew that, didn’t he?

But the second thing I want you to notice about these verses is what was going on in Abraham’s life when God made this oath.

If your Bible tells you where an Old Testament quote comes from, then you’ll notice that God said this to Abraham in Genesis 22:16, 17.

And by the way, this is the same chapter we studied in Sunday school two Sundays ago when Brother Morris was sick.

Genesis twenty-two is a story about when God told Abraham to go up to Mount Moriah and sacrifice his beloved son Isaac.

Now, if you’re not familiar with the story, you might be saying, “Hold on, what?

God told Abraham to sacrifice his son?

That’s not the God I know.

God doesn’t want us to sacrifice our kids!”

Well, guess what, Abraham knew that!

Abraham knew in his heart that God would provide an alternative sacrifice.

But at the same time, Abraham was 100% willing to follow God’s command, because he trusted God.

Abraham took his son Isaac to the top of the mountain, and Abraham tied Isaac to a pile of wood, just as he would have a lamb or a goat.

And Abraham raised his knife to slay his son, when the voice of the Lord called out to him, and told him that he had prepared another sacrifice.

Abraham looked, and noticed a ram caught in a bush, and Abraham sacrificed the ram in place of his son.

Now, one thing we must know for certain is that God did not want Abraham to sacrifice his son.

The Bible says that God detests human sacrifices.

And yet, God wanted to see how much trust Abraham had in Him.

And Abraham exhibited that trust with flying colors.

But you know, this was not the first time in Abraham’s life that he trusted in God when trust didn’t make much logical sense.

To see what I’m talking about, look at verse fifteen.

“And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.”

Now in my opinion, this verse is rewinding the life of Abraham a little bit.

I think that this verse is a reference to God promising Abraham and Sarah that they would have a son together.

And you might say, that’s not that big of a deal, people have children all the time.

Here’s the catch.

Abraham was 99, and Sarah was 89 when God promised them a son by next year.

The Bible says that Sarah couldn’t help but laugh at God.