There's not one person in here who has been serious about Christ who's not been tempted to give up. Dr. Tony Evans offers encouragement and biblical wisdom for believers.
Press on, keep going, and if you've fallen down and if you're too weak to get up, ask for help. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Depending on God isn't that hard when life is sailing along as expected. But when problems pile up to the point where you can't see where you're going, it can be difficult to stay hopeful. Let's join Dr. Evans as he talks about what holding on to hope takes and the benefits we can expect when we attempt to do that. The book of Hebrews wants to tell all these Christians, don't go back.
As appealing as it looks, as easy as it seems, don't go back. Don't renege on your faith, especially during times of trial, tribulation, difficulty. Don't walk away from Jesus Christ. The purpose of God saving you was not only for you to go to heaven when you die, but for Him to use you until you die.
Usefulness is the key and maturity is the way to learn, grow, and experience God's usefulness of you during your pilgrimage from earth to glory. He says in verse 9, I am convinced of better things. I know you folks are not going to do this. I know you're not going to go back. I'm convinced that you're going to keep going, the things that accompany salvation.
Why? Because these folks are already saved. But He wants you to know, God does not forget. Verse 10, He's not unjust to forget your work, your love, that you've shown forth in His name, ministering and ministering to the saints.
He says He's calculated all that, and it may look like He's forgotten, but He's keeping records. And He knows what you are doing to serve Him even during times of struggle. And we want you to show the same diligence, verse 11, to realize the full assurance of hope until the end. In other words, keep going to the finish line.
Don't go back. You keep going. There's not one person in here who has been serious about Christ who's not been tempted to give up. There's been different strokes for different folks, different levels, different frustrations, but the temptation is there during tough times, and He wants them to keep going till the end.
Don't be sluggish, verse 12. Emulate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Inheritance, remember? Inheritance is not your salvation.
Inheritance are what He has willed to you as a child. Some of that will comes in time. Some of that will comes in eternity.
But you want all that God has for you now, and you don't want to lose anything that He has for you later. So He says, press on. Keep going. And if you've fallen down, get up and keep going. And if you're too weak to get up, ask for help so folks can help you get up so you can keep going. But don't say, I'm down. I quit. Say, I'm down.
Help me. So He wants them to keep going at all costs and that God will keep His Word to you. Verse 13 of chapter 6, When God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, I will surely bless you and I will surely multiply you. And so having patiently waited, He obtained the promise.
Okay? It took Him 25 years to see God's miraculous birth of Isaac. That took 25 years. Then it took many years later before He saw the promise revealed when He offered up Isaac on the altar. So God didn't say it one day and He got it the next. There were years of gap between what God promised and what became the experience of Abraham.
He had to wait for the promise to obtain it. For men swear, verse 16, by one greater than themselves, and with them an oath given, as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way, God desiring even more to show the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose interposed with an oath, so that by two immutable things, by which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. Let me talk about the two immutable things.
He's already talked about them. One immutable or unchangeable thing is His promise. The other unchangeable thing is His oath.
By these two immutable or unchangeable things, because of these two, it is impossible for God to lie. So what is the difference between God's promise and His oath? Well, in simple words, God's promise is what He says He is going to do. That is, when God makes a promise, it is His declaration of what He said He's going to do. His oath is when He's ready to do it. What He promises to do—He uses Abraham—"I'm going to give you a child.
I'm going to make your seed great. I promise you." He makes that promise in Genesis chapter 12. But He doesn't make it an oath till Genesis 22. So there is a long gap between the promise and the oath. Now, why the gap between what God says He's going to do, one immutable thing, and when God declares He's going to do it, the second immutable thing, called an oath. Because between the promise and between the oath, He's getting the promise ready for the person, and He's getting the person ready for the promise. The gap between a promise and an oath is a gap of preparation. He made Israel a promise called the Promised Land, Canaan. But they didn't get to realize the promise, even though the promise was made ready for them, because they did not continue.
One of the worst things you can be is close to a promise you don't get. I mean, they were right there at the edge of the Promised Land. They were right there, and they said, it's time to cross over, but they did like a lot of us. They listened to the carnal people in the crowd and not the spiritual people, Joshua and Caleb. They followed the carnal people who were saying, go back, go back, it's too hard, it's too hard, it's too difficult. You better find somebody who's going to keep you going, who's going to make you press on, even when you don't want to press on.
Why? Because the promise awaits you, and the oath is there for you, but you have to claim it by faith. And by faith, we mean continue moving toward it, even though you don't see it. Now, this is the faith part. The faith part is you will not always see God's final move.
You won't always see that. But what God does along the faith route is give you little encouragements along the way. Many of us have had times we were ready to give up and we heard something, somebody said something, somebody preached something, somebody sung something. Something happened that said, not yet, don't give up yet, don't give up yet, don't give up yet.
But I can't see it. No, that's why you're walking by faith, because you can't see it. So, he is saying God can be depended upon.
So, by two immutable things, verse 18, it is impossible for God to lie. We who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold on the hope set before us. So, the hope is the promise. So, whatever God promises you, based on His Word, and through His Holy Spirit, confirms in your heart, you hold on to that even though you don't see anything, any possible way that this can turn around, be fixed.
If He's given you a word and you ask God to give you a word, you hold on to that. Verse 19, this hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, which he's going to go into in a moment, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. So, in chapter 7, he now goes into detail, or more detail, about the Melchizedekian priesthood. And he wants these Jewish believers to know, you don't want to go back to Levi, which was the Old Testament system.
You want to keep going with Melchizedek, because that's a better priesthood. For this Melchizedek, so he's going into detail now in chapter 7, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. So the blessing for Abraham from Melchizedek, who is priest and king, is precisely what the priesthood does, and Jesus is after the order of Melchizedek. So Jesus is responsible for your blessing.
Whatever the word blessing is, whatever the favor of God is to you, he's responsible for delivering it. Melchizedek is a prototype to Jesus Christ, who has always been the Son of God, who will always be the Son of God, which is why he says Melchizedek was made like the Son of God. So God wanted to put, even before Jesus came, an Old Testament illustration of what the Son of God would look like when he came on the scene in flesh in order to help us to understand the uniqueness of his priesthood and how he represents you as your Savior.
You see, this stuff is—this says rich stuff here. When you see the connection with the Old Testament and the New Testament, how little idiosyncrasies all fit, made like the Son of God, and of course, Jesus Christ is all these things, and so much more. Dr. Evans will have more for us when he continues our study in the book of Hebrews in just a moment.
Don't go away. you can work through any time you want at any pace you want. Along the way, you'll explore key teachings and learn how to apply them in real-world situations. There's lots of exclusive content from Tony to keep you interested and motivated and an online forum where you can ask questions, get answers, and collaborate with other students. It's almost like having a seminary on your smartphone. Visit TonyEvans.org today and connect with the Tony Evans Training Center, where you can explore the kingdom anytime, anywhere.
You can find out more about the Tony Evans Training Center when you visit our website at TonyEvans.org. When the problems in our lives make it hard to hold on to hope, we're faced with a pretty tough question. Can God be trusted in our trials? Dr. Evans has written a book by that name addressing the question and providing the answer we need for the strength to stand firm. This easy-to-read guide on how to handle adversity will help you sense how close the Lord really is and remind you that He knows what He's doing. You can get this helpful paperback right now, along with our current two-volume, 13-message sermon collection on the book of Hebrews called Don't Ever Give Up. These lessons will deepen your knowledge of how God has worked through history, give you a greater appreciation and understanding of Christ's sacrifice for you, and offer practical insights on how to live a victorious life. We'd like to send you both of these resources as a thank-you gift when you make a contribution to help continue the alternative broadcast ministry. Get all the details at TonyEvans.org or call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222.
That's 1-800-800-3222. Right now, let's return to Dr. Evans in Hebrews chapter 7. Now, verse 4, observe how great this man was, to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the choice his spoil.
He gave him the best. Those indeed of the sons of Levi, the Levitical priesthood, who received the priest's office have commandment in the law to collect a tenth from the people, that is, from their brethren, although these are descendants from Abraham. But the one whose genealogy is not traced from them collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed the one who had the promises. In other words, Abraham paid his tithe to Melchizedek because Melchizedek was the one who blessed him and through whom the promises would come. So in other words, Abraham didn't do what everybody else would wind up doing because Abraham would represent something different than everybody else had access to.
So he's citing Abraham, which the Jews could appreciate because he was the father of the Jews. But without any dispute, the lesser is blessed by the greater. Who's the lesser? Abraham.
Who's the greater? Melchizedek. Melchizedek blesses Abraham.
So Abraham knows the source of his blessing and he gives recognition to the source of his blessing. See, one of our problems is we give recognition to the wrong sources. See, instead of recognizing the order of Melchizedek, we be recognizing people and recognizing places and recognizing powers and recognize like they the source. Because whoever you recognize, your saying is the greater. He says, Melchizedek is the greater.
I am the lesser. I'm giving recognition to this priesthood. Verse 22, But so much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. So it's, okay, remember the oath guaranteed something. The promise told you it's gonna happen. The oath made it happen. So the oath was a guarantee. He says, Jesus has come along with something better than what you think you're going back to because He will guarantee what He promises.
He's a guarantor to whatever the promises are. The former priests, on the other hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing. He says, all them Levitical priests, they died.
They had to get a replacement. He says, this priest we're talking about now is never gonna die. But Jesus, on the other hand, verse 34, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore, so what you telling me? What you telling me, author of Hebrews? He is always there to deliver you.
Why? Because as a high priest, His full-time job is intercession. And intercession is one who comes in between to act on your behalf.
Now, some of you are sitting here saying, wait a minute, wait a minute, hold your horses. I'm dealing with something and I have not been delivered. But you just said He's a priest and He is—notice—He's able. So deliverance is not related to His ability or inability. Deliverance, however, is tied to your drawing near. You see that? Read that verse. He is able to deliver. So it's not an ability problem. Those who draw near, which by implication means that may be those who do not draw near.
So wait a minute. When you need deliverance—and let me give you the two kinds of deliverance. One is deliverance from. It's when God lifts you out of a problem. That's one form of deliverance. He takes you out of it.
It goes away, whatever. The other form of deliverance is through a situation. Sometimes He doesn't take you out of it. Sometimes He walks you through it. The three Hebrew boys didn't get taken from the fire.
He just joined the three Hebrew boys in the fire and walked them through the fire. So sometimes it's out of it. Sometimes it's through it. But He is able—and in fact, it is His full-time job—to be on the delivering end of His people.
But here's the key. When you need to be saved, meaning delivered, that is an invitation to draw near. See, it's during those times we don't necessarily feel like drawing near because we don't see anything happening. He says, but He's able to deliver, either from or through, as you draw near. But when are you drawing near? When you're needing to be saved or delivered.
And guess what? He wants you to know. You have a high priest who's on 24-7. He's there all the time. Sometimes He delivers you emotionally. Sometimes He calms your spirit. Sometimes He brings a thought to your mind. Sometimes He brings a person to your life. Sometimes He brings a situation you didn't expect.
Sometimes He brings something that causes you to forget. Joseph went through a bad time. His brothers messed over him. He gave birth to his children.
He said, why did you call your child that name? He said, because God has helped me to forget. See, sometimes He keeps you from remembering. It comes in a million different ways, but Jesus is pulling strings all the time. Because He's God, He can deal with everybody at one time.
Because He's man, He can feel what everybody's feeling at the same time. So He can do all of this and He does it 24 hours a day. His job is to deliver.
Your job is to draw near. So He closes by saying, For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens, who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this is He who once and for all, when He offered up Himself, for the law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints the Son made perfect forever. So what He says is that Jesus Christ as your great high priest is your full-time deliverer. He's your full-time deliverer. And when He is silent, He is not idle. When He is silent, He is not idle.
Okay? So you just, like Joshua said, stand back and see the salvation of the Lord in the various situations of life. Then God will become real to you, because He will have intervened into your reality, your reality. You have a great high priest, and this is the one you need to depend on, because He's the only one who you can depend on 24-7. If you have yet to declare your dependence on Jesus and have been holding back for one reason or another, Dr. Evans has this question for you. Do you feel like you're too sinful, too flawed, too rebellious, that you failed too much for God to ever forgive you?
Guess what? You are a perfect candidate for salvation. Jesus said that He didn't come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance and salvation. So if you go to Jesus Christ now, carry the boatload of sins with you to the cross, acknowledge Him to be your Savior, acknowledge your sins needing to be forgiven, and trust Him to do the forgiving that you desperately desire. He promises He will forgive you, give you eternal life, and offer you the free gift of salvation. I don't care how big your basket of sins are. Carry them to Jesus. He's ready to empty them for you.
Learn more about how that process works. Visit tonyevans.org today and follow the link at the top of the home page that simply says Jesus. Tony has a video message and some free resources waiting for you there. Well, today's lesson is part of Tony's rich study of Hebrews called Don't Ever Give Up. As I mentioned earlier, all 13 full-length messages in this sermon collection can be yours with our thanks when you make a donation to help us keep presenting these life-changing messages to a world in need of the good news of Jesus. You'll receive the complete two-volume series on CD or downloadable MP3s. And as a special bonus, you'll also receive Tony's helpful paperback guide, Can God Be Trusted?
in our trials. Take advantage of this limited-time offer by calling for details 1-800-800-3222. Resource team members are on hand 24-7 to help you.
That's 1-800-800-3222. Or make the arrangements and get your digital downloads right away at tonyevans.org. Again, that's tonyevans.org. In the Stories from the Storyteller animated series, everyday moments in the lives of the Evans family turn into perfect opportunities to uncover meaningful biblical truths.
And the newest episode was just released today. In Hidden Treasure, Jonathan recounts how the family acquired their pet dog Tyson. And through the story time, the family discovers the priceless nature of their relationship with God and His kingdom. Check out this and other Stories from the Storyteller at tonyevanstv.com. That's tonyevanstv.com. Better promises fulfilled. Who wouldn't like that? On Monday, Dr. Evans explores the wonder of God's new covenant with mankind as revealed in the book of Hebrews. Be sure to join us.
