Two Journeys

Living so close to Colonial Williamsburg my wife and I, our kids have often been there and we love going there. I love history and there's so many things to love about the way that they've set up that community there, but probably my favorite part, and that's true for most people, are the historical trades workers that are there doing, plying different trades and you can just go in and watch and learn how they do the various things that they do. Everyone has their favorite. Probably the baker is the number one favorite for many people. Very good at making various types of cookies of course. I personally enjoy the blacksmith. I like seeing the way that the guy heats up the coals red hot with the bellows and pulls out the iron and smashes it and sparks flying everywhere and the way they're making nails or hinges or whatever.

The cooper building barrels, the joiner making furniture. Seeing a desk being made or a musical instrument, special skill there, the silver smith. Some people like the gunsmith, the guy is rifling a long barrel and how difficult that was to do and the precision that went into making it, all of those things are marvelous. And I was thinking about that in terms of our message today, because that kind of work that's going on, that craftsmanship that's going on all the time there in Williamsburg is going on at a much larger scale, around the world as Christians are using their spiritual gifts to do various ministries that God has prepared for them to do. And it's a marvelous thing for us to be craftsmen and craftswomen for the Lord, for us to use our gifts and to do labors, to do works that God has ordained for us to do. 

And as we think about this message today, my heart goes to the idea that God has shaped and crafted us and is continuing to work on us as though he is the craftsman on us and we are the work piece so that we can then do the same thing in the lives of others. I'm thinking, of course, of Ephesians 2:10, which says, "We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do." And that's what the author has in mind as we look at this incredible doxology, what I'm going to call a prayer, that he prays for his listeners. Look at verses 20 and 21, "May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant, brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will and may he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever, Amen." We're going to spend almost all of our time on those two versus trying to understand this prayer and the prayer's simple message is this, May God work in you, so you can work for him. That's the fundamental idea here, may God by his grace continue to work in you so that you can work for him

Now, in context, having sought prayer, the author now offers prayer. Look back at verses 18 and 19, he says, "Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way. I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon." So there are certain things that the author here wants prayer for. And so prayer very much a two-way street here, but now he's offering up a prayer for them. And we learn a vital lesson. This is just one of the great messages, the great sermons there's ever been preached in history. This is what the author calls a brief word of exhortation. I'll get to that later. This is my 74th sermon in Hebrews. But at any rate, just so much to learn and the author marvelously calls it a brief word of exhortation and that's an incredible statement to make, in that it's over 300 verses. It would take almost an hour to read and it's one of the longer epistles in the New Testament.

What's brief about it? In effect, he is saying, "Oh I could have gone on a lot longer about these themes." The themes are so majestic, so exalted, so glorious. We have such a vision of Christ as our great high priest and of his finished work on the cross for us and of his constant interceding for us at the right hand of God such a vision of what he has done for us in redemptive history, in fulfilling and finishing the Old Covenant and ushering in this New Covenant. There are so many things the author could have told us and we could have gone on and on but the author having given this marvelous word of exhortation he now desires in some way to pray it into his people. And this is a message for me as a preacher. It doesn't matter how great the sermon is it needs to be accompanied by prayer.

A faithful minister of the word needs not only to proclaim the word to the people but also pray it into the people. And so the author is in effect doing this as Samuel said, "Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you." And so the author is praying for them and it's in the form of a kind of a doxology or a prayer. And as I said, the simple concept of this prayer is, "May God work in you so that you can work for him." Look at the words, "May God... " I'm simplifying it here. "May God equip you with everything good for doing his will and may he work in us what is pleasing to him." Or to simplify it even more, "May God equip us and work in us so we can do his will and please him."

So this is a powerful and a humbling and a needful message. It is humbling because we're being told in effect, what Jesus said in John 15, "I am the vine and you are the branches. If you remain in me and I remain in you, you will bear much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing." So the author in effect is saying you must have more grace, ever more grace, fresh effusions of grace, grace must be flowing into your life from God the Father or you will achieve nothing good and you will in no way be pleasing to him. And that's why it's very humbling. Paul gives it to us also in doctrinal form in Philippians 2:12-13, he says, "As you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who works in you to will and to do according to his good purpose." Same idea, that as God works in us we then work. We work out our salvation with fear and trembling and we do good works for him and so this is amazing.

We are blood-bought, we are forgiven, we are adopted into the family of God, we are royal sons and daughters. We're justified, completely forgiven of all of our sins, we are in dwelt by the Spirit, we are going to heaven. And yet we still need lots and lots of grace, we need lots and lots of help to live lives that are worthy of that calling that we have, and so this causes me to lament my own wickedness, my own sinfulness, my own weakness. To look again and afresh at what I am, who I am apart from Christ and who I am now in Christ and even more, it causes me to celebrate the great grace of God the triumphant, omnipotent grace of God and the wisdom of God in doing this for us.

The topic here is our good works and those good works are awesome. I've broken them. We've broken them as elders into two main categories: Internal journey good works and external journey good works. The good works of the internal journey are working out your salvation with fear and trembling. Growing in grace and in the knowledge of Christ, becoming more and more conformed to Christ. Loving what Christ loves, hating what he hates, putting sins to death by the power of the Spirit, being a valiant warrior in the battle against sin, those internal journey good works. And then those external journey good works where you're ministering to others. Well, there are other Christians within the body of Christ we could call external in that way or all of us together to the world out there that needy world, lost, dying, Ephesians says, "Without hope and without God in the world." Desperately needing a savior, needing Christ. Broken by sin, grieving, distressed, poverty-stricken, needing ministries of mercy, needing definitely the Gospel.

These good works are so awesome, there are such eternal consequence that Jesus made this astonishing statement in John 14 the night before he was crucified. He said, "I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing, and indeed he will do greater works than these because I go to the Father." Now, that's an amazing statement. How can we do greater works than Jesus? I mean, he did signs and wonders of such a magnitude and of such a quantity that we would... John said that if we wrote all the stories down, even the world couldn't contain the books that would be written. Well, Jesus didn't mean I think there in John 14, that we will do greater miracles than him. There's not a single figure from church history who has done anywhere near the river of healings even resurrections of the dead that Jesus did. He stands alone and that is his unique glory as the Son of God. To do far more miracles than anyone has ever done. And of a quality of a kind, like raising Lazarus from the dead on the fourth day.

But no, what Jesus is saying is, because the church multiplies and spreads to every tribe and language and people and nation, more and more people believing in him, and then equipped, and empowered by his grace doing these good works they are in scope and magnitude greater than anything that he did in the three years that he was walking in Palestine. That's how I interpret the verse. And so we see the wisdom of God then in this teaching because these are good works that are well worth doing and they will in some way, be a topic of conversation for all eternity. And so we must be humbled before we do them, Amen. We need to be really humbled and we need to recognize that apart from the grace of God we won't do any of them. And it's only when empowered by the spirit of God that we will do each one of them, so to God be the glory for any progress you make in the internal journey. To God be the glory when you put any single temptation to death by the sword of the Spirit. To God be the glory, when you open your mouth and speak to any lost person in the name of Jesus. To God, be the glory. We must have this grace.

We were left here on earth to do these good works. God is the craftsman, the master craftsman. We are the workmanship. And we are crafted and we are molded for good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. Now, if I put the two concepts together. So Ephesians 2:10 which I just quoted again and this passage in Hebrews 13. Ephesians 2:10 says that God prepared the good works in advance for us. Hebrews 13 is saying the opposite. God prepares us in advance for the good works. Isn't that marvelous? And in that way he's orchestrating the whole building of the church of Jesus Christ. And without this advance preparation we will not do any of these good works. But at the end of a fruitful, healthy Christian life we will have some emblems of our own faithfulness, that survive the testing of fire on Judgment Day. It's been purified by the testing of God's assessment that gold and silver and costly stones in some way it's pictured crafted together into a crown that's on the heads of these 24 elders. But you know very clearly in Revelation 4, they constantly are falling down before the throne and casting their crowns before God and you know what they're saying, they're saying to God be the glory for any good thing we ever did. To God be the glory. So, we will cast our crowns but first we need to go earn them, we need to go do the works, Amen. We've got to do the works and may God prepare us for them. May God use this message to prepare you to do a river of good works this week, Amen. Let's go do them to the glory of God.

So what I want to do now is I want to take this incredible doxology or prayer and just look at it phrase by phrase. I want to take it out like a box of costly chocolates with the hidden internal. You know they actually make something that you can suck out the internal part and sample it to see if you want to invest the calories on that, if it's like an orange marmalade thing you may not want to go there. But you may, you may like that but we're going to actually take each of these phrases like a filled chocolate and we're going to savor it. And in doing this I'm hoping to do two things. One is just to explain the text and the other is to give you a methodology of Biblical meditation. There's some portions of Scripture especially the Epistles are just so rich that you just take these phrases and just let them, just savor them, taste and see that the Lord is good. And so let's do that with this one because I think it'll pay back our effort.

"May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will. And may he work in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ to whom be glory forever and ever, amen."

To some degree this is a brief summary of the entire Epistle. I've summarized the Epistle in this way, that a superior mediator, Jesus Christ, brings a superior covenant, the new covenant, resulting in a superior life for the people of God, the life of faith. You can see how this kind of culminates, it goes through the superior mediator, may Jesus Christ that great shepherd of the sheep etcetera. It talks about the elements of the New Covenant, how Christ's death has bought that for us. And how it leads us into a life of fruitful good works to his glory, you see that by faith. And so this is a bit of a summary here. The God of peace versus the God of fire, you have the blood of Christ versus the blood of bulls and goats, you have the eternal covenant versus a temporary covenant, you have a resurrected mediator who's standing at the right hand of God, everything comes to us through Jesus Christ, Amen. And so we have him at the right hand of God ministering these blessings to us.

And we have Jesus Christ called that great shepherd of the sheep versus sinful flawed mortal men who were priests in the Levitical priesthood who could not continue to be our priest, who had to offer sacrifices first for their own sins then for the sins of the people and who then died and then their successors took over. So we have the superiority of Christ and working in us good works well-pleasing to God that done by faith versus the works of the law which only work death in us. And so in some senses, we have an overview of the entire Epistle.

May the God of Peace

Now, let's look at it phrase by phrase. First, may the God of peace. So this is a prayer directed toward the first person in the Trinity, toward Almighty God, God the Father, God the creator, God the king. And here he's characterized in this way, may the God of peace, may the God of peace. There are two ways to understand this. May the God who is characterized by peace or peacefulness that kind of thing, God sitting at peace enthroned above the circle of the nations. The God who is enthroned in heaven and does whatever pleases him, the God who is serenely in charge of the entire universe and cannot be moved from his pleasure, may the God of peace... It's a powerful image. Or you could conversely say, may the God who gives peace, the God who gives that peace to us. And here my mind goes to the Gospel itself how this God created the entire world at peace, created it to be good, even very good. As the creator he displayed his goodness in weaving together this beautiful world, this cosmos, that God has made. As the creator he has the right to be king as the king he has the right to be law giver.

And he gave the law to Adam and Eve in the garden that they should not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he had the right to do it and to assign a penalty to it. For the day they ate it, they would surely die. We know very well that our first forefather Adam sinned against Almighty God and he broke the relationship with God therefore man was not at peace with God, and God not at peace with us. There was a spiritual war going on and many of the people who are at war with God don't even know that they're at war with God or that God is at war with them, that the wrath of God is remaining on them because they're not in Christ. It says in Colossians 1:21, that at one time we were enemies with God, alienated as shown by our wicked behavior. God was at war with us and we at war with God, but because of the blood of the eternal covenant, we'll talk about it in just a minute, God has worked peace with us, we are now through Jesus Christ reconciled to God. And God is at peace with us and he will be forever. And so Jesus is able to come in John 20 and show his hands and his side and the evidence and the cost of what he achieved on the cross and he says, "Peace be with you." Just like in Romans 5:1, "Therefore since we have been justified through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Who Through the Blood

"May the God of Peace, who through the blood." We come to this blood again. There is no book that explains the blood so accurately and so carefully as the book of Hebrews. We've learned about it in Hebrews 9:13 and 14, "The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean, sanctifies them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more then will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death so that we may serve the living God." So if the blood of bulls and goats effectively clean people up and enable them to take part in the temple worship how much more then the blood of Jesus, the Son of God the only begotten Son of God shed on the cross, cleanse our consciences. You see the blood of bulls and goats has no power to cleanse conscience. They still felt guilty for their sins but the blood of Jesus has power to free you from a guilty accusing conscience.

And I don't know that everyone I'm talking to right now has already fled to Christ by faith, I don't know if you're at peace with God and God at peace with you, I can't tell by your faces. And I'm urging you right now as though God were making his appeal through me, be reconciled to God. God made Jesus who knew no sin to be sin for us so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Flee to Christ, don't leave this place unreconciled to God, don't leave this place with a guilty conscience. The blood of Jesus is infinitely greater than your guilty conscience, it's an infinite provision for your guilt. Flee to him. You don't need to do anything, just look to Christ, call on him, trust in him. It's really that simple. But without the shedding of blood there could be no forgiveness. Says it very plainly in that same chapter, in Hebrews 9:22. If Jesus' blood hadn't been shed, we could not be forgiven, but now that his blood has been shed, we can be forgiven and if you just embrace him by faith, you will be forgiven. You are forgiven now, the blood.

The Blood of the Eternal Covenant

And what else does it say? "The blood of the eternal covenant." What does this phrase mean, the blood of the eternal covenant? Well, there are many covenants in the Old Testament era, indeed the word testament is another word for covenant. That's what it means. Covenant's a binding agreement between two or more parties. And God has chosen again and again and again in redemptive history to deal with people through covenants. You have the covenant that he made with Noah in which he swore never again to destroy the earth by a flood. And you have the covenant that he made with Abraham, to be a God for Abraham and Abraham would be his and his descendants would inherit the land, the promised land and through his offspring, all peoples on earth would be blessed, the covenant with Abraham. And then you have the covenant of Moses a conditional covenant, it's the covenant the author has in mind here, what he calls the Old Covenant, that's the conditional covenant made with the Jews that if they kept the precepts of the law God would allow them to continue in the promised land and he would continue to be a covenant God for them but if they broke those stipulations God would bring on them the curses of the covenant, he would evict them from the promised land, and he would kill them.

So it's a conditional covenant and that's what Paul means when he says that the law brings death. Because we could not keep the stipulations of that covenant. And then we have the covenant that God made with David, in which God swore to raise up a son of David, and give him a kingdom that would last forever and ever. So those are covenants that God... Is that what the author is talking about here? No, he mentions here the blood of the eternal covenant. The blood of the eternal covenant. So I think it's called eternal for two important reasons, one of them looking back in time and the other one looking ahead in time. So let's look back in time. It's called the blood of the eternal covenant because it was made in eternity. It was made in eternity past, this covenant was made before the world began. This covenant was made between the Father and the Son and the covenant went like this. The father said, "I will elect some people, I will choose them before the foundation of the world, if you will shed your blood for them, then I will forgive them and adopt them. And they will be my people and I will be their God." And so we have election where we're told in Ephesians 1 that we are chosen before the creation of the world.

And we have Christ's death in some sense, happening before the world began. How it says in Revelation 13:8 that he is the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world, though he hadn't been even born yet of a virgin still in the mind of God, Jesus had shed his blood before God said, "Let there be light." that's an awesome thought. Jesus existed as the second person of the trinity, the Son of God under the shadow of the cross throughout the whole Old Testament era. Every time an animal is offered Jesus in heaven was thinking about his own future death. Now both of those election and Christ as the lamb of God put forward for our sins were revealed in space and time at a specific moment in time. Individually it's elect, is shown to be elect by how they respond to the Gospel. We don't know who they are until they respond to the Gospel, when they respond favorably to the Gospel, then what God did before the foundation of the world becomes clear, so also with Christ. When Jesus was born, it says in Galatians, in the fullness of time, at the right time, born of a virgin, born under the law, that he might redeem those under the law.

At the right time Christ was revealed as it says in 1st Peter 1:18-20, "For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you by your forefathers but it was with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but has now been revealed in these last times for your sake." Wow! Chosen for what before the creation of the world? Chosen to be our lamb. Chosen to be the one who would shed his precious blood for us. And so when I see this phrase blood of the eternal covenant, then that's what I have in mind. The elect chosen eternally before the foundation of the world, the son chosen to die for them. And therefore, every Old Testament saint that was ever saved was saved by this same covenant. Same way, they're saved the same way you are. We're all justified by faith in Jesus.

Now, they had less information than we have. We have more information now that Christ has come. We have the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John but we're saved by the same way we hear God's word and believe it, Amen. We hear God's word and we believe it. We're justified by faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And so this is the very point being made in Romans 3, God sent Jesus to be a propitiation, a sacrifice of atonement through faith in his blood, he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished.

Do you remember when David committed that sin with Bathsheba? And murdered her husband to cover it up because she was pregnant, remember that whole story. And then God sends Nathan the prophet, Nathan accuses him, "You were the man." David repents says, "I have sinned." He admits it, and then Nathan says these amazing words, "You shall not die." Wait a minute, how is that possible? How is it that he shall not die? The wages of sin is death, how is it that a man like David can go from that kind of action up to Heaven? Where's the vindication of God's justice? Well, Jesus is the vindication of God's justice, that's what Paul said. To vindicate his justice to display that he had actually dealt with the sins committed beforehand he did it through Jesus, he did it afterwards. Okay. And it also says in Romans 4, that Abraham was justified by faith just like we are and so also is David. And so looking back, the eternal covenant, before the foundation of the world and covering all the Old Testament saints the same way.

So that's why some people speak of what they call covenant theology. So our Presbyterian brothers and sisters talk about covenant theology and they're really going to emphasize there's just one covenant by which people are saved. I understand that, I respect it, I think it's true, I think we should all be in that sense covenant theologians. I reject that the sign of the covenant moved over from circumcision to infant baptism. I don't find that taught in Scripture, another sermon for another day. With your permission I'll move on from infant baptism. But there is this eternal covenant. And Jesus shed the blood of the eternal covenant. The eternal covenant also looks ahead, not just back but it looks ahead. It's eternal because that Old Covenant was temporary, it's obsolete and aging, soon disappear the author says in 8:13. Well, not this covenant, this covenant will never be obsolete. It can never age. It will never disappear. By the blood of Jesus we will spend eternity with God forever and ever. So when we've been there 10,000 years, bright, shining as the sun, there's no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. The eternal covenant guarantees that, the blood of the eternal covenant. You're saying pastor at this rate, we won't finish even these two verses so let's move on.

Brought Back from the Dead

These are rich, rich phrases through the blood of the eternal covenant, brought back from the dead. This is talking about the bodily resurrection of Jesus. How is Jesus' resurrection achieved through the blood of the covenant? What is the link between the blood and the resurrection? First of all, just acknowledge there is one. As a matter of fact, in my mind I almost never can think about the crucifixion without the resurrection, we don't merely preach Christ crucified. Paul didn't mean that in 1st Corinthians 2. "We preach Christ crucified" and resurrected, Amen. And by the blood of the covenant, in effect what's happening is God the Father is saying, I accept what you did and I prove it by raising him from the dead. So through the blood he shed as a man, as a real man it was acceptable to God, the judge, and he proved it by his resurrection, isn't that marvelous? And he's going to prove in the end, finally, your total forgiveness by raising you in a body like his. And that's the finish line of salvation. Interesting, the Greek phrase here, it implies almost an exodus, to be brought from a lower place and moved on up to a higher place, that's what it is.

And so through the blood Jesus has been moved from the grave and went, ascended through the heavens and now is seated at the right hand of God. There's a journey implied here that the author has already taken us on. So through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead and then he says, "Our Lord Jesus." how sweet are those words, how sweet the name of Jesus. He says Jesus twice in these two verses. We need to say the word Jesus more. We need to say the word Jesus more to our unsaved neighbors. God isn't enough. I'm not meaning disrespect or blasphemy, but I don't know what they mean by God. If there's a Christian athlete, someone out there, please say Jesus. Friends, this is one of the battles we're going to fight in the 21st century, the exclusivity of Christ and of the Gospel. We're fighting other battles. Look at Chick-fil-A this week, what an interesting week, what an interesting culture we live in. What an important time for us to stand firm for the truth. But let's stand firm for this. Salvation is found in no one other than Jesus, there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.

Our Lord Jesus

And Jesus is our Lord. The word Lord Kurios. The Old Testament... The Greek-speaking Jews when they translated the Old Testament into Greek used the word Kurios, Lord, to translate what we say Yahweh or sometimes Jehovah, the capital L-O-R-D, the big... The four letters, they use Kurios. When it says, "Our Lord Jesus." the author is meaning our God, Jesus, the creator of the ends of the earth. And he is our Lord because he died for us, and he was raised for our justification, and he lives at the right hand of God always to intercede for us, he is our Lord Jesus.

That Great Shepherd of the Sheep

So much for verse 20. "May the God of peace who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead, our Lord Jesus that great shepherd of the sheep. Oh, oh, what happened to that great shepherd of the sheep. I forgot that, please, let's look at it. What does it mean that great shepherd of the sheep? How about this one, the one that was predicted, the one that the Scripture told us was coming, the one who has come according to Micah 5:1 and 2 says very plainly, "But you Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are least among the people of Israel out of you will come a ruler who will be shepherd of my people Israel." There would be a shepherd born in Bethlehem who would stand in the strength of God and shepherd his flock and he is a great shepherd, the greatness of Christ, of his person and of his blood and of his... The price that was paid.

And he isn't the shepherd of everybody. Now don't misunderstand that, he is not everybody's shepherd. He said the reason... He said to his enemies, the reason you do not believe is that you're not my sheep. I said before, that will blow your circuit breakers. Not the reason you're not my sheep is that you don't believe, it's the reason you don't believe is that you're not my sheep. Election comes before faith. Election is the ground of faith. Because we're chosen, then we believe and when we believe then we follow. Jesus is that great shepherd of the sheep and he is shepherding your souls right now, feeding you, nourishing you, protecting you from evil, restoring your soul, making you lie down in green pastures, filling your cup to overflowing. Alright, may this God who has given you this great salvation, this great Savior. This is everything he's achieved for you, now he wants you to get to work.

Equip You with Everything Good

But before you can get to work, he wants to give you grace, "May he equip you with everything good." Do you see that? It's amazing after all that's been done for us, after all of the provision that we've just looked at, you still need more. It says in 1st Peter that he gives us more grace. We need more grace, and if you have enough grace you don't need more grace, you're fine on grace. You need more grace. "So God please give me more grace. Oh God, please equip me with everything good for doing you will."

So what does this word equip mean? Well, the word equip or perfect means to make you fit or able or suitable, capable thoroughly outfitted to do every good work. There is a negative aspect of this and a positive. Negatively, may he in effect rectify what's wrong with you. Not trying to be insulting but may he fix you so you can do the good works. If he doesn't repair you, you won't do the good works. Why is that? Well, it's because of your flesh. The very thing I hate I do and the other side, the very thing I want to do I just don't do it. So basically, "God would you please fix me? So I actually do the good things I intend to do. I don't want to have a bunch of good intentions and very few good works. I want to actually do the good works. I want them actually to happen in space and time. Oh God equip me. Overcome my flesh. Stop me from being so selfish, stop me from being so lazy. Stop me from being so worldly and caring too much what people think about me. Oh God, overcome my flesh. Stop my racism, stop my selfishness, stop my materialism. God make me a different man, a different woman so I can do the good works you have for me to do."

So, may he equip you negatively. I would suggest this in the air of evangelism, start praying this. Say, "God give me a genuine broken-hearted love for the lost, help me to love them. Not hate them for what they're doing and all that, but humbly to realize I'm no different except by the grace of God and help me to genuinely love them." I think as God does that, that plus some other things that he could do but fundamentally that. If you have a rich heart of love toward lost people, if you can do what Jesus did, weeping over Jerusalem or seeing that the people are harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd, you'll be more evangelistic so pray that God would equip you with a heart of love for the lost. Okay, So, that's negatively.

Positively, he equips you for every good work by teaching you and instructing you and giving you the tools of the trade. So your gift may be encouragement, it may be administration, it may be giving. He equips you with everything good for doing his... By giving you lots of money if you have the gift of giving or any money at all, just that is an equipping. Or by good teaching. You hear good sermons, you read a good Christian book, he's equipping you to do good works. That's my job primarily and the elder's job as pastor-teachers to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up. I'm kind of giving you equipment so you can go do your good works, isn't that awesome? I mean, what a great, great job I have.

And other people have equipped me with their books that they've written and things that I've learned from them. Marvelous. And so, we are God's workmanship and he's working on us and he's equipping us with everything good and he's working both sides of the equation. I don't have time to go into this in detail, but look at Acts 10 on your own and how God prepared Cornelius on his side of the equation, Gentile-Roman whatever, by a vision, and all that and then he works over in Peter, the Jew and prepares him remember with the sheep and all those nasty animals, reptiles and all that. "Get up Peter, kill and eat." "Never Lord, it's not kosher. Lord, I'm surprised at you. Don't you know the kosher regulations?" "Peter, I'm surprised at you. Don't you know we're in the New Covenant now? Time has come. You can eat anything you want." Jesus declared all foods clean. And don't call anything impure that God has made clean. The lesson had nothing to do with food, had to do with people and if God hadn't prepared Peter, he wouldn't have walked across Cornelius's threshold, into a Gentile home and witnessed to him.

But God prepared both sides of the equations the man for the good work, and the good works for the man. It's going on both sides, isn't that awesome when you think about missions? God's getting missionaries ready here, and then he's working something over there and at the right time he marries them together and good stuff happens. May he equip you with everything good for doing his will. That's the definition of a good work. Okay, his will. Oh God, let me do your will today. Not my will but yours be done. Oh God. Jesus said this, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me, finish his work." God's not looking for freelancers, he's not looking for innovators. He's looking for obedient servants who present their bodies to him as living sacrifice, and say, "God command me and I'll obey you."

"So God will you please equip me with everything good for doing your will, what your will is, and may you work in me what is pleasing to you?" He's not looking for hypocrites. He's not looking for people who look good on the outside and inside they're full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. He's looking for a genuine heart after God. Now, every good work is tested by these three heart attitudes that you must have. If you don't have these three it isn't a good work. First, the work must be done for the glory of God, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it for the glory of God.

Secondly, the work must be done by faith. Anything that does not come from faith is sin, Romans 14:23. Third, the work must be done out of a heart of love for the person you're doing it for. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I'm a resounding gong. If I surrender my body to the flames and give all of my possessions for the poor, but I have not love. If I don't have a heart of love for the people, it isn't a good work.

Those are the three things. For the glory of God by faith because you love out of love for the person. Oh God, work that in me, that's not natural to me, that's not naturally who I am. Oh, God, would you please work that in me supernaturally? It's the very thing that I think Jesus is praying for now at the right hand of God and that's why it says through Jesus Christ, this happens only through Jesus Christ. He is praying for you by name. He knows each of you his sheep by name. Use my name, "Oh God, would you please work in Andy a disposition to do good works today? Would you please transform his heart? Conform it to mine. Father, would you please make the way open for him to do the good works that we have arranged for him to do? Would you give him a heart of willingness to do it?" And that's why at the end the author says to him be the glory forever and ever. Jesus gets the glory, it's Jesus that...

Through Jesus Christ

Through Jesus Christ to him be the glory. So to Jesus be the glory for all of my good works and yours.

Well, brothers I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation for I have preached only 74 short sermons and now they're over, lessons are eternal. Go back and read this any time you want. I know I could have preached 74 more. There's always more here. The word of exhortation means he's coming along side like the Paraclete and like the Holy Spirit convicting, encouraging, comforting, urging just doing different things with you, it's a fruitful word. So, bear with it, put up with it, put up with the good teaching. It's only a brief word I could have sent a lot more. And then he gives us a few greetings here at the end. Timothy has been released, greet all your leaders, those from Italy send you greetings, and then finally, grace be with you all.

As we close this sermon series in Hebrews, the lessons I got out of it first, the supremacy, the greatness, the glory of Christ. So I want you to start there, just as you're sitting there and thinking about it. Use Hebrews go back this afternoon and look at how he is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word, look at the greatness of what Jesus has done, how he shed his blood once for all, for sinners like you and me and how God raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand and he's there interceding for you. And everything he asks for he gets for you, everything. And so start with the greatness, the supremacy of Christ and then look at the benefits of the new covenant. Your sins are forgiven, it's done, it's finished. The Old Covenant didn't forgive any sins ever, it never did. I already covered that with the eternal covenant. It's not Old Covenant that saves us. And so your sins are forgiven, rejoice and be glad you have eternal life and out of that foundation knowing you can't improve your position go do a bunch of good works, live a good life, let your life be rich in good works.

Take these two verses and pray them for yourself, say, "God do this in me, equip me with everything good, make me pleasing to you, apart from you I won't be pleasing to you." and then pray it for one other person today, someone else that you know, someone in the church. Pick a name and pray these two, Hebrews 13:20 and 21, concerning another person. Close with me in prayer.

I think there is a single verse that sums up the dynamic of what I consider to be the greatest story that there is in history over the last 2000 years. The greatest story that there is, there's all kinds of histories you can study, but the greatest story there is, is the building of the church of Jesus Christ over 2000 years. Of individual souls, men and women, boys and girls, people around the world in various settings, various tribes, languages, and peoples, and nations coming to faith in Christ being ingrafted into that living olive tree, being built in as living stones in a rising temple, being in some way incorporated in the body of Christ by faith. That is the story.

And it's not always reported as the lead story in the nightly news, I would say it's hardly ever reported that way. But we Christians, we know that that is the story and as I look at the advance of the Gospel through its various eras over the last 20 centuries from that small upper room where there were just a 120 men and women assembled waiting for the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit poured down on the day of Pentecost, and they flooded out into the streets and began preaching to the crowds, the throngs that have been gathered there by the Jewish feast of Pentecost and by the sound of the rushing wind that assembled them right around that place where they were staying, and Peter preached that awesome Pentecost sermon and 3000 repented and believed that day and were added to the church. From that day through, all kinds of dangers, toil, and snares, the church of Jesus Christ has been built as Jesus said, "I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prove stronger than it."

Well, I think there's a verse that sums up the dynamic, the energy, the drive perhaps even the mechanism, the way by which it's happened. John 12:24, Jesus as he was thinking about his own death as he was meeting some Greeks that wanted to meet him and a few of his disciples brought these Greeks, he began thinking about his own death, imminent death. And he said this, in John 12:24, "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself a single seed, but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit."

He was clearly talking about his own death. And the fruit that has come from the death of Christ is incalculable, it is infinite, it will go on for all eternity. But he also spoke in general terms, this is a spiritual principle that if a kernel of wheat refuses to fall into the ground and die remains sterile, no fruit comes from it, but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. And so Christians, imitators of Christ, followers of Christ have followed his pattern, have laid down their lives for others.

They have made of themselves living sacrifices, and in some cases, the martyrs dead sacrifices, so that the blood of martyrs was seed for the church and much fruit has come. And so this morning I want to think about sacrifice, the principle of sacrifice. Every missionary that's ever said goodbye to family and friends and has crossed miles of ocean, or burning sand, or rugged mountains, or into steamy jungles to win converts for Christ, to win people for Christ has made sacrifices, has done it through the principal of sacrifice. Every Christian that ever braved out the lethal dangers of the plague during the 13th century, at other times, the plague broke out in Europe at various times and every Christian that refused to love their own lives so much as to shrink from death, they refused to do that, but nursed and cared for, not only family and friends, but neighbors, unsaved and were willing to risk their lives and in effect trade their own health for the other person's disease nursing them to health while they died to the same plague, has done it from a principle of sacrifice.

Every mother who has put in long hours to pray for and to train and to raise up children, up in the middle of the night with sickness, crafting, learning experiences, weeping over their struggles, spiritual, especially, has understood this principle of sacrifice. So also, every father who lays down his life for his family, in the same way for his wife as Christ did for the church and for his children to bring them up in the training, in the nurture, and the admonition of the Lord, has done it out of a principle of sacrifice.

Every humble servant in a local church who has denied him or herself sleep so that they can do some kind of ministry like an urban ministry like we had yesterday. The summer sizzle, the cookout which was phenomenal. I praise God for it, great seeds were sown, I saw a lot of laborers from this church going out and I thank you for it and I praise God for all the work that Matthew and Zenaida and many others did to reach out but it's all been done out of a principle of sacrifice.

Frankly, every pleasing gift, every act pleasing to God has been done by Christians in a spirit of Christ-honoring, really Christ-imitating, self-denying sacrifice. Every dollar given, every hour spent in prayer, every time that we use our spiritual gifts in a way that pleases him. It's done for the principle of sacrifice. Frankly, I don't think we can do anything loving that isn't a sacrifice. We're going to talk about that today. That is the essence of how love express itself, in cheerful sacrifice for the benefit of another.

So the church is advanced in the same way, why are we talking about this today? Well, if you look at the verses that were just read verses 15 and 16, they both mentioned sacrifice. There it says in verse 15, "Through Jesus therefore let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess his name. And then in verse 16, "And do not forget to do good and to share with others for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased."

So this is the second to last sermon that I'll preach in the Book of Hebrews. And it seems reasonable for me as I look at the use of the word sacrifice twice in these verses 15 and 16, to take a step back, and in a big picture look one more time at the sacrificial system, animal sacrifices, because the author is telling us, and we're going to talk more about this one last time that that whole system is finished. It's done but the principle of sacrifice is not and there are still sacrifices of the Christian life and so what I'm going to do is I will exegete and explain verses 15 and 16, but I'm also going to go beyond and take a wider lens view of sacrifice in the new covenant, in the New Testament, and various verses that talk about that principle, how Christians are called on to sacrifice even though the animal sacrificial system is done, and how we are to live out a life of sacrifice from various places in Scripture and bring it all together for you.

So that's what we're doing today and the reason is that the author has given us the ending of the Old Covenant, and at the center of that Old Covenant was this principle of animal sacrifice. It was established right from the beginning of redemptive history, right after the fall, you remember how Adam and Eve in the garden ate from the forbidden fruit, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and immediately their eyes were opened and they realized that they were naked and they tried to cover themselves with fig leaves and God addressed that whole issue at the end of that chapter by covering them with animal skins.

And as I said before, the animals don't give them up lightly. Alright, those animals had to die, the shedding of blood had to be done for the covering of their nakedness. And the fact that this was going to be repeated, a clear repeated principle is established right in the very next account. In the next chapter, in Genesis Chapter 4, we have Cain and Abel offering up sacrifices to God, and Cain offered up some of the first fruits of the land and Abel offered some of the first fruits of his flock, of the livestock animals. And it was very clear that Cain was doing the wrong thing. God said to him, "If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?" And so God had established kind of in the white spaces that animal sacrifice was going to be a central part of the religion of sinful man. So Abel, offered up this sacrifice.

And then soon after that in the time of Noah, God commanded Noah to take seven clean animals, and two of every unclean animal, and after the flood the first thing that Noah did was built an altar and offered animal sacrifice of the clean animals. Incredible sacrifice given what the flood had done to the earth.

Then you see animal sacrifice in the time of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the building altars, offering animal, animal sacrifice. There's the little boy Isaac saying, "Here is wood and fire, but where is the animal for the sacrifice?" So the animal sacrificial system was up and running from the very beginning, but then it was codified, it was made law by the law of Moses and how that whole Levitical system was set up, how the sons of Aaron would the descendants of Aaron would be the high priests and the tabernacle was built and that's how the animal sacrifice would be done.

Well, according to the book of Hebrews all that's finished. It's done. Time for animal sacrifice is over. But though we may be done with the animal sacrificial system, it's not done with us, friends. It still has some things to teach us. This has been a bit of a progressive revelation for me as I go back again and again till I was like, none of us does animal sacrifice, that time is over, and so I kind of shut it down and thought, "Well, I don't have much to learn from it, and little by little, I've seen more and more, and now I see it in kind of a two-step process of what the animal sacrificial system has to teach us now.

The first step is it leads us to the cross, the animal sacrificial system leads us from our sinfulness to the cross for redemption. The lessons of the sacrificial system do that. And now we're going to talk about today. It leads us from the cross to heaven in a pattern of life that is described by the sacrificial system. The two parts, they're getting clear and clear to me the more I study.

Three Lessons From the Animal Sacrificial System

Now you've heard me talk about the first part before, the three great lessons of the animal sacrificial system concerning human salvation. First, all sin deserves the death penalty, the connection between sin and death which God established in the garden of Eden, made very plain. The day you eat of it, you will surely die. The wages of sin is death. "The soul that sins will die," Ezekiel 18. So there's the link in the animal sacrificial system taught at because these animals that you own were not merely confiscated, they weren't sheared for their wool, they were killed, their blood was shed, their blood poured out on the altar, they were killed without the shedding of blood, there could be no forgiveness. So all sin deserves a death penalty, lesson number one.

Lesson number two, the death penalty can be paid by a substitute. The animal sacrificial system taught that when the priest laid his hands on the substitute, on the animal and confessed onto to it, Leviticus 16, the sins of the people, and they were in some way mysteriously, spiritually transferred to the substitute and then the substitute was killed and so the death penalty can be paid by a substitute. The substitute, the animal is dead, but you are alive. Second lesson, leading to the cross.

The third lesson, leading to the cross is that the substitute cannot be an animal, it's just symbolic, the whole thing is just a teaching tool. The blood of a bull, or ram, or a goat cannot really atone for human sin. And the animal sacrificial system taught this by the endless repetition, the author to Hebrews tells us, just by the fact that they're endlessly repeated year after year shows that they were just symbolic.

They were waiting for Christ to come and so in John the Baptist then points at Jesus and says, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world," he is fulfilling and completing that part of the animal sacrificial system. Jesus, the son of God, shed his blood on the cross, as a sacrifice, he died, without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness, by the shedding of animal blood there is no forgiveness, but by the shedding of the blood of Jesus there is.

And if we trust in him, our death penalty can be taken off of us and put on him and we are freed. And there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Well, you've heard that from me before, it's good to have it repeated, I've used that dozens and dozens of times in witnessing opportunities. It's very clear, it brings you to the cross, it explains things very, very well. But the sacrificial system's not done with us yet, we still have some more to learn from it. And as you can tell from our verses today, verses 15 and 16, there's still some sacrifices the Lord wants from us, they're just not animals.

And so, we have more to learn. The animal sacrificial system still teaches us some things. For example, as you read the Old Covenant, you find from King David, as Araunah the Jebusite wants to give his threshing floor and everything needed for the sacrifice to stop the plague. And David says, "I will not take for the LORD what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing."

So sacrifice has to be costly for us just like it was for God. Sacrifice has to be something that costs us something, it's got to be something valuable. And we learned from the Old Covenant as we read the sacrifices had to be given by faith with a brokenness of heart and contrition of spirit. We're going to get more into that in a moment. But the fact that they were cranking out animal sacrifices, but had no repentance and no sense of sorrow or grieving over their sins and no faith toward God, or relationship with God, just the machinery of animals just running all the time, God through the prophet Isaiah said in effect said stop. God said through the prophet Isaiah "The multitude of your sacrifices-- what are they to me? I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats." Stop bringing meaningless offerings. You're incense, and your sacrifices, and new moon festivals, they're detestable to me. Stop it.

Because they weren't in repentance, they weren't broken-hearted. So I can learn that from the Old Covenant, sacrificial system, and then from Malachi I can learn that a sacrifice has to be my best. I have to bring my best to God. As the priest were trying to trick God and cheat God.

And then, Malachi, he says, "'When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?' says the LORD Almighty. 'Now implore God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?'-- says the LORD Almighty. 'Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you,' says the LORD Almighty, 'and I will accept no offering from your hands. My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations,' says the LORD Almighty.

Now just think about what Malachi is saying there. He has a vision for Gentiles bringing him fragrant offerings to the ends of the earth and to the ends of time. But God knew he was going to be shutting down this Jewish Levitical sacrificial system. And so you put the whole thing together, from Malachi it's like those fragrant offerings, those pure sacrifices brought by the nations are going to be what we're talking about, the rest of this message, and they're going to be the best you have to offer. Don't bring me anything lame. Don't bring me anything blind or crippled, bring me your best.

So those are three additional lessons that I learned from just reading the Old Covenant. Now what I want to do is talk about this new altar that has been established that Hebrews 13 mentions. If you look at it in verse 10, there's this new altar established, this eternal spiritual in the heavens, established through the blood of Christ. He says in verse 10, "We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat." So there is an altar and the altar is for sacrifices, right?

There's a new altar set up. And so this is the culmination of the whole meditation the author's been doing on the end of the Old Covenant sacrificial system. The blood of bulls, and goats, and Levitical priests, all that is done but there's still an altar. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, entered the world, as a man, incarnate of the Holy Spirit, he became a priest in the New Order of Melchizedek, a priest king, and he offered, once for all, he died, once for all, to make a sacrifice available for our sins, to cleanse his people perfectly of their guilty consciences, of their sins before God. And in this way, the Old Covenant animal sacrificial system is obsolete forever. So if you were to look back at Hebrews 8:13, don't do it, but I'll just quote it. It says, "By calling this covenant new, he's made the old one obsolete and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear." So God providentially shut down the animal sacrificial system by the Roman army destroying the temple burning it to the ground and has never been permitted to be re-established. And I tell you, God will never again be pleased with animal blood offered to him in worship. It's done forever. There's no need for it, it's gone forever, not like there's no need. It would be insulting to what Christ accomplished on the cross.

It's finished, but in the place of that old altar, we have a new altar. And it's established in the heavenly realms, it's described as heavenly, it's not earthly. And we can eat from it metaphorically, spiritually. We have an altar from which those people have no right to eat, we get our eating. Now what's the whole eating thing? Well, back then the animal, the blood was poured out and you still had the flesh and in many cases, the worshipers were permitted to partake of the flesh of what was offered, they were able to eat from it, the priest were and the people too sometimes.

Various rules about that. But now, the author is picking up on the eating thing and saying that we have a whole different kind of eating that we're doing now. We're getting spiritual energy and strength from a new kind of sacrificial system that as we offer these sacrifices, we get strong and get energy from this religion, this new way of offering sacrifice to God. And we have a right to eat and they don't, because they still believe in the old system, and they're rejecting Christ, and by their unbelief, they have no right to eat from this. But we, we Christians, we have a new altar. It's in the heavenlies, it's a spiritual altar.

And as Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, "Neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father. God is Spirit…" You can worship him anywhere. And so you have access to that altar anywhere you go, everywhere, all the time. It's mentioned in the Book of Revelation a few times in Revelation 8, in verse 3, "Another angel at a golden censer came and stood at the altar." So there's this word Altar. It's up in the heavenlies. "And he was given much incense to offer which are the prayers of the saints." One translation says or, "With the prayers of the saints." It doesn't matter from my point. The prayers of the saints are wafting up from that altar to God. You see what I'm saying? And so, as we pray filled with the Spirit, as we're praying what God's told us to pray and that kind of thing, it's like an aroma wafting up before God from this new altar. Do you see? And there it is, in the heavenlies, mentioned again in 8:5 and in Revelation 9:13, as well, this altar in the heavenlies. And this altar's the place on which these sacrifices I'm about to list, if I ever get to it, I'll get to them. They're coming.

But these new sacrifices that God wants us to list, to offer, they are made on this spiritual altar in the heavenlies. So our text makes plain that Christ truly is this platform. Look at verse 15, "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God," etcetera. See, "Through Jesus," Jesus is the altar to some degree, Jesus is the way through by which these sacrifices are made. So the New Covenant change in the sacrificial system is freedom in sacrifice, not freedom from sacrifice. It's a different way of sacrificing now.

A different purpose for the sacrifice, Christ once for all, sacrifice, ends forever the sacrifice of atonement. There's no need anymore for any offerings in reference to guilt for sin. It's done. We'll talk about that. We have access, new access. There are no restrictions anymore. You don't have to be a Levite. You don't have to be a son of Aaron. You have free access like it says in Colossians 3, "In Christ, there's neither male nor female, Barbarians, Scythians, slave or free." It doesn't matter what tribe you come from, it doesn't matter what your gender is, you have free access to make offerings to God in this way.

Marvelous. And so there's no restrictions in that regard. By the way, I'm not in any way saying they're not gender-based roles in the church, I believe there are, but I'm saying men and women, boys and girls, believers can offer to God, sacrifices that he accepts all the time, and not just can, but should and must every day. Objects of the sacrifice have changed. Animals are no more accepted. Free from physical challenges of the animal sacrificial system. Amen and Amen.

I mean, a bull is a big thing. I mean, just trying to get it to come to the temple. I wonder how they did that or you had to carry your little sheep on your shoulders, and all that. It was difficult. And I'm not saying our sacrificial system has not got difficulties, but you're at least free from the animal side to it. The animals are no longer the object of worship. The places I've said, no one place of worship is required. In terms of the time, there's no schedule anymore, mornings and evenings and it's basically the yearly calendar, three times a year and all that, that's all done. It's all been fulfilled.

So, we have freedom. As it says, look at verse 15 again, "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice…" And so we do have sacrifices to make. And so, really, the author at this point is answering charges, I think, that these Christians, this new sect that is everywhere spoken against have no religion.  "You don't have a temple, you don't have animals, you don't have a priesthood.  You don't have a religion. What do you have?" He says, "No, we actually do. We have sacrifices that we offer." "And so what are they?" Well, they're listed in your bulletin. I'm just going to say them quickly and then describe them.

The first is, a sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart. There's a definite order to these that I'm giving you. The sacrifices of a broken and contrite heart.

Secondly, the sacrifice of faith in Christ as our once for all atonement. I'm going to argue that those two are fundamental to everything that follows. If you don't understand that then you're probably trying to earn your salvation by works. So we start with those two.

Then the, "Link sacrifice," which is the presentation of the body as a living sacrifice to God.

And then flowing from that the sacrifice of our earthly comforts in witnessing, that's last week's sermon just a little bit of a redux on that, but the willingness to suffer for others and to bear their approach and to give up comforts, so that others can be brought to faith in Christ as a sacrifice. And I'm going to show it right from the linking the way that the author links them.

Number five is the sacrifice of worship or praise, the fruit of lips that confess his name, which is going to do double duty as I'll share in a moment, but worship just the confession of God's name by your lips.

And then finally, the sacrifice of good works to benefit others, the giving of your time, your energy, your money, your possessions, given to whoever needs them, as the Lord leads. Those are the sacrifices of the Christian life. And I think they'll cover it, don't you think? I mean, if you look at that and you say, "If I would just do those things and there's just a stream and a wafting aroma of my life, that's a good life." And so, the sacrificial system brings you to the cross. And having done that, it brings you from the cross right up to heaven with a pattern of good works that the Lord has laid out for us.

Let's look at them one at a time briefly. Sacrifice number one, a broken and contrite heart, of course, this comes from Psalm 51 in verse 17, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart oh, God, you will not despise." This is foundational to everything that follows. A New Covenant worshiper offering sacrifices to God is continually mindful of their own sinfulness and is humbled by it.

And not only that but mindful of their status as a creature. So you are a created being, And you are going to worship God with reverence and awe, because you're a created being, and you are to be humble and broken-hearted over your sin. Now, I have had some rather painful discussions in the last few years with some people who think that this aspect is inappropriate for the Christian life. They say we should never, ever be mindful of our past sins and not be thinking about them or have any sense of shame or any sense of anything. They're forgiven, we're cleansed, we don't go back, we don't think about those things anymore. Friends, that's wrong. I don't know how to say it, it's just wrong. It's just wrong.

Alright, tell me why you think it's wrong. Alright, how about 1 Timothy 1:13-15. Go ahead and look there if you would. Put your finger here in the Bible and Let's go back and look at 1 Timothy 1:13-15. 1 Timothy 1:13-15, the apostle Paul is talking about himself. And this is what he says, "Even though I was once a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst."

Alright, well, according to the theory of the person who was debating with me on this, Paul just did huge wrong there. First of all, he remembered his past life. He remembered it in detail, he put specific words on it. I was a blasphemer, and I was a persecutor, and I was a violent man, but God's grace was poured out on me abundantly. Are we supposed to help Paul? You shouldn't do that. Stop thinking about what was forgiven. Don't think about it anymore. You're forgiven now. Friends, that makes no sense to me. That's how we celebrate the grace of God to us. What we don't do is wallow in it as though we were not forgiven or that the blood of Christ isn't enough or any of that, that we do not do. But we remember and we're humbled by it. And we're mindful of it and we are thankful to God for the grace that was poured out on us. But we didn't stop there, look at verse 15. Do you see the last few words of whom I was the worst, is that what he says? No, no, no, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the worst."

So he's not just talking past now, he's talking right here right now, "I, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I tell you, of myself, as I look at myself, I am the worst sinner on earth." I mean, how could that be? He's an apostle, he's doing all these good works. Well, he is more intimately acquainted with his Romans 7 sin nature, flesh nature than he is with anybody else's. And as he looks at it and all that's been given to him and all that's been lavished on him and he still sins, the very thing he hates, he does and the very thing he wants to do, he doesn't do, he says, "I'm the worst." Friends, it's okay to do this, amen? It's okay, not only okay, it's wonderful because this gives you a broken and contrite heart out of which all of the rest of this comes, so I think we ought to learn to cultivate humility before God. Paul said he's the worst sinner on the face of the earth. And when he wrote 1 Timothy 1, he's an apostle and completely forgiven and joyful and healthy and in salvation.

So go to God with deep reverence and humility. Offer to him the sacrifices of a broken and contrite heart that David said God will always accept. And in James 4 it says, "But he gives us more grace, that's why scripture says, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble." So don't be prideful, be humble and take grace, grace is always for sin, so take grace. And again, 1 Peter 5, "All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another. Because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under God's mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time." Humble yourself under him.

Alright, second sacrifice. Faith in the completed work of Christ. Now, it'd be easy for you to misunderstand. So, I'm emphasizing completed. Once for all, we're not offering a fresh Jesus, like the Roman Catholic priest do in the mass. We are not doing that, don't believe in that. It's done, but what you do need to do as you see the sin in your life as you're mindful of your past, as you're thinking about your present, what's going on, you need to immediately be mindful of and by faith, look upward to a finished work done for you on the cross, the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for you, so by faith, you're humbled, broken, convicted, and then brought right to the cross by the Spirit. Once for all, Jesus himself doesn't keep offering himself at the right hand of God, he doesn't, it's done. This is what's once for all means, it's done forever. So say something like this, "Lord, I've just recounted to you my sins, my feelings. I've allowed my flesh rule me, I've followed the ways of this world and under the rule of the kingdom of the air. Satan's deceived me, I've fallen into temptations. I'm guilty of sin before you, but thanks be to God, you have already fully atoned for all my sins."

And as you allow this once for all finished work of Christ to be appropriated again for your new wave of sense of sinfulness, you allow your guilty conscience to be cleansed by that blood, you will revel in this, it will wash over you. This is not your sacrifice, you are not offering anything, but you are by faith recognizing that it was offered for you. Does that make sense? Not again and again, offering. And it's just going to wave and you're going to swim in an ocean of grace and mercy and forgiveness and know how forgiven you are, and how completely righteous you are in the side of God. And so, that's foundational to all the sacrifices that are to follow, right?

If you don't do those first, then you're going to be trying to pay for your sins by your good works, like everybody does, but Christians, we don't do that, we do it as forgiven people. We can't improve our standing at all by any sacrifices we offer. And so understand all of the following sacrifices are made through Christ's finished work. Look again at verse 15, go back, leave 1 Timothy now and go back to Hebrews. In Hebrews 13:15, it says "Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice." So we're mindful of our sin, sacrifice number one. We're mindful of Christ's blood shed for us, sacrifice number two. And you know what, it's going to be a strong, powerful dosage of humility, because you know what, the world has been changed by the sacrifices that follow. It's been changed forever by Christians who presented their bodies to God as living sacrifices, boldly went outside the camp and bore their approach of Christ and witness for him.

And who were worshipping and praising filled with the spirit, happy in Jesus, delighted in him, like Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail and just praising God and who were sacrificially giving their time and their energy and their money to the poor and needy. The world has been changed by that. And when that starts happening in your life, it would be good for you to be grounded in humility. Amen. When God starts using you huge to do awesome things, it'd be good to start again and again with the first two. Your sinfulness, you see it, you recognize it, you're broken and contrite before it, and yet Jesus paid for it as a foundation.

So, sacrifice number three is your bodies, our bodies in constant service to God. "Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. This is your spiritual act of worship." so you present your body to God as a living sacrifices. You say, "Now wait a minute, Pastor, that's in Romans. I thought you were an expositor. Aren't we in Hebrews?" Oh, please let me go to cross-reference. Is that okay? So go over to Romans 12:1, don't go there, but you know it.

You're going to present, in view of God's mercy to you, in view of the atonement, you're going to present your body. Your body is your vehicle of service to God, your hands, your eyes, your mouth, your ears. Your body is your vehicle of service, present it. What does it mean? He is your Lord, he is your master, he's your king, you are his slave, you are saying, "Take my life and use it whatever way you choose," we sang it already.

So, we present "I am fully yours to command." Well, the idea here of holiness as we are holy, we then present our bodies, living bodies as a holy sacrifice, is already established in Hebrews. Go back in Hebrews, to Hebrews 9:14, Hebrews 9:14, and what I want to do is show you that basically Hebrews 9:14 is teaching Romans 12:1, it's the same thing. But Hebrews 9:14 it says, "How much more then will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself, unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death," do you see that? What's the rest? "So that we may serve the living God."

It's the same thing. In view of God's mercy, cleansed by the blood of Jesus, our conscience cleanse, we are freed now to serve the living God. It's awesome. So it's basically is taught in Hebrews, it's just a little bit clear in Romans with this presentation language. You present your hands, your feet, your eyes to Jesus as your commanding officer to serve.

And so, therefore, I would suggest you do this every day. Begin your day by saying, "Lord, I am yours to command. Here is my body, here is my mouth, here is my mind, here is my stomach, here's everything, take me and use me, fill me with your Holy Spirit, use my hands to do godly things, use my mouth to speak messages for your glory. Use my stomach, may it only have in it what you want to have in it today." Alright, amen. I mean, just my feet, may I only walk on those paths you've ordained for me to walk?

Sacrifice number four, our earthly comforts and witnessing for Christ. This was last week's message, verse 13, "Let us then go to him outside the camp bearing the disgrace he bore." So that is be willing to give up societal comforts, the comfort of good relations with your lost neighbors, and co-workers, and family, be willing to give that up, while you live in community with them, because we're not called on to leave this world, but live in it and to become all things to all people, become Jews to the Jews and Greeks to the Greeks. We do what we can to fit in. But God's calling you fit in but every day walk outside of the gate, be willing to trade it in.

And so, that rhythm of fitting in, trading it in, fitting and trading it in is tough and it's a sacrifice. And as you are willing to trade in your earthly comforts and trade in that kind of a pleasant relationship with your lab mate, with your roommate, or your neighbors, you're willing to trade it in because you said the name Jesus and try to witness and try to... That is a sacrifice well pleasing to God. And as you do that, the advance of the Gospel is powerful and beautiful. And the reason we do it is, here we do not have verse 14, an enduring city, but we're looking for the city that is to come.

So as we look ahead to our rewards, we notice that verse 14 flows right into verse 15. Look at it, "For here we do not have an enduring city, but we're looking for the city, that is to come "through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess his name." I told you that verse is going to do double duty. Here it's evangelism. The next point, it's going to be worship.

But I think it fits either way. First evangelism/missions, as we go outside the camp, as it says, "Therefore," it's linking verse 15, from 14. As we go outside the camp, we are confessing the name of Jesus, we are witnessing, we are saying the Gospel, Jesus is the Son of God, died on the cross. We're confessing doctrine and as we confess that, we're praising and worshipping God in front of lost people. I've said before, that's the best way to do evangelism, celebrate Jesus in front of a lost person. I mean, throw a party for Jesus, they're on the plane or whatever, just be happy about Jesus and if they want to join in fine, if not, just do it anyway, it's joy.

And so, as we confess his name, as we worship, we are willing to give up as Jim Elliot put it, "Well, we cannot keep to gain what we cannot lose." We're willing to sacrifice... I think America does comfort probably better than any nation on earth. I mean, we're experts at comfort, experts, bodily comforts, climate-controlled rooms down to the 10th of the degree. I actually have an LCD printout or control where I can dial in, I think, to the 10th of the degree of what temperature I would like. That's pretty awesome. I mean, you can do that with your shower water, I think. You can get your shower water to be exactly the right temperature, whatever you think is best. It's amazing, so well-organized grocery stores, readily accessible Walmarts, smoothly paved roads. As soon as there's a pothole, you wonder where the DOT is and how long it's going to be to fix it. Go on a mission trip. It's like it's a shock when you find the paved road. I remember that, I mean, we were in the western part of China and there was this beautifully paved stretch of road that lasted half a mile, but nothing but rocks on either side. It was one of the most amazing things probably that highway was finished by now, but I'll never forget it, it had been nothing but rock roads up to that point, and then it was smooth for about 41 seconds and it was really kind of exciting.

But I mean, we're used to comfort. We're used to high-paying jobs that reduce suffering and maximize pleasure. If you're willing to give all that up for the Gospel, it's a sacrifice that's well pleasing to God. So be willing to start weakening your love for earthly comforts, ask God to give you opportunities every day to stand outside the city gate, and bear Jesus's abuse, speak up for Christ at work. Look for ways to enter into the more personal lives of your co-workers, find out what's going on. So, you can pray for them and witness to them. Make the sacrifice of doing outreaches, like summer sizzle, again, thank you for those that made that sacrifice to be there, make the sacrifice of missions. So we're going to commission another mission team at the end of this worship service in just a few minutes.

And then sacrifice number five, the fruit of lips, praise the fruit of lips that confess Christ through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, the fruit of lips that confess his name. Simply put, the finished work of Christ for us should flow out in a river of praise, we should be praising his glorious grace every day, Ephesians 1. And we do that in a kind of a rhythm that God has saved us Psalm 15:15, "Call upon me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you and you will honor me."

So as we call on the name of the Lord and he has delivered us from our sins, we then worship him. So we have abundant reasons to just thank God for all of his work in us, all that God has done, and we do that corporately and we do it individually. You can do it continually it says through Jesus let's continually offer. So as you come together for corporate worship, we're just speaking and praising the fruit of lips. And isn't it amazing that he wants to hear anything from our lips at all? It says in Romans 3, "The poison of vipers is on their lips." Isaiah the prophet said, "I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips." You know what, God has the ability to cleanse our mouths, so that we speak words of praise. So how about this, how about instead of Gossip this week, let's praise Jesus? Amen.

Instead of slander this week, let's speak fruit of lips that confess his name. Let's do that. Instead of arguing, instead of complaining, let's praise Jesus this week, let's speak it out. We're not supposed to have... I was witnessing one guy, he said, "My faith is an intensely personal and private thing." He's wanting me to stop talking to him about Jesus, I think is what it was, but that's not the way it is for us Christians, we want to speak our praise in the great assembly. So when we come together, we're going to praise and worship him. It might be your favorite song. And you get to sing and praise, because it's one of your favorite songs, it might not be your favorite song. And you get to sing and confess his name anyway. You get to do it like Paul and Silas in the midst of extreme suffering and afflictions, singing praise songs to Jesus. As you confess his name. The final sacrifice, I want to mention to you is good works. Look at verse 16, And do not forget to do good works and to share with others for the sacrifices God is well pleased.

Friends, we are his workmanship, we are created in Christ Jesus to do good works. That good work is going to... Those good works will be sacrifices, you're going to give up your time, you're going to give up your money, you're going to give up your energy, you're going to give to do those good works, you're going to share with others. God has sovereignly ordained and any quality of a distribution of wealth even within the church, there's some that are richer than others. And he's done that I think to bring the body of Christ together. So those who are wealthier can, 1 Timothy 6, share with others in need, and so their hearts are drawn together. This is a sacrifice that we can make in serving God. Friends, this is obviously a big topic, it's powerful. But as you look at these sacrifices, these six sacrifices, this is a rhythm of the rest of your life that will carry you. Storing up treasure in heaven with such sacrifices, says God is well pleased. You know what's going to happen?

On judgment day, when all of your good works have been refined by fire, and you've made it on the other side and all of your treasures stored up in there, you know what you're going to find in each of those treasures is? It is God's pleasure in what you did. It's God's pleasure in your active evangelism, it's God's pleasure in your secret giving, it's God's pleasure in your prayer life And he will share it with you and he will say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." You've been faithful to a few things. Now, I'm going to put you in charge of many things. Now enter into the joy or the pleasure that I had when you did it." Close with me in prayer.

We just sang a moment ago, one of my favorite hymns, Power of the Cross, and it begins with the most courageous, the most vital, the most blessed, and the most difficult journey that's ever been made by anyone in poetic language.

Oh, to see the dawn

of the darkest day,

Christ on the road to Calvary,

tried by sinful men, torn and beaten, then

nailed to a cross of wood.

That journey that Christ made outside the gate, outside the camp for us, saved my soul and yours if you're a Christian. And what immense courage and we should stand in awe of Him, and we should never cease praising Him for it. Eric that was a beautiful song. I love that song and it gave me the chance to just close my eyes and sing to Jesus who saved my soul, by that journey that He made, that's the greatest, most courageous journey that's ever been made. But the text calls on us now to make a similar journey. That's what this text is about. He's calling on us to join Him, to come outside the camp, to come outside the gate and bear the reproach of this sinful generation. And we're to do it for the same reason really that He did it, for the salvation of souls. That we are to make that journey so that others can be saved and spend eternity with Christ. And so, that's the burden of my text.

The question in front of me today, in front of all of us, is what enables, what empowers radical joyful Christian suffering. How can we do it? We come immediately face-to-face with our flesh when we come to this topic of witnessing, sharing the Gospel, bearing the reproach that He bore. What enables or empowers this, this journey, this second journey, this is how the finished work of Christ, the blood He shed on the cross, gets applied to the nations, gets applied to the elect. When people like you and me are willing to follow Jesus and suffer and bear the reproach He bore, the blood of Christ, the preaching of the Gospel, gets applied to them and they get saved. 

And that's what Paul meant in Colossians when he said, "I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to the afflictions of Christ." There's nothing lacking in the atonement. It is finished. We celebrate that. But it needs to be applied and it's going to be applied by messengers like you and me who are willing to count the cost and to do it. And as I've thought about this text, I'm just so excited to preach it to you, so desirous that you would be free from your fear of people and serve Him more faithfully. I want the same for myself. And I think the Scripture has the power to do it by the power of the Spirit, that we would be more fruitful, more faithful evangelists. And here, as we look at this text, "Let us go to Him outside the camp," it implies a certain space between us and Jesus, but earlier in the text we are told, "I will never leave you. I will never forsake you." That implies a certain complete intimacy with Jesus right now. So which is it, is He with us or is He out there, beckoning for us to come? Both, both. He's with us right now in our weakness, our frailty, our failure, He's right there loving us, covering us, forgiving us. But He's also out there saying, "Come to me, come out of that place of comfort and ease and all that, and come and serve Me and bear the reproach that I bore." It's both.

So the central question of this text, and I think of the whole book of Hebrews... And really friends, I have two more sermons in Hebrews, but really this is my climactic sermon in Hebrews. The next two passages are valuable and I'm looking forward to preaching them, but I really think this sermon will culminate the whole book for us, culminate the whole book. So what is powerful enough to transform us, weak as we are, and make us embrace radical Christian suffering joyfully for the cause of the gospel? What's powerful enough to do it? What engine can do that, what can change us enough to make us do something crazy for Jesus, to take risk for Him and to live that kind of life? What can do that to us, to have a radical element in our Christian lives that can only be explained by faith? What can give us the courage and the strength sufficient to venture forth from that circle of comfort and safety, to go from where that comfort and safety is to where the need is, and to know that the needy ones who are going to benefit will be the ones pouring out the reproach on you, that's who does it, where the pain and suffering... What can enable us to do that?

Friends, this is what the world needs most from us today. That's what it needs. It needs us to make that journey. This is what the triangle needs, this is what Durham needs from FBC members. That we would be willing to do this, to go outside the gate and bear the reproach He bore. Why do I say that? Because frankly, if the world sees Christians living essentially the same kind of life with essentially the same kind of pleasures and the same kind of patterns and the same kind of hobbies and the same kind of movies, and the same kind of restaurants and the same kind of ambitions and all that same stuff, and if we somehow tell them that Jesus is our ticket into that game, they're not going to be impressed. It's the same game they want. When you're at the game, or at the show, how much do you think about the ticket? Are you thinking about the ticket that got you in there? You're not. So, Jesus is your ticket. My ticket is hard work, or discipline or education or Buddhism or who knows what all their ticket is, but it's the same game, worldly pleasures, worldly comforts, worldly ease, worldly ambitions, worldly achievements, that's the game. And if Jesus is the means to the end, then that we've missed the whole point of Hebrews I think.

And so the world needs more than that from us. It needs us to live a radically different kind of life for radically different things and radically different reasons, and the book of Hebrews was designed to call people in that first generation setting, Jewish people, to make that journey in reference to their Jewish friends and neighbors and family. We're not Jews, we're not first century Jews, but we have the same journey to make and it doesn't feel any different. It's the same kind of thing that we have to do that they did. And so, it's a timeless word, this word of exhortation, this sermon that the author to Hebrews preached to these Hebrew Christians, word of exhortation he calls it in 13:22, a brief word. It takes about 50 minutes to get through the whole book of Hebrews at a good pace. When I practiced the sermon this morning, it was 56 minutes, so I'm going to have to lose six minutes somewhere.

Oh, now you're looking terrified because we still have the Lord's Supper to go, right? How are we going to get through this? But this was a sermon I think that was preached and written down, and it was a word of exhortation. And what was the point? It was to, it was to enable, empower ordinary sinful comfort-loving, security-seeking people like you and me, like them in the first century, to be transformed enough to make this journey, to go outside the gate and bear the reproach that Jesus bore. But what power is strong enough to move us out of the comfort zone and to serve Jesus and suffer with Him? And the answer is, the Holy Spirit, as He uses the word of God to build faith in us enough to treasure Jesus both now and forever, that'll do it. The Holy Spirit, using the Word, building faith, focused on Jesus, He the treasure and you can experience Him now. And you will experience Him forever. That'll do it. And so it's to that end that I preach today.

The elders as we think about FBC, I'll speak for myself, I think this is the greatest need of our church, pastorally. If I could have just one thing over the next five years, it would be that we embrace this lesson from Hebrews, not this one text but others besides, I'll show you in a minute. And we just get bold and crazy and radical and risk things for Jesus. And as a result, there are more people baptized, more new Christians to disciple and train and build up, and the thing just multiplies. That's what I want for this church. I love this church, I love you guys, I love shepherding this church and you love the Word and I know it, and I see that in you and it's, it's a pleasure, but this is the one thing that I desire. And I think that this text has the power to do it. So let's listen together as we hear it.

Now I've said it isn't just one text here, this is a culmination, I think, of the whole movement of the Book of Hebrews. I think it's why the whole thing was done. So the portion that gives us a sense of the greatness of Christ serves this end, so that we have a sense of the greatness of Christ. I'm going to end the sermon with just tracing through that, how the book of Hebrews just shows us how great Jesus is, and then the New Covenant and how we are by that once for all sacrifice, the blood shed for us, freed from our sins, forgiven before God and He's at the right hand of God and is interceding for us and all that, it's all of that, to the end that we will live radical, different Christian lives and live for Jesus as our treasure, both now and forever. That's the end. That's why Jesus did all of these things. So, I want to trace it out.

Seven Texts In Hebrews Cover the Same Ground

So in your Bibles, go back a little bit to Hebrews 10. I'm going to show you seven texts that say the same thing, over and over and over, 10:34, it's just the same lesson again and again, look at 10:34. He says, "You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property because you knew that you had a better possession and a lasting one." These people, these Hebrew Christians at the beginning of their Christian life, found people that were being persecuted, they were perhaps being arrested for their faith or being beaten up in some way or hindered in some way, and they came out of the crowd and joined with them, stood by them, encouraged them, or visited them in prison, and risked the same treatment themselves. And the reason they did it, what is the reason? It's right in the text, because they knew they had a better possession and a lasting one. The name of the better possession is Jesus.

Okay, that's the first text. Secondly, look at Hebrews 11:6. "And without faith, it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly or diligently seek Him." Alright, I'm going to put a new light on that text, on 11:6, I'm going to put a Hebrews 13 light on it, Jesus is out there, we're inside where it's safe, He's saying, "Come to Me, and if you come to Me, I'll reward you, you'll find Me. You'll have deeper fuller, richer experiences with Me." And so the only way you're going to venture out of where it's safe and secure, going outside the camp is if you believe 11:6. He's out there and He'll reward you if you do it. And that He himself is the reward, He's what you get.

Third look at Hebrews 11:10 and 13-16. We're talking about Abraham and then, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, the patriarchal period. And these people left the security and comfort of Ur of the Chaldees, and that comfortable setup that Abram had, and they went and wandered in the promised land that wasn't even given to them in their life and they lived in tents and they admitted that they were aliens and strangers in this world and they wandered around from place to place. And they had opportunity to go back but they never went back because God had prepared a city for them whose architect and builder is God and they're looking ahead to that city, and they can't wait to go to that city; and so therefore they are willing to be called aliens and strangers and have disadvantages in this world and rejection in this world, living in tents, etcetera, for the sake of that future glory, that city that's to come. It's the same lesson.

Look again at Hebrews 11:24-26, we have the case of Moses, "By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, he chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to his reward." Why did Moses do it, why did he leave the security and comfort of a good place at court, at Pharaoh's court, as a son of Pharaoh's daughter, all of the pleasures of sin and all the lustful things and the sensuous things and all that? Why did he leave all that behind? It says right in the text, he did it for Christ. And why? Because he's looking ahead to his reward, Christ again, Christ is now and Christ is the reward. Moses did it.

Look again at verse 35, same thing, "Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection." They're in prison, they're getting tortured, they're getting... And apparently in the verse, they have the ability to stop it, they could shut it down if they would just do something, probably deny Jesus. But they refused, they wouldn't do it. They would rather be tortured, than to have a sinful release. And why? Because they were looking ahead, looking ahead to what? A better resurrection. By now you should know the name of the better resurrection, His name is Jesus. He said it plainly in John 11, "I am the resurrection." Not merely, I give you the resurrection or I empower your... I Am the Resurrection. You'll hear His voice and come out of your tomb, and you'll see Him. He is your resurrection. And so, they were tortured and refused to be released so that they could have that better resurrection. The highest example of all is in chapter 12 in verse 2. Let's give the best to Jesus, amen?

It says in Hebrews 12:2, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Why did He leave the comfort and security of heaven, come down to earth, lead the kind of life He did and ultimately go to the cross? The reason in the text is He did it for joy. It wasn't some grim, stoical kind of thing, it was... He would say, I did it for joy. What joy? I want to be with you all forever and ever, I want the elect, I want those, Father, whom You have given Me, to be with Me where I am and I want them to see My glory and I know the price tag is My own blood, I'm willing to pay it. And so for the joy set before Him, He went outside the city gate, and He suffered and He shed His blood. And so, you guys, if you do it, you're going to do it for joy. I guarantee it, you will not do it out of guilt manipulation, you won't do it out any of that. You'll do it once or twice for guilt, but you'll do it for the rest of your lives for joy. For the joy set before you. And so, Christ is our pattern in this.

And then the verses we're looking at today, look at them again, 13:12-14, "So Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through His own blood. Let us then go to Him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore, for here we do not have an enduring city, but we're looking for the city that is to come." Same thing, seven texts that say the same thing. If you can find some more, great, add them to the collection, but it's the message of Hebrews, it's what the author is trying to get us to do. It all adds up to one thing.

John Piper at T4G

John Piper in a beautiful message based on the same text and I'm indebted him for some of the structure of my sermon but Piper in T4G... Together for the Gospel 2008 said this, "I want the world radically rocked by the way you live your lives. I want your lives to have a risk-taking flavor. I want you to be living with such an overwhelmingly powerful heavenly focus that people will feel uncomfortable around you. I want you to be the salt of the Earth, and the light of the world, so that they'll either yearn to know the Christ that has made you so radical, so different, or they will seek to persecute you and pour out abuse on you."

So look what happened to Stephen, for example, he was like that. He lived so radically and so powerfully free from the praise of people, it just didn't seem to matter. He's there boldly preaching Jesus in the Synagogue of the Freedmen who were Jews from Tarsus and other places included, I feel certain Saul and others, and he's there and they cannot refute him, and you know what he's doing, I think he's preaching the message of Hebrews. The Old Covenant is over. You don't need the animal sacrifice anymore, Jesus is enough. Jesus says Come, and He's changing everything. Now, they weren't ready for that. If he didn't die so young, I'd have guessed at Stephen as the author of our book, but we're not supposed to guess. So, anyway moving on. He knew it, he saw the themes, he knew that the time for the temple sacrifices were done. Well, they couldn't handle that, and they dragged him up in front of the Sanhedrin, and when they looked at him, they saw that his face was like the face of an angel. Makes you want to just live so heavenly that that's what you're like, and you just don't care what they do to you. You just don't care what happens to you, at one level. And then he preaches a genius sermon. And the basic lesson is you're just like your fathers, you always resist and persecute the ones that the Holy Spirit sends, always, and now you've done it to Jesus.

Well, that's not a great... That message will not get you a lot of friends at the Sanhedrin. And they couldn't handle it, and they're getting really angry at him, frothy even, and at that moment he looks upward. And he sees heaven open, he sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said, "Look, I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." And they couldn't handle that either, and they covered their ears, and you know what they do with Stephen? They dragged him out of the city. Now, why do they drag Stephen out of the city? Well look at our text they dragged him out of the city to kill him. So, that was Stephen. Now, Stephen didn't die in vain. Stephen's death lit a fire of persecution under the church in Jerusalem. Interesting, the same city, same walls, same gate, and the church was in there comfortable, and Stephen's death lit a fire in Saul of Tarsus and the enemies of the Gospel, which just launched the rocket of church growth throughout Judea and Samaria, and then to the ends of the earth. Stephen didn't die in vain.

So the call of the text for us is, who are the radical Stephens that go forth and then light a fire under this church and get us to finish the mission that God has for us? Who is that going to be? Who can live so other-worldly in your mind, in your heart, by faith, like Stephen, so that you can do this kind of thing? An other-worldly faith. So that's what I want.

Now, let's look at the text a little more carefully. Verse 11, "The high priest carries the blood of animals into the most holy place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp, and so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through His own blood." So the author's bringing us, as he's done so many times before, back to the Day of Atonement. And so, we're there at Leviticus 16 and one bull and two goats were selected out. And the bull was slaughtered for the sins of the priest, as the author to Hebrews already mentioned. One of the goats was slaughtered for the sins of the people, some of the blood of the bull and the goat were brought into the Holy of Holies, and sprinkled on the mercy seat on the Atonement cover on the Ark of the Covenant, the other, the live goat, the scapegoat, was led a far distance away, and released as a symbol of our forgiveness in Jesus.

Please hear this right now. The text says that Jesus suffered to make the people holy through His own blood. If you believe in Jesus, if you trust in Him, by faith in His blood, you are holy. You don't have to make this journey better to be holier. Do you understand what I'm saying? You don't have to do better at evangelism to be made holy in God's sight. They're just two different things. The work of Jesus for you is finished, you are redeemed, if you have trusted in Jesus. You're not saved by your own evangelism, you're saved in part by someone else's evangelism to you, but you're saved by the Gospel. You're saved by the finished work of Jesus. Amen? So you're saved, you're holy, you're forgiven. You're free. Free for what? Free to go outside the city gate and join with Jesus and suffer, but you're not going to earn any more forgiveness with God. Does that make sense?

Oh, I want to make this so strong and so clear. This is a convicting sermon. I know it is. I mean for it to be. I think the Lord does too, but I want you to know the firm basis under your feet, the rock under your feet, the finished work of Jesus. You're not going to be any more forgiven by how well you do at evangelism. So important to know that, but Jesus made you holy by His blood. Now, why was He... Why did the Lord set up the symbolize, why the symbolism? Why did He set it up that the body of the bull and the dead goat were dragged outside and burned outside the camp? Sometimes the priest got to eat the food. The whole eating thing we've talked about last time. I don't want to get into the eating thing, it's there but there just isn't time to develop all these themes, but the reason the Lord set it up is because essential to our salvation is the rejection of Jesus by His own people. He wouldn't have been crucified otherwise.

And so He set up a symbolism, God did, through the prophetic word, the symbolism of outside the camp and all that, to show that Jesus would be rejected by His people. Then He told us plainly through Isaiah that it would happen, "He was despised and rejected," it says, "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him, He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, He was despised and we esteemed Him not." John 1, "He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to His own and His own did not receive him." Later, in John's Gospel, Jesus said, "This is to fulfill what was written in their law. 'They hated me without reason.'"

In front of Pilate, when He's being, when He's being tried for his life, and Pilate's doing everything he can to release Jesus because he doesn't want to kill Him. He's innocent, he knows He's innocent. He tries this expedient, he goes out to the Jews and says, "'It's your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of Passover. Do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?' They cried out, 'No, not this man. Give us Barabbas.'" He was despised, He was rejected by His own people, and that was essential to His crucifixion, He wouldn't have been crucified otherwise. Pilate wouldn't have done it. Even deeper, He had to go outside the camp to atone for our sins. Other than Jesus, we would have been despised and rejected by God Himself, because of our sinfulness. And so Jesus bore the disgrace and the rejection we deserved for our sins, He took it on Himself so that we could be welcomed into Heaven and embraced as sons and daughters. And so He cries out on the cross, "My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?"

The disgrace of the cross. Picture it in your mind. Condemned as a criminal, death penalty, rejected by His own people, cast out of the city like a piece of garbage, out there where they put the garbage and burn it, just cast out like He's nothing, mocked and scorned viciously Jesus was. Matthew 27:39-44, "Those who passed by hurled insults at Him, shaking their heads and saying, 'You who were going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, come down from the cross if you are the Son of God.' In the same way the chief priest and the elders and the teachers of the law mocked Him, 'He saved others,' they said, 'but he can't save himself.' He's the king of Israel, let him come down now from the cross and we'll believe in Him. He trusts in God, let God rescue him now, if he wants him, for he said, 'I am the Son of God.'"

Listen to the next verse. "In the same way the robbers, plural, who were crucified with Him, also heaped insults on Him." Here's my point in the sermon, the people we have to go outside the city gate to rescue, they are the ones who do the reproach stuff, they are the ones who pour out reproach. You have to push it aside and say, "Some day we're going to be brothers and sisters in Christ, some day. Right now you're pouring out scorn on me, just like the thief on the cross did." This is the reproach. Look at Verse 13, "Let us therefore go to Him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace or the reproach that He bore." Stephen's own people killed him. Jesus' own people killed Him. Muslim converts, when they come to faith in Christ, it's usually their own family members, extended family members, that abuse and persecute them, the father, the brothers, the uncles, the cousins. That's the price our brothers and sisters in the Muslim world are paying for coming to faith in Christ.

And so, the reward of the cross is clear, the reward of all of this. Jesus makes us holy by His blood, the reward of our suffering is we get to take the blood of Christ by the preaching, and apply it to people who haven't been saved yet, and so that they can be holy too.

Alright, so here's the command, "Let us go to Him outside the camp." Jesus suffered outside the city gate. So what is the city? What is the camp? And what is the significance of going outside? Well, I think the city and the camp are the same thing and they represent human society, approval from other people. It represents good comfortable relationships with other human beings, it represents peace and harmony, and prosperity. From infancy, every society trains up its children on social etiquette, social norms, so that they can fit in. Manners, how to behave pleasingly at the table. How to say please and thank you. Parents are complimented on how well-mannered their children are, all over the world, whatever good manners are in that culture. In every society of the manners are different. There are rules and regulations for greetings and dress and language patterns and educational expectations and all of these things. That's the city, that's what it is.

Society puts pressure on every child to conform to those norms, to fit in, to do what everyone expects. This training comes in terms of things so simple as body language, facial expressions, and manners and gifts given, compliments, different things, or disapproval, little words of rebuke or correction or bigger. Parents trained in that way too. And children learn to study the faces of their parents and then a wider and wider circle of other people to say... And they're asking the same question, "Am I okay, are we okay? Do you like me? Are we good?" It's a strong force inside us, it's not weak, it's strong, it becomes ingrained to yearn for approval of others. For the most part, friends, this is a good thing. Children, people, let's say, people who have absolutely no concern whatsoever for what anyone else thinks are dangerous. Sociopaths probably.

So the city or camp represents safety, security, ease, prosperity, everything you want in the world through good relationships with other people. The city had walls around it for protection, it had shops and bazaars and other things, had houses to live in, plenty of food, plenty of water, all that good stuff, represents everything the world has to offer. To have the city turn against you is a traumatic experience. Probably one of the most traumatic you can endure. We link it to the word shame, to have the shame of societal rejection, to be ashamed is one of the number one forces that there is. That's why Paul says, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel," he knows what it feels like to be tempted to be ashamed of the gospel. Jesus says, "If anyone is ashamed of me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed." So shame is right there, it's what the world does to try to get us to shut up. So there's this shame aspect. So to be rejected and mocked and hated by people is a nightmare scenario, lurking strongly in the heart of all sane, normal people.

Number of years ago I saw an episode of Candid Camera. I don't know if you remember that show. I used to like the show. It's kind of morphed now into YouTube videos that people watch and all that kind of thing, where you can see setups where people kind of do tricks on people, some of them are nicer than others, but there was this one that I'll never forget, and it was set up in a diner and everyone in the diner was in on it, everyone. And so the person, the subject of the thing, would come in, and basically on cue, everyone would just kind of stop eating and just kind of look at the person with no smiles, just looking. And the person would come and sit down at the counter, and the waitress would say, "What do you want?" Total stranger, "What do you want?" "I don't know, a menu." The cook isn't cooking anymore, the cook comes out, "What does he want?" "I don't know, I don't know what I want, I wish I hadn't come in here. What's going on here? Bowl of chili and some coffee." "He wants some chili. Chili." And he goes, gets the chili and gives it... Everybody starts eating and talking quietly and all that.

Well, after the Candid Camera thing, the people were inevitably angry. They didn't laugh, didn't think it was funny, it was probably one of the worst things they'd been through in years actually. But how is that relevant to evangelism? I think you know, I think you know. It's not funny, it's hard, and frankly it's effective. And if these kind of things weren't happening to us, we would witness 10 times more than we do. It's true, isn't it? Because it's good news and it's exciting to lead someone to Christ, and even if they were neutral and said, "Well, that's not really for me, but thank you so much for sharing, I'm so grateful. And who knows, maybe five years from now. I will come to Christ, I don't know, but I'm just so grateful that you did that," our evangelism's going to walk through the roof. It's because the world does this kind of stuff to us...

What Does it Mean to Bear the Reproach He Bore?

What does it mean then to bear the approach that He bore? What does it mean? It means to be willing to break some societal rules, to speak up for Christ. It means to be willing to endure that kind of behavior. It means to be salt that hasn't lost its saltiness, it's to be the light of the world that isn't hidden under a bushel basket but you're salting and you're lighting the world as Jesus intended, it means to be willing to stand up on a matter of biblical righteousness or to preach the Gospel, do something that takes courage for Jesus.

Now, in other countries, the reproach could be lethal, like in the Sudan right now, if you stand up for Jesus, and you're counted a Christian, there could be some machete-wielding teenage young men that'll come after you at night and kill you or chase you and you'll run for your life. Your house will be burned. In Nigeria, churches are blown up. It means different things in different places. Persecution.org is a website, you go there and you look and they have the 30 most recent persecution stories there are, that they've gotten. And they put them up with two icons, two types, one of them is black and white, and it's a skull and the other one's red and it's handcuffs. And so they have basically organized into two main categories the persecution the world does. It's death/physical attacks or government-sponsored incarceration basically, those are the two things. That's out there though, that almost certainly won't happen to you. Not any time soon in America. Maybe in the future, we may be going there, I don't know. But not soon.

Does that mean that there are no forces on us that make it hard to go outside of the camp? You know there are. What does it look like? Well, like, you go on an outreach, you're going door-to-door, you ring a doorbell and say, "Hey Summer Sizzle's coming up next week." Door gets slammed in your face. Okay. I actually had one occasion where there's a big picture window and they're watching a ballgame, rang the doorbell, they looked over their shoulder at me, just looked me up and down, and then just turned back and kept watching the game.

I don't know which is better, the slamming the door or just, "you're not worth my time." So there are those little moments. Or in the workplace, you're stepping out in faith to witness to a co-worker, and he's having marital problems and you get a chance to give him a ride home, you're not on work time, work anything, it's your car even, and you're giving him a ride home and you venture forth, you've been praying for him, and you go there. You talk about Jesus, you talk about the Bible, you try to help, you try to do it gently and lovingly, but he gets real quiet. Doesn't say much, it gets real awkward. You get to his house and he gets out without really saying anything, and the door closes... "Okay. Hmm, I don't think that went too well." Satan starts working, "Was I not loving? Did I not do it right?" Whatever. You go to work. And then it's never the same again with that guy. Never. And you're walking down the hall and it gets kind of quiet. There's a group of people, they're all talking whatever. You go around the corner and he says something you can't hear, but they can hear, and they all burst out laughing, you know what's going on.

Or you might invite your boss to church, and he gets quiet and kind of looks at you and he's like, "We don't talk about that kind of thing at workplace. I don't want you to do that." So it's like, "Okay." So you pray for him, and five months later, you have your review, and you're getting average or below average grades and things, though you're trying to be a witness and let your light shine and all that, and you get passed by for certain things that the work... Is it connected? I don't know. Probably. You don't know for sure. In the neighborhood, you have a cook-out for example, you invite all your neighbors, everyone to come, try to be a good host, hostess, show them a good time, all that kind of thing. You're just trying to build relationships, you don't set up a podium and preach, you don't do that, you're just trying to build relationships, but you do want to share Christ and you think you have a good opportunity and you open with maybe a woman that you see regularly, but haven't gotten to know yet. Doesn't go well, same kind of thing, gets real quiet. During the week, you see her, she's walking her dog as usual, you wave like you always do. She doesn't wave anymore, she turns away, keeps walking. Is that kind of stuff effective to keep you from sharing the Gospel? I tell you, it is. Enough of that starts happening, it gets harder and harder to share.

Or you're a college student and you're having, you eat your meals in the common hall and you sit down, building relationships, and kind of a community growing up there, and you share, try to invite some people to a Bible study. Maybe a guy comes, doesn't really like it, kind of detached, doesn't say much, never comes again. You go and sit down next to him to eat, and he gets up and walks away, sits somewhere else. I was the guy that walked away, that was me, I did that to Steve, who was trying to lead me to Christ. So I tell you, the very people who are persecuting you are the ones you're trying to reach. Or again, on the college campus, you're in a room, a worldview class, a philosophy class or something like that, and you're talking about an issue that the Bible touches on, and other people are boldly giving their interesting views from their interesting worldviews, and they're sharing things and you share something from the Bible. The room gets really quiet, the professor makes a mocking comment, everyone erupts in laughter and you sit down, tempted to be ashamed.

I was talking to Andy about his son who is on a baseball team, and he, the his kids are just incredibly desirous to make that a ministry. And he was sharing the gospel with some of his kids, some of the other boys in the dug-out and one of them finally said, "Would you shut up about Jesus?" He is like 9 or 10 years old. Does that have an impact, that creates a force that makes us want to stop witnessing? Well, you know, it does.

What Makes this So Very Difficult to Do?

Alright, now here's the hard part, the fact is we are called on to live in the city. You're actually not making once for all leaving and then we're done with the city. Let me put it kind of plainly, We are not called on to dress up in weird Halloween-like costumes and wear some cologne that no one's ever smelled before, and it's bizarre, and speak in some language that no one can relate to, and they look on us like the most bizarre Martian people that have ever lived.

No, actually Paul says quite the contrary, in 1 Corinthians 9, that to the Jews he became as much like a Jew as he possibly could to win the Jews. To the Greeks, he became as much like a Greek as he possibly could to win the Greeks. So what does it mean? It means get along, get along with them as much as you can, as much as you can, but you have to be willing every day to trade it in for a good Gospel presentation. That's it. And then when you've gone outside of the city gate, where Jesus is, and you've borne the reproach, guess what you get to do after that? Go back inside and live there some more, and then the next day you get another chance to go outside the city gate. It's not just one time, it's again and again and again. It's what God's calling on us to do. It's very hard to do.

So what's our motivation, why should we do this? Text gives us two, quickly. Negatively: For here, we do not have an enduring city. You may think this city's secure, it's permanent, and all that. It isn't. The approval of other people doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean a thing, they will not be with you on Judgment Day to help you give an account. They'll be busy, giving their own account, and so it really doesn't make a difference. And the possessions that you accumulate by being in great relationships with other people and all that, they're going to all go away, all of them anyway. We do not have an enduring city here, that's negative. Positively, we are looking by faith, ahead to the city that is to come later. We're looking ahead to Jesus, and living with Him forever. Only by trusting in that, will we be willing to do this. So looking ahead to Heaven, looking ahead to your heavenly reward, that is a motivator, that will get you outside the city gate. But there's an even more powerful one than that and it's right there in the text. It says, "Let us then go to Him." Him.

You know what you get if you go outside the gate? You get to be with Jesus. And this book maybe, I would say almost more than better than any other book in the Bible, specifically details the glories of Christ and how wonderful He is so that you are willing to go outside the gate and be with Him. He is the radiance of God's glory, He is the exact representation of His being, He is the one who shed His blood and sat down at the right hand of God, He is the one whom angels worship, He is the one whose throne is based on righteousness and a hatred of wickedness. He is, He is the Son of God, who became the Son of Man, and He's not ashamed to be called a family member with us. He is the one by whose death He who held the power of death, Satan, was destroyed and we freed from being afraid of death. That's who we get when we go out there. He's the one who's the Son over God's house, not like Moses, merely a servant in God's house, He is the Son ruling over God's house.

That's who you get if you go outside the city gate, you get this High Priest who's like Melchizedek, only infinitely better. He is perfect in every way, without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days, or end of life, forever ministering at the right hand of God, that's who you get if you go outside the city gate, you get the one who opened a new and living way, the one who is seated on the throne of grace, and who welcomes you and who pours out grace. Simply put, you get happiness in Jesus out there. You just get to be with Him. And Paul knew it, didn't he? Paul knew it. And in Philippians this is so powerful, when I was going over this sermon this morning, this brought tears to my eyes, powerful, Paul said in Philippians 3, "I want to know Christ… and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death and so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead." That's what you get if you go outside the city. You get to know the fellowship of sharing in Jesus' sufferings.

So practically, what does this mean for you? Witnessing, evangelism, change in lifestyle, looking at your finances, I don't know. Sticking to the issue of reproach or disgrace, I think it means just being willing to be bold and speak up for Christ. Go on outreach, get involved in Summer Sizzle. I'm going to go this afternoon. So here's a chance right away to go knock on some doors and reach out to people without hope and without God in the world. Would it bother you if somebody, one of the people, we knock on the door, come to faith in Christ, and eventually gets baptized and grows but doesn't come to Summer Sizzle? So we have an opportunity today to lead some people to Christ. Isn't that awesome?

Do that, get involved in our international student ministry. Craft a ministry of your own, get to know your neighbors, hospitality…Use your home as a place of evangelism, do something on at the workplace. Don't seek rejection and persecution, all that. It comes naturally, seek to love people, seek to share Christ. And then some of them are going to reproach you, but they might be like the thief on the cross, very close to coming to Christ actually because you've hit a nerve. That's what happened with me.

Alright, we come now to a time of preparing for the Lord's Supper. And as we do, I want you to trust in the promises of the Gospel and the words of the institution, and that we through the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, can have an encounter with Christ now by the Spirit. If you have never come to faith in Christ, trust in Jesus right now, believe in Him. Put your faith in Him for the forgiveness of your sins, but don't come to the table. This is for those that have already put their faith in Christ, and have testified to that publicly by water baptism. For those, please come. Let's close this message in prayer.

Recently, I had the opportunity to show one of my favorite movies of all time to my two younger kids, and one of them thought she had seen it before. Chariots of Fire came out in 1981. I love that movie. Its about Eric Liddell, a Scottish missionary, who gave his life for the Lord, died in a Japanese internment camp in 1945. There's a couple of moments in that movie that my logical, exegetical mind has trouble harmonizing. I think the movie is internally inconsistent. But that's okay. There is no promise of inerrancy on movies, so that's all right.

But there is Eric Liddell after running a race and he's having a witnessing opportunity. He's standing to a small crowd that's gathered around the track where he won the race, and he's witnessing to them, which he did frequently, that's true. And as he's sharing, he's talking about the life of faith, and he says he wants to compare the life of faith to running in a race, which the Scripture does multiple times actually. He says, "It's hard. It requires concentration of will, energy and soul," he says. And then he asked this question, which is really very powerful and comes up again later in the movie when he's winning the gold medal in the 400 meters, "Where then does the strength come from to see the race through to the end?" And then he says, "It comes from within." And then he quotes the Scripture, "Jesus said, 'Behold, the kingdom of God is within you.'"

Well, the first time I heard that, no big deal. I'm glad he's saying "Jesus." I'm just excited the name "Jesus" is in a film, especially a popular film. But I frankly like better a later moment in the movie that answers the question... I think a little bit differently. Remember the question, "Where then does the strength come from to see the race through to its end?" I think, if you remember that movie, the scene I'm talking about, very powerful. Before he runs in his 400-meter final, at Sunday, he has the opportunity to preach in a church of Scotland there in Paris. And he chooses as his text Isaiah Chapter 40. And it's very, very strong. "Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary, and He increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

I think that's a better answer to the question. The strength, the power to see the race through to the end does not come from within me, it comes from outside of me. It comes from the eternal God who never gets tired, who never grows weary, this infinite power source that's available for us. And it enabled Eric Liddell to win the gold medal. He was a sprinter, and he had to extend out a greater distance in the 400 meters. It wasn't his natural best race. His natural best race was the 100-meter, but he chose not to participate in that because it was on a Sunday and his convictions wouldn't allow him to run on a Sunday.

The problem is the 400 is an eternity for a sprinter. And he was in the far outside lane, the eighth lane, and so he never saw another runner, which was good because that means he won the gold medal. But he was kind of running scared, and so he went out like a sprinter and ran hard, made the curve, and on the back stretch, he gave everything he had. Well, there's still half a race to go. And you come around the curve and all he could do was just turn to God for every step. And he finished and set a British record in the 400-meter that stood for decades. And if you ask Eric Liddell, "Where did the strength come from to run that last 200 meters?" "It came from God."

Well, in our text today, we have an answer to the question. After talking about false doctrine, which I mentioned in the last message, I want to get to this one phrase that's been much on my mind. "It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace and not by ceremonial foods." So, after an incredible 12-chapter journey in this epistle of grace, the author now, having given us the supremacy of Jesus Christ, how He's superior to everything the Old Covenant had to offer in every way, the eternal Son of God, the radiance of God's glory, the exact representation of His being, the one who sustains all things by His powerful word, this Jesus, this perfect mediator, has brought to us a New Covenant. A New Covenant He bought with His own blood, which He offered once for all time, never again to be repeated, this once for all sacrifice, of the Son of God.

And He, having provided purification for sins, He ascended into Heaven and now sits at the right hand of Almighty God. And there, He ministers on the basis of the finished work that He offered once for all. And so He has brought us a superior covenant. The superior mediator, Jesus Christ, has brought us a superior covenant, a covenant by which our sins are actually forgiven, by which we are actually transformed. He writes His laws on our minds and writes them on our hearts, and we're given a whole new nature, the heart of stone taken out, a heart of flesh put in. And we are adopted as sons and daughters of the living God, and we will live with Him forever and ever on the basis of that New Covenant. Having given us that New Covenant, it then results in a superior life, which we've been looking at, the life of faith from Hebrews 11.

And celebrating that life of faith, and the author is giving us now, in Chapter 13, many practicalities, specifics of the Christian life. And the way that the Christian life works is that God speaks words to us, He speaks promises, the promises of God, the promises of the Scripture such as in verse 5 of this chapter, "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you." That's a promise. And then in verse 6, "So we say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?'" And again, in verse 8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." These promises of God, such as, "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you," are the basis of our faith, and God works faith in us, the receptor of these promises.

And so we can receive the truth of these promises, and then live accordingly by faith. And so by faith in this promise, such as, "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you," we can, in Verse 1, "Keep on loving each other as brothers." By faith, we can do that. By faith, in the promise, we can love strangers and show them hospitality, in verse 2. By faith, in the promise of God, we can minister to those in prison and not forget them those that are afflicted, verse 3. By faith we can honor marriage and keep the marriage bed free from sexual defilement, in Verse 4. By faith in this promise, we can keep our lives free from the love of money and be content with what we have. All of this, by faith in the promise of God.

And all of this flows the well spring of this pulsating strength for the Christian life, this is the dynamic, the Word of God taken in by faith, renewing and restoring our hearts, and enabling us to live again that life that's glorifying to God, that's the rhythm of the Christian life. That's the foundation of the text we're looking at today. Look at Verse 9, "Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings." He says that because it's doctrine, it's good teaching, right teaching, that's going to be the avenue of grace to strengthen your heart. So, "Don't be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace and not by ceremonial foods," the NIV gives us, "which are of no value to those who eat them."

For me, I'm thinking about this flock that I'm privileged to shepherd, I'm thinking about people in it. I'm thinking about people, I've met with, people I've talked with, situations I know. And I know that there is a need for strengthening among you people today. I know, I feel it. And if you're honest, you feel it regularly, maybe daily, some of you feeling it hourly, "I need to be strengthened by God. I'm under attack, onslaughts going on, I feel weak, I don't know that I can keep making it here. I need you to strengthen me." And so, if we do nothing else today, just ministering strength to weak people who are then renewed in their strength is a good work. Amen? So that you people who have come today, that I also will be strengthened, enabled to resume this Christian race that's set in front of us.

So, I want to take it very, very carefully and look at it and try to understand it. Let's start with the word "heart." It says it's good for our hearts to be strengthened. So, what is the heart? The strength that this passage commands us, heart strength. Not physical strength. We're not talking about physical strength here, although it results in some cases in physical exertions. But what is it? What is the heart? Well, the heart is the inner man, the inner nature, the inner person, the new self which is created to be like God. The key passage for me on the heart is Ephesians 3:16 and 17. There, Paul prays for the Ephesians, Christians, he says, "I pray that out of His [God's] glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith."

That's it. The focus of that prayer is on the inner person, the inner man, the soul, the heart. And he prays, there, the very thing related to this text here, that it may be strengthened by faith through the Spirit, by the power of the Spirit. Strengthen, that's what he prays for. 3:19, "So that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." That means you've been strengthened now. Ephesians 3:19, you now have been strengthened, you are filled to the measure of all the fullness of God, that's what you feel inside. That's the heart, the inner man. Or in Romans 7:22, "For in my inner being I delight in God's law." That's that new nature, that delights in the law of God.

So, the strength we need is the strength of the inner man, the heart, the new nature. The heart is the part of you that thinks, the part of you that feels, the part of you that decides, the part of you that feels, the part of you that trusts. That's the heart biblically. The word "heart" is connected with all those verbs and others. It's a dynamic inner part of you, your heart. And out of that heart, you do everything in your life. As it says in Proverbs 4:23, "Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the well spring of life, from it flow the springs of life."

All right, so that's the heart. Why does it need to be strengthened? That, it needs to be strengthened you all feel acutely. I do. Why? Why does my heart need to be strengthened? Well, I'm going to give you three answers to that question. First is because you're a creature, not the Creator. The big difference, in Isaiah 40, between the Creator and the creature is this issue of strength. Isaiah 40:28 "Do you not know, have you not heard? The Lord, the Creator of the ends of the Earth does not grow tired or weary." You see that? He never gets tired. His arm is infinitely powerful. Whatever His arm is lifting right now, it's not trembling or shaking, it's not soon going to let up that weight. It's just not the way He is. He is omnipotent. He has all power. He is infinite in His majesty. He is a great God, majestic, the Creator of the ends of the earth. And before Him, the nations are as a drop from the bucket and dust on the scales. That's the Creator, that's not you.

Even the young men grow tired and weary. Even the youths stumble and fall. In the movie, they show one of the main figures, Aubrey Montague, who's running the steeplechase, tripping and falling on the barrier, and going down on the ashes. It was an ash track, cinder track, and all muddy because of the water of the steeplechase, and he finishes, not last, but close to last. And he's just the picture of dejection as he sits there in the rain while the scripture is being read. He's a human being. He gets tired, he stumbles, he falls. And so God has ordained it that you need to be renewed and refreshed. He's ordained it so that you don't get arrogant and be independent and think you don't need Him anymore. He has created you to need oxygen. He doesn't need it. He's created you need water. He doesn't need that. You need sunlight. He doesn't need that. You need food. Not as much as you eat, but you need food. He doesn't need that. He doesn't need anything coming from the outside in to keep Him existing. That's because He's the Creator. But He created a dependent universe, that depends on Him for everything, and that includes you.

So, the reason that you need to be renewed in your strength is God has designed it that way so that you do not get arrogant and be independent. "I am the vine," said Jesus, "you are the branches." And "apart from Me, you can do nothing." He can do plenty of things apart from you." That's humbling, isn't it? But it's just the truth. He is the mighty God, and we are dependent. So, you need to be strengthened, the heart needs to be strengthened, because God has ordained it that way.

Strength for the Internal and External Journey

Secondly, the heart needs to be strengthened because the two infinite journeys that are in front of us are so immensely difficult. God has set great challenges before the church, not small ones. The two infinite journeys, in case you haven't been here a lot, we talk about them here, this is how we organize the thinking of what we're trying to do here in ministry. And so we are here for the glory of God. Over everything is the glory of God. How do we glorify God? By making progress in two infinite journeys. What are those two infinite journeys? The internal journey of sanctification of growth in Christ-likeness, of becoming more and more like Jesus. Jesus says in Matthew 5:48 that like your Heavenly Father, you must be perfect. That standard will stand over you the rest of your life. It's relentless. He never accepts anything less than perfection, wherever you have come short of perfection, and you know it, you must confess it as sin. Well, that's relentless. The New Testament is relentless. "Do everything without complaining or arguing." It's relentless. Single verse from an epistle, it's just the way it is. That's the internal journey.

The external journey, there are billions of people who aren't Christians, who haven't heard the Gospel or not within earshot of the Gospel, unread people groups, and that is a relentless upward call for us. God has set before the church immense tasks, not small ones. They're far greater than we can do. As a matter of fact, these things are so difficult, the journey is so difficult that I contend you can't make progress, a single step of progress, apart from His sovereign grace. You must have His grace at every moment. So, you need to be renewed, because just the journey is so hard. This is a hard race we're running here. And it's a long one, too. It's a marathon we're on.

And thirdly, you need to be... The heart needs to be strengthened, because it's under constant assault from enemies. This isn't a peace-time jog. This isn't even an Olympic marathon. It's harder than that. It's harder than that. It lasts longer, it's more arduous, and we're under fire the whole time. I've likened it to an image that's in my mind, World War I, no man's land, with barbed wire on the left and the right, and it goes from the North Sea down to the southern part of Europe for hundreds of miles, and we're called on to run between that and not get killed. We were under assault. The flaming arrows of the evil one are coming at us every day, and frankly, when we don't lift up the shield of faith, and one of those flaming arrows gets through, it weakens you. Doesn't it? Don't you feel weak when you miss one of those and it gets through? It doesn't kill you. It can't kill you, much to his immense frustration. We can't kill him, much to ours.

And so here we are, in this incredible battle with the devil, and he's so clever and he's fighting us every step of the way, and he's concocting, crafting special temptations for us, studying our hearts, and coming after us in our weakest spots. And then there's this ingenious world system that's just set up to allure us and entice us. Talked about materialism a few weeks ago, it's just set up to allure us and help us to cause us to love material possessions. It's assaulting us in the lust area, just the world all the time. And then the worst of all, in my opinion, is the flesh, that enemy within, that part of me that opens the door for Satan and lets him into my life. What a wretched man I am. The very thing I hate, I do because I'm insane, the flesh. This is an arduous journey, friends. That's why you need to be renewed. That's why you need to be strengthened. Don't marvel at it, don't wonder why. Because you are a creature, and because you have these two infinite journeys, and because you're under assault as you try to make progress, you will need regularly to be strengthened, rest of your life.

What does it mean then for the heart to be strengthened by grace? Well, the word "strengthen," in many places, means to establish or confirm. But I think that a better use of the word here is in Colossians 2:6 and 7. "Therefore as you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving." So, it's an idea of resources flowing to your soul, to your heart, to strengthen it up in Christ so that you can make progress. It's a spiritual energy, like you'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you'll be my witnesses. Or think about Samson when a young lion leaped at him, remember, and the spirit of the Lord came upon him powerfully and he ripped that lion apart with his bare hands. Isn't that awesome?

It's a strength and energy that comes, that renews and re-establishes the heart that gives it energy for progress. Maybe a more poignant example is in 1 Samuel 30, where David comes back to find that his wives and the wives of his fellow soldiers had been... There had been a raid by the Amalekites and everything was gone. They're all gone. And they thought they were dead, plundered, gone. And David sat down and wept, and they all wept for their wives and their children. And the men were talking of stoning David, you remember that? It's his fault. There's this little phrase that said, "But David found strength from the Lord his God." That's you, that's me.

I don't know what you're going through. I know some of the things that you folks are going through. You need to do that. Whatever you're going through, do that. Find strength in the Lord your God. Stop. Pray. David wrote a lot of psalms about this. "My soul finds strength in the Lord alone." And so you just go. That's what I think it means to be strengthened, to be renewed. I can keep going now, I got it, I'm back on the journey again, I'm not going to give up, I'm going to be renewed. I'm ready. I can keep going in this internal and external journey.

Well, what does it mean for the heart to be strengthened by grace? Well, grace is that commitment in the eternal mind of God to do you good, when you deserve eternal condemnation. It's his commitment to do you good, and not just a little good, but to do you infinite good, to do you eternal good, to give you every blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, to be lavishly generous to you. It's a commitment in the heart of God, that is pulsating commitment inside the soul, the heart, the being, the very center of the being of God, that's what grace is. It's a commitment in God. But grace comes to us through certain pipelines or avenues, what we call means of grace. So, it's in God, those means themselves are displays of God's grace, but they are pipelines or conduits, and grace is just this golden lighted liquid flowing from heaven down into your soul. But it comes along certain pipelines. The greatest and best of these is the Word of God. The ministry of the Word is a pipeline of grace.

I hope it's happening for you right now, that as you hear these words, as you hear the Word of God, your heart gets stronger again for the journey. And this grace just flows in and does you good, and it gives you energy and strength as grace does. And there are different kinds of grace. It depends on the need. Whatever the need is, He gives you different kinds of grace. He gives You more grace, more and more grace. More grace. Do you need that? I need that, I need more grace. I'm not done with grace now. And so wherever I'm at, and I'm weak and I need to be strengthened... There's different ways I could do this, but look at it in a time point of view. As I look back, I need covering grace. And as I look forward, I need what John Piper calls "Future Grace."

 So, looking back, what makes me feel weak is a good estimation of my own sinfulness and my failures and my weaknesses, and I just feel ashamed for those things. And I feel like I've missed opportunities, sins of omission, things I should have done, or things that God forbade and I did them. And I feel ashamed of that, and I look back and I'm just... I need grace for that. And so covering grace comes from Psalm 32 Verse 1 and 2, "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord does not count against him and in his spirit is no deceit." You know where that grace, the covering grace, it flows from what Nathan preached about so beautifully last week, the cross of Jesus Christ. It just flows from the blood of Jesus. The value, the infinite value, the precious blood of Jesus covers all your sins.

And so you are there, don't deny in whose spirit is no deceit, you say, "I have sinned against you, oh, Lord. I have failed you. The very thing you commanded me to not do, I have done. And, Lord, I have failed you. You commanded me to do good to my neighbor, to share the Gospel, or to care for the poor and needy, or to do this or that with my family, and I have not. Oh, God, forgive me. Forgive me." And as you're confessing your sin by faith, and as you're going again back in your heart to the cross, as Nathan preached... Thank you for that last week, it's been ministering to me all week, thank you for that word, Nathan. It just strengthened me. But as we go back to the cross of Jesus Christ, you get strengthened again and you're covered, 100% covered. And having done that, and having learned the lesson that you need to learn, don't do that again, that kind of thing.

There's nothing more to do with the past, friends. Forgetting what lies behind now, it's time to get up and do the things that are ahead. But now we need a different kind of grace. It's daunting, isn't it? It's like, "All right, I know I'm forgiven for that, but I still have that same weak nature. I know I'm still vulnerable in those areas. I know it. Oh, God, how do I know I'm not going to fall in that exact same way the next time temptation comes? I don't even want to move, I'm paralyzed." No, no, no, no. You know how you move? You move by faith in future grace. You move by saying, "Okay, I know that when I get up and I put one foot in front of the other, God will give me the grace I need to keep going. He's going to give it to me."

And I'm not going to keep adding day upon day upon day. Don't do that. That's Satan's trap. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Amen? So, don't stack them up and say, "Oh, the infinite journey is looking really infinite." Well, really infinite. Forget it. You can't say it, it's infinite. It just is. It's going to be in front of you the rest of your life, but don't live it like that. You've got today to live, you don't even know if you'll have tomorrow. Let's live today for the glory of God. And I know that as I get up, God will give me the grace I need to get through this sermon or get through anything I have to do today, He'll give me the energy and the strength I need to serve Him. So, I'm not going to be overwhelmed, I will not be discouraged, I will not be dismayed, because He has promised me, "I will never leave you and I will never forsake you."

What that is, is a promise to give you the grace you need to do the will of God, to do the good works He has for you to do. Is there going to be enough grace for the church to finish these two journeys? Yeah, there is. And it flows from the cross, it flows from Jesus. There's enough grace. We're going to finish. Amen? I wrestled for a long time with the word "infinite." It's not entirely true. We will finish. There's a finish line. I guess it's infinite, because it's only an infinite source of grace will do it. Infinitude of God's grace is sufficient for it. And we will finish.

All right. So, it's good for our hearts to be strengthened. It's good. Do you feel the goodness of it? It's good food. Like Kevin said, "It's just the pure milk of the word, it's good to have your heart strengthened." It's good to have your heart strengthened by grace and not by food. Okay, now I'm going to meddle. I'm going to meddle a little bit, because there's just probably too much consumption of comfort foods in this church, and they just don't do much for you spiritually. They don't. Now, I've already said, we've got to have physical food to keep living. You've got to. God created you that way. You can't keep serving him without eating well. Eating nourishing foods. I'll give you a clear picture of this from the Bible, from the case of Elijah. Do you remember how Elijah took on the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel and just an incredible triumph? And then he prays fervently, intensely prayed that it would rain. And it did rain, and the rain came. And then he hit stop his cloak and he runs ahead of a chariot, and all the way, and just... You've never had a day like that. And none of us have ever had a day like that. The energy output was immense.

And then Jezebel, Queen, finds out about what happened to her prophets, and she's enraged. And she vows to make Elijah's life like one of theirs by tomorrow. Well, he hears, and unlike him... Elijah, where was there ever any fear in him, but he was afraid of Jezebel. And so he ran for his life, it says right there in the text. "Elijah was afraid and ran for his life." It's right in the Bible. And so he's out there in the desert, and he's laying under a broom tree and he can barely move in the desert. And he starts to pray. It's similar prayer to Jonah's, but it's different, it's a different thing. He says, "Take my life now, because I'm not better than my ancestors." I have nothing left to give. I'm done."

And God sends him an angel with a biscuit and a jar of water. "You know what you need? You need a biscuit and a jar of water, and a good sleep." And so he eats and drinks and falls asleep. And then the angel wakes him up again, and gives him another biscuit and another jar of water. And he says, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you." Yeah, we need to eat. I don't know if I'm advocating biscuit and jar of water, but whatever it is that gives you physical strength, you need to do that. But the kind of strength the author has in mind here doesn't come from food. It doesn't come from food. As a matter of fact, there's a verse in Corinthians that says, concerning food, "We are no worse off if we don't eat and no better if we do," which bothered me. That verse, I didn't think, had the right parallelism. There should be an advocacy of food on one side and not food on the other. No. Both sides don't advocate food. You're not really helped if you eat, and you're not hindered if you don't, that's what Paul says, both sides of it. Talk about meat sacrifice to idols there.

The strength the author has here doesn't come from food, that's what he's saying. It comes from grace. Now, there's all kinds of diets and convictions on diets, and different things you can do. There's a low-cholesterol diet, and there's the low-fat, low-sugar diet, and the gluten-free diet, and the Miami Beach Diet, and the Maker's Diet, and the vegan diet which basically says if we just go back to the Garden of Eden and stop eating these animals, we'd be fine. We won't have all these health problems. Or, the Maker's Diet, that has similar mentality. I'm not advocating any of these. I think good nutrition is a helpful thing. I personally have never walked into a GNC store. I don't know if any of you have. Health from a big jar that costs $86. I don't know what they cost, but I think you could spend a lot of money in a vitamin store. I don't know that it's a bad thing, but what the author is saying is, the strength he has in mind does not come from eating anything, neither does it come from fasting. It's not about the eating.

Context: Ceremonial Foods Associated with the Sacrificial System

If you look at the context, it says, "Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace and not by food, ceremonial foods," the NIV adds the word "ceremonial." "…which are of no value to those who eat them. We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat." The author is talking there about the Old Covenant legalists, the priests who never left the Old Covenant sacrificial system, they have unbelief all through their lives they should have known that the time for animal sacrifice was over. Instead they continued to minister at the tabernacle and they, because of their unbelief, have no right to eat at our table. Well, what is our table? What is it? It's the table of grace spread by Jesus Christ. It's a feast of grace. Jesus shed His blood on the cross so that we would have a feast, a river of grace. And we can, as Jesus said in John 6, feed on His flesh, eat His body and drink his blood spiritually to get renewed through that. The words he speaks to us is spirit and their life. That's the table Jesus spreads.

Next week, I'm going to talk about where that table is. It's outside the gate. It's outside the camp. That's where He spreads that grace. We're going to talk about that next week, a very important message. I was going to combine it with this, but it's just too important to combine it. We need strength because He's inviting you to leave comfort, inviting you leave the city, and go out where He is. We'll talk about that next week. But Jesus suffered to spread us a banquet of grace.

How then can we be strengthened by grace every day? Well, first, if you have never come to faith in Christ, and you're here as a guest, the strength I'm advocating here is just the strength of life. The Bible says, that apart from Jesus, you are dead in your transgressions and sins while you live. You're alive enough to come here, but not spiritually alive until perhaps this moment. So, hear then the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God sent His son into the world, who shed His blood for sinners like you and me. We have violated the laws of God, but God is willing to forgive if you just repent of your sins and turn in faith to Jesus, all of your sins will be forgiven. And then you'll be alive, born again by the power of the Spirit." Just put your trust in Him. You don't need to move, you just need to trust. Put your trust in Him.

And if you have already trusted in Christ, now you're wondering, "How can my ever-weakening, constantly weakening heart be strengthened by grace? How does that work?" Well, first of all, desire it. I would just simply say it all starts with desiring to be strengthened. Acknowledge, "I am weak right now. I feel my weakness. I feel it in my susceptibility to temptation. I feel it in my discouragement and the fact that the two infinite journeys look like I can't make a single step in either one. Overwhelming. I feel weak." Start there. And then bring that weakness to back to God in prayer. Paul said in 2 Corinthians, "When I am weak," what does he say, "then I'm strong." Why? Because the weakness caused us to go back to the source of our strength and say, "I can't do this." When you're strong, you're weak. Say, "I don't need Jesus. I got this one, Lord. I'm good at that, I can do that." He said don't think like that. So, when you're week you're strong. So, yearn for strengthening.

Then understand the imagery that Jesus, by His death on the cross, has opened for you a doorway, an access way into the throne room of grace. It says in Hebrews 4, "Let us draw near to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need." The time of need is when you are a weak. That's all the time, friends. You're always weak. Always. You are the bruised reed and the smoldering wick. And the amazing thing is God can take weak people like us and make, as He says in Revelation, a pillar of us in the house of his God. We can be made strong by grace. Isn't that awesome? We, who are bruised reeds, can be made pillars in the house of the living God. So, go through that doorway that is Jesus. And you know who you'll find there? You'll find the God of Isaiah 40, the one who sits in throne above the circle of the earth. And you'll find Him there ready to be gracious to you, to give you infinite strength.

Look back for covering grace. Be honest about your sins and ask for forgiveness, confess those things to God. Look ahead for future grace, that God's going to give you what you need to get through your trials. Get your hearts ready for your specific trials, and ask him for specific help. If you're having trouble forgiving someone of their sins against you, then say, "God, I'm feeling very weak as a forgiver. I'm feeling weak. Would you please enable me to forgive so and so? I'm probably going to see him today, I feel a hardness developing in my heart toward that person, will you please enable me to forgive them?"

Or when it comes to witnessing, you just say, "Lord, I'm not much of a witness. I hardly ever say anything that takes any courage for Jesus. I want to be a witness, I want to come outside the gate and bear the approach. I want to be where you are, but I'm just so weak. I'm afraid of what people will think. Will you please strengthen me? Please give me a witnessing opportunity so easy even I could do it?" There's a good prayer. Pray that one and see what God does with it. It's like, "Fine, now we're honest." He'll give you one. One that... Just toss a little toss and you might hit it out of the park. Ask for that little toss. Just, "God help me. Help me in finances. We're struggling financially, we're struggling with anxiety. We're struggling to find a job or to make ends meet. We're struggling. Please help me, I'm weak in this area, would you strengthen me?" Struggling with weight, food... My God... I'm acting like my God is my stomach, too much on the comfort foods. "Would you please help me to be disciplined in what I eat? And give the extra money I've been spending to give it away on missions or to the relief of the poor? God, make me strong. Please strengthen me, and make me a different person."

And then when you've been strengthened, Hebrews, the Book of Hebrew says to strengthen your brothers and sisters. Care about each other, look around, find some other weak people. And the strength, encouragement, you've received from God, use it with someone else. It says in Hebrews 12, "Therefore, strengthen your [and each other's] feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your [each other's] feet, so that the lame may not be disabled but rather healed." I know I'm adding the "each other," but that's definitely the mentality the author has. He's thinking corporately about all of them together. Strengthen one another. Close with me in prayer.

So what makes a Godly spiritual leader? There is a big industry around answering that question. The industry involves the writing of books, the putting on of conferences, various other materials that you can buy, church leadership out of a box, amen. It's just incredible. So the question in front of such an industry is, what makes a successful church leader? What are you looking for in a successful... Whenever you see that word successful, be afraid, be very afraid, when it's connected to that topic.

But what is it? John Maxwell has made a living answering that question, that name may not be familiar to many of you, but it's familiar to me. And I once got a set of... They were tapes back then, that's what they did back then. Tapes. You guys remember tapes? Cassette tapes. I'm not talking 8tracks, cassette tapes, on a senior pastor profile. And he was listing out various character traits of a senior pastor. Let me just give you as much a snippet of this as I can stomach communicating. And you'll get a sense of it.

"He needs to be charismatic in personality and style. No one wants a friend that makes them feel bad about themselves. The moment you can get people to think more about themselves, you have developed charisma. A senior pastor needs to have showmanship without showing off."

I hope I'm not talking myself out of a job here, but I'm going to keep going,

"An item needs to be done in a way that's above average, unique, special, memorable, classy."

Classy. Look that up in your concordance, see if you can find classy in the Bible.

"A senior pastor needs to be a pied piper of people."

By the way, isn't that like a story of a kidnapper of kids? I think that's a bad story, isn't it? I'm digressing again and again. I'm just going to read this.

"A person that people enjoy following because of his charisma, his charm, his personal magnetism. A senior pastor needs a winning smile, a sense of humor, a charming personality. Ideally, a senior pastor will present himself well physically, he should be in shape and attractive."

By the way, let me know when that goes and I'll retire. No, I won't. Let's keep going,

"He needs to be confident. When you begin to have a true real confidence about yourself,"

Oh boy, how do I even say those words? Self-confidence that means trusting in yourself, doesn't it? Okay, let's keep going,

"The people will begin to have confidence in you. In other words, confidence breeds confidence. A senior pastor should develop some area of high achievement and base his confidence on that skill set. He needs to be a good communicator. Senior pastor needs to have a good media presence, he must be a salesman, he must be able to sell snowballs to Eskimos. He must be able to close the deal, cause the crowd to march in a certain direction. He must be able to move people emotionally, from where they are to where the pastor wants them to be."

That's about it, friends, that's all I can handle. So much for John Maxwell. The longer I listened to those tapes I was yearning, begging, desiring a single scripture verse, somewhere. Because friends that just isn't biblical. And he's not the only one. There are lots of books that basically what they do is they plunder the secular corporate world for principles, leadership principles, Fortune 500 companies, that kind of thing, Amazon.com, Google.com, Ben and Jerry's, Walmart. Try to find what works out there in the secular world and just make a key critical assumption that those same principles will work well in the church. That is a faulty assumption.

And as a matter of fact, Jesus challenged that very assumption in Matthew Chapter 20. You remember that time when James and John sought to get close to Jesus and angle for a position in the kingdom, you remember the coming kingdom. Grant that we may sit at your right and your left. And so the other 10 were indignant with the two, not because of the whole approach, but that they hadn't thought of it first, I think. And that James and John had the inside track now on those positions of privilege. So Jesus drew them aside, all of them. And He said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave-- just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

For Jesus, then the center piece of true spiritual leadership was self-sacrifice for the good of the people. For the good of the flock really. Ultimately though, stepping aside from that passage, I think good leadership, Godly leadership is influence, it's the ability to change hearts and influence people to obey God. I think that's what it is. And you're going to do that, I'm speaking truthfully now from the Scripture, you're going to do that by the ministry of the Word and by your own obedience to the Word, by your own example. So that's what God's given leaders to be leaders, they are to influence others for Christ by means of the ministry of the Word and their own godly obedience to the Word, their example. This is absolutely vital in the church, every member of the church is fighting just in mortal combat with the world, the flesh, and the devil for the health of their souls.

And so the Bible frequently portrays the people of God as a flock, as sheep who need a shepherd. Or as we believe shepherds. We must have godly shepherds. We must have Godly spiritual leaders. We cannot be left on our own.

Now, this passage in Hebrews (13:7-9 and 13:17-19) is not so much about identifying Godly leaders, but about what to do when you have them. And specifically how to follow them. In my opinion, it breaks into two sections. They're separated by other verses. So I'm putting together by this concept of leadership, basically, effectively verse 7 and verse 17. Verse 7, speaking I think about dead leaders, those that have gone before us, who have finished their race and have had an influence in our lives to remember them. And then verse 17, living leaders, the ones you have right now. So that's essentially what we're looking at today. And the passage is about how to follow them, how to be... How to get the most out of their leadership, how to get the most out of their influence for the health of your own souls. And perhaps a secondary theme would be, how to be one yourself, I think. So the future generations will want to follow your godly example. So I think that's all wrapped up in this as well. So look at verse 7, "Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith."

So, who are these leaders? I've already tipped my hand a bit. These leaders, I think, are leaders that have gone before, they're no longer leading, they're dead. The reason I get that is, there's a past tense here, a tense of the verb. They spoke the word of God to you in the past. Even if they're not dead, even if they've moved on out of your life, you no longer have them on a daily basis, speaking the Word of God into your lives. And their way of life. Their life is now completed. We'll talk about the Greek word that gives me a sense that they're dead. It's this word escape. NIV translates it: "Outcome."

Starting with the Mind: Remember them, Consider them

But basically you are to consider them. And it starts with the mind, "Remember them and consider them. Do you see those words? These are thinking words. The way you get the most out of your leaders is to think about them, it's a battle of the mind. And so simply just stepping away from this for just a moment, Christians are to lead thoughtful lives, you're to be thinkers. Your minds are to be active all the time. And in this space, in this space here, in verse 7, we're told to remember leaders and consider them. We're going to be thinking. Here we come to one of my favorite topics there is in the Christian life, and that's church history. That we should make the most of church history, that we should study those who went before us, and try to find out how they lived. These Godly leaders that went before us, and to imitate them, ultimately, to esteem them.

Now, the author is not wanting us to go too far in all of this as some have done. We are to esteem them, we are to hold them in reverence, we are to study them for the purpose of imitation. But we are not to worship them. In the Medieval Catholic church, there was a cult of saints. The departed, the Saints had gone before. And basically, in the medieval Catholic system they divided the members of the church into two categories, there were saints and sinners, and so if you were a saint, you went straight to Heaven, voted there by the College of Cardinals. But if you were an ordinary Christian you were going to purgatory. So it's a two-tier system. Now, the saints that went before would get special jobs, some of them anyway, up in heaven, they could become the patron saint of this or that or the other. There are three great categories of patron saints, there is the patron saint of a certain problem that you may have. There's the patron saint of a certain occupation you may have, and there are patron saints of locations, geographical locations. That's how it all worked.

I'm not going to go on… I have long lists of various saints and what they did. It's like going to the right department in the federal government. And so you would go to the patron saint of snake bites, poisonous reptile bites. I'm not going to tell you his name, but there is one. Or the patron saint of Durham England. I looked up, there's not one for Durham, North Carolina, as far as I know, but perhaps Saint Cuthbert can do double duty on all the Durhams that there are. So that's the saint of geographical locations, or of bakers, or engineers. I looked up that one too. There is a patron saint of engineers. I frankly think this is just thinly veiled polytheism, is all it is. It's just polytheism. You go to a certain god or goddess who had a certain responsibility in a certain area and they looked after it for you. It got even worse, because there was a whole calendar, a church calendar around feast sub-saints, and they would be honored in specific ways in certain days, even with pilgrimages to certain shrines, where parts of their dead bodies were like skulls and finger bones, perhaps in glass cases, and you could reverence them, not worship just veneration, so they were told.

I'm not sure if the average peasant knew the difference, I believe, and I think you do too, that the author to Hebrews would be horrified at that. That's not healthy church history, not at all. It's not what the author had in mind. Rather, it's just a healthy understanding of what went before you, so you can learn the lessons of these godly men and women, and learn lessons from their lives, and imitate them. So we're supposed to remember who they were, and how they poured into our lives. So it could be even someone in your own life who's now moved on. A godly parent, a mother or a father. A role model, a pastor, who years ago a poured into your life. Remember them, think about them, consider how they lived.

For me, it's just the glorious chain of church history. It goes even beyond. We have brothers and sisters that lived centuries before us, and by reading good historical accounts of their lives, we can be inspired and motivated. I would urge you to do it. Become basically familiar with the Roman martyrs, what went on during the first few centuries after Christ, and how people laid down their lives, like Polycarp, who was martyred in Smyrna. And just an incredible account of his life Eusebius gives us. And Augustine, a great theological church father, and how his thinking affected the centuries that followed, his debates with the Pelagius. Who the Pelagians were, what the danger was there.

Athanasius, who fought against the Arians, and that's just Jehovah's Witness doctrine, that Jesus is a created being. I mean, just to know church history, and to study and to realize what a royal family, we belong to. And how... And it's inspired me when I've gone through challenging times in my own ministry that I would elevate to the name of suffering, to then look at people who really suffered, the ones that bled and died for our faith, the ones that bled and died so we can have a Bible to read, like William Tyndale. And they were willing to suffer and die, rather than to give up on points of doctrine. They fought for the faith. They earnestly contended for it so they could pass it on pure to the next generation.

Remember them and consider, he says, the outcome of their way of life. Now that's NIV's translation. The Greek word is escape. Consider there escape, as the way it's translated in 1 Corinthians 10, how God, when you're tempted, will not tempt you beyond what you can bear but in the middle of the temptation will make a way of escape for you. Get out of it, right? I'm longing for escape from all temptation, amen. Let's escape from it all. Well, there's only one way to do that. In that case, as Paul says that you would have to leave this world. Well, they left this world. That's why I think he's talking about dead leaders. And so, they're gone, they left, and that's why they're especially vital to us. The ones that are still living are vulnerable, they might disappoint you, actually. Pray that they wont. We'll get to that at the end. But they're still in the fight. And some of us have had our hearts broken by leaders who didn't finish their race well, but these people did, they ran and ran and ran and ran and then they hit the finish line and they won, they won. So look at that.

They ran their race with endurance right to the end. Paul said to Timothy, "I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure…" Same idea, it's time for me to leave. I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I've kept the faith, now imitate me." That's what he's saying.

And so, we go from thinking here, remember or consider, we go to imitation. Mimoúmai is the Greek verb from which we get mimeograph or mimic or mime, means to imitate, to follow examples. So these leaders are in heaven. They have fought the good fight, they finished the race, and they were welcomed by God Almighty into heaven. "Well done, good and faithful servant." Welcomed in. They don't need anything from you. They have received far better commendation than you have the ability to give them.

They don't need anything, they're fine. Just fine, thank you very much. This is for your benefit that you honor them for your benefit. Why? So that you'll repent from weakness and sins and run better, and fight better, and imitate their lives. Imitate their faith. And some day, you also will be someone worthy of emulation, worthy of imitation, because you fought well, you ran well, and you ran right to the finish line. How many kings are there in the Bible in First, Second Kings, Chronicles, who started well but didn't end well? There's a handful of them. I don't want to be one of those. I don't want to be like that, I don't want you to be like that, I don't want you to run well today, but not run well 10 years from now. Now, we can't control 10 years from now, each day has enough trouble of its own, but run well today, today.

So that someone can imitate you. You can say to them, "Be imitators of me as I am of Christ." 1 Corinthians 11:1. Or as Paul says, "Join with others in following my example brothers. And take note of those who live according to the pattern of Christian life that we gave you." And as he said in Chapter 4, Philippians 4, "Whatever you've learned or received or heard from me..." That's doctrine, "Or seen in me..." That's example, "Put it into practice and the God of peace will be with you…" Oh, for a generation of leaders will say something like that. That takes courage to say that, doesn't it? But we need those kind of leaders. Christian life is both taught and caught. Not just one or the other. There's a pattern of doctrine, there's a pattern of living, and there's some things that you really can only learn by example. I think being a godly husband or a godly wife is best learned, I think, by example.

Learning By Example

I think the scriptures are there to instruct us, but then as someone lives it out, it just comes to life and you can see what it means, what it means to be a godly husband or a godly wife, an older woman who can commend to the younger women what it means to be a godly, submissive, helper suitable for your husband. Or what it means to be a Christ-like husband to your wife. It's just demeanor, facial expression, stuff happens and people can watch how you react. How to suffer well in persecution. Paul commended his own example in that, he said to Timothy, "You saw what happened to me in Antioch, I can't even illustrate the kind of persecutions I endured. You saw how I lived, now do the same thing when you suffer."

How to witness. I think witnessing, I think, is learned very well by example. Follow me, let's go share the gospel and just watch. How to get in a conversation with a total stranger, how to turn that conversation from general things to more personal things. How to get to the Gospel, somewhere he didn't want to go when you began talking. But you're there at the end, because you led there in a very sweet, loving way. How do you do that? Well, some of it is just by role modeling, just learn how to do it. These things are learned, I think, by godly examples. And we need that, how to pray, how to intercede for others. Just as well, the disciples are watching Jesus pray it's like, "Teach us to pray like that." Just watching it and listening to it.

And so application for us, are you doing just simply what the verse says? Are you thinking about the people who poured into your lives, the ones who are role models for you, are you thinking about what they did in your lives? And are you imitating their example? And are you studying church history, to learn those that went before that can pour into your life still by their writings and by what was written about them. Are you learning their example so you can imitate their faith and have their outcome? And are you living in such a way, like in that Steve Green song, may all who come behind us find us faithful, may the foot steps of our lives be worth following. As people are up in the attic of our lives and rummaging through the closet of our lives and seeing mementos. Are they seeing a life of faithfulness to Jesus, that's worth emulation?

Very convicting, isn't it? I want to be a role model the rest of my life. And I don't want there to be any skeletons in the closet. I don't want anybody to rummage and find anything. I just want to live a godly holy life, right through. So that's what he's saying to do.

Verse 8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." Oh, how glorious is that verse? Our unchanging God, our unchanging savior. But the question that's in front of me is why is this verse here? This is something an exegete asks, other people don't ask it, they just stick it on a 3 by 5 card, or on a poster, or a piece of Christian stationary. Amen, Hallelujah, put it there, it's a great verse.

But I'm asking a harder question. Why is it between verses 7 and verses 9? Why is it here? Maybe it's just like the book of Proverbs and there's no good reason, it's just here, but I don't think so. I think there is a connection and there's a flow here. I don't think he's getting at the idea of the deity of Christ and the fact that as God Jesus never changes, that is true, it's a marvelous truth. The unchanging deity of Christ. The same yesterday and today and forever. He can never be a better savior to you than he is right now. He will never improve, he cannot get worse, he's the unchanging God. Still less do I think that it could be used the way some charismatics used this verse to say, that Jesus does the same thing in every case that he did back then, that kind of thing. I don't think that argument works.

I'm not a cessationist, I don't think you can find biblical arguments for the ending of the sign gifts, I'm talking about speaking in tongues, prophecy, healings, miracles, those kinds of things. I don't believe in cessationism from scripture. But I just like to use the Bible properly. And that's not what this verse is saying, it doesn't even work. Okay, the way the argument goes, Jesus gave the power to drive out demons, and to heal the sick, and raise the dead, to his apostles, right there in Matthew 10. And so He does, He's the same yesterday, and today and forever, and so we should have the same power today. Well, you've missed some key steps, some key steps are missing, I'm not going to go into all of them. Just like if you were to look at, I think in Matthew 10:5, the beginning of that whole commissioning, he said, "Do not go to the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans."

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today and forever, so we need to not go to any Gentile towns or enter any village of the Samaritans. Well, we know that that was temporary, don't you know that that was temporary? We are to go into all the world and preach to every Gentile town, we're to go into Samaria, etcetera. So you just need to be a little more careful thinking about your acts to Jesus. That's not what this verse is teaching. Why is it here?

Okay. Well, verse 7 is talking about Godly leaders. What is verse nine talking about? "Do not be carried away by false teaching." You see that? This verse bridges between those two. Jesus is the ultimate Shepherd of the church. He never changes, His doctrine never changes, the Gospel never changes. So don't accept new teachers that come with strange diverse doctrines. That's what I think the author is doing here. Be willing to stand up and to realize that Jesus Christ is the same, Jesus is the ultimate Shepherd of the church, the elders are merely under shepherds, under Jesus. 1 Peter 5 teachers this, "Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers." 1 Peter 5:2, and then 1 Peter 5:4, "When the Chief Shepherd appears, then you'll receive the crown." So what does that imply? We're not the chief shepherd, we're under shepherds. Elders are. He is the true leader of the church, and he cannot die.

All of those leaders in verse 7, they all die at some point, just like all the priests in the old covenant, they all die. Jesus will never die. And he is the true leader, the true role model, the true example in every generation unchanging, I think that's what the author is getting at here. When I think of this, I think of the vision that the elderly, Apostle John had on the island of Patmos, of the glorified resurrected Jesus. Marvelous image that is, in a long white robe, the golden sash around his chest. Head and hair white like wool, his eyes like blazing fire, his feet like burnished bronze, and He's moving through the seven golden lamp stands, and those lamb stands represent individual local churches, and he's ministering to those individual local churches. He is the Chief Shepherd of each individual local church. How powerful is that image?

Jesus is the only Shepherd that's been here since 1845, here at FBC. Only one. Through every generation it's been Jesus, the same yesterday, today and forever. It's his flock that he bought with His blood, none of the elders shed their blood for the flock, it is His church. And I think that's what the author is giving us here. And so just for application, just thank Jesus daily for His shepherding work in the church, that He's shepherding yesterday, today, forever, always the same. And as he shepherds you just think this way, if he loved me yesterday, he'll love me today, and if he'll love me today, he'll love me forever. It is an everlasting love that he's loved me with and he'll never stop.

He's the same in loving me and shepherding me. And marvel at the security of his unchanging leadership, his doctor never changes, His love of the Church never changes, he is a good shepherd in every generation, tending his flock around the world.

Understand also, in verse 9, the threat of false leaders. I'm not going to do all of verse 9 today, but just part of it, I'm going to talk more about it God willing, next time. And in Verse 9 it says, "Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, it is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods," et cetera. I'm going to talk more about strengthening by grace next time. But I just want to talk here about the constant threat of false doctrine, false teachers. The church is to be the pillar and foundation of the truth.

We're told in 1 Timothy. In every generation, however, there are false teachers who come to assault the very life of the church, the very life blood of the church by false doctrine. And to try to move the church from its secure position. So the danger here is false doctrine, which the writer calls "strange teachings" or "diverse and foreign doctrines" would be a translation. So diverse to get the sense of varied or mixed. And so the opposite of that would be the perfectly integrated doctrine of the Bible, it's perfectly integrated. The Bible fits together perfectly, it comes from one mind, the mind of God, it's beautiful how the Bible speaks of one truth, ultimately Christ, to us with a unified voice. Different human authors, different eras in which the Bible books were written, but this unified, consistent, integrated doctrine. But here comes these diverse doctrines. Varied, and strange, alien, alien.

It reminds me of John 10 where Jesus says, He's the good shepherd, and the sheep listen to His voice and they will not follow the voice of another. They recognize, "Now, that's a strange voice, I don't go there." You just have an instinct, you have an anointing and you know the truth when you hear it. Because you are a truly children of God. And so beware of false doctrines, listen and test everything. Don't be carried away, it says, it talks about being carried away. I get the image of some desert raiders, that come in from the desert on horseback and just ride through the camp and sweep off with hostages, carrying away weak people, carried away by false doctrine. Another image more nautical I guess, is in Ephesians 4:14, talks about us no longer being "infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching, and by the cunning and crafty-ness of men and their deceitful scheming."

So that's instability, or just easily moved away by false doctrine. Rather than a good ministry is rooting and establishing people in the Word of God so they're not easily moved. They're not infants anymore, they've grown up, they're mature now, they can identify false doctrine, and not be easily moved by it. It's a constant warning in the New Testament, concerning this. As I've said before, three great assaults on the church and every generation, worldliness, persecution, and false doctrine. These are the three great satanic attacks. Of the three false doctrine is the most serious. And so, there are warnings again and again, the apostle Paul to... In his farewell address to the Ephesians elders in Acts 20, he says, "I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number, men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So, be on your guard. Remember that for three years, I never stopped warning each of you, night and day, with tears."

From your own number, savage wolves will grow up not sparing the flock. 2 Peter 2:1-2, "There will be false teachers among you secretly introducing destructive heresies. Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute." 2 Peter 3:17, "Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position." So the secure position comes from good teaching from the scripture, Be on your guard against false teachers so you don't get swept away. Same image here. 2 John 9-10, "Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God, does not have God. Whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not take him into your house or welcome him." It's a warning here.

And so instead, it's good for us to be strengthened by the doctrine of grace. Now, I'm going to defer most of my comments about the strengthening to next time. It's a sweet teaching. It's better to be strengthened by grace than by food, amen. Next time, next time. Oh no, he's going to preach about food, I don't know about... Is that a whole sermon on food? Well, not a whole sermon, but a portion of a sermon on food. But here it's contrasting the doctrines of grace and this Jewish legalism that's talking about the meat sacrifice to God, the... Our altar, and we have an altar that's been established by Christ, and so he's talking about Jewish legalists here, I think. And what they did is they basically said, "You have to obey the law of Moses, you have to be circumcised, and you have to follow all of the laws and regulations, or you'll be lost."  And so he says, "No, we've got a Gospel of grace. We've got a Gospel of grace, and the grace is contrasted with works, grace versus works. Romans 11:6 makes that clear contrast. If it is by grace, then it's no longer by works. If it were, grace would no longer be grace. So we have a gospel of grace, hallelujah.

If you're an unbeliever, if you're lost, if you're outside Christ, I think God brought you here for the next minute or two. Listen. The gospel of grace, what is grace? Grace is a determination inside the heart of God to do you eternal good even though you deserve eternal condemnation. That's what grace is. From that determination of God flows out all kinds of good stuff. And that grace came before the foundation of the world, this grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. So that brings you right into the doctrine of predestination or election.

These are the doctrines of grace, so they're called. And by grace, God has chosen to be gracious to sinners who do not deserve anything but his wrath, and he knows them by name and they are elect. And by grace, he sent his son in the world, and His Son shed His blood for them. He died in their place to take away the wrath of God, and by grace. He was raised on the third day for our justification. And He has given us this gospel message that is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, not by works, but by simple faith in Jesus. If you just trust in Jesus as the Son of God, and you put your trust in Him, all of your sins will be forgiven. Taken from you, laid on Jesus, and you will not go to hell, but instead live for ever and ever. It's good to be strengthened by grace, a man to have that message. The doctrine of grace strengthen you and those whom God for new He predestined not just to start, but to finish to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first born among many brothers and those He predestined, He also called, and those He called, He also justified. And all of those that get justified are going to get glorified, amen. Not one will be lost.

It's good to be strengthened by that and not by legalism. So don't be carried away by diverse and strange teachings, that mix human legalism together with the true gospel.

Now, I want you to skip ahead in your Scripture there to Verse 17. We've been talking in verse 7 about dead leaders, those who have gone before, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever, and the danger, the ongoing threat of false doctrine. Look at verse 17, "Obey your leaders, and submit to their authority, they keep watch over you as men who must give an account, obey them so that their work will be a joy not a burden. For that would be of no advantage to you." Well, friends, this is a very straight forward command. It's not hard to understand what it says. Obey and submit. These are the words, the word obey means do what's commanded, Submit really has to do with an arraying of yourself under someone, because they have been given a position of God-ordained authority, that's what it means.

So submit always, always has connection to a position of God-ordained authority, always. And so, fundamentally here, those who have been put in authority submit to them and obey them. Well, who is it talking about? Well, these leaders, I don't believe are government leaders, and they're not the dead leaders, church leaders of Verse 7, they're living, because it's an ongoing issue in Verse 17. They're not government leaders in Romans 13, who ruled by the sword, and the laws for wicked, evil doers and law breakers and all that. Not for the upright. So they have the sword. Rulers with the sword hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong, it's not talking about that here. These are spiritual leaders, these are shepherds of souls, these are shepherds, these are people who will give an account for your soul. These are elders in the church. The elders are established as spiritual leaders, they're are shepherds of souls, they keep watch over your souls, they give an account on Judgment Day for your soul for your spiritual health.

They are established in spiritual authority by Jesus Christ himself, Christ raises up these men to lead His church under his overall authority. As we mentioned a moment ago, He's the Chief Shepherd, they merely the under shepherds, as we understand a church government, these leaders are men, who are set apart as elders, in a plurality, it's, "Obey your leaders," there's a plural here.

And they're given a dual responsibility of teaching and leadership, of setting godly course of leadership, administering the ministries of the church. They are men and not women, because in 1 Timothy 2, Paul says, "I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority over man, she must be silent." And in the very next chapter, he gives the description of the Office of elder, and the requirements. Those requirements are spiritual in nature. You're not going to find that Fortune 500 Forbes stuff, in 1 Timothy 3 or Titus 1, you're going to find spiritual criteria. And it's not... The church isn't led at that point by committees, committees of the willing, maybe some of you in the past have served on the nominating committee, do you guys remember the nominating committee and the job of making phone calls to people, those committees? And you've got the committees of the willing, and those people get plugged and chugged into certain slots and it's all very troublesome, for me ultimately, because it's not biblical.

Instead, you have 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, spiritual requirements for elders and they lead the church. These are those who must teach and preach the Word of God, manage the affairs of the church to make decisions for the successful growth of the church numerically and in spiritual maturity. Now, what is the nature of this obedience, and the nature of this submission? Well, first, it's not blind, implicit obedience such as demanded by tyrants or by cult leaders. Such blind and total submission to the authority of a man in a church office, characterize the fallacy, the error, the heresy of the papacy, of the Pope. Of this one individual, the Vicar of Christ on Earth, so he was called. I don't believe in that, it's not that kind of submission.

And neither is it blind, total obedience to the commands of a spiritual leader, like in a cult, like years ago, Jim Jones and The Peoples Temple who went down to South America, and they all drank the purple Kool-Aid and died. And from that point on, drinking the Kool-Aid kind of entered our popular culture. What it meant is blindly follow some leader to your own destruction. I'm not going to do that, I'm not drinking the Kool-Aid, say, I'm not following that.

Rather this obedience is to be reasonable, spiritual, based on the word of God. Fundamentally, the leadership of elders is a leadership that's based on the word of God, as they are able to marshal biblical arguments for what they're saying through sound, clear, acts of Jesus, they are to be followed. Frankly, it's going on right now, every time that I get up to preach, I seek to explain the text clearly phrase by phrase, so that you can see that this is what the text is saying. So that's the kind of leadership that must go on. It's reasonable, and it's based on the Word of God.

The Apostle Paul was delighted, I think. It was Luke that wrote it, but it was Paul I think that had a delight in the Bereans who took the things that Paul preached on the Old Testament and scoured the text to see if they were so. So, it's not that kind of blind implicit obedience, neither is it obedience in areas that have nothing to do with the office of elder. Again, the papacy is to blame here where they would go and make commands, like the Pope would demand that a king or a prince or a judge kneel to him and render judgments or do certain things in his secular realm. Again, it's not that kind of obedience. Rather it's in line with what Jesus gave us in the great commission. "All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me," said Jesus, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit." And here it is, "Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded."

So there has to be a submission to those that do that teaching or you can't obey the commands. So it's as you marshal the commands of Jesus and say, "Jesus is telling us to do this from the Word of God," that's the essence of the leadership. Christ is commanding this of us. So submission to elders should be plainly seen to be submission to Christ as He has revealed it in His word, not apart from it. The authority of elders is a teaching and explaining, it's really an exegetical authority, it's based on scripture. As the passages are explained the elders, proving the people something Christ wants them to do. Now again, it's servant leadership, not lording it over those entrusted but rather serving as an example. It says in 1 Peter 5, as Jesus already told us in Matthew 20, servant leadership. And it must be humble leadership, not seeking trappings of honor and glory and prestige.

As Jesus talked about the scribes and Pharisees who loved the place of honor at the banquets and the most important seats of the synagogues. They'd love to be greeted in the market places and have me call them, "Rabbi." Please don't call me Rabbi. One of you has an exemption to that because he always does it in humor, but think about it. I don't know if I want to keep being called Rabbi. Obedience and submission are in the context, so we believe, of congregational polity. What do I mean by that? Polity is just government, church government. We as Baptists are Congregationalists. What that means is, there is no, at the human level, no higher authority to make rulings or judgements, for the life of a local church, than the local church itself. So there's no bishop or archbishop, there's no structure like a corporate structure or governmental structure or structure in the army.

The buck stops here with the local church, the proof of that's in Matthew 18, on church discipline. When the church disciplines, that's it, there's nothing else, there's no court of higher appeals. So, we are Congregationalists, and the elders do their leading in a congregational structure. Therefore the elders are identified by and established in their position by the congregation, by democratic processes, by vote. They can't have their position apart from that Congregational establishment. Furthermore, the congregation alone has the right to remove them from their office for sin reasons of doctrine or life.

So that's how they get established in congregation polity. How then does the congregation follow them? Well, as long as the elder has been duly established by the congregation, the elders, I'll keep it in plural, and they have not sinned and they're carrying out their ministry faithfully, it's then the church's responsibility as they continue to assess the life and the doctrine, passively. Passively assess. Does it seem Biblical? They seem like they're leading well, plausibly biblical, we'll get to that in a minute, to follow the leadership, to obey and submit. That's what the text says, doesn't it? So what do I mean by passive.

And what do I mean by plausible? Well, passive is like the analogy of passive sonar versus active sonar in a submarine.  So passive sonar is just lots of listening, but no ping going out. No ping going out. So it's not really Godly or loving for people to say, "I'm watching you to be sure you're not a heretic. So don't be one today, Pastor." Amen, thank you, thank you, keep praying for that. It's about as pleasing as going to someone's house and saying, "I'm watching you too to be sure you don't commit adultery." Look, I know that that kind of needs to go on, but we do that more passively, don't we? Just kind of observe, and if you see indications, where there's smoke there's fire, then you pursue them, but if there's no smoke there may not be any fire, just follow. Does that make sense? So there has to be an ongoing Berean searching, but frankly, I think the more likely failure mode is not that heresy will be preached in a good church, but that people will harden their hearts against the good doctrine and not obey it.

And that goes for the preacher too frankly, because Christianity is a lot easier to teach than it is to live. But that's the more likely failure mode. So as long as the elders are leading plausibly biblically, what does that mean? It's not on the text, is it? No, it's not. I don't think the word plausible...

Actually, the word plausible is in Colossians in one of the translations, but plausible means it seems like it may be, okay. Alright, why do I have to use that language? Because friends we're all messed up, we're messed up. I'm messed up, you're messed up, we're all messed up. Okay? The elders are messed up, they're Roman 7 people. The followers are messed up, they're Roman 7 people. An issue arises in life of the church, people have different perspectives, they disagree, right? Distrust yourselves first. Okay, just be humble and distrust yourselves. The elder should do the same. Right?

Look at the scripture on the issue, listen to the arguments, if it's in the arrangement of biblical plausibility, wonder if perhaps you may be wrong. Iron sharpens iron, you go to the elders you make your case, they listen. You make your case, they listen, you share your scriptures. But as long as it's plausibly biblical, ultimately, you have to follow if you can. If you can't, you probably need to leave the church, because it's such a high issue of commitment to you that you think that the elders have gone un-Biblical on you, and you have that freedom to do that. But fundamentally, in humility, you just say, "It's possible I may be wrong. Teach me, instruct me, let my heart be changed by the Word of God."

So that's the best I can make of all this. How do Romans 7 elders lead Romans 7 people? It's the best that we can do. The elders need to be making their cases biblically, we know very well that there are areas, gray areas of controversy, Romans 14 talks about that.

So what are the burdens of Godly leadership? There are many, look at the verse again. "Obey your leaders and submit to them. For they are keeping watch over your souls. As those who have to give an account. Let them do this with joy, and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you." So what do Godly leaders do for you? Well, they shepherd, or literally it says, lose sleep over your souls, lose sleep over your souls.

The images of a shepherd that stays awake all night long because the wolves do their work at night, and if he goes to sleep for even an hour, he may lose the third of his flock. And so physically, in real life, what it means is a constant awareness and attentiveness and a self-sacrifice to do the church good, to shepherd souls. Because the world, the flesh and the devil are assaulting the flock all the time, assaulting the flock. And so the shepherd's, the elder's job is to shepherd them and to pray for them and to encourage them and to fight against the discouragement of the devil, and the temptations that pull. And to pray for you and to lead you and teach you and love you and correct you if needed, or rebuke or warn you if needed, whatever is needed.

And how valuable is that? Do you want that done for you? Do you want shepherds to watch over you? If you say, "I can go it on my own." Oh, if any man thinks he stands take heed lest he fall, you need good shepherds. So, it's valuable. Good elders that know the spiritual condition of the people, the state of their walk with Christ, the sins they struggle with, the state of their marriages, their family life, their discouragements, their successes. In general, how they're doing financially, if materialism is gripping their lifestyles, variety of things. How is it going? And look what the text says, they will have to give an account. I said to BFL class this morning, I said that this is one of the scariest verses in the Bible for me as a pastor, as an elder. I'm going to have to in some sense, give an account to Jesus for you, for my shepherding of this flock.

I don't know what that means, but I know at least it means, from 1 Corinthians 3 that I have to build on the foundation that was handed to me with gold and silver and costly stones, good, solid doctrine.

All nine elders of FBC will have to bear that level of scrutiny giving an account to Jesus for our ministries. I have to give an account, it's very serious. My life, my doctrine, my shepherding. So they watch over your souls as those who must give an account.

Let them do it with joy and not with groaning. This has been the greatest journey of my life, I think, in Christ. The move from groaning to joy of shepherding this church. It is a joy to be your under-shepherd. And I want to say along with that, one of the greatest joys of my life is to do it with these other eight men. They're great men. I love them. I love being with them. So it's a delight to shepherd you, and because... The reason it's a delight to shepherd you is because of your spiritual health, in your growth, the fact that you love the Lord, you love His word, you're seeking to be obedient, you're missions minded, you're evangelistic, because of your prayer lives.

No, you're not perfect, we're not either. But that's what makes it a joy. From your willing glad submission to Christ really ultimately and seeing that played out in your life. That's what makes it a joy. So the spiritual health of the church is what makes it a joy, the lack of spiritual health in specific spots or generally is what makes it a burden. So church members who are willingly following sins in their lives and the ways of this world make it a burden. Church members who are argumentative and complaining, who fight the elders and oppose them, and slander them and talk against their decisions, make it a burden, not a joy. Church members who are lazy and who frequently miss church to follow personal pursuits, or who don't challenge themselves to grow, make it a burden and not a joy. Church members who increasingly drift away from Christ, as seen in their marriages, their conversations, they're spending habits or their church attendance, make it a burden, not a joy.

So simply put, elders who enjoy their ministry are a great blessing to the church. The joy of the elders in shepherding you, is one of the most precious commodities of your spiritual life. Why do I say that? Well, you have to just keep thinking through what happens. Simply put, it would be of no advantage to you to make elder-ing or leading a burden to the men who do it. Why? Because they'll stop doing it. So elders who struggle with rebellious and sinful sheep either grow disillusioned and discourage and leave the ministry entirely, or they go to another church, or the rebellious faction is strong enough politically to vote them out. In the third case, that church is on a short route to apostasy. It's happened locally, recently. Okay. For the congregation is responsible for its own leaders ultimately. And when you vote godly men out, you take a short route to apostasy.

2 Timothy 4:3 "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine, and instead to suit their own desires they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear." So whenever it is that I die or whatever, you guys are responsible for the next leaders. You see what I'm saying? You're responsible. Please be sure that the man is faithful. Amen. That he preaches the word, that he is an expositor. You know what that means now. Alright. Bible, verse by verse, clear. Do you realize that 5%, I think, the number is 5%, 5% of the men that began a career in ministry, retire as ministers. Wow. I teach at Southeastern. How'd you like me to get up in front of a class of 30, and say, "I just want you to know, statistically, 5% of you will end up retiring in the end, you'll make it straight through a fruitful, healthy, ministry and retires as pastors, 5% of you. That's not many in a class of 30.  Is that... Not many, my math brain is turned off right now, this is my liberal arts brain so I don't know.

95% attrition? Do you see the devil in that? And it's not all for one reason, their own sins are part of it. But it's just a constant assault, assault, assault, assault. And discouragement just rises. So it'd be a burden if it's a burden to the elders, it's no advantage to the Church, because they just leave, and that would be of no advantage to you. Now, there are godly reasons to leave. I mean, people can leave and go to other good ministries, and I understand that. I'm just talking about the expulsive force that causes them to want to leave, that's all. They should leave regretfully. Amen. They should leave reluctantly. They should leave a fruitful ministry being called to a different calling. You see what I'm saying? Not because there was some kind of repulsive force that caused them to go.

And so therefore you ought to be praying for your leaders. Look at verses 18-19, "Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience, and desire to live honorably in every way." So in other words, we are passing our own test. We know ultimately the test is by God. And He's the only one that can make that final test, but our conscience is clear, we're living honorably. Pray for us, that we would continue to do so, pray for us that we would keep on fighting the good fight of the faith and being holy. But the overwhelming responsibilities and pressures, one of the best things that you can do for your elders is pray for them. Pray for their walks with Christ, so that they would keep a clear conscience, and live honorably in every way.

Pray for them to preach and teach the truth in accordance with the Word of God, pray for their leadership, that it will be humble, Christ-like servant leadership, saturated in biblical truth. Pray that the church will follow that leadership. Pray that the elders will delight in their ministry, pray that the elders will evangelize boldly and clearly, and fruitfully and set a good example for the flock. Pray that Christ will be glorified in the leadership of FBC. Close with me in prayer.

Just before Israel was to enter the Promised Land, Joshua is on the other side of the Jordan River and was thinking ahead to what faced them, what lay on the other side? There was the Jordan at flood stage. There was the walled citadel of Jericho. And beyond that lay all of their fears and concerns, the very things that had derailed them a generation before that, 40 years before that. And those people at that time, that generation before, were terrified of a specific race of men of warriors that waited for them on the other side, the Anakim, they're called. The descendants of the Rephaim, they were gigantic people, they were tall in stature, they were mighty warriors, and they were the object of terror and fear on the part of the Israelites. When they spys came back they said they looked like grasshoppers to them and they looked that way in their own eyes too. So think Goliath, think 9 feet tall, think throwing a spear that looked more like a small tree than a javelin, and they were terrified. These were the giants in the land.

Now this morning as I come to Hebrews 13:4-6, we are going to face two of the greatest giants that face us in the conquest of the spiritual Promised Land that still awaits us. The sanctification of our own hearts. The battleground there is not the soil of the Promised Land, it is our own hearts and these giants are idols. And we're going to face this morning in the text, the two greatest idols I think that tempt hearts away from faith in Christ, sex and money. We're going to look at these two through the eyes of the Gospel, and we're going to try to understand how God has provided for us in each of these areas and how God's promise is enough for us that he will never leave us, and he will never forsake us, that he is, as we've already sung this morning, more than enough for us. And that we can be content with God's provision in these areas and not yearn for more or go beyond the boundaries that God has set up.

So I say with confidence, the Lord is our helper. What have we to fear? We can face these two great giants in the land, sex and money, and we can conquer them by faith. John Piper speaking of the heart, the human heart, said,

"The heart is a desire factory. The human heart produces desires as fire produces heat. As surely as sparks fly upward, the heart pumps out desire after desire for a happier future. The condition of the heart is appraised by the kinds of desires that hold sway, or to put it another way, the state of the heart is shown by the things that satisfy its desires. If it is satisfied with mean and ugly things, it's a mean and ugly heart. If it is satisfied with God, then it is a Godly heart."

We were designed by God to be satisfied in him. God crafted our hearts to find all of our satisfaction and joy and pleasure ultimately in God. And so, Eric had us read Psalm 63, please listen again to Psalm 63:1-3, we were made for this. We were made for God, and this Psalm, I think, better than any other Psalm, any other portion of the Scripture captures this for me personally.

"O God, you are my God. Earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you. My body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I've seen you in the sanctuary and I've beheld your power and your glory, because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you." Just meditate on that. God's love is better than life. I'd rather have God's love than be alive. That's what the psalmist is saying. I can't imagine life without God's love. It would be meaningless to me, it would be empty. We were designed for that. Our hearts were made for God. We were made to find our deep rich, full satisfaction in God. But for all of that, there's a great battle going on, it's going on in our hearts right now. The world, the flesh, and the Devil are assaulting that ground, that battleground of our hearts, trying to get us to yearn for and desire and be satisfied in something other than God.

The Grave Danger of Idolatry

Here we come to the grave danger of idolatry. Throughout the Old Testament, the Israelites wandered again and again into idolatry, the worship and service of false Gods. And frequently, they would shape and craft some kind of statute to represent their Gods and then they would fall down and worship them. So often, we in the 21st Century, we in the church see that act and say, "Well, we know that idolatry is not much of a problem anymore." Oh, don't fall into that trap. Idolatry is still alive and well. 1 John 5:21, "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." It's still there, whether we make statues or not. For me, the best verse in the Bible for describing what idolatry is Romans 1:25. "They exchange the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things more than the Creator who is forever praised. Amen." Oh, there's so much in that one Verse. But fundamentally, when someone gives themselves over to a created thing and puts ultimate value on that thing and worships and serves it, they have become an idolater.

And it's in the face of the God, the eternal God, who they exchanged for that created thing that they do this, this God who should be praised for ever and ever, Amen. So, that's idolatry. So you don't have to make a physical idol to be an idolater. And in this text, I think we have two of the greatest idols that assault our hearts, the idol of sex and the idol of money or possessions. And both of them promise pleasure apart from God. Both of them burrow down to the root of our nature, like some kind of diseased worm, and they eat at the vitals of our spiritual walk with God, the vitals of our spiritual health, and they make us sick. The lusts of our lives primarily reside in these two, the yearning for sexual pleasure, and the yearning for material possessions.

And they promise delight, they promise pleasure, they promise happiness, but apart from God and his righteous laws and his boundaries, they leave the idolater's worshipper of them crushed and spiritually dead, devastated and empty. And the shocking tragedy for us in the church is that we can so often imitate those that are spiritually dead because of idolatry. We can actually take in the concepts of the Gospel. We can take in the fact that we have been blessed in the spiritual realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ, and every good and perfect gift that's in our lives has come down to us directly from a heavenly Father who loves us and we can take all of that spiritual and material blessing, and we can turn away from it, unfulfilled to seek something else, to seek some idol. How tragic, how unnecessary is that to be dissatisfied with Christ and to go after an idol?

And so, this is the battle and the author to the Hebrews is concerned about this congregation of Jewish people who had made a profession of faith in Christ, who are being pressed by the hard treatment of the world, the persecution of the world, pressed by persecution to turn away from Jesus and go back to Old Covenant Judaism. But the real lure in the trap, the real bait is pleasure, earthly pleasure of which sex and material possession's a big part. And so, to be lured away from Christ into idols, idol worship, that's really the temptation and the pull. And the author to Hebrews is giving them this warning. And so, here in this text, we have provision from God, everything we need to fight these two idols. We have the gift of marriage that God's given us. The gift of marriage, that God ordained means for sexual fulfillment, and we have the gift of possessions and within that contentment in what God has given us. But fundamentally, even before that, after in the text, but primary before it is God's promise.

So look ahead, we're going to kind of skip to the end of this section we're looking at. I'm going to look at Verse 5-6, and I want to bring out the Central Promise in this text that should feed us and strengthen us in our battle against idolatry. It says in Verse 5, "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you.' And so, we say with confidence, the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid, what can man do to me?" Fundamentally, idolatry is what we do when we're not satisfied with Christ. We run to sex and we run to possessions when we're not satisfied with Christ. Scripture's battle plan to the defeat idolatry is faith in the Lord Jesus as our all sufficient supplier and refuge and friend, that would satisfy the deepest parts of our soul.

And to give us that faith God gives us his word, the word feeds the faith, faith works on the word. The word of promise, specifically, and so, God gives us a promise. Faith rises as a gift from God, rises to meet that promise and fulfills us with confidence that you see right in the text. God's given us a promise. Faith rises to meet it. We are filled with confidence and we live a different kind of life, not an idolatrous life.

And so, what's the promise here? "I will be with you," that's the promise. I will be with you. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I am the satisfier of your soul. I will meet your deepest needs. I will protect you. I will uphold you with my sovereign right hand. I will feed you, I will love you, I will provide for you, I will filter all of the attacks, so that nothing will come on you accept what you are able to bear and in the middle of the battle, I will strengthen you and you will be victorious. I will be with you, trust in me, put your confidence fully in me. I will never leave you, I will never forsake you, no matter what you're going through, it could be a physical trial, it could be emotional, it could be a relational, it could be financial. Home base here is financial.

You could be facing significant financial trials and God is saying directly to you from this text, "Do not be afraid. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. Trust in me, I will be your helper. And no one will be able to fashion a weapon against you that will succeed. No weapon formed against you will prosper. What can man do to me?" That's what he's saying. Let me satisfy your soul, trust in this promise and don't run after the idols of the land, money, and sex, earthly, fleshly pleasures.

Now, the origin of this promise was something said to Joshua, right before he entered the Promised Land. He's just there, as I said, on the other side of Jordan, at flood stage about to face the conquest of Jericho, and he had probably one of the hardest ministries ever.

Just think about this one statement. I've often meditated on this in Joshua Chapter 1, "Moses, my servant is dead." Now then, you Joshua, take over. I mean, how would you like to follow Moses? This great figure, this incredible man who goes up a mountain of fire into the very presence of God and comes down with his face radiantly shining bright, how would like to follow him, be his successor? "Moses is dead, now then, you take over." It's terrifying. It would have been easy for Joshua looking ahead for his heart to quail and to fail, but God spoke this promise to him. Joshua 1:5-7, "No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous." So Jesus is now speaking those words to you, O believer in Christ. He's speaking directly to you those same words. Be strong and courageous, because never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.

This is the promise of the incarnation, isn't it? What was said concerning Mary, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and they will call him, Immanuel. What does that mean? It means God with us. And as Paul said in Romans 8, "If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things." And so here, I just want to speak to you, if you are outside of Christ, may this be your invitation to come in. Don't stand on the outside of this promise, this promise isn't for you if you're not a Christian. If you're not in Christ, God will be against you, he will condemn you to hell, but if you are in Christ, then God is for you. And what else matters than that? That's where it makes perfect sense. What can man do to me, if God is for me? How could Satan's accusations mean anything to me?

And so, if you have up to this moment been outside of the Gospel, outside of Christ, don't let it be that way any longer. Come to Christ, God sent his son, his only begotten Son into the world, who lived a sinless life, who died on the cross in the place of sinners like you and me, idolaters like you and me, who have made idols of sex and idols of money, and he died for idolaters like you and me. And all you have to do is put your faith in Jesus, and he will forgive you of all of your sins, and he'll transform you. So let that happen right now, so you can listen to the rest of the sermon as a Christian, how is that? And for those of you who years ago were justified, you're still battling idolatry, aren't you? And Jesus is promising, because I have cleansed you of all of the... Forgiven all your sins, I've given you a new nature. Stop acting like you don't have a new nature. You don't need these idols. So just... I plead with you don't leave this place unregenerate. You don't know how much longer you have to live. Come to Christ.

And wouldn't it be great if I were speaking to 100% nothing but regenerate people right now? Wouldn't that be awesome? You say, "Oh Pastor, then you wasted your talk." Not at all. Just you guys... You 100% regenerate people, you guys go take this same Gospel and go preach it in the workplaces and the neighborhoods, what do you say? Exact same thing. Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you. And so, this is the central joy of our lives, God with us. Psalm 16:11, "You have made known to me the path of life, you will fill me with joy in your presence with eternal pleasures at your right hand." So that's it, that promise, your faith in that promise is the dynamo that enables you to have the power to conquer these two great giants in the land, the idol of sex and the idol of money. By this promise, God is enough for me and he'll never leave me, you can defeat him. So now let's look at them.

First, crushing the idol of sex by purity and marriage. Look at Verse 4. "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral." So we come now to the significance of marriage and when we come to marriage, we're coming to one of the truly vital issues in the Christian life. From the very beginning of redemptive history, marriage was at the center piece of what God intended to do with the human race. Other than personal conversion, there is no more important moment in someone's life than the moment they make that pledge saying "I do" in front of God. It's a vital, a vital moment. And therefore, because of its significance, it's hugely the focus of Satanic attack, hugely. The Godly healthy marriage can be an incredible pipeline of spiritual and material blessings. But a sinful un-Biblical disobedient marriage can be devastating for a lifetime.

And there is no healthy society without healthy marriages, and there is no healthy church without healthy marriages. This is vital, this is no overstatement. These comments in this Verse are especially poignant for us who live in the state of North Carolina, in that we recently had an opportunity to consider the public view of marriage. And if you look again at the verse, marriage should be held in honor by all. Okay, well, it seems like it's the church's job as the pillar and foundation of the truth to work toward that end, that marriage will be held in honor by all. And the more I've looked at that problem of gay marriage, so call it, so the more you look at that issue and try to understand it, the more I am convinced that apart from the Bible we can have no lasting definition of marriage. Frankly, the definitions of marriage will get weirder and weirder.

Can I marry myself? Can I marry my pet? I mean, why not? What's going to stop it? What ethic... What meant... What stops it? And so, we go back to the Scripture and say, God defines marriage, he did it from the beginning. And that's how we must argue. We must not be afraid to say, the Bible says. This is how marriage will be held in honor by all who listen to God. And so, we come to a positive view at the beginning of the Verse, marriage should be held in honor by all. The word honor here is related to the word frequently translated, precious or valuable, such as in 1 Corinthians 3:12, building with gold, silver, or costly stones, precious stones, same word. Or even better in 1 Peter 1, it talks about the precious blood of Christ that was shed for us, by which we are forgiven. So, marriage should be held in honor, it should be seen to be precious and valuable like the blood of Jesus is, should be esteem. So it has to do with an estimation. Held in honor, means how people think about it.

Only as the society or the church esteems marriage properly, will husbands and wives understand their immense responsibilities to uphold it honorably, and primarily I think it's husbands and wives that need to esteem marriage properly, Amen. As we... As I as a husband esteem marriage properly, then I'll behave a certain way, as my wife esteems it, then it will be held in honor, that's how it is. But it doesn't mean that single people can't and shouldn't esteem marriage, they should. And why is marriage so honorable? Why is it so precious? Well, because the triune God has said so, how about that? God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. God the Father by creating marriage and being specifically involved in the first couple getting together, so pointedly involved, the Creator made them male and female. He crafted Adam out of the dust of the earth. He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he created him alone.

And for a time, he was alone to establish his headship in the relationship and Adam's headship over the whole human race. But though God said again and again, in terms of creation, it is good, it is good, it is good. The one time he says, it is not good is, it is not good for the man to be alone. I'll make a helper suitable for him. I tend to think putting the whole Biblical council together, it was not good for man to remain alone. It was clearly good for him to be alone for a little while, to establish headship and leadership, but it wasn't good for him to remain alone, because then he could not fill the Earth and subdue it and rule over it. He needed a wife. And so, God the Father was directly active in that. Animals were brought, helper suitable was not found, a deep sleep, God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, he took a rib portion of Adam's bottom and he fa... Body and he fashioned a woman out of the rib.

And out of that he brought her to the man. And I always think in terms of a distance travel, how God brought her to him, like she was made in a different place and they were brought together and Adam was delighted in her. This at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman for she was taken out of man. And then God the father made a statement about that saying, this is the norm forever, right there in Genesis 2. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife. And the two will become one flesh. So, marriage is to be held in honor, because God the Father does. Marriage is to be held in honor because God the Son does as well. Jesus was born in the context of a marriage. Joseph was betrothed to be married to Mary, and though Joseph was not his biological father, God was his father, yet he grew up in a home in which Joseph took Mary as his wife, and had other children by her after he was born, and Jesus was submissive to both of them because of honoring marriage.

Who is Joseph to Jesus, except his stepfather? I guess, an unusual relationship. But because of the significance of marriage, he honored him. And Joseph's genealogy given, I think they're in Matthew's Gospel. Secondly, by Jesus doing his first miracle at the wedding at Cana in Galilee, changing the water into high-quality wine, by doing that and by speaking of himself as the bridegroom. How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn when he is still with them? The time will come on the bridegroom will be taken from them. So, he honors marriage by using this language, and by his parables, the way he told parables, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a king who wanted to throw a wedding banquet for his son. And so, the consummation in Heaven is spoken to be like a wedding banquet and the king is God the Father and the Son is Jesus and the bride is the church.

And by Jesus' teaching on divorce in Matthew 19. "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?" "Haven't you read, that at the beginning, the Creator made them male and female and said for this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one. What God therefore has joined together, let man not separate." Jesus honored marriage in all of these ways. And God the Holy Spirit honored marriage in so many ways, but through the teaching of the Prophets and the Apostles. In the Old Testament, the Prophets, speak as though Israel... God's people is God's bride. Marry to God. So Isaiah 62:5, as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you. There's this analogy between God and Israel of marriage.

So also with Hosea, when there was immorality, there was adultery, because of the idolatry. But God would restore in Hosea 2:16, "in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me my husband." Jeremiah 2, "I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown." And so, also through the Apostles. Paul's teaching on marriage in Ephesians Chapter 5. "For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about Christ and the church. Revelation 21:9, the Holy Spirit speaks, "one of the seven angels said to me, 'come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb.'" And so, in a very mysterious way, even the sexual union between a husband and wife is a picture of God's perfect spiritual union with his people. It's not something our minds can completely handle because we're corrupted, but we're still given this profound mystery as an analogy. And in heaven, when there will be no procreation, no physical union, no need for it, the consummation will be very much like the perfection of a marriage.

So God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have all set apart marriage and esteemed it as a high and holy thing. And this is true even if you are single, and even if you have the gift of singleness, 1 Corinthian 7 talks about the gift of singleness, where, there are going to be some brothers and sisters in Christ who have given... Been given this gift and they will never be married and they're set apart according of the Apostle Paul for the Gospel and for Jesus, and total focus on him. But even they should honor marriage and hold it in honor and esteem, that's what the Verse says. God has many purposes in marriage, procreation, because he desired Godly offspring, pleasure because he just loves us and wants us to enjoy things and marriage is pleasure. For purity, because this is the only way that we sexual beings can be sexual and not sin. Elizabeth Elliot was once asked to write a book, the title of which was "Sex And The Single Christian." She wrote back saying it's going to be a very short book. Really short. This is the only way we can be pure.

For partnership, because two are better than one. For progress, because it's a workshop of sanctification and how, talk about that another time. But we just keep learning and growing in Christ. Those of you who are about to get married, you're not marrying a perfect person, you know that, and you know who you are, but I think you know that. It's for sanctification, for progress and for proclamation, because it's an incredible platform for the Gospel. Both to our children, as they are raised in our home, and we can share the Gospel with them, and then to the outside world. That's six Ps. I usually don't alliterate, some day that might be actually in a wedding. Procreation, pleasure, purity, partnership, progress, and proclamation.

Alright, if marriage is so important, then you can see why Satan is going to come after it hard. Satan's been hammering on human sexuality, organized satanic attacks. I've counted many of them. I think seven, maybe. And on the way here, we came up with three more, organized satanic attacks against marriage.

Two in the text, fornication, pornos in the Greek and adultery. Fornication is sexual activity between unmarried people. Our world is filled with fornication these days, our culture is filled with it. It's just accepted a normal, it seems. Colleges are rife with it, it's just accepted and normal there. And then after college years it's just accepted to extend singleness as long as possible, because there's so much sexual immorality and there's no need. As one writer put it, "Why buy the cow when you can sneak in at night into the neighbor's pasture and steal his milk." You don't have to care for the cow or protect it. And so, single men and women are not making the sacrifice in the covenant of marriage, because they're getting whatever they want selfishly. And so also adultery. Adultery is sexual relating between two people when one or more of them are married to someone else.

Again, adultery is down played, but I think we see more of the damage that that does. It could be somebody very famous, maybe even an athlete, doing incredibly well in his career, commits multiple acts of adultery, and his life spirals out of control. He loses basically everything that he valued in this life and can't even perform well in his sport any longer. Now, you think I'm talking about such and such, and I may actually be talking about somebody else. It's happened again and again. And these two are mentioned in the text.

But there are others, prostitution, polygamy, homosexuality, legalistic celibacy. Colossians 2, forbidding of marriage is a Satanic attack on marriage. Divorce and others, besides.

I want to say briefly two specific things from this list. There are some that trouble us more than others. First about homosexuality. It's not directly addressed here, but we need to know the signs of our times and we need to know that out there, this is a huge issue. And we, the church having the Gospel, have the only remedy that there is for homosexuals. The only remedy. And you know what the remedy is? Ephesians captures it better than... This one phrase, speaking the truth in love. That's the remedy. We need to be willing to speak the truth, both to homosexual people and to our culture. The President of the United States said that gay marriage is a civil rights issue. We need to speak the truth about that, it's not. Scripturally homosexuality threatens people's souls with eternal damnation, just as much as the sin I'm about to talk about does, covetousness. So our church needs to be as welcoming toward people who are being saved out of homosexuality as we are welcoming to we who are being saved out of covetousness. Amen.

Because they're all listed in those lists. And so, we need to speak the truth and not get swept along to the point, not just a tolerance, but of embracing and celebrating homosexuality. It cannot be. I cannot celebrate something that's going to destroy my neighbor. How could that be loving to the neighbor? I can't celebrate that. But what I can do is speak the truth and there has to be a demeanor, a tone of voice, a facial expression of love and sensitivity and humility and compassion that draws people into the discussion and helps them to see that at some point, like in 1 Corinthian 6, it can be said of homosexuals and such were some of you, but you were washed, you were redeemed, you were cleansed, you were saved by the blood of Jesus, so briefly.

And secondly, I want to talk briefly about pornography. The word pornos is right in the text, and this is something that is assaulting the soul of churches like ours. Even our church. Frankly, one of the biggest attacks on the sacredness of the marriage bed that... And that's... The text, marriage... The marriage bed, koite is what it is in the Greek, that marriage bed, the sexual relationship between the husband and wife held sacred, held in honor. This is an assault and it's really accelerated in our lifetime to the point where people can without sacrificing their dignity, basically go to the wrong side of town and get whatever they want on the Internet. Staggering. While Christi and I were students at Southern Seminary, there was someone that lived in our block of apartments, we didn't know them well. But it was a student there and he basically threw it all the way for Internet pornography, threw it all away, his marriage, his parenting, his seminary career, everything, so he could sit and look on a computer.

Al Mohler, speaking about pornography said, basically, what you have, picture a single guy alone in his room and he doesn't have to look after his hygiene, he doesn't have to look after his bad breath, he doesn't have to look after his appearance or his weight, he doesn't have to build a relationship with a woman, he doesn't have to sacrifice or in any way be a Christ-like head to her. He can have an array a smorgasbord of beautiful women who will do whatever he wants them to do and then he can dismiss them. It's wickedness. And there's no place for it in the church, and we have to fight everything that we have.

Go back to the original promise with which I began. God is enough for you. He will never leave you, he'll never forsake you, that means he's with you always and it says right in our text, a serious warning. God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. If your right hand... If your right eye caused you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than your whole body to be thrown into hell, and if your right hand caused you to sin, then cut it off and throw it away. It's better for you to lose one part of your body than your whole body to be thrown into hell.

Finally, on marriage, be delighted in what God has provided for you. Be delighted in it. Have a lifetime of marriage together. Grow old together. If you're a husband, be a Christ-like head to your wife. Love her as Christ loved the church, sacrifice for her. Train her up, wash her with water through the word, sanctify her in that way. Love her, lay you down your life for her. And as it says in Proverbs 5, be satisfied with her sexually. Don't read it, I've got it here, but I don't have time, but just read it. Let her body, let herself satisfy you, and don't want any more, be content with her, and develop that. And wives submit to your husbands, and love them and follow them as Ephesians commands. This church will be as healthy, in part as healthy as our marriages.

The second great idol that we have in this text is that of money. And as I've looked at this, I'm... Sometimes I'm not sure which of the two is bigger. Verse 5, "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.'" We come here to the struggle that we all have with covetousness, with greed, material possessions. And in the New Testament several times greed is called idolatry, it's directly connected. The author is laying open our sin and giving us the remedy and the remedy is contentment based on the promises of God.

What is Covetousness?

So what is covetousness? The word used here is literally money love or the love of silver. But money itself is just a means to an end. What does the money buy? What is it that the money buys? Very few people are just straight Ebenezer Scrooge misers that just collect money for its own sake. It's like, if I could just have a huge box of silver coins on a desert island, I would be just in 7th heaven. Nobody thinks like that. You can't eat the silver, and after a while you're like, what I wouldn't give for a steady supply of bread and water, just to stay alive.

So most people, I understand, it's not the money, it's what it can get for you. Well, what does it get for you? It gets you some kind of earthly pleasure. Whether by buying the clothes, the fancy suit, the fine house, the fast car, the lifestyle, it's the lifestyle of pleasure of self-seeking pleasure. That's what we're at here, earthly pleasure. And so, covetousness then is an over eager desire for the things of this world. It's a lusting after either what God has forbidden, that's just straight out sin or what God has not provided for you. I mean, do you really believe that everything you have has come to you as a gift from God? Well, that's what it says in James, right? Every gift has come to you from God, right? Well then, do you believe the corollary to that, that everything you don't have has come to you from God, or has not come to you because of God? God did not want you to have it up to that point. God is able to do anything. He can snap a finger and do anything for you.

If he has not chosen to make you filthy rich, it's because he doesn't want you to be filthy. And so, God is putting a boundary around you and in Psalm 16 David says, "the boundary lines in have fallen for me in pleasant places." And so, you just are happy within what God has provided. But a covetous heart is constantly looking at his neighbor's house, his neighbor's wife, his neighbor's man servants or maid servants and all that, and violating the 10th Commandment, wanting something that God hasn't provided.

Now, it's a requirement for elders that they not be covetous. 1 Timothy 3:3, not given to drunkenness, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. Not a lover of money, same Greek. 1 Peter 5:2, "Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers, not because you must, but because you are willing as God wants you to be, not greedy for money, but eager to serve."

But it's also for all of us, that we would not be lovers of money. That you would keep your conversation, your daily life, the way you live your life free from consumption, free from idolatry, covetousness. And so, we have this warning to the rich, 1 Timothy 6:9-10 says, "People who want to get rich fall into temptation and into a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money have wandered away from the faith and have pierced themselves with many griefs." Now, you've probably heard a version of that before, right? Money is the root of all evil. You ever heard that? So, I want to correct two errors concerning that, alright?

First and less significant is the exact phraseology. It is not money is the root of all evil, it is the love of money that is the root of all sorts or categories types of evil. That's the lesser error. The greater error is that it's not a problem for you, that you don't actually struggle with covetousness. It's not really a problem, it's for those other people, that's the greater error, and the more dangerous of the two. For you to say, "I have no love of money, it's not a problem for me, I'm completely free from that, I'm not a materialist. I don't live for possessions." Do not say that. But rather take seriously these warnings.

Some time ago, I was in the house of a church leader, not our church, it was somebody that we had met and it was a very, very, very, nice home. And I was looking at through a stack of magazines and I came across one I had never seen before, Connoisseur Magazine. So I was interested in Connoisseur Magazine. Maybe some of you have a subscription, please don't come and tell me you have a subscription to Connoisseur Magazine. What is it? It's the best of the best of all the stuff there is in any category there is. So there were articles in this particular magazine, there were articles on kitchen cutlery. I mean, there was like an $825 knife, kitchen knife. I'm thinking, "Oh my goodness." First of all, I'm kind of used to a dull knife, anyway. I'd probably cut right through my hand with the first swipe. I'm holding a tomato and it's going on, swish, right through. It was made in Japan with the highest quality Japanese Samurai steel or something like that, $800 and whatever it was. I thought, "Oh my goodness." Then I flipped the pages, and there was article on Italian shoes, men shoes, or English bespoke suits that are of the best quality, the best vacation packages.

Now, if you'd been in the home of a church leader and seen a Playboy, would it have bothered you? I would hope so. Should that magazines being there, bother me? Even worse, why was I so interested in it? Why was it so alluring to read it. I was interested in every article, all of them. There was an article on fine red sports cars. Captured my attention for a while. The fact of the matter is, this is a blind spot for the American church, it's dangerous. The ground of a certain man produced a rich harvest, because the harvest was too big for his existing barns, he said, "I don't know what I'm going to do. Oh, I have an idea, I'll tear down my barns and I'll build even bigger barns and then I'll have stuff for years to come, and I'll say to my soul, soul, you have stuff laid up for years to come." Then the Word comes down from Heaven, "you fool, this very night your soul will be required of you. Now, who's going to get all the stuff you've laid up for yourself?”

what I have... The idea I have here, is not build bigger barns or build bigger vats, let's build bigger diameter pipes and let the stuff flow right through us. There's nothing wrong with earning lots of money, there's something wrong with it accumulating all in one place, does that make sense? And so, let's keep our lives free from the love of money and let's be content with what we have. Jeremiah Burroughs said that contentment is a sweet, quiet, settled inward disposition of the soul that rests in God's providence for the soul. It's a heart work, contentment is, and you're saying what God has given to me as the song says, is more than enough for me. I have enough, I have plenty, I don't need any more. And so, if you have enough to eat, and enough to wear and basic provisions and that plus contentment, you are rich, according to Scripture.

Contentment's way better than money, isn't it? I mean, it travels easily, right? I mean, no one can steal it from you, it's secure. And so, therefore, we could just go right over into the statement. Because I'm content in Jesus and in the promises of God, "the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid, what can man do to me?" Well, frankly, man can do a lot to me. I mean, really, he can. He can insult me, he can persecute me, he can take my possessions, he can beat my body, he can imprison me and take away my freedom and then he can kill me. So that's actually a lot. Do you think the author of Hebrews is not aware of all the things that man could do? Oh, he knew very well what man could do. What is he saying? He's saying, compared to the riches we have stored up in heaven, of forgiveness in Christ and rich abundance stored up treasure in Heaven, where moth and rust cannot destroy, and thieves cannot break in and steal, what can man do to take away my peace with God? What can man do to take away my justification and my forgiveness?

What can man do to take away the indwelling Holy Spirit and what can man do to take away my contentment in the promises of God? If that's taken away, man didn't take it from me, I gave it away. And so, the Scripture just stands and defeats these two great idols, sex and money. How stands it with your soul? Are you battling these idols? Are you in Christ? And are you going to the promises of God and getting the strength you need to fight these battles and not live for sex and live for money? And be freed up to a whole radical different kind of lifestyle, where you are open to anything God calls you to do and serve him in radical ways. Like going on a mission trip. We're going to have a chance in a few moments to commission a mission trip. Just be free, open-handed with your money, be pure in your mind, be healthy in your marriage and be open-handed with your money. That's what the text is saying to us today. Close with me in prayer.

As we come to Hebrews 13:1-3, we've turned a corner, and we are in the final stretch of the book of Hebrews and as many New Testament epistles, we see a series of practical applications of the doctrine that we've learned in 12 chapters now in Hebrews. We're being told simply put how we should live as a result of these things. And how beautiful is that the ethics of Christianity, the rights and wrongs of how we should walk and live as Christians, and how solid is the foundation under the feet of all of those commands. How beautiful is that? Not a mere ethical system of "Do this" and "do that." Think about Poor Richard's Almanack published by Ben Franklin in which we're being told a penny saved is a penny earned, a stitch in time saves nine, that kind of thing. Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise, all that kind of stuff.

But never asking why should we be healthy, wealthy and wise? What are we really here for in life? Why should I try to save nine stitches? I want to ask more questions about all this. Christianity doesn't suffer from that. The usual procedure in these New Testament epistles give us this beautiful doctrine of the Gospel. The doctrine of Christ crucified of all that it means of a Holy God and His perfect law and we as transgressors, as wretched sinners who have no claim on God, and who must have mercy and grace or we will be lost and God providing salvation for us in Jesus Christ. And how Christ the son of God, son of man died in our place, shedding his blood for our sins, rose again on the third day. And this Gospel message, this series of teachings about Jesus is the key to my salvation. That if I believe these things I will be forgiven, I am forgiven.

And I can now, because Christ is raised from the dead, has been raised from the dead, I can walk in newness of life. I can live a new life. And out of that flows the ethics, you see that in the book of Romans, you get 11 chapters of doctrine, weighty doctrine, and then five chapters of practical applications. You see it in Ephesians, three chapters of weighty doctrine and if then this is the situation, then how should we live up to the calling we have received? Three chapters of doctrinal application. Now we have it in Hebrews as well.

And we have these first three statements, "Keep on loving each other as brothers", speaking of brotherly love. And then the issue of hospitality, "Do not forget to entertain strangers for by so doing, some have entertained angels without knowing it." I bet you're eager for that one. Okay? We'll find out what that means or take a shot at it anyway. And then in 13:3, "Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering." So we see a flow from Chapter 12 into Chapter 13. Last week, we had very strongly emphasized that vertical dimension of our lives. God as a consuming fire, having spoken words to us through Jesus Christ, the one who speaks to us from Heaven, Christ. He descended from Heaven to speak the gospel to us.

And God having given us the gift of faith so that we can hear those heavenly words. We are therefore in the process of and some day will receive a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And therefore, we ought to be thankful. And if we are thankful, we will worship. Greek word can be serve. We will serve this God who is a consuming fire, with piety, with reverence, with awe. And so we go right from that into brotherly love. Do you see it? In 13:1. And so, Christianity teaches ethics in this way, because God has loved you like this, you should love one another. And many of the things in Chapter 13 are all about that horizontal relating that we have toward one another, right away in Verse One.

And so the vertical feeds the horizontal or to use a kind of an agricultural image Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. And as Jesus has done all of this to us, He is the conduit, the pipeline of the power and ability to love horizontally because Christ has loved us so we must love one another. That's how it works.

And so we have this beautiful ethical system that flows immediately in verse 1 into brotherly love. Brotherly love, keep on loving each other as brothers. Think about it, this morning as I was thinking in the pew, just coming up here. Psalm 16, I love Psalm 16, there's so much in there. That's the resurrection psalm. How the Lord did not let Christ see decay. Earlier in that psalm, it talks about... This one statement says, "As for the saints, the holy ones, who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight." This is an amazing statement. David says, "I really love being with the people of God. I really enjoy being with the brothers and sisters in Christ."

Now, I can tell you that was not always so for me. If I can just give you a personal testimony about that. The brothers and sisters freaked me out frankly for a while. In my unregenerate days, they seemed weird. I went to one Campus Crusade for Christ meeting on Friday, and that was enough for me in my unregenerate state. And then, when Steve, the guy in my fraternity kept trying to lead me to Christ. "Hey, would you like to... " in effect, "go back and be with those people again?" that was an easy one for me. "No." I had no interest in fellowship with them. And then, when he invited me to the retreat at which I gave my life to Christ, one of the biggest deterring factors was that I would have to spend a whole weekend with these people. And they were just weird to me. The reality was that I was weird, I wasn't living like there was a God on His throne, who sent His son, who died for me. That was weird. And at that retreat that weekend, I became healthy for the first time in my life, I was saved, I was forgiven of my sins. And what God gave me, He gave me so much that weekend, so many blessings, and I'm still unpacking them all. I'm still unpacking the fullness and richness of that forgiveness every day to know I am forgiven. Every day. But one of the gifts that he gave me was all of you and even though I haven't met you yet and not just you, but a multitude from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation, most of them I won't meet in this life, but they are an eternal treasure for me and for you.

Now, we don't always even now feel that way, do we? Now, let's be honest. We don't always feel like the brothers and sisters, the saints in the land or the glorious ones in whom is all my delight. But we know that we are heading to a place where both we and they will be healed from what it is that causes us to hesitate. Our sin nature, our selfishness that causes us to fragment and pull back from each other, so we really don't love each other, we don't forgive each other and we really do sin against each other. Friends, that's all temporary. We're going to a place where that will never happen again. And we will delight in one another. And so, we're told here in 13:1. "Keep on loving each other as brothers" or "let brotherly love continue."

Now, the word for brotherly love is probably, I would say, one of the most famous Greek words. It's the word Philadelphia from which we get the city of brotherly love, and that's what it means. So let this brotherly love continue. What is this brotherly love, what do we mean by it? Well, we don't believe what those that are liberal in their theology that don't believe in the inerrancy or the perfection of God's word would say back a hundred plus years ago, the doctrine of the fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of man. And what that means is we're all brothers with one another because we're all human.

Now, we as Christians know very well that we are all descended from one man, Adam. That God made the whole human race out of one man and his wife. And actually that happened twice because it happened with the flood too. We're all descended from Noah, as well. But we don't deny that, but that I don't think that's what this means. This is referring to the family of believers, in Jesus Christ, that we have a genuine love for fellow believers in Christ. And many verses speak of this wonderful family of faith. Think about in John Chapter 1 where it talks about Jesus, the word who became flesh. And it says He came to His own, His own people and His own did not receive Him, they didn't welcome him. But as many as did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. Children who are not born in the natural way, they're not born by natural biological processes, but they're born by God, born of God.

So we, who have received Christ as God in the flesh, died for us, etcetera. We have been given the privilege of becoming adopted sons and daughters of the living God, but we're not the only ones that's all, we're in a big family. God's done a glorious work all over the world, and we're in this huge family.

Another time in Matthew Chapter 12, Jesus was ministering miracles, doing all kinds of things and the word got to Mary and to his brother. Jesus had half-brothers basically, same mother different father, Joseph. That Jesus was insane. And it seemed like Mary and his brothers at least in part, believed it because they came to take charge of Jesus. I think that's an interesting moment, don't you think? Coming to take charge of Jesus, how do you do that? And so, word came. "Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you." Jesus just went right on ministering and he said, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?" Pointing to his disciples He said, "Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother."

So there you have two definitions of this family that we're talking about here, as many as received Christ, to those who believe in His name, that's the family or as Jesus put it, anyone who does the will of His Father in Heaven, it's the same thing. 1 John 3, "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are." Much of the Book of 1 John, is about the horizontal relating to the other brothers and sisters in Christ.

Just in the book we're studying here, Hebrews in 2:11 speaks of the incarnation, Jesus taking on human flesh, taking on a human body and the human nature, and says both the one who makes men holy, that's Jesus, and those who are made holy by Him, that's us, are of the same family, so he is "not ashamed to call them brothers," it says. And then in the very next chapter 3:1, it says "Therefore holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling." So we've already been introduced to this concept in Hebrews. So by faith in the Son of God, we are all made partakers of the divine nature, we are adopted into a glorious family. Christ established it at his incarnation, he paid for it in blood at his crucifixion. And by his resurrection he showed the consummation of it, when we will receive that same resurrection body and be perfectly united in a vast family of God. And the Book of Revelation says it's a big number, big number. It's a multitude greater than anyone could count, from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation.

All of us dressed in white robes and having palm branches and celebrating our salvation in the same way. It's an awesome family of God. You are not alone, you may feel lonely, from time to time, but you are not alone in this world. And so, he settled every individual true believer in Christ into this vast family. And he commanded that we share all these things in common in Christ, and so he gave us a clear command, "A new command I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you, so you must love one another." Now, what's new about that is the "as I have loved you" part. Jesus, his incarnation, his servant heart toward people who came and interrupted his day and immediately would get up and go with Jairus or go with the Roman centurion or go with whoever... I mean Jesus was the most interruptible and yet effective person ever. Three years of perfect interpretability and he never failed to achieve his mission and what he had to do that day. That's amazing. But that's Jesus and his horizontal love and his commitment to others, he showed us how to love. But ultimately, dear friends, at the cross, I've showed you how to love one another.

"Greater love is this that no one has this, that a man lay down his life for his friends, and you are my friends…" And so there is that bond that we have. This is the command "that you love one another as I have loved you, so you must love one another." And he also gave in effect the world permission to judge us to see if we are genuine followers of Christ by this love. This is a genuine Christian church if we love one another. If outsiders come in, "by this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." So, if outsiders come in and observe in effect, the verse gives them permission to say Christian church or not, based on their experience of our love for each other.

John put it this way, 1 John 3:14. "We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death." It says another place you are deceiving yourself if you say you love God, but you hate your brother. Now, by His spirit, we're able to do this. We can't do this naturally, this is a supernatural work. And really, the problem is two fold, it's got to do with what others do that make themselves difficult to love and it's what's going on in our own heart that makes it difficult for us to love them. It's a two-way street. And so the new nature He's given us, that transformed nature that we have in Christ enables us to do this. And so also the power of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is love.

And so by the Spirit, we can love one another. Now, the command here, is "Let brotherly love continue." It's already going on, we're talking about this morning, Andy, and Eric, and I. It's in Thessalonians. I think. You are loving the brothers, one another. Now we ask you and urge you to do it more and more. It's the same idea here. It's already begun, if it weren't, you wouldn't be a real Christian church, but you are a real Christian church, you are genuine followers of Christ, you are loving each other. But let it continue. Don't let it get derailed. And it must continue. It must continue to flourish and actually, must grow and increase. Many of us, especially those that are excited about church history, we look back with almost a spirit-filled nostalgia at what it was like in the first century, in Acts Chapter 2 and Acts Chapter 4, what that early local church was like.

At the end of... After Peter's incredible Pentecost sermon and there's this whole harvest of 3000. And they just come flowing into the church and then the life is described in Acts 2, "All the believers were together and had everything in common, selling their possessions and goods they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread together in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people and the Lord was adding to their number daily, those who were being saved." How about that guys? Does that sound good? FBC. Oh God, bring it.

Same thing in Chapter 4, we have the exact same idea. "All the believers were one in heart and mind, no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power, the Apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them for, from time to time, those who own lands or houses, sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet and was distributed to anyone as he had need." Even in this book, we have evidence of this kind of fruitful fellowship, this committed fellowship in Chapter 10. You could go back one page maybe in your Bible. 10:33-34 talked about the time of persecution, it was a time of persecution, and it said, "You stood side by side with those who are so treated. You sympathize with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property because you knew that you had better and lasting possessions." And we'll talk about this more in the third point of the sermon. But you loved each other and you cared about each other and sympathize and stood with each other. This supernatural brotherly love, must continue.

Now, why might it not continue? Well, it might not continue because the world, the flesh and the devil assaulted daily. It's like driving with the parking brake on, all of the time. I was in a vehicle recently and it was another vehicle one I'm not used to, and we were stopping at rest stops, and as I was making a long trip and I kept forgetting to take the parking brake off and having trouble accelerating and we weren't coasting well. It was actually my mother's car, and she said, "You need to take the parking brake... " It will happen again, and again. I think it's just that I'm not used to using the parking brake, and so I just would forget. But I think that's what it's like for us as we try to love each other. The parking brake is on, and the flesh holds us back and we're assaulted all the time by temptations, and worldliness, and all kinds of stuff that tells us to celebrate me and make us ourselves the number one thing. Materialism comes in and assault, and all of those things make brotherly love, a challenge.

But we're urged here, commanded here, to let it continue. So practically, what can we do about that here at this church? Well, first, just understand that this is a gift, a birthright of being born again. We get to do this, not we have to do this, we get to do this. Alternative is so horrible, it's what the world is doing, the factions and divisions, and fighting and fleshliness out there. We are given the gift of each other, deep, sweet fellowship. And I think I can say just in that 14 years I've been in this church, FBC is a far sweeter fellowship now than when I first got here. Just marking time not speaking of causality, but just as I've observed, just as the word of God is flourishing and moving and flowing in this church, fellowship is better and better and better.

But I know I can get better still and I yearn for that. I want us to love each other more and grow in devotion to one another. I want us to develop a kind of a spiritual eyesight in each other's lives materially, and spiritually, those two great eyesights. I want us to look at each other, materially, physically, and look for needs. I want us to see it and notice it. I'm up on the eyesight because in 1 John 3, it says, "If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can he say the love of God is in him?" Let's not love merely in words, but in actions and in truth. So it's an eyesight.

Think about the parable of the Good Samaritan and how this man is beaten and left for dead by the side of the road, bleeding by the side of the road and the priest comes by and Jesus makes it a point to say he saw him and passed by on the other side, and then Levi comes and he saw him. Look it up, read it again. I checked it this morning. He saw him and passed by on the other side. Jesus is very plain about this, but then the Good Samaritan comes and he sees him and goes over to help him.

So, it's noticing it's seeing the needs, the physical needs. And they're varied. It could be financial, it could be health issues, whatever is assaulting the life, the physical material life of our brothers and sisters in Christ should matter to us. How much more than the spiritual side? And again, there's a sight in 1 John, there's a sight. If anyone sees his brother commit a sin not leading to death, he should pray for him. Again, you have to see what's going on and know what's happening. Hebrews has given us this already in Hebrews 3, 12, and 13. "See to it brothers that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness."

You have to develop a close relationship with people to be able to say, "Hey, I think you're being hardened by sin's deceitfulness right now." But I just want you to develop spiritual eyesight for the material needs of your brothers and sisters and their spiritual needs, brothers and sisters and minister to them. So let's serve one another. Let's use home fellowships. I know we're in a break in the summer, but the elders, I know at least in part intent that some of the freed up time be for hospitality and other ways that we can get to know each other and build each other up. But home fellowships are a big part of how we can love one another. Charles Nevin talks about the Ministry of the Pew. And what that means is just make wherever you sit, on Sunday morning, just a center of ministry. It's like, "Well, how do you do that?"

Just by being alert, by being aware. Look around. Look around at who's with you, who's near you, walk over and talk to people, minister to them especially, I'm going to talk about this in just a moment, but draw in the outsider, the stranger, draw them in. Somebody that's a little quieter, it may be a member of the church, maybe for years, a little bit quieter, maybe not so socially outgoing. Draw them in. There's just that loving. The Deacon Benevolence Fund, be generous. There are material needs in this church, and that's our version of selling possessions and goods and putting at the apostles' feet, distribute it to anyone as he had need. Many of those that have material needs don't want you to know that they have material needs.

And so they come quietly to the leadership of the church, and ask if there's some ways that we can help. And the Deacon Benevolence Fund is how we help. So we do that whenever we have the Lord's Supper. I'm probably going out on a limb here, but probably not. You could do it when we're not having Lord's Supper. If you write on the check, Deacon Benevolence Fund, it'll get there. So you could do it any time. But those kind of ministries you know, we just recently had two babies. The Meal Baby Ministry that the ladies in the church organize is huge and it's not just for babies, but sometimes for major surgeries. I know when Christy was recovering, just to deliver my family from my cooking. I can follow a recipe, but you know. It is good, it was just a blessing and just the freedom of having that. But it's more than just a meal, you know that there's love behind it. There's love behind it and then there's a challenge of getting the dishes back to everyone, the appropriate dishes, that they get all their dishes back. But the joy that that draws us together, there's more I could say but I want to keep going.

Secondly, hospitality. By the way, the image I have of Hebrews 13 is... Do you ever go to Applebee's and have the appetizer sampler as a dinner? Maybe you've never done that. I like doing that. I just have the various appetizer sampler things. Do a little hamburgers and a little mozzarella sticks and then whatever the third thing, the buffalo wings. You see, you do that. Yeah, and that's dinner. Or maybe you just do that and then get dinner. I won't ask at any rate. But yeah, we can't fully develop any of these things. This would be 17, 18, 19 sermons. So that's just a little sampler, quick hitters of Christian ethics. Does that makes sense? The second one is the issue of hospitality. "Do not forget to entertain strangers for by so doing, some have entertained angels without knowing it." He urges them not to forget to do it.

This is love for strangers is that the common translation is just the issue of hospitality, expressing hospitality. So the stranger may not necessarily be a stranger to you but an outsider let's say from your family, so it could involve, even a brother, sister in Christ, but who's not a family member, that's hospitality. You're drawing them into your family circle, or it could be us as a church drawing in those who are parts of the body of Christ, believers in Jesus but not part of our fellowship. Drawing them in, they're outsiders to us, we might not even know them but they're brothers and sisters in Christ.

And then I think thirdly, it even involves those who are outside of Christ himself. So those would be strangers who come into our worship service, who aren't believers. Or those just in life, those that are not yet part of our fellowship. But specifically because of the hospitality picture, you may have the image of 1 Corinthians 14, an outsider coming into your worship service and no one knows them. And it says, "Do not forget to show hospitality or entertain strangers." Literally to love the stranger here. Easy to forget it because it's burdensome, it causes you to get up out of yourself. You got to use those commodities time, energy, money, that are so precious and the flesh hoards to be generous and give of yourself to the outsider, and that makes it a challenge.

And so, the strangers the Lord wants us to entertain are I think in those concentric circles. Our own church members into our own families, our homes. And secondly, Christians who are not part of our local church when they come to town. So you get this in 3 John 5-8, where it talked about traveling, really traveling Evangelists or missionaries. They go from place to place and they went out receiving no help from the Pagans and it was the job of the church to show them hospitality and send them off in a manner worthy of the Lord. So give them a place to stay, give them a base of operations. 3 John 5-8.

And so that's that kind of thing. So practically, for us at FBC it's a matter of ministering to missionaries that are on furlough or other Christian workers who are in the community and showing them hospitality, bringing them in, either having them stay at our homes or making sure that all of their needs are met, those kinds of things is in view here. Jesus says very strongly in this. "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was a stranger and you invited me in." So let's go back to the Ministry of the Pew. It's Sunday morning, service is over. You just look around, you just know in your mind you're going to budget an extra 20 minutes here at the church, or longer to practice hospitality. You're going to reach out to someone you don't know. Somebody outside of your circle and you're going to draw them into your life. Maybe you're going out to lunch with a few people here from FBC, you're going to bring them with you. And maybe they're lost, they don't know Jesus, and you're going to bring them in and you're going to welcome them into your heart, and into your life. You're going to draw them in.

Entertaining Angels?

Now, what is this reference to angels? Well, I think simply, biblically in my opinion, I think the home base of this is Genesis 18 when you remember, Abraham was sitting there in the tent in the heat of the day and three strangers come to him and he jumps up and does what I think he would have done in any situation. I don't think this was new. He was hospitable, and so he and Sarah and their household provided a really lavish meal for these strangers, cared for them. But it turned out it was the I think the angel of the Lord who is the one who reveals that a year from that time, Sarah will hold a child in her arms. That was when she overheard and laughed in the tent.

And then the other two seem to be angels too, the very ones that go down to Lot in Gomorrah, to rescue him and get him out. And so I think that's the home base of this statement. Now, angels we've already been introduced to in Chapter one in Hebrews 1 are ministering spirits sent to serve those who inherit salvation. They're spirits, they're not physical, but they can at least it seems in this case, pull it off enough to appear to be normal people. You remember at the time of the resurrection, when Mary was there and there were two young men dressed in white, you remember that? And she thought they were just workers there in the garden, and she was asking where they had put the Lord, the dead body of Jesus. And so angels can take on that appearance. Other times like in Daniel Chapter 10, that angel comes to Daniel so glorious and so overpowering that Daniel is on his face, breathless and is unable to do anything. Just radiant with glory. His appearance is like lightning, his face like the sun and all that, that's an angel.

So they can do all of that. So now you're thinking, "Alright, is this a regular occurrence?" I have no idea. I know it's at least possible here. I don't think it's common. I'm not going to go all Frank Peretti here and we're going to see an angel behind every bush or every encounter. If you don't know who he is, get the books and read them. You will never be the same again. But I'm not saying that, but the point here, it's an interesting motivation. We don't always know what heaven's doing. You're not always aware of what's going on in the spiritual realm and so be hospitable.

And so for us as elders, we think this is a major point of application, starting with the elders. It's part of the requirement of being an elder, that you be hospitable. It's in both 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. And it makes sense, the more you think about it. So much of Christian discipleship is not merely taught, but also caught. I would say everything that's caught is also taught. I don't think there's anything you catch that there aren't words about, but there are just some things like Be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love. It's good to have the words and then see how someone does it.

And also he's told, the elders told in 1 Timothy 3, that he must manage his family well. Be husband of one wife so there's a focus on the family life. And so there's just so many aspects or elements of family life that you just catch. You can see the way the man carries himself with his wife. Is he a Christ-like Ephesians 5 tender, loving head to his wife or not. And so the idea is that he must be, he should be and therefore he can put that on display. So hospitality is going to be big for the elders, but I would just urge that it's a church-wide practice that we be generous, that we open our homes and that we practice hospitality and that we entertain strangers. It's vital in the Christian life. I think home fellowships, again, is a big part of this. I just want to take a minute and thank those of you that practice hospitality as the backbone of our Home Fellowship Ministry. It's a huge undertaking and I know it's a challenge and you folks bear it well. It says in 1 Peter 4, offer hospitality without grumbling. Okay?

I want you all to know that this is, it's a challenge to have you here, but we're happy to do it. Yeah, I'm seeing that happiness, feeling that happiness right there. Look, we have received nothing but sweet, generous, lavish hospitality all of the home fellowships we've been to. And I just want to say thank you to those of you that have done that for us again and again, but it's foundation, willingness to do it. So I think it's vital. And I just want to urge that our church like through the Host Ministry, they do a great job of initial welcoming. You want to be part of that, be part of that. So there was a time that you could come in certain doors of this building, there was no one there. I actually had some people wonder if we were having church today. Well, we are. But it was just a spur to us to get something like what we have now, the Host Ministry, going. And it's been beautiful to see it develop, and you may have a heart for that. But you don't have to join that ministry to just be aware of strangers here on Sunday mornings.

And then finally it says, "Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoner." Prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering. Well, again, like the previous verse, the idea here is one of remembering. That we would remember people who are in prison. It's so easy to forget people who are going through suffering that you're not going through. I think that's the pressure of this verse. It's easy to forget people who are suffering in ways you're not suffering. And for you to say "at least it's not me" is wrong, it's not a Christian.

And so the focus here is on prison. And I think first and foremost the home base of this verse are those Christians who are incarcerated for their faith. I think that's the home base of this because earlier in Chapter 10, it says as we mentioned earlier, "Remember those earlier days after you'd received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering, sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution and at other times you stood side by side with those who are so treated." Listen to this: "You sympathize with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions."

So what it meant, and I mentioned it at the time, I think that the magistrates of a city, let's say back in those days, the Roman era, if they were against Christianity and wanted to crush it but they didn't know who the Christians were, they would smoke out the Christians by incarcerating some of them as bait to draw out other Christians who had come feed them because they wouldn't feed the prisoners or care for their medical needs. And so the author here is saying, please don't forget the brothers and sisters that have been arrested and act as though it had happened to you. Golden rule: Do to them what you would have them do to you, if the situation were reversed. I think that's what he's saying here. And so remember them, be faithful to them, pray for them, and meet their physical needs. Like the Philippian jailer did after he was converted. First thing he did was he washed the wounds of Paul and Silas then was baptized and then set a meal in front of them.

Just practically cared for their needs. So the author then want faith encouraged to show genuine Christian love and compassion for those who are in prison. Well, how does that relate to prison ministry in general? I think it could, it very well could. We could look at this verse and say, this isn't just talking about remembering the persecuted, but also just prison ministry in general. I know Chuck Colson and looked to this verse a lot for Prison Fellowship. And so the idea there is that there's some elect people in prison who haven't been brought to faith yet. Let's go lead them to Christ, and then we'll have brother and sisters in prison. And then we'll have to minister them, and delight to minister and then we do Bible studies and all that. I asked Jack Evans, who's been leading our prison ministry. I said, what year did you start? And he said 1975. Can you believe that? 37 years. And he readily assented, and I asked him, and I didn't need to ask, I know his heart, "to God be the glory, right brother?" He said, "Amen." Every week without a fail, 52 weeks a year, 37 years.

Just set Cal Ripken Junior aside, let's just go to prison ministry, alright? That's an incredible streak of faithfulness, and it hasn't been Jack every time. It's a ministry of people that have done that. And so I think it's an awesome ministry that we can have. Recently, I've been convicted on this theme from Romans 15, 30, and 31. I just want to read it to you. You don't have to flip there. But there it says this, Paul is about to go to Jerusalem, he knows in Jerusalem there are people who hate him, and want to kill him. So he says to the church at Rome, "I'm going to bring money to the saints in Jerusalem." This is what he says, "I urge you brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me."

That is very convicting for me. Because at that moment, I realized I was very much like the priest and the Levi walking by so many situations that I didn't care about, because they weren't happening to me. And so I said, alright, clearly what Paul is wanting here is prayer. So by praying for persecuted Christians, you are remembering them. There's more you can do, but let's just start there. Learn about the persecuted church, those who are incarcerated for their faith, those who are in jail right now as though you were their fellow prisoners. House Church pastors in China, Christians in Muslim lands, Christians in Iran we prayed for. Pray for them as though you were a prisoner. Feel like what it would be like to not have the freedom, all the plans you have this afternoon, you don't, you're in prison, you're going anywhere. Feel that and pray for them.

Don't be the priest and the Levites, saying in effect, "Better you than me. There's nothing to do with me." And you just walk by, through prayerlessness. Does that make sense? So secondly, Paul was a church planting trail blazing missionary. He's in a struggle to plant churches. I realized I need to keep active and praying for missions and unreached people group missions in particular, and those who have gone out, pray as though I were their fellow missionaries, I were going through that same struggle as well.

So, I just urge you, every day to go to Voice of the Martyrs and find out something to pray for today, and go to JoshuaProject.net and find some unreached people group or take on one of our missionary units that's reaching unreached people group and pray for them every day as if you were in their struggle with them. And it may be that God has a particular ministry that he has in mind for you, prison ministry, something like that. God may be using this text to call you to there. Let's close in prayer.

This morning as we come to Hebrews 12:25-29 and meditating on this text, I realize we're coming again to the heart of worship, the very heart of worship. We were created to worship God. That's why we were made. That's why missions exist. John Piper tells us that in Let The Nations Be Glad. Missions is temporary; worship is eternal. Missions exist because worship doesn't. Missions goes where people aren't worshipping God, to solve that problem. That's my paraphrase. His words are much better. But anyway. The idea is that there's a darkness over this globe, a darkness of idolatry, of worshipping and serving created things rather than the Creator, who is forever praised. Missions is temporary, however important it is; worship is eternal. Forever we will be praising and worshipping God.

So what are we talking about when we come to the heart of worship? Well, in our text, we have God presented. Almighty God. We're told that he is a consuming fire. He exists. And we have not only Almighty God as a consuming fire, but a God who speaks, who is speaking to us now. God who is revealing himself to us. That's the basis of worship, not out of our own hearts, imaginations, thinking what God is like, crafting an idol in our own hands after our imaginations.

"For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased through the foolishness of the preaching to save those who believe." And so it's not possible for us to craft and think of God rightly out of our own imaginations, and our own philosophies. We must stand in his presence and listen to his word; this God who is a consuming fire. That's the foundation of worship. And then God gives us the grace of faith to believe what he is speaking to us, to believe what he has said to us. The promises of God as the text speaks once more. He has promised not only to shake the earth but also the heavens; the word promise is there. And so fundamental to our worship are the promises of God, and it speaks of a kingdom that cannot be shaken. So, we are promised that if we believe in Jesus, we will receive a kingdom that can never be shaken.

And because of all of that, a God who exists, who created all things by his powerful word, who sustains all things by his powerful word, who is a consuming fire. The God who speaks, and who is speaking right now. And we have been given the grace, the gift of faith, to hear and believe it's actually God speaking to us and not just the voice of a man. That we then, our hearts are drawn up into pure true spiritual worship described in this text as thankfulness and reverence and awe. So a combination of a thankful heart and reverence and awe for God, who has spoken such great promises to us, that's the heart of worship. And in that we are going to be for all eternity; for all eternity in some mysterious way, approaching a God who dwells in unapproachable light, standing in the midst of a God who is a consuming fire, and we are not consumed and just filled with joy and exaltation at what he has done for us and just pouring forth thankfulness.

So I was thinking about thankfulness this morning, and I realized that if I could just obey this text, most of the heart problems of my life would be solved. Seriously, think about it. And I asked my kids as we were driving in this morning... There are some tough rides with dad into church, searching questions, tough questions. Can't we just listen to music, this morning? Some nice hymns or something pretty, but searching questions because I was just thinking about this text and challenged by it. So I asked and I said, "If you just could have a random snapshot of you and an average moment in your week, Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday mornings, Saturday, Sun... Doesn't matter, just average snapshot. At that moment, are you thankful?" Average moment in your life, are you thankful? Convicting.

My answer, probably not. And I certainly know not suitably, not sufficiently thankful for all that's God's given me, for all the wealth, the riches of his promises, for the complete forgiveness of all of my sins, for the promise of a resurrection body and a resurrected new heavens and new earth, a seat at the table with the Almighty God, with the King and with brothers and sisters from every tribe and language and people and nation surrounding me, filled with the same joy; free from all death, and mourning, and crying, and pain. Am I thankful for that? For all that he's done to save me and all that he's yet to do, the good things he's giving me. No, not suitably. And then I was thinking about, "Well, if I were just absolutely filled with thankfulness, what sins would run away like shadows and darkness runs from light?" How could I complain? Complaining would be gone. It's just direct opposite. How can you complain and be thankful? Cannot be.

And so that I would be filled with a heart, a mouth of thankfulness, speaking thankfulness to God and thanking him for all of his blessings and not complaining about whatever is going on in my life that I don't like right now. Complaining would be gone. I think greediness and selfishness would be gone. How could somebody who is genuinely thankful to be anything less than satisfied? I'm just thankful, filled, satisfied. I don't need anything more. God has given me everything I need. Thank you God. I'm satisfied. And so, my lust would be greatly subdued, greatly hindered. They would have little impact on me. Like magnet on wood, I would just be so filled with thankfulness and gratitude.

So this morning, I'm preaching for your faith and mine that as a result of hearing these verses, you would be so filled with a God-saturated thankfulness that these sins will run from you. And I'm also yearning that as a result of that, our times of corporate worship would be rich and full as well. As we do these little dress rehearsals every week for Heaven as we come together every week by the Spirit and unify together and just worship better together than we do alone, that our corporate worship will be better than ever before because we've heard this text this morning. That's my desire.

So as we come to Hebrews 12:25-29, I want to set it in context. We've come immediately from last week, from the contemplation of two mountains, Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. Mount Sinai is described in the Scripture here as a "mountain that can be touched, and it's burning with fire. Darkness, gloom, and stormed, trumpet blast, such a voice speaking words, that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them because they could not bear what was commanded. If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned. The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, "I'm trembling with fear." You've not come to that mountain, mountain of judgment and wrath and condemnation under the law of God. God's law that stood opposed to you, was against you, that condemned you, you've been liberated from it. Jesus took all of those precepts on himself.

All of your sins and the ways that you've violated God's laws, all of the wickedness of your heart and of your life, he took all of that on himself and he died under the wrath of God. And so we've not come to that mountain though we deserve it. We've been liberated from Mount Sinai, liberated from judgment and wrath and condemnation. We are free from it, but instead what have we come to? Hebrews 12:22-24, "But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly. To the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect." You've come to the New Covenant, to Jesus, and to Heaven. That's where you have come, and you've already come there. As I mentioned at the end of my message last week, if you've come to faith in Jesus, you're already there; you're already welcome to worship God in spirit and truth now, already.

Hebrews Is a Book of Warnings

And yet, not yet, because you're told to run a race with endurance right to the end, and so we're not there yet. Already and not yet, both there. So that's the context. Bigger context, as we've said many times, this book is an epistle of warning. It's a word of warning to us. We were warned in Hebrews, and this is the last word of warning in the Book of Hebrews, as far as I can see. So, the author is completing his warning; he's writing to first century Jewish people who had made an outward profession of faith in Christ, but who are under pressure to turn away from Jesus, to forsake Jesus. The point of contact to your life; you don't have to be a first century Jew. 21st century American who's made an outward profession of faith in Christ is enough point of contact for you, because you're under constant pressure to forsake Jesus and go back to an idolatrous lifestyle. And so you need this warning as much as they did. We all need this warning. The warnings do is good. They don't do us any harm.

It doesn't hurt us to be told that our God is a consuming fire; it helps us. And so also we come to this final word of warning, and he says, "See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks." See to it; take it seriously. Look after this issue, but what is the issue? Listen to the one who is speaking to you. This one who has spoken to us and is speaking now. Take it seriously and see to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. So the issue here is the Word of God; we're talking about God, the God who speaks. "He is there and he is not silent" as Francis Shafer told us. God speaks even now. And so the issue is the Word of God; it's how the entire book began. Hebrews 1:1. "In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son."

Jesus is the one who speaks here; he's the one who's talking to us. And this is everything, we must listen to him as he speaks. Hebrews 2:1, "We must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away." So the remedy to drifting away in the Christian life is to listen more carefully to what you've heard. Hebrews 3:7-8 says very plainly there, "So as the Holy Spirit says," maybe intensify a bit. "So as the Holy Spirit is saying to you, 'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." So there's an ongoing listening to the Holy Spirit that is essential to our salvation. You're just going to keep listening to the Holy Spirit as he speaks in Scripture, because it's in quotation, Psalm 95. As you hear him speak in Scripture do not harden your heart.

And then Hebrews 4:13, "For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double edged sword." We are listening now to God speaking to us, and he's speaking the Gospel through Jesus. He's speaking eternal life through Jesus, forgiveness of sins. That you can live forever and ever, sinner, though you may be. Sinner, though you are, you can live forever and ever in the presence of a consuming fire, who is God. That is the good news of the Gospel and he is speaking it to you. He's speaking to you of Mount Zion, and you can go there. You can be with the angels in joyful assembly, hundred million of them. You can be there with the spirits of righteous men who have been made perfect because you're going to be made perfect by the same word. Jesus said in John 13, "You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you." He speaks these words.

Warning: Do Not Refuse the God who is Speaking

So what is he saying here? What's the warning? See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. So this word refuse, it means to turn away. I have in my mind the parable of the king who wanted to prepare a wedding banquet for his son and he sends out messengers, but nobody wants to come to the feast. Nobody wants to come. And the messengers go out and they just go to the highways and byways, and people are making excuses. "Please excuse me, I have a new yoke of oxen and I want to try them out." Well, they better be good oxen to turn away from the Kingdom a seat at the King's banquet table. "I want to try them out. I can't. I'm busy with this. I don't want that." Just refusing, something else is more attractive. Some idle something in this life, more attractive than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. See that you do not refuse him.

Or it could be just outright rebellion. Just refuse, "I will not. I will not become a Christian. I will not believe in Jesus. I will not fall in for all of those things. I refuse to be duped or tricked by any of that." Well see to it that you do not refuse him who speaks, the one who is speaking to you, now. "For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven." Now, he's bringing us in our minds back to the Jews who did stand around Mount Sinai. God came down and warned them at that time concerning the 10 commandments. "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God."

Well soon after that, as you know, they turned away; they refused him who warned them from Earth. And they made a golden calf, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt and they would not enter the promised land, and so their bodies were scattered throughout the desert. They did not escape. Cannot escape. "Where can I flee from your Spirit? "Where can I go from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there…If I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me." Jonah thought to escape, get on a boat and sail to the end of the earth. Sailing to Tarshish to get away from the Lord. It can't be done.

And so there's no way to escape this one who is speaking to us, the one who's speaking the Gospel. There's no way to escape. And they found that there was no way to escape the wrath of God when they refused to obey him who warned them from the earth. They could not escape. God brought the judgment on them.

The "How Much More" Argument: The Old Covenant vs the New Covenant

And we have here in this text a "how much more" argument If they couldn't escape the one who warned them from earth, how much less could we escape the one who warns us from Heaven? Now, God spoke both the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. So I don't think we have Moses versus Jesus here. I think instead it's more of the topic of the covenant. I think the Old Covenant was more earth bound and the New Covenant more heavenly focused. And so if they didn't escape when he warned them concerning their earth bound covenant, how much less when God has promised us infinitely greater riches in this New Covenant; it's a "how much more" argument.

It's a greater covenant, and it's a clearer communication from God, and therefore it puts under obligation, a greater obligation, those who hear such a clear command from God. We have a clear word from God concerning his son Jesus, the life he lived, the death he died, his resurrection on the third day, forgiveness of sins, proclaimed in his name. All you have to do is repent and believe in Jesus, and all of your sins will be forgiven so that no one can boast before him. It's by faith and not by works, a simple message of salvation; a child could understand it. Many children do understand it and believe. It speaks of heaven; it speaks of an eternal life, free from death, mourning, crying, and pain. It's a better word. It's a better gospel. It's a better message, and carries with it a greater obligation. And so that's the, "how much less will we" type argument. If they didn't escape when God was just talking to them about an earthly promised land, and Palestine, and all that, how much less will we now that God has come and opened up Heaven's gates through faith in Jesus.

We will not escape if we refuse this Gospel. There is no other message; there's no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. There's no other way to get to heaven. And it's a sure and certain way. And we will not escape, if we refuse Jesus who's speaking this word to us now saying, "Come unto me, all you who are weary and burdened and I'll give you rest." This heavenly rest, he's speaking it to you. And we will not escape if we turn our backs on him, Jesus, who is speaking this Gospel to us.

"At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, 'Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.'" Here we come to the center piece of our worship and that is the voice of Almighty God. God's voice is awesome. By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made. Think about that. Just by the Word, by the breath of his mouth, all the starry hosts. How awesome is the Word of God, how powerful, and how creative. God speaks and it is. So we have this voice of God and when God spoke such a voice that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken it was an awesome thing, and I think it actually caused the ground to shake under their feet. As God was speaking, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt." The whole ground was shaking under their feet and they were terrified by it.

"At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, 'Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.'" Now here, he's speaking of the second coming of Christ and the end of the world, and notice that he uses the word promised, not threatened, or warned. I find that interesting. For us, it's a delightful thing, isn't it? Are you looking forward to that shaking? Because what comes after the shaking of those things that can be shaken? Well, what cannot be shaken will remain. The kingdom of Christ will remain. That is what can never be shaken; it's a kingdom that will last forever and ever.

And so at that time is voice shook the earth but now he has promised, once more, "I'm going to shake, not only the earth but also the heavens." And so this mighty this awesome voice of the Lord, God is going to shake the heavens and the earth with it. Isaiah 13:13, "Therefore I will make the heavens tremble and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the Lord Almighty, in the day of his burning anger." Verse 27. "The words, 'once more,' indicate the removing of what can be shaken, that is created things, so that what cannot be shaken may remain." Now, we covered this back in Hebrews 1, verses 10-12, there it says, "In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish but you remain. They all wear out like a garment, like a robe they will be changed. You will roll them up like a robe, but you remain the same and your years will never end." Speaking of the future of the created realm that we're so used to, so comfortable with, that five cents world that surrounds us every day.

The world of sight and sound and taste, the world of touch. This world that surrounds us, that were so familiar with, and so comfortable. It is completely temporary, friends. It's hard to imagine, I know, but by faith were told this. Many times too, not once or twice, but we're told again and again, concerning the future of the created realm. It's all going to go away. 2 Peter describes it plainly, 2 Peter 3:10. "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar. The elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare." Later in that same chapter, "That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness."

Revelation 6 describes it too, I think. "I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red, and the stars in the sky fell to earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll, rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, 'Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?'"

What Remains?

So God has promised once more, "I'm going to shake not only the earth but also the heavens." And so, what will remain?  Well, Revelation 21:1, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away." Oh, that's our home, that's our true home. Aren't you longing for it? I long for it more every week. I actually frequently say to you folks, when I see you and before worship starts, "One week closer to heaven. One week closer." A new heaven and a new earth. Yearn for it. This place is not my home. It's not my home. And so, what will remain after all that shaking, after all that shaking that God is going to do? You know what's going to remain? The kingdom of Jesus Christ will remain. That's what's going to remain. Frankly, that's who's being addressed in Hebrews 1.

"They will perish, but you, [Jesus] remain." It's addressing Jesus there. And so also will everyone who has taken refuge under the shadow of his wings. You stand under the shadow of his cross by faith. You come close to him. You come to him all you who are weary and burdened and he will give you not only rest but he will give you refuge when God shakes everything in the universe. And you will remain. You will live forever and ever; you will live eternally unshakable because of Jesus.

So, we are receiving it says in verse 28, a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Amazing grace, this kingdom that cannot be shaken. Again, if I can urge you to consider it, already and not yet. The kingdom is already here, and you can enter it today by faith in Jesus. Just read John 3; read all about it in John 3. Jesus talking to Nicodemus, remember. And Nicodemus wants to make some small talk based on the power of Jesus' fruitful ministry. "We know that you are a man from God because no one could do those works." "Nicodemus, can I just interrupt you and tell you something that you need to know? Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Unless you're born of water and the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God, but if you are born by the Spirit, by the power of the Spirit, you can enter the kingdom of God now." Many of you already have. You entered and you can never leave; you are secure in that kingdom. You've crossed over from death to life, and you are secure and you'll never be shaken.

Jesus said people were entering the kingdom even in his day. Tax collectors, and prostitutes, he said to the scribes and Pharisees, are entering the kingdom ahead of you. They're entering now, by faith already. It's already here, the kingdom is already here; it's in our midst through the Gospel. But yes, the kingdom is also yet to come. And so we pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." The kingdom is coming. And that kingdom is ours. He's giving it to us. Do you see it in the text? You are receiving a kingdom; it's flooding into you now, like just life-giving sap; you the branch and he the vine. The kingdom is just flowing into you. The sovereignty of Jesus flowing into every area of your life. You're taking his yoke upon you and you're submitting to him and delighting in his kingly reign; and the kingdom is just flowing into you like sap, like nourishing sap; it's happening now.

You are receiving a kingdom like that, and you're going to receive it when it comes in all it's fullness and all its glory. Because it says in Matthew 25:31-34, "When the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory, and all the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he'll put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left, and then he will say to those on his right, 'Come you who are blessed. Take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.'"

Friends, that's what we're getting. You get a kingdom. You get a king; you get to be in that kingdom forever, and you're receiving a kingdom it says that cannot be shaken. Why can't it be shaken? Because it's Jesus's kingdom. He is the rock that cannot be shaken. Read about it in Daniel chapter 2. You remember how Nebuchadnezzar had a dream? And he wanted his counselors to tell him what his dream was and then to interpret it for him. Remember he's going to kill them all if they couldn't tell him what his dream was. You remember that chapter. And Daniel comes and stuns everybody and does both; he tells him what the dream was and what it meant. It was a dream of a statue of the head of gold, and chest and arms of silver, belly and thighs of bronze, legs of iron, feet partly iron, partly clay. It represented the flow of world history; one empire after another after another, one empire after another.

But in the midst of all that a rock comes out, cut out, but not by human hands and it strikes the feet of clay, and it smashes that statue and that huge statue becomes... I always imagine at that point like it's made of crystal, just crash. And it's just chaff on the floor and the wind blows it away, without leaving a trace. It's all gone. It's all going to be shaken, and it's all going to go. But the rock that was cut out but not by human hands became a mountain that filled the whole earth. That rock is Jesus; it's a kingdom. In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that cannot be shaken; it cannot be removed. It will last forever and ever. By the end of chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar got the message. His dominion is an eternal dominion. His kingdom can never be removed. And what's so beautiful about that? He's giving it to us. You are receiving this eternal kingdom.

So, since you're getting all that, how about being thankful? Since you're receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, what do you say we spend the rest of our day, thanking him. Let me just add a single letter to that sentence. What do you say we spend the rest of our days thanking him. All of them. I yearn for this and I yearn for the help of the Holy Spirit. Just do nothing but thank God the rest of my life.

Don't you want to be like Paul and Silas in the Philippian jail? Beaten, scourged, whatever, having a horrible day, you've never had a day like that. I've counseled with a lot of you; none of you have had days like that. Okay, you've had some bad days, but not like that. That was a bad day, tough day. But there they are midnight, pitch black, bleeding backs, maybe going to be executed the next day, thanking God. Just thanking him, praising him. Why? because they're receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Or just Daniel facing the edict that if he should pray to any God other than the king that he would be thrown in the lion's den. What does he do? Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed giving thanks to his God just as he had done before. I just... I want to live like that; three times a day get down on my knees and just thank God for my blessings.

want to be richly fully thankful. And in that way, according to the text, I will worship God acceptably. You see that? You see the connection. By being thankful, I will worship God acceptably. That's what acceptable worship is. Now, that word acceptable can snare some of you; you may struggle with it. In the Old Covenant, there were lots of rules and regulations concerning worship. Only the Levites, only the sons of Aaron, only this kind of incense, and only this kind of rhythm to life, and only this type of sacrifice; God prescribed everything. Those days are over; that covenant is obsolete. We worship now in spirit and truth, neither on this place nor in Jerusalem, Jesus said to the woman at the well. We worship in a new way, and so we may struggle with forms of worship. I know that the church has struggled with that from time to time.

But the fact of the matter is the heart of worship in this text is thankfulness, reverence, and awe. That's what the text is about. And so since we're receiving this kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful. And let's worship, it says, with reverence and awe; fear and trembling is almost a sense here. It's the same word used. One of the words is the same word used of Jesus, who was heard because of his reverent submission in Gethsemane. "Not my will, but your will be done." He submitted to this Almighty God. He will never stop being King. He will never stop being God. The seraphim, the holy angels cover their faces in his presence, and so there's a beautiful combination of confident, happy thankfulness, with just the fear and trembling that comes from knowing he is an infinite God. For our God, he says, is a consuming fire.

So the good news that God is a consuming fire. What do you do with that? "Oh, thank you, God, that you are consuming fire." Yes, thank him. Because God is a consuming fire, he will allow no idols in the universe. Says it in Deuteronomy, that the Lord your God will not allow you to worship any idols for the Lord your God is a jealous God, a consuming fire. So it's linked to idols, and he will burn up all the idols in the universe, and there will be only one God in that day. Amen. All the idols will be gone. Read about it in Isaiah 2. All the idols will burn up.

So our God is a consuming fire, meaning he's going to burn up all the idols. Our God is a consuming fire, meaning he's going to weed out of God's kingdom everyone who causes sin and all those people who do evil, and he will burn them with everlasting burnings. This is the teaching of the Bible. It may not be popular, but it is true. There is an eternal hell for those who will not submit to this Gospel. They refuse this Gospel. God is a consuming fire, and the smoke of their torment will rise forever and ever. It is the threatened judgement that Jesus came to deliver us from.

Thirdly, our God is a consuming fire in that he purges and purifies us from all our sins. Amen. We are going to be purged and purified, just like he says of the sons of Levi in Malachi 3. "Who may endure the day of his coming? Who may stand when he appears? For he will be like a refining fire and like a purifying smelter's fire, and then he will have those who will offer up to him righteous sacrifices." That's us, friends, we will be purified and purged of all of our sins and glorified, and we will spend forever worshipping him free from the flesh. So yes, thank God that our God is a consuming fire. God is love. God is light. God is Spirit, and here, God is fire. We just need to know these things. This is the God of the Bible. And he dwells in unapproachable light. So let us be thankful and in this way worship acceptably with reverence and awe.

What application can we take from this? Well, friends come to Christ. Trust in Jesus; believe in him. I've appealed to you, I'm grateful for visitors. I want you all who are not visitors, but members bring lots of visitors. I promise you before God, I will do my best every week to make the Gospel plain and clear if you bring them. But even if you don't bring them they don't have to come here to become Christians; they don't have to come here. Take the gospel, you hear me clearly say, and go out and put it in your own words and say it to them out at the workplace, in the neighborhoods, with your family and friends. Share the Gospel with them; speak to them.

And realize that God is speaking to you now through the Bible. I am completely irrelevant, completely immaterial, doesn't matter the individual; what matters is the truth of the words being spoken. You are the Bereans listening carefully and taking the things I'm saying and weighing them by Scripture. But what is weighed and what is coming from Scripture is the word of Almighty God; it's what God is saying to you. Take God's Word seriously; take it to heart. Repent of sin. Turn away from wickedness; turn away from sin, and follow him. And do not harden your heart to anything he says. Embrace willingly the idea that you know is true by faith that everything you see around you is temporary. Embrace it; it's all temporary, all of it. Your money is temporary; your possessions are temporary, so act accordingly.

Your positions and all the things you run after are not important. They're temporary. What matters is this eternal kingdom that's coming. So live life accordingly. Praise God for the permanence of Christ's kingdom. Amen. It's never going to change. It's permanent; it's forever, and you're going there. You will never be shaken; you're not going to be shaken by the shaking of the entire universe. Think about that. Going to survive Judgment Day. So then I would urge you to be thankful; it's what the text says. I really mean it. Be thankful always. "Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Think right now about times when you commonly complain; just think about it. And bring this text right in like a bright shining light and dispel the darkness of that complaining. What is it? What causes you to complain? Are they aches and pains, bodily problems, body is hurting? Be thankful that some day you're going to have a resurrection body that there'll be no pain. None! Be thankful and speak that pain or you could do this. Say, "Thank you, Jesus, that you went through far greater pains than this for me." Try that. Or "Thank you, Lord, for the martyrs who are willing to be burned at the stake, so that I could have a pure Gospel to believe." Do something like that.

Okay, what about financial troubles, does that cause you to complain? Thank God for the way he's provided for you up to this point, all of the times he's met your needs; for the fact that he is still faithful, that he doesn't bring beyond you what you're able to bear. The fact that you belong to a family of believers, who cares for you and loves you; you're not isolated in the world. That God is faithful. "I was young, and now I'm old, and I've never seen the righteous begging bread," the Psalmist said. Thank God for that.

What causes you to complain? Your spouse. Well, probably not. But in the midst of your family situations, thank God for whatever it is that's troubling you, whatever it is that causes you to not speak words of thankfulness; speak words of thankfulness. Thank God for that person, spouse, parents, children, brothers and sisters, whatever, neighbors. Thank God for everything; bring thankfulness into your circumstance. And worship God acceptably, okay?

This is the second time I have preached on this passage to you, second time in the last year. First time I did a sermon called, "Timeless and Temporary." The reason I preached that sermon out of order is because the elders were desiring to bring a different direction in corporate worship. Since that time, there's been a lot of discussion about corporate worship, specifically music styles, different things like that. Can I urge you to look again at the essence of worship as we've seen in this text here?

The essence of worship is a God who is a consuming fire, who speaks to us by his word, who has given us faith to believe those promises and who is giving us a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and so therefore we should be thankful and worship him with reverence and awe. That's what worship is. So, I would urge you to consider thankfulness when you come in here. When you come into this room to worship every week, be genuinely thankful. Be thankful for God and for these promises. Be thankful for your brothers and sisters in Christ. Be thankful for those that are serving you on the instruments. Thank God for each one. Be thankful for Eric and for how hard he works to do worship in spirit and truth. And I can't even put into words what a joy and a blessing it is to labor with you. Thank you for that solo that almost brought me to tears.

Michael Card, I love Michael Card. But praise God for Eric and how hard he labors to do a quality job. And these folks practice and they do it and labor. And I've used this illustration with a number of you, but fundamentally, when your brother or sister serves you a meal, and even if it's not your favorite, your job is to eat it with thankfulness. Okay? Just eat it with thankfulness because your brothers and sisters are trying to bless you.

And yes, we are trying to please people. I've heard that one. "You're just trying to please people" We're not certainly trying to tick people off by our corporate worship. We're not trying to annoy and irritate people; we want to find a sound that no one will like. We have done it. We have found sounds that no one will like. That's what we do. Everyone's zigging; we're zagging. Were the zag church. You come here, you will hear such sounds as you have never heard before, and they will torture your very being but God is good anyway, and we have... We're not trying to do that, friends, we actually are trying to please people. We are. We are trying to please God ultimately, but it is our desire horizontally, to be a blessing. And the people that practice the music, that pick the music, that write the music, that write the lyrics, and Sarah Bone where are you? I don't know. Thank you for that hymn, beautiful lyrics today with Sarah, our sister in Christ, church member that wrote those lyrics.

We should be thankful horizontally for the brothers and sisters in Christ who are laboring to do the best they can in worship. And if you think a different worship style would be better, I understand that. There are times I think that too. Not every song is my favorite song, but I seek to sing every one with all my might because I want to give thanks to Jesus who shed his blood for me. And the only time we will all perfectly agree with the worship style is up in Heaven when that new song is being sung. Until then, Romans 14, we love one another. We don't bicker or argue with one another; we don't judge each other's motives.

We just trust that God's at work in this church. We don't dread the future, thinking we're going off the cliff. Let's stay faithful to this, and we're not going off any cliff. We're going to keep preaching God's word, and we're going to listen. We believe in iron sharpening iron. We want people to share their concerns. We do. But at the end of the end of the day or the beginning of the day when we come together to worship on Sunday, let's come in here in the spirit of this text and worship in this way, with genuine thankfulness to God for what he's giving us. Let's close in prayer.

You come here every week for corporate worship, and I just want to know how well you know your fellow worshippers. Are you even aware that they exist? I know some of you may be tempted right now to sneak a furtive look around at some others, looking at their faces, reminding yourself who they might be. I don't think it's going to do you any good. The outward appearance can be so deceiving. Clothing, facial expressions, accents, what kind of Bible they are carrying with them, what kind of jewelry they wear, what their tastes are, these things will probably have you barking up the wrong tree. Because frankly, I think that the worshippers, the fellow worshippers I have in mind that I want to point you to right now, can only be seen by faith, because we are surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses, and every week that we come to worship, we're worshipping with them, with thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly with the spirits of righteous men made perfect. We are joined in fellowship with people we can't see. With Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are still alive because God is not the God of the dead, but of the living and they are worshipping God, David is worshipping God now in the presence of almighty God. And we are joined with them in mystical fellowship and corporate worship every single week. Are you even aware that they exist?

And it seems like one of my callings in life as a preacher, a teacher of the Word, is to strengthen your faith, so that you can see into the invisible realms that surround us every moment and to be aware of what's really there but cannot be discerned by the five senses. And this is a perfect text to do it when it comes to the issue of worship. For it says here that you have not come to a mountain that can be touched. But we're coming to the heavenly Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem. You've come to a whole different kind of experience, and it's my desire this morning as a result of studying Hebrews 12:18-24, that you'll have a strong sense of this mystical fellowship that we have, with those that have gone before... Let's say a woman, a believer who lived in the 13th century, who trusted in Jesus and who did good works and put sin to death, and died maybe in the bubonic plague or something like that, and now she's around the throne and worshipping. This great cloud of witnesses. And that we're in fellowship with them, even now, even though we can't see them.

And so, in this text, we are brought to contemplate two different mountains. Mount Zion, and Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai represents the Old Covenant, and Mount Zion represents the New Covenant and our heavenly future. My desire, as I preach through this, is that you will have a strengthened faith, that you will understand the glorious movement that God has brought us through, out of wrath into glory, that we are free forever from the wrath of God and from the law of God, as it can condemn our souls, and that we have been brought over into life forever, and we have a glorious future of corporate worship with an innumerable congregation of saints, the church of the firstborn who are saved by the shed blood of Christ and with myriads of angels.

Now what's the context of this text that you just heard read? Well, the whole book of Hebrews was written to Jewish people who lived in the first century a little after the time of Christ and who had heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As Jewish people, they'd heard it and they came to believe and they came to make an outward profession concerning Jesus as their Messiah and that they were going to be Christians, and they assembled together in Christian churches to worship as Jewish people but they were under tremendous pressure from their Jewish family and friends and relatives and authority figures, to forsake Christ, to turn their backs on Jesus and the New Covenant and go back to the old, familiar ways of Old Covenant Judaism, of synagogue worship, and of animal sacrifice because the temple was still being used at that time.

And so the author to the Book of Hebrews is writing to beg them, to plead with them, not to do this, to not turn away from Christ, but to continue running this Christian race with endurance right to the end, even though it costs them everything to stay close to Christ. So the author's strategy throughout the Book of Hebrews has been to show the absolute supremacy of Jesus Christ, through everything in the Old Covenant, the supremacy of Christ. "In the past, God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways. But in these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe, the Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word, and after He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven."

That's how he begins the book. The supremacy, the greatness of Jesus Christ, He's greater than all the prophets, He's greater than all the angels. He's greater than Moses, who's just a servant in God's house, and Jesus a Son over God's house. He's greater than Abraham, He's greater than Aaron, and the Aaronic priesthood. Greater in every way. And so also, this superior Mediator worked a final, once for all, sacrifice. He shed His blood on the cross so that our guilty consciences could be cleansed. Something that could never be with the blood of bulls and goats, that could never have cleansed our conscience. We could never have been free from a guilty conscience by those endless animal sacrifices, but Jesus had offered for all time, one sacrifice for sins. Having done that, sat down at the right hand of God.

So Jesus is the superior Mediator, who brings in, therefore, a superior covenant, a better covenant, the New Covenant, by which our sins are forgiven. And so, quoting Jeremiah, the author, tells us the components of this New Covenant, "I will forgive their sins, and remember their wickedness no more…" and "I will write my laws in their minds and put them on their hearts. And I will be their God and they will be My people." Those three glorious aspects, complete forgiveness of sins, a total transformation of the heart so that God's laws are written on our hearts, and a perfect fellowship an at-oneness with God so that we are atoned, we are in fellowship with God, reconciled to Him. That's the New Covenant. None of those things came by the blood of bulls and goats. But instead, this is the glorious New Covenant. And that results in a superior life, a life of faith, a life of aliens and strangers, moving through this world, looking for a city that is to come, whose architect and builder is God, looking ahead to something that cannot be found now in this world.

We're living by faith, not by sight, walking by faith and not by sight. We understand this world by faith, and Hebrews 11, just moving through making great sacrifices, winning great victories for God, doing His will, living for His glory, a better life, a life of faith, even if it involves great suffering, wandering around in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground, destitute, persecuted and mistreated, those of whom the world was not worthy, even if it... That kind of life, it's a superior life. It's a life of faith, a life of forgiveness, a life of assurance, a life of fruitfulness. And so the superior mediator, Jesus, brings a superior covenant, resulting in a superior life. And so in Hebrews 12, the author is giving us this call to endurance. You need to run this race with perseverance right to the end.

And so that brings us to this statement. And so we can see how it fits. This is the climax of his appeal, Why in the world would you want to go back to the Mountain of Death, why go backward to the Mountain of Death? All it could do is kill you. Mount Sinai could not bring you life. The law could not bring you life. But you have now come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the city of the living God. So how could you go backward? Do you see the context now, what the author's saying? And so he brings us in our minds, he brings the Jews of the first century, in their minds, back to Mount Sinai, saying, You've not come there but we know what it is. We're thinking about what happened at that time. Mount Sinai in its context, God is bringing the Jewish people out of Egypt, out of bondage. They had been there for 400 years, and He was bringing them out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. By 10 plagues, dreadful plagues, He judged the gods and the people of Egypt.

And He brought them out after the 10th dreadful plague on the firstborn, in which the angel of death went through and only spared the firstborn of the Jews, because the blood of the lamb, of the sacrifice lamb, had been painted on the door. And he saw that and moved over, the clear implication they deserved to die. They were brought out and they went in haste and they were expelled really almost from the land of Egypt and they were brought to the Red Sea, and then God hardened Pharaoh's heart once more, and he pursued them and thought to exterminate them, out of wrath and pride, but God had a judgment, a final judgment for him. God opened up a way through the Red Sea and the people passed through as on dry ground, but when the Egyptians tried to do so they were drowned, all the water came crashing down on their heads. On the other side of the Red Sea, the Jewish nation was sustained by manna from heaven, bread from heaven, and water from a rock, and they were being brought to the mountain where God had given Moses his commission, back to the mountain of God, back to Mount Sinai, where he had seen the burning bush. And He said, This is the sign that you'll know that it's I who is calling you to do this. It's when you bring that nation and they're here to worship me.

So I thought this an interesting sign. In other words, when it's all said and done, you'll know I did it. In the meantime, I'll give you some lesser signs to get you going. But when you see the nation at the bottom of Mount Sinai you'll know I did it. By the way, the same thing is going to happen with us in heaven. When we get to heaven, we'll know He did it. When we are around His throne and seeing Him face-to-face, we will know God did it. And to God be the glory. So they came to Mount Sinai. And it was a different kind of experience with God at that point. A terrifying one. God revealed Himself in terror and judgment, the aroma of judgment, of wrath, of lightning strikes and earthquakes. The terror and the fear of God. That was what He had in mind for the people at that point. And we're brought right there in the text.

It says, "You have not come to a mountain that can be touched." It was a physical mountain, it had rocks, it had elevation, you could climb it. It was an actual mountain that could be touched, and it was burning with fire that day when God came down and descended. It says in Exodus 19:18, Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire and "the smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently." The text speaks of darkness, gloom and storm. Exodus 20:21, it says, "The people remained at a distance while Moses approached the thick darkness, where God was." There's this, this thick and dreadful darkness that descends down. Deuteronomy 4:11, "You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens with black clouds and deep darkness." So you have fire and darkness. It's mysterious, but there it is, there's a sense of that awesome power of God. 2 Samuel 22, "He parted the heavens and came down, dark clouds were under His feet, He mounted the cherubim and flew, He soared on the wings of the wind, He made darkness His canopy around Him. The dark rain clouds of the sky."

And this is strange, the fuller revelation of God, actually it says in 1 John 1:5, "God is light, and in Him, there's no darkness at all," it says, "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not comprehended it." It says in 1 Timothy 6, that God dwells in unapproachable light. Well, I think that's how I put it together. He communicates the unapproachable-ness by the darkness at Mount Sinai, "You can't come close to me. If I don't reveal Myself to you, I'll only be darkness to you, you won't understand Me. You are alienated from Me in your sin." And so the darkness really is a form of judgment. God communicating, "You don't know me. And you will not know Me unless I reveal myself to you." And so one of the plagues was a plague of darkness that came over Egypt, a thick darkness, a darkness that could be felt.

So also in Revelation 16, the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast. And his kingdom was plunged into darkness. It's the judgment of God and it's really just a foretaste of hell, it's a foretaste of hell, of the judgment of God on the damned in hell. Mount Sinai was meant to be a foretaste of judgment and wrath and hell. That's what it was meant to be, without the people being sent there, so they could know what it's like to be under the condemnation and the wrath of God. And so it says in Matthew 8:12, Jesus, speaking these words, "The subjects of the kingdom will be cast outside into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." So it's judgment, and the book of Hebrews adds gloom and storm. So there's a sense of a tempest like a hurricane or a tornado, some kind of a whirlwind. It's all very terrifying, the terrifying power of God against our sinful human race. That's what's being pictured at Mount Sinai.

And it mentions a trumpet blast. Exodus 19:16, "On the morning of the third day, there was thunder and lightning with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, and everyone in the camp trembled." God was clearly going for one thing, I want everyone to be afraid. Everything He was doing there was to make all the people afraid of Him. Exodus 19:19, "And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder Moses spoke and God answered him in thunder." So the trumpet blast was not just one time, signaling everyone to come, it was just a continual thing that just got louder and louder, and it just made the people more and more afraid.

And then the text, our text here in Hebrews 12, mentions a voice speaking out of all of that, there's this voice, the voice of God, voice of almighty God, that the human beings heard with their own ears, they heard the voice of the Creator of the universe. Such a voice, speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken. I thought a lot about that. Do you know that it's on this exact same mountain? I had to do some research on this, but I'm convinced it's true. On this exact same mountain, Elijah fled from Jezebel to go find God, you remember? And he goes there and God's going to reveal Himself. You remember this whole thing? He's in the cave there on the mountain of God. And God comes in some way and creates the sound of a great rushing wind, but God's not in the wind. And then there's this fire, but God's not in the fire. He's in the earthquake, He's not in the earthquake. But when there's this kind of quiet, gentle breeze, then Elijah covers his face and goes out and stands in the presence of God and God begins to talk to him, the still, small voice. Well, that's what God was doing with Elijah on that mountain that day, but He wasn't doing that with the people of God on the day of Mount Sinai. He's not doing the still, small voice, He was doing a terrifying voice, a voice that was so loud and authoritative and scary that everyone wanted to never hear it again.

And as a matter of fact, that's how the whole office of prophet came about for the Jewish nation. Moses went up and stood in God's presence and heard God speaking, and God commended the people, it's one of the rare times He ever says good things about the people. He says. Oh, that's good, I'm glad that they fear me. I wish that they would always fear me, but I'm glad that they fear me now. And so Moses would hear God speak, and go down and tell the people. It's the very thing they pleaded, this terrifying voice of God. And it mentions the command, they couldn't bear the command that was spoken, "If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned." This was the command that God had given to put limits around the base of the mountain, a fence, so that no one could break through and go up on the mountain.

And the command was given, "If anyone does... " Be careful that you don't. Be careful you do not go up on the mountain. But if anyone does, they must be stoned or shot with an arrow, don't touch them." It's almost like somebody being electrocuted, you don't touch them because you'll get killed too. Don't touch them but stone them or shoot them with an arrow, even if it's an animal. It's terrifying. And as a matter of fact, God goes back to it again with Moses, He told him to be sure that the people don't break through and come up. If they did, he would kill them.

The Message of the Old Covenant: Don’t Come Closer

Friends, this is the essence of the Old Covenant. Do you see it? The fence. God attracting, attracting us, because we are created for God, we are created and know Him and walk with Him, and have fellowship with Him, God has made us for Himself and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Him. We want to be with God, even if He's being all-terrifying and everything, He knows we want to go up the mountain, not run from it, screaming. So He said, Put the fence and be sure they don't do it. But the Old Covenant says, you may not come any more... Any closer. He said the same thing to Moses, Take off your sandals," and "do not come any closer." Thanks be to God for the New Covenant, amen. I can't stay in the Old Covenant much longer, guys, it's hard to preach because we're told, "No you're going to die, you're going to be killed," and all that, but in Jesus, there is a new and living way, and we're not just invited, we are commanded to draw near to God. Through that new and living way. But this terrifying command, it's all about what the Old Covenant, it was all about death, these commands produced death, the Old Covenant worked death, that's what it brought.

And the site was so terrifying, it says that even Moses, the mediator of that Old Covenant, was trembling with fear. He was terrified. These, that these Jews might put their hope in, even he was terrified. Why? Because he's a human being and a sinner, and he knew that apart from atoning, the atoning work of God, he also would be incinerated by the wrath of God. And so he was trembling with fear. Now, you're not going to find it in the Old Testament account. The author just tells us. But I don't care where it's found in the Bible, if it's in the Bible it's true, amen. And so he was terrified and trembling with fear, Moses. Imagine just saying that, saying the words. "I am trembling with fear." The fear of God. I am afraid that there are some of you here who are unregenerate, you're lost, and you should fear God more than you do.

I had two witnessing opportunities, as I flew to Louisville this past week. There was a man from, who lived in Cary. I'm not going to give you details, but his name was Mike, worked for a high tech company around here. And we soon got into a conversation about spiritual things, wonder how that happened. But at any rate, we were talking about Christ, and he was interested and a bit bemused, I could tell by the look on his face, I think he found me interesting in a kind of an experimental sort of way. And so he was asking me tough questions, and he came from a spiritual background, he said, but he doesn't go to church much, he married Jewish woman, and they don't do much spiritually, but he tries to be spiritual. His religion, his fundamental religion is, whatever you are, be the best that you can be, be the best Baptist you can be, the best Muslim, you can be, the best Hindu. He didn't say this, but I guess the best atheist you can be, and then God will forgive you whatever, it's universalism based on the best you can be, whatever that means.

We talked for a long time. But he doesn't believe in this God, the God of Mount Sinai, he's not afraid of God at all. He doesn't think He's going to condemn anyone. And I wonder if I'm speaking to some of you that need to fear God, the wrath of God, and flee the wrath of God, flee to Christ, flee to the cross. This God exists, and if you're not in Christ, you will know the real wrath that this wrath at Sinai merely symbolized. There's a real wrath behind the show. You see what I'm saying? Behind the earthquake, behind the lightning, behind, there's a real wrath to come. And it's called hell. And these laws, the laws that came down, could not save you from it. It only ministered death, it was a yoke that neither we nor our fathers were able to bear. Can't do it, we couldn't live it, it couldn't save us. Jesus says, "Has not Moses given you the law, yet not one of you keeps the law." That's the Judge speaking to the nation. That means the law won't save any of you. All of you are condemned by it.

Paul says in Romans 7, "I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death. For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, deceived me, and through the commandment put me to death." Romans 4:15, "The law brings death." That's all. So flee the wrath to come, and embrace the delights of the New Covenant.

What's the author's point? You have not come to that mountain. We've left that behind, we moved on from Mount Sinai, through Jesus, through the finished work of Christ, we left Mount Sinai now. We left the law and its power to condemn us to hell. We've moved on from that. That's the point. Remember that we're done with Sinai and its power to condemn. And instead, we have come to the delights of the New Covenant, look at verses 22 through 24.

"You have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God," these are three names for Mount Zion that he gives us here. Mount Zion, is the heavenly dwelling place of God, of the living God, and he gives us Mount Zion Heavenly Jerusalem, city of the living God. Zion was a name in the Old Testament, for the most part, for Jerusalem. Whenever you see the word Zion, you can just put Jerusalem in there, but occasionally Psalmists would lift the language up to heaven, so Zion then would represent heaven too. And so in Psalm 50, for example, "The Mighty One, God, the Lord, speaks and summons the Earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Out of Zion, perfect and beauty, God shines forth." So that's heaven, Zion is heaven, God shining forth from there.

And so, as throughout the book of Hebrews, Jerusalem, the City of David, that David conquered, the Jebusite city, where then the Ark of the Covenant came and dwelt, and then Solomon built the temple, and all that as a symbol of God's desire to settle down with His people and not live in a movable tent anymore, but even that was just a symbol. Throughout the book of Hebrews, it's all that these symbols are just types and shadows of a reality that's coming. And the reality is heaven, it's the new Jerusalem, it's the heavenly Zion that's coming. And it's glorious.

Paul uses the same kind of analogy in Galatians 4, talking about two mountains, and Mount Sinai represents the children of the slave woman, who are in bondage and slavery under the law, and then Mount Zion represents the woman, the free woman, and we are children of the free woman, and we're not under law anymore, we're under grace. We're not going to be condemned by the law anymore, we're free, free from sin. And so he's saying to the Galatians, why do you want to live like children of the bondwoman? Why do you want to live in slavery to principles and precepts that could not save you? But we are free. This is the city of the living God. This is the desire of the heart of all true pilgrims. We are just aliens and the strangers here passing through, just moving through. And Abraham, it says in Hebrews 11:10, was "looking forward to a city with foundations whose architect and builder is God."

Hebrews 11:16, "They were longing for a better country, a heavenly one, and therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for He has prepared a city for them."

And he gives us descriptions of this heavenly Mount Zion.

"You have come," in verse 22, "to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly." Daniel 7:10 actually gives us the number, 100 million angels. That's a lot of angels. So 100 million. Here it's just, could be translated innumerable, just more than you can count, lots and lots of angels and they're in joyful assembly. That sounds really happy, doesn't it? And that just sounds like they're having a great time worshipping God. They're together in joyful assembly. The assembly is the ecclesia, the joining together, the congregation, the assembly. They're all together, all the angels, and they're worshipping. And their joy is enhanced by being with each other, calling to one another, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord." They just love stirring each other up to worship, the seraphim do, the angels do. And so, also do the redeemed and so there's this huge assembly of worship going on up in heaven.

Wouldn't it be cool to see it right now? We could say like, Elisha, "Lord, open their eyes," and then you'd see it, what's going on.

It speaks of the church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven. Those are the elect, those are the adopted children of God, but they're all called, all of them, firstborn, all of them. What that means is we're all heirs, we're all getting the inheritance. And so we with Abraham, our father Abraham, we are heirs of the world. The meek will inherit the Earth. We're going to get this stuff, so I don't worry about it now. It's getting destroyed and it's groaning and in bondage to decay, and people are fighting over it, non-Christians are fighting over it and all that. Look, just move through because you are an heir and you're going to get it, you're going to get a better, you're going to get a resurrected earth, the new heavens and the new earth, how sweet would that be? But we are inheritors.

Remember how a few passages ago, Esau despised his birthright as firstborn son, gave it away, it meant nothing to him. Oh, that's not us. Does your status as a firstborn child of God mean anything to you? That you are a heir of the world, heir with Christ. Oh, how valuable is that? And this is the church of the firstborn. There's that word church. This is the assembly of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. Do you remember when Jesus sent out the 72 on mission? And they came back and they had done miracles. And they had driven out demons, and that was really, really exciting to them. Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your Name. Boy, let's do more of that. That was exciting. Jesus rejoices through the Holy Spirit but then He corrects them, He said, "I tell you do not rejoice because the demons are subject to you but I'll tell you what to rejoice in, rejoice that your names are written in heaven." Security, assurance, indelible ink, written in the Lamb's Book of Life, church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven, security eternity, the election of God.

You have come not only to that, but to God, the Judge of all mankind. But to you, He is no longer Judge. Now He is Father, He is focus of worship, He is the source of all beauty and life. You've come to be in His presence, and to see His face.

To the spirits of righteous men made perfect. Those are the redeemed who have died, because it's just their spirits here, their bodies are in the grave. They are absent from the body, and they're present with the Lord. It's in the grave, the worms have had their way with the bodies, and they're waiting for the resurrection of the body, but their spirits are up there in heaven.

And what does it say about their spirits? They are made perfect, instantaneous, that's glorification stage one. As soon as a redeemed brother or sister in Christ, as soon as a man or woman of God dies and they're separated from the mortal body, their spirits, their souls, are instantaneously made perfect. And forever they will love what God loves and hate what God hates. They are conformed to Christ in every way, and their struggle with sin is done forever. And they are up there in Heaven and they are praising, praising God, the spirits of righteous men made perfect. How sweet is it? Brothers and sisters in Christ who are free, they've run their race, they finished it and they're in Heaven and they're waiting for you and they're cheering you on. You have come to that. And how sweet is that?

And you have come to Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant. How much do you yearn to see Him? How much do you yearn to tell Him thank you? How much do you yearn to tell Him, Thank you for standing under the wrath of God for me, that's what I deserve and you took my wrath for me? And thank you for the New Covenant that gets me here, thank you for being the mediator of a New Covenant.

You've come to Jesus and to the sprinkled blood, His sprinkled blood, that speaks a better word than animal sacrifice, the blood of Abel. It's effectual. I don't need to go into all that, the author has already done, he's just reminding you of all that you have.

Now here's the interesting thing, the "already and not yet" aspect of Hebrews 12, it's really fascinating to me, I've been thinking about this the last four or five days.

In Hebrews 12, We are told at the very beginning. Since we're surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, what are we supposed to do? Lay off, lay aside every sin that entangles, the burdens that are made and we're told to run, to run a race with endurance. And to fix our eyes on Jesus, and as we're running, we have to be willing to shed our blood rather than sin; and if we don't, if we sin rather than shed our blood, the Lord God our Father will discipline us. Whatever it takes to get us through this race, we need to run with endurance, we need to strengthen feeble arms and weak knees, and help each other run this race. And we are, in Hebrews 12:14, we're supposed to be pursuing holiness. We're running, running, running, running, running, but now we get to verse 18 and following, we come, we come to a static image. You have come. It's a done deal. And you haven't come to the mountain that could be touched, you have come to your destination. That is the "already and the not yet" of end time teaching in the Bible. You already have your destination, your name is already written in the Book Of Life, you're already accepted at the throne to worship Him, you're already welcome there to offer your sacrifice, the fruit of lips that confess His name, you are welcome in the assembly of the righteous, by faith in Jesus. You're already there. You have come to the destination of your soul.

So therefore because of that, run with endurance. Verse 18 begins with a therefore or a so, for, okay, for. The NIV cut it out. Oh, I'm sorry. Put it back in, just write it in there, because you're not actually adding a word to Scripture, which you're not supposed to do in Revelation. But they took it out, which you're not supposed to do in Revelation. So keep it there and just say "for." Okay, so I put verse 14, together with verse 18. Pursue holiness, for you have not come to a mountain that can be touched, but you have come to the heavenly Jerusalem. See, because of who you are already in Jesus, run, run with endurance.

So what does this say to us, how do we apply this? Well, outsiders, come to Christ. I see a third mountain here. Do you see it? You've got Mount Sinai with... I've got a little sketch here. Look at this, isn't this cool? Three mountains, I did that right there in the, in the pew. Can you see it?  Don't nod, Yes, none of you can see that. Alright. First mountain is Mount Sinai. It's got lightning hitting it, it represents wrath. The third Mountain is Mount Zion, it's got radiant bright, shining beams. It represents glory. What mountain goes in between to get us from Sinai to Zion? Well, Mount Calvary. The mountain where Jesus died, where He shed His blood to get you there. Don't leave here without having knelt at that cross, the blood of Jesus cleansing you. I had one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight application points and it's 12:15 and we have the Lord's Supper. I'm insane, but Ryan, you know what it's like, this is the time more for preaching, we talked about it last week.

Simply put... If I can summarize all these things. Know what you already have in Jesus and live accordingly. Do it at the workplace, do it at home, do it when you come here to worship. When you come here to worship, don't notice the color of the paint or the diagrams of the stained glass or comment on the nature of the music, whether it's your favorite song or not. Whether this was too loud or that was too soft or it's your favorite... Friends, get above all of that. Those are just meant to be helps, go up by faith into the heavenly realms and do corporate worship with this great body that's around us all the time. And one application I'm not going to skip is the Lord's Supper. As we partake in the Lord's Supper ask God to give you faith to see the unseen, that this will not be a bare memorial. If you have never trusted in Christ, and testified to it by water baptism, please don't partake. Bible says you'll be eating and drinking judgment on yourself, don't do that, but while you sit and don't partake, I'm asking partake in Jesus by faith. Trust in Him and believe in Him. The rest of you, as the elements are going by, as you're thinking about, just know that your sins are forgiven, that God has worked in you, and allow this ministry to draw us together in one body around the throne. Close with me in prayer.

I can't tell you how excited I am to preach this message. This is something that God has worked in my heart. I preach today about holiness for the glory of God and for your happiness and your fruit.

Some time in early 1662, a Puritan pastor named Thomas Brooks began a sermon series, a new series with these words or these thoughts. "If I were the fittest man in the world to preach a sermon to the whole world, gathered together in one congregation, and if I had some high mountain for my pulpit, from whence I might have a prospect of all the world in my view, and if I were furnished with a voice of brass, a voice as loud as the trumpet of the Archangel that all the world might hear me, I would choose to preach on no other text than Hebrews 12:14." "Wow," I thought as I read those words.

Hebrews 12:14, "Pursue peace with all men and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord." One text. This is an amazing statement. When you think about it, there are over 31,000 verses in the Bible. There are many verses that are far more famous than this one. In my opinion, there are other verses that capture the gospel a little more directly. I don't know that I would choose this one text, but this is what Thomas Brooks said. And what's even more amazing is that he proceeded to preach 58 sermons from this one verse. 58. It's in volume four of the collected works of Thomas Brooks, the entire volume, 400 little font pages, single spaced. 400. 58 sermons is over 13 months of preaching on one verse.

Now, I'm not intending to nail you in one place for the next 13 months. You may be glad to hear that. Maybe you'd want to see if I could actually pull it off. I don't think I could, but the question that's in front of us is, why did this godly man, this veteran preacher, this pastor, think it worthwhile? What did he see in this one verse? What's here that he thought was worth 400 pages and 58 sermons? What can we learn from this text? What does this text say to our souls today? That's the business in front of us. Brooks in his sermon immediately began to answer some of those questions by zeroing in on the salvation of souls. This one verse, being an urgent trumpet call to all who heard him, to make sure that you have salvation, genuine salvation in Jesus Christ. That you are not self-deceived, that you haven't been deceived by the Devil concerning this.

Brooks poured out like molten lava his convictions about this. As you read it your heart is convicted and strengthened. He said this, "The salvation of souls is that which should be first and foremost in a minister's eye and that which should lie closest to a minister's heart. O, beloved friends, our dear Lord Jesus was infinitely tender of souls. He left his father's bosom for souls. He trod the wine press of the wrath of God Almighty for souls. He prayed for souls, he sweated for souls, he bled out his heart's blood for souls. He made himself an offering for souls. And what an overwhelming encouragement this should be to all faithful messengers to plead for souls, to mourn for souls, to study for souls and in preaching to spend and be spent for the salvation of souls." So that's his answer why he thought it was worthwhile to zero in on Hebrews 12:14. 58 sermons.

For us, it's just this one morning, this morning. To look at it and to have it speak to us, to be convicted by it, to look after the health of our souls, to look horizontally at others for the health of their souls, to be concerned for that.

Now, what is commanded in this one verse? Well, look at the words again. The best translation for the first is pursue, we talked about this last week. "Pursue peace with all men and the holiness, without which no one will see the Lord." The word pursue means to chase after something, to hunt it down as a huntsman would his quarry or as a persecutor would the one they're seeking to persecute, frequently translated persecute here, but it's a total focus of the mind and heart on chasing something and going after something. So life focus, pursue it diligently with everything you have.

Pursue what? Well, two things in the text. "Peace with all," it says, "and the holiness, without which no one will see the Lord."

Now, we dealt with peace with all last week. I'm not going to say a word about it this morning. Instead I want to just focus on the rest of it and just connect the word pursue to the rest. Pursue, diligently seek after, chase or hunt down the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. And so we have this idea of pursuing a holiness. What is that holiness, that's going to be very much the message of this sermon. What is the holiness the author has in mind here, and what does it mean without which no one will see the Lord? And this is my simple doctrine from this one verse, there is a personal holiness that comes as a result of diligent effort, diligent striving and pursuit, diligent labor. There is a personal holiness that comes from sincere diligent labor that is absolutely required in order to spend eternity with God in heaven. That's the doctrine. Simply put, there's a holiness you strive for and if you don't have it, you're not going to heaven.

So what is this holiness that we must pursue? Well, first, let's talk about what it is not. The holiness that we must pursue is not the legal holiness that Adam had in the Garden of Eden, by this I mean the holiness that comes from perfectly obeying all of God's commands. This is the legal righteousness that Adam had in the Garden of Eden before he fell. But since he fell, not a single one of his descendants has had it. All of us sinned in Adam, all of us fell in him. Of course, Christ being excepted, who is without sin in every way. But we are sons and daughters of Adam, and we have no legal holiness with which we can stand before God. As it is written, "There is no one righteous. Not even one."

Neither is it the imaginary holiness that secular people think they have that they think will be enough on Judgment Day, when they say, "I'm basically a good person." This kind of holiness. It's not that imaginary holiness, that's based on some arbitrary standard of morality that they mostly keep. Based on their moral achievements, their hard work, their diligence, their frugality, their generosity to the poor, the few hours they gave to the YMCA last summer, it's not based on any of those things. They do not realize the truth of the situation. Proverbs 30 in verse 12, "There are those who are pure in their own eyes, and yet are not cleaned of their filth." How can that be? But it's true, there are some people that are pure in their own eyes, and yet they are filthy in the sight of God.

Revelation 3:17, speaking to church people, "You say, 'I am rich, I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked." Neither is it that outward visible external sanctity of life, free from scandalous vices, filled with religious duties and responsibilities, that characterize frankly, genuinely holy people, such as Job and Zechariah and Elizabeth, so it's said of them that they are blameless in their generation, etcetera. And the apostles who preached to the Thessalonians say, "You can testify how holy blameless we were among you who believe." So it's an outward invisible holiness. I'm going to argue that it's going to be part of that, but that's not enough, it's not sufficient.

Because think of the Scribes and Pharisees that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 23, "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You are like white-washed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. In the same way on the outside you appear to men as righteous, but inside you're full of hypocrisy and wickedness." Now, that's not what Hebrews 12:14 is talking about, that's not the holiness we have to pursue.

Neither is it referring to the set-apartness of the people of God, as they are set apart for his prized possession. That is something that God did with the Jews. It is something he does with the church, it is a beautiful thing, it is a wonderful thing, but that's not what it's talking about here. In Exodus 19, "Out of all nations, you will be my treasured possession, although the whole Earth is mine, you will be for me, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation," set apart under God. Think about how in the Old Covenant, the words "holy to the Lord" are vital to the sacrificial system. Many things, it was even written on those elements, this or that was holy to the Lord. Think about the sacred incense, the holy incense, the recipe for which is in Exodus 30. You can find out what the ingredients are, you can mix them together, you can grind them into a fine powder. But if you did that as a Jew in the Old Covenant you'd be sinning greatly.

Because that incense was to be holy to the Lord, it was set apart for his own personal possession, it wasn't to be used in a common way. That is not what this verse is talking about, although that certainly comes and it's part of God's sovereign action on the church, on individuals, but that's not what this verse is referring to.

And this is the hardest one of all, but if I can say it directly, this is not referring to the imputed righteousness of Christ that comes by faith in Jesus. It's not referring to that. That imputed righteousness is the centerpiece of the Gospel. It is justification righteousness, it's yours by simple faith in Jesus. The Gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile, for in the Gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed, the righteousness that is from faith to faith. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." That is absolute perfect holiness, that is perfect righteousness, that is yours by simple faith in Jesus. Without this holiness, the holiness of imputed righteousness, you have no hope of Heaven at all. But it's not the holiness referred to in this verse. Now, I say without that holiness this holiness will never happen. First, there must be justification holiness, then there must be sanctification holiness, and that's what this verse is talking about.

The imputed righteousness of Christ does not come by labor or effort or striving or chasing or pursuing or any of the verbs that you could use to translate this Greek verb in 12:14. No, as a matter of fact, we're told in Romans 4:3, "What does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness." And it says a few verses later, "However, to the man who does not work, but trusts God… his faith is credited to him as righteousness." There's no working, no striving, no effort, nothing, just simple faith in Jesus.

But that's not what the author is talking about here. Because he says, it's a holiness we must pursue, it's a holiness we must chase and hunt down and make our quarry, and we the huntsman the rest of our lives chasing after this holiness. That's what the author is talking about.

So what is it? Well, it's an inherent internal qualitative holiness, something that actually describes you. And it comes in two parts, one from God and one from yourself. From God it consists in the infusing of holy principles, holy graces by the indwelling Holy Spirit of God, making the new heart filled with new desires, new loves, new hatreds, something that the Spirit works in us, all of these workings are holy. And from that comes a holy use of those new principles, a pattern of holy lifestyle, holy living, holy walking, as the scripture says, walking as he walks, walking in the light because the Lord is in the light, not walking in darkness, that's what we're talking about. A holy lifestyle, as defined by the Word of God, it is ultimately Christ-likeness.

It's becoming actually in fact like Jesus, whereas justification righteousness, that is just credited to you. It's written in your bank account, your heavenly bank account is how God sees you with his eyes. But it's not how you actually are, how you actually behave. No, that comes immediately after justification with sanctification, that growing. This is a holiness we are to chase after and hunt down the rest of our lives. I think it's very much the issue of Hebrews 12:1. You're still in the chapter, if you look up at the beginning, it says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith..."

Same thing, 12:1 and 12:14 are teaching the exact same thing. All that's happening in 12:14 is saying, "If you're not running that race, you're not going to heaven." That's what it's saying.

So what's at stake? By the way, this is not perfection either. You're never going to fully attain it. You'll be chasing it down the rest of your life. And I also want you to say, "Thanks be to God, you're not going to stand before God on the basis of your own holiness. Even as a Christian, it's not enough. You've never had a single hour of holiness that's holy enough for heaven. I'm not trying to be insulting, friends, I'm just telling you the truth. There's not been a single hour, in which your motives have been pure, you've lived only for the glory of God, you've perfectly obeyed all of his commands and you've stayed away from all of his prohibitions, and you've just... I don't think you've had one perfect hour.

If you think you have then you had one holy hour. But what about the rest of your life? The fact of the matter is, our holiness is insufficient for heaven. Only Christ's perfect holiness is enough for heaven. Please don't misunderstand. You're not going to go to heaven based on this holiness you're chasing and hunting down. All we're saying is, if you're not hunting it down, if you're not chasing it, if you're not growing in holiness, you're not going to heaven, that's all I'm saying. I'm describing the kind of life that leads to heaven. So that you can be sure you're living that kind of life, so you don't go to hell, rather than heaven. That's what's at stake here.

Why do I say that? Because of what the verse says, "Pursue holiness without which no one will see the Lord." Now, what does that mean? Without which no one will see the Lord, what does it mean to see the Lord? Well, I think this is nothing less than spending eternity in the presence of God, looking on the face of God, seeing him. Seeing him in his glory, seeing him in his majesty. Seeing him high and lifted up on his throne, seeing the radiance of his glory streaming down, God who dwells in unapproachable light streaming into your eyes, seeing that glory. It's described in Revelation 22:3-4, "The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve Him. They will see his face. And his name will be on their foreheads." That should fill you with a holy longing to see the face of God.

It's the very thing Jesus prayed for in John 17:24, "Father, I want those whom you have given me, to be with me where I am and to see my glory. The glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world." It is the seeing of God that's implied or spoken of in 1 Corinthians 13:12, "Now, we see, but a poor reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see face-to-face. Now, we know in part, then we show know fully even as we have been fully known."

This is the very thing that filled Job with a yearning desire in the midst of his afflictions. In Job 19, he said, "After my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God. I myself will see him with my own eyes, I and not another. How my heart yearns within me." It's the very thing that Moses asked of God up on that holy mountain, after he had interceded successfully for Israel that God would not destroy them in his holy zeal for his own name, and he interceded, he said this, "Now, show me your glory." God says, "I'll cause all of my goodness to pass in front of you, and I'll proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. But you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live."

But it's what Moses wanted. God, I want to see your face, I want to see your glory. It's the very thing that will fill our hearts with eternal bliss, eternal happiness. The sight will be so awesome, it will be so incredible, so transforming that you'll be instantaneously made like Jesus just by seeing him. " Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." That's the third final stage, that's glorification, when you see him instantaneous you will be transformed and made like Jesus in all respects, you will be holy and perfect completely. That's the great hope of the Gospel.

And what does it? In 1 John 3:2, it's seeing Jesus as he really is, not by faith anymore, but face-to-face. It will be so powerful a vision that you will be instantaneously transformed forever. But look at the next verse, in your mind, listen to it. Everyone, 1 John 3:3, "Everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifiers himself as he is pure." That's what Hebrews 12:14 is all about. Do you see it? The ones who hope to go to heaven are purifying themselves now, in preparation for it. If that's not going on, then you're not going there, see, or you have no assurance that you've begun your salvation journey, put it that way. It's a consistent teaching, to see the Lord, then, means to go back to the source of all the happiness you've ever experienced in your life. To trace it back.

Have you ever had that? You've had some happy moment. Think about these young parents that stood in front of us and they're holding their little babies, and already these little sons and daughters have made them really, really happy. But oh, happy mothers and happy fathers, you ain't seen nothing yet when it comes to happiness. Trace that happiness back to its source, the source is God himself. Go back to the source of the river, of all the happiness you've ever had in your life, it's God himself. C. S. Lewis, in his book, "Till We Have Faces" captures this idea, one of the characters says to another about it, he said this,

"It was when I was happiest that I actually longed the most. The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing to reach the mountain, to find the place where all this beauty comes from. My country, my home and native land, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing? All that longing, the longing for a home? For indeed now, it feels not like going, but actually more like going back."

It's a longing for heaven. It's in the heart of all true genuine Christians. But what this verse says is that without holiness, you'll never see God's face. And notice what it says. What does it mean that no one? It means it doesn't matter who you are, there will be no exceptions to this. It doesn't matter your financial situation, rich or poor. It doesn't matter your station in life, you might be master, you might be servant, you might be potentate, you might be subject, doesn't make a difference.

You might be the most average person on the earth, does not matter. Without this holiness, no one will see the Lord. It's true of everyone. Why is this the case? Why? Why such a strong statement? Well, it has to do with the nature of God himself, it has to do with who he is. "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were Seraphs," that means "burning ones," "each with six wings. With two wings they cover their faces, and with two they cover their feet, and with two they were flying, and they were calling to one another, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, the whole earth is full of his glory.'" Now, these Seraphim, as they're calling to one another, they just can't stop talking about the holiness of God, and it's very much linked to his glory.

And God called it on the mountain with Moses his goodness, it all flows together, the perfect holiness of God. It has to do with the essence of God himself, he is holy and he cannot dwell with any wickedness. "God is light, and in him, there's no darkness at all. And if we claim to walk with him, and yet live in darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from every sin." You see, you don't have to be sinless and perfect on this earth to be walking in the light, isn't that good news? I mean, you may think 1 John is teaching perfectionism, I'm not perfect, what can I do? It isn't teaching perfectionism. You can walk in the light, and still need to be constantly cleansed by the blood of Jesus, and you do. But if you're walking in darkness, you're lying to yourself. That's what this text is teaching. Because of the nature of God, because of what God has done in the past, how one rebellion kicked Satan and all of his angels, the demons, out of heaven. How one sin by Adam and Eve, God evicted them from the Garden of Eden. How one sin by Akin caused the Jews to fall into defeat in front of their enemies on the other side of the Jordan.

How one sin by Ananias and Sapphira, God evicted them from life. God is holy, he's communicated this very plainly, and he's made these kinds of assertions. God has described heaven, he says in Isaiah 57:15, "This is what the high and lofty one says, he who lives forever and whose name is holy, 'I live in a high and a holy place.'" Stop right there. I mean, that just says it to me. God's telling us what kind of place he lives in, and he lives in a high and holy place, "but also..." Oh, those are sweet words, aren't they? "I live with some people there, "also with him who is humble and contrite in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and revive the heart of the contrite." So those that are broken-hearted and those that are faith-filled and flee to Jesus, he saves them, imputes righteousness to them, and he lives with them in a high and holy place. But it is a high and holy place.

And so therefore he tells us plainly in various warning passages, what kind of people will not inherit the Kingdom of God. He's not saying it out of hatefulness, no, out of love and mercy he tells us. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexual offenders, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified." You see, that's what God does, he saves you out of the life. He sanctifies you, he makes you different. Again, Galatians 5:19-21, "The acts of the sinful nature are obvious, sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the like.I warn you as I did before, that people who live like this will not inherit the Kingdom of God."

And why also? Because of the essence of the unholy person, what is he or she really like? Well, Colossians 1:21 says, "Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds as demonstrated by your evil behavior." There's a link between the evil behavior and the mind, and God will not dwell with people who are enemies in their minds to him, he's not going to dwell with them. Now, the sweetness of the Gospel is he says, "Once you were like that, now you have been transformed by the Gospel." Isn't that glorious? That's what you used to be.

So you may ask, "How does this relate to justification by faith alone?" I feel like I've already explained that, but maybe we just can't explain it enough. We need to really understand salvation. It's simple enough, but it still takes study, it takes God opening your heart and mind. Perfect righteousness is a gift of God, not by works. This righteousness comes through faith in Jesus Christ, it's a gift, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace." At justification, guilty sinners like us are made righteous positionally in the sight of God, and in that righteousness, we go to heaven. It's the imputed righteousness of Christ. But at that exact same time he transforms our hearts, regeneration, makes us new creations, gives us the indwelling Holy Spirit, and then commands us to run in the path of his commands, for he's set our hearts free, tells us to live a holy life. That's how they relate. So you can ask the question, "If we are perfectly righteous in God's sight by faith, apart from works, how can you teach that there is a holiness that I must strive for, and that if I don't have it, I'm not going to heaven?"

Well, I can teach it, because that's what the text says. Do you see it? I hope you see it at this point, it's what the text says, but there are other answers. It's what James 2 says. It says, "What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds?" Can such a faith save him? Clearly, the answer is no, a faith without holy deeds is dead, he says, it's dead. Faith apart from deeds is dead. Answer number three. The transformation of salvation results in a changed life, every time, not some of the time, every time. So much so that when Zacchaeus was transformed by the Gospel and pledged to change his life, Jesus said, "Today, salvation is come to this house."

You remember the story? Zacchaeus, a tax collector, a wicked man living for money, an idolater, an enemy to his own countrymen, a man short of stature, couldn't see Jesus, climbs up in a tree. You guys know the children's story. And he sees Jesus and Jesus goes right to the tree where he's sitting, saying, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately, for I must stay at your house today." And so they go. Alright, but what happens after that? That's what I'm interested in. Afterwards, Zacchaeus stands up and says, "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." Now, what did Jesus say? "Today, salvation has come to this house, for this man too is a son of Abraham." And then he said, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Luke 19:10. So save means, save into a transformed life; without that transformed life you haven't been saved, does that make sense?

Answer number four, many verses in the New Testament teach the striving after holiness and righteousness that this same verse teaches, it's not just one verse here. For example, 1 Timothy 6:11-12, "But you man of God flee from all this and pursue righteousness." Wow, he's already a man of God, he's already a pastor, and Paul is commanding him to flee wickedness, and pursue, does that sound familiar? Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love and endurance and gentleness, "Fight the good fight of faith, take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called." That's exactly what we're teaching here. Run and go get it, Timothy, go get your eternal life. Pursue it, run it, chase it down, you man of God. See, justification and sanctification, they go together. Romans 6 teaches it, "Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to wickedness and ever increasing ungodliness, so now offer yourselves to God and the parts of your body as instruments to ever-increasing righteousness." Or it says, "Leading to holiness." It's teaching the same thing.

And so justification inevitably leads to sanctification, which inevitably leads to glorification, that's it. Everyone who is justified will be, is sanctified, and everyone who is being sanctified in that way will be glorified. No one is lost, to God be the glory. And so I just want to say to you if you are here today, and you don't know that you've been justified, if you're afraid that your sins will sink you down to hell, you've never come to the cross in justifying faith, can I urge you to flee the wrath to come. Can I urge you to come by simple faith in Jesus and take hold of Christ, take hold of Jesus, if you see that there is none of this holiness in your life, then flee to Christ, and he will save you. You don't need to do anything, as I've said five times in the sermon, just trust in him and his righteousness will be given you as a gift.

Now, how may we be sure that we have this holiness? By the way, in that 400-page book, I'm about at page 30 right now. "It's Mother's Day, Pastor, we have lunch reservations." I know you probably do. If you've been here any length of time, I hope you didn't make them for 12:30. You just must know. But how can we be sure? Brooks gives 16 answers to that; I'm going to cut it down to 12 and I'm going to give you each one in about 45 seconds, each one. How do you know that this kind of holiness is in you?

Deep Delight and Admiration of the Holiness of God

First, you have a deep delight in the holiness of God, it's not just his love, or his mercy, or his power, or his omniscience that interests you or attracts you, you are actually attracted to the holiness of God, it's enticing to you to be with such a holy being. You want to be in the light, as he is in the light.

Having a Holiness That Spreads to All Areas of Life

Secondly, you have a holiness that spreads over all areas of your life, there's not a pocket, or a corner, or a darkness in your life that you don't want Jesus invading. There are no dark corners, there are no dark basements, there are no dark closets. You've basically thrown open the doors of your life, and said, "Lord, make it all light." I want it all to flow, I want the aroma of holiness in every room of the house, it pervades everything.

Setting Highest Esteem on Holy Things

Thirdly, there is inside you a constant yearning to be holier than you are. It's a relentless yearning. You may sin, you know you do sin, but you are so hungry and thirsty for holiness, you want to be free from sin, it would be the deepest desire of your life to no longer sin, to never sin again.

Matthew and I were talking right before worship, and I said to him, I was just saying, "Wouldn't it be incredible to have one week free from sin? In which, just as two men, as husbands and fathers, we didn't sin at all?" And our wives are going to say, "Boy, I could get used to this. Wow, what a husband, what a father." And then to go back, to what it was before, maybe that's why God doesn't do it, but at any rate, the delight you have is a thought, a hungering and a thirsting that someday you will be righteous. You'll be pure in heart, it's in you, you're yearning for it, even though you may not be able to achieve it. And so, there's a constant drive. You never say holiness enough. That's enough holiness, you never would say it. Like Paul in Philippians 3, forgetting what lies behind and straining toward what lies ahead, you press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called you heavenward in Christ Jesus. And that is perfection, that's what you want, every day you want perfection in Jesus. And you just strive after it. That's the pursuing we're talking about.

Constantly Yearning to be Holier Still

Fourth, you have a true hatred for all sin and wickedness, you just hate it. All sins are equally detestable. Jesus loved righteousness and hated wickedness, you do to. You love righteousness and you hate wickedness. And three specific types of sins in particular that I'm mentioning here. Secret sins, those secret things that you struggle with, or you dally with, or you play with, or whatever. Those secret patterns of sin in your life, you hate them. And you would like them out. Little sins, so to speak. There are some sins that are greater than others, we know that. But the little sins, the little lies, the little gossip, the little slander, the little complaining habit you have, the irritability. I just am irritable before I have my coffee in the morning, whatever it is. How we make excuses for our sins, those little sins. You hate them, you'd like them out of your life.

And then there's habitual sins, the ones that you're tempted to stick a white flag and say, "I just can't do anything about this, it's going to be with me the rest of my life." Now, this holiness is, I'm going to fight sin wherever I see it in my life, wherever. I'm at war with sin.

True Hatred for All Ungodliness and Wickedness: All Sins Are Equally Detestable

And then fifth, I'm deeply grieved and troubled by my sins. I don't take it lightly, I don't take it as a small thing. It really grieves me. As David said in Psalm 38:18, "I confess my iniquity, I am troubled by my sin, it bothers me that I sin." 2 Corinthians 7:10, "Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret." You know what that means? The road of salvation is filled with godly sorrow. If you're going to be continually repenting, then you're going to be continually grieving over sin. Now, you're also going to be continually rejoicing, sorrowful yet always rejoicing. All those sins are forgiven, someday you'll be free from them, you have the power to defeat all of them. There's a joy in all of that. But still there's a grief that you hate your sins, and they cause you grief.

Deeply Grieved and Troubled by Their Own Unholiness... Not Merely the Consequences of Sin

Sixthly, you are attracted to, and delighted with holy duties. They're not a burden to you, it's not a burden to come to church. It's not a burden to listen to a sermon, it's not a burden to study scripture. It's not a burden to have a good prayer time. These things are a holy delight to you, you're attracted to them, it's not a burden to be with the family of God, you enjoy being with the people of God.

Attracted to and Delighted in Holy Duties: Prayer, Bible, Worship, Witnessing

Seventh, you labor to make other people holy, it matters to you whether other people are holy or not. And so, you exert effort, you pray for the holiness of others, you witness to other people who are not saved, so that they can be holy too.

Laboring to Make Other People Holy

And connected with that, eighth, is other people's unholiness causes you grief. It's a misery to you to see the wickedness of the world, it's a misery to you, like Lot, that righteous man who is tormented, it says, in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard. Now, I might have given him some advice, "Why don't you move out of Sodom? Just a thought." Would have been good advice. He didn't take any; it damaged, in some ways destroyed his family. But he, 2 Peter 2 tells us, was a righteous man, and he was tormented. As the Psalmist says in Psalm 119, that rivers of tears flow down his eyes because God’s law is not obeyed.

Conformed to the holiness of Christ

Ninth, this holiness is conformable to Christ. Conformed to Christ, it's a Christ-likeness. We were predestined to be conformed to his image, and so therefore it is Christ-likeness, the Holy Spirit of Christ is in us. And so it's more than just what would Jesus do? It's just a yearning to be like Christ, to have the mind of Christ, to have the heart of Christ, to have the holy lifestyle of Christ.

Delighted in the Word of God, Especially in its Holiness and Purity

Tenth, it's delight in God's word, especially in the holiness and purity of the word, it's the word of God, and you yearn for it, you feed for it. Like newborn babies, you crave the nourishing milk of the word, you feed on it and it delights you. God's word is all of your delight.

Regularly Making God’s Glory the Ultimate End of All the Person Does

Eleventh, regularly making God's glory the ultimate aim of all you do, you do what you do that God may be glorified, that his attributes may be put on display. Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, you do it all for the glory of God. The glory of God is the overriding desire of your heart.

Speaking a Holy Language; A Mouth Filled With Holy Things

And then twelfth and final from my list, you speak a holy language. You just talk holy things, you speak the language of Zion, friends, you speak the language of the heavenly Jerusalem, you talk about Jesus, you talk about the scripture, you talk about what you've learned in your quiet time. You talk about how God has saved you. Jesus said, "Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, out of the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him. The evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him." And so you just are filled with holy thoughts and actions and all of that, and you just speak it, it just flows out. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. James tells us only perfect people are never at fault in what they say, but still there's just a holy language here.

Alright, so how must we make the most of this verse? Well, come to Christ, come to Christ and come to Christ again and again, I've already pleaded with you who are lost right now. You've come here today by the providence of God, maybe to see a family member dedicated. Maybe it's you that needs to be dedicated today.

Maybe you need to come to Christ and find full forgiveness of sins. Jesus is a merciful Savior. His blood is shed for sinners like you and me. We're no different, we're the same. Flee to Christ. But for those of you who are claiming to be Christians, your claim may be a valid one. It's good to have a valid claim to be a Christian, but I'm just urging you, examine yourself, to see if you're in the faith, "test yourself," 2 Corinthians 13. This is the test, this is it, this is the test you're supposed to use, the holiness test. Ask this simple question, 'Am I holy? Am I holy?'" Give careful attention to the sin areas of your life. Are you at war with these sins, are you fighting them?

How is it going? Are you sexually pure? Are you careful what you look at on the internet? Are you careful what you're doing, what comes into your eyes, what are you filling your minds with? What about your speech purity, are you a gossip, are you slandering, are you depressing to be around Because you complain all the time? Are you arguing, are you an arguer, fighter? These are sins, put them to death, kill them. What about your relationships? Are you harboring bitterness, unforgiveness, are you unkind to people? Are you holding back fellowship with others because of something they said or did? Are you in the thralls of bitterness? Fight it, put these sins to death. Are you ensnared by some kind of lawful pleasure that's become an addiction for you now? Materialism, gluttony, drinking, hobbies, money. I don't know what.

Be holy. Focus on Christ above all else, apart from Jesus there is no holiness, he has become for us justification and sanctification. You won't get holy apart from Jesus, he is the vine and you are the branch in the holiness plant, the holiness grapevine. As soon as you're justified, you got engrafted into him, and the life-giving sap of holiness began flowing through you, abide in him, abide in Jesus, moment by moment focus on Jesus. You can't remember this list of 12 things. Okay, don't. Focus on Jesus, trust in Jesus. Zero in on him and say, "Jesus, make me holy. Jesus, make me holy. I want to walk with you. I'm a branch, you're the vine, just flow through me."

And my final words to you is the delight, the delight of all this. I could preach this in a way that would just be scathing and crushing and convicting. I could flay your souls with it, and mine too. I'd be no different. All of us sin every day, we stumble in many ways. My desire is to give you delight in Jesus. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. We can now, the holier we are, by faith, turn our eyes upon Jesus, and see him. Look full in his wonderful face. You'll see more by faith now of Christ, and you'll be happier and happier. The things that are afflicting you are your sins. If you'll defensively put them to death, and be strong in this area, you will be happy and fruitful in Christ.

So yesterday, I was mowing the lawn. And I was listening to my ear buds and I had my headphones on, and I'm listening to Christian worship, and I was thinking about this sermon. And the Lord opened my heart and poured out his grace in my heart, and said, "You're going to make some of my people really happy tomorrow. Go do it." So, be happy by being holy. Fight for joy, fight for fruit, be a holy people. Close with me in prayer.