Turn with me, if you would, to
Hebrews 13. Hebrews chapter 13. And let's read the verses we'll be
looking at. Verses 17 to 19. Obey them that have the rule
over you and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls
as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy
and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. Pray
for us For we trust we have a good conscience in all things, willing
to live honestly. But I beseech you, the rather,
to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner." He said,
concerning those who are the spiritual guides over you. When we were looking at verse
7, we've been in this chapter for a while, and when we were
looking at verse 7, we saw that in spiritual matters, when we're
talking about spiritual matters, no man has the rule over another
man in spiritual matters. Now, parents have the rule over
their children. Husbands are supposed to rule
their own house well, in a God-honoring way. Bosses have the rule over their
employees. An employee, if you're going
to work for this company, you have to do what your boss tells
you to do. But when it comes to spiritual matters, no man
has the rule over another man. There is one ruler There is one ruler. One controller. There's one God. One God. Jesus Christ is His
name. God's pastors and God's teachers
are not to lord over God's heritage. Don't let any man come into your
house and go through your cabinets and tell you what you can and
can't have. They're not to lord over God's heritage. There's
one Lord. One Lord of heaven and earth.
So we don't answer to the pastor. We answer to God. But God has
called some men. He's called apostles. He's called
prophets. He's called evangelists who are
missionaries and pastors and teachers to guide the rule of
Christ over all of us. If you'll look in verse 17, The
word have, if you have the center margin in your Bible, says guide. Obey them that guide the rule
over you. Now this is really important.
God's people are under rule. God's people are under rule. They're under the rule of Christ. They're under the reign of Christ. He led captivity captive. He led captivity captive. What
are God's people captive to? We are captive to freedom in
Him. We are captive to liberty in
Him. God's people are under law. God's people are under law, just
not the law of ceremony and ritual. Which Romans 8 verse 2 calls
the law of sin and death. God's people are under the law
of love. They're under the law of love. Galatians 2 calls it the law
of Christ. Again, Romans 8 verse 2 calls
it the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Here's the point. God's people are not lawless. They're not lawless. Free from
the law, oh happy condition. God's people are not lawless. God's people are not without
constraint. The love of Christ constrains
them. The love of Christ constrains
them. And God has given, as he said in Ephesians 4, gifts to
his people. He's given apostles, prophets,
evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Guides to his people to guide
them in the rule. To guide them in the word that
God has written for his people. And here's the exhortation. He
said, obey. and submit to and pray for the
guides that God has given to us and do it sooner rather than
later. Now, I'm in the same boat with
you. I'm in the same boat. We're all
in. God sent a guide to me. God in
mercy sent a guide to me. I still am under the guide. I was at this conference last
weekend and I heard two other men preaching the gospel to me,
guiding me in the word, through the word. So we're all in this
together and we obey and submit and pray for the guides that
the Lord has given to us. Now turn with me to Ecclesiastes
chapter three. Just after Proverbs, Ecclesiastes
chapter 3. Ecclesiastes 3 verse 1 says,
To everything there is a season. and a time to every purpose under
heaven, a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant
and a time to pluck up that which is planted, a time to kill and
a time to heal, a time to break down and a time to build up,
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a
time to dance, a time to cast away stones and a time to gather
stones together, A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. A time to get and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to
cast away. A time to rend and a time to
sow. A time to keep silence and a
time to speak. A time of love and a time to
hate. A time of war and a time of peace. Now this is where we're gonna
begin this Bible study. Talking about obeying and submitting. There is a time to obey and submit. And there is a time to not obey
and not submit to the God that is over you. The Apostle Paul
said to the Corinthians, woe is unto me if I preach not the
gospel. Our text in Hebrews 13 is telling
all of us, woe is unto us. If we do not believe and bow
to and obey and submit to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ,
woe is unto us. But if it is not the actual gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ, if it's not the actual gospel,
if we're not hearing the Word of God declared, woe is unto
us if we don't run. This is something that if the
Lord would allow me to, I would love to put on TV. I would love for men and women
to hear who think, well, I've always gone there and I need
to keep going there. You've got to be true to where
you're going and this and that. And woe is unto us if it is not
God's actual gospel. If it is clear to us, we're not
hearing the truth of God's Word. The whole truth and nothing but
the truth. If that becomes clear, get out. Get out. Do not obey the guide
and do not submit to the guide. Get out. Get out. It'll be very easy to spot a
false guide. It'll be very easy. False guides
love this verse of Scripture, our text. I love the verse of
Scripture. But a false guide will take that
verse out of context and he will stand up in a pulpit and say,
you'd better obey me and you'd better submit to me. He will point men and women to
himself and not to Christ. And when we see that, it's time
to run. It's time to run. It's Christ
alone. A true guide will point men to
Christ alone. If a man begins to mix the work
of men's hands with the blood of Jesus Christ, it's time to
run. If a man says that salvation
is a combination of what Christ accomplished on the cross and
what you accomplished throughout your course through this life,
it's time to run. And that's every denomination
and false message other than the truth. It doesn't matter
what denomination it is. It doesn't matter what they're
emphasizing. There's only one truth. and it's Christ. It is start
to finish Jesus Christ. If it is not totally God's grace
through the gift and the offering of His Son, if a man does not
declare that God started salvation and finished salvation, it's
time to run. It's time to run. Don't obey. Don't submit. If a man points you to anything
other than Jesus Christ crucified, it's time to run. That includes
this man. This is very important. This
is very important. If there ever comes a time, if
20 years from now, because this has happened to men, I mean this
has happened to men, If there ever comes a time when I do not
declare to you that salvation is totally of the Lord, but I
start teaching requirements to you to be saved. If I start adding requirements,
do not listen to me. Do not listen to me. If it ever
switches from God's Word, to my word. Do not obey what I tell
you. Do not submit to what I tell
you. I would still beg you to pray
for me. I would beg you to pray for me. But don't listen to me. Do not
listen to me. This subject matter is very,
very serious to me. This is extremely serious to
me. And this is the reason why, if
you'll look with me back at the text, Hebrews 13. Verse 17 says, Obey them that
have the rule over you, or guide the rule over you, and submit
yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they that must
give account." We're not playing games. Whoever
speaks in the name of God, whoever stands up and speaks in the name
of God, And God's, through His rule, whoever guides through
the Word, needs to do it very carefully. He needs to approach
it with much fear and trembling, as one that must give an account
for everything He says. You know, the Scripture says,
every idle word that a man says, he'll have to give an account
for it. Every idle word. I promise, the only thing we
want to give an account for is what God says. That's the only
thing. That's why Paul told Timothy,
preach the Word. Timothy, preach only the Word. Paul said to keep repeating these
same things. It's safe. This is safe. This is safe to preach. This
is safe to believe. Now, with all of that being said,
if God sends us a guide, and that guide guides us only through
the Word of God. If we just go right down through
the Word of God. If He points us to Christ, in and through the Word, if he
reveals Christ through the Word. If that guide declares Scriptures
alone, grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, the glory of God
alone, then let's obey and submit to what he's saying. If we see
it in the Word and he's guiding through the Word, then let's
obey and submit to what He's saying. Verse 17 says, Obey. That word means, it translates,
be persuaded of, listen to, yield to, comply with, make friends
with, trust, have confidence in, believe, agree with, rely
on, Them that guide the rule over you. And submit, that word
means resist no longer. When the flesh hears the truth,
the first thing it wants to do is resist. And God's word comes to a sinner
and says, resist no longer. Surrender to, be under. What
all this means is be humble, humble, humble. Decrease. John the Baptist said, I must
decrease. Verse 17, obey them that have
the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for
your souls as they that must give account that they may do
it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for
you. If they're true guides, if it's
a true guide, then he's only going to declare God's word.
if it's a true guide. So to not obey and submit to
the Word is to not obey and submit to God because He's the one saying
it. To not obey and submit to God is very unprofitable. Very
unprofitable. It's unprofitable to our own
soul and it's unprofitable for the guide that God has called.
The exhortation is obey and submit that the guide may do it with
joy and not with grief. Here's the thing, he has to declare
it either way. He has to declare it either way. He can either declare it and
we can receive it with joy and gladness, or he can declare it
and we can receive it with grief. But either way, Christ and His
Word has to be preached. Has to be preached. I want to
read something to you right out of one of the commentaries. This
is just so good. It's worded in such a clear,
profitable way. As soon as I read this, I thought,
I'm literally just going to read it to them. Alright, let me read
this to you. He said, True pastors are not
concerned about worldly gain. fame and possessions, but for
the spiritual welfare of their hearers." But for the spiritual
welfare of their hearers. That's what they're concerned
with. They must give an account to their own consciences that
they remain faithful. They must give an account to
the church to whom they minister. They must also account to the
Lord for whom they speak. If you receive his message and
are faithful to Christ, the faithful minister goes about his work
with joy and not grief. His prayers before the throne
of grace are born of joy and not grief. And in the great day
of judgment, when he shall be a witness of your final end,
the guide that God sent to me will be a witness to my final
end. Paul said, Oh, Lord, I don't want to teach all these things
and then in the end be found to cast away myself. In the great day of judgment,
when he shall be a witness of your final end, that too will
bring joy and not grief. To refuse to hear the gospel
from true ministers is to refuse to hear Christ and will certainly
grieve him and be unprofitable to you. So again, with all that
being said, verse 18 says, pray for us. Pray for us. Pray for those of us who have
been called to minister the Word. This task is so vital. This is
so critical. It's a good idea to have a savings
account. Put a little aside for a rainy
day. This goes so far beyond that.
This is vital. This is vital to life. This is
critical. This is so burdening. So burdening. This is the means God has chosen
to nourish His children with. That's what makes it such a burdening
task. This is what God has chosen to
nourish His children with. Look with me very quickly at
John 21. John 21 verse 15 says, So when
they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas,
lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord,
thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second
time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea,
Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed
my sheep. He saith unto him the third time,
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because
he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto
him, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee.
Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. If you love me, feed my
sheep. Feed my sheep. That is the desire
of a true God. He wants to feed God's sheep. God puts something in him that
becomes priority over everything. He wants to feed God's sheep. Nourish, strengthen, build up
God's dear sheep. What do God's sheep feed on? Go to John 6. John 6 verse 48 says, Our Lord
Jesus Christ said, I am that bread of life. Your fathers did
eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which
cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not
die. I am the living bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The
Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give
us his flesh to eat? I used to ask the same question.
I didn't really understand what he meant by this. Talking about
eating the flesh of his body and drinking his blood. And I
can't explain it. It takes the Spirit of God to
reveal to the heart of a sinner what it is to literally take
in the body and blood of Jesus Christ and feed on it and be
consumed with it and realize this is the only thing that feeds
my soul. Everything else is emptiness.
This is all the substance there is. The body and blood of Christ. He said in verse 53, Jesus saith
unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except you eat the
flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in
you. If you don't lay hold in the depths of your soul, if it
does not leave your mind, everybody knows Christ died and shed His
blood. If that does not leave your mind
and go down into your soul, to the place where you say alone
in your thoughts, in the depths of you, this is what feeds me. You have no life in you, he said.
Verse 54, whosoever eateth my flesh, I mean lives on it. and drinketh my blood, hath eternal
life. I will raise him up at the last.
You know what it's like to be so hungry and you eat something
that's just so delicious to you and you can't stop and you go
back for seconds and you're going back for thirds and you're so
full but you can't stop. This is it. This is everything. Spiritually speaking, that's
what it is to feed on Christ and to Oh, his blood, like Peter
said, the Lord was washing their feet. He said, you're not going
to wash my feet. He said, if I don't wash your feet, you have
no part with me. He said, you wash all the way
from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. Lord, let
your blood not just be on me. Let it be in me. Just completely,
completely immersed. In your blood. Well, I got I got to close here. Go back to Hebrews 13. Verse
18 says, Pray for us, for we trust we
have a good conscience in all things, willing to live honestly. We trust we have a good conscience
in what we're preaching. I trust, based on the Word of
God, based on what I'm reading with my own two eyes, that I'm
preaching the message of Christ. I trust I have a good message.
I trust I have the only vital message of life. The Lord has
given me a good conscience to preach this and only this. He said we're willing to live
honestly by it. We're willing to, no matter what
the opposition is, no matter how popular or unpopular it is,
we're willing to preach this alone. I mean this alone. In verse 19 he said, but I beseech
you the rather to do this. Pray for us. I beseech you, the
rather, to do this, that I may be restored to you sooner." The
writer to the Hebrews, which many people believe is Paul,
it does not say who it is, and I kind of believe it's Paul too.
John would never say his own name, which in my mind makes
me wonder if maybe John wrote it. It doesn't matter. God wrote
it. He just used a man to pen it. But whoever the penman is,
he was hindered from preaching to them. If it was Paul, he was
probably in prison. It says it was written from Italy
at the end of the footnote, at the end of the chapter. But he
said, pray for me that I may be delivered to come to you in
person the sooner. I want to come to you. Pray for
me sooner rather than later. Our Lord has commanded us to
pray without ceasing. He said that he would hear us
and answer us in our prayers. He said, if you ask, it'll be
given to you. So the apostle said, pray for
us. Pray for us as we preach and guide this word. I'm about
to stand up again. Would everybody here please pray
for me? I'm gonna stand up again. Pray for me, pray for us. as
we guide God's sheep. The sower is going forth sowing
seed, seeing if God has any hungry sheep who need to be fed. Pray
for us. This is Paul's request and this
is mine. I'm just going to read this to
you. This is 2 Thessalonians 3 verse
1. He said, Finally, brethren, pray for us
that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified
even as it is with you. Pray for us that this word will
go far and wide. Pray for me and the other men
who stand that God will remove us from the equation. and let
His people only see Christ. Just only see Christ. I don't
want to come down with everybody saying, you did great. I want to come down with everybody
saying, Christ is all. Oh, He's my all. So pray for
us. Alright, you're dismissed.