Hebrews chapter 13, I want to
start reading in verse 7. And I want to read down to verse 16. Just make a few comments
on some things that I see in these passages here. Hebrews
13 and verse 7. It says, remember them which
have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God,
whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.
Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Be not
carried about with divers and strange doctrines, for it is
a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with
meeks which have not profited them that have been occupied
therein. we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which
serve the tabernacle. For the bodies of those beasts
whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest
for sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also that
he might sanctify the people with his own blood suffered without
the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto
him without the camp bearing his reproach. For here have we
no continuing city, but we seek one to come. By him, therefore,
let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that
is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do
good and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices
God is well pleased. Brethren, As I said, I was looking
at these passages and a few things kind of stick out to me here
that I might bring forth and I pray that they're of edification
to you. I pray that the Lord is in the
matter. The first thing we see here says, remember them which
have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God,
faith follow considering the end of their conversation. This
again, Paul is exhorting us to remember them who the Lord has
placed over us as pastors, teachers, those who are communicating the
word of God to us. Now, while, you know, you've
heard me teach this often here, the pastor, the preacher is not
above the congregation. We are all one body. We are all
part of the congregation. However, the Lord does grant
to other people, grant to each the gifts that he has given to
them. And a pastor and elder has not a more important gift
than anybody else. They have just a different office
or a role that the Lord has given for them to to do and some men
are given a gift to be able to preach God's Word. Not that everybody
can't preach God's Word. Everybody preaches God's Word.
That is a Christian by their testimony, by sharing the gospel,
holding to the faith and the doctrines of Christ and everything
like that. But what he's talking about here
is specifically those who the Lord has called and gifted to
be able to preach and to communicate the Word of God to the congregation. He says, remember them which
have the rule over you. And again, this rule is not some
authoritative dictatorship. The Bible is very clear in that,
that those who are given that office within the congregation
is not to lord over God's heritage. It's not to rule by a strong
hand of any kind. It's not to It's not to rule
for filthy lucre. It's not to do all those things.
The rule here is basically is we are to keep the order. We are to keep the, whenever
the congregation comes together, that we are to make sure that
everything is done decently and in order, and we are to preach
the word of God. We are to teach the Word of God
and communicate the Word of God, whether that be like we're doing
now here, how I'm doing it, or last week how we did it, where
everybody's speaking together, talking together, sharing those
things. So those who have the rule over
you is not necessarily those who are some sort of a CEO or
anything like that. That is what's going on in most
modern Christianity. That is not what a biblical pastor,
biblical teacher is supposed to do. But it says to remember
them who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith
follow, considering the end of their conversation. Now, I think
we all know here that the word conversation here, oftentimes
in the scripture, is used to mean that their way of life,
okay? Their conversation is their walk
or their way of life. And he's saying here to remember
them and to follow Their faith. Now, let's kind of maybe think
about a few things here. This isn't some blind following,
okay? People are not to blindly follow
pastors and teachers, because pastors and teachers, just like
everybody else, are fallible people, are subject to sin, are
subject to error, they're subject to be wrong about doctrine even,
you know? They're subject to misunderstanding,
they're subject to the flesh just like everybody else is.
And I was just sharing with Larry earlier, whenever I was filling
up the gas, the flesh really got me this week whenever the
jumped up to 389, 390 a gallon. And how I was kind of cussing
the Bidenomics to the people around the gas pump where I was
at. You know, pastors and teachers
are not perfect people. And to say to just follow them
at every whim and everything that they do is not what the
Scripture is telling us here. Anytime Paul or anybody in the
Scriptures says, like whenever Paul said, you know, to imitate
me or to follow after me or anything like that, it's always with the
understanding as much as I am following what the Word of God
says. You know, just like the brains. Paul was preaching to
the brains. The brains were saying, hey, you know, let's go home.
Let's look and see what this is saying. See whether those
things be true or not. So whenever it says here to follow
after this, their faith, whose faith follow. Okay. As long as that faith coincides
with God's word, you ought to follow that. You ought to get
behind that. If your pastor is preaching faithfully
the Word of God, you ought to get behind your pastor and not
only encourage your pastor, but you ought to be behind him in
the defense of the faith. A lot of times in congregations,
and we've seen it here before, people may come in and they may
disagree with our doctrine that we are holding and preaching.
And whenever we do that, a lot of times people just want to
say, oh, okay, Will, alright, pastor, you take care of it.
and let the pastor do all the talking and take all the heat,
take all the fiery darts that might come. But if the brethren
knows, hey, our pastor is standing on truth, they ought to stand
behind him and with him in the defense and the propagation of
the truth of doctrine. And so it's an exhortation for
us to stand together, united. This isn't just one voice out
here defending. It's the whole congregation.
We're to be one in the faith, right? And that's not just belief
on Christ Jesus, but it's in the doctrine of Christ Jesus,
too. We are to be one in the doctrine of Christ Jesus, and
we are to stand for that doctrine, and we're to encourage one another
in that doctrine. And this is considering the end
of their conversation. A pastor who is firm in the doctrines
of Christ, but yet then whenever he's out there in the world,
the doctrine of Christ isn't much. Like, do I speak different
to somebody about the Word of God whenever I'm out there than
I do here? I've seen guys like that. I've
seen guys, in fact, I've seen just the opposite. I've told
you the story of the church that we went to one time. this preacher
that was there online in his sovereign grace groups. Oh, he
was a great defender of sovereign grace. But whenever he was actually
preaching it in his pulpit, talking to the people about it, whenever
asked specific questions about, well, do you believe that reprobation
is just as active as election? Do you believe that God does
not love everybody? Do you believe that God is sovereign
over evil and sin? He kind of backs away and shies
away from that in the public. That's kind of some of the things
that I'm talking about. His conversations in the world, I don't mean just
necessarily his vocal, although our conversations should be in
accordance to God's Word, but his deportment, his way of walking
before others in the way that he speaks before others and the
way that he holds the doctrine of Christ, is it the same whether
he's out there or whether he's in here? Do you see your pastor or your
elder, do you see them out there preaching and teaching and holding
to the same thing as they do whenever they're amongst their
own kind? If your pastor is doing that, you know, get behind and
support. I say all that not because I'm
here to support and to exalt the pastors. I'm saying that
because of what verse 8 that comes right after that is. The
conversation of their lives, if you have a pastor who is faithful
and true with God's the conversation of their life always comes down
to verse eight. If you notice, that almost kind
of bleeds into itself, right, that next verse. It's almost
as if Paul's talking about, well, pay attention to your pastor,
follow your pastor, and then all of a sudden, out of eight,
they just make a declaration of Jesus being the same yesterday,
today, and forever, and then he goes back in to be not carried
around by divers. Well, why would Paul put in there,
between those seven and nine, of the character and the nature
of Christ whenever he's talking about following the pastor and
being not carried away by strange doctrines. Well, I think that
that's because all of this is tied together. See, the conversation
of life of the pastor is the doctrine of Jesus Christ. As
a pastor, as a teacher, and I would say even for everybody else who
is not a pastor or a teacher, that the conversation of life
should always be about Jesus Christ. It isn't necessarily
about the end times. It isn't necessarily about money
and family. It isn't necessarily about church.
It isn't necessarily about all these other things, although
there's importance and the Bible has teaching on that. When everything
is boiled down to anything, it's all about the centrality of Jesus
Christ. We preach Christ and Him crucified. Paul said, whenever I came to
you, I didn't know anything among you except Christ and Him crucified.
I didn't preach in the way of man's wisdom. I didn't do all
these things that manipulate that other men do. I did not
rest the Scriptures. What did I do? I came and I preached
in the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ and Him crucified. The
conversation of our life is everything is about Jesus Christ. And so
he says here, whose faith follow considering the end of their
conversation, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. What is the conversation of our
life? What is the centrality of who
we are and what we stand for? It's Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. Now, I mentioned to you last
week that I've been thinking about that verse, verse 8. If you notice there, it says
Jesus Christ, and throughout Scripture, those two words, Christ
wasn't Jesus' last name, right? We've heard that before. Christ
isn't Jesus' last name, to the chagrin of a lot of people, I
think they think it is, but Jesus was His name, Christ was His
title. The word Jesus means Savior. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save. His people from their sin. The word Jesus means Savior.
In Greek, it means Savior. In Hebrew, Yeshua means Savior. Joshua means Savior. Jesus means
Savior. Christ, though, the word Christ
is a title for Jesus. The word Christ means the anointed
of God. Now, if you think about that
just a little bit, To be anointed of God means that God has over
this man, Jesus, given him his name, given him his authority,
given him his blessing, given him everything that is equal
to and part of who God is. The Bible says that God has given
Jesus a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus
every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. The Bible
says that He has given Him power over all flesh. He gave eternal
life to as many as God has given Him. The Bible says He has power,
that God has given Him power in heaven and in earth. And there's
other scriptures we can go to, but Jesus is the personification
of the name and whenever we speak of the name of God we're not
just talking about the name I am. We're not just talking about
the name Jehovah. It's all that Jehovah is. All
that Jehovah represents. All that Jehovah encompasses
Jesus Christ is because the Bible says that Jesus Christ is the
fullness of the Godhead bodily, that He is the image of the invisible
God, that all of who God is is in Christ Jesus. And as the anointed,
that means God has said, I have placed all of who I am, my authority,
my name, and that name speaks of His power and authority. I've
used this example before, if you remember. Please come and
say, stop in the name of the law. What does that mean, the
name of the law? Well, the name of the law is
in the power and the authority of the law. I'm telling you to
stop, right? The name represents or the name signifies the authority
that has the say-so, but also the one who has the power to
enact that authority. God who is self-governing, okay? Self-existent. There is no law
against God. God is without law to himself
because there is no lawmaker that can put a law to God. God is self-existent, meaning
that nothing affects him. I can't make him do anything.
You can't make him do anything. He's not beholden to anybody.
Matter of fact, the Bible says that he doesn't take counsel
from anybody. The only counsel he has is with
himself. He consults himself on all matters. So God is self-existent. That's what the very name I Am
represents. That's what the name Jehovah
represents. It means self-existent God. It means one who is not
influenced from without. This self-existent God has placed
under that authority, given all power to Jesus Christ. And so
Jesus Christ means the Savior who has all authority and all
power of God. That's what being anointed of
God means. God has anointed Him as the Savior of His people and
has given Him the authority and the power to bring forth the
salvation of Jehovah to the elect of Jehovah. That's who Jesus
is. That's who we preach. That's
what we preach. We preach God in His sovereignty,
God in His authority, God in His power, God in His salvation,
but we preach it as God in His Savior, Jesus Christ. I'm not here to preach to you
the Holy Ghost. I'm not here to preach to you
the Father, although that's all God. The centrality of God, whether
it be Father, whether it be Word, whether it be Holy Ghost, You
cannot preach God without preaching Jesus Christ because God has
placed all things under His feet. God has placed all things in
His hands. God has placed the saving of
His people and the judgment of the reprobate in His hands. It's
all about Jesus Christ. And to preach God is to preach
Jesus Christ. And to live for God is to live
for Jesus Christ. And I don't mean by law-keeping.
I'm talking about in our conversation of life, everything goes back
to everything. I don't worry about bygonics. I shouldn't. My flesh gets riled
up about it. But I don't live in fear of who's
going to be in that White House because I know that God sets
up kings. And Jesus Christ is the one who
is the King of kings. He is the Lord of lords. He rules
over all things. We sing that song. So to be the anointed Jesus,
the Savior, anointed, to have God tell us He is the same yesterday,
today, and forever, what good news is that? That means there's
not ever a time, whether it be in the past, whether it be right
now, or whether it be in the future to come, that Jesus is
not the anointed Savior who has all power and all authority of
God. And whatever Jesus does cannot
be stopped. Whatever Jesus does is most excellent. Whatever Jesus has accomplished,
He has accomplished, and none can take away from it. Brethren,
that's why our salvation, if we be His, our salvation is secured
because nobody can take away what Jesus has accomplished. There is nobody who has a higher
name or authority to take away what Jesus has accomplished.
There is nobody who has the power to take away what Jesus has accomplished. And what Jesus has done is done. That's why whenever Jesus cried
on the cross, it is finished, He didn't say it was finished
or it will be finished. He said it is finished. For now,
for times past and for times future, it's a finished thing.
Why? Because I have accomplished it.
I have done it. Remember in the Old Testament,
the Bible says that God said that He, that His purpose would
be done. I have purposed it. I will also do it. Whenever God
does something, it's done to the utmost, it's done to the
fullest, it's done to the completion, and nobody can change that. And
so whenever we see, if we have a pastor, if we have a teacher,
And if we are a church and congregation who stands on Jesus to Christ,
the same yesterday, today, forever, then that means that the gospel
of Jesus Christ, the good news of that salvation from that God
never changes. It didn't change in the Old Testament.
It doesn't change now with our times, and it ain't gonna change
in the future. People are gonna be saved the same way in the
Old Testament as they are today, as they will be in the future.
They were saved by Jesus Christ, who is the Savior. And that cannot
be changed. It never will change. Therefore,
our message never changes. Therefore, the central aspect
of our worship never changes. Therefore, the central conversation
of our lives never changes. It's all about Jesus. You say, well, how could that
have been in the Old Testament when nobody even knew who Jesus
was? How could they live and have
Jesus as the center point? Brethren, the Gospel was preached
to those in the Old Testament. Not only do I believe it was
preached directly, I believe that it was preached, as we know,
through the types and the foreshadows. They knew of a Messiah to come. They knew of a Redeemer, Job
himself, said, I know that I'm a Redeemer. He knew I'm a Redeemer. He knew who stood in his place. We see throughout all of the
Old Testament them looking forward. The Bible even says that Abraham
was preached the gospel. The Bible says that Abraham looked
to another day and he saw Christ from afar off. Well, how did
he see Christ if he didn't know about Christ? That's because
whenever God came to him on the plains of Mamre or wherever it
was, I can't remember now. Whenever he came to him and he
told him, hey, there's going to be a seed that's going to
come from you and he's going to be your righteousness. And
Abraham believed God and Abraham accounted that seed as his righteousness. He didn't count some mysterious
type and foreshadow as his righteousness. He accounted the one who is going
to be the substance of that. Jesus was the substance of that.
Jesus has always been the message. Jesus has always been the one
who God, from before the foundation of the world, the Bible says
that God brought him up, brought him forth, from before the mountains
were created, before anything was created, that He was possessed
in the way before anything was ever made, and that He was possessed
for the purpose of sitting in that throne, taking that scroll
that God had given Him, and opening those seals, and bringing forth
everything that God had purposed. God left all of that in the charge
and the keep of Jesus Christ. And brethren, I don't know of
any better hands to put it in. I'm glad he didn't put it in
the Pharisees' hands. I'm glad he doesn't put it in
my hands. So, with Jesus Christ being the
centrality of all that we know, all that we say, all that we
do, everything centers around him. Verse 9 says, be not carried
about with divers and strange doctrines. The word divers there,
for you young guys that don't know, the word divers there just
means many. It means several. Divers means just a variety of. Do not be carried about with
a variety and strange doctrine. A variety of doctrines and strange
doctrines. So what does that mean? If you
have a faithful pastor or preacher, if you have faithful men, in
the congregation who are preaching God's Word with Jesus at the
center of all things. With Jesus alone being the only
part of salvation. If you have them, listen to their
doctrine. Take heed to their doctrine.
Stand behind their doctrine. Because it's not their doctrine,
it's actually Christ's doctrine. It's the doctrine of Christ.
He says, for it is a good thing that the heart be established
with grace. Now, this is where things really
get interesting in these passages for me whenever I was reading
through these things. He says, there's only one central
figure. It's Christ and the work of Christ. The work of Christ alone. It's
not Christ plus somebody else. It's Jesus Christ. But he also
says, don't be listening and don't be led away, don't be tantalized
by all these other doctrines out there and all these strange
doctrines that are out there. Be focused on the one doctrine,
Christ and Him crucified. Be focused upon Christ and Him
crucified. Why? For, the word for there
means because, Why are we not to be carried around with all
these other doctrines and worry ourselves with these other doctrines?
Because it is a good thing that the heart be established with
grace. How is it that the child of grace
feeds upon Christ? He feeds upon the work of Christ,
what Christ has done. See, the heart to the true child
of grace can never be established or confirmed, or made stable
by the preaching of the law, by the preaching of conditions,
by the preaching of self-righteousness that never will establish the
heart because the heart of a child of grace is given to know the
inability they have before God to keep God's law for righteousness. They know their inability to
perform a righteousness, that they are filthy rags. They know
because their heart has been taught of God that they are wretched
and vile and that they cannot please God in the flesh. They
have been given to know and taught of the Holy Spirit that everything
that proceeds from the flesh is just flesh and cannot please
God. And so they know, as Paul knew,
O wretched man that I am. When I try to do good, I cannot
do it. Why? Because evil is always present
with me, because that's all my flesh is, is evil. The Lord looked
down upon the people of the earth and saw that the tent of their
heart was only evil continually. That's who we are in the flesh.
Therefore, the child of grace, whenever they are born of God,
and then they are given faith and repentance that teaches them
that they can do no good. Therefore, any preaching of law,
any preaching of conditions, any preaching of establishing
a righteousness by something that you do will not establish
your heart. It will not hold firm your heart. You will be tossed to and fro
by every wind of doctrine, your conscience will be not clear.
Your guilt will never be before you. You will always be as a
double-minded man, wondering and concerned. He says, for it
is a good thing that the heart be established with grace. So
what should we be preaching? What should that preacher that
you listen to be preaching? Well, if he's preaching law,
if he's preaching conditions, if he's preaching a righteousness
that's established by things that we are doing by obedience,
then that preacher is not preaching Jesus Christ the same yesterday,
today, and forever. He is preaching Jesus Christ
plus something else. Therefore, he's not establishing
the hearts with doctrine of law and grace, which Paul
said is not grace. You can't preach, and I hear
this all the time, especially among Reformed people. We must
keep a strict balance between law and grace. Brethren, listen,
Paul said that it's either of grace, because if it's of grace,
then it is no more of works. But if it's of works, then it's
no more of grace. He never said there's a little
of both involved. He said it's either of grace
or it's of words. And he said the salvation of
man, and I would even say the temporal salvation of man, is
not by our words. Again, every obedience, we just
saying, every obedience, every knowledge, every understanding,
is by the hand of God. So even all of our obedience
in this lifetime, which they call temporal salvation, is also
governed by the sovereignty of God, who gives us the enabling
to will and to do His good pleasure, or He does not. And if He does
not, is that sin? Absolutely it's sin. But is that
sin accounted to us? Absolutely not. Whether it's
temporal, whether it's eternal, all of salvation. yesterday, today, and forever,
who has not only secured all the legality of everything, but
is also making sure that all the experimental part of our
salvation is going exactly as He has purposed, so that whenever
we come and we are at the end of our lives, whenever He comes,
whichever comes first, that we are conformed to His image and
that we have brought forth all the works that God has ordained
for us from the foundation of the world. The heart has to be established
in grace. But it directly says, look at what's the next phrase.
It says, not with meats which have not profited them that have
been occupied therein. What's Paul alluding to here?
He's alluding to the service of the law. He says the heart cannot be established
with meats. What was happening here? You're
not to eat of this meat. You're not to eat of this kind
of meat. You're not to eat of this kind of meat. Even though
this kind of meat is good for you to eat, you can't eat of
it if it's been offered to idols. You can't eat it if it's been
this or that. All these different things about
the law. The ceremonial things of the law. So Paul is saying
here, anybody who is worried about or occupied with the things
of the law are never going to be established in their heart.
Why? Because they're always going
to fall short. It's never going to come as a
rest. They're always going to be at
work. That's what work is, right? Work is always work. Whenever
you are a laborer, you are always under work. You're always required
work. Whenever I check in for work,
whenever I check out for work, and listen, even times whenever
I come home and I'm not at work, I still have to work. I get calls
in the middle of the night, I get calls on the weekends, I get
calls out and have to all of a sudden start back work again.
Labor is labor. As long as you're a laborer,
you have to labor. But whenever you are at rest,
you do not labor. There is no labor. There is no
work. And so we see that those who
continue in the service of the law works, that their heart will
never be established. It will never be stable. Look
at verse 10. He says, we have an altar whereof
they have no right to eat which serves a tabernacle. Now, we're
not talking about the front of the church building, right? That's not the altar. I grew
up in Southern Baptist, and that was a sacred place up there at
the front of the church. That's where everybody had to
go pray. That's where everybody had to go repent of their sins.
That's where everybody had to go to rededicate their lives
to Jesus. That's where everyone had to go to get saved, shake
the preacher's hand. That's where they had to go to
become a member of the church. That's where everybody had to
go down to the front of the church Because if you don't profess
Christ before men, then God's not going to confess you before
His Father. So you have to go and make it
publicly known up in front of the church. Or that there was
something sacred about that, and they called it the altar.
You've got to go down to the altar. I was saved at an old-fashioned
altar. I was saved at an old-fashioned
altar, too, 2,000 years ago. It was called Christ Jesus. That's the altar. that he's talking
about here. We have an altar. The altar,
the one and only altar, is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our
altar. What was the altar? The altar
was the place where the sacrifice was made. There was actually
a couple of altars in the Old Testament's sacrificial system.
There was the altar of the incense, which was inside the tabernacle,
and that's where they brought the blood and they sprinkled
the blood on the altar of incense. But then there was an altar that
was outside the camp where the bodies of the sacrifices would
come and lay on that altar and they were burnt on that altar.
Jesus Christ is the altar. He is not only the one who is
doing the sacrificing as the High Priest, He is also the Sacrificer,
but He is also the place of the sacrifice. He is the place where
sacrifice took place in His body. that body that God prepared for
him with flesh and blood, he'd give that body, not the glorified
body that he had before, but the body that he had received
whenever he was made in the womb by the Holy Spirit, that body
had flesh and blood that was made like unto his brethren,
not the same as his brethren, but like unto his brethren, but
without sin. That body he came and took on
so that He could die for us, so that He could be the sacrifice
for us. But it surely was without spot
or blemish because only those that were without spot or blemish
could be sacrificed upon those altars. And Christ did. He came and He gave Himself.
He is the altar and He is the last place of sacrifice. The Bible says that whenever
He had made sacrifice that He came and He sat down. He didn't
continue in the sacrificial service. Christ is not up there continually
taking sacrifices that you're bringing to Him and making those
sacrifices before God. He was the sacrifice. And he
was sacrificed on the altar of his own body. And that body that
he sacrificed before God took all the fire of God, as it were,
in the tithe. All the fire of God in his judgment
came upon Christ. And it says, we have an altar. Who has an
altar? Who is Christ that altar for?
Well, it's for those who are his people. The elect before
the foundation of the world. That's the one who he came to
be the altar for. To be the sacrifice for. It was
for them that he came. In distinction from who? Those who are occupied therein
with meats and law works. They that have Those that are
occupied in law-keeping, what does it say here? They have no
right to eat what's served at the tabernacle. Those who are
serving the law system have no right to eat of the altar of
God. Whenever those sacrifices were
made, the priest had the right The Levites had the right to
take of those sacrifices and eat the meat that was on them.
God give that to the Levites because they weren't making money.
They weren't out there being able to work. and to farm and
to till the ground and to do all the stuff that people was
able to do, their living came from the work of the service
in the tabernacle. And it came from the tithes and
offerings of the Old Testament system. Those tithes and offerings
of grain and food and the sacrifices, the meat they're in, that was
what was given to the priest and that's how they were sustained.
So that they might do the work of the ministry. of the tabernacle. Well, that
meat they and they only were able to eat of. The rest of Israel
was not able to eat the meat that was offered on that altar. Only the Levites were. And brethren,
if you think, the Bible has said that God has made us a kingdom
of priests. And only we, the elect of God,
can eat that meat from that altar. Only we are able to find sustenance
to find refreshment, to find nourishment from the preaching
of grace alone. The very thing that establishes
the heart, the very thing that feeds the soul, that feeds who
we are spiritually, the only thing that feeds that is grace
alone. Why do you think it is? All of us here, the people that
was here a couple of weeks ago that came from Louisiana that
don't have a church because they can't find something that feeds
their soul. drove all this way to hear something that was feeding
their soul. Why are people watching right
now that don't have churches? Because there's preachers and
pastors and churches out there that are standing in the doctrine
of Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever, that is preaching
grace alone in Christ Jesus, and that is what is establishing
the heart. But what's so prevalent out there
is those who are doing the service of the tabernacle, and the service
of the tabernacle is not establishing the heart of the child of grace.
Because they are a child of grace, not a child of works. And they
understand that, and they know that, and they feel that. And
so whenever they hear the message of grace, when they hear the
message of Christ alone is my substitute, Christ alone is my
righteousness, Christ alone is my sin bearer, whenever they
hear those messages, That establishes their heart. And they give praise
and glory to Christ Jesus. That's why we see in the latter
part, it says, By Him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of
praise to God continually. That is the fruit of our lips
giving thanks to whose name? His name. See, we preach Christ and Him
crucified because that is the meat. That's the only meat that's
on the altar. And there's only one altar. And
if you're to partake of the altar, you have to partake of the meat
that's on the altar. And the meat that's on the altar is Jesus
in John 6. As a matter of fact, if you'll
turn with me. John 6. Jesus said, verse 53, Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of
Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whosoever
eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath already, not will
have, but hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the
last day. For my flesh is meat, Indeed, and my blood is drink
indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him, as the living Father
hath sent me, and I live by the Father. So he that eateth me,
even he shall live by me. That is the bread which came
down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna
and are dead, he that eateth of this bread shall live forever. So we see here Jesus is equating
his flesh He even told them prior to that that the bread that came
down from heaven was His flesh. The flesh that came down from
heaven, this body that I've given is broken for you. That's why
in the Lord's Supper we have that symbolism of the unleavened
bread and the wine. That's why we are so adamant
in using the unleavened bread and the wine because that type
shows forth the substance. Jesus Christ was a body that
was broken, but without sin. He was broken for us. And that,
what He did for us, is our spiritual sustenance. That's what our heart
is established in, is the work of Him alone, what He did in
the body for us. And so back in Hebrews, wherever
he talks, that they have no right to eat which serve the table
because they do not find sustenance in that meat. See, their sustenance
is maybe a little meat here, but I need to have a little meat
off of this table over here as well. They need to have a little
law, and they need to have maybe a little grace here too. But he says, for the bodies of
those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high
priest for sin are burned without the camp. Where is that altar
found? It's not the altar of incense
that's inside the tabernacle. No, this altar that he's talking
about is the one that's outside the camp. It's not inside where
the law service was held in the tabernacle, but it was outside
the camp where the thieves and the robbers and the killers and
all the The bad people were taken out and was killed. It was where the bodies that
were dead were taken out and burned. Listen, our service is not in
the tabernacle. Our service is without the camp. And it's not in anything that
we have done, it's what he did. It's not a continual city of
Jerusalem and the sacrifices therein. That's why we are against
Judaism. That's why we say Christianity
is not a Judeo-Christian religion. Judaism was cursed by Christ. Judaism was denied by Christ.
Jesus said that system is a synagogue of Satan. Jesus said that I'm going to
leave your house unto you desolate. And he did. He did. Christianity
is not Judaism with a New Testament spin on it. Christianity is the
new covenant that stretched all the way back to eternity and
will go all the way to eternity. It is not Judaism rehashed, reworked,
made better, It is not Judaism and Christianity. Judaism has
no place in a New Testament church. Therefore, that's why the law,
and Paul was very clear about this, is dead to the child of
grace. We are dead to the law and the
service of the law. Why? Because there is no life
in the law. There is no righteousness gained
by the law. We cannot keep the law. The law
was never meant to establish a righteousness. It was to show
unrighteousness. It was not given for us to keep
so that we would be pleasing to God. It was given to us to
show we cannot please God. And that's the purpose of the
law. That's why we say the law is good. That's why we say, yes,
the law still has that as part of what we preach. The Brethren,
it has no part in the Gospel. The law has no part in us teaching
and preaching that people should adhere to these things of the
law in order to be saved or to be kept by Christ? That is not
what the law is for. He says, for those bodies of
those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high
priest for sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore, Jesus also,
that He might sanctify the people with His own blood suffered without
the gate. Let us go therefore unto him
without the camp bearing his reproach." Now, brother, it says
right here that we should therefore go unto him without the camp. It didn't say go back into the
tabernacle into the law service. It said, wherefore we should
go out to him who is the altar, who is the sacrifice, and the
one who did the sacrificing, and look and see what he has
done. Look upon his work. It didn't
tell us to get back to work and go back into the tabernacle service. It said go and look at what he
has done. Go to him, and it says they're
bearing his reproach. What does that mean, bearing
his reproach? Well, one of the things we understand
about reproach means that whenever somebody has a reproach, that
means that people look down on you. People maybe even get angry
at you or mad at you or hate you. Reproach is when somebody
looks down and thinks that you're no good or what you're doing
or saying is no good. That's what reproach means. What
does that mean for us? are going to leave the tabernacle
service and we are going to go outside the camp and go unto
Jesus alone, we are going to bear reproach. That means people
are going to say, you're crazy, what do you mean you're just
going to go and it's all just faith and no works on your part? They're going to say, you mean
to tell me it's just All I got to do is look to Jesus and that's
it. I don't have to do anything. There's nothing that I got to
do on my part. Well, you're crazy. You're an
antinomian. Brethren, those who look to Christ
alone are going to bear reproach. Why? Because those of the tabernacle,
those of the law service, cannot eat the meat that's on the altar
out there. Therefore, anybody who leaves
their works and goes to Christ alone, they are going to receive
reproach from those who think that they have the way figured
out, that they have the way. As a matter of fact, isn't that
what Paul even told the Galatians? That those men desire to put
you under the law so that they might, from your flesh, that
they might be glorified. that they will receive glory
from you, and you're trying to keep the law and everything.
That's what they're saying. Whenever we leave that system
of law-keeping, tabernacle service, and again, we're using a type
here, I hope you understand, whenever it's saying here that
the service of the tabernacle, or those who are indulging in
the meats of the tabernacle, we're talking about those who
are preaching conditional salvation or conditional experiential salvation. That it's all conditional upon
us. That's all part of something that we must do. Anybody that
preaches free will, conditions for salvation, to get salvation,
to be born again, all those things, that is all part of this temple
service that it's talking about here. Those people, again, as
I said, they will throw reproach on anybody because they are being
shined a light upon. Whenever somebody is preaching
Christ and Him only, that shines light upon them and their evil
works. Again, Paul said, you who say
you keep the law, have you not heard what the law says? Anybody
who leaves the temple service and goes to Christ alone is basically
saying, hey, Are you not hearing what you're preaching over here?
You're preaching to me the law, and the law tells me I've got
to keep it completely, fully all the time. And I can't. And I haven't. Therefore, I have
no hope in the law. This guy over here is saying
that there's hope in Christ because he kept the law for me, and that
he himself has made satisfaction to God on my behalf. My sins
have been expiated. I've been justified. God has
been satisfied. And it's free. See you. I'm out of here. Brethren, you will be scorned.
You will bear reproach when you go outside the camp. Now this
word camp there, I take that to mean the camp of religiosity,
the camp of works religion, the camp of free will and conditions. But hey, this could also mean
the world in general. I was reading some stuff on that. You know, one of the things that
Gil said about it was that it could possibly be talking about
the world, which is true also. You know, we're not of this world. We're of the heavenly kingdom.
The fleshly man is of this world and he longs after the things
of this world, but this spiritual man that's in us, it longs for
the other world. It looks to the other world and
the kingdom of God. But brethren, I think this is
most specifically talking about the camp of religion, the camp
of law versus the camp of grace. It says, verse 14, For here have we no continuing
city, but we seek one to come. See, in this law keeping, we
don't have a continuing city. In this life, we don't have a
continuing city. There is a continuing city. It's
called the New Jerusalem. That city is going to continue
forever. And in that city, there is no
tabernacle service. There is no temple service. There
is no works of law there. In that tabernacle, the blood
has already been come and presented. In that tabernacle, everything
has been finished. In that tabernacle, the prophet,
the priest, the king has sat down, has made salvation to the
utmost for his people. The Bible says that he has obtained
eternal redemption. All that is completely done in
the city that we continually look for. The city that is to
come. The city that we look for. Verse
15, by him therefore. Remember how I say often every
word counts in the scriptures. How is it that anybody is to
offer a sacrifice of praise to God? By Him. How is it that I'm
able to come and speak today? By Him. How is it that we was
able to lift our voices to God earlier? By Him. By Him, therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise. Notice it didn't say there the
sacrifice of keeping the law. the sacrifice of obedience. The Bible says that the sacrifice of bulls and goats,
God doesn't enjoy, but a broken and contrite heart. Well, how
does the heart get broken and how does it get contrite? That's
by the work of God. Whenever the heart is broken
and contrite, Whenever it hears the Gospel,
it brings forth praise unto God. Whenever they came out of Egypt
and was delivered out of Egypt, what was the first thing they
done when they came out of Egypt? They offered up praise unto God
and worshipped God for His deliverance, for His salvation. Brethren,
the lips will always bring forth praise and give thanks to His
name. Not give thanks to the opportunity
that you give me. Not give thanks to, well, Lord,
I'm thankful that you give me the free will to be able to choose
you. I'm thankful, Lord, that you
give me the Ten Commandments so that I could see them and
do them and be pleasing to you. Now, what are we giving thanks
for? We're giving thanks to His name. And again, we come back
to the name. We're given thanks to His authority and His power
as the Christ to accomplish salvation on behalf of His people. We again
bring back credit where credit is due. If we have a pastor who
is preaching, if we have a congregation who is standing on the doctrine
of grace, The praise is always going to the central figure who
is Jesus Christ. Therefore, from the beginning
to the end, yesterday, today, forever, Jesus Christ is the
same. He's the central figure. He's
the Savior. He's the Christ. He's the message
of the Gospel. He's the hope of the Gospel.
And He is the nourishment from the Gospel. And therefore, Those
who are children of grace, who have been given a heart to bring
forth praise, will always give praise to His authority, to His
power, to Him alone. Not to anything else. And so he ends there in verse
16. But to do good and to communicate, forget not. Now that word good
there, I looked it up just to see what that word meant. if
it had any more meaning than just doing good works, it means
to be benevolent. That's what it means. It didn't mean law keeping. It
meant to be benevolent. What's benevolence? Anybody know what benevolence
is? We use that word a lot. Huh? Care for. Benevolence. To provide aid to,
help to, right? To be benevolent is to be generous
with something. You can be benevolent with your
money. You can be benevolent with your possessions. You can
be benevolent with your time. You can, it's to be giving. It's
to invest in, to be giving in somebody else. That's benevolence. To be, see, I can't think of a word. I'm well on it. But it says here,
But to do good or to be benevolent and to communicate, forget not.
Now that's put together and I think people want to make a dichotomy
out of that in saying that you need to be benevolent and you
need to communicate, but I believe it all goes together. the benevolence
that we're speaking of here, because it all goes back to the
benevolence of the man that God has called to stand before you
to communicate to you, and the people that is to stand behind
him and communicate to those outside. One voice communicating
one message, Christ Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and forever, is the benevolence, is the communication
of the one message. The communication of the service
outside the camp, not within the tabernacle. How are we to
do good and communicate thus being a sacrifice that God is
well pleased with? By being benevolent in preaching
the truth. by being benevolent and sharing
Christ and Him crucified, sharing Christ alone as our salvation. See, I can get up here all day
long and preach about how bad the Mormons are, and how bad
the Catholics are, and how bad the Jehovah's Witnesses and the
New Age cultists and all the other varieties of religions
that are out there. I can get up there and preach
that. I can get up here and preach end times stuff all the time.
to tell you about that, I can preach health and wealth. You
know, if I want to be like one of the health and wealth preachers,
I can get up and do that. I can come in here and I can
preach the Lord's church all the time. As important as some
of those things are, not all that stuff that I said was important,
the health and wealth business, but I can preach all these things. But brother, if I'm not communicating
to you faithfully, and if you're not communicating faithfully,
Christ alone for salvation, then that is not the sacrifice of
praise that God is well-pleased with. See, God's well-pleased
in His Son. That's the only thing He's pleased
with. As a matter of fact, He said it, if I'm not mistaken,
now you've been reading through the Gospels, Matthew, and you're
in Mark now, right? Almost through Mark? I believe
there was at least three occasions that I can remember distinctly
where God, vocally from Heaven, said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. He didn't say that about anybody
else. He said, this is my beloved son. Matter of fact, in the transfiguration,
whenever Moses and Elijah was there, he said, this is my beloved
son, hear ye him. He didn't say listen to Moses
and listen to Elijah. He said listen to Him. Why? Because
Moses and the prophets all speak of Him. Because Moses was all
about Him. Elijah was all about Him. Moses
actually in person was a type of Christ. Elijah in his person
was a type of Christ. While they were real people,
they were also given as types of Jesus Christ. The law and
the prophets all speak of Him. Jesus went from Moses and the
prophets and told them all the things that were about Him. In
the volume of the book, it is about Him. He is the central
figure of all things. And that should be our communication.
That should be our benevolence. Listen, can we help people? with
financial things that they need help with? Sure, as the Lord
enables us and gives us that. But for me to be the most benevolent
to you is to preach to you the truth and to be truthful with
you about God's Word. That's why we're giving the Word
of God, to correct and rebuke and to encourage in righteousness.
We do those things, why? With God's Word, because it's
the truth. And if I love somebody, how do I give them the most benevolence? By preaching them the truth.
not teaching them life lessons, not taking them back to the law,
not giving them funny lessons, you know? How am I to be the
most benevolent to you? I can surely break out a wallet
and give you what little bit of money I can. But listen, that's
only going to profit you a little. But if I give unto you the truth
of Christ and Him as the central thing of all of salvation, of
all of creation, That's the most benevolent thing that a preacher
or a church could ever do. So I pray that the Lord would
keep not only me faithful, but our church faithful in being
benevolent and in communication of sacrifices that is well-pleasing
to God. The sacrifice and praise of our
lives to what Christ has done, not what we have done. Man, I've
seen it today. As a matter of fact, I was telling
you that my alma mater, passed away this week. And his wife
had wrote up a thing about him and he said how my law and his
youth ministry had saved over 250,000 youth people. And went on and on about all
the accomplishments he made in the kingdom for the kingdom.
Brethren, that's not communicating what we're seeing here. That's
communicating service of the law. That's saying that look
what I have done. All these people that go up and
say, look how many people we saved in our revival. Look how
many people we saved in our music ministry. Look how many people
we did here and now. Listen, that is doing what? Look at me. Look at me. They're
glorying in your flesh. And the ones who glory in your
flesh are the law keepers. are the tabernacle dwellers,
are the servants of the tabernacle and the law system. But those
who are children of grace, they realize that they have done nothing. They only know of one who has
done something, and that's Jesus. Therefore, they communicate that,
and they communicate praise to Him alone. So I pray to the Lord, He says in verse 18, I know this
wasn't in the ones that I read, but he says, pray for us, and
I ask this for everybody here, 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 to the sinner. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of the eternal covenant, make
you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you
that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever and ever. So brother, I pray that
the Lord would do that with us. All right, anybody have any questions
or comments? Things you'd like to add? Can
we sing? We can sing. I've got 38.