Hebrews 13 verse 17. Did everybody get an outline
to look over? It will help you when you are
ready to turn to some of the Scriptures there. It will tell
you where to turn to. Hebrews 13 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." Now, we find who the Spirit of God says has the rule over
you back up in verse 7. Look there in verse 7. Remember them which have the
rule over you. Now here it tells us who that
is. Who have spoken unto you the
word of God. Now in the church, this is speaking
primarily of God's pastor that he's put there to oversee, to
bring you the gospel and to teach you. In your homes, Those of
you who have believing parents, this is for your parents have
the rule over you in your homes. They're teaching you the Word
of God. That's the first priority of
godly parents is to teach you the Word of God, more so than
than to raise you up so you can make a name for yourself or anything
else that you could obtain in this world, is to teach you first
the Word of God. Now, verse 7 tells us there,
verse 7 says, Remember them which have the rule over you, who have
spoken unto you the Word of God, whose faith follow. And you remember
that that word remember means bring to mind the faith, the
faith that they preached, that they've taught you, and the faith
that they've exemplified, that they've set before you by an
example. And then in verse 17 it says,
Obey them. Now the word here has to do with
the heart. And it means to trust them from
the heart. Give yourself to be persuaded
that those that God has given to lead you Have your best interest
in mind and in heart. That's the word there, obey.
And then the word says, submit. That's an outward manifestation
of what you believe in your heart. You obey from the heart, and
if you obey from the heart, then outwardly you submit to their
leadership, to follow them. Scriptures tells us that faith
which is an inward thing, a heart thing. Faith without works is
dead. Well, the works manifest that
the faith within the heart is God-given genuine faith. It doesn't add to our standing
with God. It doesn't add to what Christ
accomplished. It merely manifests that the
faith in the heart is genuine. That's sort of the same thing
that this word obey and submit means. Obey is an inward heart
thing and submit is the outward Manifestation that I truly trust
you. I believe you have my best interest
at heart now look with me over at 1st Peter 1st Peter to your
right if you look in your Bibles go from where you are hold your
place in Hebrews 13 turn to your right 1st Peter chapter 5 Now, the Holy Spirit's word to
you is to remember them, be persuaded in your heart that they have
your best interest in mind, and submit outwardly to them. Follow
their example. Now, here the Holy Spirit tells
me, as your pastor, how to teach you and to lead you. Hebrews
13, 7 says, remember the example set before you. This tells me
what example to set before you. Now let me show you this. Are
you there? Hebrews 1 Peter 5, verse 2. Feed the flock of God
which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint,
but willingly. Not for filthy lucre, but of
a ready mind. Neither as being lords over God's
heritage, but being examples to the flock. You see that? Well,
it says, feed the flock of God which is among you. Do you, your
parents will know this, they'll remember this, but there was
a time after you were born that your parents left you with somebody
else for the first time. And your parents, when they left
you with that person, they knew that person. They knew that person
because you were their most prized possession and they didn't want
to leave you with somebody unless they knew that person was going
to feed you. Well, Christ has risen, and he's
seated at God's right hand, and he does not entrust his flock,
his children, to any under-shepherd until he knows that under-shepherd.
When he told Peter, feed my sheep, it was after Peter had been brought
to understand that Peter had no power in himself, that Peter
had fallen miserably, and Christ came to him and said, now, Peter,
Now feed my sheep. He was prepared to feed the flock
of God Well, it says taking the oversight thereof. I have the
responsibility to watch over you to watch over you, to pay
attention to what each one is struggling with, to what each
one speaks about and talks about, and to pray for you continually,
to make intercession for you to Christ. You know that's what
Christ is doing for His people. He ever liveth to make intercession
for us. He knows us better than we know
ourselves. He knows those that are His better
than we know ourselves. And He makes intercession for
us with the Father. And so He's instructed His pastor
to have the oversight of them. Pray for them continually. And
seek a word from the Lord for you for this hour. For whatever
it is you need now. I can take it in and I can pray
to the Lord for you, but I have to ask the Lord, give me a message,
give me something from your word that will be needful for them
in this hour. And then it says here, so therefore
brethren, as an example, see in that example, when it says,
remember that and obey from the heart and submit, it's telling
you to to do the same thing for me. Pray for me. You know the
apostles very often said, pray for us. Pray for, remember us. Pray for me. I ask you, pray
for me. Even as I do for you. Now, look
here. He says, not by constraint, but
willingly. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
have to be forced into coming to where we are. He didn't have
to be forced to obey and magnify the law of God. He did it because
he loved God the Father. He went to the cross and laid
down his life first and foremost because he loved God the Father
and he would declare God's just. God doesn't save anybody at the
expense of his justice. God is the one that does the
justifying and he declared that by being God in the flesh Going
to the cross and laying down his life. He didn't have to be
forced to do that. He did it willingly He said no
man takes my life. I lay it down of my own accord
and And then he did that also because he loved his brethren. He loved those that he died for,
and he laid down his life to cleanse them, to purge them of
their sin, to make them the righteousness of God in him. And so, brethren,
knowing Him. What I do, I don't do it because
I'm forced to do it, but willingly. Because the Spirit that He sent
forth into my heart that gives me life, spiritual life, that
gives me faith and repentance and the grace and the fruit of
the Spirit causes me to be willing to give myself that God might
be honored and that you might be edified. And so when our text
says, obey them, remember the faith they've preached to you. First and foremost, remember
Christ that I'm declaring to you right now. And then see that
why I do what I do is because of what He's done for me. And
then He says, and you, remember that and follow that same example
and obey from the heart and submit outwardly. And then it says here,
not for filthy lucre. That's greedy, sneaky, personal
gain. Just trying to get something
from you. Christ did what He did of a ready
mind, from a true heart. Scripture says there was no guile
in Him. No deceit. He didn't do one thing
with His left hand and another thing with His right hand. He
wasn't speaking one thing to one person and another thing
to another person. And so this word obey and submit is don't
just outwardly submit to be a man-pleaser, to be seen of men, but genuinely
from the heart, heed and obey and submit outwardly." And then
it says, "...neither as being lords over God's heritage." We
have one Lord, one King, King of Kings. He's King of all the
kings of the earth and He's Lord over all the lords of the earth.
One, and we're gonna see this in our message today. When he
rose and sat down at God's right hand, God declared him Lord and
Christ. That means he has all power given
to him to make his people willing in the day of his power. And
knowing that, knowing that I can't make you do what I'm saying to
you, I don't try to make you do what I'm saying to you. I
don't try to force you to do what I'm saying to you. Because
that's not my position. My position is to set forth what
Christ says in His Word and He promises through the Spirit to
enter into the hearts of those that He's everlastingly loved
and He will give them a heart of submission and they'll obey
Him. And knowing that, I don't have to rule with an iron fist.
Here's what I never want to be said about me. Here's what I
never want to be said. The diseased have ye not strengthened,
neither have ye healed that which was sick. neither have you bound
up that which was broken, neither have you brought again that which
was driven away, neither have you sought that which was lost,
but with force and with cruelty have you ruled them." I don't
want that to be said about me. And the admonition here in Hebrews
is don't let it be said about you. Don't let it be said about
you. We come here to several things,
several reasons why. Back there in Hebrews 13. Go
back there with me. Hebrews 13, 17. And we're given several reasons
to obey from the heart and submit wholly to them that have the
rule over us. Verse 17 says, For they watch
for your souls. Now, a watchman is one of the
words, descriptions of God's true messenger. His faithful
pastors, his faithful undershepherds are called a watchman. A watchman
is somebody who was in the tower, who watched in the tower to make
sure no harm came to somebody. We manifest what we think of
Christ, to whom this, the chief office, it applies to Him preeminently. He's the watchman. But we regard
what we think of Christ by how we treat the one that He has
set over us to be a watchman. And it says, for they watch for
your souls. Now, it says here, continue that
out, for they watch for your souls as they that must give
account. Ezekiel chapter 3 hold your place
in Hebrews 13 and if you can get there Ezekiel to your left. It's in the Old Testament Ezekiel
chapter 3 You'll go past go to your left
past Daniel back up past Daniel and Ezekiel chapter 3 Don't be afraid to use your index
in the front of the book if you have to find a page and turn
there Ezekiel 3 verse 17 All right, let me read it to you.
Listen if you're there read along with me Son of man I Have made thee a watchman Unto
the house of Israel unto his church, unto his people. Therefore,
hear the word at my mouth. That's why I said I seek a word
from him. Hear the word at my mouth, he
said, and give them warning from me. Verse 18 says, When I say
unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not
warning. nor speakest to warn the wicked
from his wicked way to save his life. The same wicked man shall
die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine
hand." Got that? And then the same goes for the
believer. But he says, but yet if thou
warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor
from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou
hast delivered thy soul. Carried out your responsibility.
All you were to do was to give a warning from my mouth. Done
what you're supposed to do. Free from his blood. And then
he says, verse 20, again, when a righteous man, the only man
who's righteous is the one who believes on Christ Jesus the
Lord. He's the only righteous man.
That's the only righteousness that God regards is the righteousness
of His Son. He is the Lord our righteousness. And He says, when a righteous
man doth turn from his righteousness, Sometimes men profess to believe
Christ to be their righteousness and then later manifest they
never really knew Christ because they can turn from Christ. If
you can turn from Christ your righteousness, you never knew
Christ in the beginning. And he says, and if he turns,
you see him doing something that where he's turning from Christ
his righteousness and commit iniquity. That is the iniquity. and I lay a stumbling block before
him, he shall die, because thou hast not given him warning. He
shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done
shall not be remembered, but his blood will I require at thine
hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the
righteous that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin,
he shall surely live, because he is warned. Also, thou hast
delivered thy soul. So when he says, they watch for
your souls as they that must give account. You see, it's a
serious business. It's not something that you take
lightly when you're getting a word from the master and you're just
a delivery boy on an errand with his word to deliver it to you.
It's bring it to them and tell them. to the wicked and to the
righteous, to the believer and the unbeliever. I got one word,
one word from him. And this is the word, believe
on Christ Jesus the Lord, stay on Christ the Lord, trust Christ
the Lord alone. He says, warn them, warn them,
the righteous and the wicked. Paul said this, take heed therefore
unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy
Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God, listen
to this, which he hath purchased with his own blood. That makes
this thing This is his rightful possession that he bought with
his own blood. This is his people he purchased
with his own blood. You know how he's going to turn
that wicked, unbelieving rebel against him that in his mind
he considers Christ his enemy and he hates Christ? You know
how he's going to turn that wicked man to Christ his righteousness? by a man standing up and declaring
to him that he's ungodly and wicked and can't come to God
unless he comes by faith in Christ. That sounds crazy, don't it?
It sounds like you stand up and tell a man he's wicked and vile
and God promises, Christ promises through the Spirit that He'll
reveal that man's wickedness to him and by that draw him to
Christ. I was down in on the river one
time. I had a friend of mine who was
an electrician. We were working on something
there at the camp. I can't remember now. I know
nothing about electrical work. It kind of scares me to see somebody
work with electric wires. Even though you shut the power
off and all that, it still kind of scares me because it just
scares me. And, but he told me this, we
were sitting there, I've always remembered this, I thought it
was kind of funny, but it might apply here. He told me, he said,
now, if I go to clip this wire over here, and he said, I get
a funny look on my face, he said, you see that two-by-four sitting
over there? And I said, yeah. And he said, you rear back with
that two-by-four, clock me hard as you can. He said, you hit
me with it like you trying to knock a home run. And he said,
because I'd a lot rather you knock me off of this hot wire
than me just sit here and hang on to it. And you know, sometimes
the way you get out of a mess is bitter and hard and offensive. But that's what God said. You
tell the wicked man about his wickedness. You tell him that
there is no righteousness in his deeds and what he does. And
therein, I'll get him off of that hot wire. I'll get him off
of that sure and certain death and I'll bring him to myself.
You see that? Well, then he says here one last
thing, verse 17. He says, "...and do it that they
may do it with joy, that they may feed you and do this with
joy." John said, he called the brethren, those who trusted Christ,
he called them his own children. He said, in the third epistle,
he said, I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified
of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth.
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in
truth. And he said, Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever
thou doest to the brethren and to strangers. Your fathers and your mothers
know what this means because the greatest joy they have is
when they see you walking in truth before them and obeying
from the heart. And you know when you obey from
the heart, it doesn't mean you have to understand everything
that they tell you. There's a lot in this word. that
a babe in Christ doesn't understand. There's a lot in this word that
an older believer don't understand in this word. We don't have to
understand him to trust him from our heart. He said, trust me,
trust me. and submit to me. And so it is,
you don't have to understand everything your parents are saying.
A lot of times we say, I don't know why they want me to do this.
And we try to use that as an excuse not to do it. He said,
obey me and submit to me. Well, they, the brethren, the
pastor, the under shepherd rejoices because Christ, it says that
The Lord said, God said, thou art my beloved son in whom I'm
well pleased. You know why? Isaiah 42, 21 says
the Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake. He magnifies
God's law and makes it honorable. God's Son magnified His law and
made it honorable. And God said, I'm well pleased
with it for His righteousness sake. He obeyed from the heart. He submitted to the Father. He
did what He did to magnify His law and precept and penalty and
make it honorable. And then we read here in verse
16 in Hebrews that it said, In verse 15 it talked about the
sacrifice of praise to God, and the fruit of our lips giving
thanks to His name, and to do good, and to communicate, forget
not. And it said, for with such sacrifices
God is well pleased. You know why He's well pleased
with those? Those sacrifices in the believer? Because the
righteousness of Christ that He's well pleased with, through
the Spirit of His Son working in the believer, His Son has
created that fruit in the believer. It's by Him that we offer those
sacrifices, and it's by Him that God's well-pleased with those
sacrifices. Well, you know why your pastor
rejoices when someone submits from the heart and trusts the
Lord Jesus Christ and submits to the leadership and walks after,
faithfully after Christ? You know why? The same reason.
The same reason. That's why Paul rejoiced. He
said, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and
to strangers. The key word there is faithfully. To God, as unto the Lord. And the Lord said, it's not as
if you're doing it unto me. He said, when you give a drink
of cold water to one of these, the least of my brethren, you
do it unto me. And he creates that fruit in
the heart, and that's why God's well pleased with it, and that's
why the one that has to rule over you is well pleased with
it. It's joyful. Paul said, for what thanks can
we render to God again for you, for all the joy wherewith we
joy for your sakes before our God. That's great joy to see
your parents see you trust the Lord, see you walk honorably,
and see you obey them and follow their example and what they've
taught you as you go out into the world. No greater joy. No
greater joy. You can fail the SAT or whatever
test you have to take. You can fail all that if you
don't make good grades on it. That's all right. But to know
that you trust Christ and follow after Him, Everything else is
gravy after that. Everything else is gravy. But
listen, and one last thing, verse 17, and not with grief, for that's
unprofitable for you. It's unprofitable for you personally
not to obey and submit. How can you learn if you won't
listen? Isn't that right? Secondly, it's unprofitable for
your brethren around you. How can they learn when you're
a distraction by a proud, hard heart that just says, I'm not
going to submit. I'm going to have my way or else. It's going to be my way or no
way. That's going to distract everybody. You're going to distract
everybody. The issue is not with what's
going out here. The issue is there's a heart
problem when that goes on. That's the issue. And then it
says, and it's unprofitable in that it causes your pastor grief
so that he's troubled in his prayer and his work for you.
I'll just read this to you. Moses went up into the mountain
to get the law from the Lord. And while he was there, the children
at the bottom of the mountain They said, we don't know what's
become of Moses. They told Aaron, up and make
us a molten calf. And next thing you know Moses
comes down out of the mountain and they're bowed down to this
molten calf and praising it and dancing around it saying this
is our God that delivered us out of Egypt. And it said, Moses
said, I fell down before the Lord as at the first 40 days
and 40 nights. I did neither eat bread nor drink
water because of all your sins, which you sinned and doing wickedly
in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. Over and over and
over and over they murmured against Moses murmured against Moses
murmured against Moses complained about everything If everything
didn't go just right or they complain and they never lacked
anything They never lacked anything that is us to a tee Well, we've
complained just at the drop of a hat and we have not lacked
anything by God's grace and murmuring, murmuring, murmuring. The Lord
told Samuel, they haven't rejected you, Samuel, they've rejected
me. And that's what made Moses fall down 40 days and 40 nights
and make intercession on their behalf. Prayed to the Lord not
to destroy him. Prayed for him. But what grief. Jeremiah said, if you will not
hear My soul shall weep in secret places for your pride, and mine
eye shall weep sore and run down with tears, because the Lord's
flock is carried away captive. Say unto the king and to the
queen, humble yourselves, sit down, for your principality shall
come down. Even the crown of your glory,
you be brought low. He said, but do this that they
may joy and not grieve. And not grieve. I have one time,
I took a, my dad had a four-wheel drive, a Ford, I forget now what
model it was, but it was a Ford four-wheel drive truck, had big
tires on it, and it was, for a boy that grew up in the country,
it was just, it made my eyes glimmer when I saw it. And I
took that truck, and I drove it down in the woods behind my
house, there was about four or five thousand acres that I could
just have run of the mill. And I took that truck down there,
drove it back as far as I could get it down in the creek bottoms
where it's just water and mushy and everything else. And I just
wanted, I didn't think you could get, I thought that thing was
like the Titanic. It couldn't be sunk. It could
be sunk. I took it down there and I got
that thing so stuck in the mud that the housing where the axles
are was a good four or five inches down in the mud. The frame of
it was sitting on the ground. You know what? My father didn't
say too much to me. I think he couldn't say anything
to me or he would have snapped me in two probably. And he just
went to get the truck out. But you know what was the hardest
thing about that, the severest punishment, is I saw how it caused
him grief. That's what the Lord says. Whatever
we do, As believers, do it as unto him. Don't grieve the Holy
Spirit. Don't grieve the Spirit of Grace. And the same with the pastor
he's given and the parents he's given. Godly pastor, godly parents
to have the rule over you, to teach you. Don't cause them grief. Make it so that they'll be joyful
and rejoice in your submission and your willful obedience. You'll
only do it by God's grace, but if He's willing, He'll make you
willing. I pray He does that.