Hebrews 13. I pretty much all but stopped
calling this a Bible study, although we do look into and study God's
Word. I'm told to study, show myself
approved. I hope and pray this will be
more than just an intellectual pursuit, more than just an academic
approach to God's Word. The last verse of chapter 12
says, Our God is a consuming fire. What are we supposed to do? Study
that? Hopefully we'll tremble at God's
Word. Hopefully, we'll hear it as His
voice. Hopefully, He'll speak to us and arrest us and apprehend
us and really teach us His truth. Time is short. It really is.
And the Lord is truly at the door. He really is. So that's
why this is much more than a mere Bible study. He said in verses
28 and 29 there at the end of chapter 12, we receiving a kingdom
which cannot be moved, if we are a part of, have been put
into this kingdom of God, let us have grace. May God have grace
upon us, whereby we may serve God acceptably in a day of so
much phony religion and pretense. The Lord said this several times.
These people draw a mirror to me with their lips. In a day
of so much pretense, may God give us the grace to truly come
to worship Him. That's what it means to serve
Him. That's the first thing we do when we serve God, is to serve
His glory by worshiping Him. That's what. May God give us
grace to serve his cause, serve his glory by worshiping him,
serve each other, serve his body. And do it with reverence and
godly fear. That's the only way we will truly
worship God is if it's with fear. Godly fear and reverence, respect,
thankfulness to our God for what he's done for us. For he says,
There's an unacceptable way to worship him. Unacceptable. Most
religion is truly unacceptable to God. More than that. For our
God is a consuming fire. All the wood, hay, and stubble
is going to be burned up in it. All the wood, hay and stuff,
only gold and silver and precious stones built on that one foundation,
which is Christ, will last, will stand, will not be shaken. May
God give us grace to be sober and serious. Our gods are consuming fire. Peter says, seeing that all these
things shall be dissolved, melt with a fervent heat, that is,
God is a consuming fire. It's going to just burn it up,
throw it. That's how you get rid of something
that you want gone. And look at the next verse, though.
Let brotherly love continue. The Bible wasn't written in chapters
and verses. What connection does that have?
You see that? The Bible was not written in
chapters and verses. Our God is a consuming fire.
Let brotherly love continue. I stared at that a long time. It's all connected. Go over to
2 Thessalonians. And there's nothing new. This
is the theme throughout God's Word, truth is proclaimed throughout
God's Word, the same truth. 2 Thessalonians 1, look at this. Verses 7 through 9, it says,
The Lord Jesus, you who are troubled by sin, Satan, by the world,
rests with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven
with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them
that know not God and that obey not, believe not, bow not to
the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord,
from the glory of his power. Go back just over the page there,
1 Thessalonians 5. 1 Thessalonians 5 says, Brethren,
verse 1, Brethren, you yourselves know that this day will come
as a thief in the night when they shall say, that is religion,
false prophets say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction
cometh upon them. as travailed upon a woman with
child, they shall not escape. But you, brethren, you are not
in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief. You
are all the children of light, children of the day. We are not
of the day, nor of the darkness. Let us not sleep as do others.
Let us watch and be sober. They that sleep, sleep in the
night. They that be drunk and drunk
in the night, let us who are of the day be sober." Put it
on the breastplate of faith. love for a helmet, hope of salvation,
for God hath not appointed us to wrath." Remember Romans 9,
there are vessels of wrath and there are vessels of mercy. Oh
my, thank the Lord for his mercy, sovereign electing grace, not
appointed to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. Urgent exhortations aren't there?
Our gods are consuming fire. Let brotherly love continue. Because the time is short. Because
this gospel is so vital. Let brotherly love continue.
I have 21 names written on my desk of young people in this
church. A little less than half of them
are over 15 years old. All of them are lost. That is, if the Lord doesn't
come, our babies, you know, grow up. I'm including the babies,
too. Twenty-one. And I'm greatly concerned. Especially
about this four or five teenagers sitting down there right now.
They don't know the Lord. Your children. Brotherly love. That's what it
means. We have a great concern for our brother's children as
well as our own. Right? Our gods are consuming fire.
It's all going to be over real soon. I want them to know the Lord,
don't you? Let brotherly love continue. This relationship right here,
brothers and sisters in Christ, is the only relationship that
lasts. It really is. There's not going
to be any husbands and wives, fathers and mothers and children.
No, no, no. Brothers and sisters in Christ,
this is it. It really is. And so he says,
let brotherly love continue. We're exhorted. The only thing
that will last is the brotherhood, body of Christ. That's right.
That's right. The only thing that will last,
and so we're urged, we're exhorted continually. This is what the
Lord said. His last commandment was, love
one another as I have loved you. This is it. This is it. This
is it. Let brotherly love continue.
Meaning, provoke it. Promote it. Work at it. You know, relationships
take work, don't they? Work at it. Work at it. Provoke it. Our gods are consuming
fire. In Genesis 6, look over there. I'm trying to show the connection
here. I'm trying to see the connection. Genesis 6 was right before the
flood. Right before the flood, God said
to Noah, in Genesis 6, God said to Noah, the end of
all flesh has come before me, for the earth is filled with
violence. Does that sound familiar? Our Lord said, as in the days
of Noah. The earth is filled with violence. And behold, I
will destroy them with the earth. over in Romans 1. We're going
to look at that this morning in the next message. He describes
the day then, right before the Lord destroyed this world by
flood, and he says it's going to be the same way when He comes
again. with wickedness and full of envy,
murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, backbiters, haters
of God, despiteful, proud, rebellious children and so forth, our God
is a consuming fire. He's going to burn it up. Like
you would say, I'm through with it. God said that before the
flood. He said, they've corrupted my
way. And God is love. God is love,
but God hated all workers of iniquity, all self-loving, God-hating
people. And so God says, Let brotherly
love continue. All else is going to be wiped
out. God says, I'm sick of it. No self-loving people will be
in glory. but thankful, humble, broken,
contrite people. Grateful. Grateful to God. Thankful
to God for His mercy to them. Sparing them. Choosing them. Calling them. Saving them. Sending
His Son down to die for them whom they killed. My, my. God's going to wipe it out. This
is the truth. This is what God's Word said.
God is a consuming fire. Like we would say, don't get
along. I know the thing that used to
provoke my parents more than anything else was when us kids
would fuss and fight or be selfish or whatever. And God won't tolerate
it. Let brotherly love continue. See that you love one another
with a pure heart, fervently. Those self-loving people and
glory. Look at the next thing in our text, Hebrews 13. He says,
be not forgetful. Did you see any connection there,
what he said? Did you? Did you see it? Alright, he says, be not forgetful
to entertain strangers. Don't forget. Remember, you are
a stranger. Remember that? You were a stranger
from the covenant of promise, Ephesians 2, weren't you? Oh,
my. Don't forget. Remember. And remember
that what you are and what you have, you're not your own. You're
bought with a price. You don't belong to you. Nothing
you have belongs to you. It's on loan. Earth is the Lord's
and the fullness thereof. The earth, the world, and they
that dwell therein. Everything in it. We don't own
anything. When it's all over, we have to give it back. We have
to give it up. Don't forget, you're not your
own. You're the Lord's. You belong to the Lord. And he
says, you serve my people. Serve my people. Your possessions
are not your own. Our possessions are not. We're
on loan. We're on loan. And he says, don't forget, remember,
to entertain strangers. Be hospitable. Some have entertained
angels unaware. I know Hollywood loves to play
around with angels and all of that and talk about it, but it's
so. I know men make a mockery of
that and they make these ridiculous actors play the part of angels
and they corrupt it. It's corrupted, but it's so.
This is what he said, didn't he? When Abraham was standing
in his tent door in the heat of the day, three men came walking. He didn't know they were. He
didn't know it was the Lord Jesus Christ and two angels. No, he didn't.
He didn't know that. God, though, impressed upon him
to entertain these men. Found out real quickly these
aren't like anybody I know. These are men of God. He didn't
know they were angels. He entertained them. Lots. Remember when Lot was standing
in the gates? Lot, that righteous man, vexed
with the town he lived in, the people he lived around, all that.
God called him a righteous man, a just man. So he was standing in the gate.
I believe he was standing in the gate thinking, I want out
of here. I don't know why I am here. How did I end up here? If only I had listened to my
Uncle Abraham. And he's standing at the gate,
and along came a couple of angels. He didn't know they were angels.
This is how you explain, well, he was willing to give up his
daughters rather than turn those men over
to the wicked men. Meaning, he esteemed God, the
things of God, the people of God over his flesh and his blood. We look at that story, don't
we? But how could he do that? God wrote it down and didn't
condemn him for it. He said, take my daughters, but
don't take these men. Can we say that? Take everything
I am and have, but don't take the gospel from me. Can we say that? Can I say that?
Lot did. He entertained angels. He didn't
know it. And they were his salvation,
weren't they? The ones he entertained were his salvation. They kicked
his soul out of hell. The Lord being merciful to him.
Two on the road to Emmaus. Two men on the road to Emmaus.
Walking along. Sad. Upset by world events. And somebody joined them. And he started talking to them
about the scriptures, beginning at Moses and the prophets and
the Psalms, and expanded unto them the gospel of Christ and
Him crucified. And they were so smitten. They
said their hearts burned, and the man acted like the man. They just thought he was a preacher.
They just thought he was a preacher, Matt. And he was going to lead.
Don't leave. Please stay with us. Stay. Our
home is your home. Our food is your food. Stay here,
please. It was God himself. They entertained
the angel of the Lord's mercy, Jesus Christ himself. Don't forget. Don't forget. It's true. It's true. It's happened time
and again. He says, Remember them that are
in bonds as bound with them, as them which suffer adversity,
as be in yourselves also in the body. We don't have anyone in
prison right now that we know of, do we? There are people in
prison, but there have been, there will be
people homebound, bedridden. cannot get up out of the bed.
Our sister Garnet was that way. Remember them, he said, in prayer.
Remember them with the call and your visits. Those that suffer
adversity as if it were you, he said. Think of them. This
is why he says, let brotherly love continue. Our gods are consuming
fire. Everybody that's out for themselves,
God's going to lead them to themselves. He said, let brotherly love continue
as if it were you. Think of them, remember them,
do for them as if it were you and yours. Now, let no one here, starting
with me, say, think about anybody else in reference to this. Let
no one say, oh, so-and-so needed to hear it. No, let's not be
like Simon Peter who said, when our Lord said, this is what you're
going to go through. He said, well, what about him?
He's not. He said, what's that to you?
You follow me. You listen to me. You do what I say. I'll deal
with him. This is not for him. This is
for you. Simon one time said that, didn't he? Lord, are you
speaking to us or are you speaking to everybody? I'm speaking to
you. You know, we go through trials
and troubles and afflictions and all of that. God sends them,
number one, for His glory to the trial of our faith so that
we'll look to Him He takes everything away or out from under us so
that we're weak and helpless and so that we'll look up finally,
because we're like dumb oxes, you know, just going on and on
until He stops us and has to lay us low and send us trouble
so that we'll stop and, Lord, I'm sorry, I forgot all about
you, didn't I? So that we'll acknowledge Him
and call on Him. many things, for his glory that
will bear witness of his grace and power to us. Secondly, for
our brethren's sake. He puts us through these things
for our brethren's sake so that we'll be able to enter into what
they go through. If we didn't go through something
of what they go through, we can't have our compassion. We can't
enter into it. We can't. And so that's why, as being yourself,
remember them as you remember you were like that or else you
will be. You remember them because they
need you and you're going to need them. There's going to come
a time when you're going to need them. So that's what he's saying, as
being yourself. And also, I thought about this
this morning, right after this thing with Vicki. It's a trial
and a trouble and an affliction on the person that's going through
it. But it's a trial of those around
her, their brothers and sisters, to prove them whether or not Who's real? Because if a brother
has need and we don't need it, how do I let the love of God
in? See, that's what it's saying. It's a trial of the bread. By
this shall all men know you're my disciple, our Lord said. You
love one another. How? As I have loved you, the
good Samaritan. See, that's how. So many reasons,
trials. Troubles, afflictions are good.
It's all good. It's for his glory. It's for
our good. It caused us to look to him.
It's that we might be able to help our brethren. That's good.
That's good. Remember them. Remember them
as if it were yourself. Love your neighbor as yourself. Verse 4, marriage is honorable
and all, and a bed undefiled, but whoremongers and adultery
as God will judge. What's the connection there? When you look at this, you think
it's just a collection of proverbs, don't you? And it is. Each one
could make a message by itself. It's the truth in and of itself. But it's all connected. Go with
me to 1 Peter 3. Over a few pages. 1 Peter 3. Marriage is honorable in all,
bed unto pile. But the whoremongers and adulterers,
God will judge. He just spoke of brotherly love. He spoke of provoking to love,
working at it, being fervent at it. What needs that more than
marriage? Those of you who are married,
would you tell me, what requires more work provoking to love than
marriage? Well, you've got a male and a
female living in the same house together. God and His wisdom, it's all
connected. First place to start with is
brotherly love, you see. Brotherly love is in marriage
because, I just said, there's no husbands and wives in glory. Oh, no. They brought that up
to the Lord, didn't they? Said, this man, this woman had
this man, he died, and he died, and he died, and he died, and
he died. Who's going to be her husband? And he said, you fools. They're not married in heaven
or given in marriage. They're like the angels. Look
at this, 1 Peter 3, verses 7 and 8. You husbands dwell with your
wives according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, honor
unto the wife, as unto the weaker. Honor, that means honor her person,
honor her opinion, honor her everything. Giving honor, honor. Don't look down upon her. If
you have a wife, and I know your wives, men, I know them. And
they're like mine, they're like Manoah's wife. You remember Noah,
his wife? Noah didn't act like he had good
sense, but his wife did. And she preached to him, and
he learned from her, and we can learn from them, too. Well, give
it honor, unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel. Here it is,
we're heirs together of the grace of life. We're heirs together.
We're brothers and sisters, is what we are. First, first, we
are brothers and sisters. Not I'm the husband and you're
the little wife and I'm the little woman. Oh, no. We're brothers
and sisters. And the husband and wife relationship
is going to be over. And then what will we be? In
glory, if we're there together. Brothers and sisters. See, that's
what it is. There's a connection. There's
a connection. Brothers and sisters, marriage
is dealt with often in Scripture. Nearly every epistle deals with
marriage. Number one, because it's such
a picture of Christ and his Church. He said, I speak of mystery,
this thing of marriage, Christ and his Church. Two become one.
Picture of Christ and his Church. Secondly, because of the sanctity
of it. It's honorable. In all, God is
the one who ordained marriage. For this cause shall a man in
the garden, he married the first couple. He married them. Made
the two one. Sanctity of a man and a woman. It's unbelievable that we even
have to address that it's a man and a woman. Isn't that unbelievable?
We're going to look at in Romans 1 this morning This reprobate
world is all but gone. And that's as
far as I'm going to go with that when I'm not talking to them.
But a man and a woman, all right? This is honorable in all. The Lord ordered it, sanctioned
it. He even said in unbelievers, it's honorable because of the
children. Because of the children. It's good for them. a good union,
you know, father and a mother and so forth. Without that, look
at our society. The bed undefiled. Marriage,
the bed. You notice the order? This is
what God sent in. It's not up or to bed. Our society. We'll try it out and then we'll
get married. And then he goes on to talk about whoremongers
and adulterers. Marriage is dealt with so much
in Scripture because of the blessings of it. It's such a blessing.
He that obtaineth a wife obtaineth favor from the Lord. As Brother
Scott, you've got a good wife, and you do, Stan. You know you
do, don't you? Brother Scott used to tell us,
you guys outmarried yourselves, didn't we? We sure did. Ron, Dan, Steve, I know you. You're just like me. What blessing? What blessing?
Boy, we take our blessings for granted, don't we? It's so easy
to take things for granted. The grass is greener. Oh, no,
it's not. Oh, no, it's not. I asked some
that have dabbled in the grass. It's just a wreck, isn't it?
It just makes a wreck. A wreck. And the difficulty of
it. And I was going to have you turn.
My time's up. I had so much to deal with here. Since whoremongers
and adulterers, you know, that describes the day we live in
again. You know, sexual promiscuity and unfaithfulness and so forth. Notice the tense, though. You
know, if God should mark iniquity, who shall stand? The Lord looks on the heart.
He said to lust after somebody, you're guilty. Right? And all manner of sin. Divorce
creates adulterers. And I counted once, there's over
11 or 12 people that have been through that. And the consequence
is a terrible one. Terrible. But all matter of sin
shall be forgiven. Aren't you glad? All matter of
sin. The tense here is one continuing
in these things. One continuing in these things.
One who continues unrepentant, unchanged, unturned, will not,
will not. Turn from these things. Errs. Errs. It's the one who goes after
these things. God will judge. God will judge. And look at the next thing. That's why we pray, Lord, help
us, save us, or we perish. Lord, have mercy upon us. James
said this, Ye adulterers and adulteresses. Who's he talking
to? He's talking to those who hear
it. We're all guilty. We're all so
prone to these things, people. Lust of the flesh. Let me just
say this. Lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes. The male human has seemed to
have a greater problem with his fleshly desires than the female
with covetousness. Is that not true? The pride of life, both have
the same problem with that. And all these things are in us.
And, oh Lord, help us. Verse 5, that's why it says,
let your conversation be without covetousness. Covetousness. And, my, my. In our conversation, he says,
in heaven. Walk, talk, general conduct and
speech. is in heaven. Let it be so. You know, we all come so far
short of this. We're some folk so far short
of this. That's why this is more than
a Bible study. I'm hoping and praying that the
Lord will speak to me in this and speak to you and write thy
word on the table of our heart and let no iniquity have dominion
over me. Order my steps in thy Word. Write
it on the table of my heart. Lord, let me learn from this,
not just in my head, but let my conversation be, my life,
my conduct, my everything, my pursuit, my goal, my aim, everything,
to be for you. Verse 5, he says, He hath said,
I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. I really need to
deal with this myself. It's such a blessing. He said,
be content with such things that you have. He said, I will never
leave you. The Lord knows our frame. He
knows that we deal with all of these things. We have so much
trouble with all these things. Fleshly lusts and appetites and
covetousness and troubles and struggles with life in general,
marriage in particular. And so He exhorts us like a father
Don't have your mind, your heart, your affection, your talk, your
walk. Just don't be like an animal. But set your affection. We're
going to look at that in Colossians 3 on things above. How do you
do that? But he tells us in conclusion,
he tells us that what we don't need, we can do without. Everything
but him. We can do without and we will
not do without. those things needful. We may
look Wednesday night at Psalm 37, which is one verse that says,
David said, I've never seen the righteous forsaken, for his seed
beg in bread. We may look at that, and I heard
a message by it, a great deal of blessing. We have what we
need. Don't go after anything else.
You don't need them. And here's the one thing needful.
What we're doing now. Because it's all going to be,
our God's a consuming fire. It's going to burn it all up.
It's all going to be over real shortly. In a moment, in the
twinkling of an eye, these relationships are not going to be the same,
except those in Christ. Set your affection. Walk and
everything. Ask Him. Call. He said, I'm a
very present help, time of need, which is every moment of every
day and every hour. Call on me. I'm your God.